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THE LAW
OF INDIVIDUALITY. All growth is
by learning. All learning
comes by the gratification of desire. Truly, experience is not only the
best teacher, but the only infallible one. The
gratification of desire, good or bad, leaves always one imperishable residue of
wisdom. The rest of the experience goes with the chaff for burning. Desire points
invariably according to the individual's intelligence. In proportion as
this is faulty his desires are "bad." What is a bad
desire, anyway? In the main "bad" desires are self-made or thoughtlessly
accepted. Dancing is wicked to a Methodist and "good" to an
Episcopalian. But aside from
these personal standpoints which are legion there is an immutable Law,
to which intelligence is conforming all action and thought - the
Law of Individuality - the Law recognized and expressed by Confucius and
Jesus in negative and positive forms of the "golden rule"; "Do not
unto others what ye would not they should do unto you." Interference
with the freedom of the individual is "bad" - that is, it invariably
brings pain to the one who interferes, in thought or deed. Listen to
this: "You
cannot know anything of the sources or causes of the crisis you are judging, for
no one who knows will tell you, and you would not know if you were told.
The depths of elemental immortality, of self-deceit and revenge, lie
in our eagerness to judge one another, and to force one another under
the yoke of our judgments. When there is the faith of the Son of man in
the world, life will be left to make its own judgments. The only
judgment we have a right to make upon one another is the free and truthful
living of our own lives." George D. Herron. This forcing
of others, in mind or action, under the yoke of our judgment is
the only possible way we can break a real Law. To be ourselves and
to leave others free is to "be good." Dancing will come and go,
and come again; so will fashions of all kinds; conventionalities
and creeds; but this Law remains an eternal chalk line to be toed.
And eternal torments await him who does not toe it.
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