The Academy for Souls

339 Pages·2016·1.03 MB·English

by  John Cosgrave

To MY Wife, Jessica G. Cosgrave,
AND TO A. R. OrAGE, who HAVE
BORNE MUCH OF THE HEAT AND
BURDEN OF THIS BOOK
P R E F A C E
I gather from my editing of the proofs of this book that
the irascible Martian and his behavioristic vis-a-vis are con­
vinced that the Universe is self-conscious and that humanity
may be redeemed from anonymity. Glad tidings, undoubt­
edly for whoever can guess what is meant by it, but these
must be in a minority since for most of us the Universe is
no better than stellar scenery, and our identities derive from
our forbears. There are those who contend that the members
of our race should long ago have supplied themselves with
more accurate biographies than the superficial accountings of
biology and geology, but men are practical folk devoted to
the end of staying put where they have found themselves,
and so their indifference deprives them of nothing they
could eat, drink or wear. In fact, it figures rather as an
advantage, since if we discovered that our identities were
greater or less than is taken for granted, it might devolve
on us to change our viewpoints or technics, which, obviously,
would make for trouble and confusion.
On the other hand, if the Universe is self-conscious, it
must be responsible for our presence on Earth, and aware
of our plight. As thus far it has shown no disposition to
alter the errors of our ways, save by periodic removal of
our units from their contamination, perhaps some need of
its own is served by our being as we are. Maybe this world
is a reformatory for refractory or abnormal souls, and ex­
posure to the rigors of its experiences has educational as well
viii PREFACE
as punitive values. The theory that another purpose than
sustaining our own lives is being developed here, though
speculative, should not be rejected because of its novelty.
Today all the old moorings are adrift, and between Einstein
and Eddington, Jeans and Whitehead, not to mention Sir
Oliver Lodge, or the upsetting postulates of Walter Russell,
the character of the Universe is any man’s guess. So though
the Martian’s epistemology seems at variance with prevail­
ing texts, who knows but that tomorrow or next week some
local authority may not confirm or advance his predications?
In the meantime it may be said for his version that despite
a flavor of the occult, it involves neither faith nor the old
Fourth Dimension. Yet though the argument is based on
mechanics it is liable to displease the disciples of automatic
determinism as greatly as it will disturb the Fundamentalists.
It’s a realistic view of the cosmos he propounds, less pic­
turesque than Revelation and more matter-of-fact than the
offerings of our philosophers. He depicts it as a large-scale
power-plant whose activities are devoted to maintaining the
existence of the creator who materialized his ideal of his
entity in its works. He would have us accept the revolving
aggregation of stellar satellites as constituting the physical
body and person of this Being, assume its motivation as in
fulfilment of his obligations, and regard the vital organisms
which pervade all its spheres as instrumentalities for the
conduction of his self-consciousness. Life, he construes as
the ebb and flow of this awareness, kindling to action the
forms devised for its commitments, and developing in each
that power of exchange with environment which enables
the assertion of individual birthrights. Thus he establishes
premises anterior to phenomena, and design as precedent to
performance. Consciousness, separated from structure, be­
PREFACE ix
comes the executive principle for coordination and super­
vision in a mechanical system. Rank, therein, is graduated
according to capacity to understand processes and objectives,
and in ability to participate in management of relations, but
all that move sequentially in the orbit of its ordination
return some moiety of energy to the unit of control.
To the failure of men to discriminate between conscious­
ness as the positive factor and the organisms which it both
inspires and pilots, this Martian attributes the ills that can­
ker our civilization, and he is offensively derisive of what he
calls our ignorance of meaning, identity and origin. In the
development of his fantastic hypothesis this audacious in­
truder revives all the discarded notions of animism, dualism
and design, and goes far beyond Eddington, Jeans or Milli-
kan in insisting on the inevitability of an administrator God.
Thus we are invited to exchange for the comfortable as­
surances of natural selection and the survival of the fittest
in which experience had demonstrated there remained scope
for personal aggrandizement, an almighty determinism in
whose colossal dimension men shrink to insignificance. We
are mere looking and listening posts or messengers for con­
veying the will of a Galactic Entity. The freedom we pre­
sume we exercise in going about our affairs is likened to that
which we impute to the wild ass, and our most precious in-
herencies, including self-preservation, indicated as installed
on behalf of an Interest that is forwarded by the activities
set up in pursuit of food for the maintenance of our bodies.
On the same terms, pain, sorrow and suffering are made to
appear as ferments for engendering in instinctive races the
growth of a latent property,—Intelligence,—^which will
drive them to apply its native functions of recognition and
reasoning in removing their woes. This latter might be
X PREFACE
construed either as a scoff at the doctrine of vicarious atone­
ment, or an attempt to deprive our populations of their
primordial alibis, for in the type of mechanical framework
delineated, good and evil would be reduced to misconstruc­
tion, maladjustment, mishap or insubordination. Morals, in
turn, fall into the category of prescriptions for regulating
conduct and associations among animal organisms confined to
a common environment.
Without straining my imagination, I can hear the ancients
and the Fathers spluttering at so facile a disposition of their
pet embarrassments.
Yet, for all his animadversions, our censor admits that
the state of our peoples is not so lowly as to be irremediable.
We wear to him the aspect of ducks that might, if they had
the will, be swans. He declares us scions of a loftier ordina­
tion, not fallen from a higher estate, but who have failed
to realize and redeem their prerogative. He reviles us be­
cause we loll lazily in a servitude of instinct and habit which
might be relieved by enlarging the conception of our mission
in the scheme of things. Princes, he says we are, content to
eke out existence as paupers rather than exert the energy
required for grasping the rich inheritance of our endow­
ment.
In the bodies of men, this Martian alleges, the Master
of the World invested the powers he would have his subjects
apply to the conduct of his work, but though he retains first
call on their services, provision had been made for their
comfort and the enhancement of their stature. If they have
omitted to observe the conditions of tenure or the trends of
his requirements or have not entered into such command
of the noble vehicle of Being as would return control of
its faculties and forces, the blame for their unhappiness
PREFACE XI
is not on his head, but on their own shoulders. Have they
not eyes to recognize, and legs to deliver them from tempta­
tion?
In the pages that follow, this bumptious oracle parades
his theories at full length. He may flatter himself that the
proof he advances of the reality of the element. Conscious­
ness, is irrefutable but until the Association for the Advance­
ment of Science makes formal recognition of mind force,
of what avail are his wisecracks.? That Mankind at large
should heed the utterances of one who saddles its errancy
on the racial inertia, is ridiculous. If the episode and the
argument were not palpably fictitious, grounds would appear
for resenting their effrontery. Setting down the achieve­
ments of humanity as the products of unconscious cerebra­
tion amounts to impertinence. Stigmatizing our civilization
as instinctive, is sheer impudence. Moreover, the idea of
projecting the tutelary deity in the role of an executive
director is churlish. Denuding him of the familiar and
endearing attributes of love, and mercy, and placing his
administration on a strictly business basis, is something akin
to blasphemy, or, at least lese-majeste. And that those pre­
cious emotions whose indulgence lends inspiration and color
to our lives should be accorded no higher than an endocrine
rating, deserves the reprobation of all who cherish sentiment
for its own sake.
Who, may I ask in all seriousness, would exchange the
glorious privilege of kicking up his heels in the wilderness
of his imagination for a precisely ordered, paved and sew­
ered universe such as is presented by this Martian? Is it not
enough that in commerce and mechanics we must observe
and conform to the depressing laws that govern process and
Work? Bounds should be set against the encroachments of
XU PREFACE
whoever would limit the horizons of our fancy. Without
its worries our race would be as devoid of topics for disputa­
tion as a dog, deprived of his fleas, is of use for his leisure.
So I urge banishment to any country in the throes of po-
litico-economic revaluation, of all persons who threaten
hereafter to resolve our perplexities.
As Editor of this record, it is stipulated that I am not
obligated to subject my own person to the disciplines re­
quired for the establishment of that Self the Martian de­
clares may be found by hard seeking. The being I think I
am, even if he be no better than the subject of his own activi­
ties, is probably more tolerable as friend and companion
than his internal prototype, who if developed into a positive,
could hardly refrain from instituting invidious comparisons
between himself and his contemporaries.
John O’Hara Cosgrave.
C O N T E N T S
I. THE VOICE IN THE EAR
The Martian introduces himself. How he reached
Earth. Pattern of his individuality projected here by
powerful etheric waves. Recovers consciousness and
faculty, and integrates an invisible organism. Superiority
of Martian culture, and knowledge of the laws of
energy and matter. An arrogant and supercilious per­
sonality. Declares the race of men benighted, and our
scientists ignoramuses. Life on this planet a muddle.
II. REVOLT OF THE MARTIAN EN­
GINEERS 13
Trees as inventions. Mechanical determinism on Mars.
The hierarchy of Science. An iconoclast asperses the
fabric of its faith. Matter denied capacity to create
forms. Natural selection called wishful thinking. Uni­
verse peopled with conscious beings of various develop­
ment. Cults and heresies. A tyranny overthrown by
propaganda. Renaissance. A civilization of reason and
intelligence.
III. FUNDAMENTS OF A REALISTIC
PHILOSOPHY 21
In defense of Orthodox Science. Its rescue of mankind
from superstition. We are creatures of the environ­
ment. Martian ridicules theory of spontaneous genera­
tion of life. Location does not explain function. The
fallacies of Behaviorism. A causal agent required for
every phase of phenomenal activity. Engineers suggest
objective study to find what Life is about. They draw
up statement of principles and elements coordinated
in the production of work.