revel in their visions, seek for, hope for, and work for their attainment. Of course some appeal to me more than others, and those are the ones for the gaining of which I strive the most constantly. Even where they conflict I allow no difficulty to discourage me, for conflict is but mere human nature showing itself in its inability to see eye to eye as to methods and details of accomplishment.

Let each of us work for the vision given to himself, without criticizing, finding fault with, or attacking, the visions of others, rejoicing in any thing, every thing, that will, or even may, lift man out of his stupor of indifference, the slothful contentment of mediocrity and the callousness of selfishness.

Then that era will speedily dawn prophesied by another visionary, Abdul Baha Abbas, and thus described by one of his followers:

It is more than true that the Spiritual Life of mankind is a panorama of ravishing beauty. Abdul Baha hath unveiled to us this heavenly landscape through his recent words. He took us with him to the height of the Mount of Transfiguration, and from that vantage-ground of beautified humanity pointed out to us the charms of this ideal panorama. With wonderful strength and super-heroic power he reached the summit. . . . His first aim since then hath been to unfold this celestial vision before the eyes of mankind. Here you will gain a bird's-eye view of that which is best and most holy in the complete landscape of human life. There are azure lakelets in which are reflected the perfect, adoring images of the heavenly Beloved; primeval forests of sturdy, vigorous qualities; neverfading green prairies of young hopes; rosebuds of universal aspirations; verdant trees with fragrant blossoms

of pure yearnings; cool, flowing brooks of crystalline thoughts and translucent ideals; luxuriant gardens of sweet morals and good character, rivaling in beauty and freshness those of Elysium and Hesperides; lofty mountains of heroic deeds and self-abnegation, raising their noble heads to the blue dome of God; undulating hills and glades of divine arts, increasing the charm and attraction of the whole; deep valleys of eternal silence and solitude, filling the heart with sweet dreams and meditations; mighty waterfalls of selfless deeds and actions, rushing forward and sending their arousing tones into the minds and hearts of men and women to rise and do the same; fairy palaces of supernal qualifications, built by the hand of the Great Architect for the dwellings of the heroes of the Cause of Humanity; sweet, singing nightingales, their lays foreshadowing universal progress and the widening of the circle of international sympathy. This is indeed a delectable scene, a charming view, an enchanting spectacle, a delightful panorama.

No real

Yet it is but a vision of what might be, ought to be, and, let us hope, soon will be. I firmly believe in the Blessed Visionaries. The one important consideration, however, that should never be overlooked, is that no vision of the Good-to-Come should wrongly interfere with the present Good-that-Is. good can ever come to one part of mankind through injuring another part. Honesty and integrity, justice and unselfishness, combined with persistent purpose, will alone bring about a realization of man's nobler visions for the good of his fellows. The fate of Germany should teach us the folly and wrong of attempting to build up ourselves at the expense of someone else. It cannot be done.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE SONG OF THE HUMANE

CRUELTY and selfishness were at the bottom of the great world war. Had men not been selfish, they could not have desired a war of aggression, and had they not been cruel they would have found it utterly impossible to carry it on. They sang songs of greed for others' possessions, of lust for power over others' lands, of personal and national expansion at the expense of others' diminution, of personal and national glory at the cost of the woe, suffering and disaster of others. Their songs were of the devil, devilish, and it is well they were brought to naught. All such songs as these, sung at any time, by any people, under any conditions, whether nationally or individually, should be brought to naught. Yet far better would it be were such songs never sung. Immeasurably advantageous would it be to mankind were children never allowed to listen to them, were their baneful influences never felt. Then the time, strength, thought, and endeavor expended on putting these evil aims in their minds. could be utilized for the cultivation of noble ideals, and, furthermore, the time spent by earnest-hearted

well-wishers of the race, pure-minded philanthropists, who desire naught but good for their fellows, would not have to be spent in eradicating the evil obsessions, and changing them to impulses towards the unselfish and the good.

Hence every moment, every hour, spent by parents, teachers, professors, preachers, lawyers, doctors and philosophers in inculcating ideas of unselfishness, kindness and humanity are most wisely and beneficently expended. It would delight my soul to hear the songs of the humane grow into such an insistent chorus that no one could ignore it.

What a wonderful song it would be if Bands of Mercy, Humane Societies, Anti-Vivisection Societies, Anti-Cruelty Societies, Audubon Societies, Fish and Game Protective Clubs and the like, sprang up all over the world-in every precinct of every city, every town, village, hamlet, camp and mountain settlement. And why should it not be so? It is far easier to be humane than cruel, and far more satisfactory to the memory. Deeds of cruelty, even when thoughtlessly performed, live long in the secret recesses of the memory, and are apt to spring forth with hideously accusing mien at some future time when least expected, and far less desired.

I want to join every society and club I can that has this ennobling, uplifting, humanizing influence in view, for I fully believe in the Universal Kinship idea, so beautifully, eloquently and sympa

thetically taught by Professor J. Howard Moore, and so poetically and benignly expressed by St. Francis of Assisi, when he preached to the birds, beasts and fishes, as his "little brothers and sisters."

How sweet the songs of kindness and love are to the sentient heart, and how harsh, stern, forbidding, cruel, monstrously inhuman men and women become when they refuse to listen to their benign sounds. Dickens, in his Tale of Two Cities, and Carlyle in his French Revolution draw such pictures of the French women, during the great revolution, who were lost to all sense of humane treatment of their follow men and women that the heart almost stops beating in its terror at the horrible aspect of their brutality-nay, brutes! I apologize to you for the use of this incorrect word-of the damnable devilishness of the malignity displayed. And if the reports of the Bryce Commission, and of Dr. Hillis's investigations be one-tenth the truth, we can see how the kind, religious, progressive German nation of Kant, Goethe, Schiller, Schlessing, Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, Mendelssohn and Handel, of Luther and Katherine Von Bora, of all the noble, generous, humane and kind of its historic past, had retrograded, debased itself, denied, nay, almost killed its humanity and natural sympathy, ere it could have been guilty of the atrocities it engaged in in Belgium and the north of France.

To make forever impossible such awful and mon