T. It would please to do only right, and, when mind pleases to do
right, it will injure no one.
C. How do you know it would please to do right?
T. By experience.
C. Have you no fear of your superiors?
T. My superiors are more just and good than I.
C. Then why do you not fear them?
T. Because they are better than myself.
C. I would not obey without reward.
T. Would you not do as you pleased?
C. I would; but I would not please to obey.
T. Why?
C. Because I would do as I pleased.
T. If you pleased to obey, and did as you pleased, you would obey.
C. But I would not so please to do.
T. Would you do as you would not please to do?
C. I would not.
T. Then, you would obey; because when pleased to do a thing, if you
did not do it, you would be displeased and dissatisfied. When wisdom
cultivates the mind, it makes it productive of good fruits. They come
up, and grow spontaneously. The soil, being wisely prepared, yields
the peaceable fruits of righteousness. So, when your mind drinks of
the fountain of a higher wisdom, it satisfies the thirst, and gives
it strength to bear fruit. It is free from the fears of ignorance and
superstition, and needs no lash to extort the required good. It does
what it pleases without fear, because it pleases to do right, and not
wrong. But the mind driven, is like a slave--a servant that serves
only because the eye of his master is upon him, and the lash of his
wrath is uplifted to extort an unwilling service. The slave works, but
he works as he is worked by the master. So, with those who serve in
your condition. It is not you, but your master who works you, that is
entitled to the reward. He employs you as a mechanic would his tools;
and yet, who would say, the tool should receive a reward for its use?
C. This is a new doctrine. I see you sap the foundation of all fear.
T. I would sap the foundation of all ignorance, because ignorance
is the cause of all fear. Remove ignorance, and all fear ceases. It
never was a virtue. Minds have operated to make minds fear. They have
sought to make them fear what they did not fear themselves. They have
represented God, and even spirits, as objects of fear. And they have
lashed their superstitious victims into a servitude as degrading as it
was destructive, as humiliating as it was ruinous to the welfare of
mind. When ignorance is superseded by wisdom, freedom will permit minds
to share in the work of their hands; but, so long as mind is in bondage
through fear, and works only as it is worked, the reward, whatever it
may be, should be given to him who controls. The master, and not the
servant, does the work, and does it as he chooses, and by the tools at
his command.
C. I would ask, if mind ought not to fear God?
T. How can a mind fear what it loves?
C. It may fear to offend.
T. It will not offend, when right.
C. But, when it is liable to err, it may fear.
T. But it is not liable to err in what it knows, and what is unknown
ought not to create fear.
C. Why?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account