Born Again Part 2

It is not my intention to give a full descriptive account of my peculiar journey around the world with Arletta, nor to recount the many strange things witnessed. Suffice it to mention that we visited nearly every country on the globe through the power of mind sight, and I was enabled to see any terrestrial occurrence as well as if having been on the spot in person. In fact, being under the direct influence of Arletta's perception, conditions appeared much more comprehensive to me than ever before and I felt like some great judge looking down upon the earth and its inhabitants with an impartial eye. And somehow these inhabitants did not seem to impress me as being in such a high state of intelligence as I had formerly been led to believe they were. Everywhere human beings were fighting and snarling amongst themselves like ferocious beasts.

Their universal law granted the right of the strong to victimize the weak either through the power of physical or mental force. In fact it was considered a divine right for men of superior intellects to receive more of the fruits of the earth than those of smaller mental capacity.

One-half of the world was over-fed while the other half was under-fed.

Aside from a slight difference in political and religious theories, the characteristics of all the peoples of the world were the same; the predominant features being greed, vanity, egotism, intemperance, gluttony, fraud, theft, bribery, deceit, brutality, murder, superst.i.tion and filth. Even America, the much boasted land of the free, the country which G.o.d in his infinite wisdom had taken from the bad English and given to the good Americans, contained people with these traits, and the so-called great men of this country appeared like a lot of silly little pigmies engaged in an eternal quarrel over a few trinkets. Few of them could see further than their own noses unless it was to see something that would increase their own selfish desires. Equality, of which these people boasted so much, existed merely in their imaginations. The actual meaning of equality, as the Americans understood it, was that the physical and mental gladiators and weaklings alike were put into one great prize ring and given an opportunity to fight for their lives and nature's gifts. Those who were capable of battering down and trampling upon their adversaries were legally ent.i.tled to all the luxuries the earth provided and more than they could use, but those who were unfortunate enough to have been born weaklings and were unfit to cope successfully with the huge monsters in the ring, were crushed in the struggle.

Fraud was the slogan of the government officials and nearly all of them practiced it, from the highest to the lowest functionary. Money was the power behind the curtain and he who had the largest bank account was catered to like an over-grown hog surrounded by a lot of suckling pigs.

"G.o.d helps those who help themselves" was their accepted motto. In other words, G.o.d helps the strong and not the weak. If the Creator gives any of His attention to the innumerable bickerings of these earthly microbes He must feel greatly flattered by having this splendid motto thrust upon Him, for according to it, one was supposed to go to the a.s.sistance of the man who could swim, while he who could not, must be left to drown.

A certain so-called great American, one Mr. Moundbuilder by name, expressed great faith in this doctrine. By employing thousands of his fellow men to do the hard work while he sat in an easy chair and confiscated the difference between what they earned and what he paid them, he acc.u.mulated several hundred million dollars for his own use.

About the time he was ready to die he learned to his great sorrow that it was necessary to leave all this wealth behind. So he decided to bequeath it to only those who were sufficiently strong and willing to continue his policy of crushing the weak and incidentally erect some monuments to his own memory. After much consideration as to how the strong would derive the most benefit from his ill-gotten goods, he concluded that the weak-minded and sickly creatures who were bred from the system he abetted and the over-worked and under-fed laborer would have no opportunity to read books, so he established hundreds of Moundbuilder libraries and Moundbuilder universities in all parts of the world. To those who were already strong enough to reach a position where they could enter a university and did not really need his aid, the idea was a grand one, as it would help to increase their strength, thereby making it much easier for them to confiscate what the weaklings could produce in the future. Thus the plan to make the strong stronger, the weak weaker, and Moundbuilder immortal, would be perpetuated. But the cherished hopes of Mr. Moundbuilder in this respect will never be realized, for the day is not far distant when earthly mortals will be able to reason and then he will be recognized simply as a vain-glorious old humbug.

Another celebrated American who was cla.s.sed among the great men of the day was a certain Mr. Porkpacker. This individual conducted an establishment where thousands of animals, bred for the purpose, were slaughtered daily. He had acc.u.mulated millions of blood-stained dollars in this way, and was generally conceded to be a man of great business ability. He was pointed out to the rising generation as one of the most successful men in the country whose example should be followed. Just pause a moment and think of it. Here was a man who directed a business where thousands of living things were murdered daily, set forth as a good example to follow just because he had secured millions of dollars by the operation. Oh, ye mortals! Man considers the wolf a blood-thirsty beast because he kills and eats the flesh of human beings for subsistence. What kind of a b.e.s.t.i.a.l monster would the wolf consider man if it saw him in his slaughter-house killing thousands of innocent beef, sheep and hogs daily? Or what would it think of civilized man if it saw him shooting myriads of tame and harmless pigeons for amus.e.m.e.nt, or broiling lobsters alive to satisfy his gormandizing desires? Perhaps the wolf would set man below its grade, if interrogated upon the subject.

But tyrannical man, intoxicated by his own egotism and clinging to an elastic religion which allows him to act as he pleases, feels that his G.o.d created all these things for his special benefit. If the wolf could be questioned about the matter, it too might claim that its G.o.d permitted the killing and eating of man. Mr. Porkpacker was considered both great and good by his fellow beings, for each year he gave thousands of dollars for the erection and maintenance of the church and likewise contributed largely toward his pastor's salary. Would it be good policy then for the pastor to believe that it was wrong to kill sheep, when one of the large contributors was earning money in that business? No, no. So the church upheld the slaughter-houses and proved by the scriptures that they were simply doing what the savages had done thousands of years previously according to divine right.

Once I listened to my father preach a sermon on the beautiful innocence and purity of the lamb. For an hour he spoke feelingly of the many virtues contained by this gentle little creature and after he was through he immediately went home and filled his stomach with roasted lamb for dinner. Good Christians are anxious to know when the time will arrive that the lion and lamb will lie down together in peace and harmony. Possibly the lamb would like to know if the time will ever come when its carca.s.s will not be utilized to appease the voracious appet.i.te of the Christian.

In looking over the so-called great business men and financial swindlers of America they certainly presented a motley collection of physical and mental monstrosities. They spent so much of their time in the mad rush for dollars and how to spend them, that physical and mental improvement received very little attention. Their brains became stagnant for the want of proper training and their bodies were allowed to rot and become useless for the need of exercise. Some were so fat they could not walk, while others were too lean to stand. A great many of them used either canes or crutches as an aid to hobble along or vehicles to convey them from place to place. Nearly all were cripples, more or less; rheumatism, gout, paralysis and numerous other ailments being the cause of their helplessness. Few of them seemed able to understand that all these infirmities were directly caused by the want of proper exercise and from the gluttonous habit of overloading their stomachs with foods of many kinds and meat especially. Apparently it was beyond their comprehension that nature commanded them to improve their physiques for the benefit of coming generations. Men who professed to be athletes when they were past the age of thirty were considered childish, while the exponents of physical culture were generally looked upon as cranks. Eating, drinking and smoking were adapted as the best modes of recreation, while fishing and shooting pigeons, quail, squirrels and other harmless living things were regarded as good, healthy amus.e.m.e.nts. Of all the brutal methods of diversion ever adopted by man, fishing is perhaps the most cruel. If the reader does not think so, just stop for a moment and imagine yourself being hooked to a great line by the mouth and your body being drawn far up into s.p.a.ce and into another atmosphere, there to strangle slowly to death. You would not like it, would you? Then why should the fish be treated so? Do you not suppose that the fish have feelings like yourself? Oh, if all my fellowmen could only have taken that trip around the world with Arletta and seen things as I saw them, cruelty in all its various forms would be a thing of the past. That trip and my subsequent experience with her proved to be the best education I could have received from any source. It taught me the real meaning of the word kindness, without which, not only toward human beings, but toward all living things, man will never rise above the savage state.

CHAPTER X

We were just twenty-four hours making our journey around the world, when suddenly I found myself once more gazing into the beautiful eyes of Arletta. While she bestowed a kindly look of sympathy toward me, her features plainly showed that her gentle nature had received an awful shock from the terrible and degrading sights we had witnessed. And there was much reason why this pure and lovable woman should be shocked at what we had seen, for even I, a worthless and hardened vagabond, had become thoroughly disgusted with my own species.

"And what do you think of your highly civilized people now?" she inquired sadly. "They are a race of tail-less monkeys and filthy beasts with myself included," responded I, with vehemence, and then I began a tirade of abuse against the entire human family.

"Stop," exclaimed Arletta, "you must not allow malice to enter your mind against any living creature, no matter how beastly or brutal it may be.

Hatred will not make the world better; it needs love. No living being is responsible for what it is any more than you or I are accountable for being in existence. But while each individual inherits the good or bad instincts of its predecessor, still it has the power to make better or worse its own condition. Love will not only make better your own condition, but that of your fellow beings as well. Do not expect to find in others that which you do not possess yourself. It is your duty to set a good example, not wait for others to accomplish what you have not done yourself. So begin right now with love. Cast away all unkind thoughts and never allow another to enter your mind, no matter what the provocation might be. I admit that the Apeman of today is no better, in fact, in many respects is much inferior to the Apeman who lived over four thousand years ago, but that is because he took the wrong road in trying to reach real manhood. He is still on the wrong path, but must be turned about and started in the right direction. He must be taught that Heaven is here on earth, if he will only make it so. But the earth will never be a paradise, so long as he allows a grain of selfishness to remain in his system. In yonder picture you can see what real men were like. Study their countenances carefully and see if you can read that any one of them ever committed a selfish act or even permitted an unkind thought to enter his mind, for if he had, you could plainly read it from his features, the face being the mirror of our thoughts and actions, and no matter what we do or what we think from the time we are born until we die, every act and thought is indelibly stamped upon our faces and can never be erased until the material of which we are composed has disintegrated and reentered the great chemical basin from which all living things receive their matter and energy. And it is to be hoped that with each turn of the chemical wheel the succeeding generation will be re-moulded on a better scale, until the Apeman and all lower animals have pa.s.sed through a successful course of evolution and finally emerge into real manhood--the highest type of earthly beings. This goal is but a few steps and within the power of the Apeman to reach, but he must take his steps in the right direction. A whole nation of those magnificent beings you see in the picture, once existed in real life.

Their ancestors were Apemen who were started in the right path, and after persistently sticking to the upward march of unselfish progress for many generations, ultimately reached the cla.s.s of men you see before you; giants, physically, mentally and morally." And here she paused and looked long and affectionately at those wonderful figures in the painting. Then a feeling of intense jealousy suddenly crept into my brain, and I thought I would surely go mad under its terrible pressure.

Arletta was in love with one of those real men, while she held merely a compa.s.sionate feeling for me.

I, the Apeman, standing six feet two inches in height and weighing over two hundred pounds avoirdupois, heretofore regarded as a marvel in physical development, now, in the presence of these eight-foot giants, felt like a shrunken pigmy. Formerly it was generally conceded that I was a rather handsome fellow. This woman thought I was hideous.

Previously, I had felt proud of my nicely curled heavy black mustache, now I thought it made me look like a monkey. The splendid features of the real men were not disfigured by a hair or blemish of any kind, while their skin was as soft and smooth as that of a new born child. During my trip around the world, I had observed that the more man's body was covered by hair, the more ape-like he appeared, especially when decorating his face with it, and I was certain that my appearance was just as ludicrous in the eyes of Arletta as those I had seen. Therefore my admiration for the stately objects portrayed in the picture was beginning to turn into hatred. I inwardly wished they were alive that I might have an opportunity to combat with one or all of them in order to show Arletta that I possessed the courage to fight until death for her love. While lost in the midst of such reflections Arletta turned her gaze upon me fixedly and said: "What barbaric thoughts have you permitted to enter your mind now?" "I was wishing," replied I rather sullenly, "that the man you love in that picture was alive, that I might have the chance to demonstrate my worth in a fight to secure your favor; perhaps, then, you would discover that I had some good qualities."

"And do you suppose if I saw you fighting like a savage bulldog that I would admire those brutish tendencies in your nature?" inquired she. "Do you think that the animal instincts of fighting and killing are good qualities to possess? Has your trip around the world borne no good results? You have observed that your own species, like other savage beasts, quarrel, fight, maim and kill each other through selfish motives, and you have condemned them for it; now you would continue to do the very same thing yourself and think that I would consider it courageous. According to one of our primitive laws, the courageous man was he who feared no one and caused no one to fear him. These men of the picture were the bravest of the brave, and still if one of them were alive today he would not fight with you, no matter how much you might ill use him, for he would know that it required more real strength to take abuse than to give it. He would suffer more pain if he hurt you than if you injured him. And still he could have crushed you with greater ease than a cat can a mouse, if he were cowardly enough to do it. That is the real courage of unselfishness--the kind your species cannot understand. Your fellow beings applaud cowardice which they mistake for strength of character. They seem unable to comprehend that it requires far more courage to suffer pain than to inflict it upon others. They have inherited their erroneous ideas from the wild beasts who preceded them, and at the present time few of them know any better.

But they must be taught differently and the teachers must set the examples, not merely offer advice. The different countries of the world today support large armies of licensed murderers who are commonly called soldiers. They are sent to the battle-fields to slaughter each other for selfish purposes. The strongest side is naturally victorious, and after killing as many of their adversaries as possible, return home to receive the applause and admiration of their countrymen. They are considered heroic because they were successful in slaying their weaker opponents.

Your society worships these human butchers and the more lives one of them has destroyed the bigger the monument is erected in his honor. How many of these butchers would have the courage to take an insult from a weaker party without resenting it? It requires great bravery for the strong to refrain from taking advantage of the weak; it demands real heroism for the strong to equally share the results of their labors with the feeble. For the strong are doubly blessed in having strength while the weak are unfortunate and need sympathy."

"Would it not be courageous for one person to die for the love of another?" inquired I.

"That would depend altogether upon the circ.u.mstances," replied Arletta.

"It would require far more courage to sacrifice your life for one you did not love as there would then be no selfish motive behind it. As I understand your feelings, you love me and imagine that you would not care to live without me."

"Yes," said I fervently, "I shall take my own life sooner than leave you."

"That is not courage at all, it is simply cowardice," answered she.

"Through your own selfishness in trying to obtain something beyond your reach, you lack the strength to live without it. It takes far more courage to live when you want to die than to die when you want to live.

Unselfishness is the very highest type of courageousness and one must live for the good he may do the world instead of his own personal aggrandizement. Thousands of our n.o.ble men sacrificed their lives yearly for the good of the world. Our laws permitted a certain number of them to leave their heavenly country periodically to go among the Apemen, and try and teach these barbarians the meaning of unselfish love. They never returned. They fully realized before starting on these missionary trips, that they were depriving themselves of all the luxuries the earth provided for a life of hardship and suffering; a life of insults and all the cruel tortures the ferocious Apemen could inflict upon them. But it pleased them to know that they possessed the courage to withstand all the insults heaped upon them, while trying to alleviate the conditions of others. Unlike your present missionaries they did not go into different countries backed up by loaded guns ready to annihilate all who did not believe their doctrines. If you hit a man on the head with a club and then tell him that you love him he will not believe you. They understood that to teach the Apemen to love one another they must set themselves up as examples, not with mere words, but by unselfish and courageous acts. They also knew that they had no divine right to enter another country and force upon the inhabitants their laws and customs.

They merely went to teach their methods and in trying to do good for others were willing to accept insults in return for their kindness in order to prove their sincerity of purpose.

"At first, these good men were looked upon as G.o.ds by the Apemen who wished to worship them as such, and had they been vain-glorious like the Apeman himself, they would have allowed this false idea to exist. But no, there was not a grain of vanity or selfishness in their systems.

They had not left their homes and friends to be worshiped, but had gone away to show the Apeman how he might reach real manhood, if he would but follow their instructions. They taught the eradication of selfishness from all living beings and the abolition of the system of individual acc.u.mulation, practiced then and now by all of your species. Of course when the rich and religious rulers of the different tribes and nations learned that these men were teaching that all living beings should have an equal chance in life, and that the weak should enjoy the same comforts as the strong, and that their divine right laws were unjust, they became wroth and ordered our men to be put to death by the most cruel methods. Some were burned at the stake; others were buried alive; several were put into dungeons and their bodies allowed to rot; many were cast into fiery furnaces, while a number of them were thrown into dens containing lions and tigers. All these tortures and innumerable others, did these brave men suffer that they might impress upon the Apeman the real meaning of courage and unselfishness. And through the power of mind sight we used to see these heroic volunteers unflinchingly suffer these indignities for the cause of righteousness, notwithstanding we had the power to annihilate the entire Apeman species, if we had so desired. Our chemists could have turned on currents of poisonous air and asphyxiated whole nations of them at once; our electricians could have sent an electric shock around the earth that would have left a path of destruction a thousand miles in width; our scientists could have concentrated the full force of the sun's rays upon any particular city they might choose and burn it up instantly; but they did not. We had the power to destroy, but the courage of forbearance. The highest honor our nation could bestow upon a man was to allow him to leave his heavenly country and become a martyr to his own unselfishness in trying to uplift the Apeman species. And had it not been for the unfortunate catastrophe which I shall explain to you later, our plans would have succeeded and the earth today would have been heaven with no such creature in existence as the Apeman."

CHAPTER XI

"Next to selfishness, religion has been the greatest drawback towards progress the Apeman has had to contend with in all ages," continued Arletta.

"Religion is the outgrowth of ignorance and the Apeman, just starting up the ladder of human knowledge, adopted it as an explanation of things of which he knew nothing. All religions were created by the Apeman; and wherein lies the difference between the G.o.d built of stone or from the imagination? In constructing the numberless religions, the Apeman invariably made them to suit his own habits and customs. He built his G.o.ds to please his own fancy and gave his own ideas as those of his deities. His own knowledge is likewise the extent of the wisdom contained by his G.o.ds, whom lie manufactured to be twisted and turned in any direction and made to answer any purpose he might see fit. No one religion is any worse than all the rest. They are all founded on ignorance, superst.i.tion and selfishness. To believe in any of these petty religions is to cast insults upon the real Creator of the universe, for a G.o.d created by the Apeman must naturally be a very inferior being. Each devout worshiper can point out the errors and absurdities of every other religion excepting his own. He is capable of utilizing his reasoning powers until directed against himself, and narrowed down to a few words he feels that he is all right but everybody else is all wrong. Of the several hundred religions now extant, would it not be more reasonable to suppose that they were all wrong than to believe they were all right? Take your own religion for instance; you are worshiping a most unnatural G.o.d. In fact your Bible puts him in the position of a vain-glorious tyrant. According to the Bible an Apeman can be no worse than his G.o.d no matter how bad he may be. The main reason why. the Apeman believes in religion is because he is an inveterate coward and fears some dire punishment if he investigates the matter. But believe me, if the Creator gave you the power to reason, he certainly will not condemn you for making use of your reasoning faculties in not accepting opinions which appear untenable. So let us look into this matter from an impartial point of view. In the first place the offer of rewards for doing good, which is the foundation of all religions is wrong, for it carries selfishness right to the very gates of the imaginary heavens. Goodness is very shallow indeed if it cannot exist without rewards being offered for it. I shall enumerate a few things your G.o.d was supposed to have said or allowed, according to the Bible, which would make no Apeman living, any worse in his moral conduct.

"Enmity.--'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman.' Gen. iii, 15.

"Unkindness.--'Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow.' Gen. iii, 16.

"Flesh Eaters.--'Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.'

Gen. ix, 3.

"Revenge.--'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.'

Gen. ix, 6.

"Drunkenness.--'And he drank of the wine, and was drunken.' Gen. ix, 21.

"Partiality.--'G.o.d shall enlarge j.a.pheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant.' Gen. ix, 27.

"Hunting--'He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.' Gen. x, 9.

"A curser.--'And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee.' Gen. xii, 3.

"Fraud.--'By fraud, Jacob received the blessing intended for Esau and then G.o.d blessed him and made him prosperous forever afterward. Gen.

xxvii to xxix.

"Fornication.--'And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again and bare Jacob a second son.' Gen. x.x.x, 7.

"Anger.--'And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.' Exodus iv, 14.

"Thievery.--'Speak now into the ears of the people and let every man borrow of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor jewels of silver and jewels of gold.' Exodus xi, 2.

"Carnage.--'For I will pa.s.s through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the G.o.ds of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord.' Exodus xii, 12.

"Jealousy.--'For I the Lord thy G.o.d am jealous G.o.d.' Exodus xx, 5.

"Slavery.--'Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.'

Exodus xxi, 6.

"Witchcraft.--'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' Exodus xxii, 18.

"Murder.--'And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with my sword and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless.' Exodus xxii, 24.

"Changeability.--'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.'

Numbers xxv, 10, 11.

"Brutality.--'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.' Leviticus xxiv, 13, 14.