The Quest of the Spirit
by a Pilgrim of the Way
Edited by Genevieve Stebbins
This public domain book was first published in London in 1913 by Henry Glaisher and company and in New York by Edgar Werner. “A Pilgrim of the Way” (now known to be Norman Astley) was named as the author, his wife Genevieve Stebbins as the editor. This is the first reprint.
EDITORIAL NOTE
The manuscript, of which this booklet is an epitome, was placed in my hands to prepare for the press, by one whose friendship I have enjoyed for many years.
What is here presented is less than a fourth part of the whole, but omits nothing that is vital to an understanding of the Author’s comprehensive philosophy of life and action. Much that has been omitted would to-day be superfluous, as the contentions and teachings on the subjects discussed have already become demonstrated facts in science, or are accepted as probable by eminent philosophical thinkers.
Throughout, the style of the Author has been strictly preserved, and, as the conclusions reached are also the deepest convictions of my soul, in editing the work, I feel that it is the expression of my own thought and aspiration, though voiced by another “pilgrim of the way.”
GENEVIEVE STEBBINS
PREFACE
THE basic ideas in the writer’s mind, and the key therefore to the whole trend of his thought, maybe briefly summarised thus:
- That all sound speculation of a true philosophy of life must be based upon the metaphysic of experience; and this must include all experience, psychical as well as physical.
- That this metaphysic is identical with that view of the world and its activities which is expressed in the mind of the educated layman as common sense; but, as such, is always to be distinguished from those ideas of the uneducated mind which may arise from common ignorance.
- That common sense, being the synthesis of all past experience, and the dominating attitude of mind by which the sanity of the world is preserved, is, in any final estimate, the only legitimate standard by which to evaluate those speculative ideas which rise beyond the foundation of facts.
- That abstractions, not being substantial things, must not be accepted or mistaken for reality:
must not take the place of facts in laying a foundation of thought. Abstraction piled upon Abstraction forever remains Abstraction. No matter how elaborate, fascinating, and logical the structure, it is only a castle in the air, an unsubstantial bubble of the brain. The pathway to reality does not lie through its portals.
- That contradiction and strife are inherent in, and, therefore, a part of existence; which itself is the manifestation of opposing movements. The shadows of life are proportionate to the light.
- That the tragedy and reality of good and evil in the world being a fact of universal experience, its explanation can only be found in the assumption that the ground of existence is alogical- neither moral nor immoral but nonmoral. That the evolutionary movement of life moves on without design- flowing along the lines of least resistance. The ends attained under apparently identical conditions are always different, and never foreseen where life is the factor.
- Thus grounded in experience, legitimate speculation will be based on truth; and the verification of this truth will be the reality we seek, for REALITY IS THE VERIFICATION OF EXPERIENCE. There is no reality in the universe which cannot appear.
So much for the writer’s part! For the reader, we hope he may escape the illusions of all metaphysical fog, and in voyaging into the unknown, ever keep a good breadth of clear cold water, and the healthy glint of the deep blue sea between himself and the God-forsaken wilderness of “Devil’s Island.” [Alchemy of Thought, L. P. Jacks.]