Now the real man begins to shape within our vision. Consider his primary powers: He, the worker, the inquirer, the chooser. Add to these the wealth of his emotions—also powers. Think how manifold they are, how colorful; how with them he may dramatize his works, his thoughts, his choosings; how he may beautify his choice. Think of his power to receive; to receive through the channels of his senses, to receive through his mystic power of sympathy which brings understanding to illumine Knowledge. Think of what eyesight means as a power, the sense of touch, the power to hear, to listen; and the power of contemplation. Add these to his cumulating interblending power; then think again of his enlarging power to act. Deep down within him lies that power we call Imagination, the power instantly or slowly to picture forth, the power to act in advance of action; the power that knows no limitations, no boundaries, that renders vivid both giving and receiving; the inscrutable dynamic power that energizes all other powers. Think of man as Imagination! Then think of him as Will! Now enrich the story of his prior-mentioned powers with the flow of imagination and the steadiness of will. Think anew of his power to act; of the quantity and quality of this power.
Now think of the freedom such power brings!
Think of the power we call Vision; that inner sight which encompasses the larger meanings of its outer world, which sees humanity in the broad, which beholds the powers without itself, which unifies its inner and its outer world, which sees far beyond where the eye leaves off seeing, and as sympathetic insight finds its goal in the real.
Now see Man go forth to work, inspired by his vision of the outer world, himself made eager by the passion to live and worthily to do!
See him go forth in certitude as seer, as prophet, as evangelist, proclaiming his faith—in certitude as worker, to build a new home.
See him, as poet, as troubadour, as he goes forth, singing the new song, the refreshing song—calling in carols: Awake! ye dreamers all, lift up your heads, and be your hearts lifted up that Life in splendor may come in: Ye who dream in the shadows and are sore perplexed.
Thus the multitudes vibrate, as they dream—at the sound of a song in their dream.
It is the richness of the soul-life of the multitudes that inspires and at times appalls the observer. For the multitudes are compact of human beings—a vast ceaseless flow of individuals, each a dreamer, each latent in power, the mass moving noiselessly through time—slowly changing in its constancy of renewal.
Thus though Man now appears before us in glamor as a maze of powers, we have not yet made his image clear in full, and in diversity.
While it is plain, when all wrappings are removed, we shall find all men to be alike in native possession of essential powers, we are at once confronted by this paradox: That all men obviously are different; that no two are alike. In plain words we find each human being unique. When we say unique, we mean the only one. Thus each one is the only one. If we have mused long upon the immense fecundity and industry of Life, the paradox vanishes: The only one and the all coalesce. The individual and the mass become one, in a new phase of power whose stupendous potency of creative art in civilization stuns the sense of possibility.
Now opens to our view the Democratic Vista!
Now see unfold the power of the only one in multiple, and the One become a vast complex of unique powers inspired of its free spirit and its power of beneficence—its works now solidly founded on the full emergence of courage—the evanishment of fear!
Alas, the world has never known a sound social fabric, a fabric sound and clean to the core and kindly. For it has ever turned its back on Man. Through time immemorial it has, in overt and secret fear of self, been impotent to recognize the only one, the unique. Hence wars and more wars, pestilence, famine and desolation; the rise and crumbling of immense fabrics.
The feudal concept of self-preservation is poisoned at the core by the virulent assumption of master and man, of potentate and slave, of external and internal suppression of the life urge of the only one—of its faith in human sacrifice as a means of salvation.
The only one is Ego—the “I am”—the unique—the most precious of man’s powers, their source and summation in diversity. Without Ego, which is Life, man vanishes. Ego signifies Identity. It is the free spirit. It is not a tenant, it is the all in all. It is present everywhere throughout man’s wondrous being. It is what we call the spiritual, a term now becoming interchangeable with the physical. It is the sign and symbol of man’s immense Integrity—the “I am that I am.” To it the Earth, the world of humanity, the multitudes, the universe—become an Egocosm.
Thus to the eye of the earnest watcher, the dual man of legend and of present mythical belief fades, incorporeal as a ghost. Departing it leads the ghostly feudal scapegoat with its burden of sin.
It is man’s manifest integrity that reveals him valid—sound to the core. It is this spiritual integrity that defines him human, that points true to his high moral power—the power of valid choice.
This new vision of man is the true vision of man.
Toward this new truth, this inversion, the world of mankind slowly turning, vaguely conscious, strives to articulate that which is as yet too deep, too remote, too new for its words. But it is not too deep, too remote or too new for its aspirations.
Thus in portrayal stands Man the Reality: Container of self-powers: A moving center of radiant energy: Awaiting his time to create
