76 THE PORTAL OF EVOLUTION 



but at the same time very comprehensive view of what is 

 going on inside, but whose vision is dimmed by the glare of 

 sudden light, and I must therefore ask the reader to pardon 

 me if I am tempted to leave many proofs and side-issues 

 barely touched upon in the present work. 



The third blessing is that of Poverty, and had not God 

 invented this most perfect whip, man would never have evolved 

 much above a very low order of animal in courage, energy 

 and bodily development, and would never have striven to 

 withstand the pinch of mortification that is necessary to obtain 

 the habits of care and economy which alone can gain him the 

 rewards of wealth and comfort and the other blessings of 

 civilisation which will be amongst his future evolutions. 



In the past it has been the duty of religion to teach man to 

 bear poverty in patience and content in the hope of obtaining 

 the reward of an imaginary heaven. Now that we have further 

 evolved, it becomes our duty to learn and to teach our fellow- 

 men that salvation rests, not in blind submission to poverty 

 and suffering, but by learning first to be content with the lot 

 in which our birth has placed us, and secondly to ardently 

 strive to improve that lot by patient industry, untiring labour 

 and habits of thrift, temperance, unselfish generosity, and 

 charity, and by so doing to rise up at least one, if not more 

 of the rungs of the ladder of wealth and social advancement, 

 and that it is the past lives of our forefathers that decide our 

 capabilities, and that it is the use we make of these and of the 

 time and opportunities at our disposal, and to our own efforts 

 and a better understanding of the truths of revelation and 

 nature, not to religions or laws, that we must look for the 

 possibility of future advancement of our children and their 

 children's children, by learning to sin wisely in unselfish 

 unity and charity. And to realise that no matter what may 

 be our nationality, belief or creed, we are all bees in the same 

 hive, and that it is by our united efforts to carry as much 

 honey as possible, not by mean jealousy, or by shifting the 

 burden on to the backs of others, nor by labour squabbles, 

 class laws, fighting and wrangling, or discontent, that we are 

 ultimately to make short the winter of our discontent by a 

 contented summer of co-operative production, learning to use, 

 not abuse the gifts of nature, and by helping our fellow-men 

 a result which will probably be evolved by a more enlightened 



