ve
flesh and above brain; which is, in fact, the unifying force of the
brain faculties, called here Intuition. The founders of this society
reckoned, too, with the fact that psychology as it has been taught from
a material basis in schools and colleges is a blight. One can't, as a
purely physical being, relate himself to mental processes; nor can one
approach the super-mental area by the force of mentality alone.

But I found _the turning_ in these documents with alarm; that the
purpose divulged was to master matter for material ends. This is black
business--known to be black before the old Alexandria, known to be black
before the Christ came. They had asked for comment, even for criticism.
I recalled that psychology is the science of the soul, and wrote this
letter:

"I have received some of your early papers and plans, and thank you. I
want to offer an opinion in good spirit. I find the powerful impulse
running through your effort, as expressed in the papers I have read--to
play to commerce and the trade mind. This is developing fast enough
without bringing inner powers to work in the midst of these low forces.
They will work. They will master, but it seems to me that spiritual ruin
will result. For these forces which you show in operation are the real
vitalities of man, which used other than in the higher schemes of
life--call in the bigger devils for man to cope with. When one begins to
use the dimension of the inner life, before the lower phases of the self
are mastered, he becomes a peril to himself and to others. I feel that I
do not need to be explicit to psychologists. I want to be on record as
strongly urging you to be sure that the animal is caged before you loose
the angel. Also that I have a conviction that there are ten times too
many tradesmen in the world now; and that office-efficiency is not the
kind that America is in need of. I repeat that I know you are in the way
of real work, and that's why I venture to show my point of view; and
please believe me energetic only toward the final good of the receptive
surface you have set out to impress."

28

THE ABBOT DEPARTS

One day in March, the Abbot said:

"You know that woods I was telling you about?"

"Yes."

"Well, my father bought it the other day."

... Something rolled over me, or within. This was a pervading ache that
had to do with the previous summer. I had ridden several times to the
Perfect Lane. It cut a man's farm in two from