Logic Taught by Love. Mary Everest Boole
would naturally be represented to the early Geometrician (who lived where snakes were common and corkscrew wires not yet invented) by a snake coiled round a branch and hanging freely. The Geometry of the snake-coil is a more advanced stage of the Logic of the Divining-rod. In the fable of the rods that were shown to Pharaoh, the rods of both parties turned into snakes before that of the good prophet could swallow those of the bad magicians.
The Pentagram and the Magic Squares and other puzzles used by ancient "Wizards" illustrate the same principle, though less clearly. The principle itself was well known to the writer of the narrative of Abraham's calling. Abraham lived at a time when children were recklessly sacrificed to the gods whenever the parent felt prompted to do so. First he saw there was something wrong about that; children were meant for something better than to be killed. Next, it occurred to him to think that he might be wrong after all; ought he not to hold himself ready to give his son to God if God willed? He prepared to obey—if God should will. Then he was led to see that God wills to accept the offering of our children in a different way; we are to offer them to The Unity; but so as to hold them in trust for the establishment of human society. Thus he was led gradually up the spiral of revelation; at each step giving up something which had seemed (though it had not really been) the essence of some previous revelation.
How Superstition has fastened on that standard narration of spiral progress, of which Abraham is the hero, it is hardly necessary to point out.
The whirling storm-wind forms an accurate diagram for illustrating the relation of the ex-centric to humanity. Having drawn the spiral, with tangents running in various directions, one tells the pupil that the spiral itself represents the methods of the orthodox Ecclesia, the constituted authorities, the recognized teachers. The tangents represent various paths taken by ex-centrics, non-conformists, men who have received the first personal inspiration, the first birth into a new world; who have cared, and dared, to go off on lines of their own, each investigating as he is impelled by his own genius.
That is very well for a time; the youth of genius should find out for himself what is the direction in which he is impelled to go. But before he offers his gift on the National Altar, before he can really contribute to the general store of Knowledge, he must pull himself into line with general progress. How shall he do this?
The advice usually given is, to conform to the general custom, submit to the orthodox authorities. But there is a better way. The normal to any tangent leads towards the centre of equipoise, of balance, of calm progress; the spot where is concentrated the maximum of force with the minimum expenditure of force in mere useless motion.
But how can any man find certainly the true normal to his own tangential direction, the path which will guide his own peculiar genius towards the centre of progress and of power?
The direction given by the diagram is emphatic and unmistakable. He should look out for the brother ex-centric who most especially "offends" him, who is going on what seems to him to be most obviously and certainly the wrong road, because it leads in the opposite direction to what he is sure is, for him, the path of inspiration. Let him unify with that brother, call out to that brother to meet him and join hands. When these two meet, they will be in the centre of calm force. This conversion into the normal is the second birth of genius, the Regeneration which converts mere inspiration into Revelation; for inspiration is at best partial; Revelation comes at the moment of the combination of opposites.
As the spiral shows, all inspirations are inadequate; and nearly all are, in themselves, actually misleading.
A dim suggestion makes itself felt as we think of the spiral wire. The whole coil might, if long enough, be treated as if it were a wire, and wrapped in its turn round and round into a larger coil. We leave this consideration to the imagination of any reader who cares to pursue it. For none have more need of patience and reticence than those who are teaching the art of generalizing mathematical method, who are transferring to the analysis of ethics and history that knowledge of the human mind which is gained by mathematical investigation. All the various rays of light shed by our various studies came originally form One Source, and are meant to be re-united; but not till the appointed time is come. The danger of premature synthesis is that it leads to the vicious habit of what is called reasoning by analogy; jumping to conclusions about outer things and historical events. True analogy is of use as throwing light on Laws of Thought; it teaches, not Truth in itself but the nature of the relation of the human consciousness to Truth. True Logic is not dogmatic about facts; it clears the ground of false conclusions, and leaves The Eternal Pulsation to speak in silence to the soul.
We now go back for a moment to the Tree-Symbolism. In the Hebrew Scriptures knowledge is spoken of as a Tree. In the Odin religion we are taught that: Its root is the knowledge of earth and its crown is the knowledge of Heaven.
1 ↑ This detailed account of the use of these symbols for educational purposes will be found in "The Preparation of the Child for Science." (Oxford : Clarendon Press).
CHAPTER IV
THE SABBATH OF RENEWAL.
"The Church bells were ringing,
The Devil sat singing
On the stump of a rotting old tree:
'Oh! faith it grows cold,
And the creeds they are old,
And the world is nigh ready for me.'
"The bells went on ringing;
A spirit came singing,
And smiled as he crumbled the tree:
'Yon wood does but perish,
New seedlings to cherish;
And the world is too live yet for thee.'"
C. Kingsley.
Every now and then in History it has happened that some isolated Seer has perceived afresh the vital connection between Mosaism (in the original intention of its Founders) and the scientific doctrine of the renewal of health by rhythmic pulsation. One of the most interesting instances of such perception is the Civil Engineer Boulanger, who in the last century wrote a little volume entitled, L'Origine du Despotisme Oriental.
The work is so advanced in tone that one can hardly believe it is anything but a very clear summary of all that has been discovered since the great French Revolution, about the respective effects of fixed mental attitude in religion, and of free ventilation of religious problems. It is not, however, an after-summary, but an anticipation of modern investigations. The author believed in a Creative Unity who is perpetually revealing himself to man. Every man who once places his feet firmly on that high vantage-ground, becomes (intellectually at least) a Prophet; that is to say, he is able to trace accurately the course of lights not yet arisen above the horizon of persons less fortunately placed. It seems to this writer natural and inevitable that whoever believes in the Divine Unity must be in advance of his age; so much so, indeed, that he does not understand why the Jewish Prophets should be considered more inspired than other deep thinkers.
The true Revelation, he considers, was given before the invention of writing. The Bible is an attempt to perpetuate the memory of it by writing; the rituals of savages aimed to do the same thing in a different way. Truth about religion and government will be brought to light whenever Judaism is frankly compared with the forest and cavern rituals. In fact, his mind seems to have been saturated with the idea that the germ of new Truth will always be found by following up two old strains of tradition to the point from which they originally diverged.
The second edition of the work is preceded by a letter of sympathy written by Boulanger to console a brother Philosopher who had been reviled and insulted by fanatics. He said that those who are too far ahead of their time to be understood should not puzzle