Subjecting his godly power to his animal power
No brute of the earth is so brutal as the man who subjects his godly power to his animal power. This is a matter of course, because the whole force of the double nature is then used in one direction. The animal pure and simple obeys his instincts only and desires no more than to gratify his love of pleasure; he pays but little regard to the existence of other beings except in so far as they offer him pleasure or pain; he knows nothing of the abstract love of cruelty or of any of those vicious tendencies of the human being which have in themselves their own gratification. Thus the man who becomes a beast has a million times the grasp of life over the natural beast, and that which in the pure animal is sufficiently innocent enjoyment, uninterrupted by an arbitrary moral standard, becomes in him vice, because it is gratified on principle. Moreover he turns all the divine powers of his being into this channel, and degrades his soul by making it the slave of his senses. The god, deformed and disguised, waits on the animal and feeds it.
The God as servant
And the god in his capacity of servant adds a thousand-fold to all this, by making physical life so much more filled with keenness of pleasure, — rare, voluptuous, aesthetic pleasure, — and by intensity of pain so passionate that one knows not where it ends and where pleasure commences. So long as the god serves, so long the life of the animal will be enriched and increasingly valuable. But let the king resolve to change the face of his court and forcibly evict the animal from the chair of state, restoring the god to the place of divinity.
Evicting the animal
Ah, the profound peace that falls upon the palace! All is indeed changed. No longer is there the fever of personal longings or desires, no longer is there any rebellion or distress, no longer any hunger for pleasure or dread of pain. It is like a great calm descending on a stormy ocean; it is like the soft rain of summer falling on parched ground; it is like the deep pool found amidst the weary, thirsty labyrinths of the unfriendly forest.
More than animal, more than god
But there is much more than this. Not only is man more than an animal because there is the god in him, but he is more than a god because there is the animal in him.
The animal as servant
Once force the animal into his rightful place, that of the inferior, and you find yourself in possession of a great force hitherto unsuspected and unknown. The god as servant adds a thousand-fold to the pleasures of the animal; the animal as servant adds a thousand-fold to the powers of the god. And it is upon the union, the right relation of these two forces in himself, that man stands as a strong king, and is enabled to raise his hand and lift the bar of the Golden Gate. When these forces are unfitly related, then the king is but a crowned voluptuary, without power, and whose dignity does but mock him; for the animals, undivine, at least know peace and are not torn by vice and despair.
Not easily done
That is the whole secret. That is what makes man strong, powerful, able to grasp heaven and earth in his hands. Do not fancy it is easily done.
Great powers of service and of strength.
The
animal in man, elevated, is a thing unimaginable in its great powers of service
and of strength.
You forget, you who let your animal self live on, merely checked and held
within certain bounds, that it is a great force, an integral portion of the
animal life of the world you live in. With it you can sway men, and influence
the very world itself, more or less perceptibly according to your strength. The
god, given his right place, will so inspire and guide this extraordinary
creature, so educate and develop it, so force it into action and recognition of
its kind, that it will make you tremble when you recognize the power that has
awakened within you. The animal in yourself will then be a king among the
animals of the world.
This is the secret of the old-world magicians, who made Nature serve them and work miracles every day for their convenience. This is the secret of the coming race which Lord Lytton foreshadowed for us.
The power to rule
But this power can only be attained by giving the god the sovereignty. Make your animal ruler over yourself, and he will never rule others.
EPILOGUE
SECRETED and hidden in the heart of the world and in the heart of man is the
light which can illumine all life, the future and the past. Shall we not search
for it? Surely some must do so. And then perhaps those will add what is needed
to this poor fragment of thought.
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