 Introduction of The Coming People by Charles F. Dole. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Max Cusimano. The Coming People by Charles F. Dole. Introduction I suspect that certain readers may complain of this book, that it is too boldly optimistic. It seems therefore fair to say something in advance about the personal point of view from which I approach the subjects here considered. I am not in any way an optimist by temperament, but quite the reverse. I am accustomed to think of the sad and sterner aspects of life. I know by experience the facts and the moods that tend to make men pessimist and even cynics. If I am an optimist, my optimism has not come to me easily. It is not one-sided or negligent of facts. It is not the product of fortunate and exceptional circumstances. It has been bought with a price. It has been urged upon me through all the varied lessons of life. It is not merely the outcome and summary of my religion, but it is the net result of the questioning and the thought of a naturally skeptical mind. I have endeavored to test and try it. I have never feared to bring strain and pressure upon it. In my case it is no mere ardor of buoyant youth, but the growth of years. I have watched the working of this bold optimism in a considerable number of other men's lives under different forms of faith. And in some instances, even where its possessors, being somewhat shy of religious terms and pious phraseology, have hardly been aware that in their habitual attitude of good temper, friendliness, unwavering honesty, disinterested and unselfish activity, they have been living precisely as intelligent men would live in a good universe, and have been illustrating in their lives what veritable religion is, more than their words would allow. I have also tried other ways of thought and found them to fail altogether. I have observed that while optimism is always challenging and urging us to be consistent and thoroughgoing in our faith in it, pessimism on the contrary can never be consistently applied, but in all the highest moments of life the pessimists must act like an optimist, must face the way of hope and progress, must trust in truth and duty and love and in goodness, as if they were indeed eternal. I have observed that the agnostic cannot remain evenly balanced on the narrow fence of hesitating doubt. He must act and live on one side or the other toward evil or toward good. Is it not evident that his best and most successful action is at those times when, like the boldest optimist, he goes heartily over to the side of good? If my optimism seems bold, it is not presumptuous. I have no merely personal word to utter about it, or I should not venture to speak. My courage to speak arises wholly out of the conviction that my message is not my own, but is rather the great and universal message to all lives. I am sure that if I can face the problems of the world with hope, any man may learn the great happiness of doing the same. I am equally sure that if we can venture to take the ground of optimism at all and in any particular, we may as well be bold enough to trust that it will altogether bear us up. If, on the whole and in consideration of all the facts, I am constrained to be an optimist, that is, a believer in good, while I desire always to be modest and undogmatic, I can see no intellectual merit in being ashamed of my best conclusions, or timid and distrustful and using and uttering them. I believe that Jesus was quite philosophical in the instinct with which he habitually insisted that men should choose which master they propose to serve, and should straight away begin to serve that master with all their hearts and minds and strength. The purposeless life runs with narrow and sluggish flow. If men do not dare or wish to serve evil, if it is intolerable to live as if the world were the sport of evil, let them take the only other distinct choice and serve the good. Let them go over altogether to the side of the victorious goodness in which they trust. Charles F. Dole, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, September 1897 End of Introduction Chapter 1 of The Coming People This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Coming People by Charles F. Dole Chapter 1 The Prophecy Quotes beginning Chapter 1 I would write for young people and for those who never mean to grow old who wish for plentiful life that shall not only be rich and joyous but true, pure, honorable, noble, and reverent. Second Quote I would show what such life is, here and now. End of Quotes The prophecy is to be found at one of the most beautiful and familiar passages in all literature. It is one of the verses known as the Beatitudes. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Often this is not really believed to be prophecy at all. In fact, most readers regard the whole passage as beautiful like a cluster of pearls but they have no use for these pearls except to look at them. Who takes the Beatitudes seriously, as matters of fact? Who stops to ask whether they are true? Who believes that they may have any reasonable place in the life of modern men? The fact is, the somewhat ancient language needs to be translated into the living style of speech such as Jesus, doubtless, always used. Let us translate our prophecy then so as to see what it meant to those who heard it first. Let us read for blessed, happy, or fortunate. Let us rid ourselves of that word, meek, which has come to bear an ignoble sense. The word has been spoiled by keeping company with too many passive, inoffensive, lifeless, colorless creatures. What act of mind ever wishes to be meek? What Anglo-Saxon father or mother wishes a child to be meek? Let us choose a word that shall make Jesus' meaning live again. We will say kind, or gentle, or friendly. Blessed or happy are the kind people. Or if you choose, happy are the true gentlemen and gentle women. See now what Jesus ventures to predict of these gentle people. He does not contend himself with saying what anyone would expect, that they shall win heaven. But he asserts that they shall inherit the earth. That is, in plain words, these are the coming people. The days will come when the gentle and friendly people will cover and hold the world. There was never a bolder prediction than this. Nothing, in fact, better illustrates what that much misunderstood person, the Prophet, really is. The Prophet is the man who sees in advance the march of law. The astronomer, foreseeing an eclipse, is a Prophet. He catches sight of the plan and construction of the universe. He sees its unity of design. From what is now, his eye runs on to what must be, centuries ahead. So with the man who discerns the moral and spiritual laws that bind the world of men, and construct the fabric of human society. The Prophet discerns the lines upon which society must move. He catches the difference between the transient and the permanent. Long ago, standing on his mountaintop, he could see the stars that would still be shining on men, ages after all the kings, the warriors, the priests of his day had passed into dust. Thus, in an age of blood and war, when the fame of conquerors was in all men's mouths, when human sacrifices had not yet ceased to be offered on the altars of the great capitals of the ancient civilization, when the type of human prosperity was coarse, brutal, arrogant, when woman was a slave or a plaything, underneath the outward confusion, great seers trace the deeper necessary laws of a nobler life to come, they foresaw a world which should actually have no further use for fighters or bloody sacrifices or gorgeous temples and rituals. They foresaw a time when pride, arrogance, cruelty, hate would be put behind man as so much barbarism. Great truths often come in parables and by picture language. There is a marvelous outward parable, a rather series of wonderful parables that illustrate and enforce the teachings of the prophets concerning the future of men and the race that is bound by divine destiny to win the supremacy of the world. Science, peering backward into the dim past, tells us of a vast period when gigantic creatures, Sarians and Mastodons, possessed the earth. Would it not have seemed wild prophecy if an archangel from heaven watching the sports, the fury and the carnage of those gross brutes should have even guessed that the whole monstrous race would pass away to make room for the smaller and comparatively feeble creatures of our present time? Or when the cavemen struggled with wild beasts in every forest, what a strange venture it would have seemed to predict that and after times the wild animals would cease from the earth and only gentle creatures, tame and friendly to man, his pets and his servants, the oxen, the sheep, the horses would prevail. Nevertheless, to the eye of intelligence, such prophecies would have seemed from the first to be only manifest destiny. As Mr. John Fisk has remarked, there came a water loo. As soon as the earlier reptilian creatures met the new and higher order of mammals. The animal that suckled its young was better than the beast that had no care for their own offspring. The intelligence that bound even a pack of wolves together to hunt their prey was more significant than the mere size of the mammoth. At every stage, whenever the finer and more intellectual type appeared, there was the type which the angel or the prophet, watching the majestic procession and order of life, must have foreseen would prevail. There was not only a law of progress that gave to tiny man with his wits, his skill and his bow and arrows, his precedence over the great beast around him. There was also a deep law touching the uses to which creatures could be put. To the eye of intelligence, it might have appeared generations ago that the wild and fierce creatures had no large and universal usefulness. Man had now come as the master of the earth. The wild creatures were his enemies, killing his flocks and herds. For the tame things he had ever larger and more imperative uses. For the wild animals he had always less use. It would not have required more than clear understanding a hundred years ago for the Indian huntsman to become a prophet and to foretell to his tribe what was already beginning to come about. The forest were being swept away. The area of tillage and pasture was stretching always farther away from the sea. There would not be any more room for the bears and the wolves. The fur-bearing creatures would perish before the devouring sawmill. By and by where the buffaloes roamed, the white man sheep and cow would possess the land. And the presence of millions of men with the select creatures which offer manifold and vast uses, the wild beast, and even the wild men with fewer no uses must inevitably disappear. Thus in a world once holy wild, a scene of ceaseless strife and blood, the tame and gentle creatures have won their way and already largely inherit the earth. Our museums and zoological gardens have to seek far-defined specimens for science to study, to show curiosity or to amuse our children. We even begin to wonder if the great world will be quite so picturesque and interesting when all the tigers and lions are exterminated and the very jungles will be drained and made to bear harvest of rice. So safe have we become from man's ancient enemies that we are hardly ready to part with them altogether. Here indeed is a strange series of parables to show how in man's outward world already the meek inherit the earth. The plain that the prophet ages ago would not have made a mere random guess but rather a scientific prediction within the realm of law and foretelling contrary to all appearances that the peaceful, timid sheep were better and more enduring than panthers and wildcats. So when the first just and friendly man appeared upon the earth, from that day a fatal water loo was visible for all the men of pride and fraud and blood. Here was a new type of man, superior and more intelligent. Here was a man under whose hands the overruling power was to bring a whole train of larger uses. The wild man that had been was strong to destroy but he was not strong to build and construct. The arrogant conqueror might indeed compel men to accept the despotism with its unstable equilibrium resting upon the merely temporary basis of serfdom. But the just and friendly man would weld cities and nations together the righteous, obedient, merciful man was the precursor of the Republic with its mutual obligations and its liberties. Surely the inferior type of man must disappear. Less and less could he meet the conditions of existence. The superior type of man must survive. This was Jesus' prophecy rising out of the perception of a universal law. This thought of Jesus showed marvelous insight to look beneath the surface and to catch sight of the working of mighty principles to see the simplicity of the law beneath the diversity of its operation to look beyond masses of bulky material and conceive the unity of the builder's plan. This is genius, always rare and costly. We call it, therefore, a very wonderful thing that first an unknown psalm is uttered the prophecy that the coming race must be the race of the gentle and that generations later the clear spiritual genius of Jesus singled out this earlier word where men must forever read it become familiar with it and hold it as a shining ideal. It will be my purpose in the next chapter to show to how large an extent far greater than the world generally supposes the remarkable prophecy has already become true. To a merely casual observer the spectacle of our present modern world does not give proof that the meek or gentle have as yet won the earth. Imagine some ancient Egyptian brought to life again shown the vast military establishments of Europe taken to the English naval ports and shown the great destroyers. Let him hear the talk of Tsar and Kaiser let him be told the psalms raised by the taxation of the great civilized nations for the support of armies and navies let him traverse the regions of Asia and Africa and watch the evidences of tyrannical misrule let him see cities marked by the bloodstains of recent massacres and the immense ignorant and oppressed populations he would not think that the world had got on very much since the days of the Pharaohs or again if an early prophet of Israel an Amos or Hosea were to visit the great factory towns were to hear the bitter complaints of the masses of working men about their straightened conditions their insufficient wages the greed and avarice of their employers if you were to read the newspapers and be told the old story that the rich are growing richer and the poor are growing poorer his soul might well be stirred within him as when he lifted up his voice the capacity of the noblemen of Samaria or Jerusalem the present world seems in fact to be controlled by the fighters the proud, the selfish, the unjust we need not, however, merely look at the bewildering dust strife and noise which mark the surface of life but we must also consider these deeper conditions industrial and commercial out of which the wonderful network of our civilization is wrought despite what kings, parliaments, and congresses are doing but more closely at the lives of the multitudes of the humble and unpraised who weave the warp and woof of history we need not be concerned about the stationary east or ask how much it has changed in a thousand years it would be enough for our purpose if we trace profound marks of change and advancement among the peoples who lead the van of civilization where the leaders go there the multitudes sooner or later to follow we will consider some of the distinguishing characteristics of our Anglo-Saxon people and especially the developments that have taken place within a century in the United States we are prepared to show that in this great leading nation of the world to which all other nations look the signs of the incoming of the new age of the gentle and friendly race are obvious let us ask in several important directions what kind of people are in demand to meet and fit most nicely the conditions of our American life who are the men for instance preeminently in demand on the hundreds of thousands of American farms what type of man is most sure to succeed in agriculture the business upon which mankind must forever depend the men whom our farms require are not the coarse, the brutal, the cruel but the friendly, gentle, and humane here in a certain town is a farmer of the rootersort with his sheep and cattle and horses with like outward conditions nearby is the man of the new type the one, careless and inhuman abuses his creatures the other gives his animals the most enlightened thoughtful patient care is there any doubt which of these two men will succeed is there any doubt that the well-tended herd of cows will give more and better milk and pay larger profit is there any doubt that the sheep and the young lands to which their master arrive better than the flock of the careless and brutal neighbor the fact is that in the great realm of agriculture the demand already is for kindness and humanity the time has come when no other qualities meet our needs suppose again that in one of our cities two teamsters each with a stable full of horses compete for success one of these men belongs to the old regime he seeks to get the most out of his horses and to give them the least their food is inadequate the teams are overloaded the drivers force and beat the horses the other man has caught the new ideas about the treatment of creatures he loves his horses and gladly gives them proper care plenty of food, air and light in their stalls the needed time for rest he refuses to employ a man who beats his animals he never overloads his teams this man does not need to interfere with the business of his neighbor or try to get away his customers but which of the two will men desiring excellent service choose for permanent employment as the years go on which of these men is bound to succeed and prosper which will certainly get the most work out of the horses the world is coming to require the best service the best service cannot be maintained except by men of intelligent humanity no doubt there is very much to dishearten us in the conduct of the business it is a fair question whether society is not outgrowing our present industrial and commercial system all that I can show at the present is that the great bulk of commercial transactions is vastly more just and kindly than many suppose the treacherous overreaching disablaging dealer is not wanted anywhere a righteous competition inevitably pushes him to the wall who chooses to deal with men who show a disposition to injure and cheat but who will purchase more than once from an uncivil salesman more and more we appreciate and expect just, friendly humane treatment from those with whom we deal more and more is the demand in all stores and offices for the faithful, friendly and cheerful there is not as yet enough men of this sort to fill the places other things being equal these are the men who surely have the future in their hands there is every reason to believe that before in the world so large a proportion of such persons as there is now in the business establishments of America comparing all times together there was never a period when the poor man the little child or the woman would have been so certain of kindly just and respectful treatment and buying and selling as they are in the last decade of the 19th century one hears loud complaint in many quarters today of the bearing of capital toward labor the harsh treatment of working men it is not my wish to overlook actual facts or to make light of evils which certainly need to be righted on the other hand I wish to make it obvious that there is another class of facts which is frequently overlooked there are undoubtedly harsh despotic, arrogant overbearing masters of capital plenty of barbarism still in hears in the tissue of our civilization what I claim is that the tyrannical employer is an anomaly in our industrial system it does not belong there he makes mischief like the ugly teamster he wastes the power which he is set to direct like the farm workman who abuses his animals his doom is already written and sealed the law of righteous competition which always works in the long run replace the bad thing by a better and the better thing by a best works relentlessly against harsh and inhuman masters of industry already in a considerable number of mills factories shops and railroads the new and enlightened kind of employer is in command who will assuredly get most work out of the men who will save the tremendous losses involved in strikes and lockouts who will reduce the human friction who will finally pay sure and permanent dividends so well as that captain of labor who represents not merely money or authority but also friendliness and intelligence sympathy who treats workmen not as machine but as men masters of these are coming into demand everywhere it is in accordance with human nature that the working people will finally be content with no other leaders than these by the inexorable laws of trade the great corporations granting that they continue to service must furnish this type of captains and leaders the vast machinery of industry demands the nicest sort of material and timber and steel the same complex machinery is bound to require also the most excellent human material it is already rapidly approaching when course unfriendly avaricious men cannot be suffered to touch much less to control the costly plant of industrial civilization let us hasten on to a far planer but still more impressive and interesting illustration of the working of our law only so short a time ago as the first half of this century schools were generally in the hands of brute force as horses used to be broken to their work so it was generally assumed for generations that the will of each child must be broken to discipline millions of children grew up with the common side of the rod in the school masters hand only the few prophetic spirits thought any other method of discipline possible we have almost totally overturned the old kind of discipline throughout the united states the course brutal teacher has been obliged by a beneficent competition to disappear in favor of the teacher who is the children's friend no intellectual superiority no superb furnishing by the university is sufficient recommendation for the teacher who does not love his scholars there are not indeed as yet teachers enough of the higher type which we require but even inferior teachers must at least an outward form correspond to that type the proof is overwhelmingly evident that the coming race of the world's teachers must be the gentlemen and the gentle women whom our ancient prophecy foretold these alone can secure the best results from our children at the least expensive needless friction these alone can provide workmen farmers, artisans merchants, leaders and organizers of that industrious, faithful intelligent, kindly humane type such as our growingly delicate costly and sensitive civilization requires we turn to another remarkable illustration of the working of the law which tends to dispossess the bad and the unfit in favor of the better and the capable it is the direction in which few would look for such an illustration it is in the realm of diplomacy the old world diplomacy has notoriously been an open field for fraud, international hate and corruption till our century the evil name Machiavellian had come to characterize all diplomacy we have been trying in the United States with marvelous success and new experiment true we have not always consistently lived up of this higher experiment we have tried also the opposite kind of experiment and invariably to our grief and shame as in the case of the Mexican war but we have already achieved enough to make a clear object lesson of the superiority of the higher method we have had a series of statesmen who, in their dealings with foreign nations have ventured to tell the truth who have not wished to over reach their neighbors or to do the weakest nation in injustice the names of Washington Franklin, Charles Sumner and Lincoln are proof of the possibility of our having men at the head of our foreign affairs nearly if not all together free of jealousy and suspicion to the nations over the sea in other words friendliness and not aggressiveness has characterized the most successful acts of our American diplomacy it is in accordance with this spirit that has now come to be the settled American policy to adjust all those differences that Americans once used to fight by the peaceable method of arbitration the whole world may be said to be watching our American experiment who will deny that the eye of the seer who foresaw the coming of the new race of the humane and peaceful cut-sight of the trend of a mighty universal law is not as prophesy vindicated already by the fact that the mightiest and leading nation of the world with its 70 millions of people exist today almost without an army or a few thousand men to patrol the frontiers of the wilderness we are brought to a more startling and significant witness to the law of the motions of which we are tracing we have spoken of the armed camps of Europe and of gigantic fleets of war but even out of the history of war there is coming into sight a series of suggestive facts of a higher order the late civil war in our country terrible as it was illustrated on a great scale in all days the fighters faced each other with hatred war developed mainly the passions of the savage and the brute the sole purpose of each contending force was to do mischief to the enemy and our civil war on the contrary the great leaders and especially the common soldiers who best represented the spirit of the victorious party harbored absolutely no hate in their hearts wished permanent benefit for their adversaries and made the motto of war the grand words of their illustrious commander let us have peace here is a war the outcome indeed of the great national crime of slavery purged away by blood atonement upon the completion of which the representative men on both sides set to work at once to love and respect one another and to bind the country together in the bonds of good will never before in the history of the world had there been such results of war they were not indeed the results of war at all they came in spite of war the only possible explanation of these facts is in the line of what we are endeavoring to explain namely that in spite of all the unseemly dust and noise on the surface of things the great ruling inward spiritual forces work together to bring in the rule of the coming friendly and gentle people are there not also indications of very market improvement with respect to the actual holding of power and property not so very long ago the power and especially the property of the world were in the hands of the fighters of the arrogant of greed and avarice vast domains were held by single conquerors whole towns were possessed by feudal lords the poor even when they were not slaves were forced to pay tribute to harsh masters we did not deny that something of this earlier condition of things still holds true it was not to be expected that the rudor and brutal powers would give away easily or at once what we call attention to is the extraordinary prevalence already of a new order the large proportion of the millions of the farms and homesteads of the United States are held in the name of justice goodwill and humanity making all allowance for masses of ill-gotten wealth a considerable amount of all the property has been honestly earned fair and beneficent equivalent has been paid for it and services rendered acquisition of it is not impoverished anyone but is rather enriched all friendly service is not yet the sole condition of the holding of property in the United States it is at least coming to be recognized as the only decent and tolerable condition let anyone count how many persons there are within his acquaintance who have not righteously earned what they possess let him enumerate also how large the class is of kindly industrious just and friendly persons who have had at least measurable success in winning possession of the earth I wish that we might say as much about the power and the places the rank and the offices of state but it is possible to exaggerate the extent to which corrupt and mercenary methods prevail in our government there are in the worst governed cities and states a large number of instances showing promise of the new order there are upright faithful generous and noble men in every department of the public service what is more and this is the point which I wish to emphasize such men as these are more and more clearly seem to be the only type of men whom the state can afford to sustain the growing dissatisfaction throughout our country with bad officials and corrupt government is a signal that the days of the self-seeking political managers are numbered as in industry and commerce and education the demand is for the best and as only the best can survive so in politics the same imperative demand for the best is certain sooner or later to produce the corresponding supply we have seen how in the brute world the creature that has few or ill uses must give way in favor of the creature of many and beneficent uses so inevitably the politician and the office seeker who serve only themselves must go to the wall in favor of the men who offer large services for society I wish to guard carefully against misunderstanding I do not speak in order to make anyone better satisfied with the existing conditions least of all satisfied with evil conditions I am making no defense for the idle rich or for the two great gains which our American society has allowed shrewed adventurers to win through the corrupting influence of various kinds of selfish or class legislation I wish to call things by their right names I wish to leave it perfectly evident how far barbarism still survives in America I shall speak later with reference to ridding ourselves of the remnants of barbarism what I have desired to make plain in this chapter is the actual extent of the incoming of the realm of light and goodwill I hold that the winning forces in the world today are not as many suppose greed and selfishness working by brute force but rather goodwill friendliness and humanity I hold that these forces of civilization the trade winds of the universe are mightier than the old world forces with which they compete they are permanent while the others are passing away there are those who in their discontent at the rate of human progress suffering it may be the effects of injustice with their eyes fixed on wrongs which need to be redressed judging human progress by a hasty glance at the waves on the shore rather than by the mighty rising tide on the scale of the centuries see no help for the modern world except through catastrophe and revolution there have always been voices honest and well met but harsh and bitter foreboding terror and evil to be paid as the price for further advancement I propose to show the contrary the great new doctrine of evolution which comes as a clue to explain what changed things in our world does not support these gloomy forebodings on the contrary a wide reading both of history and science goes to show how deep is the law that works ever toward the achievement of the best and the most desirable things whatever is best whatever fits the larger need whatever most nicely adjusts itself to the ruling conditions this the universe demands and works to effect here the highest teaching of religion is one with science and history if God lives so sure as justice and beneficence are at the heart of the universe we have nothing to fear but all things to hope for I wish to make this planer as we go on End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of The Coming People This LibriVox recording is in the public domain The Coming People by Charles F. Dole Chapter 3 Heroism it would seem as if everyone would like the idea of filling the world with gentle that is civilized or if you choose to call them so Christian people it may be however that their lingers in some minds are real concern as to the character of this coming people we are the descendants of sea rovers and soldiers we have been nurtured through many generations on the songs and stories of the heroes there is no one of us whose heart beats faster at the sound of a drum or at the sight of marching men the history of the winning of our liberties through several glorious centuries comprises many hard fought fields in the old world and in the new many of the great and good men of the past like Alfred of England William of Orange Admiral Collingney and our own Washington distinguished themselves upon the battlefield the most familiar type of the hero has come to be the man who can face death without wavering is there not a hard and stern element in the life of man are there not needful grains of iron in his blood without the bracing presence of which he would become effeminate it becomes therefore a perfectly fair question what effect long continued civilization will have upon the manliness of the race disband the armies let the white squadrons rust battle all disputes in a great international court and how will you be sure any longer to keep the tonic iron in the blood of the youth of this more peaceable world if men become timid if no noble occasions ever wet their courage if manly risk and ventures disappear from life the vanadines whether of drugs or mental healing are found to draw pain from the earth what is the hinder that most fatal of all kinds of decay repeatedly swept luxurious empires from the face of the earth and given over their cities to the people of a wild but fresh and hearty stock so far in the history of the world the wild men the fighters have had a part to play in reinvigorating the race up to our time the hearty and strenuous the intense and energetic have inherited the earth will it ever be well for the world if those forceful qualities fade out are they not found to fade out under the peaceful conditions of a gentle and really Christian civilization before I go on to show how groundless such fears of the effects of civilization are I wish to express a complete sympathy with the ideal of the viral and forceful man whom the advocates of the old leaven of barbarism wish to perpetuate I desire to see no tame and cowardly world which has ceased to have a use for the heroes I desire not less but even more of the tonic iron in the life of man our problem indeed is like that of the fruit grower who has discovered some rich and luscious variety of apples or pears it may be that the tree that bears the new fruit is too delicate to withstand the climate what then if taking a graft of the new tree we insert it in the hearty and native stock what if we can turn the force of the wild growth no longer to bear small and bitter apples but the good rich fruit so we propose to combine gentleness with hardyhood we have in mind not only men of kindly spirit but men possessed with the energy and vigor of the best native stock if we first saw the courage and virility were to cease or to grow less if we suppose that in the new regime there would be little occasion or demand for these manly forces we should wish that our children might have lived in the stormy days of Magna Charta or Bunker Hill instead of praying as we do pray now that they may live to see the golden days of the incoming civilization on the very threshold of our argument we meet a striking and significant fact to establish a presupposition in our favor hitherto throughout human history there have always been wild and untried races hovering over the borders of civilization for centuries no man could predict which strange new race might not descend like an inundation from the mysterious north or from undiscovered continents over the sea today explorers have pushed into every wilderness and island for the first time in history there are now no longer new races to reckon with everywhere the savage peoples are dying out or giving room for civilized colonists is it not clear that nature has got through with her earlier method of reinvigorating old and effeminate races from the infusion of a hardier barbarous stock on the contrary the world is becoming unified on the lines of civilization the majestic push from behind is now in one direction the way of a common commerce a common body of knowledge and science similar institutions and laws by and by also who shall say not a common language and religion desirable or picturesque some of the methods of barbarism may seem to the lovers of the antique barbarism is as certainly doomed as where the bear and the wolf when the mayflower landed at Plymouth we have to look not to barbarism but to the broader and more intelligent development of civilization to find the needful means for making brave and noble men what then is this fine and beautiful thing courage or virility which we all agree that our seroving people must have as truly as our seroving forefathers possessed it is it mere pugnacity or the disposition of quarrel as some might hastily suppose when the contrary I assert the virility is the natural characteristic of sound and robust health pugnacity is often indeed the symptom of weakness or nervous instability the fretful child is quarrelsome the vigorous child is good-natured it is true that energy must find something to do it is capable of being drawn off into the channels of mischief and even cruelty but mischief and cruelty do not belong to its nature find for the lively boys energy positive constructive things toward which to run and it will grow no less virile and courageous the point which I emphasize is that if we want brave men we must have sound and healthy men give us plenty of men well-born, well-fed, well-trained men of clean lives and orderly habits temperate and self-controlled men precisely such men is the type the Christian gentlemen require and we will show you more men of virile physical courage than any army that Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon ever saw our civil war established this fact there was need of discipline to make an army but there was no lack of physical courage boys who had never been in a fight in their lives men who came from behind desk and counters and had hardly smelt gunpowder were brave enough and very soon well enough disciplined to storm deadly batteries this Latin virility is always abounding on a healthy and well-nourished people to believe in a good God and to love one's neighbor work no harm to such virility it is all the more vigorous as sons of God they hold the future in their hands there is no greater mistake than a supposed virility needs the exercise of fighting as if there were no other exhaustive occasions for its use it is true that fighting has frequently furnished a occasion for the display of courage and hardy-hood quite brutal customs once held in every school yard where boys were trained to fisticuffs and cruelty but the generation of boys who fought and bullied each other did not necessarily make heroes they never failed also to produce a due proportion of cowards and sneaks we do better for our American boys than to urge them to fight one another there are feats of daring and adventure there are hearty athletic sports there are horses to be managed and boats to be sailed there are a thousand channels where energy runs where a quick eye a skillful hand and the brave and ready mind to meet their urgency have daily practice without ever the need of ill will or a hostile thought is civilization so unintelligent that it cannot educate its sons to manly courage its daughters also to healthy womanly heroism moreover the arts and occupations of industry the pursuits of science a world embracing commerce helped to develop the virility of a people on a vast scale ships still sail ventures and voyages and engineers still strike out paths through the wilderness and over the mountains when the colossal network of the world's railway and steamship system an army of kindly unbrave men daily run the risk of death to keep other lives safe as in the past so now a great silent host of women wives and mothers face pain and death for love's sake barbarism indeed with unconscious provision of the great humane laws taught its heroes to suffer and die the few for the many but civilization facing the solemn facts of life and death with cheerful intelligence keeps good the ranks of its heroes bidding them many to live and if the need comes also to die for the sake of the common humanity I have said that courage is the characteristic of a healthy and well ordered body but this is the bare pair of an outward illustration of a deeper spiritual fact there is abundance of physical courage to undertake deeds of daring there is as yet but little moral courage to match and direct the lower and merely animal kind of virility the lower order comes first to meet the earlier rude necessities we have come now to the stage when new and higher needs confront us and demand a finer form of satisfaction it is no longer enough for the modern state that its leaders shall be men so brave as not to run away from an enemy it is not enough for the captain of industry to be stronger than any of his work men we want another and more costly quality we have yet to require in our political leaders that they shall be brave enough to stand alone and to say the eternal no to the projects of avarice or selfish ambition we want capitalist of moral fiber to decry and veto the use of bribery and corruption in legislation and nonetheless firmly when subtly debasing methods promise for the moment to foster their own selfish interests if we were to have rich men at all in the future we are going to demand men of courage who shall speak out whatever they honestly think is for the social welfare if in the old times men despise the weakling and coward will not men come to see that moral cowardice is not respectable if the big bodied man afraid to use his strength when it was needed was the worst sort of coward why shall we not raid as beneath respect the man whose money power or selfish greed of gain or place takes away his manly independence and reduces him to the level of the sneak the truth is superb moral courage is the crying need of democracy if mankind had attained sufficient results in virility in the days of war we might perhaps tremble less the new civilization having no further fields for his conquest should decline to supine ease on the contrary the grand attainments are yet before us it was never so great a pressure on the civilized peoples for the product of courage such a demand is itself a prophecy that we are on the eve of a new and forward march it need not be marked by bloody steps but it must needs be all the more strenuous and masterful it will call for brave hearts who know not the fear of death or a harder test of courage the fear of the face of man end of chapter 3 chapter 4 of the coming people this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the coming people by Charles F. Dole chapter 4 the divine universe men are quite used to hearing it said that we live in a universe few yet realize what a stupendous statement this is the fact is that long after we have dispossessed demons and wind gods and forces of evil from their hold of the world the vague superstitions that survive from the beliefs of early men still haunt our minds we call this a universe but it is not obviously so in the face of the appearances of things it often looks more like a scene of life and death struggle in the midst of a hurricane sweeping away great trees unroofing houses deluging the fields does it not seem as if the men of Homer's time were right who thought the unseen powers were at war in the heavens how shall we easily persuade the doubter that everything is orderly that there is no actual conflict at all that one power not many powers and this beneficent power is behind the world of the tempest let us go up however into one of the new meteorological observatories let us imagine that we can take with us the Homeric man full of his childish fears let us look at the charts and maps and study the reports that have been coming in on the wings of the lightning for many hours from Montana from the Gulf States from the St. Lawrence Basin let the observers tell us where the storm started days ago what its track has been where its center now is where it is moving let them lecture us a little on the part which the sun plays in starting storms raising winds distributing rains irrigating the earth the same sun which makes the corn grow moves the clouds it is only a step to see that all forces are the manifestation of the one force it is but a step to add that if the sunshine is good its children the wind and the lightning cannot be evil let us try as hard as we may please to get away from this logic the universe is all one we must admit this but let us try to deny that it is good let us call it indifferent or even mischievous we cannot consistently do this if we try order, law, harmony truth, unity are all names of good and cannot be translated into terms of insignificance much less of evil it is easy and reasonable to trust that our beautiful order is beneficent for this idea fulfills our thought and adds to it the needful element of reason to say order and unity and then to add evil is to the intellect holy baffling and inconsequential neither when you have said unity does it make sense to mix good and evil together there some does not make unity on the whole and profoundly beneath and behind all appearances the mind quite as truly as the heart of man requires to find good as the sovereign fact the mind demands good as well as unity the mind that discovers the universal order is bound to believe that what we call evil is only incidental to the progress and development of the order as the discourse made by the young violinist far from being outside the kingdom of music are incidental to his learning the harmony thus as soon as we drive out the demons and make the great nature orderly and one we are straight away brought face to face with God God only has left whom we cannot drive out and give thought itself in a standing room we are interrupted now with a practical question tell us someone asked exactly what you mean by divine universe what is the divine universe that includes within it our media and Crete and Cuba the slums of toiling cities the sulfur mines of Sicily the Siberian prisons the truth is although the devil has been banished from his old place in nature he remains for a while in men's thoughts of human society we propose to drive him all together out of the world if there is no devil or imp in the hurricane the volcano the flood there is no devil in the mind the factory the tenement house and the sultan's palace or the plague spots of Bombay if the universal order holds good behind and throughout the hurricane and is never broken so the universal laws hold good in the face of the surviving barbarism of Turkey or Africa let us see if this is not so what does anyone really think who holds that this is not a moral or divine universe he means if he means anything that you cannot quite depend upon the working of the righteous laws in the earth sometimes they may work but other times they fail you sometimes it may be well for a man to be just and at other times it is better to lie and cheat this is a world then of moral expediency where you must guess your way but where you cannot trust that the doing of righteousness will be altogether safe this is if there were a room in some factory where the workmen could not quite depend upon the laws of mechanics imps and not laws play havoc with the work sometimes a direct blow of the hammer will strike the nail and again the best aim blow will hit the workman's hand or smite his face sometimes it will be well to work from the pattern and again it will serve better to use no pattern whatever the man who throws away his square and plum line may do as well as if he used them in this strange work room of chance this is what men in whose minds the superstition of a devil still lurks say of our world this is precisely what it comes to whenever one sees no divine universe to believe in is it possible to believe in moral chaos how can anyone soberly believe in the outward universe and not think that the orderly structure proceeds right through and includes sovereignty all human things is there any area of human life in which the moral laws play fast and loose and leave the man who keeps them to be the sport of the imps and demons is there any time when the man who steers by the guesses of expediency will be safe and the man who steers by the stars of principle will go shipwreck is it in the room of the home and the affections that the world ceases to be a divine universe and its laws mislead us will the man or the woman build a home will the savage lust out of unfaithfulness out of envies, jealousies, selfishness every taint of animalism or barbarism spoils the home life and poisons the fiber of the affections and friendships there is no workshop in the world where the mechanical laws hold so surely as the subtle spiritual laws hold in human society do you want friends do you wish to be loved do you desire the joy of a civilized home do you care to enter noble human society by every such question that you try to answer the world proves itself a divine universe to the boys on their playground and even to the savages the moral universe begins to display itself let the boy be true frank, brave, manly, generous obliging and like the young Abraham Lincoln everyone wants to have his good company let friendly Bishop Paterson go to live with the Pagan South Sea Islanders the human nature in them rallies to support the noble man let a lull or a summoner visit England and the most aristocratic society unlocks its doors why? because the only real aristocracy in the world is compacted of virile, courageous high-minded and public-spirited characters because human society throughout is traversed by the universal ethical laws because already in good society the gentle prevail and no others are wanted obviously the all-round man whom we admire is the just and friendly man and the women whom we love are the large-hearted women who then denies that this is the same sort of divine universe and all the ramifications of human society as it is in workshops or neurological observatories perhaps however men who are trying to make all the money they can see no signs of an imperative reign of righteous laws in Wall Street they think that the imps still play about the workshops of trade bringing honest men to shame what are the merchants thinking about who talk so? do they not know that every figure must be exact in every page of the ledger that orderly system must prevail from the counting room to the factory that the whole gigantic fabric of modern business rest upon confidence that every lie, dishonesty error is waste and somewhere at last has to be reckoned with do they not also see that commercial bookkeeping is one grand parable of the nice and accurate working of righteous laws and a realm where no disobedience can ever be covered up? is it the politician who despairs the righteous universe or dreams that he can play with its laws? such a politician does not read history nothing in history is more interesting, impressive or encouraging than to see how by inexorable justice every man goes to his own place men lightly think that the world worships brains, smartness, popularity the nation is always trying experiments with cheap material and slowly learns the lessons of its disappointments the nation always hopes that behind the successful man of the moment use and service will appear to justify his notoriety but the world loves and worships no such man as this or if for a little it is deceived it soon ceases to worship what does the world care today for the old time despots and conquerors for a dull King George or Louis for the senators and presidents who stood for human slavery the world groans at their names but it reveres never so much as today the martyrs of its liberties its laws and its faith not Jefferson Davis but President Lincoln not Gates but Washington not Lord North but Pitt the friend of freedom not Philip of Spain but William the Silent not Herod but Jesus place once the statue in the pedestal of righteousness and it stands forever teach our youth the solemn object lessons of history and they will not dare to go the slippery way of the unfaithful the cowardly, the selfish and the traitors temptation will hardly be possible to those who have once seen the grand march of right through all the generations this does not mean that we live in a universe where the experiments of injustice are forbidden it would not be a moral universe at all if men's hands were tied and they were forced like slaves in the way of justice as it is a world where the child can fall and indeed must fall before he can walk as it is a world where the ill-aimed blow of the hammer spoils the work and necessitates the more skill in the workmen as it is a world full of conditions which if you break will straight away narrow the flow of your life so it is a world where you can do wrong, tell falsehoods break promises, injure your friends bring woe and tears to multitudes crucify your holy ones I do not find that this large liberty proves the triumph of unrighteousness or the maligned powers of a Satan it proves the contrary by every new experiment it shows that evil does not work that cruelty is barbarous and intolerable that selfishness goes at last to the wall that the righteous man though alone is mightier than the multitude that behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above his own why then someone ask if this is so evident, why does not everyone see it because as I shall show more carefully in the following chapter the movement is progressive because it presents itself to our minds as an order of evolution it is a divine universe in the process of becoming it is vital and organic no one pretends that it is a mechanical world wound up like a clock so as to keep the true time from the day that the pendulum starts to fuse for Paley's world we cannot wonder that men who look for that kind of universe become infidels there is a strange and cloudy mixture in a vial it looks worthless I am tempted to throw it out of the window but wait, I begin to see at the bottom of the vial the beautiful shape of a crystal by that token I know what the obscure mixture is doing it is depositing crystals so whenever in the apparent chaos of human life I see the beginnings of the beautiful orderly, crystalline structure I know what the universe is doing I see the structural order of a single righteous life I see the crystalline structure of a single true home I see the structural lines traversing business, trades statecraft, education wherever I see the lines of such durable structure I have no doubts any longer about the universe the mixture may be still largely obscure the greater part of it remains in apparent chaos but I know that it is depositing crystals the laws of the crystals are working throughout the mass the prophecy of the crystals is certain from the moment when, out of the seeming chaos the first perfect and beautiful shape appears End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of The Coming People this LibriVox recording is in the public domain The Coming People by Charles F. Dole Chapter 5 Point of View There should now be any doubt or disagreement about the things which we are discussing why for instance if this is a universe should anyone question our main proposition that the whole trend of the world is toward the rule of the just and the gentle if this is so, why practically should intelligent persons do anything else than obey the mighty universal law of goodwill least of all how should anyone dare to stand on the side of barbarism and oppose the notorious forces of this incoming civilization why should men fight against God yet many persons who think themselves well educated are found doing this very thing many do this who call themselves good Christians they are often quite pessimistic about the outcome of the forces and processes which they see working around them they at least deem it the part of greater safety to act with distrust suspicion, rivalry jealousy and enmity in short they think it safe and even necessary to live in many particulars as barbarians and not as civilized men citizens of the universe how can men making any claim to decency much less professing to believe in God ever lie, cheat, evade, refuse duty or do outright injustice most differences of opinion between men arise from the different points of view at which they stand let a man be lost in the woods at the foot of a mountain and he will have no idea of what the mountain looks like or of the country to be seen from its summit let the man stand in one of the narrow crowded courts or lanes of London and he will have no idea of the splendor of the city as seen from the Westminster bridge so the man who looks at the problems of the great world from the point of view of his own petty personal interest from his bit of a farm from behind his counter from his office from his own fireside cannot expect to see things as they are on the vast scale of the world and the centuries from the narrow and personal point of view each man ask what is the outlook for me, for my business for my crops for winning my cases for getting a living or perhaps a little more broadly what is the outlook for the success of my party or my denomination each man therefore sees things better neither tries to see the other side much less to get the panoramic view of the whole it is not strange at all when men who stand in the den and dust of the crowding competition of the street are told that the order of the world is surely toward the methods of a perfectly friendly justice before which all cruel selfishness is for doomed that many answer that they do not see this at all how could they be expected to see it from an obviously wrong point of view a picture or statue from which it ought to be seen there is a point of view for the works of the great artist for every masterpiece of scenery where you best see it in its contrast and proportions so with all subjects of human thought after taking proper pains to look at the thing in detail there is a best point of view where you may sum it all up see its proportions and values and understand what it signifies let us see if we cannot find a common view where we may stand and look at the grand questions of the destiny of man we mean his destiny not in some other life but in this earth with which at present we are chiefly concerned in the first place the right point of view for seeing things as they are is that of complete intellectual honesty it is essential that we simply ask what is true we do not ask like children what we should like to see or what is pleasant or beautiful we ask to be shown what we have been taught what our religion says or what the great names of ancient authority have said we want the facts and we wish to see them not with others eyes but with our own we are lifted to a new level of observation about any subject as soon as we put the main question what is the truth science is here a great school master for the philosophers and for the plain religious people also science will not let anyone spin a theory in their own brain and then try to twist the facts to meet it science will not let anyone be content merely with saying my church teaches thus and so Darwin, Huxley, Gray, Romains are shining examples of a new, imperative and beautiful method like the photograph they report precisely what they see the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is their motto show them that they have been mistaken if you can and they will thank you and own their error replace their report with a fuller and more accurate report and they will praise you the established facts and principles of science arise out of the reports of men who have risen to this level of scrupulous and unprejudiced truthfulness the differences of science touch those matters which the lovers of truth agree and confessing to be still obscure and admiring the lovers of truth we are unconsciously admiring religion what kind of a world is it that is so put together so jointed and compacted in every member so nicely accurate in the finish of every atom that the masters of investigation believe in it and only care to report what it tells them though you should give worlds to bribe them they do not dare or wish to falsify the majestic records of nature what kind of world is it that inspires its closest thinkers to love truth more than mortal life what kind of a world is it the laws of which the great investigators bank upon as if indeed they were the pledged words of the almighty wisdom this is surely a religious world if there were no religion there would be no truth there would be no science if the world is a picture it is a panorama if life is worth living it belongs to an order of progress familiar as this fact is we can scarcely emphasize it too highly or overstate its fair consequences which are only beginning to be generally admitted men once looked at the world and interpreted things as they are from the point of view of an imaginary and quite stationary paradise they therefore dream that if they could ever again establish another fixed and quiet paradise they would regain lost happiness they have dreamed and they still dream of finishing their work in the world completing their cities fireproof whose streets will henceforth remain as they are laid completing their institutions also settling all problems of labor and wealth setting a fini at last upon all legislation and then sitting down for a millennium to rest a most insignificant anti-climax to the story of the world's heroic endeavors the true point of view on the contrary is like that of the astronomer in his observatory here all things move and he moves with them as with passing trains there is parallax upon parallax to disturb the view and to stir the beholder to seek to unravel the laws of the motion there is no great fixed star no distant group of constellations that does not participate in the majestic motion but this motion is nowhere chaotic or insignificant it does not return vainly upon itself paralyzing the mind of man with its eternal futility it is an order of growth or evolution this means that an element of time and space comes into our thought we look at things in the large and not merely in detail we judge the vast motion not on the scale of terrestrial moments but on the larger scale of the ages to try to do this is man's splendid discipline in patience and humility this is not a difficult thought suited only to the mind of a philosopher we are used to the same larger view about our own undertakings here is a great piece of railway engineering that will abolish all the great crossings of a city it is very slow and inconvenient foolish people ask what is the use of this expense strangers do not understand at all what we are about the work for a while is chaos except to the expert we simply say wait and whenever the first piece of the new elevated track is in place even a passerby will catch the idea that once was only in the mind of a few engineers there is an ugly plant in the green house it was never known to have a blossom the child ask why do you keep that great useless plant wait we say it is growing it is a night blooming serious at last it puts forth its wonderful beauty and that one night when the plant has shown what it was slowly coming to it is justified for itself abundantly the barrenness and ugliness of many winter months so with the great mysterious growth of the life of our earth grant if you like that it seem to be doing nothing significant to the rude sarian ages grant that looking back now we would none of us wish to have lived and much less to have brought up children in the old cities of thebes neneva or babalon grant that taken in short views history seem to be repeating itself and the tides of human life to be breaking and vainly falling back on the sands nevertheless when first an egypt or judaea or athens a righteous man the lover of justice appeared when first the type of jesus the lover of man appeared in the sight of intelligence the long dreary ages were abundantly redeemed by one consummate flower of humanity it became known at that moment that history did not merely repeat itself that the generations of human life did not break idly on the sands it began to be seen what the barren and ugly ages were about and why today do the early ages seem fruitless or dreadful not because they did nothing not because they had no meaning to those who share their life and help them their endeavors but they seem pitiable to us because new and glorious ideals have now come into view because our faces cannot be content without looking to the past because we are destined of God to march on beneath the grand sway of the law of a nobler manhood let us agree that no view of the world or of human life can be right which starts with the finite standard or proposes any limited ideal as the stopping place laws, motions, tendencies the grand general direction we can trace like the astronomer watching the stars and the earth like the astronomer also we cannot see far enough by the help of the central sun about which all creation moves the analogies brought to view by every new invention show that the pious writer spoke the literal truth when he said that I had not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him it is significant that man can rest in nothing short of an infinite quest there isn't him an infinite hunger and aspiration as if indeed he were the child of an infinite nature every small and limited view of life in detail finds its necessary correction only when we take account of the fact of the ceaseless motion of man toward an infinite goal in this large view of life as a progressive order the changes of the ebb and flow and the little shores of a single generation need not perplex us it may be true that our great cities filled rapidly with the new immigration set up the danger signals of increasing barbarism and political misrule it may be for a while that superstition startled by the incoming light shifts its form toward outright doubt of God there may be a greater volume than ever of the raw material of which life is wrought out the demand for true men's endeavours is all the more urgent this need not terrify anyone it is enough that this raw material all belongs to the universe that the divine structural laws are working upon it that the principle of the crystal is sure to prevail over the chaos yes, that as a matter of fact the crystalline structure everywhere is shining out not disorder, but order appears as the victorious law not only in the march of the centuries but wherever one sees the subtle bonds that hold together the most primitive forms of society no dangerous strike in the minds that does not exhibit order self restraint, humanity the want of large views does not altogether account for men's habitual distrust of God in his universe the want of good will makes the great and real heresies more than anything else selfishness sways a man away from the lines where things appear as they are to be selfish is really to be unintelligent it is the survival of barbarism watch men and see what a twist selfishness gives to their sight is the man thinking what he will get for himself his pay, honors and fame to be confirmed in his own opinion is he arrogant, egotistic, conceded and willful then he is not even looking for the simple facts that is the truth but suppose a man wants only the best not for himself, but for you and me for society, for the nation for the welfare of mankind is it not evident that this man is at the precise point of view on every question where he will be most likely to catch the distinct and full meaning of things for he asks nothing for himself but only what is best for all and he holds that the best of all things is truth the facts are the foundation on which he builds or does anyone suggest that the truth-seeker should be utterly dispassionate that he should not care whether the truth is good or evil or for any consequences, whatever this is to suppose a man who would not be truly human we can't suppose a man so honest that he would tell the truth though it menaced his own doom and the doom of the race but we cannot suppose a true man who would not care what became of mankind the fact is truth, like order and unity goes unalterably with good and not with evil truth and good are made to go together and to match however far we may be from seeing where they come together no man can really believe in the truth and not believe in the good and hope for the best we cannot think that a voracious world is not a good world our interest in the truth therefore is at last an interest in the welfare of man which somehow we are sure is bound up in the veracity of the universe let honest men who desire to see things substantially as they are and in their true perspective come out of their narrow alleys in their dusty shops and stand under the open sky let them put aside conceit and their small personal aims let them ask only in first what is the truth let them look far and wide and see the colossal scale of the universe the long road by which mankind has come the serene vistas of space still before us let them feel within their souls the stirrings of the infinite nature reaching out always toward the unattained heights let them use modesty and patience befitting their destiny let them supplement this patience which by itself might easily lapse into idle wonder with the warm and hearty humanity that reveres truth all the more because of its faith that truth and human well-being are one do not doubt that whenever men thus see with the eyes of the pure in heart things that constitute life do not doubt that if multitudes still differ and quarrel if they are often skeptics, cynics and pessimists if they are civilized only in streaks and otherwise barbarians if they are Christians on Sunday while they distrust their religion throughout the week it is not because there is no grand and restful basis of truth neither is it because truth is only for philosophers and not for plain common men but it is mainly because men insist on looking at life in the world through the eyes of their own egotism and selfishness more and more do the great lovers of men see the same things and report the same message what their message is the one purpose of this book is to set forth end of chapter 5 chapter 6 of the coming people this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the coming people by Charles F. Dole chapter 6 every hope for human progress hinges on the fact that we live in a universe does anyone believe in the continued march of inventions and wiser and more universal education and pure politics and happier homes and a nobler society and the more equitable distribution of wealth the only conceivable basis for such splendid ideals the only reasonable spur toward realizing these ideals comes from a more or less conscious belief that we are citizens of a devouring universe if there were no rational course to be sailed if there were no good end or purpose no discipline of manhood and no ideals toward which the discipline proceeds what reason would any man have to urge onward a colossal raft of existence floating on the waves of chaos I have already suggested that if we all really believe this to be a universe throughout we should hardly dare to do wrong but our education is not yet very thorough going and all the moral realm especially it lags behind men who think themselves scientific still imagine that there are easy shortcuts to success and happiness perhaps all that is known on the personal side as sin and on the social side as crime may be traced to the ancient and barbarous impression that this is a realm of more or less chaos and chance wins by shortcuts the fact is all wrongdoing is a practical denial that this is a universe the desire to economize human labor is not in itself wrong there may even be a noble reason for wishing to buy the goods which the world offers in the cheapest market the more we can honestly procure the more we have to share the less labor we need to bestow upon getting our bread and butter the more we have to use for art education friendship and humanity the processes of civilization are processes in all sorts of beautiful and wise economies there are quite righteous shortcuts to success we cannot plant or harvest or build or manufacture or distribute goods too effectively the righteous shortcuts to success are characterized by a scrupulous regard for facts and laws they proceed from the most intelligent obedience what was it but a most patient and accurate obedience to the teachings of nature is Bessemer-Steel and the telephone with that laid cables under the ocean connecting the continents in a very literal sense the right way is the shortest that is the easiest and most economical we need to make a clear distinction between the shortcuts which are really nature's highways and belong to us all which are indeed universal and those other shortcuts which nature marks dangerous passing for example the way of truth tens like a royal highway to bind society together but every lie however convenient it seems for the moment destroys confidence between men honest weight and fair measure are like the rule of the road to cheat is to break this rule how strange that men who believe in modern science think that they can break the rules that make business possible boys are often wiser and closer to nature than men are each sport has certain rules boys do not pray as a comrade who breaks the rules and cheats his way to victory is the object of the game is not a prize so the glory of being proclaimed victor the true object of the game is the development of strength, skill, hearty the joy of endeavor and of comradery should to break the rules of the game therefore is to sacrifice something of that which the boys seek in their sports we can see this in any business that touches mechanics here is the builder of a railway bridge is he building in order to make money and is his success measured by the profits of the work no he is building for the convenience of man and for the security of human lives to sacrifice strength and durability however large profits accrue to the builder is not to succeed in bridge building is there some shortcut in education no and the world of letters the man makes himself ridiculous who bears degrees and honors that represent no real learning there are plenty of places where you may take a scow over bars and ledges into the harbor but if you are steering an ocean liner well-fraided carrying hundreds of lives you must sail in by the ship channel so if you wish to bring in a noble all-around and disciplined mind accurate thorough well furnished you may use the tides and currents that flow in the region of the intellect you may blast away the ledges that impede the course you may straighten the channels but the more heavily you are freighted the less can you afford to neglect the buoys and the beacons that show the great safe and common way into port education demands work which no shortcut of laziness can ever avoid is it not strange that the very boys who despise humbug, sham and mere marks ever come to suppose that the great realm of commerce or business is traversed by shortcuts boys think it's success to get an easy birth and a salary by favor and the influence of rich relatives or by some political pull boys learn to tell lies in the name of business in order to sell goods yes, good boys learn to break the rules of the sport and to cheat their way to the goal it is a false education that spoils our boys and persuades them that there is any single great department of human interest where men can safely neglect the great highways and take private ways of their own do boys yet know the alphabet of the universe who go from school to use lies frauds and falsified accounts or to build bussy bridges or does any intelligent youth imagine that there can be in business a shortcut that does not finally carry the mean or selfish man who follows it to loss disgrace or ruin he made a fortune, men say yes, the answer comes by telling falsehoods, by watering stock by wrecking railroads by bribing legislatures by lobbying in congress by partnership with fraud by agents whom he allowed to lie for him do you suppose a man is ever proud of the fortune against which these charges are true? the universe is absolutely accurate and its accounts in the long run all mere appearances to the contrary you really get what you pay for never was word more philosophical than Jesus's refrain verily, I say unto you they have their reward make shortcuts, take short views scamp your work evade the great laws neglect the permanent and eternal and you get your returns in the same currency as you insisted upon using where is the unprincipled millionaire or corrupt politician who has no success in the intelligent person envies it is the bank burglar's kind of success who escapes with his plunder it is the success obtained a century earlier by pirates and bandities the time is surely coming when the railroad records, the stock gamblers the manufacturers of whiskey the exporters of rum for the African coast the colossal manipulators of legislatures will be classed with the list of malifactors their grandchildren will be as ashamed as their record as men are ashamed today whose ancestors fitted out slave ships the law of rewards is not negative intended merely to inflict penalties its primary purpose is positive it means that in the law run the true, the sincere, the friendly who give what the great world wants who keep the eternal laws who care first to do honest service and take pay and thanks afterward these have the reward in the same terms with their efforts they sought, thoroughness, reality welfare, wisdom love, life others took shortcuts and threw away part or all of their cargo it is given to the thorough, the honest the obedient, without sacrificing anything to bring their whole ships load into port I have said nothing about a social organism I have had in mind a multitude of individuals each seeking the utmost measure of life mathematical, mechanical, chemical vital laws hold sway around and over them a very few simple moral laws truth justice, purity, goodwill equally inexorable and beautiful, served to maintain human welfare we will not here call men's disobedience of moral and social laws sinful and wicked let it be enough to call such disobedience unintelligent and barbarous to lie, to cheat and overreach to follow lust and caprice is to play the part of the savage who has not yet heard that this is a universe traversed and hedged out by laws all this becomes more clear and impressive the moment anyone sees the larger purpose that underlies the universe what is this larger purpose worthy of the universe itself of the creative intelligence and also of the chivalrous heart of man it is not merely the welfare of favored individuals picked out by some capricious doctrine of election to possess what the others forever must go without it is the welfare of all the individuals as it is not success with the farmer's corn if only here and there a fortunate ear fills out to ripeness so with the world of men it is not enough to see an occasional healthy happy life well nurtured sweet sound pure and noble such lives are prophetic of what all lives will be they are so beautiful not because they are exceptions but rather because they show forth the universal nature it is in all souls to be sweet sound, pure, healthy filled with life there is no individual success that is not typical and characteristic of this larger human welfare toward which the universe moves someone has a grand house many servants, sumptuous dress table and equipage we are doubtful if this is true success even for the individual himself or for his children apart from the welfare of human society is all this sumptuous show and style of which there can never be enough to go around which lifts the possessor to a level of exception above humanity truly beneficent in the view of the larger good it is not success to have that which does not enrich the life of mankind much less if others have less for their needs because of this ostentation and luxury has someone gained from self thorough health this is not good by itself and for the healthy individual alone it is worth very little if only one man and a hundred can ever maintain decent hygienic conditions but it is very good when the healthy man shows by object lesson the hygienic conditions which we all propose to secure for the million have the few gain university education culture, the enjoyment of books art and music have the few learn to use leisure it is not enough if all this is for the few only it is not success leisure and culture of the few are prophetic of coming days when all men who desire shall have noble opportunities did one man long ago attain the beautiful life of a Christ but the world that produced a single Christ and stopped there leaving the rest of mankind timorous, cynical, selfish, heathenish would not be a success the beautiful and Christ like life that springs to ripeness as if before its time is good to show the sweet nature wrapped up in every kernel of human life waiting only for the propitious son and heir the characteristic of our time is that the great universal qualities are coming into general demand time was when a man's success was limited to the advantage of his family his party, his sect, or his tribe time was when men praised the good father whose goodness was only to his own men praised the loyal friend although his hand was violent against other men men praised the patriot although he hated foreigners we cannot ask more of men this is a social world we cannot tolerate antisocial practices customs of business, habits of life the shortcut that runs apart from the great social thoroughfares gets no justification merely because it is convenient for your family your friends, or your sect show us, if you can that it is good also for your neighbors beware lest your private way run to the loss, the harm or the undoing of the many in every direction we tend to produce supplies for the universal demands we are developing power and material plenty we are making it possible for the millions to have true homes to ride in beautiful parks, to read books to enjoy art and music we are getting these results by combination and cooperation who can straighten and improve the great highways of human life and make them more commodious for all he is a benefactor he is the master of the future we may not distinguish the mission of the new and modern type of religion there have been and are forms of religion which claim to be shortcuts to heaven there has been a form of religion that left out personal morality offering heaven on easy terms to sluggards and cowards there has been a form of religion that left out the divine element of reason forms of religion have sacrificed humanity or have thrown joy overboard and orphaned and austere the world has proved that there is no shortcut in religion you must take the great ship channel you must sacrifice no fraction of real life you must hold the reason preserve the moral integrity keep the sympathies warm unite enthusiasm with reverence again and again the shortcut promises more immediate personal satisfaction whatever man tries it and does not presently find the rigorous and beneficent angel of the flaming sword to warn man back away from any mere voluptuous eaton to the eternal highway of truth these things to clear thought seem self evident and our best moments none of us can doubt them even on the ordinary level of men's intelligence there is a dim sense that feels out after the way where reality lies like Verdi when at his worst opera's end while the mad houseful's plaudits near out bang his orchestra the roaring and the wreaths where Sitch Rossini patient in his stall end of chapter 6 chapter 7 of the coming people this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the coming people by Charles F. Dole chapter 7 the law of cost there is a profound law of life that may already have astonished us it is the law by which everything bears a burden of cost life itself proceeds by a nice balance of profit and loss higher life comes at the expense of lower forms death itself is a constant factor of life nothing is gained anywhere except at some expense we may almost literally say by the shedding of blood all effort is thus a sort of dissolution of tissue as Paul almost pathetically writes we die daily at first sight we are always tempted to quarrel with this law here is the seamy side of life the reverse side to the pattern there is no beauty in this side seen by itself we are disposed to question whether the balance of the total account is not dead loss consider the some of the sufferings of myriads of animals by tooth and claw by famine and cold since the world began review the weary annals of human history the torture the sorrows of the innocent the waste of martyrs blood or single out any individual life and sum up the debit side of the account think of the cost and cares and tears which the mother pays is the price of her love for husband and children count up the cost of any of the great noble lives of a moses an isaea try to value what washington or lincoln gave for his country here are typical cases standing for millions and unthanked patriots as you add up this debit side you will often be appalled at the cost with which life must be purchased there is a current doctrine that goes far toward denying the law of cost altogether you will sometimes be told that there is no pain unless you make it by your own wrong thought if therefore the heroes and martyrs had only possessed the secret of this pleasing philosophy they might not merely have smiled on their enemies but they would not have suffered a twinge of pain under the most refined cruelty of torcomata or nero we are told that it was no deep law that the patriot, the lover, the reformer the philanthropist, the christ must always pay blood for blood to win the world's liberties the sanctities of home the redemption of society the triumph of justice the enfranchisement of the soul of man on the contrary the true sons and daughters of god never need bear across nor even sympathize with suffering it is a question whether they need to die this strange doctrine simply ignores facts indeed it is an enormous exaggeration of a certain important truth essential to all valid religion as to the empire, the spirit over the body of mind over matter there is no realm of human life where you can ignore the rule of cost except that you're peril or at the expense of others who must pay your debts for you you cannot think away the broken bone the rotten cable the bottom the knot in the stick of timber the plague spots of filthy Bombay you must atone in every particular for the fault of the fracture you must pay the whole cost of repair of cleansing the slums of the suffering city of replacing the timber that cannot bear the stress of the passing train you must pass your debts in honest money earned by honest effort perchance in the sweat of your brow shall we break up our divine universe into two kingdoms shall we perhaps admit that the debit side of the world is under an alien and evil power and it's law of cost is the tribute to some mighty Satan if we say this we must give up our science likewise talk no more of the one and eternal return by the way of man's ancient superstitions and people's space with warring powers we must pull down our observatories and predict no more eclipses the great world is either framed of one structure throughout or else it is chaos human life is either the child of the universe or it is a sport of chance no, we live in a universe of inexorable conditions it is solemnly structural and orderly throughout there is beauty in it but there is also that which commands awe and reverence there is sternness and vigor to match vastness and unity everywhere are differences, shades degrees, contrast which no one can think out of existence we may even reverently hold that self-cost is in the nature of the Almighty and goes to make up his perfection there is a sense in which God also suffers and without this suffering his life, his joy and his love might not be complete at any rate if we do not believe in the universe as it is if we do not wish to obey its conditions if we want life on other terms if we choose not to pay our share and its expense if we propose to get good from it never to give it is vain to set our backs here it is with its laws the great law of cost among them and here we face to face with its conditions what do we propose to do we have so far looked at the law of cost on only one side but he would be a very foolish man who insisted upon examining the debit side of his books and never asked a question what his assets are the grand question of life is not what it cost though the cost were ten times more burdensome than it is the cardinal question is is life worth the cost if we have one net gain if the race of man on the whole sees new gains in view wherewith to redeem the expense if nobler kinds of gain already begin to appear if the splendid harvest which the gifted few have reaped promises to grow and become universal and to put all kinds of famine away the famine of faith and love is truly as the famine of bread if therefore when the accounts are finally in the balance is right the universe is justified let us make some inquiries and try to discover what the indications are touching the actual working of our law of cost let us ask one of our boys who comes in from his game of ball what he thinks about it we will not ask the boy from the winning side we will put our question to the boy who has been defeated here he stands tired, dusty, hungry he has paid the full cost for his fun is he sorry that he played not in the least there is no complaint to make against the universe maybe he is hurt will he therefore give up playing no, he is all ready to try the joyous risk again take now to the eyes of the mere pessimist the most pitiable case on record ask Jesus what he thinks of the law of cost is it worthwhile to be a poor man to consort with peasants to be insulted and mocked to hang at last on a cross the world has made an egregious mistake if Jesus does not tell us I would do this all over again for what it brought of all men who have lived Jesus has no complaint to urge against the universe but Jesus' case seems to come too conspicuous and exceptional well then I maintain that the whole beauty of it is that it is typical and universal let us take the most common and humble instance let us ask a mother anyone of thousands of good women and conspicuous and un-thanked whether she grudges the cost of her motherhood let us even ask her whom death has bereaved whether sweet memories and love and hope all marvelously blended are not perpetually worth the price which she paid for them plenty of women will confirm this wonderful fact although with tears still in their eyes I have been speaking of those who stood up to the majestic law and stoutly paid the full cost who scorned to shirk the universal conditions the record of human experience goes one way those who obey the seemingly inexorable natural law and pay their tribute to duty stern daughter of the voice of God are those who presently assure her that flowers laugh before thee on their beds and fragrance in thy footing treads thou dost preserve the stars from wrong and the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong we are reminded of those who are failures of the pilots and judices and the nameless multitude of cheap false and ineffectual lives we have already seen that these have had their reward they got what they were willing to pay for they only did not gain what they did not try for they often thought themselves successful shall we blame the great universe that its laws urging us all the way of noble life can never make cheap prosperity permanent or beautiful God is educating mankind to reality see he seems to say by all manner of object lessons how vain unreality is how unsubstantial is selfishness on the contrary how enduring and gracious are truth and love the fact is the credit side of the universe is glorious already with its figures of gain here you have qualities, virtues, beauties ecstasies, the lives of divine men immeasurable values here often a single splendid name a Phideas a Dante a Michelangelo a Zwingli in the close of the 19th century literature is growing rich with the inspiring biographies of poets teachers, philanthropists investors, statesmen discoverers, men of science men of faith sometimes also plain and quiet people whom the world hardly knew like William and Lucy Smith and Mrs. Lyman of Northampton types of other lives quite unrecognized and unpraised but equally high-minded and helpful on the corner of Boston Common close to the State House stands the Shaw Monument commemorating the deeds of heroes but no public monument tells the story of the man who more than anyone else by his untiring energy his faith his utterly disinterested and modest service to his commonwealth and his country brought the famous black regiment together George L. Stearns the friend of Emerson the indefatigable helper of Governor Andrew the efficient arm behind John Brown in Kansas the earnest lover of liberty let his name stand for thousands of the modest and true-hearted the full power and significance of whose lives is hardly ever measured till after they are gone is it not worthwhile that the creation should groan and travail and pain together when the buds and flowers of this quite infinite fruitage begin to be seen give us more of the same sort lift common manhood and womanhood toward their superb possibilities show us in farms and shops homes the awakening of the divine humanity give us not one son of God only but sons and daughters of God in every city the very fact which our great prophecy heralded and all the weary eons of past time are justified what are mortal years of human toil or blood measured against immortal beauty but could not God do all this with better economy could he not just as well save the trouble and cost and be generous and give his children life for nothing let not an omnipotent God give his creatures the universe free from conditions why possess infinite wisdom and not contrive to expunge this dreary debit side of creation let us see first what son of God wants life on insignificant terms let us expel from the world all the austerity and salinity let us be rid of all nerves that can feel pain let us have done with contrast with storms, with night, with heat or cold with hunger and thirst let no child ever cry for help or pity let no friend sorrow make a draft on our own sympathy, shut out temptation take away the spurs that incite to effort and progress blot out the words that describe evil leave what? leave food and drink ease, comfort, sleep, a monotone of existence do you desire this? you have been removing at every step the terms which constitute life you have no virtue, no aspiration no faith, hope or love nothing to distinguish beauty as such there is no height without depth to match, there is no faith without doubt there is no hope where there is no fear there can be no love where no sympathy is demanded for suffering the almighty wisdom could not make such a universe as we have imagined the far-seeing love would not accept it even God must keep his own conditions God must obey the laws which he imposes the laws of the expression of his love that there is a stern severity and nature infers the presence of majestic pity also and a beneficent purpose there is a suffering and sorrow in God as there is a God of love and joy the Christ story here illustrates an eternal and universal fact what is in one life is in all lives because all flow from the life of God the infinite life is not less full on account of this mighty fact end of chapter 7