II
The factors so far considered, in the previous article, were (1) the essential divine nature of man and the importance of awakening the soul as the first step in true education, and (2) that the soul is immortal and lives many lives on earth. This latter neglected factor of itself shows the futility of all education which has not as its object the awakening of the soul and the calling forth of the soul's powers, for manifestly that which is the soul's heritage from life to life is character and not the mental ability and scholarship in the arts and sciences which pass current for education today. Surely this needs no argument, for we have only to consider in what, in our final analysis of any man, we place our confidence and trust; it is not in his "culture" but in his character, which is the expression of the man himself, and which he cannot escape from or go behind; whereas culture and scholarship are no more than the cut of his mental habiliments. We have neglected the essentials for the sake of the appearances until the modern world is little more than one vast sham. We do indeed need to study the "Philosophy of Clothes" and meditate upon the Eternal Yea and Everlasting Nay. The problem of education is paramount; we can expect no amelioration of the troubles of life until we have solved this problem, which is the key to all others. And although we consider the problem of education with especial reference to the young, yet it will be clear that it concerns ourselves also, and perhaps in a much greater degree than may be ordinarily understood, and for this reason that according to the conditions which we, men and women of today, furnish for the coming generation do we help or retard the unfoldment of the powers of those souls re-born into this world.
The present state of the economic and social world today shows the necessity of our facing this problem of education and of our applying it each to himself individually. In the previous article I referred to life as the great educator, and life and nature are both long-suffering and patient, and mankind, collectively and individually, is given opportunity after opportunity to enter upon this true education and learn the difference between the outer show and the eternal verity. There is however a breaking point in nature and in the social organism as well as in the individual life, and if the comparative gentle hints are not heeded, the more forcible and soul-compelling methods, of nature must be endured. There is a deep lesson to be learned from all the social revolutions of the past and from nature's cataclysmic throes which overwhelm nations and continents. The lesson is this: That man must learn to face himself, he must learn what is his true self, what are its needs and what its relations to life and nature. If he persistently refuse to learn from the everyday experiences of life, spread over many lives it may be, nature will one day take things as it were in her own hands and stripping him naked force him to see himself as he is.
Today we stand face to face with conditions more strained, more ominous, than ever before known in history. If the storm breaks and if, as indeed may be, Nature's bounds are passed, adding natural convulsions to social, then indeed the test of a man will be character, self-knowledge, reliance on self- — the divine inner self. In the face of Nature and in time of revolution form, conventionality, scholarship, are all swept aside; that which stands is the soul, clad in its one vesture, the outcome of all its lives — character. Need more be said as to the true purpose of education than that it is to know one's inmost self and to unfold the powers of that self, not to dress that self in gay apparel of accomplishment and scholarship but to be as one really is in essence, — to be divine?
But let us return to the children, though not forgetting that we are children too. How may we help them to come to a knowledge of themselves?
Perhaps the first and the most important step to be taken is to teach children something of their moral make-up, of far greater importance than any study of physiology. I do not mean that psychology as ordinarily understood is to be taught — a psychology with the psyche left out- — but the basis of true psychology, the recognition of the higher and the lower nature.
This is not a difficult matter if approached in the right way. Young children very quickly grasp the idea of their real selves being good, noble and kind, and that when they are naughty and unkind it is because their real selves have gone away for a time. Furthermore, they very quickly understand that their real selves ought not to have gone away, but should have stayed to take care of their voice, and hands, and feet, and so they learn the first great lesson of responsibility and self-reliance. We need only to look around us today to see that there is a woeful lack of the sense of responsibility to self. Today the greatest of all the commandments, the cornerstone of modern ethics — as practised in the world, all the preaching to the contrary notwithstanding — is "thou shalt not be found out," and the standard of right is that which seems right in our neighbor's eyes. Why is this? No clearer evidence is needed of the neglect of one of the essentials of education.
It is not responsibility to God, nor to a teacher, but to one's higher self that we need to realize. It cannot be understood, however, without the knowledge of the dual nature of man, the higher and the lower, the higher being the real inner man, the soul; the lower, with its passions and desires and all the physical powers, being the instrument and, properly, the servant of the higher. This can be taught, it can be inculcated in the minds of the young and by appealing to and awakening the soul in this way the inner perception of right and wrong — the so-called conscience — is awakened, the intuitive faculty is called into action and the whole life irradiated. The intuitive facility is a natural one to the child state; all that is needed is that it shall be fostered and called into action. Can you not imagine how the whole nature of a child would glow when he discovers that he can appeal to himself, to his own higher nature, for guidance; when he finds that there is this something, the intuition, which is knowledge. What a re-discovery it must be to a child when he conies to realize this! What a discovery it has been to many an older child, to grown men and women, to realize, however dimly, the divinity of man! How a boy delights to use his strength which he feels in his muscles! How much more wonderful is the revelation of himself to himself when he feels the awe of the divine within his own heart! The awakening of the intuition removes the barriers from the mind, it takes away all fear, all lack of confidence. The child, young or old, finds a foothold, his eyes are opened, he sees a way before him and enters upon life, whether in school or out in the world, with a hope, nay, a certainty, that overcomes all obstacles. The intuition becomes as the voice of another self than this every-day personality, it is indeed the voice of that inner self, the soul in whom resides the "knowing" faculty, — that knowledge which Plato says is "recollection" — and who has been so many times over the pathway of life. Ah, if but the lower personal self would lean upon that inner self, the lessons of life would soon be learned and possibilities of future progress would open out surpassing our most vivid imagination. It may be the opinion of some that this would result in priggishness and goody-goodyness, but that is because we, with how few exceptions, are insincere in our own lives, and those who have felt the inner life of the soul hide it and fear to show their hearts to another. But true holiness of life is not a forced condition, it is natural; indeed, unless it is natural and spontaneous, it cannot be "holiness" in the highest and deepest sense.
The influence of music is well known to all, and many a child, shy and retiring, afraid to express itself in any way, has under the influence of music burst into singing, forgetting all save the joy which the music has called forth in the heart. A child may not be able to sing by himself, but will forget all fear and bashfulness in a class of happy children singing in chorus. This is all because children instinctively lean on their inner natures, and the music stealing into their hearts and awakening them on a higher plane gives strength and confidence.
How easy it would be to help the children, and to educate along the right lines if once the right atmosphere were provided. For it is the mental and more especially the moral atmosphere which, like the music, draws forth the powers of the soul. Children are more influenced by the hidden and unexpressed thought of their parents and teachers than by the spoken word. A teacher whose mind may be well-trained, stored with knowledge (or is it only information?) whose outer life may appear irreproachable, but whose inner nature has not been awakened, will fail in the true purpose of education. And however able he may be mentally, however brilliant his achievements as a scholar, yet should his inner life be not moral he will not only fail to educate, but his inner life will affect the inner life of all the children with whom he comes in contact.
Teachers, as a class, deserve high and just commendation for their work and the uprightness of their lives, but the fact just stated must be faced. It is one of the greatest obstacles to be encountered. It is so easy in these days of conventionality and the worship paid to the god of appearances, to conceal the motive and the inner desires and there is no way of overcoming this save through the efforts of parents, teachers, and the whole community, individually purifying each his own life, and recognizing the divine promptings of the higher self endeavoring to express these in act.
(To be continued.)