2g6 



The Ideal State 



of necessity to keep on working when weighed down 

 by illness, would in time effectually cure all such ten- 

 dencies. Moreover, the bright outlook which the 

 spiritual evolution brings with it would be a potent 

 force in the prevention of all tendency to depression, 

 and would dispel the gloom of melancholy which at 

 the present day settles down on many a weary soul. 

 We make, therefore, bold to state that in the further 

 evolution of mankind we can look forward without 

 fear to the ultimate elimination of these blots upon 

 our civilisation — the criminal and the insane. 



The soul of man is essentially good and not evil. 

 This is not in accord with the orthodox belief in original 

 sin, but we are entitled to consider that as only a 

 priestly doctrine inculcated as a necessary preliminary 

 to the soul's salvation. When Carlyle said that might 

 was right, he meant that Right is always the strong 

 thing, the thing that conquers, because it is in harmony 

 with the Eternal — with the Ultimate Reality or Abso- 

 lute Mind. The heart of the Eternal is good ; His law 

 is righteous, and it is only when man gets into harmony 

 with it that he is strong — that it is well with him. 

 Hegel meant the same thing when he gave expression 

 to the thought — " The real is the ideal." When you 

 get to the real man — the essential nature of man — you 

 find it will only be content with the Good — with the 

 ideal. It is a remarkable fact, however, that in most 

 men it is the surface-nature — the unreal part of him, 

 the accidental, we may call it — that speaks loudest. 

 As man is at present, it would seem that Evil is most 

 congenial to his nature. Lord Haldane writes in the 

 " Pathway to Reality " : " Man has a double nature, 

 out of which arises for him, on the one hand the con- 

 sciousness of separation from God or evil ; on the other, 

 potential union with God or religion. Though finite 

 spirit, man is none the less spirit ; consequently he is 



