The path to the arcana of life lies everywhere. But can this mean that in all places the way is equally defined and direct?
Man need not be governed by environment. He can always somewhat change and in greater or less degree overcome every adverse circumstance. But is it not to give the mind over to folly, to fancy that indiscriminate conditions best conduce to a chosen line of work?
All the Lovers of the Race should know of Point Loma. Their interest in it is deep and vital. Explanation, description and illustration will convey something of its import, but little compared with the realization through actual experience of even a few months' residence here. To the student merely the benefits are inestimable.
Take the picture of Point Loma as drawn by travelers to this region. In its light consider the enlarged capacity into which the mind will expand — in which it will simply find the breath of its life when relieved from the thousand and one depressing influences inherent in the leaden atmosphere of towns, cities and localities, rife with the corrosive emotions and diseased ideas now prevalent in human affairs. The possibilities of a mind innately of an inextinguishable energy and steadfastness of purpose, and actuated by the right motive, are enormous anywhere. But imagine what the same mind can conceive and execute when surrounded by every natural encouragement instead of numberless infernal incubi.
All accounts agree that the climate of Point Loma is not surpassed — nay, not equalled — elsewhere on the earth. The evenness of the temperature the year round is wonderful and the degree something surprising in its effects. While the orange and the olive and, tenderest of all, the lemon, thrive to perfection (and the latter particularly must have warmth), light winter clothing is always essential to personal comfort. The latitude and sunshine on the one hand, the effect of these being tempered by the altitude and breeze on the other, always operate to balance each other, so that the temperature varies but slightly and appears so conducive to mental equilibrium as to incline one to imagine there exists between the atmosphere and the mind some connection, some bond or correspondence. Neither is it to be supposed that the equanimity is merely a descent to an inane lethargy. The bracing freshness of the air does not permit such, and a tendency to feverish activity is calmed by a glance at the great outlying Pacific, in its very bigness discouraging to fretfulness. Somehow there is here a combination of the influence of the mountain and the sea, which, like a chemical compound, possesses characteristics beyond those of its elements. More favorable than all others mentioned is the sun. Under the conditions existent here it does not appear possible to get too much of the sunshine. None of the ill effects noticeable in southern countries generally, and in the warm season especially, are to be found. The liberating effect upon the student is unquestionable. For the tired and worn it is an elixir. For those whose life currents have well nigh burst their channels it is a reservoir of conserving power. For the worker it is an unfailing resource of inspiration and courage and joy. It is enough of itself to make one believe that the old sun worshippers knew not a little of the living truth.
The sunsets are marvelous. Adequate description is impossible. The expanse of the entire dome of the heavens is frequently utilized for the effects. If one will vividly recall the most brilliant and gorgeous and again the most delicate, dainty colorings he has ever seen in the immediate vicinity of the declining sun and extend the picture over the arching canopy in every direction from horizon to horizon, he may form some conception. And in addition, for the final glory, the very air is diffused with a luminant iridescence, beginning with a soft, roseate radiance, gradually shading with each moment through every hue to a halo of loveliest purple, which serenely ushers in the quiet night. To experience it actually is to entertain the feeling of a magical land so full of every beauty and joy that the very atmosphere is aglow with their splendors, and that somehow, sometime, all these in all their fullness are a heritage of human life and will enter into its everyday being.
Possibly, as powerful as they certainly are, the natural conditions of Point Loma would not alone suffice to stir these emotions. In conjunction herewith much is also due to the mythos of the place, and it is well understood now that myths are no dead things relating to a distant and crumbled past, but have very potently to do with the present. This the mere student may not rightly conceive, but the man of life knows it. And whatever much Point Loma may afford to the student, for the man of life it holds and will give more. Philosophy is good, but Life is better. Already at Point Loma there are people whose fives are wrapped in practical action. They know of a Teacher who has philosophy to give, but it is the philosophy of living, and therefore they also find in this personage the Leader who is conducting philosophy into life.
Katherine Tingley has established here, the ordained international centre of the Universal Brotherhood movement, many activities under various departments of the organization. Some of these, and comparatively speaking all of them, are as yet in the veriest germ. Fast maturing plans will soon inaugurate a wide range of operations on appropriate scales. At present one of the interesting features is the International Brotherhood League Colony, established during the great Brotherhood Congress held here in April, 1898. The colony is not merely entertaining. It is in the highest degree instructive. Any one connected with it by residence or close observation has had the inestimable tuition of seeing philosophy in the abstract pass into concrete fact, and thus has been afforded demonstrations in life as conclusive as any in chemistry scientifically made in the laboratory.
The colony seen when the grounds were purchased and again now will tell the story better than words. Just following the congress a number of representatives, for the most part comprised of prominent members and workers from all over the world, immediately erected a large building in addition to the other houses already on the grounds, and which is, indeed, a most unique structure. It embodies some of the very essence of Brotherhood. At the same time they cleared the grounds of growth incident to evidently a considerable period of neglect. In this state of regenerative thrift the place was turned over to the colonists themselves, or rather the nucleus. These are all interesting people, representative of many nationalities and every phase of life except the unintelligent and shiftless; students every one, each with strong, decided ideas of his own. In their characters, differences exist not merely of personal opinion, but racial idiosyncrasies, climatic influences and the opposing colors of diverse religious or non-religious sentiment. A radical change in the modes of living confronted them, what might be called self-denial to undergo, work to be done, and with all a clearly defined perception that the moment one preferred to do so he was, of course, perfectly free to withdraw if he chose. One common bond united them — confidence in the Heart and Head of the organization and a perception, though diverse conceptions, of the Principle of Brotherhood, an understanding of which to that time, comparatively, was largely theoretical. Of course every natural circumstance was favorable.
What they have accomplished shows the divine side of humanity. They require no further reiteration that the real things of life are not to be understood, much less attained, through intellectual gymnastics alone. The colony itself is its own sign. To be conversant with its life is to be continually in touch with an inspiration. To be absent even for a short time, to return, to behold on approaching, the plants, the flowers, the hedges, the lawn, the fields now green with grain, the arrangement of the houses, almost, as it were, nestling to each other, is to feel with renewed force the presence of order, intelligence, industry, consideration, freedom, a buoyant light-heartedness, and especially if it be toward night, when the lights are lit and close together twinkle cheerily, a delightful human feeling which makes one glad that he lives to know it. It may be an old, old emotion coming to existence again from bygone ages of purity and grandeur, but it also appears to possess a wondrous touch which perhaps the children of earth have never felt before.
Something of this nature is in the atmosphere of Point Loma. The colonists and the others in the Universal Brotherhood Movement have good ground for an active faith in the near at hand rehabilitation of mankind, and the effulgence of living joy into the world.
This much almost before beginning. Of what, then, is it the forerunner? Who will undertake to behold the larger future? Or, more to the point, who will lay hold of these blessed and ineffable potencies, man's rightful heritage, available now to individual aspiration, and marshalling them under the positive, dynamic will, usher them into general, concrete life.