The Soul of Man Under Socialism | Page 5

wounded, or worried or
maimed, or in danger. Most personalities have been obliged to be
rebels. Half their strength has been wasted in friction. Byron's
personality, for instance, was terribly wasted in its battle with the
stupidity, and hypocrisy, and Philistinism of the English. Such battles
do not always intensify strength: they often exaggerate weakness.
Byron was never able to give us what he might have given us. Shelley
escaped better. Like Byron, he got out of England as soon as possible.
But he was not so well known. If the English had had any idea of what
a great poet he really was, they would have fallen on him with tooth
and nail, and made his life as unbearable to him as they possibly could.
But he was not a remarkable figure in society, and consequently he
escaped, to a certain degree. Still, even in Shelley the note of rebellion
is sometimes too strong. The note of the perfect personality is not
rebellion, but peace.
It will be a marvellous thing--the true personality of man--when we see
it. It will grow naturally and simply, flowerlike, or as a tree grows. It
will not be at discord. It will never argue or dispute. It will not prove
things. It will know everything. And yet it will not busy itself about
knowledge. It will have wisdom. Its value will not be measured by
material things. It will have nothing. And yet it will have everything,
and whatever one takes from it, it will still have, so rich will it be. It
will not be always meddling with others, or asking them to be like itself.
It will love them because they will be different. And yet while it will
not meddle with others, it will help all, as a beautiful thing helps us, by
being what it is. The personality of man will be very wonderful. It will
be as wonderful as the personality of a child.
In its development it will be assisted by Christianity, if men desire that;
but if men do not desire that, it will develop none the less surely. For it

will not worry itself about the past, nor care whether things happened
or did not happen. Nor will it admit any laws but its own laws; nor any
authority but its own authority. Yet it will love those who sought to
intensify it, and speak often of them. And of these Christ was one.
'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over
the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written. And the
message of Christ to man was simply 'Be thyself.' That is the secret of
Christ.
When Jesus talks about the poor he simply means personalities, just as
when he talks about the rich he simply means people who have not
developed their personalities. Jesus moved in a community that allowed
the accumulation of private property just as ours does, and the gospel
that he preached was not that in such a community it is an advantage
for a man to live on scanty, unwholesome food, to wear ragged,
unwholesome clothes, to sleep in horrid, unwholesome dwellings, and a
disadvantage for a man to live under healthy, pleasant, and decent
conditions. Such a view would have been wrong there and then, and
would, of course, be still more wrong now and in England; for as man
moves northward the material necessities of life become of more vital
importance, and our society is infinitely more complex, and displays far
greater extremes of luxury and pauperism than any society of the
antique world. What Jesus meant, was this. He said to man, 'You have a
wonderful personality. Develop it. Be yourself. Don't imagine that your
perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your
affection is inside of you. If only you could realise that, you would not
want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches
cannot. In the treasury-house of your soul, there are infinitely precious
things, that may not be taken from you. And so, try to so shape your
life that external things will not harm you. And try also to get rid of
personal property. It involves sordid preoccupation, endless industry,
continual wrong. Personal property hinders Individualism at every
step.' It is to be noted that Jesus never says that impoverished people
are necessarily good, or wealthy people necessarily bad. That would
not have been true. Wealthy people are, as a class, better than
impoverished people, more moral, more intellectual, more
well-behaved. There is only one class in the community that thinks
more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can

think of nothing else. That is the misery of being poor. What Jesus does
say