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I

INTRODUCTION

N this series of essays, the dominant motif of
Human Potentiality has been sounded from

many view-points. The continual repetition of the fundamental theme is by no means a novel method in the propounding of truth. Indeed, it is only by repetition and reiteration through many aspects of the same great truths that potent convictions, demanding action, are formed. It is not unlike the method used by the organist improvising upon his theme and placing it in different settings; at one time he uses the simple motif with conspicuous clearness; at another it is only a subtle suggestion; occasionally the fundamental chord is given, and through it all the dominant theme vibrates true.

The great curse that blights and enfetters human life-the world's besetting sin-is ignorance. It is the ignorance of mental lethargy, of arrested growth and of thoughtless acquiescence in the tenets of external domination. This ignorance is evident when human minds, instead of exercising reason, mechanically reflect the opinions of the crowd, when they accept without review the creeds of external authority and lose themselves in dwarfing mind-habits which are deeply rutted in tradition. Thus individuality is deadened and Godhood is crucified.

The indomitable foe of autocracy is not socialism or anarchy; it is the free, unfettered mind that

thinks as an individual and acts according to innate wisdom. Such a mind upholds government, law and order, and abhors anarchy, which is but chaos; its ideal of government is freedom, justice and brotherhood. True individuality is impregnated with social purpose in harmony with the Cosmic Spirit of life. It demands universal education and the development of each according to his natural endowment; it stands for universal suffrage and equality of opportunity, with encouragement for all. It is the happy mean between the slavery of the masses by hereditary privilege or selfish authority, on the one hand, and unrestrained license and anarchy on the other. It is the only hope for the ultimate realization of enlightened, social-democratic government and universal tolerance.

Ignorance is a condition of undevelopment. Every normal child is born essentially wise, with an appetency for knowledge and with mental power in embryo peculiar to his individuality and designed for effective service in the world. The development and use of one's mental power is virtue; the disuse and resultant atrophy of such endowed power is ignorance and sin. Happiness, usefulness and human power depend upon the development of one's mentality, not upon the highly specialized growth and vigor of one part, but upon the allround development of the whole. The world cries out today for thinking men and women, for complete human beings, for individuals whose lives reflect their peculiar inherent power, which they will persistently apply with social purpose in their journey toward the great Cosmic Goal.

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