Time and Chance
As the subject is somewhat complex, I will have to explain it to you.
The first point is that there is not so very much difference in the
intelligence of people after all. The great man is not so great as folks
think, and the dull man is not quite so stupid as he seems. The
difference in our estimates of men lies in the fact that one individual
is able to get his goods into the show-window, and the other is not
aware t
at he has any show-window or any goods.
"The soul knows all things, and knowledge is only a remembering," says
Emerson.
This seems a very broad statement; and yet the fact remains that the
vast majority of men know a thousand times as much as they are aware of.
Far down in the silent depths of subconsciousness lie myriads of truths,
each awaiting a time when its owner shall call it forth. To utilize
these stored-up thoughts, you must express them to others; and to be
able to express them well your soul has to soar into this subconscious
realm where you have cached these net results of experience. In other
words, you must "come out"--get out of self--away from
self-consciousness, into the region of partial oblivion--away from the
boundaries of time and the limitations of space. The great painter
forgets all in the presence of his canvas; the writer is oblivious to
his surroundings; the singer floats away on the wings of melody (and
carries the audience with her); the orator pours out his soul for an
hour, and it seems to him as if barely five minutes had passed, so rapt
is he in his exalted theme. When you reach the heights of sublimity and
are expressing your highest and best, you are in a partial trance
condition. And all men who enter this condition surprise themselves by
the quantity of knowledge and the extent of insight they possess. And
some going a little deeper than others into this trance condition, and
having no knowledge of the miraculous storing up of truth in the
subconscious cells, jump to the conclusion that their intelligence is
guided by a spirit not theirs. When one reaches this conclusion he
begins to wither at the top, for he relies on the dead, and ceases to
feed the well-springs of his subconscious self.
The mind is a dual affair--objective and subjective. The objective mind
sees all, hears all, reasons things out. The subjective mind stores up
and only gives out when the objective mind sleeps. And as few men ever
cultivate the absorbed, reflective or semi-trance state, where the
objective mind rests, they never really call on their subconscious
treasury for its stores. They are always self-conscious.
A man in commerce, where men prey on their kind, must be alive and alert
to what is going on, or while he dreams, his competitor will seize upon
his birthright. And so you see why poets are poor and artists often beg.
And the summing up of this sermonette is that all men are equally rich,
only some thru fate are able to muster their mental legions on the
plains of their being and count them, while others are never able to
do so.
But what think you is necessary before a person can come into full
possession of his subconscious treasures? Well, I'll tell you: It is not
ease, nor prosperity, nor requited love, nor worldly security--not
these.
"You sing well," said the master, impatiently, to his best pupil, "but
you will never sing divinely until you have given your all for love,
and then been neglected and rejected, and scorned and beaten, and left
for dead. Then, if you do not exactly die, you will come back, and when
the world hears your voice it will mistake you for an angel and fall at
your feet."
And the moral is, that as long as you are satisfied and comfortable, you
use only the objective mind and live in the world of sense. But let love
be torn from your grasp and flee as a shadow--living only as a memory in
a haunting sense of loss; let death come and the sky shut down over less
worth in the world; or stupid misunderstanding and crushing defeat grind
you into the dust, then you may arise, forgetting time and space and
self, and take refuge in mansions not made with hands; and find a
certain sad, sweet satisfaction in the contemplation of treasures stored
up where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through and steal.
And thus looking out into the Eternal, you entirely forget the present
and go forth into the Land of Subconsciousness--the Land of Spirit,
where yet dwell the gods of ancient and innocent days? Is it worth
the cost?