Wisdom by Manly P. Hall, from The Secret Destiny of America

Few indeed are the statesmen and politicians who have any conception of man as a spiritual being. And as for military leaders, they are primarily disciplinarians, invaluable as such in times of war, but not at all emotionally geared to problems of individualistic peacetime character. And world plan- ners recruited from among our industrial leaders, it must be admitted, are not generally informed on the workings of the human psyche. Those who have made the study of human conduct their life work, the sociologists, have little scientific knowledge of the hidden springs that animate that very conduct into its amazing diversity of manifestations. And if a word is to be said for bringing in the clergy, it might be that the theologian planner who will be truly useful will be one who acquires at least some knowledge of the science of biology.
We are displaying a woeful lack of vision in the way we fumble with the eternal laws of life. It is not enough that we now hopefully create a setup permitting men to give allegiance with their minds or to serve faithfully with their bodies. We must some day face the truth that man is inevitably and incurably an idealist; for this is the truth that will set us free. 

Thousands of years before the beginning of the Christian era many enlightened thinkers discovered the will of God as expressed through Nature in the affairs of men. They made known their discoveries in terms of religions, philosophies, sciences, arts, and political systems. These first statements are now the admired monuments of ancient learning. Available to men of today, they are generally ignored.
Years of research among the records of olden peoples available in libraries, museums, and shrines of ancient cultures, has convinced me that there exists in the world today, and has existed for thousands of years, a body of enlightened humans united in what might be termed, an Order of the Quest. It is composed of those whose intellectual and spiritual perceptions have revealed to them that civilization has a Secret Destiny--secret, I say, because this high purpose is not realized by the many; the great masses of peoples still live along without any knowledge whatsoever that they are part of a Universal Motion in time and space.
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed are among the greatest names recorded in history; but it is not customary to regard the men who bore these names as statesmen or sociologists. They are thought of as philosophers, sages, seers, and mystics, whose doctrines have no application to the political needs of an industrial civilization. Yet it is men like Plato and Buddha who still exercise the most powerful force in mortal affairs toward the perpetuation and preservation of a civilized state among all nations.
All of the great leaders of ancient times realized and taught that the establishment of a state of per- manent peace among the nations depended upon the release of human ideals, but through properly trained and disciplined minds capable of interpreting these ideals in terms of the common good.
World democracy was the secret dream of the great classical philosophers. Toward the accomplishment of this greatest of all human ends they outlined programs of education, religion, and social conduct directed to the ultimate achievement of a practical and universal brotherhood. And in order to accomplish their purposes more effectively, these ancient scholars bound themselves with certain mystic ties into a broad confraternity. In Egypt, Greece, India, and China, the State Mysteries came into existence. Orders of initiated priestphilosophers were formed as a sovereign body to instruct, advise, and direct the rulers of the States.
Thousands of years ago, in Egypt, these mystical orders were aware of the existence of the western hemisphere and the great continent which we call America. The bold resolution was made that this western continent should become the site of the philosophic empire. Just when this was done it is impossible now to say, but certainly the decision was reached prior to the time of Plato, for a thinly veiled statement of this resolution is the substance of his treatise on the Atlantic Islands.
One of the most ancient of man's constructive ideals is the dream of a universal democracy and a cooperation of all nations in a commonwealth of States. The mechanism for the accomplishment of this ideal was set in motion in the ancient temples of Greece, Egypt, and India. So brilliant was the plan and so well was it administrated that it has survived to our time, and it will continue to function until the great work is accomplished.
Philosophy set up its house in the world to free men by freeing them of their own inordinate desires and ambitions. It saw selfishness as the greatest crime against the common good, for selfishness is natural to all who are untutored. It recognized that the mind has to be trained in the laws of thinking before men can be capable of self-rulership. And it knew that the democratic commonwealth can be a reality only when our world is a world of self-ruling men.
And so it is from the remote past, from the deep shadows of the medieval world as well as from the early struggles of more modern times, that the power of American democracy has come. But we are only on the threshold of the democratic state. Not only must we preserve that which we have gained through ages of striving, we must also perfect the plan of the ages, setting up here the machinery for a world brotherhood of nations and races.

This is our duty, and our glorious opportunity. 

It seems to me that the basic plan for the postwar world should be one solidly founded in this great dream of Universal Brotherhood. It is not enough to work on the problem solely in terms of politics and industry. The formula must express a broad idealism, one which appeals to the finest intuitions of man, and one universally understandable by all who have lived, dreamed, and suffered on this mortal sphere.

Plato's political vision was for the restoration of the Empire of the Golden Age. The old ways of the gods must be restored, he was convinced, if human beings are to be preserved from the corruptions which they have brought upon themselves. Plato sought this end when he established his university at Athens--the first school of formal education in history. Here men were taught the great truths of religion, philosophy, science, and politics, to restore to them the vision of the perfect State.
The old Atlantis was gone, dissolved in a sea of human doubts. But the philosophic empire would come again, as a democracy of wise men.
Two thousand years later Lord Bacon re-stated this vision in his New Atlantis.

It is safe to predict that such a philosophers' city would ultimately be the most practical and certain instrument for accomplishing a world point of view in all departments of human thinking. The international nation--the dream of the future which has been inspired by the terror of modern warfare--would have its natural beginning in a union of superior intellects. Art knows no race; music is a common denominator; biology and physics are served by explorers into the furthermost and innermost secrets of nature. When we recognize that the poet, the scholar, and the savant are indeed a race inhabiting the suburbs of a superior world, that they are the noblest of our creatures, we can know that we honor ourselves most by honoring them.
Here lies the solution to the great educational reform so necessary at this time. We can not hope to build a nobility of man upon the sterility of a narrow, competitive, materialistic educational policy. The ignorance of man has been his undoing. Only wisdom can restore him to his divine estate.
The religious motion in the modern world is away from theology and all the artificial limitations set up by creeds and dogmas. To meet the ever increasing dissatisfaction, there must be a new vision concerning the substance of spiritual truth. The religion of the future will include within its own structure the best of science, art, literature, politics, and sociology. Spirituality is not a blind faith about things invisible. It is an inspired use of things known and available. That man is religious who lives well. That man is sacrilegious who perverts universal good for purposes of private gain. The abstract parts of religion are useful only to the degree that they justify and prove the moral virtues.
From the broad gates of the philosophers' city could flow the inspiration for a completely new estimation of the Universe, and man's relationship to it. When the gentler parts of learning exercise dominion over the human mind, world peace will be more than the substance of things hoped for. 

- Manly P. Hall, The Secret Destiny of America