Legitimate

I made it quite clear in my letter that I regarded fulfilment and satisfaction as legitimate ends, the primary ones of life, in fact.

My quarrel is with the humbug which endeavours to clothe these drives in false garments of altruism.

Undoubtedly we get great satisfaction from serving others, but it is the satisfaction that first concerns us, that warm glow of righteousness. A genuine concern for others exists, of course, but secondarily.

Your correspondent seems to suffer from an impression that I have not studied the Gospels or Christianity. On the contrary it is because I spent many years studying not only the Bible, the Upanishads, Lao Tze and others, but also entering myself as the member of succession of various congregations and groups (I expect I am still on the books as a member of the Presbyterian Church) that I have reached my present position.

As I came to appreciate the limitations of one group or teaching, so I discarded it to examine another and I trust that my mind will ever remain flexible and adventurous to always see more truth and more light.

This idea that the message (or the poem, say) is something apart from the man is a very seductive one, I know, but any careful study of a man and his works will show how inextricably they are intertwined and interrelated.

How could it possibly be otherwise unless you think a man can be merely an instrument through which a transcendental outside power can speak and it should be clear that I do not think this.