35/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE
It is this conception of life which prompts altruism, philanthropy, humanitarianism.
According to an ancient Roman legend, there opened in the Forum a yawning chasm, which the soothsayers declared could be closed only through the sacrifice of Rome’s choicest possession. Thereupon the noble Curtius mounted his horse and rode headlong into the abyss, which immediately closed over him.
Innumerable heroes have sacrificed their personal lives for family and country. Hosts of martyrs have given their bodies to be burned, rather than surrender allegiance to principle. Among the lower animals, birds and even insects, instances of self sacrifice are by no means rare. The mother has been known to deliberately give up her life to save the young offspring. In certain tropical species of ants, the warriors commonly sacrifice their lives to protect the colony from harm.
The universal instinct which prompts self sacrifice, self-immolation, is certainly significant. It does not result from mere blind, mad recklessness, yielding to the impulse of self-destruction, annihilation. It does not indicate an abandonment of common sense or reason; it is an acknowledgment of the supremacy of a higher element in our nature, a more trustworthy guide, which surpasses the instinct of self-gratification.
In our most crucial experiences we trust intuition implicitly to lead us in the direction of the highest good. But even the very broadest conception of life does not satisfy our supreme desire. The eternal type of life is not only long and broad; it is also deep. It extends in all directions of time. A center and three dimensions, or modes of extension, must be represented in its most perfect symbol; and these requirements are met with in the sphere alone.
The point, the line, the surface, are all found in the sphere. It typifies the world, nature’s most complete expression. Truly, the finite in man is “as the grass of the field.” Human flesh is cheap, indeed. Looking backward over a past of almost inconceivable duration, we are profoundly impressed by the spectacle of countless myriads of lives flashing into view and disappearing again from sight,
like an endless shower of meteors. Even on this insignificant planet, armies of human beings are hurried from sight daily, by war, famine, pestilence, accident, or their own folly and recklessness. From such a sweeping survey, human beings might be accounted almost as valueless as the ants we heedlessly crush under foot at every step.