The great work (1908) - J. E. Richardson - PDF ebook

The great work, the constructive principle of nature in individual life

We assume to know how old we are, and in our relations and dealings with others, we treat the subject of our own age with all the seeming assurance of exact and definite knowledge. We do not hesitate to go into court when called upon to do so, and solemnly make oath as to our respective ages. Many there are who do this without so much as a qualm of conscience or a suggestion of doubt or uncertainty. And yet, in all human probability, not one of those who read this page knows to a definite certainty his or her own age. 

Furthermore, there is, perhaps, no person living in all the world, who remembers the exact year, month, day and hour of his own birth. Why? Because under and by virtue of the arbitrary and mysterious provisions of nature, that somewhat important event in our respective histories lies all the way from two to four years backward beyond the limits of individual memory. All we know of it, therefore, is that our reputed fathers and mothers and those who are older than ourselves have told us that we were born on a given day of a given month in a given year.

 We take their word as literal truth and govern ourselves accordingly. And so, we do not know how old we are. We only assume to know. We assume to know that a certain man, whom history names Columbus, discovered the continent of America; that a certain another man, named Washington, was the first president of the United States of America. We assume to know that a certain another man, named Moses, led the Children of Israel out of captivity in the land of Egypt. We assume to know that one Benjamin Franklin, by means of a kite, made an important discovery concerning the action of electricity; that another wise man, named Newton, made an important scientific discovery concerning the action of that force we name Gravity. If time and space would permit and the occasion would warrant the effort, it would be quite possible to mention hundreds or even thousands of other things we assume to know, all of which, however, is wholly outside the limits of our definite and personal knowledge. Indeed, if we but hold ourselves to a rigid and strictly truthful differentiation of the data we employ, there is perhaps not one of us but would be greatly surprised, if not genuinely humiliated, to find how many things we assume to know which are, in truth, altogether outside the limits of our personal knowledge. We do not know them. We merely assume to know them, and our assumption passes current for actual personal knowledge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS



CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. Evolution in Operation 9

II. Classification of Data 11

III. Truth and Light 27

IV. The Lineal Key 37

V. The Conflict of "Authorities" 73

VI. What Constitutes "Scientific Demonstration" 95

VII. Nature's Constructive Principle iii

VIII. "Spirituality," Constructive and

Destructive 125

IX. The Basis of Constructive Spirituality. ... 139

X. What is Morality? 167

XL A Standard of Morals 175

XII. The "Ethical Section" 187

XIII. Consciousness 211

XIV. Will 233

XV. Desire and Choice 237

XVI. The Law of Compensation 245

XVII. The First Great Mile-Post 271

XVIII. The Spirit of the Work 303

XIX. Vanity of Vanities 321

XX. Psychological Phthisis 337

XXI. Lions on the Way 359

XXII. The Second Great Mile-Post 363

XXIII. The "Technical Work" 389

XXIV. Meat and Morals 413

XXV. The Mark of the Master 425

XXVI. The Passing of the Master 435

the book details :

Author: J. E. Richardson

Publication date:1908

Company: Chicago: Indo-American book co

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