This is the spirituality of Shelley, the perfectibility of man. This is
the way in which we fulfil the commandment, 'Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' This is Saint
Paul's, 'Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.'

When a man knows everything and understands everything, then he will be
perfect, and life will be blessed. He is capable of knowing everything
and understanding everything. Hence he is justified in his hope of
infinite freedom and blessedness.

The great inspiration of the new religion was the inspiration of
freedom. When I have submerged or distilled away my concrete body and my
limited desires, when I am like the skylark dissolved in the sky yet
filling heaven and earth with song, then I am perfect, consummated in
the Infinite. When I am all that is not-me, then I have perfect liberty,
I know no limitation. Only I must eliminate the Self.

It was this religious belief which expressed itself in science. Science
was the analysis of the outer self, the elementary substance of the
self, the outer world. And the machine is the great reconstructed
selfless power. Hence the active worship to which we were given at the
end of the last century, the worship of mechanized force.

Still we continue to worship that which is not-me, the Selfless world,
though we would fain bring in the Self to help us. We are shouting the
Shakespearean advice to warriors: 'Then simulate the action of the
tiger.' We are trying to become again the tiger, the supreme, imperial,
warlike Self. At the same time our ideal is the selfless world
of equity.