696 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



like Paul he died daily to lower cognitic and biotic tendencies 

 that were competitive, analytic, and destructive. 



Second, Christ silently and also orally taught that, by prac- 

 tice of the above law of glad social cooperation, man could 

 alone modify, or curb, or even subdue the law of competition. 

 This it was that, after his death, enabled his followers for cen- 

 turies throughout the Roman empire to hold together at one 

 time in "an upper room" at Jerusalem, at another in a Greek 

 home, again in the catacombs of Rome, or in the "cells" of 

 later monkish preachers. And we see a somewhat perverted 

 form of this still in the. monasteries, abbeys, or related insti- 

 tutions of the past millennia. 



Third, Christ constantly taught that each individual is a 

 temporary human expression, as he was, of that great primal 

 or ultimate Power that governs, energizes, and evolves the 

 universe. So, through contact in his earlier years with the 

 thought of immortality as proenvironed and cherished by 

 the Iranians and the Egyptians, and even more by Plato and 

 many of his Greek and Roman followers, the doctrine of im- 

 mortality became increasingly prominent in his teaching. That 

 such is true or possible for the individual has been alternately 

 granted or denied. On the principle that has been advocated 

 uniformly throughout this work it does not seem likely, rather 

 appears to be impossible. But it is at least thinkable that 

 the highest or cogito-spiritic energies of those individuals 

 who have fostered the upbuilding and condensation of such 

 states in themselves during life may pass into some other 

 place or state, while retaining the old cogito-spiritic capacity. 



Christ's teachings were in no way final or perfect — the opin- 

 ion of the theologian already referred to notwithstanding — 

 and have been improved or advanced on steadily during the 

 past thousand years. So we would say that if such a condition 

 as immortality is possible our knowledge of it at present con- 

 sists merely in unverifiable statements, and not at all in a 

 single conclusive fact. But that each individual represents 

 and is energized by the same great Energy that radiates through 

 space is proved by every phenomenon of man's being, and 



