THE SEVEN PURPOSES


      Chapter IV

      "WHAT place have the unfit on your plane?"
      we asked Mary K., at the conclusion of the
      sixth Lesson.

      "No place. They are errors of develop-
      ment, and have a long struggle ahead before
      they can reach the degree of development that
      should have been theirs in your life. They
      are fusions of weak purposes, and should not
      be permitted to hold back the strong and the
      fit. Development will come to them slowly,
      at best, but more quickly here than there."

      "In the present stage of our development,
      is there a sufficient incentive to progress, with-
      out hope of material gain or personal improve-
      ment?"

      "Any material gain that is for the construc-
      tive purpose is a force for light and progress
      in the larger sense. Material gain is deterrent
      only when purpose is its price. Personal am-
      bition is an incentive always. When it is for
      personal gain, at any price, it is deterrent.
      When it is ambition to serve a great purpose
      worthily, it becomes a constructive force, to [179]
      which material gain adds only more con-
      structive force."

      "Have you all history spread out before
      you? Or are you taught after you get there?"

      "We have a grasp of results, not easily
      understood in your life. It is like seeing a
      landscape from a high and distant hill. The
      salient features are easily distinguished."

      "Are these messages for all people? Or
      only for civilized people? Do they come from
      Christians on your plane?"

      "This is a message to the civilized world.
      . . . Jew or Gentile, Christian or agnostic, all
      men are brothers in the larger sense. Un-
      civilized little brothers will grow, or come to
      this freer plane to join their larger purposes."

      "Then from whom do these Lessons come?"

      "From great constructive purposes. There
      is no sect or creed, color or prejudice, here."

      Saturday, April 6th, Mrs. Bruce came again
      to talk to her husband, and he thanked her
      for a public gift which she had just made In
      his name, promising such co-operation in the
      work it promoted as could be given from his
      plane. She said that she had felt suddenly
      impelled to make this contribution, and had
      acted at once upon the impulse.

      "You all feel impelled to work with us as
      soon as you realize we are here near you," he [180]
      told her, "and the things we can do together
      are as yet undreamed in your life."

      She spoke of his former interest in the arts,
      which he said he had left behind as "mate-
      rial manifestations." Discussing the relation
      of artistic expression to constructive purpose,
      he said: "Art, when it is a real interpreta-
      tion of life, is a high and noble thing, but the
      art that is merely self-expression is a disinte-
      grating force. Too much of it is that now."

      At that time, she had read none of the Les-
      sons, and he told her of the seven purposes of
      construction, continuing: "To purpose of any
      nature only similar purpose calls, and when
      the call is heard. there is no choice but to
      answer. No choice after the call has been
      admitted to consciousness. It may be shut
      out and denied, but once listened to, whether
      for construction or for destruction, the answer
      is bound to come. That is why we so in-
      sistently urge the discovery of purpose and the
      beauty of construction. Character, as you
      understand it, results from the purposes ad-
      mitted to consciousness. Not always recog-
      nized, but always let in."

      He had some difficulty in getting one word
      written, and she spoke of his erasures of wrong
      starts as extraordinary and unusual.

      "Not a bit unusual, if you think how often [181]
      the words of your languages fail as convincing
      and accurate symbols. You often correct them
      yourselves. A translation may be made in any
      of several ways, depending on the reactions of
      the translator to certain symbols. So, when
      Margaret reacts freely, we let it stand. When
      she fails, wholly or in part, we correct it."

      In view of later statements concerning the
      force used in these manifestations, I assume this
      to mean, not that I make the translation men-
      tioned, but that certain symbols used in trans-
      lation are sometimes difficult to convey through
      me. Frequently other words have been sub-
      stituted for those originally begun, when there
      was trouble in writing them. Another explana-
      tion of these occasional difficulties of trans-
      mission was suggested afterward, first by
      Frederick and later more explicitly by Mary
      Kendal.

      "Do you see us visibly?" Mrs. Bruce asked.

      "Yes, of course. We see all you do, and
      more. We see motives, where you see ap-
      pearance."

      [Long afterward (May 26th), Mr. Kendal
      asked Anne Lowe whether she could see sun-
      sets, and she replied: "No, but we see their
      equivalent in dawn of purpose."

      [She had previously expressed approval of a
      room, which had been arranged with great [182]
      care for one dear to her, and he asked whether
      she saw its physical details, or only its effects
      upon the minds of persons entering it, to which
      her answer was: " We never see material
      things. We see their significance."

      [Similarly, Mary K. said (May 31st), "We
      read your thought frequently, and always per-
      ceive motive, intention, and the mental and
      spiritual significance of your reactions to ma-
      terial things, in themselves unimportant. So
      we say we see the thing itself, because we per-
      ceive its essential significance."]
      Mrs. Bruce said her daughter wanted to
      know whether dogs continue to exist after life
      here, feeling that they must.

      "They do not come as animals, exactly.
      But there is no manifestation of force that is
      not purpose, and purposes are united and
      gather here, in ways not possible for you to
      understand, in the progress toward the great
      purpose." Ten days later, Frederick stated
      this more explicitly.

      After a pause, Mr. Bruce said: "We are so
      full of our fine but tremendous task here, at
      this great moment of crisis, that I'm afraid
      I'm not very entertaining. We talk shop to
      you, because that is the reason we can come
      so freely now."

      "You refer to the great crisis?" she asked. [183]
      "Not to our present crisis here?"

      "Germany is bereft of all purpose. Pur-
      poses of destruction have left her. She has
      one sole, frantic force remaining—fear. After
      that, destruction, long followed, will turn and
      rend her, and fear will be lost in despair."

      "Aren't there some good Germans?" she
      suggested, adding that their daughter thought
      it unfair to condemn a whole people for the
      sins of some of them.

      "Many good Germans have admitted to
      consciousness the call of destructive purposes,
      and have for the moment joined forces against
      us. For many years this preparation has been
      going on. No German who has ever admitted
      the forces of disintegration is quite free from
      them now. There were some officers who took
      their own lives and faced the consequences,
      rather than join forces with the dominant
      purpose of their people: No person can live
      in Germany now who is not party to disin-
      tegration. No German lives in the world,
      who still calls himself German, who is not
      party to disintegration."

      "You say they have 'joined forces against
      us for the moment,'" I mentioned.

      "Some of them will see light, and build force-
      fully for true progress. Some of them will
      destroy while they live. Some will be for [184]
      years deterrent, and the end is impossible to
      foresee."

      A day or two after this, when I was alone,
      I asked Mary K. what Mr. Bruce meant by
      saying that once the call of purpose is ad-
      mitted to consciousness, there is no choice
      but to answer.

      "He meant that your personal struggle is
      only with the purposes admitted to conscious-
      ness. All forces are constantly trying to reach
      you, to enlist you for the great struggle. Once
      admitted to your consciousness, you have no
      choice but to answer, and the struggle between
      opposing forces is fought with your help.
      Many waver between the two, now lending aid
      to this one, now to that. A few choose in-
      stantly; some to progress, some to delay,
      some to build, some to destroy. This is what
      men call character."

      "He said also that no German who has ever
      admitted to consciousness the forces of dis-
      integration is quite free from them now.
      Why?"

      "Because there is in your life, as here, a
      group loyalty. But whereas here we are
      grouped by purpose, there you are grouped
      largely by geographical location. And any
      German who justified this war in the beginning
      is party to disintegration to some extent still. [185]
      His group loyalty holds him, though his pur-
      pose protest. That will be the final test.
      Purpose, or finite loyalty to finite group."

      One or two interesting statements were
      made, about this time, during an interview
      with the widow of a well-known New York
      surgeon.

      "Your husband's work is healing still," Mary
      K. told her. After enumerating the construc-
      tive purposes, she continued: "Healing was
      always his purpose, and he follows it still, with
      all his great force. He has a freer field here,
      and fulfils his purpose fully. That is the
      reason he is unable to be here to-day. The
      Germans are liberating many bewildered and
      fear-stricken souls, and all our great healers
      are held by their need."

      When we spoke of ways of finding happiness
      she said: "Who fears the purpose he should
      serve with force destroys it. Fear not. Find
      it, serve it, and happiness of a positive kind
      will find you. . . . Your force is scattered among
      many latent purposes. Find the dominant
      call of Progress to your soul, and follow that,
      leaving the rest behind."

      Again, a day or two later, the present pre-
      occupation of healers on the next plane was
      mentioned, when I asked Mary K. whether a
      certain woman would come at a given time to [186]
      meet friends who had asked for her.

      "She may. I shall try to have her here,"
      she said. "Her work is healing, and all our
      healers are working constantly. . . . She was
      an artist with you, and somewhat deterrent.
      She has found a new purpose."

      The day before the last Lessons were given,
      Maynard Holt, explaining to a friend the seven
      purposes, said: "Every human being who is
      for progress and construction serves one or
      more of these purposes. It is by them that
      what you know as human force is ultimately
      grouped for eternal advance. Our effort now
      is to unite all forces for Progress in conscious
      co-operation." After speaking of Germany's
      unity of purpose, he went on: "She is, and
      has been for years, the center of forces and
      purposes of disintegration in. your life. She
      is, in theological parlance, the ally of his
      Satanic Majesty. We have learned here that
      there is no evil, per se. There is only purpose,
      constructive or destructive. . . . But the forces
      of disintegration are gathering for a battle of
      wits and morals, and we are emulating Ger-
      many in just one thing. . . . We are preparing.
      We want you to wake up and realize what is
      going on. We want every one of you to find
      and recognize not only your own purpose, but
      the other fellow's. Find out who is for prog- [187]
      ress, and who merely camouflages disintegra-
      tion. Conscious co-operation of constructive
      purpose is warranted to beat the devil. He
      can't defeat it, nor yet delay it. (O) That is
      what it means to all of us. . . . Come on in.
      The water's fine!"