The Ascent of the Soul | Page 6

as a short life in which the mockery may go on.
Our souls themselves assure us that they have come from a fountain of
spiritual being--that is, from God; and they are also prophecies of a
perfection which has never yet been realized on the earth and which
will require eternity to complete. But all are not conscious of
themselves as spiritual beings and children of eternity, and many come
slowly to that consciousness. Our next inquiry, therefore, will concern
the Soul's Awakening.

THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL
There's a palace in Florence, the world knows well, And a statue
watches it from the square, And this story of both do our townsmen
tell.
Ages ago, a lady there, At the farthest window facing the East Asked,
Who rides by with the royal air?

* * * * *
That selfsame instant, underneath, The Duke rode past in his idle way
Empty and fine like a swordless sheath.
* * * * *
He looked at her, as a lover can; She looked at him as one who awakes:
The past was a sleep, and her life began.
--_The Statue and the Bust._ Browning

II
THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL
The process of physical awakening is not always sudden or swift. The
passage from sleep to consciousness is sometimes slow and difficult.
The soul's realization of itself is often equally long delayed. The effect
of eloquence on an audience has often been observed when one by one
the dormant souls wake up and begin to look out of their windows, the
eyes, at the speaker who is addressing them. In something the same
way the souls of men come to a consciousness of their powers and,
with clearness, begin to look out on their possibilities and their destiny.
The prodigal son in the parable of Jesus lived his earlier years without
an appreciation either of his powers or possibilities. When he came to
himself this appreciation flashed upon his will and he turned toward his
father.
Two chapters of this book will have to do with thoughts suggested by
this "pearl of parables," viz., the Soul's Awakening and its
Re-awakening. Before this young man decided to return to his father he
knew himself as an intelligent and as a responsible being; the power of
choice was not given him then for the first time. Long ere this he had
decided how he would use his wealth. He knew the difference between
right and wrong. He was intellectually and morally awake before he

saw things in their true relations. "The wine of the senses" intoxicated
him; the delights of the flesh seemed the only pleasures to be desired.
At first he did not discover the essential excellence of virtue or the sure
results of vice. Later, when he saw things in a clearer light, their proper
proportions and relations appeared, and he came to himself and made
the wise choice.
In this chapter we are to study the process of the soul's awakening to a
consciousness of its powers, and in a subsequent chapter that
re-awakening which is so radical as to merit the name it has usually
received, viz., the new birth.
There is a time when the soul first realizes itself as a personality with
definite responsibilities and relations. This experience comes to some
earlier, and to some with greater vividness, than to others. So long as
we are blind to our powers, responsibilities, relations, we can hardly be
said to be spiritually awake. He only is awake who knows himself as a
personality; who has heard the voice of duty; who, to some extent,
appreciates the fact that he is dependent on a higher personality or
power; and who recognizes that he is surrounded by other personalities
who also have their rights, responsibilities, and relations. I think, I
choose, I love, I know that I am dependent upon a Being higher than
myself. I see that I am related to other personalities with rights as
sacred as my own, and, therefore, that I must choose, think, love so as
to be acceptable to the One to whom I am responsible, and harmonious
with those by whom I am surrounded.
The soul's awakening is primarily a recognition and an appreciation of
its responsibility. It may think, choose, love, without realizing
responsibility, and, therefore, live as if it were the only being in the
universe; but the moment it recognizes responsibility it also discerns a
higher Person, and other persons, since responsibility to no one, and for
nothing, is inconceivable.
The soul's awakening, therefore, carries with it the idea of obligation,
and that includes the recognition of God, of duty, of right and wrong, in
short, of a moral ideal. I do not mean to insist that every one
appreciates