THE SEVEN PURPOSES


      Chapter III

      LIKE the rest of the family, Mrs. Wylie
      feared the effect of the Western visit upon
      her mother's new-found tranquillity of spirit,
      and she was also uneasy lest Mrs. Gaylord had
      been unable to secure Pullman accommoda-
      tions.

      "Mother is all right and happy," Frederick
      told us, in the evening. "She is still reading
      her precious book "—a copy of his earlier inter-
      views, which she carried with her.

      Some one asked whether he meant that her
      general condition was "all right," or that she
      was "all right" on the train.

      "On the train. She's blissful!"

      This was verified a day or two later by a
      letter from Mrs. Gaylord, in which she said:
      "I came away filled with strength and calm
      and joy." She also mentioned casually that
      she had found a vacant section on the train,
      and traveled comfortably.

      "How does purpose combat forces of evil?"
      Mr. Wylie asked.

      "It is done by overpowering them, as the [167]
      sun dispels mist, separating them into smaller
      particles or units. And when that is impos-
      sible, by driving them like clouds before a high
      wind. They work for evil, but can be sepa-
      rated sometimes from the mass and united
      with constructive forces. Only small frag-
      ments of the main forces can be so converted,
      at present. Mostly we rout them."

      "Does an evil soul lose personality?" his
      sister questioned. "Is it absorbed, or broken
      into fragments?"

      "The individuality that finds its first ex-
      pression in your life is never absorbed or
      broken up. I speak of the forces of disin-
      tegration, composed of more individuals than
      the greatest army, as being routed. We mass
      ourselves and our purposes against them and
      theirs, when we fight in the open here. But
      as has been explained in the Lessons, the very
      material form you have was originally an
      effort to evolve a force not conquerable by
      purpose alone. Both good and evil forces, in
      your phrase—constructive and destructive, in
      ours—took possession of these concrete forms,
      and now the bitterness of the fight is greatest
      where both forces are represented in one in-
      dividual. The only way we can fight that
      effectively is to sit on the job, and try to call
      to the purpose that is ours more clearly and [168]
      appealingly, or more commandingly, than the
      other fellow does. That's the reason we are
      begging you now to work with us. A great
      crisis is at hand, and we want you to meet it
      consciously in your life there, knowing its
      nature, so that we can have your help, not only
      in withstanding material onslaughts, like Ger-
      many's invasions and brutality, but in things of
      the spirit—the real things, the eternal things—
      so that together we may win a real victory.
      The individual whose purposes are funda-
      mentally destructive is not damned nor lost.
      He is just delayed. Sooner or later he must
      work his way up, and it is entirely up to him
      whether he does it sooner or later—after he
      reaches this life, especially. In your life, he
      is sometimes confused or misled. He pays for
      that, too—not pays, but makes good for it,
      by working here for the development he had
      not sense enough to take there. But his delay
      is brief, beside that of the essentially destructive
      force."

      A little later, Mrs. Wylie spoke again of
      her uneasiness about her mother's visit to
      K____, and some one suggested telegraphing
      her that Frederick had been with us that
      evening.

      "Give her my love when you wire," he di-
      rected, "and tell her I'm on the crossing, still [169]
      ringing that bell. Don't you worry, Sis. I'll
      go and stay with her most of the time she's
      there, and she'll know it. I'll come to you,
      Easter, too, for a little while. . . . Tell Dad I'll
      be taking care of Mother. He needn't fret
      about it."

      "Do you want me to look up 'Bob' and tell
      him about his little girl?" she asked.

      He replied, "Yes, do." And when she
      asked if he could give her something more
      definite than a Christian name by which to
      trace this unknown man among his large and
      scattered acquaintance, he wrote the name of
      a Middle Western city, adding: "You can
      find out from the fellows. All of them know
      Bob."

      This seems to be a case of marked deflection
      of ray, to use Mr. Kendal's simile, for up to
      the day when this manuscript goes to the
      printer the Gaylord family have been unable
      to identify" Bob," although there was a con-
      fused intimation, late in April, that Mrs. Z____
      had made a mistake in the name, and a sug-
      gestion that the surname was Roberts. It is
      not impossible that this was one of those
      wily incursions of disintegrating force, with in-
      tent to confuse, to which we afterward grew
      accustomed.

      On Friday and Saturday of that week [170]
      (March 29th and 30th), there were interviews of
      great interest, but of too personal a character
      to be extensively quoted.

      Replying to the inquiry of a man for his
      father, Mary K. said: "He was a great force
      here, but has passed on into the life beyond
      ours. He can and will return to talk to you,
      but not immediately."

      "Tell G____ the constructive forces are work-
      ing for him, as he for them," was the answer
      to questions about a man in this life. "Tem-
      porary disappointments are unimportant. Do
      not fear. We build together, and surely. The
      result is certain and for his purpose—progress,
      light, and justice. His individual concern is
      to have faith, follow his purpose, and trust
      us. The only failure possible comes from ad-
      mitting doubt, disintegration, and fear."

      An expression of anxiety concerning another
      man on this plane was met thus: "N____ has
      felt his own. purpose stirring a little. . . . A
      perfectly good purpose when he finds it. He
      has had many forces fighting, within and with-
      out. He will wake when this message is
      given to the world. He is too intelligent not
      to recognize truth as obvious as this will be."
      Some one asked when this would occur.
      "When Margaret completes the book she will
      publish soon." This was the first intimation [171]
      of the way in which I was expected to carry
      out Mary K.'s instructions to make this ex-
      perience known, concerning which we had
      wondered not a little.

      It was suggested that a member of this
      person's family might help him, from the next
      plane, but this was said to be impossible, as
      they were not of the same purpose.

      "The family connection is nothing here.
      His own purposes know him, both good and
      bad, and they are fighting it out. He has an-
      swered first one, then another. But funda-
      mentally he is for justice. He will answer to
      that in the end. . . . Sometimes he will shut it
      all out and yield to the forces seeking to
      destroy him, but he will fight in the end for
      freedom and justice."

      "She is not of our forces," was the reply to
      an inquiry about an artist who left this life
      twenty years ago. This was crossed out,
      however, and "not mentally free" substi-
      tuted.

      When I was alone, I asked Mary K. about
      this woman, and she returned: "She is not a
      destructive force, but is deterrent. She is
      working out problems not met when she should
      have met them, and is fighting for growth,
      just as she soon or late will fight for progress.
      She fights for herself, her own growth, and not [172]
      for progress in the larger sense."

      Afterward, I learned, from some one who
      knew her well, of this woman's devouring and
      unquenchable ambition for supremacy in her
      profession.

      Whimsical Anne Lowe, writing to three
      friends of her continued association with them,
      said: "Believe—know—that we are a positive
      force, and united we stand, hurrah! Our
      faith helps all beneficent purpose. Its force
      is freed and multiplied by the sum of your
      participation."

      "I wonder if she could tell us what our pur-
      poses are?" Elizabeth said.

      "Yours is Progress, Ruth's is Light, Kath-
      arine's is Healing and Light. You are blended.
      Elizabeth to push, Ruth to illumine and inter-
      pret, Katharine to understand and soothe."

      Ruth said, wistfully: "Then all I can do is
      to shine?"

      "Interpreters are really prophets," she was
      told. "That is all the greatest prophets ever
      were. You are of their purpose, so cheer up!"

      Interrupting a little discussion as to whether
      dominant purpose is born in us or developed,
      she said: "We are born with many purposes,
      latent and striving, but as we live we make
      daily choice."

      That evening, our old friend Maynard Holt [173]
      came for a long talk. After some entirely
      personal exchange, Cass spoke of Maynard
      as having been, in this life, a believer in
      individualism.

      Beginning with some allusion to former dis-
      cussions between them, concerning what he
      called "the temporary manifestations of So-
      cialism," Maynard replied: "Now I can tell
      you definitely that the salvation of the civilized
      world is dependent on the independence of the
      individual. . . . It's a big and glorious period
      in eternal history. The time has almost come
      for the open fight. Prepare your ground care-
      fully, and gird up your loins for combat. It's
      coming."

      A little later, in a similar connection, he
      said: "The conscious co-operation of purpose
      is the only sound principle of Socialism. That
      is eternally sound. And now that we are con-
      sciously and forcefully working in harmony
      with the great and eternal purpose, they can't
      stop us."

      "Has this new opportunity of communica-
      tion with this plane made you over there
      happier?" he was asked.

      "It has opened an entirely new channel to
      us here in this part of the world. In the Far
      East, we have the channel, but no hard-pan
      to support the stream. Here science gives us [174]
      a foundation from which to work, but we have
      had no channel through which to reach it. . . .
      Everywhere in the civilized world the minds
      of intelligent people have turned to this. There
      is reaching and questioning and longing, and
      a dawning faith."

      At this time I did not know how frequently
      belief in the possibility of communication with
      those in a life beyond is accompanied by an in-
      clination toward the Oriental philosophies, but
      Maynard's allusion to the Far East was given
      greater significance by the replies to later
      questions.

      To an inquiry concerning the possible in-
      fluence of these teachings in Germany, he re-
      turned: "They are a philosophical and ab-
      stract-minded people, and they'll be hunting a
      plausible and satisfactory explanation of them-
      selves before long. And this is less uncom-
      plimentary than the others will be, besides
      having the undeniable advantage of being
      true, which they will have learned, by that
      time, to appreciate."

      "Can't those with eyes, ears, and under-
      standing learn wisely to control, lead, and up-
      lift the mass?" Cass asked. "In Russia, for
      example?"

      "Don't be in such a hurry. There's all
      eternity, and evolution is slow. But the mills [175]
      of the gods grind on, and the grist is sure.
      The Russians, like the Germans, must climb
      their own hills. America has a few to climb,
      too. This will help many, uplift a few, es-
      cape the mass, but leaven the whole. There
      is no millennium at hand. This is just a
      light by which the path is made more clear.
      It will influence many thousands, in many
      countries, but the inert mass must work its
      way on, through the old channels of evolution,
      made easier by knowledge and by experience
      of those ahead, but not to be evaded or avoided
      by any miracle."

      "But it will bring conscious purpose and
      effort to bear in helping this evolution?"

      "Surely. It is a message eagerly awaited
      and desired."

      Later that evening, I asked Mary K. whether
      she could tell me anything about the book
      Anne Lowe had said I was to publish.

      "Yes. It must be ready for publication
      by Fall."

      "Evidently sordid, material details of book
      manufacture escape your attention," I said,
      laughing. "This is the thirtieth of March,
      and you have not yet given me all the material
      for your book. When you have done that, it
      still must be edited, assembled for publication,
      copied, accepted by publishers, printed, and [176]
      sold. Perhaps you don't know that salesmen
      for publishing-houses begin taking orders for
      Fall publications in June, and generally carry
      sample copies of the books with them?"

      She said I would have the necessary material
      in a month or six weeks, and that editing would
      "take another month," from which it is evi-
      dent that no eight-hour law is operative on her
      plane. She also advised me to see publishers
      at once, tell them what was happening, read
      them parts of communications already received,
      and arrange for Fall publication, conditional
      upon their satisfaction with the completed
      manuscript—which, not without misgivings
      concerning such procedure, I immediately pre-
      pared to act upon.

      A night or so later, Maynard Holt came
      again, with his mother, who said: "Maynard
      brought me to call."

      When we asked if she worked with those on
      this plane, she replied: " Yes, but also with
      undeveloped purposes, here before their
      time."

      Returning to the subject of Russian up-
      heaval, Maynard said: "They are goners for
      some time, now. It will take them long to
      assemble their purposes again constructively."

      "If you had been here," Cass asked, "would
      you have viewed the Russian situation and its [177]
      effect on the world as you do now?"

      "Not quite, I think. We see farther ahead,
      and have sounder premises from which to
      argue than you've ever had there."

      "This plan, of course, includes all the people
      of the world," Cass continued. "Are those
      who leave here undeveloped, still undeveloped
      there?"

      "There is a large and growing population
      here of the undeveloped," was Maynard's
      reply, "which is one of the lesser reasons for
      our keen desire to purposize the world."