diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 10642-0.txt | 6609 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10642-8.txt | 7031 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10642-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 161856 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10642.txt | 7031 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10642.zip | bin | 0 -> 161803 bytes |
8 files changed, 20687 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10642-0.txt b/10642-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1caf5b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10642-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6609 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10642 *** + +TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE + +BY + +RALPH ADAMS CRAM, LITT.D., LL.D. + + + +1922 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +For the course of lectures I am privileged to deliver at this time, I +desire to take, in some sense as a text, a prayer that came to my +attention at the outset of my preparatory work. It is adapted from a +prayer by Bishop Hacket who flourished about the middle of the +seventeenth century, and is as follows: + + _Lord, lift us out of Private-mindedness and give us Public + souls to work for Thy Kingdom by daily creating that Atmosphere + of a happy temper and generous heart which alone can bring the + Great Peace._ + +Each thought in this noble aspiration is curiously applicable to each +one of us in the times in which we fall: the supersession of narrow and +selfish and egotistical "private-mindedness" by a vital passion for the +winning of a Kingdom of righteousness consonant with the revealed will +of God; the lifting of souls from nervous introspection to a height +where they become indeed "public souls"; the accomplishing of the +Kingdom not by great engines of mechanical power but by the daily +offices of every individual; the substitution in place of current +hatred, fear and jealous covetousness, of the unhappy temper and +"generous heart" which are the only fruitful agencies of accomplishment. +Finally, the "Great Peace" as the supreme object of thought and act and +aspiration for us, and for all the world, at this time of crisis which +has culminated through the antithesis of great peace, which is great +war. + +I have tried to keep this prayer of Bishop Hacket's before me during the +preparation of these lectures. I cannot claim that I have succeeded in +achieving a "happy temper" in all things, but I honestly claim that I +have striven earnestly for the "generous heart," even when forced, by +what seem to me the necessities of the case, to indulge in condemnation +or to bring forward subjects which can only be controversial. If the +"Great War," and the greater war which preceded, comprehended, and +followed it, were the result of many and varied errors, it matters +little whether these were the result of perversity, bad judgment or the +most generous impulses. As they resulted in the Great War, so they are a +detriment to the Great Peace that must follow, and therefore they must +be cast away. Consciousness of sin, repentance, and a will to do better, +must precede the act of amendment, and we must see where we have erred +if we are to forsake our ill ways and make an honest effort to strive +for something better. + +For every failure I have made to achieve either a happy temper or a +generous heart, I hereby express my regret, and tender my apologies in +advance. + + + +CONTENTS + +LECTURE + + INTRODUCTION + + I. A WORLD AT THE CROSSROADS + + II. A WORKING PHILOSOPHY + + III. THE SOCIAL ORGANISM + + IV. THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM + + V. THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY + + VI. THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION AND ART + + VII. THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC RELIGION + + VIII. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY + + APPENDIX A + + APPENDIX B + + + + + + +TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE + + + + +I + + +A WORLD AT THE CROSSROADS + +For two thousand years Christianity has been an operative force in the +world; for more than a century democracy has been the controlling +influence in the public affairs of Europe and the Americas; for two +generations education, free, general and comprehensive, has been the +rule in the West. Wealth incomparable, scientific achievements +unexampled in their number and magnitude, facile means of swift +intercommunication between peoples, have all worked together towards an +earthly realization of the early nineteenth-century dream of proximate +and unescapable millennium. With the opening of the second decade of the +twentieth century it seemed that the stage was set for the last act in +an unquestioned evolutionary drama. Man was master of all things, and +the failures of the past were obliterated by the glory of the imminent +event. + +The Great War was a progressive revelation and disillusionment. Therein, +everything so carefully built up during the preceding four centuries was +tried as by fire, and each failed--save the indestructible qualities of +personal honour, courage and fortitude. Nothing corporate, whether +secular or ecclesiastical, endured the test, nothing of government or +administration, of science or industry, of philosophy or religion. The +victories were those of individual character, the things that stood the +test were not things but _men._ + +The "War to end war," the war "to make the world safe for democracy" +came to a formal ending, and for a few hours the world gazed spellbound +on golden hopes. Greater than the disillusionment of war was that of the +making of the peace. There had never been a war, not even the "Thirty +Years' War" in Germany, the "Hundred Years' War" in France or the wars +of Napoleon, that was fraught with more horror, devastation and +dishonour; there had never been a Peace, not even those of Berlin, +Vienna and Westphalia, more cynical or more deeply infected with the +poison of ultimate disaster. And here it was not things that failed, but +_men._ + +What of the world since the Peace of Versailles? Hatred, suspicion, +selfishness are the dominant notes. The nations of Europe are bankrupt +financially, and the governments of the world are bankrupt politically. +Society is dissolving into classes and factions, either at open war or +manoeuvering for position, awaiting the favourable moment. Law and order +are mocked at, philosophy and religion disregarded, and of all the +varied objects of human veneration so loudly acclaimed and loftily +exalted by the generation that preceded the war, not one remains to +command a wide allegiance. One might put it in a sentence and say that +everyone is dissatisfied with everything, and is showing his feelings +after varied but disquieting fashion. It is a condition of unstable +equilibrium constantly tending by its very nature to a point where +dissolution is apparently inevitable. + +It is no part of my task to elaborate this thesis, and still less to +magnify its perils. Enough has been said and written on this subject +during the last two years; more than enough, perhaps, and in any case no +thinking person is unaware of the conditions that exist, whatever may be +his estimate of their significance, his interpenetration of their +tendency. I have set myself the task of trying to suggest some +constructive measures that we may employ in laying the foundations for +the immediate future; they may be wrong in whole or in part, but at +least my object and motive are not recrimination or invective, but +regeneration. Nevertheless, as a foundation the case must be stated, and +as a necessary preparation to any work that looks forward we must have +at least a working hypothesis as to how the conditions that need +redemption were brought about. I state the case thus, therefore: That +human society, even humanity itself, is now in a state of flux that at +any moment may change into a chaos comparable only with that which came +with the fall of classical civilization and from which five centuries +were necessary for the process of recovery. Christianity, democracy, +science, education, wealth, and the cumulative inheritance of a thousand +years, have not preserved us from the vain repetition of history. How +has this been possible, what has been the sequence of events that has +brought us to this pass? + +It is of course the result of the interaction of certain physical, +material facts and certain spiritual forces. Out of these spiritual +energies come events, phenomena that manifest themselves in political, +social, ecclesiastical transactions and institutions; in wars, +migrations and the reshaping of states; in codes of law, the +organization of society, the development of art, literature and science. +In their turn all these concrete products work on the minds and souls of +men, modifying old spiritual impulses either by exaltation or +degradation, bringing new ones into play; and again these react on the +material fabric of human life, causing new combinations, unloosing new +forces, that in their turn play their part in the eternal process of +building, unbuilding and rebuilding our unstable and fluctuant world. + +Underlying all the varied material forms of ancient society, as this +developed around the shores of the Mediterranean, was the great fact of +slavery: Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, all were +small, sometimes very small, minorities of highly developed, highly +privileged individuals existing on a great sub-stratum of slaves. All +the vast contributions of antiquity in government and law, in science, +letters, art and philosophy, all the building of the culture and +civilization that still remain the foundation stones of human society, +was the work of the few free subsisting on the many un-free. But +freedom, liberty, is an attribute of the soul and it may exist even when +the body is in bondage. The slaves of antiquity were free neither in +body nor in soul, but with the coming of Christianity all this was +changed, for it is one of the great glories of the Christian religion +that it gave freedom to the soul even before the Church could give +freedom to the body of the slave. After the fall of the Roman Empire, +and with the infiltration of the free races of the North, slavery +gradually disappeared, and between the years 1000 and 1500 a very real +liberty existed as the product of Christianity and under its protection. +Society was hierarchical: from the serf up through the peasant, the +guildsman, the burgher, the knighthood, the nobles, to the King, and so +to the Emperor, there was a regular succession of graduations, but the +lines of demarcation were fluid and easily passed, and as through the +Church, the schools and the cloister there was an open road for the son +of a peasant to achieve the Papacy, so through the guilds, chivalry, war +and the court, the layman, if he possessed ability, might from an humble +beginning travel far. An epoch of real liberty, of body, soul and mind, +and the more real in that limits, differences and degrees were +recognized, accepted and enforced. + +This condition existed roughly for five centuries in its swift rise, its +long dominion and its slow decline, that is to say, from 1000 A.D. to +1500 A.D. There was still the traditional aristocracy, now feudal rather +than patriarchal or military; there was still a servile class, now +reduced to a small minority. In between was the great body of men of a +degree of character, ability and intelligence, and with a recognized +status, the like of which had never been seen before. It was not a +bourgeoisie, for it was made up of producers,--agricultural, artisan, +craft, art, mechanic; a great free society, the proudest product of +Christian civilization. + +With the sixteenth century began a process of change that was to +overturn all this and bring in something radically different. The +Renaissance and the Reformation worked in a sense together to build up +their own expressive form of society, and when this process had been +completed we find still an aristocracy, though rapidly changing in the +quality of its personnel and in the sense of its relationship to the +rest of society; a servile class, the proletariat, enormously increased +in proportion to the other social components; and two new classes, one +the bourgeoisie, essentially non-producers and subsisting largely either +on trade, usury or management, and the pauper, a phase of life hitherto +little known under the Christian regime. The great body of free citizens +that had made up the majority of society during the preceding epoch, the +small land-holders, citizens, craftsmen and artists of fifty different +sorts, has begun rapidly to dissolve, has almost vanished by the middle +of the seventeenth century, and in another hundred years has practically +disappeared. + +What had become of them, of this great bulk of the population of western +Europe that, with the feudal aristocracy, the knighthood and the monks +had made Mediaevalism? Some had degenerated into bourgeois traders, +managers and financeers, but the great majority had been crushed down +and down in the mass of submerged proletariat, losing liberty, +degenerating in character, becoming more and more servile in status and +wretched in estate, so forming a huge, inarticulate, dully ebullient +mass, cut off from society, cut off almost from life itself. + +I must insist on these three factors in the development of society and +its present catastrophe: the great, predominant, central body of free +men during the Middle Ages, their supersession during the sixteenth, +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a non-producing bourgeoisie, and +the creation during the same period of a submerged proletariat. They are +factors of great significance and potential force. + +Towards the end of the eighteenth century the industrial-financial +revolution began. Within the space of an hundred years came all the +revelations of the potential inherent in thermo-dynamics and +electricity, and the invention of the machines that have changed the +world. During the Renaissance and Reformation the old social and +economic systems, so laboriously built up on the ruins of Roman tyranny, +had been destroyed; autocracy had abolished liberty, licentiousness had +wrecked the moral stamina, "freedom of conscience" had obliterated the +guiding and restraining power of the old religion. The field was clear +for a new dispensation. + +What happened was interesting and significant. Coal and iron, and their +derivatives--steam and machinery--rapidly revealed their possibilities. +To take advantage of these, it was necessary that labour should be +available in large quantities and freely subject to exploitation; that +unlimited capital should be forthcoming; that adequate markets should be +discovered or created to absorb the surplus product, so enormously +greater than the normal demand; and finally, it was necessary that +directors and organizers and administrators should be ready at the call. +The conditions of the time made all these possible. The land-holding +peasantry of England--and it is here that the revolution was +accomplished--had been largely dispossessed and pauperized under Henry +VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth, while the development of the wool-growing +industry had restricted the arable land to a point where it no longer +gave employment to the mass of field labourers. The first blast of +factory production threw out of work the whole body of cottage weavers, +smiths, craftsmen; and the result was a great mass of men, women, and +children without defense, void of all rights, and given the alternative +of submission to the dominance of the exploiters, or starvation. + +Without capital the new industry could neither begin nor continue. The +exploits of the "joint-stock companies" invented and perfected in the +eighteenth century, showed how this capital could easily be obtained, +while the paralyzing and dismemberment of the Church during the +Reformation had resulted in the abrogation of the old ecclesiastical +inhibition against usury. The necessary capital was forthcoming, and the +foundations were laid for the great system of finance which was one of +the triumphant achievements of the last century. + +The question of markets was more difficult. It was clear that, through +machinery, the exploitation of labour, and the manipulations of finance, +the product would be enormously greater than the local or national +demand. Until they themselves developed their own industrial system, the +other nations of Europe were available, but as this process proceeded +other markets had to be found; the result was achieved through +advertising, i.e., the stimulating in the minds of the general public of +a covetousness for something they had not known of and did not need, and +the exploiting of barbarous or undeveloped races in Asia, Africa, +Oceanica. This last task was easily achieved through "peaceful +penetration" and the preëmpting of "spheres of influence." In the end +(i.e., A.D. 1914), the whole world had so been divided, the stimulated +markets showed signs of repletion, and since exaggerated profits meant +increasing capital demanding investment, and the improvement in +"labour-saving" devices continued unchecked, the contest for others' +markets became acute, and world-politic was concentrated on the vital +problem of markets, lines of communication, and tariffs. + +As for the finding or development of competent organizers and directors, +the history of the world since the end of medievalism had curiously +provided for this after a fashion that seemed almost miraculous. The +type required was different from anything that had been developed +before. Whenever the qualitative standard had been operative, it was +necessary that the leaders in any form of creative action should be men +of highly developed intellect, fine sensibility, wide and penetrating +vision, nobility of instinct, passion for righteousness, and a +consciousness of the eternal force of charity, honour, and service. +During the imperial or decadent stages, courage, dynamic force, the +passion for adventure, unscrupulousness in the matter of method, took +the place of the qualities that marked the earlier periods. In the first +instance the result was the great law-givers, philosophers, prophets, +religious leaders, and artists of every sort; in the second, the great +conquerors. Something quite different was now demanded--men who +possessed some of the qualities needed for the development of +imperialism, but who were unhampered by the restrictive influences of +those who had sought perfection. To organize and administer the new +industrial-financial-commercial régime, the leaders must be shrewd, +ingenious, quick-witted, thick-skinned, unscrupulous, hard-headed, and +avaricious; yet daring, dominating, and gifted with keen prevision and +vivid imagination. These qualities had not been bred under any of the +Mediterranean civilizations, or that of Central Europe in the Middle +Ages, which had inherited so much therefrom. The pursuit of perfection +always implies a definite aristocracy, which is as much a goal of effort +as a noble philosophy, an august civil polity or a great art. This +aristocracy was an accepted and indispensable part of society, and it +was always more or less the same in principle, and always the centre and +source of leadership, without which society cannot endure. It is true +that at the hands of Christianity it acquired a new quality, that of +service as contingent on privilege--one might almost say of privilege as +contingent on service--and the ideals of honour, chivalry, compassion +were established as its object and method of operation even though these +were not always achieved, but the result was not a new creation; it was +an institution as old as society, regenerated and transformed and +playing a greater and a nobler part than ever before. + +Between the years 1455 and 1795 this old aristocracy was largely +exterminated. The Wars of the Roses, the massacres of the Reformation, +and the Civil Wars in England; the Thirty Years' War in Germany; the +Hundred Years' War, the Wars of Religion, and the Revolution in France +had decimated the families old in honour, preserving the tradition of +culture, jealous of their alliances and their breeding--the natural and +actual leaders in thought and action. England suffered badly enough as +the result of war, with the persecutions of Henry VIII, Edward VI and +Elizabeth, and the Black Death, included for full measure. France +suffered also, but Germany fared worst of all. By the end of the Thirty +Years' War the older feudal nobility had largely disappeared, while the +class of "gentlemen" had been almost exterminated. In France, until the +fall of Napoleon III, and in Germany and Great Britain up to the present +moment, the recruiting of the formal aristocracy has gone on steadily, +but on a different basis and from a different class from anything known +before. Demonstrated personal ability to gain and maintain leadership; +distinguished service to the nation in war or statecraft; courage, +honour, fealty--these, in general, had been the ground for admission to +the ranks of the aristocracy. In general, also, advancement to the ranks +of the higher nobility was from the class of "gentlemen," though the +Church, the universities, and chivalry gave, during the Middle Ages, +wide opportunity for personal merit to achieve the highest honours. + +Through the wholesale destruction of the representatives of a class that +from the beginning of history had been the directing and creative force +in civilization, a process began which was almost mechanical. As the +upper strata of society were planed off by war, pestilence, civil +slaughter, and assassination, the pressure on the great mass of men +(peasants, serfs, unskilled labourers, the so-called "lower classes") +was increasingly relaxed, and very soon the thin film of aristocracy, +further weakened by dilution, broke, and through the crumbling shell +burst to the surface those who had behind them no tradition but that of +servility, no comprehension of the ideals of chivalry and honour of the +gentleman, no stored-up results of education and culture, but only an +age-long rage against the age-long dominating class, together with the +instincts of craftiness, parsimony, and almost savage self-interest. + +As a class, it was very far from being what it was under the Roman +Empire; on the other hand, it was equally removed from what it was +during the Middle Ages in England, France and the Rhineland. Under +mediaevalism chattel slavery had disappeared, and the lot of the peasant +was a happier one than he had known before. He had achieved definite +status, and the line that separated him from the gentry was very thin +and constantly traversed, thanks to the accepted system of land tenure, +the guilds, chivalry, the schools and universities, the priesthood and +monasticism. The Renaissance had rapidly changed all this, however; +absolutism in government, dispossession of land, the abolition of the +guilds, and the collapse of the moral order and of the dominance of the +Church, were fast pushing the peasant back into the position he had held +under the Roman Empire, and from which Christianity had lifted him. By +1790 he had been for nearly three centuries under a progressive +oppression that had undone nearly all the beneficent work of the Middle +Ages and made the peasant class practically outlaw, while breaking down +its character, degrading its morals, increasing its ignorance, and +building up a sullen rage and an invincible hatred of all that stood +visible as law and order in the persons of the ruling class. + +Filtering through the impoverished and diluted crust of a dissolving +aristocracy, came this irruption from below. In their own persons +certain of these people possessed the qualities and the will which were +imperative for the organization of the industry, the trade, and the +finance that were to control the world for four generations, and produce +that industrial civilization which is the basis and the energizing force +of modernism. Immediately, and with conspicuous ability, they took hold +of the problem, solved its difficulties, developed its possibilities, +and by the end of the nineteenth century had made it master of the +world. + +Simultaneously an equal revolution and reversal was being effected in +government. The free monarchies of the Middle Ages, beneath which lay +the well recognized principle that no authority, human or divine, could +give any monarch the right to govern wrong, and that there was such a +thing (frequently exercised) as lawful rebellion, gave place to the +absolutism and autocracy of Renaissance kingship and this, which was +fostered both by Renaissance and Reformation, became at once the ally of +the new forces in society and so furthered the growth as well as the +misery and the degradation of the proletariat. In revolt against this +new and very evil thing came the republicanism of the eighteenth +century, inspired and directed in large measure by members of the fast +perishing aristocracy of race, character and tradition. It was a +splendid uprising against tyranny and oppression and is best expressed +in the personalities and the actions of the Constitutional Convention of +the United States in 1787 and the States General of France in 1789. + +The movement is not to be confounded with another that synchronizes with +it, that is to say, democracy, for the two things are radically +different in their antecedents, their protagonists, their modes of +operation and their objects. While the one was the aspiration and the +creation of the more enlightened and cultured, the representatives of +the old aristocracy, the other issued out of the same _milieu_ that was +responsible for the new social organism. That is to say; while certain +of the more shrewd and ingenious were organizing trade, manufacture and +finance and developing its autocratic and imperialistic possibilities at +the expense of the great mass of their blood-brothers, others of the +same social antecedents were devising a new theory, and experimenting in +new schemes, of government, which would take all power away from the +class that had hitherto exercised it and fix it firmly in the hands of +the emancipated proletariat. This new model was called then, and is +called now, democracy. Elsewhere I have tried to distinguish between +democracy of theory and democracy of method. Perhaps I should have used +a more lucid nomenclature if I had simply distinguished between +republicanism and democracy, for this is what it amounts to. The former +is as old as man, and is part of the "passion for perfection" that +characterizes all crescent society, and is indeed the chief difference +between brute and human nature; it means the guaranteeing of justice, +and may be described as consisting of abolition of privilege, equality +of opportunity, and utilization of ability. Democracy of method consists +in a variable and uncertain sequence of devices which are supposed to +achieve the democracy of ideal, but as a matter of fact have thus far +usually worked in the opposite direction. The activity of this movement +synchronizes with the pressing upward of the "the masses" through the +dissolving crust of "the classes," and represents their contribution to +the science of political philosophy, as the contribution of the latter +is current "political economy." + +It will be perceived that the reaction of the new social force in the +case of industrial organization is fundamentally opposed to that which +occurred in the political sphere. The one is working steadily towards an +autocratic imperialism and the "servile state," the other towards the +fluctuating, incoherent control of the making and administering of laws +by the untrained, the uncultivated, and the generally unfit, the issue +of which is anarchy. The industrial-commercial-financial oligarchy that +dominated society for the century preceding the Great War is the result +of the first; Russia, today, is an exemplar of the second. The working +out of these two great devices of the new force released by the +destructive processes of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth +centuries, simultaneously though in apparent opposition, explains why, +when the war broke out, imperialism and democracy synchronized so +exactly: on the one hand, imperial states, industry, commerce, and +finance; on the other, a swiftly accelerating democratic system that was +at the same time the effective means whereby the dominant imperialism +worked, and the omnipresent and increasing threat to its further +continuance. + +A full century elapsed before victory became secure, or even proximate. +Republicanism rapidly extended itself to all the governments of western +Europe, but it could not maintain itself in its primal integrity. Sooner +here, later there, it surrendered to the financial, industrial, +commercial forces that were taking over the control and direction of +society, becoming partners with them and following their aims, conniving +at their schemes, and sharing in their ever-increasing profits. By the +end of the first decade of the twentieth century these supposedly "free" +governments had become as identified with "special privilege," and as +widely severed from the people as a whole, as the autocratic governments +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while they failed +consistently to match them in effectiveness, energy and efficiency of +operation. + +For this latter condition democracy was measurably responsible. For +fifty years it had been slowly filtering into the moribund republican +system until at last, during the same first decade of the present +century, it had wholly transformed the governmental system, making it, +whatever its outward form, whether constitutional monarchy, or republic, +essentially democratic. So government became shifty, opportunist, +incapable, and without the inherent energy to resist, beyond a certain +point, the last great effort of the emergent proletariat to destroy, not +alone the industrial civilization it justly detested, but the very +government it had acquired by "peaceful penetration" and organized and +administered along its chosen lines, and indeed the very fabric of +society itself. + +Now these two remarkable products of the new mentality of a social force +were facts, but they needed an intellectual or philosophical +justification just as a low-born profiteer, when he has acquired a +certain amount of money, needs an expensive club or a coat of arms to +regularize his status. Protestantism and materialistic philosophy were +joint nursing-mothers to modernism, but when, by the middle of the last +century, it had reached man's estate, they proved inadequate; something +else was necessary, and this was furnished to admiration by +evolutionism. Through its doctrine of the survival of the fittest, it +appeared to justify in the fullest degree the gospel of force as the +final test, and "enlightened self-interest" as the new moral law; +through its lucid demonstration of the strictly physical basis of life, +the "descent of man" from primordial slime by way of the lemur or the +anthropoid ape, and the non-existence of any supernatural power that had +devised, or could determine, a code of morality in which certain things +were eternal by right, and other than the variable reactions of very +highly developed animals to experience and environment, it had given +weighty support to the increasingly popular movement towards democracy +both in theory and in act. + +Its greatest contribution, however, was its argument that, since the +invariable law of life was one of progressive evolution, therefore the +acquired characteristics which formed the material of evolution, and +were heritable, could be mechanically increased in number by education; +hence the body of inheritance (which unfortunately varied as between man +and man because of past discrepancies in environment, opportunities, and +education) could be equalized by a system of teaching that aimed to +furnish that mental and physical training hitherto absent. + +Whether the case was ever so stated in set terms does not matter; very +shortly this became the firm conviction of the great mass of men, and +the modern democracy of method is based on the belief that all men are +equal because they are men, and that free, compulsory, secularized, +state-controlled education can and does remove the last difference that +made possible any discrimination in rights and privileges as between one +man and another. + +In another respect, however, the superstition of mechanical evolution +played an important part, and with serious results. Neither the prophets +nor the camp-followers seemed to realize that evolution, while +undoubtedly a law of life within certain limits, was inseparable from +degradation which was its concomitant, that is to say, that as the +rocket rises so must it fall; as man is conceived, born and matures, +even so must he die. The wave rises, but falls again; the state waxes to +greatness, wanes, and the map knows it no more; each epoch of human +history arises out of dim beginnings, magnifies itself in glory, and +then yields to internal corruption, dilution and adulteration of blood, +or prodigal dissipation of spiritual force, and takes its place in the +annals of ancient history. Without recognition of this implacable, +unescapable fact of degradation sequent on evolution, the later becomes +a delusion and an instrument of death, for the eyes of man are blind to +incipient or crescent dangers; content, self-secure, lost in a vain +dream of manifest destiny they are deaf to warnings, incapable even of +the primary gestures of self-defense. Such was one of the results of +nineteenth-century evolutionism, and the generation that saw the last +years of the nineteenth century and the first part of the new, basking +in its day dreams of self-complacency, made no move to avert the dangers +that threatened it then and now menace it with destruction. + +When, therefore, modernism achieved its grand climacteric in July, 1914, +we had on the one hand an imperialism of force, in industry, commerce, +and finance, expressing itself through highly developed specialists, and +dictating the policies and practices of government, society, and +education; on the other, a democracy of form which denied, combated, and +destroyed distinction in personality and authority in thought, and +discouraged constructive leadership in the intellectual, spiritual, and +artistic spheres of activity. The opposition was absolute, the results +catastrophic. The lack of competent leadership in every category of life +finds a sufficient explanation in the two opposed forces, in their +origin and nature, and in the fact of their opposition. + +In the somewhat garish light of the War and the Peace, it would not be +difficult to feel a real and even poignant sympathy for two causes that +were prominent and popular in the first fourteen years of the present +century, namely, the philosophy that based itself on a mechanical system +of evolution which predicted unescapable, irreversible human progress, +and that religion which denied the reality of evil in the world. The +plausibility of each was dissipated by the catastrophic events though +both still linger in stubborn unconsciousness of their demise. The +impulse towards sympathy is mitigated by realization of the unfortunate +effect they exerted on history. This is particularly true of +evolutionary philosophy, which was held as an article of faith, either +consciously or sub-consciously, by the greater part of Western society. +Not only did it deter men from realizing the ominous tendency of events +but, more unhappily, it minimized their power to discriminate between +what was good and bad in current society, and even reversed their sense +of comparative values. If man was indeed progressing steadily from bad +to good, and so to better and best, then the vivid and even splendid +life of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with its headlong +conquest of the powers of nature, its enormous industrial development, +its vast and ever-increasing wealth in material things, must be not only +an amazing advance beyond any former civilization but positively good in +itself, while the future could only be a progressive magnifying of what +then was going on. "Just as" to quote Mr. Chesterton's admirable Dr. +Pelkins, "just as when we see a pig in a litter larger than the other +pigs, we know that by an unalterable law of the Inscrutable, it will +some day be larger than an elephant...so we know and reverently +acknowledge that when any power in human politics has shown for any +period of time any considerable activity, it will go on until it reaches +the sky." + +Nothing but a grave inability to estimate values, based on a +pseudo-scientific dogma, can explain the lack of any just standard of +comparative values that was the essential quality in pre-war society. +Extraordinary as were the material achievements of the time, beneficent +in certain ways, and susceptible in part of sometime being used to the +advantage of humanity, they were largely negatived, and even reversed in +value, just because the sense of proportion had been lost. The image +which might have stimulated reverence had become a fetish. There were +voices crying in the wilderness against a worship that had poisoned into +idolatry, but they were unheard. Progressively the real things of life +were blurred and forgotten and the things that were so obviously real +that they were unreal became the object and the measure of achievement. + +It was an unhappy and almost fatal attitude of mind, and it was +engendered not so much by the trend of civilization since the +Renaissance and Reformation, nor by the compulsion and cumulative +influence of the things themselves, as by the natural temper and +inclinations and the native standards of this emancipated mass of +humanity that, oppressed, outraged and degraded for four hundred years +had at last burst out of its prison-house and had assumed control of +society through industrialism, politics and social life. The saving +grace of the old aristocracies had disappeared with the institution +itself: between 1875 and 1900 the great single leaders, so fine in +character, so brilliant in capacity, so surprising in their numbers, +that had given a deceptive glory to the so-called Victorian Age, had +almost wholly died out, and the new conditions neither fostered the +development of adequate successors, nor gave audience to the few that, +anomalously, appeared. It is not surprising therefore that the new +social element that had played so masterly a part in bringing to its +perfection the industrial-financial-democratic scheme of life should +have developed an apologetic therefor, and imposed it, with all its +materialism, its narrowness, its pragmatism, its, at times, grossness +and cynicism, on the mind of a society where increasingly their own +followers were, by sheer energy and efficiency, acquiring a predominant +position. + +I am not unconscious that these are hard sayings and that few indeed +will accept them. They seem too much like attempting that which Burke +said was impossible, viz., to bring an indictment against a people. I +intend nothing of the sort. Out of this same body of humanity which _as +a whole_ has exerted this very unfavourable influence on modern society, +have come and will come personalities of sudden and startling nobility, +men who have done as great service as any of their contemporaries +whatever their class or status. Out of the depths have come those who +have ascended to the supreme heights, for since Christianity came into +the world to free the souls of men, this new liberty has worked without +limitations of caste or race. Indeed, the very creations of the emergent +force, industrialism and democracy, while they were the betrayal of the +many were the opportunity of the few, taking the place, as they did, of +the older creeds of specifically Christian society, and inviting those +who would to work their full emancipation and so become the servants of +God and mankind. By the very bitterness of their antecedents, the +cruelty of their inheritance, they gained a deeper sense of the reality +of life, a more just sense of right and wrong, a clearer vision of +things as they were, than happened in the case of those who had no such +experience of the deep brutality of the regime of post-Renaissance +society. + +True as this is, it is also true that for one who won through there were +many who gained nothing, and it was, and is, the sheer weight of numbers +of those who failed of this that has made their influence on the modern +life as pervasive and controlling as it is. + +What has happened is a certain degradation of character, a weakening of +the moral stamina of men, and against this no mechanical device in +government, no philosophical or social theory, can stand a chance of +successful resistance, while material progress in wealth and trade and +scientific achievement becomes simply a contributory force in the +process of degeneration. For this degradation of character we are bound +to hold this new social force in a measure responsible, even though it +has so operated because of its inherent qualities and in no material +respect through conscious cynicism or viciousness; indeed it is safe to +say that in so far as it was acting consciously it was with good +motives, which adds an element of even greater tragedy to a situation +already sufficiently depressing. + +If I am right in holding this to be the effective cause of the situation +we have now to meet, it is true that it is by no means the only one. The +emancipation and deliverance of the downtrodden masses of men who owed +their evil estate to the destruction of the Christian society of the +Middle Ages, was a clamourous necessity; it was a slavery as bad in some +ways as any that had existed in antiquity, and the number of its victims +was greater. The ill results of the accomplished fact was largely due to +the condition of religion which existed during the period of +emancipation. No society can endure without vital religion, and any +revolution effected at a time when religion is moribund or dissipated in +contentious fragments, is destined to be evacuated of its ideals and its +potential, and to end in disaster. Now the freeing of the slaves of the +Renaissance and the post-Reformation, and their absorption in the body +politic, was one of the greatest revolutions in history, and it came at +a time when religion, which had been one and vital throughout Western +Europe for six centuries, had been shattered and nullified, and its +place taken, in the lands that saw the great liberation, by Calvinism, +Lutheranism, Puritanism and atheism, none of which could exert a guiding +and redemptive influence on the dazed hordes that had at last come up +into the light of day. + +In point of fact, therefore, we are bound to trace back the +responsibility for the present crisis even to the Reformation itself, as +well as to the tyranny and absolutism of government, and the sordid and +profligate ordering of society, which followed on the end of +Mediaevalism. + +So then we stand today confronting a situation that is ominous and +obscure, since the very ideals and devices which we had held were the +last word in progressive evolution have failed at the crisis, and +because we who created them and have worked through them, have failed in +character, and chiefly because we have accepted low ideals and inferior +standards imposed upon us by social elements betrayed and abandoned by a +world that could not aid them or assimilate them since itself had +betrayed the only thing that could give them force, unity and coherency, +that is, a vital and pervasive religious faith. + +There are those who hold our case to be desperate, to whom the +disillusionment of peace, after the high optimism engendered by the vast +heroism and the exalted ideals instigated by the war, has brought +nothing but a mood of deep pessimism. The sentiment is perhaps natural, +but it is none the less both irrational and wicked. If it is persisted +in, if it becomes widespread, it may perfectly well justify itself, but +only so. We no longer accept the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, +we believe, and must highly believe, that our fate is of our own making, +for Christianity has made us the heirs of free-will. What we will that +shall we be, or rather, what we _are_ that shall we will, and if we make +of ourselves what, by the grace of God, we may, then the victory rests +with us. It is true that we are in the last years of a definite period, +on that decline that precedes the opening of a new epoch. Never in +history has any such period overpassed its limit of five hundred years, +and ours, which came to birth in the last half of the fifteenth century, +cannot outlast the present. But these declining years are preceding +those wherein all things are made new, and the next two generations will +see, not alone the passing of what we may call modernism, since it is +our own age, but the prologue of the epoch that is to come. It is for us +to say what this shall be. It is not foreordained; true, if we will it, +it may be a reign of disaster, a parallel to the well-recognized "Dark +Ages" of history, but also, if we will, it may be a new and a true +"renaissance," a rebirth of old ideals, of old honour, of old faith, +only incarnate in new and noble forms. + +The vision of an old heaven and a new earth was vouchsafed us during the +war, when horror and dishonour and degradation were shot through and +through with an epic heroism and chivalry and self-sacrifice. What if +this all did fade in the miasma of Versailles and the cynicism of trade +fighting to get back to "normalcy," and the red anarchy out of the East? +There is no fiat of God that fixes these things as eternal. Even they +also may be made the instruments of revelation and re-creation. Paris +and London, Rome, Berlin and Washington are meshed in the tangled web of +the superannuated who cannot escape the incubus of the old ways and the +old theories that were themselves the cause of the war and of the +failure of "modern civilization," but another generation is taking the +field and we must believe that this has been burned out of them. They +may have achieved this great perfection in the field, they may have +experienced it through those susceptible years of life just preceding +military age. It does not matter. Somehow they have it, and those who +come much in contact in school or college with boys and men between the +ages of seventeen and twenty-five, know, and thankfully confess, that if +they can control the event the future is secure. + +In the harlequinade of fabulous material success the nations of "modern +civilization" suffered a moral deterioration, in themselves and in their +individual members; by a moral regeneration they may be saved. How is +this to be accomplished? How, humanly speaking, is the redemption of +society to be achieved? Not alone by change of heart in each individual, +though if this could be it would be enough. Humanly speaking there is +not time and we dare not hope for the divine miracle whereby "in the +twinkling of an eye we shall all be changed." Still less by sole +reliance on some series of new political, social, economic and +educational devices; there is no plan, however wise and profound, that +can work effectively under the dead weight of a society that is made up +of individuals whose moral sense is defective. Either of these two +methods, put into operation by itself, will fail. Acting together they +may succeed. + +I repeat what I have said before. The material thing and the spiritual +force work by inter-action and coördinately. The abandonment or reform +of some device that has proved evil or inadequate, and the substitution +of something better, changes to that extent the environment of the +individual and so enables him more perfectly to develop his inherent +possibilities in character and capacity, while every advance in this +direction reacts on the machinery of life and makes its improvement more +possible. With a real sense of my own personal presumption, but with an +equally real sense of the responsibility that rests on every man at the +present crisis, I shall venture certain suggestions as to possible +changes that may well be effected in the material forms of contemporary +society as well as in its methods of thought, in order that the +spiritual energies of the individual may be raised to a higher level +through the amelioration of a hampering environment, and, with even +greater diffidence, others that may bear more directly on the +character-development of the individual. In following out this line of +thought I shall, in the remaining seven lectures, speak successively on: +A Working Philosophy; The Social Organism; The Industrial and Economic +Problem; The Political Organization of Society; The Function of +Education and Art; The Problem of Organic Religion; and Personal +Responsibility. + +I am only too conscious of the fact that the division of my subject +under these categorical heads, and the necessities of special argument, +if not indeed of special pleading, have forced me to such particular +stress on each subject as may very likely give an impression of undue +emphasis. If each lecture were to be taken by itself, such an impression +would, I fear, be unescapable; I ask therefore for the courtesy of a +suspension of judgment until the series is completed, for it is only +when taken as a whole, one paper reacting upon and modifying another, +that whatever merit the course possesses can be made apparent. + + + + +II + + +A WORKING PHILOSOPHY[*] + + [*This lecture has been very considerably re-written + since it was delivered, and much of the matter it then contained + has been cut out, and is now printed in the Appendix. These + excisions were purely speculative, and while they have a certain + bearing on the arguments and conclusions in the other lectures, + might very well be prejudicial to them, and for this reason it + has seemed better to remove them from the general sequence and + give them a supplementary place by themselves.] + +The first reaction of the World War was a great interrogation, and the +technical "Peace" that has followed brings only reiteration. Why did +these things come, and how? The answers are as manifold as the +clamourous tongues that ask, but none carries conviction and the problem +is still unsolved. According to all rational probabilities we had no +right to expect the war that befell; according to all the human +indications as we saw them revealed amongst the Allies we had a right to +expect a better peace; according to our abiding and abounding faith we +had a right to expect a great bettering of life after the war, and even +in spite of the peace. It is all a _non sequitur,_ and still we ask the +reason and the meaning of it all. + +It may be very long before the full answer is given, yet if we are +searching the way towards "The Great Peace" we must establish some +working theory, if only that we may redeem our grave errors and avoid +like perils in the future. The explanation I assume for myself, and on +which I must work, is that, in spite of our intentions (which were of +the best) we were led into the development, acceptance and application +of a false philosophy of life which was not only untenable in itself but +was vitiated and made noxious through its severance from vital religion. +In close alliance with this declension of philosophy upon a basis that +had been abandoned by the Christian world for a thousand years, perhaps +as the ultimate reason for its occurrence, was the tendency to void +religion of its vital power, to cut it out of intimate contact with +life, and, in the end, to abandon it altogether as an energizing force +interpenetrating all existence and controlling it in certain definite +directions and after certain definite methods. + +The rather complete failure of our many modern and ingenious +institutions, the failure of institutionalism altogether, is due far +less to wrong theories underlying them, or to radical defects in their +technique, than it is to this false philosophy and this progressive +abandonment of religion. The wrong theories were there, and the +mechanical defects, for the machines were conditioned by the principle +that lay behind them, but effort at correction and betterment will make +small progress unless we first regain the right religion and a right +philosophy. I said this to Henri Bergson last year in Paris and his +reply was significant as coming from a philosopher. "Yes," he said, "you +are right; and of the two, the religion is the more important." + +If we had this back, and in full measure; if society were infused by it, +through and through, and men lived its life, and in its life, philosophy +would take care of itself and the nature of our institutions would not +matter. On the other hand, without it, no institution can be counted +safe, or will prove efficacious, while no philosophy, however lofty and +magisterial, can take its place, or even play its own part in the life +of man or society. I must in these lectures say much about institutions +themselves, but first I shall try to indicate what seem to me the more +serious errors in current philosophy, leaving until after a study of the +material forms which are so largely conditioned by the philosophical +attitude, the consideration of that religion, both organic and personal, +which I believe can alone verify the philosophy, give the institutions +life and render them reliable agencies for good. + +For a working definition of philosophy, in the sense in which I use it +here, I will take two sayings, one out of the thirteenth century, one +from the twentieth. "They are called wise who put things in their right +order and control them well," says St. Thomas Aquinas. "Philosophy is +the science of the totality of things," says Cardinal Mercier, his +greatest contemporary commentator, and he continues, "Philosophy is the +sum-total of reality." Philosophy is the body of _human_ wisdom, +verified and irradiated by divine wisdom. "The science of the totality +of things": not the isolation of individual phenomena, or even of groups +of phenomena, as is the method of the natural sciences, but the setting +of all in their varied relationships and values, the antithesis of that +narrowness and concentration of vision that follow intensive +specialization and have issue in infinite delusions and unrealities, +"Philosophy regards the sum-total of reality" and it achieves this +consciousness of reality, first by establishing right relations between +phenomena, and then, abandoning the explicit intellectual process, by +falling back on divine illumination which enables it to see through +those well-ordered phenomena the Divine Actuality that lies behind, +informing them with its own finality and using them both as types and as +media of transmission and communication. So men are enabled by +philosophy "to put things in their right order" and by religion "to +control them well," thus becoming indeed worthy to be "called wise." + +Now, from the beginnings of conscious life, man has found himself +surrounded and besieged by un-calculable phenomena. Beaten upon by +forces he could not estimate or predict or control, he has sought to +solve their sphynx-like riddle, to establish some plausible relation +between them, to erect a logical scheme of things. Primitive man, as +Worringer demonstrates in his "Form Problems of the Gothic," strove to +achieve something of certitude and fixity through the crude but definite +lines and forms of neolithic art. Classical man brought into play the +vigour and subtlety and ingenuity of intellect in its primal and most +dynamic form, expressed through static propositions of almost +mathematical exactness. The peoples of the East rejected the +intellectual-mathematical method and solution and sought a way out +through the mysterious operation of the inner sense that manifests +itself in the form of emotion. With the revelation of Christianity came +also, and of course, enlightenment, which was not definite and closed at +some given moment, but progressive and cumulative. At once, speaking +philosophically, the intellectual method of the West and the intuitive +method of the East came together and fused in a new thing, each element +limiting, and at the same time fortifying the other, while the opposed +obscurities of the past were irradiated by the revealing and creative +spirit of Christ. So came the beginnings of that definitive Christian +philosophy which was to proceed from Syria, Anatolia and Constantinople, +through Alexandria to St. Augustine, and was to find its fullest +expression during the Middle Ages and by means of Duns Scotus, Albertus +Magnus, Hugh of St. Victor and St. Thomas Aquinas. + +It is an interesting fact, though apart from my present consideration, +that this philosophical fusion was paralleled in the same places and at +the same time, by an aesthetic fusion that brought into existence the +first great and consistent art of Christianity. This question is +admirably dealt with in Lisle March Phillipps' "Form and Colour." + +This great Christian philosophy which lay behind all the civilization of +the Middle Ages, was positive, comprehensive and new. It demonstrated +divine purpose working consciously through all things with a result in +perfect coherency; it gave history a new meaning as revealing reality +and as a thing forever present and never past, and above all it +elucidated the nature of both matter and spirit and made clear their +operation through the doctrine of sacramentalism. + +In the century that saw the consummation of this great philosophical +system--as well as that of the civilization which was its expositor in +material form--there came a separation and a divergence. The balanced +unity was broken, and on the one hand the tendency was increasingly +towards the exaggerated mysticism that had characterized the Eastern +moiety of the synthesis, on the other towards an exaggerated +intellectualism the seeds of which are inherent even in St. Thomas +himself. The new mysticism withdrew further and further from the common +life, finding refuge in hidden sanctuaries in Spain, Italy, the +Rhineland; the old intellectualism became more and more dominant in the +minds of man and the affairs of the world, and with the Renaissance it +became supreme, as did the other qualities of paganism in art as well as +in every other field of human activity. + +The first fruit of the new intellectualism was the philosophy of Dr. +John Calvin--if we can call it such,--Augustinian philosophy, misread, +distorted and made noxious by its reliance on the intellectual process +cut off from spiritual energy as the sufficient corrective of +philosophical thought. It is this false philosophy, allied with an +equally false theology, that misled for so many centuries those who +accepted the new versions of Christianity that issued out of the +Reformation. The second was the mechanistic system, or systems, the +protagonist of which was Descartes. If, as I believe, Calvinism was +un-Christian, the materialistic philosophies that have gone on from the +year 1637, were anti-Christian. As the power of Christianity declined +through the centuries that have followed the Reformation, Calvinism +played a less and less important part, while the new philosophies of +mechanism and rationalism correspondingly increased. During the +nineteenth century their control was absolute, and what we are today we +have become through this dominance, coupled with the general +devitalizing or abandonment of religion. + +And yet are we not left comfortless. Even in the evolutionary philosophy +engendered by Darwin and formulated by Herbert Spencer and the Germans, +with all its mistaken assumptions and dubious methods, already there is +visible a tendency to get away from the old Pagan static system reborn +with the Renaissance. We can never forget that Bergson has avowed that +"the mind of man, by its very nature, is incapable of apprehending +reality." After this the return towards the scholastic philosophy of the +Middle Ages is not so difficult, nor even its recovery. If we associate +with this process on the part of formal philosophy the very evident, if +sometimes abnormal and exaggerated, progress towards a new mysticism, we +are far from finding ourselves abandoned to despair as to the whole +future of philosophy. + +Now this return and this recovery are, I believe, necessary as one of +the first steps towards establishing a sound basis for the building up +of a new and a better civilization, and one that is in fact as well as +in name a Christian civilization. I do not mean that, with this +restoration of Christian philosophy, there we should rest. Both +revelation and enlightenment are progressive, and once the nexus of our +broken life were restored, philosophical development would be +continuous, and we should go on beyond the scholastics even as they +proceeded beyond Patristic theology and philosophy. I think a break of +continuity was effected in the sixteenth century, with disastrous +effects, and until this break is healed we are cut off from what is in a +sense the Apostolical succession of philosophical verity. + +Before going further I would guard against two possible misconceptions; +of one of them I have already spoken, that is, the error so frequent in +the past as well as today, that would make of philosophy, however sound, +however consonant with the finalities of revealed religion, a substitute +in any degree for religion itself. Philosophy is the reaction of the +intellect, of man to the stimuli of life, but religion _is_ life and is +therefore in many ways a flat contradiction of the concepts of the +intellect, which is only a small portion of life, therefore limited, +partial, and (because of this) sometimes entirely wrong in its +conclusions independently arrived at along these necessarily +circumscribed lines. + +The second possible error is that philosophy is the affair of a small +group of students and specialists, quite outside the purview of the +great mass of men, and that it owes its existence to this same class of +delving scholars, few in number, impractical in their aims, and sharply +differentiated from their fellows. On the contrary it is a vital +consideration for all those who desire to "see life and see it whole" in +order that they may establish a true scale of comparative values and a +right relationship between those things that come from the outside and, +meeting those that come from within, establish that plexus of +interacting force we call life. As for the source of philosophic truth, +Friar Bacon put it well when he said "All the wisdom of philosophy is +created by God and given to the philosophers, and it is Himself that +illumines the minds of men in all wisdom." It is a whimsical +juxtaposition, but the first pastor of the Puritans in America, the Rev. +John Robinson, testifies to the same effect. "All truth," he says, "is +of God ... Wherefore it followeth that nothing true in right reason and +sound philosophy can be false in divinity.... I add, though the truth be +uttered by the devil himself, yet it is originally of God." There are +not two sources of truth, that of Divine Revelation on the one hand, +that of science and philosophy and all the intellectual works of man on +the other. Truth is one, and the Source is one; the channels of +communication alone are different. But truth in its finality, the +Absolute, the _noumenon_ that is the substance of phenomena, is in +itself not a thing that can be directly apprehended by man; it lies +within the "ultra-violet" rays of his intellectual spectrum. "The +trammels of the body prevent man from knowing God in Himself" says +Philo, "He is known only in the Divine forces in which He manifests +Himself." And St. Thomas: "In the present state of life in which the +soul is united to a passable body, it is impossible for the intellect to +understand anything actually except by turning to the phantasm." +Religion confesses this, philosophy constantly tends to forget it, +therefore true religion speaks always through the symbol, rejecting, +because it transcends, the intellectual criterion, while philosophy is +on safe ground only when it unites itself with religion, testing its own +conclusions by a higher reality, and existing not as a rival but as a +coadjutor. + +It is St. Paul who declares that "God has never left Himself without a +witness" and the "witness" was explicit, however clouded, in the +philosophies of paganism. Plato and Aristotle knew the limitations of +man's mind, and the corrective of over-weaning intellectuality in +religion, but thereafter the wisdom faded and pride ousted humility, +with the result that philosophy became not light but darkness. Let me +quote from the great twelfth century philosopher, Hugh of St. Victor, +who deserves a better fate than sepulture in the ponderous tomes of +Migne: + +"There was a certain wisdom that seemed such to them that knew not the +true wisdom. The world found it and began to be puffed up, thinking +itself great in this. Confiding in its wisdom it became presumptuous and +boasted it would attain the highest wisdom. And it made itself a ladder +of the face of creation.... Then those things which were seen were known +and there were other things which were not known; and through those +which were manifest they expected to reach those that were hidden. And +they stumbled and fell into the falsehoods of their own imagining.... So +God made foolish the wisdom of this world; and He pointed out another +wisdom, which seemed foolishness and was not. For it preached Christ +crucified, in order that truth might be sought in humility. But the +world despised it, wishing to contemplate the works of God, which He had +made a source of wonder, and it did not wish to venerate what He had set +for imitation, neither did it look to its own disease, seeking medicine +in piety; but presuming on a false health, it gave itself over with vain +curiosity to the study of alien things." + +Precisely: and this is the destiny that has overtaken not only the pagan +philosophy of which Hugh of St. Victor was speaking, but also that which +followed after St. Thomas Aquinas, from Descartes to Hobbes and Kant and +Comte and Herbert Spencer and William James. The jealously intellectual +philosophies of the nineteenth century, the materialistic and +mechanistic substitutes that were offered and accepted with such +enthusiasm after the great cleavage between religion and life, are but +"the falsehoods of their own imaginings" of which Hugh of St. Victor +speaks, for they were cut off from the stream of spiritual verity, and +are losing themselves in the desert they have made. + +Meanwhile they have played their part in shaping the destinies of the +world, and it was an ill part, if we may judge from the results that +showed themselves in the events that have been recorded between the year +1800 and the present moment. Just what this influence was in determining +the nature of society, of industrial civilization and of the political +organism I shall try to indicate in some of the following lectures, but +apart from these concrete happenings, this influence was, I am +persuaded, most disastrous in its bearing on human character. Neither +wealth nor power, neither education nor environment, not even the +inherent tendencies of race--the most powerful of all--can avail against +the degenerative force of a life without religion, or, what is worse, +that maintains only a desiccated formula; and the post-Renaissance +philosophies are one and all definitely anti-religious and +self-proclaimed substitutes for religion. As such they were offered and +accepted, and as such they must take their share of the responsibility +for what has happened. + +I believe we must and can retrace our steps to that point in time when a +right philosophy was abandoned, and begin again. There is no +impossibility or even difficulty here. History is not a dead thing, a +thing of the past; it is eternally present to man, and this is one of +the sharp differentiations between man and beast. The material monuments +of man crumble and disappear, but the spirit that built the Parthenon or +Reims Cathedral, that inspired St. Paul on Mars' hill or forged Magna +Charta or the Constitution of the United States is, _because of our +quality as men,_ just as present and operative with us today, if we +will, as that which sent the youth of ten nations into a righteous war +five years ago, or spoke yesterday through some noble action that you or +I may have witnessed. It is as easy for us to accept and practice the +philosophy of St. Thomas or the divine humanism of St. Francis as it is +to accept the philosophy of Mr. Wells or the theories of Sir Oliver +Lodge. No spiritual thing dies, or even grows old, nor does it drift +backward in the dwindling perspective of ancient history, and the +foolishest saying of man is that "you cannot turn back the hands of the +clock." + +It is simply a question of will, and will is simply a question of desire +and of faith. + +Manifestly I cannot be expected to recreate in a few words this +philosophy to which I believe we must have recourse in our hour of need. +I have no ability to do this in any case. It begins with St. Paul, is +continued through St. Augustine, and finds its culmination in the great +Mediaeval group of Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, Hugh of St. Victor and +St. Thomas Aquinas. I do not know of any single book that epitomizes it +all in vital form, though Cardinal Mercier and Dr. De Wulf have written +much that is stimulating and helpful. I cannot help thinking that the +great demand today is for a compact volume that synthesizes the whole +magnificent system in terms not of history and scientific exegesis, but +in terms of life. Plato and Aristotle are so preserved to man, and the +philosophers of modernism also; it is only the magisterial and dynamic +philosophy of Christianity that is diffused through many works, some of +them still untranslated and all quite without coordination, save St. +Thomas Aquinas alone, the magnitude of whose product staggers the human +mind and in its profuseness defeats its own ends. We need no more +histories of philosophy, but we need an epitome of Christian philosophy, +not for students but for men. + +Such an epitome I am not fitted to offer, but there are certain rather +fundamental conceptions and postulates that run counter both to pagan +and to modern philosophy, the loss of which out of life has, I maintain, +much to do with our present estate, and that must be regained before we +can go forward with any reasonable hope of betterment. These I will try +to indicate as well as I can. + +Christian philosophy teaches, in so far as it deals with the +relationship between man and these divine forces that are forever +building, unbuilding and rebuilding the fabric of life, somewhat as +follows: + +The world as we know it, man, life itself as it works through all +creation, is the union of matter and spirit; and matter is not spirit, +nor spirit matter, nor is one a mode of the other, but they are two +different creatures. Apart from this union of matter and spirit there is +no life, in the sense in which we know it, and severance is death. "The +body" says St. Thomas, "is not of the essence of the soul; but the soul, +by the nature of its essence, can be united to the body, so that, +properly speaking, the soul alone is not the species, but the +composite", and Duns Scotus makes clear the nature and origin of this +common "essence" when he says there is "on the one hand God as Infinite +Actuality, on the other spiritual and corporeal substances possessing an +homogeneous common element." That is to say; matter and spirit are both +the result of the divine creative act, and though separate, and in a +sense opposed, find their point of origin in the Divine Actuality. + +The created world is the concrete manifestation of matter, through +which, for its transformation and redemption, spirit is active in a +constant process of interpenetration whereby matter itself is being +eternally redeemed. What then is matter and what is spirit? The question +is of sufficient magnitude to absorb all the time assigned to these +lectures, with the strong possibility that even then we should be +scarcely wiser than before. For my own purposes, however, I am content +to accept the definition of matter formulated by Duns Scotus, which +takes over the earlier definition of Plotinus, purges it of its elements +of pagan error, and redeems it by Christian insight. + +"Materia Primo Prima" says the great Franciscan, "is the indeterminate +element of contingent things. This does not exist in Nature, but it has +reality in so far as it constitutes the term of God's creative activity. +By its union with a substantial form it becomes endowed with the +attributes of quantity, and becomes Secundo Prima. Subject to the +substantial changes of Nature, it becomes matter as we see it." + +It is this "Materia Primo Prima," the term of God's creative activity, +that is eternally subjected to the regenerative process of spiritual +interpenetration, and the result is organic life. + +What is spirit? The creative power of the Logos, in the sense in which +St. John interprets and corrects the early, partial, and therefore +erroneous theories of the Stoics and of Philo. God the Son, the Eternal +Word of the Father, "the brightness of His glory and the figure of His +Substance." "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, +not made, being of one substance with the Father: by Whom all things +were made." Pure wisdom, pure will, pure energy, unconditioned by +matter, but creating life out of the operation of the Holy Spirit on and +through matter, and in the fullness of time becoming Incarnate for the +purpose of the final redemption of man. + +Now since man is so compact of matter and spirit, it must follow that he +cannot lay hold of pure spirit, the Absolute that lies beyond and above +all material conditioning, except through the medium of matter, through +its figures, its symbols, its "phantasms." Says St. Thomas: "From +material things we can rise to some kind of knowledge of immaterial +things, but not to the perfect knowledge thereof." The way of life +therefore, is the incessant endeavour of man sacramentally to approach +the Absolute through the leading of the Holy Spirit, so running parallel +to the slow perfecting of matter which is being effected by the same +operation. So matter itself takes on a certain sanctity, not only as +something susceptible, and in process, of perfection, but as the vehicle +of spirit and its tabernacle, since in matter spirit is actually +incarnate. + +From this process follows of necessity the whole sacramental system, in +theology, philosophy and operation, of Christianity. It is of its +_esse;_ its great original, revolutionary and final contribution to the +wisdom that man may have for his own, and it follows inevitably from the +basic facts of the Incarnation and Redemption, which are also its +perfect showing forth. + +Philosophically this is the great contribution of Christianity and for +fifteen centuries it was held implicitly by Christendom, yet it was +rejected, either wholly or in part, by the Protestant organizations that +came out of the Reformation, and it fell into such oblivion that outside +the Catholic Church it was not so much ignored or rejected as totally +forgotten. Recently a series of lectures were delivered at King's +College, London, by various carefully chosen authorities, all +specialists in their own fields, under the general title "Mediaeval +Contributions to Modern Civilization," and neither the pious author of +the address on "The Religious Contribution of the Middle Ages," nor the +learned author of that on "Mediaeval Philosophy," gave evidence of ever +having heard of sacramental philosophy. It may be that I do them an +injustice, and that they would offer as excuse the incontestible fact +that Mediaevalism contributed nothing to "modern civilization," either +in religion or philosophy, that it was willing to accept. + +The peril of all philosophies, outside that of Christianity as it was +developed under the Catholic dispensation, is dualism, and many have +fallen into this grave error. Now dualism is not only the reversal of +truth, it is also the destroyer of righteousness. + + +Sacramentalism is the anthithesis of dualism. The sanctity of matter as +the potential of spirit and its dwelling-place on earth; the humanizing +of spirit through its condescension to man through the making of his +body and all created things its earthly tabernacle, give, when carried +out into logical development, a meaning to life, a glory to the world, +an elucidation of otherwise unsolvable mysteries, and an impulse toward +noble living no other system can afford. It is a real philosophy of +life, a standard of values, a criterion of all possible postulates, and +as its loss meant the world's peril, so its recovery may mean its +salvation. + +Now as the philosophy of Christianity is purely and essentially +sacramental, so must be the operation of God through the Church. This +"Body of Christ" on earth is indeed a fellowship, a veritable communion +of the faithful, whether living or dead, but it is also a divine +organism which lives, and in which each member lives, not by the +preaching of the Word, not even by and through the fellowship in living +and worship, but through the ordained channels of grace known as the +Sacraments. In accordance with the sacramental system, every material +thing is proclaimed as possessing in varying degree sacramental +potentiality, while seven great Sacraments were instituted to be, each +after its own fashion, a special channel for the inflowing of the power +of the Divine Actuality. Each is a symbol, just as so many other created +things are, or may become, symbols, but they are also _realities,_ +veritable media for the veritable communications of veritable divine +grace. Here is the best definition I know, that of Hugh of St. Victor. +"A sacrament is the corporeal or material element set out sensibly, +representing from its similitude, signifying from its institution, and +containing from its sanctification, some invisible and spiritual grace." +This is the unvarying and invariable doctrine of historic Christianity, +and the reason for the existence of the Church as a living and +functioning organism. The whole sacramental system is in a sense an +extension, in time, of the Redemption, just as one particular Sacrament, +the Holy Eucharist, is also in a sense an extension of the Incarnation, +as it is also an extension, in time, of the Atonement, the Sacrifice of +Calvary. + +The Incarnation and the Redemption are not accomplished facts, completed +nineteen centuries ago; they are processes that still continue, and +their term is fixed only by the total regeneration and perfecting of +matter, while the Seven Sacraments are the chiefest amongst an infinity +of sacramental processes which are the agencies of this eternal +transfiguration. + +God the Son became Incarnate, not only to accomplish the redemption of +men as yet unborn, for endless ages, through the Sacrifice of Calvary, +but also to initiate and forever maintain a new method whereby this +result was to be more perfectly attained; that is to say, the Church, +working through the specific sacramental agencies He had ordained, or +was from time to time to ordain, through His everlasting presence in the +Church He had brought into being at Pentecost. He did not come to +establish in material form a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, or to provide +for its ultimate coming. He indeed established a Spiritual Kingdom, His +Church, "in the world, not of it," which is a very different matter +indeed, as the centuries have proved. His Kingdom is not of this world, +nor will it be established here. There has been no _absolute_ advance in +human development since the Incarnation. Nations rise and fall, epochs +wax and wane, civilizations grow out of savagery, crest and sink back +into savagery and oblivion. Redemption is for the individual, not for +the race, nor yet for society as a whole. Then, and only then, and under +that form, it is sure, however long may be the period of its +accomplishment. "Time is the ratio of the resistance of matter to the +interpenetration of spirit," and by this resistance is the duration of +time determined. When it shall have been wholly overcome then "time +shall be no more." + +See therefore how perfect is the correspondence between the Sacraments +and the method of life where they are the agents, and which they +symbolically set forth. There is in each case the material form and the +spiritual substance, or energy. Water, chrism, oil, the spoken word, the +touch of hands, the sign of the cross, and finally and supremely the +bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. Each a material thing, but each +representing, signifying and containing some gift of the Holy Spirit, +real, absolute and potent. So matter and spirit are linked together in +every operation of the Church, from the cradle to the grave, and man has +ever before him the eternal revelation of this linked union of matter +and spirit in his life, the eternal teaching of the honour of the +material thing through its agency and through its existence as the +subject for redemption. So also, through the material association, and +the divine condescension to his earthly and fallible estate (limited by +association with matter only to inadequate presentation) he makes the +Spirit of God his own, to dwell therewith after the fashion of man. + +And how much this explains and justifies: Man approaches, and must +always approach, spiritual things not only through material forms but by +means of material agencies. The highest and most beautiful things, those +where the spirit seems to achieve its loftiest reaches, are frequently +associated with the grossest and most unspiritual forms, yet the very +splendour of the spiritual verity redeems and glorifies the material +agency, while on the other hand the homeliness, and even animal quality, +of the material thing, brings to man, with a poignancy and an appeal +that are incalculable, the spiritual thing that, in its absolute +essence, would be so far beyond his ken and his experience and his +powers of assimilation that it would be inoperative. + +This is the true Humanism; not the fictitious and hollow thing that was +the offspring of neo-paganism and took to itself a title to which it had +no claim. Held tacitly or consciously by the men of the Middle Ages, +from the immortal philosopher to the immortal but nameless craftsman, it +was the force that built up the noble social structure of the time and +poised man himself in a sure equilibrium. Already it had of necessity +developed the whole scheme of religious ceremonial and given art a new +content and direction through its new service. By analogy and +association all material things that could be so used were employed as +figures and symbols, as well as agencies, through the Sacraments, and +after a fashion that struck home to the soul through the organs of +sense. Music, vestments, incense, flowers, poetry, dramatic action, were +linked with the major arts of architecture, painting and sculpture, and +all became not only ministers to the emotional faculties but direct +appeals to the intellect through their function as poignant symbols. So +art received its soul, and was almost a living creature until matter and +spirit were again divorced in the death that severed them during the +Reformation. Thereafter religion had entered upon a period of slow +desiccation and sterilization wherever the symbol was cast away with the +Sacraments and the faith and the philosophy that had made it live. The +bitter hostility to the art and the liturgies and the ceremonial of the +Catholic faith is due far less to ignorance of the meaning and function +of art and to an inherited jealousy of its quality and its power, than +it is to the conscious and determined rejection of the essential +philosophy of Christianity, which is sacramentalism. + +The whole system was of an almost sublime perfection and simplicity, and +the formal Sacraments were both its goal and its type. If they had been +of the same value and identical in nature they would have failed of +perfect exposition, in the sense in which they were types and symbols. +They were not this, for while six of the explicit seven were +substantially of one mode, there was one where the conditions that held +elsewhere were transcended, and where, in addition to the two functions +it was instituted to perform it gave, through its similitude, the clear +revelation of the most significant and poignant fact in the vast mystery +of life. I mean, of course, the Holy Eucharist, commonly called the +Mass. + +If matter is _per se_ forever inert, unchangeable, indestructible, then +we fall into the dilemma of a materialistic monism on the one hand, +Manichaean dualism on the other. Even under the most spiritual +interpretation we could offer--that, shall we say, of those today who +try to run with the hare of religion and hunt with the hounds of +rationalistic materialism--matter and spirit unite in man as body and +soul, and in the Sacraments as the vehicle and the essence, but +temporally and temporarily; doomed always to ultimate severance by death +in the one case, by the completion of the sacramental process in the +other. If, on the other hand, the object of the universe and of time is +the constant redemption and transformation of matter through its +interpenetration by spirit in the power of God the Holy Ghost, then we +escape the falsities of dualism, while in the miracle of the Mass we +find the type and the showing forth of the constant process of life +whereby every instant, matter itself is being changed and glorified and +transferred from the plane of matter to the plane of spirit. + +If this is so: if the Incarnation and the Redemption are not only +fundamental facts but also types and symbols of the divine process +forever going on here on earth, then, while the other Sacraments are in +themselves not only instruments of grace but manifestations of that +process whereby in all things matter is used as the vehicle of spirit, +the Mass, transcending them all, is not only Communion, not only a +Sacrifice acceptable before God, it is also the unique symbol of the +redemption and transformation of matter; since, of all the Sacraments, +it is the only one where the very physical qualities of the material +vehicle are transformed, and while the accidents alone remain, the +substance, finite and perishable, becomes, in an instant of time and by +the operation of God, infinite and immortal. + +It is to sacramentalism then that we must return, not only in religion +and its practice, but in philosophy, if we are to establish a firm +foundation for that newer society and civilization that are to help us +to achieve the "Great Peace." Antecedent systems failed, and subsequent +systems have failed; in this alone, the philosophy of Christianity, is +there safety, for it alone is consonant with the revealed will of God. + + + + +III + + +THE SOCIAL ORGANISM + +Society, that is to say, the association in life of men, women and +children, is the fundamental fact of life, and this is so whether the +association is of the family, the school, the community, industry or +government. Everything else is simply a series of forms, arrangements +and devices by which society works, either for good or ill. Man makes or +mars himself in and through society. He is responsible for his own soul, +but if he sees only this and works directly for his soul's salvation, +disregarding the society of which he is a part, he may lose it, whereas, +if he is faithful to society and honourably plays his part as a social +animal with a soul, he will very probably save it, even though he may +for the time have quite ignored its existence. Man is a member of a +family, a pupil under education, a worker and a citizen. In all these +relationships he is a part of a social group; he is also a component +part of the human race and linked in some measure to every other member +thereof whether living or dead. Into every organization or institution +in which he is involved during his lifetime--family, school, art or +craft, trade union, state, church--enters the social equation. If +society is ill organized either in theory or in practice, in any or all +of its manifestations, then the engines or devices by which it operates +will be impotent for good. Defective society cannot produce either a +good fundamental law, a good philosophy, a good art, or any other thing. +Conversely, these, when brought forth under an wholesome society, will +decay and perish when society degenerates. + +In its large estate, that is, comprehending all the minor groups, as a +nation, a people or an era, society is always in a state of unstable +equilibrium, tending either toward better or worse. It may indeed be of +the very essence of human life, but it is a plant of tender growth and +needs delicate nurture and jealous care; a small thing may work it +irreparable injury. It may reach very great heights of perfection and +spread over a continent, as during the European Middle Ages; it may sink +to low depths with an equal dominion, as in the second dark ages of the +nineteenth century. Sometimes little enclaves of high value hide +themselves in the midst of degradation, as Venice and Ireland in the +Dark Ages. Always, by the grace of God, the primary social unit, the +family may, and frequently does, achieve and maintain both purity and +beauty when the world without riots in ruin and profligacy. + +I have taken the problem of the organization of society as the first to +be considered, for it is fundamental. If society is of the wrong shape +it does not matter in the least how intelligent and admirable may be the +devices we construct for the operation of government or industry or +education; they may be masterly products of human intelligence but they +will not work, whereas on the other hand a sane, wholesome and decent +society can so interpret and administer clumsy and defective instruments +that they will function to admiration. A perfect society would need no +such engines at all, but a perfect society implies perfect individuals, +and I think we are now persuaded that a society of this nature is a +purely academic proposition both now and in the calculable future. What +we have to do is to take mankind as it is; made up of infinitely varied +personalities ranging from the idiot to the "super-man"; cruel and +compassionate, covetous and self-sacrificing, silly and erudite, cynical +and emotional, vulgar and cultured, brutal and fastidious, shameful in +their degradation and splendid in their honour and chivalry, and by the +franchise of liberty and the binding of law, facilitate in every way the +process whereby they themselves work out their own salvation. You cannot +impose morality by statute or guarantee either character or intelligence +by the perfection of the machine. Every institution, good or bad, is the +result of growth from many human impulses, not the creation of +autocratic fiat. But growth may be impeded, hastened, or suspended, and +the most that can be done is to offer incentives to action, remove the +obstacles to development, and establish conditions and influences that +make more easy the finding of the right way. + +Now it seems to me that the two greatest obstacles to the development of +a right society have been first, the enormous scale in which everything +of late has been cast, and second, that element in modern democracy +which denies essential differences in human character, capacity and +potential, and so logically prohibits social distinctions, and refuses +them formal sanction or their recognition through conferred honours. In +questioning the validity and the value of these two factors, imperialism +and social democracy, and in suggesting substitutes, I am, I suppose, +attacking precisely the two institutions which are today--or at all +events have been until very recently--held in most conspicuous honour by +the majority of people, but the question is at least debateable, and for +my own part I have no alternative but to assert their mistaken nature, +and to offer the best I can in the way of substitutes. + +The question of imperialism, of a gross and unhuman and therefore +absolutely wrong scale, is one that will enter into almost all of the +matters with which I propose to deal, certainly with industrialism, with +politics, with education, with religion, as well as with the immediate +problem of the social organism, for not only has it destroyed the human +scale in human life, and therefore brought it into the danger of +immediate destruction, but it has also been a factor in establishing the +quantitative standard in all things, in place of the qualitative +standard, and this, in itself, is simply the antecedent of well-merited +catastrophe. In considering the social organism, therefore, we must have +in mind that this is intimately affected by every organic institution +which man has developed and into which he enters in common with others +of his kind. + +The situation as it confronts us today is one in which man by his very +energy and the stimulus of those cosmic energies he has so astonishingly +mastered, has got far beyond his depth. I say man has mastered these +energies; yes, but this was true only of a brief period in the immediate +past. They now have mastered him. It is the old story of the +Frankenstein monster over again. Man is not omnipotent, he is not God. +There are limits beyond which he cannot go without coming in peril of +death. An isolated individual here and there may become super-man, +perhaps, though at grievous peril to his own soul, and it is conceivable +that to such an one it might be possible to live beyond the human scale, +though hardly. If one could envisage so awful a thing as a community +made up entirely of super-men, one might concede that here also the +human scale might be exceeded without danger of catastrophe. With +society as it is, and always will be, a welter of defectives and +geniuses in small numbers and a vast majority of just plain men, with +all that that implies, the breaking through into the imperial scale is +simply a letting in the jungle; walls and palings and stockades, the +delicate fabrics of architecture, the clever institutions of law, the +thin red line of the army, all melt, crumble, are overcome by the onrush +of primordial things, and where once was the white man's city is now the +eternal jungle, and the vines and thrusting roots and rank herbage blot +out the very memory of a futile civilization, while the monkey and the +jackal and the python come again into their heritage. + +Alexander and Caesar, Charles V and Louis XIV and Napoleon and Disraeli +and William III could function for a few brief years beyond the limits +of the human scale, though even they had an end, but you cannot link +imperialism and democracy without the certainty of an earlier and a more +ignominious fall. + +I have already spoken of the malignant and pathological quality of the +quantitative standard. It is indeed not only the nemesis of culture but +even of civilization itself. Out of this same gross scale of things come +many other evils; great states subsisting on the subjugation and +exploitation of small and alien peoples; great cities which when they +exceed more than 100,000 in population are a menace, when they exceed +1,000,000 are a crime; division of labour and specialization which +degrade men to the level of machines; concentration and segregation of +industries, the factory system, high finance and international finance, +capitalism, trades-unionism and the International, standardized +education, "metropolitan" newspapers, pragmatic philosophy, and churches +"run on business methods" and recruited by advertising and "publicity +agents." + +Greater than all, however, is the social poison that effects society +with pernicious anaemia through cutting man off from his natural social +group and making of him an undistinguishable particle in a sliding +stream of grain. Man belongs to his family, his neighbourhood, his local +trade or craft guild and to his parish church: the essence of wholesome +association is that a man should work with, through and by those whom he +knows personally--and preferably so well that he calls them all by their +first names. + +As a matter of fact, today he works with, through and by the individuals +whom he probably has never seen, and frequently would, as a matter of +personal taste, hesitate to recognize if he did see them. He belongs to +the "local" of a union which is a part of a labour organization which +covers the entire United States and is controlled in all essential +matters from a point from one hundred to two thousand miles away. He +votes for mayor with a group of men, less than one per cent of whom he +knows personally (unless he is a professional politician), with another +group for state officers, and with the whole voting population of the +United States, for President. If he goes to church in a city he finds +himself amongst people drawn from every ward and outlying district, if +he mixes in "society" he associates with those from everywhere, perhaps, +except his own neighbourhood. Only when he is in college, in his club or +in his secret society lodge or the quarters of his ward boss does he +find himself in intimate social relations with human beings of like mind +and a similar social status. He is a cog in a wheel, a thing, a point of +potential, a lonely and numerical unit, instead of a gregarious human +animal rejoicing in his friends and companions, and working, playing and +quarreling with them, as God made him and meant him to be and to do. + +Of course the result of this is that men are forced into unnatural +associations, many of which are purely artificial and all of which are +unsound. It is true that the trade union, the professional society, the +club are natural and wholesome expressions of common and intimate +interests, but they acquire a false value when they are not balanced and +regulated by a prior and more compelling association which cuts, not +vertically but horizontally through society, that is to say, the +neighbourhood or community group. The harsh and perilous division into +classes and castes which is now universal, with its development of +"class consciousness," is the direct and inevitable result of this +imperial scale in life which has annihilated the social unit of human +scale and brought in the gigantic aggregations of peoples, money, +manufacture and labourers, where man can no longer function either as a +human unit or an essential factor in a workable society. + +It is hard to see just how we are to re-fashion this impossible society +in terms even nearly approaching the normal and the human. It is +universal, and it is accepted by everyone as very splendid and quite the +greatest achievement of man. It is practically impossible for any one +today to conceive of a world where great empires, populous cities, mills +and factories and iron-works in their thousands, and employing their +millions through their billions of capitalization, where the stock +exchange and the great banking houses and the insurance companies and +the department stores, the nation-wide trade unions and professional +associations and educational foundations and religious corporations, do +not play their predominant part. Nevertheless they are an aggregation of +false values, their influence is anti-social, and their inherent +weakness was so obviously revealed through the War and the Peace that it +has generally escaped notice. + +There seem but two ways in which the true scale of life can be restored; +either these institutions will continue, growing greater and more +unwieldy with increasing speed until they burst in anarchy and chaos, +and after ruin and long rest we begin all over again (as once before +after the bursting of Roman imperialism), or we shall repeat history (as +we always do) only after another fashion and, learning as we always can +from the annals of monasticism, build our small communities of the right +shape and scale in the very midst of the imperial states themselves, so +becoming perhaps the leavening of the lump. This of course is what the +monasteries of St. Benedict did in the sixth century and those of the +Cluniacs and the Cistercians in the eleventh, and it is what the +Franciscans and Dominicans tried to do in the fourteenth century, and +failed because the fall of the cultural and historic wave had already +begun. + +The trouble today with nearly all schemes of reform and regeneration is +that they are infected with the very imperialism in scale that has +produced the conditions they would redeem. Socialism is now as +completely materialistic as the old capitalism, and as international in +its scope and methods. Anarchy is becoming imperial and magnificent in +its operations. Secular reformers must organize vast committees with +intricate ramifications and elaborate systems supported by "drives" for +money which must run into at least seven figures, and by vast and +efficient bureaus for propaganda, before they can begin operations, and +then the chief reliance for success is frequently placed on legislation +enacted by the highest lawmaking bodies in the land. Even religion has +now surrendered to the same obsession of magnitude and efficiency, and +nothing goes (or tries to, it doesn't always succeed) unless it is +conceived in gigantic "nation-wide" terms and is "put across" by +efficiency experts, highly paid organizers, elaborate "teams" of +propagandists and solicitors, and plenty of impressive advertising. A +good deal can be bought this way, but it will not "stay bought," for no +reform of any sort can be established after any such fashion, since +reform begins in and with the individual, and if it succeeds at all it +will be by the cumulative process. + +I shall speak of this element of scale in every succeeding lecture, for +it vitiates every institution we have. Here, where I am dealing with +society in itself, I can only say that I believe the sane and wholesome +society of the future will eliminate great cities and great corporations +of every sort. It will reverse the whole system of specialization and +the segregation and unification of industries and the division of +labour. It will build upward from the primary unit of the family, +through the neighbourhood, to the small, and closely knit, and +self-supporting community, and so to the state and the final unifying +force which links together a federation of states. In general it will be +a return in principle, though not in form, to the social organization of +a Mediaeval Europe before the extinction of feudalism on the Continent, +and the suppression of the monasteries and the enclosure of the common +lands in England. + +The grave perils of this false scale in human society have been +recognized by many individuals ever since the thing itself became +operative, and every Utopia conceived by man during the last two +centuries, whether it was theoretical or actually put into ephemeral +practice, has been couched in terms of revolt away from imperialism and +towards the unit of human scale. In every case however, the introduction +of some form of communism has been the ruin of those projects actually +materialized, for this in itself is imperialistic in its nature. +Communism implies the standard of the gross aggregate, the denial of +human differentiation and the quantitative standard, as well as the +elimination of private property and the negation of sacred +individuality. Its institution implies an almost immediate descent into +anarchy with a sequent dictatorship and autocracy, for it is the +reversal of the foundation laws of life. Such reversals cannot last, +nothing can last that is inimical to flourishing life; it may triumph +for a day but life itself sloughs it off as a sound body rids itself of +some foreign substance through the sore that festers, bursts and, the +septic conditions done away with, heals itself and returns to normal. + +Now the inhuman scale has produced one set of septic conditions in +society while what is commonly called "democratization" has produced +another. We have a bloated society, but also we have one in which a +false theory has grown up and been put in practice, in accordance with +which an uniformity of human kind has been assumed which never has +existed and does not now, and in the effort to enforce this false theory +the achievement of distinction has been impeded, leadership discouraged +and leaders largely eliminated, the process of leveling downward carried +to a very dangerous point, the sane and vital organization of society +brought near to an end and a peculiarly vicious scale and standard of +social values established. I have urged the return to human scale in +human associations, but this does not imply any admixture of communism, +which is its very antithesis, still less does it permit the retention of +the theoretical uniformity and the unescapable leveling process of +so-called democracy. + +Before the law all men are equal, that is, they are entitled to +even-handed justice. Before God all men are equal, that is, they are +granted charity and mercy which transcends the law, also they possess +immortal souls of equal value. Here their equality stops. In every other +respect they vary in character, capacity, intelligence and potentiality +for development along any or all these lines, almost beyond the limits +of computation. A sane society will recognize this, it will organize +itself accordingly, it will deny to one what it will concede to another, +it will foster emulation and reward accomplishment, and it will add +another category to those in which all men are equal, that is, the +freest scope for advancement, and the greatest facility for passing from +one social group into another, the sole test being demonstrated merit. + +I am prepared at this point to use the word "aristocracy" for we have +the thing even now, only in its worst possible form. The word itself +means two things: a government by the best and most able citizens and, +to quote a standard dictionary "Persons noted for superiority in any +character or quality, taken collectively." There is no harm here, but +the harm comes, and the odium also, and justly, when an aristocratic +government degenerates into an oligarchy of privilege without +responsibility, and when socially it is not "superiority in character or +quality" but political cunning, opulence and sycophancy that are the +touchstones to recognition and acceptance. The latter are the antithesis +of Christianity and common sense, the former is consonant with both and, +paradoxical as it may seem, it is also the fulfilling of the ideals of a +real democracy, since its honours and distinctions imply service, its +relations with those in other estates are reciprocal, it is not a closed +caste but the prize of meritorious achievement, and it is therefore +equality of opportunity, utilization of ability and the abolition of +privilege without responsibility. + +Men are forever and gloriously struggling onward towards better things, +but there is always the gravitational pull of original sin which +scientists denominate "reversion to type." The saving grace in the +individual is the divine gift of faith, hope and charity implanted in +every soul. These every man must guard and cherish for they are the way +of advancement in character. But society is man in association with men, +in a sense a new and complex personality, and the same qualities are as +necessary here as in the individual. Society, like man, may be said to +possess body, soul and spirit, and it must function vitally along all +these lines if it is to maintain a normal and wholesome existence. +Somewhere there must be something that achieves high ideals of honour, +chivalry, courtesy; that maintains right standards of comparative value, +and that guards the social organism as a whole from the danger of +surrender to false and debased standards, to plausible demagogues, and +to mob-psychology. + + +The greater the prevalence of democratic methods, the greater is the +danger of this surrender to propaganda of a thousand sorts and to the +dominance of the demagogue, and the existence of an estate fortified by +the inheritance of high tradition, measurably free from the necessity of +engaging too strenuously in the "struggle for life," guaranteed security +of status so long as it does not betray the ideals of its order, but +open to accessions from other estates on the basis of conspicuous merit +alone, such a force operating in society has proved, and will prove, the +best guardian of civilization as a whole and of the interests and +liberties of those who may rank in what are known as lower social +scales. + +But, it may be objected, such an institution as this has never existed. +Every political or social aristocracy in history has been mixed and +adulterated with bad characters and recreant representatives. There +never has been and never will be a perfect aristocracy. Quite true; +neither has there ever been a perfect democracy, or a perfect monarchy +for that matter. As men we work with imperfections, but we live by +faith, and our sole duty is to establish the highest ideals, and to +compass them, in so far as we may, with unfailing courage, patience and +steadfastness. The _ideal_ of democracy is a great ideal, but the +_working_ of democracy has been a failure because, amongst other things, +it has tried to carry on without the aid of true aristocracy. If the two +can be united, first in ideal and in theory, then in operation, our +present failure may be changed into victory. + +What, after all, does this imply, so far as the social organism is +concerned? It seems to me, something like this. First of all, +recognition of the fact that there are differences in individuals, in +strains of blood, in races, that cannot be overcome by any power of +education and environment, and can only be changed through very long +periods of time, and that these differences must work corresponding +differences in position, function and status in the social organism. +Second, that since society automatically develops an aristocracy of some +sort or other, and apparently cannot be stopped from doing this, it must +be protected from the sort of thing it has produced of late, which is +based on money, political expediency and the unscrupulous cleverness of +the demagogue, and given a more rational substitute in the shape of a +permanent group representing high character and the traditions of +honour, chivalry and courtesy. Third, that character and service should +be fostered and rewarded by that formal and august recognition, that +secure and unquestioned status, and those added opportunities for +service that will form a real and significant distinction. Finally, that +this order or estate must be able to purge itself of unworthy material, +and also must be freely open to constant accessions from without, +whatever the source, and for proved character and service. + +I fear I must argue this case of the inequality in individual potential, +that inequality that does not yield to complex education or favourable +environment, for it is fundamental. If it does not exist, then my +argument for the organization of society along lines that recognize and +regularize diversity of social status and functions, falls to the +ground. I affirm that, the doctrine of evolution and modern democratic +theory to the contrary, it does exist and that the mitigating influence +of education, environment and inherited acquired characters, is small at +best. + +Let us take the most obvious concrete examples. There are certain ethnic +units or races which for periods ranging from five hundred to two +thousand years have produced _character_, and through character the +great contributions that have been made to human culture and have been +expressed through men of distinction, dynamic force, and vivid +personality. Such, amongst many, are the Greeks, the Jews, the Romans, +the Normans, the Franks, the "Anglo-Saxons," and the Celts. There are +others that in all history have produced nothing. There are certain +family names which are a guarantee of distinction, dynamic force, and +vivid personality. There are thousands of these names, and they are to +be found amongst all the races that have contributed towards the +development of culture and civilization. On the other hand, there are +far more that have produced nothing distinctive, and possibly never +will. + +What is the reason for this? Is it the result of blind chance, of +accidents that have left certain races and families isolated in stagnant +eddies from which some sudden current of a whimsical tide might sweep +them out into the full flood of progress, until they then overtook and +passed their hitherto successful rivals, who, in their turn, would drift +off into progressive incompetence and degeneracy? Biology does not look +with enthusiasm on the methods of chance and accident. The choice and +transmission of the forty-eight chromosomes that give to each individual +his character-potential are probably in accordance with some obscure +biological law through which the unfathomable divine will operates. Now +these chromosomes may be selected and combined after a fashion, and with +a persistence of continuity, that would guarantee character-potential, +for good or for ill, through many generations, or they might be so +varied in their combinations that no distinct traits would be carried +over from one generation to another. As a matter of experience all these +three processes take place and are recorded in families of distinct +quality, good, bad and indifferent. If the character-potential is +predetermined, then manifestly education and environment can play only +the subordinate part of fostering its development or retarding it. + +In the same way the character and career of the various races of men are +determined by the potential inherent in the individuals and families +that compose them, and like them the races themselves are for long +periods marked by power and capacity or weakness and lack of +distinction. There are certain races, such as the Hottentot, the Malay, +the American Indian, and mixed bloods, as the Mexican peons and +Mongol-Slavs of a portion of the southeastern Europe, that, so far as +recorded history is concerned, are either static or retrogressive. There +are family units, poverty-stricken and incompetent, in Naples, Canton, +East Side New York; or opulent and aggressive in West Side New York, in +Birmingham, Westphalia, Pittsburgh, that are no more subject to the +cultural and character-creating influences of education and +environment--beyond a certain definite point--than are the amphibians of +Africa or the rampant weeds of my garden. + +This is a hard saying and a provocative. The entire course of democratic +theory, of humanitarian thought and of the popular type of scientific +speculation stands against it, and the Christian religion as well, +unless the statement itself is guarded by exact definitions. If the +contention of the scientific materialist were correct, and the thing +that makes man, and that Christians call the immortal soul, were but the +result of physical processes of growth and differentiation, then slavery +would be justifiable, and exploitation a reasonable and inevitable +process. Since, however, this assumption of materialism is untenable, +and since all men are possessed of immortal souls between which is no +distinction in the sight of God, the situation, regrettable if you like, +is one which at the same time calls for the exercise of a higher +humanitarianism than that so popular during the last generation, and as +well for a very drastic revision of contemporary political and social +and educational methods. + +The soul of the man is the localization of divinity; in a sense each man +is a manifestation of the Incarnation. Black or white, conspicuous or +obscure, intelligent or stupid, offspring of a creative race or bound by +the limitations of one that is static or in process of decay, there is +no difference in the universal claim to justice, charity, and +opportunity. The soul of a Cantonese river-man, of a Congo slave, of an +East Side Jew, is in itself as essentially precious and worth saving as +the soul of a bishop, of a descendant of a Norman viking or an Irish +king, or that of a volunteer soldier in the late armies of France or +Great Britain or the United States. + +Here lies absolute and final equality, and the State, the Law, the +Church are bound to guard this equality in the one case and the other +with equal force; indeed, those of the lower racial and family types +claim even more faithful guardianship than those of the higher, for they +can accomplish less for themselves and by themselves. But the +fundamental and inescapable inequality, in intellect, in character, and +in capacity, which I insist is one of the conditioning factors in life, +is vociferously denied, but ruthlessly enforced, by the people that will +be the first to denounce any restatement of what is after all no more +than a patent fact. + +A little less enthusiasm for shibboleths, and a little more intelligent +regard for history and palpable conditions, will show that the assumed +equality between men "on the strength of their manhood alone," the +sufficiency of education for correcting the accidental differences that +show themselves, and the scheme of life that is worked out along +democratic lines on the basis of this essential (or potential) equality, +are "fond things vainly imagined" which must be radically modified +before the world can begin a sane and wholesome building-up after the +great purgation of war. + +That equality between men which exists by virtue of the presence in each +of an immortal soul, involves an even distribution of justice and the +protection of law, without distinction of persons, and an even measure +of charity and compassion, but it does not involve the admission of a +claim to equality of action or the denial of varied status, since +race-values, both of blood and of the _gens_ enter in to establish +differences in character, in intelligence and in capacity which cannot +be changed by education, environment or heredity within periods which +are practical considerations with society. If we could still hold the +old Darwinian dogmas of the origin of species through the struggle for +existence and the survival of the fittest, and if the equally august and +authoritative dogma of the transmission by inheritance of acquired +characteristics were longer tenable, then perhaps we might invoke faith, +hope and patience and continue our generous method of imperilling +present society while we fixed our eyes on the vision of that to come +when environment, education and heredity had accomplished their perfect +work. Unfortunately--or perhaps fortunately--science is rapidly +reconsidering its earlier and somewhat hasty conclusions, and the +consensus of the most authoritative opinion seems to be that we must +believe these things no longer. Failing these premises, on which we have +laboured so long and so honestly and so sincerely, we are again thrown +back on the testimony of history and our own observation, and with this +reversal we also are bound to reconsider both our premises and the +constitution of those systems and institutions we have erected on them +as a foundation. + +The existence of a general law does not exclude exceptions. The fact +that in the case of human beings we have to take into consideration a +powerful factor that does not come into play in the domain of zoölogy +and botany--the immortal soul--makes impossible the drawing of exact +deductions from precedents therein established. This determining touch +of the divine, which is no result of biological processes, but stands +outside the limitations of heredity and environment and education, may +manifest itself quite as well in one class as in another, for "God is no +respecter of persons." As has been said before, there is no difference +in degree as between immortal souls. The point is, however, that each is +linked to a specific congeries of tendencies, limitations, effective or +defective agencies, that are what they have been made by the parents of +the race. These may be such as enable the soul to triumph in its earthly +experience and in its bodily housing; they may be such as will bring +about failure and defeat. It is not that the soul builds itself "more +stately mansions"; it is that these are provided for it by the physical +processes of life, and it is almost the first duty of man to see that +they are well built. + +Again, the soul is single and personal; as it is not a plexus of +inherited tendencies, so it is not heritable, and a great soul showing +suddenly in the dusk of a dull race contributes nothing of its essential +quality to the issue of the body it has made its house. The stews of a +mill town may suddenly be illuminated by the radiance of a divine soul, +to the amazement of profligate parents and the confusion of eugenists; +but unless the unsolvable mystery of life has determined on a new +species, and so by a sudden influx of the _élan vital_ cuts off the line +of physical succession and establishes one that is wholly new, then the +brightness dies away with the passing of the splendid soul, and the +established tendencies resume their sway. + +The bearing of this theory on the actions of society is immediate. +Through the complete disregard of race-values that has obtained during +the last two or three centuries, and the emergence and complete +supremacy in all categories of life of human groups of low potential, +civilization has been brought down to a level where it is threatened +with disaster. If recovery is to be effected and a second era of "dark +ages" avoided, there must be an entirely new evaluation of things, a new +estimate of the principles and methods that obtained under Modernism, +and a fearless adventure into fields that may prove not to be so +unfamiliar as might at first appear. + +Specifically, we must revise our attitude as to immigration, excluding +whole classes, and even races, that we have hitherto welcomed with open +hands from the disinterested offices of steamship companies: we must +control and in some cases prohibit, the mating of various racial stocks; +finally we must altogether disallow the practice of changing, by law, +one race-name for another. This process is one for which no excuse +exists and unless it can be brought to an end then, apart from certain +physical differentiations on which nature wisely insists, we have no +guaranty against the adulteration that has gone so far towards +substituting the mongrel for the pure racial type, while society is +bound to suffer still further deception and continued danger along the +lines that have recently been indicated by the transformation of +Treibitsch into "Lincoln," Braunstein into "Trotsky" and Samuels into +"Montague." + +For its fulfillment, then, and its regeneration, the real democracy +demands and must achieve the creation and cooperation of a real +aristocracy, not an aristocracy of material force either military or +civil, nor one of land owners or money-getters, nor one of artificial +caste. All these substitutes have been tried from time to time, in Rome, +China, Great Britain, the United States, and all have failed in the end, +for all have ignored the one essential point of _character_, without +which we shall continue to reproduce what we have at present; a thing as +insolent, offensive and tyrannical as the old aristocracies at their +worst, with none of the constructive and beneficent qualities of the old +aristocracies at their best. + +That race-values have much to do with this development of character I +believe to be true, but of far greater efficiency, indeed the actual +motive force, is the Christian religion, working directly on and through +the individual and using race as only one of its material means of +operation. Democracy has accomplished its present failure, not only +because it could not function without the cooperation of aristocracy, +but chiefly because, in its modernist form, it has become in fact +isolated from Christianity. All in it of good it derives from that +Catholic Christianity of the Middle Ages which first put it into +practice, all in it of evil it owes to a falling back on paganism and a +denial of its own parentage and rejection of its control. I shall deal +with this later in more detail; I speak of it now just for the purpose +of entering a caveat against any deduction from what I have said that +any natural force, of race or evolution or anything else, or any formal +institution devised by man, ever has, or ever can, serve in itself as a +way of social redemption. I am anxious not to overemphasize these things +on which the development of my argument forces me to lay particular +stress. + +For those who can go with me so far, the question will arise: How then +are we so to reorganize society that we may gain the end in view? It is +a question not easy of solution. Granted the fact of social +differentiation and the necessity of its recognition, how are we to +break down the wholly wrong system that now obtains and substitute +another in its place? It would be simple enough if within the period +allowed us by safety (apparently not any too extended at the present +moment) a working majority of men could achieve, in the old and exact +phraseology, that change of heart, that spiritual conversion, that would +bring back into permanent authority the supernatural virtues of faith, +hope, and charity, and that sense of right values in life, which +together make almost indifferent the nature of the formal devices man +creates for the organization of society. Certainly this is possible; +greater miracles have happened in history but, failing this, what? + +One turns of course by instinct to old models, but in this is the danger +of an attempt at an archaeological restoration, a futile effort at +reviving dead forms that have had their day. In principle, and in the +working as well, the old orders of chivalry or knighthood strongly +commend themselves, for here there was, in principle, both the +maintenance of high ideals of honour courtesy and _noblesse oblige,_ and +the rendering of chivalrous service. Chesterton has put it well in the +phrase "the giving things which cannot be demanded, the avoiding things +which cannot be punished." Moreover, admission to the orders of +knighthood was free to all provided there were that cause which came +from personal character alone. Knighthood was the crown of knightly +service and it was forfeited for recreancy. Is there not in this some +suggestion of what may again be established as an incentive and a +reward, and as well, as a vital agency for the reorganization of +society? + +Knighthood is personal, and is for the lifetime of the recipient. Is +there any value in an estate where status is heritable? If there is any +validity in the theory of varying and persistent race-values, it would +seem so, yet the idea of recognizing this excellence of certain families +and the reasonable probability of their maintaining the established +standard unimpaired, and so giving them a formal status, would no doubt +be repugnant to the vast majority of men in the United States. I think +this aversion is based on prejudice, natural but ill-founded. We resent +the idea of privilege without responsibility, as we should, but this, +while it was the condition of those aristocracies which were operative +at the time of the founding of the Republic, was opposed to the +Mediaeval, or true idea, which linked responsibility with privilege. The +old privilege is gone and cannot be restored, but already we have a new +privilege which is being claimed and enforced by proletarian groups, and +the legislative representatives of the whole people stand in such terror +of massed votes that they not only fail to check this astonishing and +topsy-turvy movement, but actually further its pretensions. The +"dictatorship of the proletariat" actually means the restoration of +privilege in a form far more tyrannical and monstrous than any ever +exercised by the old aristocracies of Italy, France, Germany and +England. Much recent legislation in Washington exempting certain +industrial and agricultural classes from the operation of laws which +bear heavily on other classes, and some of the claims and pretensions of +unionized labor, tend in precisely the same direction. + +It is not restoration of privilege I have in mind but rather in a sense +the prevention of this through the existence of a class or estate that +has a fixed status dependent first on character and service and then on +an assured position that is not contingent on political favour, the bulk +of votes, or the acquisition of an inordinate amount of money. Surety of +position works towards independence of thought and action and towards +strong leadership. It establishes and maintains certain high ideals of +honour, chivalry, and service as well as of courtesy and manners. If the +things for which the gentlemen, the knighthood and the nobility of +Europe during the Christian dispensation were responsible were stricken +from the record there would be comparatively little left of the history +of European culture and civilization. + +After all, is it merely sentimentalism and a sense of the picturesque +that leads us to look backward with some wistfulness to the days of +which the record is still left us in legends and fairy-tales and old +romance, when ignorance and vulgarity did not sit in high places even if +arrogance and pride and tyranny sometimes did, and when the profiteer +and the oriental financier and the successful politician did not +represent the distinction and the chivalry and the courtesy and the +honour of the social organism man builds for his own habitation? The +idea of knighthood still stirs us and the deeds of chivalry and the +courtesy and the honour of the social Knights of the Round Table, +Crusaders and knights errant, the quest of the Holy Grail, rescue and +adventure, the fighting with paynims and powers of evil, still stir our +blood and arouse in our minds strange contrasts and antinomies. Princes +and fair chatelaines in their wide domains with castle and chase and +delicate pleasaunce, liege-men bound to them by more than the feudal +ties of service. All the varied honours of nobility, vitalized by +significant ritual and symbolized by splendid and beautiful costumes. +Courts of Love and troubadours and trouvères, kings who were kings +indeed, with the splendour and courtesy and beneficence of their +courts--Louis the Saint and Frederic II, Edward III and King +Charles--above all the simple rank and high honour of the "gentleman," +the representative of a long line of honourable tradition, no casual and +purse-proud upstart, but of proud race and unquestioned status, proud +because it stood for certain high ideals of honour and chivalry and +loyalty, of courtesy and breeding and compassion. All these old things +of long ago still rouse in us answering humours, and there are a few of +us who can hardly see just why they are inconsistent with liberty and +opportunity, justice, righteousness and mercy. + +Somehow the last two generations, and especially the last ten years, +have revealed many things hitherto hidden, and as we envisage society as +it has come to be, estimating it by new-found standards and establishing +new comparisons through a recovery of a more just historical sense, the +question comes whether it is indeed more wholesome, more beautiful, more +normal to man as he is, than the older society that in varying forms but +always the same principle, had held throughout all history until the new +model came in, now hardly a century ago. + +I do not think this wistful and bewildered looking backward is +particularly due to a new desire for beauty, that comeliness of +condition that existed then and has now given place to gross ugliness +and ill-conditioned manners and ways. Rather it seems to me it is due to +a sense of irrationality and fundamental injustice in the present order, +coupled with a new terror of the proximate issue as this already is +revealing itself amongst many peoples. We resent the high estate, +purchasable and purchased, of the cynical intriguer and the vulgar +profiteer, of the tradesman in "big business," the cheap prophet and the +pathetic progeny of "successful men" fast reverting to type. We know our +city councils and our state legislatures and our houses of congress, we +know our newspapers, their standards and the motive powers behind them, +and what they record of the character and the doings of what they call +"society men and women." Above all we know that under the ancient +regime, in spite of manifold failures, shortcomings and disloyalty, +there was such a thing as a standard of honour, a principle of chivalry, +an impulse to unselfish service, a criterion of courtesy and good +manners; we look for these things now in vain, except amongst those +little enclaves of oblivion where the old character and old breeding +still maintain a fading existence, and as we consider what we have +become we sometimes wonder if the price we have paid for "democracy" was +not too extortionate. + +Above all, we are tempted to this query when we think of our vanishing +standards of right and wrong, of our progressive reversal of values, of +our diminishing stock of social character. We tore down in indignant +revolt the rotten fabric of a bad social system when it had so far +declined from its ideal and its former estate that it could no longer be +endured, and we made a new thing, full as we were with the fire of +desire for a new righteousness and a new system that would compass it. +Perhaps we did well, at least we hardly could have done anything else; +but now we are again in the position of our forefathers who saw things +as they were and acted with force and decision. There are as many counts +against our society of plutocrats, politicians and proletarians, mingled +in complete and ineffective confusion, as there were against the +aristocracies, so called, of the eighteenth century. Perhaps there are +more, at least many of them are different, but the indictment is no less +sweeping. + +Our plan, so generous, so liberal, so high-minded in many ways, has +failed to produce the results we desired, while it has worked itself out +to the point of menace. It is for us to see these facts clearly, and so +to act, and so promptly, that we may not have to await the destroying +force of cataclysm for the correction of our errors. + + + + +IV + + +THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM + +The solution of the industrial and economic problem that now confronts +the entire world with an insistence that is not to be denied, is +contingent on the restoration, first of all, of the holiness and the joy +of work. Labour is not a curse, it is rather one of the greatest of the +earthly blessings of man, provided its sanctity is recognized and its +performance is accomplished with satisfaction to the labourer. In work +man creates, whether the product is a bushel of potatoes from a space of +once arid ground, or whether it is the Taj Mahal, Westminster Abbey or +the Constitution of the United States, and so working he partakes +something of the divine power of creation. + +When work is subject to slavery, all sense of its holiness is lost, both +by master and bondman; when it is subject to the factory system all the +joy in labour is lost. Ingenuity may devise one clever panacea after +another for the salving work and for lifting the working classes from +the intolerable conditions that have prevailed for more than a century; +they will be ephemeral in their existence and futile in their results +unless sense of holiness is restored, and the joy in production and +creation given back to those who have been defrauded. + +Before Christianity prevailed slavery was universal in civilized +communities, labour, as conducted under that regime, was a curse, and +this at length came home to roost on the gaunt wreckage of imperialism. +Thereafter came slowly increasing liberty under the feudal system with +its small social units and its system of production for use not profits, +monasticism with its doctrine and practice of the sanctity of work, and +the Church with its progressive emancipation of the spiritual part of +man. Work was not easy, on the contrary it was very hard throughout the +Dark Ages and Mediaevalism, but there is no particular merit in easy +work. It was virtually free except for the labour and contributions in +kind exacted by the over-lord (less in proportion than taxes in money +have been at several times since) from the workers on the soil, and in +the crafts of every kind redeemed from undue arduousness by the joy that +comes from doing a thing well and producing something of beauty, +originality and technical perfection. + +The period during which work possessed the most honourable status and +the joy in work was the greatest, extends from the beginnings of the +twelfth century well into the sixteenth. In some centuries, and along +certain lines of activity, it continued much longer, notably in England +and the United States, but social and industrial conditions were rapidly +changing, the old aristocracy was becoming perverted, Lutheranisms, +Calvinism and Puritanism were breaking down the old communal sense of +brotherhood so arduously built up during the Middle Ages, capitalism was +ousting the trade and craft guilds of free labour and political +absolutism was crushing ever lower and lower a proletariat that was fast +losing the last vestiges of old liberty. The fact of slavery without the +name was gradually imposed on the agricultural classes, and after the +suppression of the monasteries in England work as work lost its sacred +character and fell under contempt. With the outbreak of industrialism in +the last quarter of the eighteenth century through the institution and +introduction of "labour-saving" machinery and the consequent division of +labour, the factory system, the joint-stock company and capitalism, this +new slavery was extended to industrial workers, and with its +establishment disappeared the element of joy in labour. + +For fifty years, about the blackest half-century civilization has had to +record, this condition of industrial slavery continued with little +amendment. Very slowly, however, the workers themselves, championed by +certain aristocrats like the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury against +professional Liberals like Cobden, Bright, and Gladstone in England, +began to loosen the shackles that bound them to infamous conditions, and +after the abrogation of laws that made any association of workingmen a +penal offense, the labour unions began to ameliorate certain of the +servile conditions under which for two generations the workman had +suffered. Since then the process of abolishing wage-slavery went slowly +forward until at last the war came not only to threaten its destruction +altogether but also to place the emancipated workers in a position where +they could dictate terms and conditions to capital, to employers, to +government and to the general public; while even now in many parts of +Europe and America, besides Russia, overt attempts are being made to +bring back the old slavery, only with the former bondsmen in supreme +dictatorship, the former employers and the "bourgeoisie" in the new +serfage. + +The old slavery is gone, but the joy in work has not been restored; +instead, those who have achieved triumphant emancipation turn from +labour itself with the same distaste, yes, with greater aversion than +that which obtained under the old régime. With every added liberty and +exemption, with every shortening of hours and increase of pay, +production per hour falls off and the quality of the output declines. +What is the reason for this? Is it due to the viciousness of the worker, +to his natural selfishness, greed and cruelty? I do not think so, but +rather that the explanation is to be found in the fact that the +industrial system of modernism has resulted in a condition where the joy +has been altogether cut out of labour, and that until this state of +things has been reversed and the sense of the holiness of work and the +joy of working have been restored, it is useless to look for workable +solutions of the labour problem. The _fact_ of industrial slavery has +been done away with but the sense of the servile condition that attaches +to work has been retained, therefore the idea of the dignity and +holiness of labour has not come back any more than the old joy and +satisfaction. Failing this recovery, no reorganization of industrial +relations, neither profit-sharing nor shop committees, neither +nationalization nor state socialism, neither the abolition of capital, +nor Soviets nor syndicalism nor the dictatorship of the proletariat will +get us anywhere. It is all a waste of time, and, through its ultimate +failure and disappointments, an intensification of an industrial +disease. + +Why is it that this is so? For an answer I must probe deep and, it may +seem, cut wildly. I believe it is because we have built up a system that +goes far outside the limits of human scale, transcends human capacity, +is forbidden by the laws and conditions of life, and must be abrogated +if it is not to destroy itself and civilization in the process. + +What, precisely has taken place? Late in the eighteenth century two +things happened; the discovery of the potential inherent in coal and its +derivative, steam, with electricity yet unexploited but ready to hand, +and the application of this to industrial purposes, together with the +initiating of a long and astounding series of discoveries and inventions +all applicable to industrial purposes. With a sort of vertiginous +rapidity the whole industrial process was transformed from what it had +been during the period of recorded history; steam and machinery took the +place of brain and hand power directly applied, and a revolution greater +than any other was effected. + +The new devices were hailed as "labour-saving" but they vastly increased +labour both in hours of work and in hands employed. Bulk production +through the factory system was inevitable, the result being an enormous +surplus over the normal and local demand. To organize and conduct these +processes of bulk-production required money greater in amount than +individuals could furnish; so grew up capitalism, the joint-stock +company, credit and cosmopolitan finance. To produce profits and +dividends markets must be found for the huge surplus product. This was +accomplished by stimulating the covetousness of people for things they +had not thought of, under normal conditions would not, in many cases, +need, and very likely would be happier without, and in "dumping" on +supposedly barbarous peoples in remote parts of the world, articles +alien to their traditions and their mode of life and generally +pestiferous in their influence and results. So came advertising in all +its branches, direct and indirect, from the newspaper and the bill-board +to the drummer, the diplomatic representative and the commercial +missionary. + +Every year saw some new invention that increased the product per man, +the development of some new advertising device, the conquest of some new +territory or the delimitation of some new "sphere of influence," and the +revelation of some new possibility in the covetousness of man. Profits +rose to new heights and accumulating dividends clamoured for new +opportunities for investment. Competition tended to cut down returns, +therefore labour was more and more sustained through diminished wages +and laws that savagely prevented any concerted effort towards +self-defense. Improvements in agricultural processes and the application +of machinery and steam power, together with bulk-production and +scientific localization of crops, threw great quantities of +farm-labourers out of work and drove them into the industrial towns, +while advances in medical science and in sanitation raised the +proportion of births to deaths and soon provided a surplus of potential +labour so that the operation of the "law of supply and demand," extolled +by a new philosophy and enforced by the new "representative" or +democratic and parliamentary government, resulted in an unfailing supply +of cheap labour paid wages just beyond the limit of starvation. + +At last there came evidences that the limit had been reached; the whole +world had been opened up and pre-empted, labour was beginning to demand +and even get more adequate wages, competition, once hailed as "the life +of trade" was becoming so fierce that dividends were dwindling. +Something had to be done and in self-defense industries began to +coalesce in enormous "trusts" and "combines" and monopolies. +Capitalization of millions now ran into billions, finance became +international in its scope and gargantuan in its proportions and +ominousness, advertising grew from its original simplicity and naïveté +into a vast industry based on all that the most ingenious professors +could tell of applied psychology, subsidizing artists, poets, men of +letters, employing armies of men along a hundred different lines, +expending millions annually in its operations, making the modern +newspaper possible, and ultimately developing the whole system of +propaganda which has now become the one great determining factor in the +making of public opinion. + +When the twentieth century opened, that industrialism which had begun +just a century before, had, with its various collateral developments, +financial, educational, journalistic, etc., become not only the greatest +force in society, but as well a thing operating on the largest scale +that man had ever essayed: beside it the Roman Empire was parochial. + +The result of this institution, conceived on such imperial lines, was, +in the field we are now considering, the total destruction of the sense +of the holiness of labour and of joy in work. It extended far beyond the +limits of pure industrialism; it moulded and controlled society in all +its forms, destroying ideals old as history, reversing values, confusing +issues and wrecking man's powers of judgment. Until the war it seemed +irresistible, now its weakness and the fallacy of its assumptions are +revealed, but it has become so absolutely a part of our life, indeed of +our nature, that we are unable to estimate it by any sound standards of +judgment, and even when we approximate this we cannot think in other +terms when we try to devise our schemes of redemption. Even the +socialist and the Bolshevik think in imperial terms when they try to +compass the ending of imperialism. + +Under this supreme system, as I see it, the two essential things I have +spoken of cannot be restored, nor could they maintain themselves if, by +some miracle, they were once re-established. The indictment cannot be +closed here. The actual condition that has developed from industrialism +presents certain factors that are not consonant with sane, wholesome and +Christian living. Not only has the unit of human scale in human society +been done away with, not only have the sense of the nobility of work and +joy in the doing been exterminated, but, as well, certain absolutely +false principles and methods have been adopted which are not susceptible +of reform but only of abolition. + +Of some of these I have spoken already; the alarming drift towards +cities, until now in the United States more than one-half the population +is urban; the segregation of industries in certain cities and regions; +the minute division of labour and intensive specialization; the abnormal +growth of a true proletariat or non-land-holding class; the flooding of +the country by cheap labour drawn from the most backward communities and +from peoples of low race-value. Out of this has arisen a bitter class +conflict and the ominous beginnings of a perilous class consciousness, +with actual warfare joined in several countries, and threatened in all +others where industrial civilization is prevalent. With this has grown +up an artificially stimulated covetousness for a thousand futile +luxuries, and a standard of living that presupposes a thousand +non-essentials as basic necessities. Production for profit, not use, +excess production due to machinery, efficient organization, and surplus +of labour, together with the necessity for marketing the product at a +profit, have produced a state of things where at least one-half the +available labour in the country is engaged in the production and sale of +articles which are not necessary to physical, intellectual or spiritual +life, while of the remainder, hardly more than a half is employed in +production, the others are devoting themselves to distribution and to +the war of competition through advertising and the capturing of trade by +ingenious and capable salesmen. It is a significant fact that two of the +greatest industries in the United States are the making of automobiles +and moving pictures. + +It is probably true to say that of the potential labour in the United +States, about one-fourth is producing those things which are physically, +intellectually and spiritually necessary; the remaining three-fourths +are essentially non-producers: they must, however, be housed, fed, +clothed, and amused, and the cost of this support is added to the cost +of the necessities of life. The reason for the present high cost of +living lies possibly here. + +Lest I be misunderstood, let me say here that under the head of +necessities of life I do not mean a new model automobile each year, +moving pictures, mechanical substitutes for music or any other art, and +the thousand catch-trade devices that appear each year for the purpose +of filching business from another or establishing a new desire in the +already over-crowded imaginations of an over-stimulated populace. +Particularly do I not mean advertising in any sense in which it is now +understood and practised. If, as I believe to be the case, production +for profit, rather than for use, the reversal of the ancient doctrine +that the demand must produce the supply, in favour of the doctrine that +the supply must foster the demand, is the foundation of our economic +error and our industrial ills, then it follows that advertising as it is +now carried on by billboards, circulars and newspapers, by drummers, +solicitors and consular agents, falls in the same condemnation, for +except by its offices the system could not have succeeded or continue to +function. It is bad in itself as the support and strength of a bad +institution, but its guilt does not stop here. So plausible is it, so +essential to the very existence of the contemporary régime, so knit up +with all the commonest affairs of life, so powerful in its organization +and broad in its operations, it has poisoned, and continues to poison, +the minds of men so that the headlong process of losing all sense of +comparative values is accelerated, while every instinctive effort at +recovery and readjustment is nullified. How far this process has gone +may be illustrated by two instances. It is only a few months ago that a +most respected clergyman publicly declared that missionaries were the +greatest and most efficient asset to trade because they were unofficial +commercial agents who opened up new and savage countries to Western +commerce through advertising commodities of which the natives had never +heard, and arousing in them a sense of acquisitiveness that meant more +wealth and business for trade and manufacture, which should support +foreign missions on this ground at least. More recently the head of an +advertising concern in New York is reported to have said: "It is +principally through advertising that we have arrived at the high degree +of civilization which this age enjoys, for advertising has taught us the +use of books and how to furnish our homes with the thousand and one +comforts that add so materially to our physical and intellectual +well-being. The future of the world depends on advertising. Advertising +is the salvation of civilization, for civilization cannot outlive +advertising a century." + +It is tempting to linger over such a delectable morsel as this, for even +if it is only the absurd and irresponsible output of one poor, foolish +man, it does express more or less what industrial civilization holds to +be true, though few would avow their faith so whole-heartedly. The +statement was made as propaganda, and propaganda is merely advertising +in its most insidious and dangerous form. The thing revealed its +possibilities during the war, but the black discredit that was then very +justly attached to it could not prevail against its manifest potency, +and it is now universally used after the most comprehensive and +frequently unscrupulous fashion, with results that can only be perilous +in the extreme. The type and calibre of mind that has now been released +from long bondage, and by weight of numbers is now fast taking over the +direction of affairs, is curiously subservient to the written word, and +lacking a true sense of comparative values, without effective leadership +either secular or religious, is easily swayed by every wind of doctrine. +The forces of evil that are ever in conflict with the forces of right +are notoriously ingenious in making the worse appear the better cause, +and with every desire for illumination and for following the right way, +the multitude, whether educated or illiterate, fall into the falsehoods +of others' imaginings. Money, efficiency, an acquired knowledge of mob +psychology, the printing press and the mail service acting in alliance, +and directed by fanatical or cynical energy, form a force of enormous +potency that is now being used effectively throughout society. It is +irresponsible, anonymous and pervasive. Through its operation the last +barriers are broken down between the leadership of character and the +leadership of craft, while all formal distinctions between the valuable +and the valueless are swept away. + +I have spoken at some length of this particular element in the present +condition of things, because in both its aspects, as the support of our +present industrial and economic system and as the efficient moulder of a +fluid and unstable public opinion, it is perhaps the strongest and most +subtle force of which we must take account. + +With a system so prevalent as imperial industry, so knit up with every +phase of life and thought, and so determining a factor in all our +concepts, united as it is with two such invincible allies as advertising +and propaganda, it is inconceivable that it should be overthrown by any +human force from without. Holding it to be essentially wrong, it seems +to me providential that it is already showing signs of falling by its +own weight. Production of commodities has far exceeded production of the +means of payment, and society is now running on promises to pay, on +paper obligations, on anticipations of future production and sale, on +credit, in a word. The war has enormously magnified this condition until +an enforced liquidation would mean bankruptcy for all the nations of the +earth, while the production of utilities is decreasing in proportion to +the production of luxuries, labour is exacting increasing pay for +decreasing hours of work and quality of output, and the enormous +financial structure, elaborately and ingeniously built up through +several generations, is in grave danger of immediate catastrophe. The +whole world is in the position of an insolvent debtor who is so deeply +involved that his creditors cannot afford to let him go into bankruptcy, +and so keep him out of the Poor Debtor's Court by doling out support +from day to day. Confidence is the only thing that keeps matters going; +what happens when this is lost is now being demonstrated in many parts +of Europe. The optimist claims that increased production, coupled with +enforced economy, will produce a satisfactory solution, but there is no +evidence that labour, now having the whip-hand, will give up its present +advantage sufficiently to make this possible; even if it did, payment +must be in the form of exchange or else in further promises to pay, +while the capacity of the world for consumption is limited somewhere, +though thus far "big business" has failed to recognize this fact. At +present the interest charges on debts, both public and private, have +reached a point where they come near to consuming all possible profits +even from a highly accelerated rate of production. Altogether it is +reasonable to assume that the present financial-industrial system is +near its term for reasons inherent in itself, let alone the possibility +of a further extension of the drastic and completely effective measures +of destruction that are characteristics of Bolshevism and its +blood-brothers. + +Assuming that this is so, two questions arise: what is to take the place +of imperial industry, and how is this substitution to be brought about? + +I think the answer to the first is: a social and industrial system based +on small, self-contained, largely self-sufficing units, where supply +follows demand, where production is primarily for use not profit, and +where in all industrial operations some system will obtain which is more +or less that of the guilds of the Middle Ages. I should like to go into +this a little more in detail before trying to answer the second +question. + +The normal social unit is a group of families predominantly of the same +race, territorially compact, of substantially the same ideals as +expressed in religion and the philosophy of life, and sufficiently +numerous to provide from within itself the major part of those things +which are necessary to physical, intellectual and spiritual well-being. +It should consist of a central nucleus of houses, each with its garden, +the churches, schools and public buildings that are requisite, the +manufactories and workshops that supply the needs of the community, the +shops for sale of those things not produced at home, and all necessary +places of amusement. Around this residential centre should be sufficient +agricultural land to furnish all the farm products that will be consumed +by the community itself. The nucleus of habitation and industry, +together with the surrounding farms, make up the social unit, which is +to the fullest possible degree, self-contained, self-sufficient and +self-governing. + +Certain propositions are fundamental, and they are as follows: Every +family should own enough land to support itself at need. The farms +included in the unit must produce enough to meet the needs of the +population. Industry must be so organized that it will normally serve +the resident population along every feasible line. Only such things as +cannot be produced at home on account of climatic or soil limitations +should be imported from outside. All necessary professional services +should be obtainable within the community itself. All financial +transactions such as loans, credits, banking and insurance should be +domestic. Surplus products, whether agricultural, industrial or +professional, should be considered as by-products, and in no case should +the producing agency acquire such magnitude that home-consumption +becomes a side issue and production for profit take the place of +production for use. + +All this is absolutely opposed to our present system, but our present +system is wasteful, artificial, illogical, unsocial, and therefore +vicious. I have said enough as to the falsities, the dangers and the +failures of bulk-production through the operations of capitalism, the +factory system and advertising, but its concomitant, the segregation of +industries, is equally objectionable. To ship hogs 1,500 miles to be +slaughtered and packed in food form, and then ship this manufactured +product back to the source from which the raw material came; to feed a +great city with grain, potatoes and fruits coming from 1,000 to 3,000 +miles away, and vegetables from a distance of several hundred miles, +while the farms within a radius of fifty miles are abandoned and barren; +to make all the shoes for the nation in one small area, to spin the wool +and cotton and weave the cloth in two or three others; to make the +greater part of the furniture in one state, the automobiles in a second +and the breakfast food in a third, is so preposterous a proposition that +it belongs in Gulliver's Travels, not in the annals of a supposedly +intelligent people. The only benefit is that which for a time accrued to +the railways, which carted raw materials and finished products back and +forth over thousands of miles of their lines, the costs of shipment and +reshipment being naturally added to the price to the consumer. The +penalties for this uneconomic procedure were borne by society at large, +not only in the increased costs but through the abnormal communities, +each with its tens of thousands of operatives all engaged in the same +work and generally drawn from foreign races (with the active +co-operation of the steamship lines), and the permanent dislocation of +the labour supply, together with the complete disruption of the social +synthesis. + +With production for profit and segregation of industries has come an +almost infinitesimal division and specialization of labour. Under a +right industrial system this would be reduced, not magnified. The +dignity of labour and the joy of creation demand that in so far as +possible each man should carry through one entire operation. This is of +course now, and always has been under any highly developed civilization, +impossible in practice, except along certain lines of art and +craftsmanship. The evils of the existing system can in a measure be done +away with the moment production for use is the recognized law, for it is +only in bulk-production that this intensive specialization can be made +to pay. Bulk-production there will always be until, and if, the world is +reorganized on the basis of an infinite number of self-contained social +units, but in the ideal community--and I am dealing now with ideals--it +would not exist. + +Allied with this is the whole question of the factory method and the use +and misuse of machinery. It seems to me that the true principle is that +machinery and the factory are admissible only when so employed they +actually do produce, in bulk operations, a better product, and with less +labour, than is possible through hand work. Weaving, forging and all +work where human action must be more or less mechanical, offer a fair +field for the machine and the factory, but wherever the human element +can enter, where personality and the skilled craft of the hand are given +play, the machine and the factory are inadmissible. The great city, +creation of "big business," segregation of industries, advertising, +salesmanship and a hundred other concomitants of modernism, have built +up an abnormal and avaricious demand for bulk-production along lines +where the handicraft should function. It becomes necessary--let us +say--to provide a million dollars worth of furniture for a ten million +dollar hotel (itself to be superseded and scrapped in perhaps ten years) +and naturally only the most intensive and efficient factory system can +meet this demand. Rightly, however, the furniture of a community should +be produced by the local cabinet makers, and so it should be in many +other industries now entirely taken over by the factory system. + +For the future then we must consciously work for the building upward +from primary units, so completely reversing our present practice of +creating the big thing and fighting hopelessly to preserve such small +and few doles of liberty and personality as may be permitted to filter +downward from above. This is the only true democracy, and the thing we +call by the name is not this, largely because we have bent our best +energies to the building up of vast and imperial aggregates which have +inevitably assumed a complete unity in themselves and become dominating, +tyrannical and ruthless forces that have operated regardless of the +sound laws and wholesome principles of a right society. Neither the +vital democracy of principle nor the artificial democracy of practice +can exist in conjunction with imperialism, whether this is established +in government, in industry, in trade, in society or in education. + +If we can assume, then, the gradual development of a new society in +which these principles will be carried out, a society that is made up of +social units of human scale, self-contained, self-supporting and +self-governed, where production is primarily for use not profit, and +where bulk-production is practically non-existent, the sub-division of +labour reduced to the lowest practicable point, machinery employed to a +much less extent than now, and the factory system abolished, what +organic form will labour take on in place of that which now obtains? It +is possible to forecast this only in the most general terms, for life +itself must operate to determine the lines of development and dictate +the consequent forms. If we can acquire a better standard of comparative +values, and with a clearer and more fearless vision estimate the rights +and wrongs of the contemporary system, rejecting the ill thing and +jealously preserving, or passionately regaining, the good, we shall be +able to establish certain broad, fundamental and governing principles, +and doing this we can await in confidence the evolution of the organic +forms that will be the working agencies of the new society. + +I have tried to indicate some of the basic principles of a new society. +The operating forms, so far as industry is concerned, will, I think, +follow in essential respects the craft-guilds of the Middle Ages. They +will not be an archaeological restoration, as some of the English +protagonists of this great revolution seem to anticipate, they will be +variously adapted to the peculiar conditions of a new century, but the +basic principles will be preserved. Whatever happens, I am sure it will +not be either a continuation of the present system of capitalism and +profit-hunting, or nationalization of industries, or state socialism in +any form, or anything remotely resembling Bolshevism, syndicalism or a +"dictatorship of the proletariat." Here, as in government, education and +social relations, the power and the authority of the state must decline, +government itself withdrawing more and more from interference with the +operation of life, and liberty find its way back to the individual and +to the social and economic groups. We live now under a more tyrannical +and inquisitorial regime, in spite of (partly perhaps because of) its +democratic forms and dogmas, than is common in historical records. +Nationalization or state socialism would mean so great a magnifying of +this condition that existence would soon become both grotesque and +intolerable. We must realize, and soon, that man may lose even the last +semblance of liberty, as well under a nominal democracy as under a +nominal despotism or theocracy. + +The guild system was the solution of the industrial problem offered and +enforced by Christianity working through secular life; it presupposed +the small social and industrial unit and becomes meaningless if +conceived in the gigantic and comprehensive scale of modern +institutions. "National guilds" is a contradiction in terms: it takes on +the same element of error that inheres in the idea of "one big union." +In certain respects the Christian guild resembled the modern trade +union, but it differed from it in more ways, and it seems to be true +that wherever this difference exists the guild was right and the union +is wrong. Community of fellowship and action amongst men of each craft +trade or calling is essential under any social system, good or bad, and +it would be inseparable from the better society that must sometime grow +up on the basis of the unit of human scale, for these autonomous groups, +in order to furnish substantially all that their component parts could +require, would have to be of considerable size as compared with the +little farming villages of New England, though in contrast with the +great cities of modernism they would be small indeed. In these new +"walled towns" there would be enough men engaged in agriculture, in the +necessary industrial occupations, in trade and in the professions to +form many guilds of workable size, and normally these guilds would +neither contain members of two or more professions or occupations, nor +those from outside the community itself. The guild cannot function under +intensive methods of production or where production is primarily for +profit, or where the factory system prevails, or where capitalism is the +established system, or under combinations, trusts or other devices for +the establishing and maintenance of great aggregates tending always +towards monopoly. However much we may admire the guild system and desire +its restoration, we may as well recognize this fact at once. The +imperial scale must go and the human scale be restored before the guild +can come back in any general sense. + +I am assuming that this will happen, either through conscious action on +the part of the people or as the result of catastrophe that always +overtakes those who remain wedded to the illusions of falsity. On this +assumption what are these enduring principles that will control the +guild system of industry in the new State, however may be its form? + +The answer is to be found in the old guilds, altars, shrines, vestments +and sacred vessels were given in incredible quantities for the +furnishing and embellishment of the chapel or church; funds also for the +maintenance of priestly offices especially dedicated to the guild. + +Closely allied with the religious spirit was that of good-fellowship and +merrymaking. Every sort of feast and game and pageant was a part of the +guild system, as it was indeed of life generally at this time when men +did not have to depend upon hired professional purveyors of amusement +for their edification. What they wanted they did themselves, and this +community in worship and community in merrymaking did more even than the +merging of common material interests, to knit the whole body together +into a living organism. + +In how far the old system can be revived and put into operation is a +question. Certainly it cannot be adopted as a fad and imposed on an +unwilling society as a clever archaeological restoration. It will have +to grow naturally out of life itself and along lines at present hardly +predicable. There are many evidences that just this spontaneous +generation is taking place. The guild system is being preached widely in +England where the defects of the present scheme are more obvious and the +resulting labour situation--or rather social situation--is more fraught +with danger than elsewhere, and already the restoration seems to have +made considerable headway. I am convinced, however, that the vital +aspects of the case are primarily due to the interior working of a new +spirit born of disillusionment and the undying fire in man that flames +always towards regeneration; what the ardent preaching of the +enthusiastic protagonists of the crusade best accomplishes is the +creation in the minds of those not directly associated with the movement +of a readiness to give sympathy and support to the actual accomplishment +when it manifests itself. Recently I have come in contact here in +America with several cases where the workmen themselves have broken away +from the old ways and have actually established what are to all intents +and purposes craft-guilds, without in the least realizing that they were +doing this. + +I think the process is bound to continue, for the old order has broken +down and is so thoroughly discredited it can hardly be restored. If time +is granted us, great things must follow, but it is increasingly doubtful +if this necessary element of time can be counted on. Daily the situation +grows more menacing. Capital, which so long exploited labour to its own +fabulous profit, is not disposed to sit quiet while the fruits of its +labours and all prospects of future emoluments are being dissipated, and +it is hard at work striving to effect a "return to normalcy." In this it +is being unconsciously aided by the bulk of union labour which, +encouraged by the paramount position it achieved during the war, +influenced by an avarice it may well have learned from its former +masters, as narrow in its vision as they, and increasingly subservient +to a leadership which is frequently cynical and unscrupulous and always +of an order of character and intelligence which is tending to lower and +lower levels, is alienating sympathy and bringing unionism into +disrepute. In the United States the tendency is steadily towards a very +dangerous reactionism, with a corresponding strengthening of the radical +element which aims at revolution, and that impossible thing, a +proletarian dictatorship. It is this latter which is rampant and at +present unchecked in Europe, and this also is a constant menace to the +success of those sane and righteous movements which take their lead from +the guild system of the Middle Ages. A third danger, but one which is +constantly on the decline at present, partly because of the general +disrepute of governments and partly because of the enormous accessions +of power now accruing both to reactionism and radical revolutionism, or +"Bolshevism," is state socialism or nationalization, which leaves +untouched all the fatal elements in industrialism while it changes only +the agents of administration. The complete collapse of able and +constructive and righteous leadership, which is one of the startling +phenomena of modernism, has left uncontrolled the enormous energy that +has been released during the last three generations, and this is working +blindly but effectively towards a cataclysm so precipitate and +comprehensive that it is impossible not to fear that it may determine +long before the sober and informed elements in society have accomplished +very much in the recovery and establishment of sound and righteous +principles and methods. + +Of course we can compass whichever result we will. We may shut our eyes +to the omens and let matters drift to disaster, or we may take thought +and council and avert the penalty that threatens us; the event is in our +own hands. It is as criminal to foresee and predict only catastrophe as +it is to compass this through lethargy, selfishness and illusion. We are +bound to believe that righteousness will prevail, even in our own time, +and believing this, what, in general terms will be the construction of +the new system that must take the place of industrialism? + +I have already indicated what seem to me the fundamental ideas as: the +small social unit that is self-sustaining; production primarily for use, +coöperation in place of competition; a revived guild system with the +abolition of capitalism, exploitation and intensive specialization as we +now know these dominant factors in modern civilization. In the +application of these principles there are certain innovations that will, +I think, take place, and these may be listed somewhat as follows: + +Land holding will become universal and the true proletariat or landless +class will disappear. It may be that the holding of land will become a +prerequisite to active citizenship. Industrial production being for use +not profit, the great city becomes a thing of the past, and life is +rendered simpler through the elimination of a thousand useless and +vicious luxuries; those employed in mechanical industries will be +incalculably fewer than now, while those that remain will give only a +portion of their time to industrial production, the remainder being +available for productive work on their own gardens and farms. The +handicrafts will be restored to their proper place and dignity, taking +over into creative labour large numbers of those who otherwise would be +sacrificed to the factory system. Where bulk production, as in weaving +and the preparation and manufacturing of metals, is economical and +unavoidable and carried on by factory methods, these manufactories will +probably be taken over by the several communities (not by the state as a +whole) and administered as public institutions for the benefit of the +community and under conditions and regulations which ensure justice and +well-being to the employees. All those in any community engaged in a +given occupation, as for example, building, will form one guild made up +of masters, journeymen and apprentices, with the same principles and +much the same methods as prevailed under the ancient guild system. +Fluctuating scales of prices determined by fluctuating conditions of +competition, supply and demand, and power of coercion, will give place +to "the fair price" fixed by concerted community action and revised from +time to time in order to preserve a right balance with the general scale +of cost of raw materials and cost of living. A maximum of returns in the +shape of profits or dividends will be fixed by law. The community itself +will undertake the furnishing of credits, loans and necessary capital +for the establishing of a new business, charging a small rate of +interest and maintaining a reserve fund to meet these operations. +Private banking, insurance and the loaning of money on collateral will +cease to exist. + +I dare say this will all sound chimerical and irrational in the extreme; +I do not see it in that light. Its avowed object is the supersession of +"big business" in all its phases by something that comes down to human +scale. It aims to reduce labour and divide it more evenly by making the +great mass of non-producers--those engaged in distribution, +salesmanship, advertising, propaganda, and the furnishing of things +unnecessary to the bodily, intellectual and spiritual needs of +man--actual producers and self-supporting to a very large extent. It +aims at restoring to work some sense of the joy in creation through +active mind and hand. It aims at the elimination of the parasitic +element in society and of that dangerous factor which subsists on wealth +it acquires without earning, and by sheer force of its own opulence +dominates and degrades society. It does not strike at private ownership, +but rather exalts, extends and defends this, but it _does_ cut into all +the theories and practices of communism and socialism by establishing +the principle and practice of fellowship and coöperation. Is this +"chimerical and irrational"? + +Meanwhile the "walled towns" do not exist and may not for generations. +"Big business" is indisposed to abrogate itself. Trade unionism is +fighting for its life and thereafter for world conquest, while the +enmity between capital and labour increases, with no evidence that a +restored guild system is even approximately ready to take its place. +Strikes and lockouts grow more and more numerous, and wider and more +menacing in their scope. The day of the "general strike" has only been +delayed at the eleventh hour in several countries, and a general strike, +if it can hold for a sufficient period, means, where-ever it occurs and +whenever it succeeds, the end of civilization and the loosing of the +floods of anarchy. There is hardly time for us patiently to await the +slow process of individual and corporate enlightenment or the +spontaneous development of the autonomous communities which, if they +were sufficient in number, would solve the problem through eliminating +the danger. What then, in the premises, can we do? + +There are of course certain concrete things which might help, as for +instance the further extension and honest trying out of the "Kansas +plan" for regulating industrial relations; the forming of "consumers +leagues," and all possible support and furtherance of coöperative +efforts of every sort. There are further possibilities (perhaps hardly +probabilities) of controlling stock issues and stock holdings so that +dividends do not have to be paid on grossly inflated capitalization, and +fixing the maximum of dividends payable to non-active stockholders. +Equally desirable but equally improbable, is the raising of the level of +leadership in the labour unions so that these valuable institutions may +no longer stultify themselves and wreck their own cause by their unjust +and anti-social regulations as to apprentices, control of maximum output +and its standard of quality, division of labour with ironclad +inhibitions against one man doing another's work and against one man +doing what six men can do less well, and as to the obligation to strike +on order when no local or personal grievance exists. Most useful of all +would be a voluntary renunciation, on the part of the purchasing public, +of nine-tenths of the futile luxuries they now insanely demand, coupled +with the production by themselves of some of the commodities which are +easily producable; in other words, establishing some measure of +self-support and so releasing many men and women from the curse of +existence under factory conditions and giving them an opportunity of +living a normal life under self-supporting circumstances. This, coupled +with a fostering of the "back to the farm" movement, and the development +of conditions which would make this process more practicable and the +life more attractive, would do much, though in small ways, towards +producing a more wholesome and less threatening state of affairs. + +Back of the whole problem, however, lies a fallacy in our conception of +existence that must be eliminated before even the most constructive +panaceas can possibly work. I mean the whole doctrine of natural rights +which has become the citadel of capitalism in all its most offensive +aspects, and of labour in its most insolent assumptions. The "rights" of +property, the "right" to strike, the "right" to collective bargaining, +the "right" to shut down an essential industry or to "walk out" and then +picket the place so that it may not be reopened, the "right" to vote and +hold office and do any fool thing you please so long as it is within the +law, these are applications of what I mean when I speak of a gross +fallacy that has come into being and has stultified our intelligence +while bringing near the wrecking of our whole system. + +Neither man nor his community possesses any _absolute_ rights; they are +all conditioned on how they are exercised. If they are not so +conditioned they become privilege, which is a right not subject to +conditions, and privilege is one of the things republicanism and +democracy and every other effort towards human emancipation have set +themselves up to destroy. Even the "right to life, liberty and the +pursuit of happiness" is conditioned by the manner of use, and the same +is true of every other and unspecified right. I do not propose to speak +here of more than one aspect of this self-evident truth, but the single +instance I cite is one that bears closely on the question of our +industrial and economic situation; it is the responsibility to society +of property or capital on the one hand and of labour on the other, when +both invoke their "rights" to justify them in oppressing the general +public in the pursuit of their own natural interests. + +During the Middle Ages, just as the political theory maintained that +while a king ruled by divine right, this right gave him no authority to +govern wrong, so the social theory held that while a man had a right to +private property he had no right to use it against society, nor could +the labourer use his own rights to the injury of the same institution. +Power, property and labour must be used as a _function_, i.e., "an +activity which embodies and expresses the idea of social purpose." +Unless I am mistaken, this is at the basis of our "common law." + +As Mediaevalism gave place to the Renaissance this Christian idea was +abandoned, and increasingly the obligation was severed from the right, +which so became that odious thing, privilege. Intolerable in its +injustice and oppression, this privilege, which by the middle of the +eighteenth century had become the attribute of the aristocracy, was +completely overthrown, in France first of all, and a new doctrine of +rights was enunciated and put in operation. Unfortunately the result was +in essence simply a transforming of privilege from one body to another, +for the old conception of social purpose, as the necessary concomitant +of acknowledged rights, did not emerge from the shadows of the Middle +Ages; it had been too long forgotten. The new "rights" were exclusively +individualistic, in practice, though in the minds of the idealists who +formulated them, they had their social aspect. Their promulgation +synchronized with the sudden rise and violent expansion of +industrialism, and as one country after another followed the lead of +England in accepting the new system, they hardened into an iron-clad +scheme for the defence of property and the free action of the holders +and manipulators of property. Backed by the economic philosophy of +Locke, Adam Smith, Bentham and the Manchester School, generally, and the +evolutionary theories of the exponents of Darwinism, and abetted by an +endless series of statutes, the idea of the exemption of property +holders from any responsibility to society for the use of their +property, became a fixed part of the mental equipment of modernism. +Precisely the same thing happened politically and socially. Rights were +personal and implied no necessary obligation to society as a whole; they +were personal attributes and as such to be defended at all costs. + +Now the result of this profound error as to the existence, nature and +limitation of these personal rights has meant simply the destruction of +a righteous and unified society which works by coöperation and +fellowship, and the substitution of individuals and corporate bodies who +work by competition, strife and mutual aggression towards the attainment +of all they can get under the impulse of what was once praised as +"enlightened self interest." In other words--war. The conflict that +began in 1914 was not a war hurled into the midst of a white peace, it +was only a military war arising in the centre of a far greater social +war, for there is no other word that is descriptive. Rights that are not +contingent on the due discharge of duties and obligations are but +hateful privilege; privilege has issue in selfishness and egotism, which +in turn work themselves out in warfare and in the hatred that both +precedes and follows conflict. + +The net result of a century and a half of industrialism is avarice, +warfare and hate. Society can continue even when avariciousness is +rampant--for a time--and warfare of one sort or another seems +inseparable from humanity, at all events it has always been so, but +hatred is another matter, for it is the negation of social life and is +its solvent. Anger passes; it is sometimes even righteous, but hatred is +synonymous with death in that it dissolves every unit, reducing it to +its component parts and subjecting each of these to dissolution in its +turn. Righteous anger roused the nations into the war that hate had +engendered, but hate has followed after and for the moment is +victorious. Russia seethes with hatred and is perishing of its poison, +while there is not another country in Europe, of those that were +involved in the war, where the same is not true in varying degrees; +hatred of race for race, of nation for nation, of class for class, of +one social or industrial or economic or political institution for +another. This, above all else, is the disintegrating influence, and +against it no social organism, no civilization can stand. Unless it is +abrogated it means an ending of another epoch of human life, a period of +darkness and another beginning, some time after the poison has been +worked out by misery, adversity and forced repentance. + +It is this prevalence of hatred, reinforced by avarice and perpetuated +by incessant warfare, that negatives all the efforts that are made +towards effecting a correspondence between the divided interests that +are the concomitant of industrialism. Strikes and lockouts, trades +unions and employers' associations as they are now constituted and as +they now operate, syndicalism and Bolshevism and proletarian +dictatorships, protective tariffs and commercial spheres of influence, +propaganda and subsidized newspapers are all energized by the principle +of hate, and no good thing can come of any of them. Nor is it enough to +work for the re-establishment of justice even by those methods of +righteousness, and with the impulse towards righteousness, which are so +different from those which are functioning at present along the lines of +contemporary industrial "reform." Justice is a "natural" virtue with a +real place in society, but the only saving force today is a supernatural +virtue. This, amongst other things, Christ brought into the world and +left as the saving force amongst the race He had redeemed and in the +society reconstituted in accordance with His will. This supernatural +virtue is Charity, sometimes expressed in the simpler form of Love, the +essence of the social code of Christianity and the symbol of the New +Dispensation as justice was the symbol of the Old. Just in so far as a +man or a cult or an interest or a corporation or a state or a generation +or a race, relinquishes charity as its controlling spirit, in so far it +relinquishes its place in Christian society and its claim to the +Christian name, while it is voided of all power for good or possibility +of continuance. Where charity is gone, intellectual capacity, effectual +power, and even justice itself become, not energies of good, but potent +contributions to evil. Is this supernatural gift of charity a mark of +contemporary civilization? Does it manifest itself with power today in +the dealings between class and class, between interest and interest, +between nation and nation? If not, then we have forfeited the name of +Christian and betrayed Christian civilization into the hands of its +enemies, while our efforts towards saving what is left to us of a once +consistent and righteous society will be without result except as an +acceleration of the now headlong process of dissolution. + +I am not charging any class or any interest or any people with exclusive +apostacy. In the end there is little to choose between one or another. +Labour is not more culpable than capital, nor the proletarian than the +industrial magnate and the financier, nor the nominal secularist than +the nominal religionist. Nor am I charging conscious and willful +acceptance of wrong in the place of right. It is the institution itself, +industrialism as it has come to be, with all its concomitants and +derivatives, that has betrayed man to his disgrace and his society to +condemnation, and so long as this system endures so long will recovery +be impossible and regeneration a vain thing vainly imagined. Charity, +that is to say, fellowship, generosity, pity, self-sacrifice, chivalry, +all that is comprehended in the thing that Christ was, and preached, and +promulgated as the fundamental law of life, cannot come back to the +world so long as avarice, warfare and hate continue to exist, and +through Charity alone can we find the solution of the industrial and +economic problem that _must_ be solved under penalty of social death. + + + + +V + + +THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY + +In these essays, which look towards a new social synthesis, I find +myself involved in somewhat artificial subdivisions. Industrial, social +and political forces all react one upon another, and the complete social +product is the result of the interplay of these forces, coördinated and +vitalized by philosophy, education and religion. To isolate each factor +and consider it separately is apt to result in false values, but there +seems no other way in which the subject, which is essentially one, may +be divided into the definite parts which are consequent on the form of a +course of lectures. In considering now the political estate of the human +social organism it will be evident that I hold that this must be +contingent on many elements that reveal themselves in a contributory +industrial system, in the principles that are embodied in social +relationships, and in the general scheme of such a working philosophy of +life as may predominate amongst the component parts of the synthetic +society which is the product of all these varied energies and the +organic forms through which they operate. + +Political organization has always been a powerful preoccupation of +mankind, and the earliest records testify to its antiquity. The +regulation of human intercourse, the delimiting of rights and +privileges, protection of life and property, the codifying of laws, +vague, various and conflicting, the making of new laws and the enforcing +of those that have taken organic form; all these and an hundred other +governmental functions, appeal strongly to the mind and touch closely on +personal interests. It is no wonder that the political history of human +society is the most varied, voluminous and popular in its appeal. At the +present moment this problem has, in general, an even more poignant +appeal, and no rival except the industrial problem, for in both cases +systems that, up to ten years ago, were questioned only by a minority +(large in the case of industry, small and obscure in the case of +government) have since completely broken down, and it is probable that a +political system which had existed throughout the greater part of Europe +and the Americas for a century and a half, almost without serious +criticism, has now as many assailants as industrialism itself. + +The change is startling from the "Triumphant Democracy" period, a space +of time as clearly defined and as significant in its characteristics as +the "Victorian Era." Before the war, during the war, and throughout the +earlier years of the even more devastating "peace," the system which +followed the ruin of the Renaissance autocracies, the essential elements +in which were an ever-widening suffrage, parliamentary government, and +the universal operation of the quantitative standard of values, was +never questioned or criticised, except in matters of detail. That it was +the most perfect governmental scheme ever devised and that it must +continue forever, was held to be axiomatic, and with few exceptions the +remedy proposed for such faults as could not possibly escape detection +was a still further extension of the democratic principle. Even the war +itself was held to be "a war to make the world safe for democracy." It +is significant that the form in which this saying now frequently appears +is one in which the word "from" is substituted in place of the word +"for." It is useless to blink the fact that there is now a distrust of +parliamentary and representative government which is almost universal +and this distrust, which is becoming widespread, reaches from the +Bolshevism of Russia on the one hand, through many intermediate social +and intellectual stages, to the conservative elements in England and the +United States, and the fast-strengthening royalist "bloc" in France. + +In many unexpected places there is visible a profound sense that +something is so fundamentally wrong that palliatives are useless and +some drastic reform is necessary, a reform that may almost amount to +revolution. Lord Bryce still believes in democracy in spite of his keen +realizations of its grievous defects, because, as he says, hope is an +inextinguishable quality of the human soul. Mr. Chesterton preaches +democracy in principle while condemning its mechanism and its workings +with his accustomed vigour; the Adamses renounce democracy and all its +works while offering no hint as to what could consistently take its +place with any better chance of success, while the royalists excoriate +it in unmeasured terms and preach an explicit return to monarchy. +Meanwhile international Bolshevism, hating the thing as violently as do +kings in exile, substitutes a crude and venal autocracy, while organized +labour, as a whole, works for the day when a "class-conscious +proletariat" will have taken matters into its own hands and established +a new aristocracy of privilege in which the present working classes will +hold the whip-hand. Meanwhile the more educated element of the general +public withdraws itself more and more from political affairs, going its +own way and making the best of a bad job it thinks itself taught by +experience it cannot mend. + +It is useless to deny that government, in the character of its +personnel, the quality of its output, the standard of its service and +the degree of its beneficence has been steadily deteriorating during the +last century and has now reached, in nearly every civilized country, a +deplorably low level. Popular representatives are less and less men of +character and ability; legislation is absurd in quantity, short-sighted, +frivolous, inquisitorial, and in a large measure prompted by selfish +interests; administration is reckless, wasteful and inefficient, while +it is overloaded in numbers, without any particular aptitude on the part +of its members, and in a measure controlled by personal or corporate +interests. The whole system is in bad odour for it is shot through and +through with the greed for money and influence, while the cynicism of +the professional politician and the low average of character, +intelligence and manners of the strata of society that increasingly are +usurping all power, work towards producing that general contempt and +aversion that have become so evident of late and that are a menace to +society no less than that of the decaying institution itself. + +Confronted by a situation such as this, the natural tendency of those +who suffer under it, either in their material interests or their ideals, +is to condemn the mechanism, perhaps even the very principles for the +operation of which the various machines were devised. Some reject the +whole scheme of representative, parliamentary government, and, failing +any plausible substitute, are driven back on some form of the soviet, or +even government by industrial groups. Those that go to the limit and +reject the whole scheme of democracy are in still worse plight for they +have no alternative to offer except a restored monarchy, and this, the +_terminus ad quem_ of their logic, their courage will not permit them to +avow. + +It is a dilemma, but forced, I believe, by the fatal passion of the man +of modernism for the machine, the mechanical device, the material +equivalent for a thing that has no equivalent, and that is the personal +character of the constituents of society and the working factors in a +political organism. There was never a more foolish saying than that +which is so frequently and so boastfully used: "a government of laws and +not of men." This is the exact reversal of what should be recognized as +a self-evident truth, viz, that the quality of the men, not the nature +of the laws or of the administrative machine, is the determining factor +in government. You may take any form of government ever devised by man, +monarchy, aristocracy, republic, democracy, yes, or soviet, and if the +community in which this government operates has a working majority of +men of character, intelligence and spiritual energy, it will be a good +government, whereas if the working majority is deficient in these +characteristics, or if it makes itself negligible by abstention from +public affairs it will be a bad government. There is no one political +system which is right while all others are wrong. The monarchy of St. +Louis was better than the Third Republic, as this is better than was the +monarchy of Louis XV. The aristocracy of Washington was better than the +democracy of this year of grace, as this in itself is better than the +late junker aristocracy of Prussia. You cannot substitute a machine in +place of character, you cannot supersede life by a theory. + +This does not mean that the form of government is of no moment, it is of +the utmost importance for I cannot too often insist that the organic +life of society is the resultant of two forces; spiritual energy working +through and upon the material forms towards their improvement or--when +this energy is weak or distorted--their degeneration; the material forms +acting as a stimulus towards the development of spiritual energy through +association and environment that are favourable, or towards its +weakening and distortion when these are deterrents because of their own +degraded or degrading nature. If it is futile to look for salvation +through the mechanism, it is equally futile to try to act directly and +exclusively on the character of the social constituents in the patient +hope that their defects may be remedied, and the preponderance of +character of high value achieved, before catastrophe overtakes the +experiment. Life is as sacramental as the Christian religion and +Christian philosophy; neither the spiritual substance nor the material +accidents can operate alone but only in a conjunction so intimate that +it is to all intents and purposes--that is, for the interests and +purposes of God in human life--a perfect unity. However completely and +even passionately we may realize the determining factor of spiritual +energy as this manifests itself through personal character, however +deeply we may distrust the machine, we are bound to recognize the +paramount necessity of the active interplay of both within the limits of +life as we know it on the earth, and therefore it is very much our +concern that the machine, whether it is industrial, political, +educational, ecclesiastical or social, is as perfect in its nature and +stimulating in its operations as we are able to compass. + +In the present liquidation of values, theories and institutions we are +bound therefore to scrutinize each operating agency of human society, to +see wherein it has failed and how it can be bettered, and the problem +before us now is the political organism. + +Now it appears that in the past there have been just two methods whereby +a civil polity has come into existence and established itself for a +short period or a long. These two methods are, first, unpremeditated and +sometimes unconscious growth; second, calculated and self-conscious +revolution. The first method has produced communities, states and +empires that frequently worked well and lasted for long periods; the +second has had issue in nothing that has endured for any length of time +or has left a record of beneficence. Evolution in government is in +accord with the processes of life, even to the extent that it is always +after a time followed by degeneration; revolution in government is the +throwing of a monkey-wrench into the machinery by a disaffected workman, +with the wrecking of the machine, the violent stoppage of the works, and +frequently the sudden death of the worker as a consequence. The English +monarchy from Duke William to Henry VIII, is a case of normal growth by +minor changes and modifications, but its subsequent history has been one +of revolutions, six or seven having occurred in the last four hundred +years; the scheme which now holds, though precariously, is the result of +the great democratic revolution accomplished during the reign of Queen +Victoria. The free monarchies of Europe which began to take form during +the long period of the Dark Ages and pursued their admirable course well +through the Middle Ages, were also normal and slow growths; but the +revolutions that have followed the Great War will meet a different fate, +several of them, indeed, have counted their existence in months and have +already passed into history. + +If we are wise we shall discount revolutions for the future, for nothing +but ill is accomplished by denying life and exalting the ingenious +substitutes of ambitious and presumptuous Frankensteins; the result is +too often a monster that works cleverly at first, and with a semblance +of human intelligence, but in the end shows itself as a destroyer. Our +task is to envisage, as clearly as possible, the political systems +established amongst us, note their weaknesses either in themselves or in +their relationship to society as it is, and then try to find those +remedies that can be applied without any violent methods of dislocation +or substitution; always bearing in mind the fact that the energizing +force that will make them live, preserve them from deterioration, and +adapt them to conditions which will ever change, is the spiritual force +of human personality, and that this force comes only through the +character qualities of the individual components of society. + +Now in considering our own case in this day and generation there are +first of all two matters to be borne in mind. One is that we shall do +well to confine our inquiry to the United States, for while the defects +we shall have to point out are common to practically all the +contemporary governments of Europe and the Americas, our own enginery is +different in certain ways, and our troubles are also different between +one example and another. After all, our immediate interest must lie with +our own national problems. The other point is that in criticising the +workings of government in America we are not necessarily criticising its +founders or the creators of its original constitutions, charters, and +other mechanisms. The Constitution of the United States, for example, +was conceived to meet one series of perfectly definite conditions that +have now been superseded by others which are radically, and even +diametrically different. The original Constitution was a most able +instrument of organic law, but just because it did fit so perfectly +conditions as they were four generations ago, it applies but +indifferently to present circumstances, and even less well than the +Founders hoped would be the case; for the reason that the amendments +which were provided for have seldom taken cognizance of these changing +conditions, and even when this was done the amendments themselves have +not been wisely drawn, while certain of them have been actually +disastrous in their nature, others frivolous, and yet more the result of +ephemeral and hysterical ebullitions of an engineered public opinion. +The same may be said of state constitutions and municipal charters, +which have suffered incessant changes, mostly unfortunate and +ill-judged, except during the last few years, when a spirit of real +wisdom and constructiveness has shown itself, though sporadically and as +yet with some timidity. The reforms, such as they are, are largely in +the line of palliatives; the deep-lying factors, those that control both +success and failure, are seldom touched upon. The necessary courage--or +perhaps temerity--is lacking. What is needed is such a clear seeing of +conditions, and such an approach, as manifested themselves in the +Constitutional Convention of the United States, for in spite of the many +compromises that were in the end necessary to placate a public opinion +not untouched by prejudice, superstition and selfishness, the great +document--and even more the records of the debates--still brilliantly +set forth both the clear-seeing and the lofty attitude that +characterized the Convention. Had these men been gathered together +today, even the same men, they would frame a very different document, +for they took conditions and men as they were, and, with an +indestructible hope to glorify their common sense, they produced a +masterpiece. It is in the same spirit that we must approach our problem +of today. + +Now in considering the situation that confronts us, we find certain +respects in which either the methods are bad, or the results, or both. +There is no unanimity in this criticism, indeed I doubt if any two of us +would agree on all the items in the indictment, though we all might +unite on one or two. I can only give my own list for what it is worth. +In the first place we, in common with all the nations, have drifted into +imperialism of a gross scale and illiberal, even tyrannical working. We +could hardly do otherwise for such has been the universal tendency for +more than an hundred years. By constant progression municipal +governments have absorbed into themselves matters that in decency, and +with any regard for liberty, belong to the individual. Simultaneously +our state governments have followed the same course, infringing even on +the just prerogatives of the towns and cities, while, more than all, the +national government has robbed the states, the cities and the citizens +of what should belong to them, until at last we have an imperial, +autocratic, inquisitorial, and largely irresponsible government at +Washington that is the one supreme political fact; we are no longer a +Federal Republic but an Imperialism, in which is centralized all the +authority inherent in the one hundred and ten millions of our population +and from which a constantly diminishing stream of what is practically +devolved authority, trickles down through state and city to the +individual in the last instance--if it gets there at all! This I believe +to be absolutely and fatally wrong. In the first place, human society +cannot function at this abnormal scale, it is outside the human scale, +for in spite of our pride and insolence there are limits on every hand +to what man can do. In the second place, I conceive it to be absolutely +at variance with any principle of republicanism or democracy or even of +free monarchy. It is at one only with the imperialism of Egypt, Babylon, +Rome and the late Empire of Germany. In a free monarchy, a republic, or +a democracy, the pyramid of political organism stands, not on its point +but broad-based and four-square, tapering upward to its final apex. A +sane and wholesome society begins with the family--natural or +artificial--which has original jurisdiction over a far greater series of +rights and privileges than it now commands. From the family certain +powers are delegated to the next higher social unit, the village or +communal group, which in its turn concedes certain of its inherent +rights to the organic group of communities, or states, and finally the +states commit to the last and general authority, the national +government, some of the elements of authority that have been delegated +to them. The principle of this delegation from one organism to another, +is common interest and welfare; only those functions which can be +performed with more even justice and with greater effectiveness, by the +community for example, than by the family, are so delegated. In the same +way the several groups commit to their common government only so much as +they cannot perform with due justice and equity to the others in the +same group. In the end the national government exists only that it may +provide for a limited number of national necessities, as for example, +defence against extra-national aggression, the conduct of diplomatic +relations with foreign powers, the maintaining of a national currency +and a national postal service, the provision of courts of last resort, +and the raising of revenue for the support of these few and explicit +functions. + +The first step, it seems to me, towards governmental reform, is +decentralization, with a return to the States, the civic communities and +the individual citizens of nine-tenths of the powers and the +prerogatives that have been taken from them in defiance of abstract +justice, of the principles of free government and of the theory of the +workable unit of human scale. In a word we must abandon imperialism and +all its works and go back to the Federal Republic. + +The second cause of our troubles lies, I believe, in the institution of +universal suffrage founded on the theory (or dogma) that the electoral +franchise is an inalienable right. This doctrine is of recent invention, +only coming into force during the "reconstruction period" following the +War between the States, when it was brought forward by certain leaders +of the Republican party to justify their enfranchisement of the negroes +in the hope that by this act they could fix their party in power to +perpetuity. In any case, the plan itself has worked badly, both for the +community and for many of the voters. It is of course impossible for me +to argue the case in detail; I can do hardly more than state my own +personal belief, and this is that the question is wholly one of +expediency, and that the question of abstract justice and the rights of +man does not enter into the consideration. I submit that the electoral +franchise should again be accepted as a privilege involving a duty, and +not as a right inherent in every adult person of twenty-one years or +over and not lunatic or in jail. This privilege, which in itself should +confer honour, should be granted to those who demonstrate their capacity +to use it honestly and intelligently, and taken away for cause. + +The acute critic will not be slow to remind me that this proposition is +somewhat beside the case and that it possesses but an academic interest, +since we are dealing with a _fait accompli._ This is of course perfectly +true. The electoral franchise could be so restricted only by the +suffrages of the present electorate, and it is inconceivable that any +large number, and far less, a majority, of voters would even consider +the proposition for a moment. For good or ill we have unrestricted adult +suffrage, and there is not the faintest chance of any other basis being +established by constitutional means. Something however can be done, and +this is a thing of great value and importance. What I suggest is +concerted effort towards a measured purification of the electorate +through the penalizing of law-breakers by temporary disfranchisement. It +is hardly too much to assume that a man who deliberately breaks the law +is constructively unfit to vote or to hold office, at all events, +conviction for any crime or misdemeanour gives a reasonable ground for +depriving the offender of these privileges, at least for a time. The +law-breaking element, whether it is millionaire or proletarian, is one +of the dangerous factors in society, which would lose nothing if from +time to time these gentry were removed from active participation in +public affairs. If, for example, any one convicted of minor offenses +punishable by fine or imprisonment were disfranchised for a year, if of +major offenses, for varying and increasing periods, from five years +upwards, and if a second offense during the period of disfranchisement +worked an automatic doubling of the time prescribed for a first offense, +I conceive that the electorate would be measurably purified and that +regard for the law would be stimulated. In one instance I am persuaded +that disfranchisement should be for life, and that is in the case of +giving or accepting a bribe or otherwise committing a crime against the +ballot; this, together with treason against the state, should be +sufficient cause for eliminating the offender from all further +participation in public affairs. If the electorate could be purified +after this fashion, and if more stringent laws could be passed in the +matter of naturalization of aliens, together with iron-clad requirements +that every voter should be able to speak, read and write the English +language, we should have achieved something towards the safeguarding of +the suffrage. + +The third weakness in our system, and in some respect the most +dangerous, as it is in all respects the most pestiferous, is the +insanity of law-making. All parliamentary governments suffer from this +malady, but that of the United States most grievously, and this is true +of the national government, the states and the municipalities. It has +become the conviction of legislative bodies that they must justify their +existence by making laws, and the more laws they pass the better they +have discharged their duties. The thing has become a scandal and an +oppression, for the liberties of American citizens and the just +prerogatives of the states and the cities, as vital human groups, have +been more infringed upon, reduced, and degraded by free legislation than +ever happened in similar communities by the action of absolute monarchs. +It is a folly that works its insidious injury in two ways; first by +confusing life by innumerable laws ill-advised, ill-drawn, mutually +contradictory, ephemeral in their nature, inquisitorial in their +workings; second, by creating a condition where any personal or factious +interest can be served by due process of law, until at last we have +reached a point where liberty itself has largely ceased to exist and we +find ourselves crushed under a tyranny of popular government no less +oppressive than the tyranny of absolutism. Nor is this all; the mania +for making laws has bred a complete and ingenious and singularly +effective system of getting laws made by methods familiar to the members +of all legislative bodies whether they are city councils, state +legislatures or the national congress, and this means opportunities for +corruption, and methods of corruption, that are fast degrading +government in the United States to a point where there is none so poor +as to do it reverence. The whole system is preposterous and absurd, +breeding not only bad laws, but a widespread contempt of law, while the +personal freedom for which democracy once fought, is fast becoming a +memory. + +The trouble began as a result of one of the elements in the American +Constitution which was the product not of the sound common sense and the +lofty judgment of the framers, but of a weak yielding to one of the +doctrinaire fads of the time that had no relationship to life but was +the invention of political theorists, and that was the unnatural +separation of the executive, legislative and judicial functions of +government. The error has worked far and the superstition still holds. +What is needed is an initiative in legislation, centred in one +responsible head or group, that, while functioning in all normal and +necessary legislative directions, still allows individual initiative on +the part of the legislators, as a supplementary, or corrective, or +protective agency. No government functions well in fiscal matters +without a budget: what we need in legislative matters is a legislative +budget, and by this phrase, I mean that the primary agency for the +proposing of laws should be the chief executive of a city, or state or +the nation, with the advice and consent of his heads of departments who +would form his cabinet or council. + +Under this plan the Governor and Council, for example, would at the +opening of each legislative session present a programme or agenda of +such laws as they believed the conditions to demand, and in the shape of +bills accurately drawn by the proper law officer of the government. No +such "government" bill could be referred to committee but must be +discussed in open session, and until the bills so offered had been +passed or refused, no private bill could be introduced. A procedure such +as this would certainly reduce the flood of private bills to reasonable +dimensions while it would insure a degree of responsibility now utterly +lacking. There is now no way in which the author of a foolish or +dangerous bill which has been enacted into law by a majority of the +legislature, can be held to account and due responsibility imposed upon +him, but the case would be very different if a mayor, a governor or the +President of the United States made himself responsible for a law or a +series of laws, by offering them for action in his own name. Certainly +if this method were followed we should be preserved in great measure +from the hasty, confused and frivolous legislation that at present makes +up the major part of the output of our various legislative bodies. One +of the greatest gains would be the reduction of the annual grist to a +size where each act could be considered and debated at sufficient length +to guarantee as reasonable a conclusion as would be possible to the +members of the legislative body. The deplorable device of instituting +committees, to each of which certain bunches of bills are referred +before they are permitted to come before the house, would be no longer +necessary. This system, which became necessary in order to deal with the +enormous mass of undigested matter which has overwhelmed every +legislature as a result of the present chaotic and irresponsible +procedure, is perhaps both the most undemocratic device ever put in +practice by a democracy, and the most fruitful of venality, corruption +and injustice. It is unnecessary to labour this point for everyone knows +its grave evils, but there seems no way to get rid of it unless some +curb is placed on the number of bills introduced in any session. The +British Parliament is not necessarily a model of intelligent or capable +procedure, but where in one session at Westminster no more than four +hundred bills were introduced, at Washington, for the same period, the +count ran well over twelve thousand! Manifestly some committee system is +inevitable under conditions such as this, but under the committee system +free government and honest legislation are difficult of attainment. + +One would not of course prevent the proposal of a bill by any member of +the legislature, indeed this free action would be absolutely necessary +as a measure of protection against executive oppression, but this should +be prohibited until after the government programme had been disposed of. +After that task was accomplished the legislature might sit indefinitely, +or as long as the public would stand it, for the purpose of considering +private bills, and these could be referred to committees as at present. +The chances are, however, that the government programme would cover the +most essential matters and what would remain would be the edifying +spectacle of Solons solemnly considering such questions as the minimum +length of sheets on hotel beds, the limitation in inches and fractions, +of the heels of women's shoes, the amount of flesh that could be legally +exposed by a bathing suit, or the pensioning of a Swedish Assistant +Janitor,--all of which are the substance of actual bills introduced in +various State legislatures during the session last closed. + +Another grave weakness in our system is the election by popular vote of +many judicial and administrative officers, coupled with the vigorous +remnants of the old and degrading "spoils system" whereby many thousands +of strictly non-political offices are almost automatically vacated after +any partisan victory. I cannot trust myself to speak of the infamy of an +elective judiciary; fortunately I live in a state where this worst abuse +of democratic practice does not exist, and so it touches me only in so +far as it offends the sense of decency and justice. In the other cases +it is only a question of efficient and intelligent administration. There +is an argument for electing the chief executive of a city, a state or +the nation, by popular vote, and the same holds in the case of the lower +house of the legislature where a bi-cameral system exists, but there is +no argument for the popular election of the administrative officers of a +state. There is even less,--if there can be less than nothing--for the +changes in personnel that take place after every election. Civil service +reform has done a world of good, but as yet it has not gone far enough +in some directions, while its mechanism of examinations is defective in +principle in that it leaves out the personal equation and establishes +its tests only along a very few of the many lines that actually exist. I +would offer it as a proposition that no election should in itself affect +the status of any man except the man elected, and, in the case of a +mayor or governor or the President, those who are directly responsible +to him and to his administration for carrying out his policies; and +further, that the voter, when he votes, should vote once and for one man +in his city, once and for one man in his state, and once and for one man +in the nation, and that man, in each case, should be his representative +in the lower branch of the legislative body. Choosing administrative +officials by majority vote, and the election of judges for short terms +by the same method, are absurdities of a system fast falling into chaos. +The maintenance of a bi-cameral legislative organization, with the +choosing of the members of both houses by the same electorate is in the +same class, a perfectly irrational anomaly which violates the first +principles of logic and leads only to legislative incompetence, and +worse. The referendum is of precisely the same nature, but this already +has become a _reductio ad absurdum,_ and can hardly survive the +discredit into which it has fallen. In any reorganization of government +looking towards better results, these elements must disappear. + +As a matter of fact, government has come to occupy altogether too large +a place in our consciousness; naturally, for it has come to a point +where it pursues us--and overtakes us--at every turn. Democracies always +govern too much, that is one of their great weaknesses. Elections, +law-making, and getting and holding office, have become an obsession and +they shadow our days. So insistent and incessant are the demands, so +artificial and unreal the issues, so barren of vital results all this +pandemonium of partisanship and change, the more intelligent and +scrupulous are losing interest in the whole affair, and while they +increasingly withdraw to matters of a greater degree of reality those +who subsist on the proceeds gain the power, and hold it. At the very +moment when the women of the United States have been given the vote, +there are many men (and women also) who begin to think that the vote is +a very empty institution and in itself practically void of power to +effect anything of really vital moment. I am not now defending this +position, I only assert that it exists, and I believe it is due to the +degradation of government through the very modifications and +transformations that have been effected, since the time of Andrew +Jackson, in a perfectly honest attempt at improvement. + +The best government is that which does the least, which leaves local +matters in the hands of localities, and personal matters in the hands of +persons, and which is modestly inconspicuous. Good government +establishes, or recognizes, conditions which are stable, reliable, and +that may be counted on for more than two years, or four years, at a +time. It has continuity, it preserves tradition, and it follows custom +and common law. Such a government is neither hectic in its vicissitudes +nor inquisitorial in its enactments. It is cautious in its expenditures, +efficient in its administration, proud in maintaining its standards of +honour, justice and "noblesse oblige." Good government is august and +handsome; it surrounds itself with dignity and ceremony, even at times +with splendour and pageantry, for these things are signs of self-respect +and the outward showing of high ideals--or may be made so; that is what +good manners and ceremony and beauty are for. Finally, good government +is where the laws of Christian morals and courtesy and charity that are +supposed to hold between Christian men hold equally, even more +forcefully, in public relations both domestic and foreign. Where +government of this nature exists, whether the form is monarchical, +republican or democratic, there is liberty; where these conditions do +not obtain the form matters not at all, for there is a servile state. + +At the risk of being tedious I will try to sketch the rough outlines of +what, in substance, I believe to be that form of civil polity which, +based on what now exists, changes only along lines that would perhaps +tend towards establishing and maintaining those ideals of liberty, order +and justice which have always been the common aim of those who have +striven to reform a condition of things where they were attained +indifferently or not at all. + +The primary and effective social and political unit is the "vill" or +commune; that is to say, a group of families and individuals living in +one neighbourhood, and of a size that would permit all the members to +know one another if they wished to do so, and also the coming together +of all those holding the electoral franchise, for common discussion and +action. The average American country town, uninvaded by industrialism, +is the natural type, for here the "town meeting" of our forefathers is +practicable, and this remains the everlasting frame and model of +self-government. In the case of a city the primary unit would be of +approximately the same size, and the entire municipality would be +divided into wards each containing, say, about five hundred voters. +These primary units would possess a real unity and a very large measure +of autonomy, but they would be federated for certain common purposes +which would vary in number and importance in proportion to the closeness +of their common interests, from the county, made up of a number of small +villages, to the city which would comprise as many wards as might be +numerically necessary, and whose central government would administer a +great many more affairs than would the county. The city would be in +effect a federation of the wards or boroughs. + +The individual voter would exercise his electoral franchise and perform +his political duties only within the primary unit (the township or ward) +where he had legal residence. At an annual "town meeting" he would vote +for the "selectmen" or the ward council who would have in charge the +local interests of the primary unit, which would be comprehensive in the +case of a township, necessarily more limited in the case of a ward. +These local boards would elect their own chairmen who would also form +the legislative body of the county or the municipality. At the same town +meeting the voter would cast his ballot for a representative in the +lower legislative body of the state. In the smaller commonwealths each +township or ward would elect its own representative, but in states of +excessive population representation would have to be on the basis of +counties and municipalities, for no legislative body should contain more +than a very few hundred members. Nominations in the town meeting should +be _viva voce,_ elections by secret ballot. Legislation should be +primarily on the initiative of the selectmen or ward council, and voting +should be _viva voce._ With the exercise of his privilege of speaking +and voting at the meetings of his primary unit, the direct political +action of the citizen would cease. + +The secondary unit would be the county or the city. Here the legislative +body would consist of the presiding officers of the township or ward +governments. The sheriff of a county or the mayor of a city would be +chosen by these legislative bodies from their own number and should hold +office for a term of several years, while the local governments, and +therefore the legislative bodies of the county or the city, would be +chosen annually. The chief executive of a county or city would appoint +all heads of departments who would form his advisory council, and he +would also frame and submit annually both a fiscal and a legislative +budget. + +The tertiary unit is the state, which is a federation of the counties +and cities forming some one of the historic divisions of the United +States. The legislature would as now be composed of two chambers, one +made up of representatives of the primary units, holding office for a +brief term, and a second representing the secondary units and chosen by +their governing bodies for a long term. The logic of a bi-cameral system +demands that the lower house should represent the changing will of the +people, the upper, in so far as possible, its cumulative wisdom and the +continuity of tradition, while, as already stated, the whole principle +is vitiated if both houses are chosen by the same electorate. The chief +executive should be chosen by the legislative chambers in joint session, +from a panel made up of their own membership and the heads of the county +and city governments. He should hold office for a long term, preferably +for an indeterminate period contingent on "good behaviour." In this case +his cabinet, or council of the heads of departments, would of course be +responsible to the legislature and would resign on a formal vote of +censure or "lack of confidence." The Governor would have the same power +of appointment, and the same authority to present fiscal and legislative +budgets as, already specified in the case of a mayor of a city. No +"commissions," unpaid or otherwise, should be permitted, all the +administrative functions of government being performed by the various +departments and their subordinate bureaux. + +The national government is the final social and political unit, though +it is conceivable that with a territory and population as great and +diversified as that of the United States, and bearing in mind the great +discrepancy in size between the states, something might be gained by the +institution of a system of provinces, some five or six in all, made up +of states grouped in accordance with their general community of +interests, as for example, all New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New +Jersey and Delaware; the states of the old Confederacy, those of the +Pacific Coast, and so on. The point need not be pressed here, but there +are considerations in its favour. In any case the nation as a whole is +the final federal unit. Here the lower legislative house would consist +of not more than four hundred members, allocated on a basis of +population and elected by the representative bodies of the primary units +(the townships and city wards) as already described. The members of the +upper house would be elected by the legislative bodies of the several +states on nomination by the Governor. The chief executive of the nation +would be chosen by the two legislative bodies, in joint session, from +amongst the then governors of the several states. He should certainly +hold office for "good behaviour," and his cabinet would be responsible +to the legislature as provided for in the case of the state governments. + +I do not offer this programme with any pride of paternity; probably it +would not work very well, but it could hardly prove less efficacious +than our present system under conditions as they have come to be. This +cannot continue indefinitely, for it is so hopelessly defective that it +is bound to bring about its own ruin, with the probable substitution of +some doctrinaire device engendered by the natural revolt against an +intolerable abuse. If only we could see conditions clearly and estimate +them at something approaching their real value, we should rapidly +develop a constructive public opinion that, even though it represented a +minority, might by the very force behind it compel the majority to +acquiesce in a radical reformation. Unfortunately we do not do this, we +are hypnotized by phrases and deluded by vain theories, as Mr. +Chesterton says: + +"So drugged and deadened is the public mind by the conventional public +utterances, so accustomed have we grown to public men talking this sort +of pompous nonsense and no other, that we are sometimes quite shocked by +the revelation of what men really think, or else of what they really +say." + +We do, now and then, confess that legislation is as a whole foolish, +frivolous and opportunist; that administration is wasteful, incompetent +and frequently venal; that the governmental personnel, legislative, +administrative and executive, is of a low order in point of character, +intelligence and culture--and tending lower each day. We admit this, for +the evidence is so conspicuous that to deny it would be hypocrisy, but +something holds us back from recognizing the nexus between effect and +cause. Unrestricted immigration, universal suffrage, rotation in office, +the subjection of many offices and measures to popular vote, the +parliamentary system, government by political parties--all these customs +and habits into which we have fallen have arrived at failure which +presages disaster. They have failed because the character of the people +that functioned through these various engines had failed, diluted by the +low mentality and character-content of millions of immigrants and their +offspring, degraded by the false values and vicious standards imposed by +industrial civilization, foot-loose from all binding and control of a +vital and potent religious impulse or religious organism. + +It is the old, vicious circle; spiritual energy declines or is diverted +into wrong channels; thereupon the physical forms, social, industrial, +political, slip a degree or two lower out of sympathy with the failing +energy, and these in their turn exert a degrading influence on the +waning spiritual force, which declines still further only to be pulled +lower still by the material agencies which continue their progressive +declension. Theories, no matter how high-minded and altruistic, cannot +stand before a condition such as this, for self-protection decrees +otherwise even if the higher motive of doing right things and getting +right things just because they _are_ right, does not come into effective +operation. The evil results of the institutions I have catalogued above +are not to be denied, and the institutions themselves must be reformed +or altogether abandoned, in the face of the loud-mouthed exhortations of +those who now make them their means of livelihood, and even at the +expense of the honest upholders of theories and doctrines that do credit +to their humanitarianism but have been weighed and found wanting. + +I am anxious not to put this plan for the reform, in root and branch, of +our political institutions, on the low level of mere caution and +self-defense. The motive power of this is fear, and fear is only second +to hate in its present position as a controlling force in society. We +should have good government not because it is economical and ensures +what are known as "good business conditions," and promises a peaceful +continuance of society, but because it is as worthy an object of +creative endeavour as noble art or a great literature or a just and +merciful economic system, or a life that is full of joy and beauty and +wholesome labour. The political organism is in a sense the microcosm of +life itself, and it should be society lifted up to a level of dignity, +majesty and nobility. The doctrine that in a democracy the government +must exactly express the numerical preponderance in the social +synthesis, and that, if this happens to be ignorant, mannerless and +corrupt, then the government must be after the same fashion, is a low +and a cowardly doctrine. Government should be better than the majority; +better than the minority if this has advantage over the other. It should +be of the best that man can compass, resting above him as in some sort +an ideal; the visible expression of his better self, and the better self +of the society of which he is a part. If a political system, any +political system, produces any other result; if it has issue in a +representation of the lowest and basest in society, or even of the +general average, then it is a bad system and it must be redeemed or it +will bring an end that is couched in terms of catastrophe. + +Reform is difficult, perhaps even impossible of attainment under the +existing system where universal, unlimited suffrage and the party system +are firmly intrenched as opponents of vital reform, and where +representation and legislation take their indelible colour from these +unfortunate institutions. It must freely be admitted that there is no +chance of eliminating or recasting either one or the other by the +recognized methods of platform support and mass action through the +ballot. It comes in the end to a change of viewpoint and of heart on the +part of the individual. No party, no political leader would for a moment +endorse any one of the principles or methods I have suggested, for this +would be a suicidal act. The newspaper, irresponsible, anonymous, +directed by its advertizing interests or by those more sinister still, +yet for all that the factor that controls the opinions of those who hold +the balance of power in the community as it is now constituted, would +reject them with derision, while in themselves they are radically +opposed to the personal interests of the majority. The only hope of +lifting government to the level of dignity and capacity it should hold, +lies in the individual. It is necessary that we should see things +clearly, estimate conditions as they are, and think through to the end. +We do not do this. We admit, in a dull sort of way, that matters are not +as they should be, that legislation is generally silly and oppressive, +that taxation is excessive, that administration is wasteful and reckless +and incompetent, for we know these things by experience. We accept them, +however, with our national good-nature and easy tolerance, assuming that +they are inseparable from democratic government--as indeed they are, but +not for a moment does any large number think of questioning the +principle, or even the system, that must take the responsibility. When +disgust and indifference reach a certain point we stop voting, that is +all. At the last presidential election less than one half the qualified +voters took the trouble to cast their ballots, while in Boston (which is +no exception) it generally happens that at a municipal elections the +ballots cast are less than one-third the total electorate. I wonder how +many there are here today who have ever been to a ward meeting, or have +sat through a legislative session of a city government, as of Boston for +example, or have listened to the debates in a state house of +representatives, or analyzed the annual grist of legislative bills, or +have sat for an hour or two in the Senate or House at Washington. Such +an experience is, I assure you, illuminating, for it shows exactly why +popular government is what it is, while it forms an admirable basis for +a constructive revision of judgment as to the soundness of accepted +principles and the validity of accepted methods. + +Our political attitude today is based on an inherited and automatic +acceptance of certain perfectly automatic formulae. We neither see +things clearly, estimate conditions as they are, nor think a proposition +through to the end: we are obsessed by old formulae, partisan "slogans" +and newspaper aphorisms; the which is both unworthy and perilous. Let us +see things clearly for a moment; if we do this anything is possible, no +matter how idealistic and apparently impracticable it may be. Is there +any one who would confess that character and intelligence are now a +helpless minority in this nation? Such an admission would be almost +constructive treason. The instinct of the majority is right, but it is +defective in will and it is subservient to base leadership, while its +power for good is negatived by the persistence of a mass of formulae +that, under radically changed conditions, have ceased to be beneficient, +or even true, and have become a clog and a stumbling block. + +I may not have indicated better ideals or sounder methods of operation, +but the true ideals exist and it is not beyond our ability to discover a +better working system. Partisanship cannot reveal either one or the +other, nor are they the fruit of organization or the attribute of +political leadership. They belong to the common citizen, to you, to the +individual, and if once superstition is cast out and we fall back on +right reason and the eternal principles of the Christian ethic and the +Christian ideal, we shall not find them difficult of attainment; and +once attained they can be put in practice, for the ill thing exists only +on sufferance, the right thing establishes itself by force of its very +quality of right. + + + + +VI + + +THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION AND ART + +When, as on occasion happens, some hostile criticism is leveled against +the civilization of modernism, or against some one of its many details, +the reply is ready, and the faultfinder is told that the defect, if it +exists, will in the end be obviated by the processes of popular +education. Pressed for more explicit details as to just what may be the +nature of this omnipotent and sovereign "education," the many champions +give various answer, depending more or less on the point of view and the +peculiar predilections of each, but the general principles are the same. +Education, they say, consist of two things; the formal practice and +training of the schools, and the experience that comes through the use +of certain public rights and privileges, such as the ballot, the holding +of office, service on juries, and through various experiences of the +practice of life, as the reading of newspapers (and perhaps books), the +activities of work, business and the professions, and personal +association with other men in social, craft, and professional clubs and +other organizations. + +With the second category of education through experience we need not +deal at this time; it is a question by itself and of no mean quality; +the matter I would consider is the more formal and narrow one of +scholastic training in so far as it bears on the Great Peace that, +though perhaps after many days, must follow the Great War and the little +peace. + +Answering along this line, the protagonists of salvation through +education pretty well agree that the thing itself means the widest +possible extension of our public school system, with free state +universities and technical schools, and the extension of the educational +period, with laws so rigid, and enforcement so pervasive and impartial, +that no child between the ages of six and sixteen can possibly escape. +This free, compulsory and universal education is assumed to be +scrupulously secular and hedged about with every safeguard against the +insidious encroachments of religion; it will aim to give a little +training in most of the sciences, and much in the practical necessities +of business life, as for example, stenography, book-keeping, advertising +and business science; it will cover a broad field of manual training +leading to "graduate courses" in special technical schools; the +"laboratory method" and "field practice" will be increasingly developed +and applied; Latin, Greek, logic and ancient history will be minimized +or done away with altogether, and modern languages, applied psychology +and contemporary history will be correspondingly emphasized. As for the +state university, it will allow the widest range of free electives, and +as an university it will aim to comprise within itself every possible +department of practical activity, such as business administration, +journalism, banking and finance, foreign trade, political science, +psycho-analysis, mining, sanitary engineering, veterinary surgery, as +well as law, medicine, agriculture, and civil and mechanical +engineering. I am curious to inquire at this time if education such as +this does, as a matter of fact, educate, and how far it my be relied +upon as a corrective for present defects in society; or rather, first of +all, whether education of this, or of any sort, may be looked on as a +sufficient saving force, and whether general education, instead of being +extended should not be curtailed, or rather safeguarded and restricted. + +I have already tried to indicate, in my lecture on the Social Organism, +certain doubts that are now arising as to the prophylactic and +regenerative powers of education, whether this is based on the old +foundation of the Trivium and Quadrivium under the supreme dominion of +Theology, or on the new foundation of utilitarianism and applied science +under the dominion of scientific pedagogy. While the active-minded +portion of society believed ardently in progressive evolution, in the +sufficiency of the intellect, the inerrancy of the scientific method, +and the transmission by inheritance of acquired characteristics, this +supreme confidence in free, secular, compulsory education as the +cure-all of the profuse and pervasive ills of society was not only +natural but inevitable. I submit that experience has measurably modified +the situation, and that we are bound therefore to reconsider our earlier +persuasions in the light of somewhat revealing events. + +We may admit that the system of modern education works measurably well +so far as intellectual training is concerned; _training_ as +distinguished from development. It works measurably well also in +preparing youth for participation in the life of applied science and for +making money in business and finance. Conscientious hard labour has been +given, and is being given, to making it more effective along these +lines, and almost every year some new scheme is brought forward +enthusiastically, tried out painstakingly, and then cast aside +ignominiously for some new and even more ingenious device. The amount of +education is enormous; the total of money spent on new foundations, +courses, buildings, equipment--on everything but the pay of the +teachers--is princely; the devotion of the teachers, themselves, in the +face of inadequate wages, is exemplary, and yet, somehow the results are +disappointing. The truth is, the development of _character_ is not in +proportion to the development of public and private education. The moral +standing of the nation, taken as a whole, has been degenerating; in +business, in public affairs, in private life, until the standards of +value have been confused, the line of demarcation between right and +wrong blurred to indistinctness, and the old motives of honour, duty, +service, charity, chivalry and compassion are no longer the controlling +motive, or at least the conscious aspiration, of active men. + +This is not to say that these do not exist; the period that has seen the +retrogression has recorded also a reaction, and there are now perhaps +more who are fired by the ardent passion for active righteousness, than +for several generations, but the average is lower, for where, many times +in the past, there has been a broad, general average of decency, now the +disparity is great between the motives that drive society as a whole, +and its methods of operation, and the remnant that finds itself an +unimportant minority. Newspapers are perhaps hardly a fair criterion of +the moral status of a people--or of anything else for that matter--but +what they record, and the way they do it, is at least an indication of a +condition, and after every possible allowance has been made, what they +record is a very alarming standard of public and private morality, both +in the happenings themselves and in the fashion of their publicity. + +No one would claim that the responsibility for this weakening of moral +standards rests predominantly on the shoulders of the educational system +of today; the causes lie far deeper than this, but the point I wish to +make is that the process has not been arrested by education, in spite of +its prevalence, and that therefore it is unwise to continue our +exclusive faith in its remedial offices. The faith was never well +founded. Education can do much, but what it does, or can do, is to +foster and develop _inherent possibilities,_ whether these are of +character, intelligence or aptitude: it cannot put into a boy or man +what was not there, _in posse,_ at birth, and humanly speaking, the +diversity of potential in any thousand units is limited only by the +number itself. Whether our present educational methods are those best +calculated to foster and develop these inherent possibilities, so varied +in nature and degree, is the question, and it is a question the answer +to which depends largely on whether we look on intelligence, capacity or +character as the thing of greatest moment. For those who believe that +character is the thing of paramount importance--amongst whom I count +myself--the answer must be in the negative. + +Nor is an affirmative reply entirely assured when the question is asked +as to the results in the case of intellect and capacity. There are few +who would claim that in either of these directions the general standard +is now as high as it was, for example, in the last half of the last +century. The Great War brought to the front few personalities of the +first class, and the peace that has followed has an even less +distinguished record to date. We may say with truth, I think, that the +last ten years have provided greater issues, and smaller men to meet +them in the capacity of leaders, than any previous crisis of similar +moment. The art of leadership, and the fact of leadership, have been +lost, and without leadership any society, particularly a democracy, is +in danger of extinction. + +Here again one cannot charge education with our lack of men of +character, intelligence and capacity to lead; as before, the causes lie +far deeper, but the almost fatal absence at this time of the +personalities of such force and power that they can captain society in +its hours of danger from war or peace, must give us some basis for +estimating the efficiency of our educational theory and practice, and +again raise doubts as to whether here also we shall be well advised if +we rely exclusively upon it as the ultimate saviour of society, while we +are bound to ask whether its methods, even of developing intelligence +and capacity, are the best that can be devised. + +Another point worth considering is this. So long as we could lay the +flattering unction to our souls that acquired characteristics were +heritable, and that therefore if an outcast from Posen, migrating to +America, had taken advantage of his new opportunities and so had +developed his character-potential, amassed money and acquired a measure +of education and culture, he would automatically transmit something of +this to his offspring, who would start so much the further forward and +would tend normally to still greater advance, and so on _ad infinitum,_ +so long we were justified in enforcing the widest measure of education +on all and sundry, and in waiting in hope for a future when the +cumulative process should have accomplished its perfect work. Now, +however, we are told that this hope is vain, that acquired +characteristics are not transmitted by heredity, and that the old +folk-proverb "it is only three generations between shirtsleeves and +shirtsleeves," is perhaps more scientifically exact than the +evolutionary dictum of the nineteenth century. Which is what experience +and history have been teaching, lo, these many years. + +The question then seems to divide itself into three parts; (a) are we +justified in pinning our faith in ultimate social salvation to free, +secular, and compulsory education carried to the furthest possible +limits; (b) if not, then what precisely is the function of formal +education; and (c) this being determined, is our present method +adequate, and if not how should it be modified? + +It is unwise to speak dogmatically along any of these lines, they are +too blurred and uncertain. I can only express an individual opinion. + +It seems to me that life unvaryingly testifies to the extreme disparity +of potential in individuals and in families and in racial strains, +though in the two latter the difference is not necessarily absolute and +permanent, but variable in point of both time and degree. In individuals +the limit of this potentiality is inherent, and it can neither be +completely inhibited by adverse education and environment nor measurably +extended by favourable education and environment. Characteristics +acquired _outside_ inherent limitations are personal and non-heritable, +however intimately they may have become a part of the individual +himself. + +If this is true, then the question of education becomes personal also; +that is to say, we educate for the individual, and with an eye to the +part he himself is to play in society. We do not look for cumulative +results but in a sense deal with each personality in regard to itself +alone. I think this has a bearing both on the extent to which education +should be enforced and on the quality and method of education itself, +and though the contention will receive little but ridicule, I am bound +to say that I hold that _general_ education should be reduced in +quantity and considerably changed in nature. + +If the limit of development is substantially determined in each +individual and cannot be extended by human agencies (I say "human" +because God in His wisdom and by His power can raise up a prophet or a +saint out of the lowest depths, and frequently does so), then the +quantity and extent of general education should be determined not by a +period of years and the facilities offered by a government liberal in +its expenditures, but entirely by the demonstrated or indicated capacity +of the individual. Our educational system should, so far as it is free +and compulsory, normally end with the high school grade. Free college, +university and technical training should not be provided, except for +those who had given unmistakable evidences that they could, and probably +would, use it to advantage. This would be provided for by +non-competitive scholarships, limited in number only by the number of +capable candidates, and determination of this capacity would be, not on +the basis of test examinations, but on an average record covering a +considerable period of time. It is doubtful if even these scholarships +should be wholly free; some responsibility should be recognized, for a +good half of the value of a thing (perhaps all its value) lies in +working for it. A grant without service, a favour accepted without +obligations, privilege without function, both cheapen and degrade. + +Let us now turn to the second question, i.e., what precisely is the +function of formal education. For my own part I can answer this in a +sentence. It is primarily the fostering and development of the +character-potential inherent in each individual. In this process +intellectual training and expansion and the furthering of natural +aptitude have a part, but this is secondary to the major object which is +the development of character. + +This is not in accordance with the practice or the theory of recent +times, and in this fact lies one of the prime causes of failure. The one +thing man exists to accomplish is character; not worldly success and +eminence in any line, not the conquest of nature (though some have held +otherwise), not even "adaptation to environment" in the _argot_ of last +century science, but _character;_ the assimilation and fixing in +personality of high and noble qualities of thought and deed, the +furtherance, in a word, of the eternal sacramental process of redemption +of matter through the operation of spiritual forces. Without this, +social and political systems, imperial dominion, wealth and power, a +favourable balance of trade avail nothing; with it, forms and methods +and the enginery of living will look out for themselves. And yet this +thing which comprises "the whole duty of man" has, of late, fallen into +a singular disregard, while the constructive forces that count have +either been discredited and largely abandoned, as in the case of +religion, or, like education, turned into other channels or reversed +altogether, as has happened with the idea and practice of obedience, +discipline, self-denial, duty, honour and unselfishness; surely the most +fantastic issue of the era of enlightenment, of liberty and of freedom +of conscience. + +As a matter of fact character, as the chief end of man and the sole +guaranty of a decent society, has been neglected; it was not disregarded +by any conscious process, but the headlong events that have followed +since the fifteenth century have steadily distorted our judgment and +confused our standards of value even to reversal. By an imperceptible +process other matters have come to engage our interest and control our +action, until at last we are confronted by the nemesis of our own +unwisdom, and we entertain the threat of a dissolving civilization just +because the forces we have engendered or set loose have not been curbed +or directed by that vigorous and potent personal character informing a +people and a society, that we had forgot in our haste and that alone +could give us safety. + +Formal education is but one of the factors that may be employed towards +the development of character; you cannot so easily separate one force in +life from another, assigning a specific duty here, a definite task +there. That is one of the weaknesses of our time, the water-tight +compartment plan of high specialization, the cellular theory of +efficiency. Life must be seen as a whole, organized as a whole, lived as +a whole. Every thought, every emotion, every action, works for the +building or the unbuilding of character, and this synthesis of living +must be reestablished before we can hope for social regeneration. +Nevertheless formal education may be made a powerful factor, even now, +and not only in this one specific direction, but through this, for the +accomplishing of that unification of life that already is indicated as +the next great task that is set before us; and this brings me to a +consideration of the last of the questions I have proposed for answer, +viz.: is our present system of education adequate to the sufficient +development of character, and if not, how should it be modified? + +I do not think it adequate, and experience seems to me to prove the +point. It has not maintained the sturdy if sometimes acutely unpleasant +character of the New England stock, or the strong and handsome character +of the race that dwelt in the thirteen original colonies as this +manifested itself well into the last century, and it has, in general, +bred no new thing in the millions of immigrants and their descendants +who have flooded the country since 1840 and from whom the public schools +and some of the colleges are largely recruited. It is not a question of +expanded brain power or applied aptitude, but of character, and here +there is a larger measure of failure than we had a right to expect. And +yet, had we this right? The avowed object of formal education is mental +and vocational training, and by no stretch of the imagination can we +hold these to be synonymous with character. We have dealt with and +through one thing alone, and that is the intellect, whereas character is +rather the product of emotions judiciously stimulated, balanced (not +controlled) by intellect, and applied through active and varied +experience. Deliberately have we cut out every emotional and spiritual +factor; not only religion and the fine arts, but also the studies, and +the methods of study, and the type of text-books, that might have helped +in the process of spiritual and emotional development. We have +eliminated Latin and Greek, or taught them as a branch of philology; we +have made English a technical exercise in analysis and composition, +disregarding the moral and spiritual significance of the works of the +great masters of English; we minimize ancient history and concentrate on +European history since the French Revolution, and on the history of the +United States, and because of the sensitiveness of our endless variety +of religionists (pro forma) text books are written which leave religion +out of history altogether--and frequently economics and politics as well +when these cannot be made to square with popular convictions; philosophy +and logic are already pretty well discarded, except for special +electives and post-graduate courses, and as for art in its multifarious +forms we know it not, unless it be in the rudimentary and devitalized +form of free-hand drawing and occasional concerted singing. The only +thing that is left in the line of emotional stimulus is competitive +athletics, and for this reason I sometimes think it one of the most +valuable factors in public education. It has, however, another function, +and that is the coordination of training and life; it is in a sense an +_école d'application,_ and through it the student, for once in a way, +tries out his acquired mental equipment and his expanding character--as +well as his physical prowess--against the circumstances of active +vitality. It is just this sort of thing that for so long made the +"public schools" of England, however limited or defective may have been +the curriculum, a vital force in the development of British character. + +At best, however, this seems to me but an indifferent substitute, an +inadequate "extra," doing limitedly the real work of education by +indirection. What we need (granting my assumption of character as the +_terminus ad quem_) is an educational system so recast that the formal +studies and the collateral influences and the school life shall be more +coordinated in themselves and with life, and that the resulting stimulus +shall be equally operative along intellectual, emotional and creative +lines. + +It is sufficiently easy to make suggestions as to how this is to be +accomplished, to lay out programmes and lay down curricula, but here as +elsewhere this does not amount to much; the change must come and the +institutions develop as the result of the operations of life. If we can +change our view of the object of education, the very force of life, +working through experience, will adequately determine the forms. It is +not therefore as a meticulous and mechanical system that I make the +following suggestions as to certain desirable changes, but rather to +indicate more exactly what I mean by a scheme of education that will +work primarily towards the development of character. + +Now in the first place, I must hold that there can be no education which +works primarily for character building, that is not interpenetrated at +every point by definite, concrete religion and the practice of religion. +As I shall try to show in my last two lectures, religion is the force or +factor that links action with life. It is the only power available to +man that makes possible a sound standard of comparative values, and with +philosophy teaching man how to put things in their right order, it +enters to show him how to control them well, while it offers the great +constructive energy that makes the world an orderly unity rather than a +type of chaos. Until the Reformation there was no question as to this, +and even after, in the nations that accepted the great revolution, the +point was for a time maintained; thereafter the centrifugal tendency in +Protestantism resulted in such a wealth of mutually antagonistic sects +that the application of the principle became impracticable, and for +this, as well as for more fundamental reasons, it fell into desuetude. +The condition is as difficult today for the process of denominational +fission has gone steadily forward, and as this energy of the religious +influence weakens the strenuosity of maintenance strengthens. With our +157 varieties of Protestantism confronting Catholicism, Hebraism, and a +mass of frank rationalism and infidelity as large in amount as all +others combined, it would seem at first sight impossible to harmonize +free public education with concrete religion in any intimate way. So it +is; but if the principle is recognized and accepted, ways and means will +offer themselves, and ultimately the principle will be embodied in a +workable scheme. + +For example; there is one thing that can be done anywhere, and whenever +enough votes can be assembled to carry through the necessary +legislation. At present the law regards with an austere disapproval that +reflects a popular opinion (now happily tending towards decay), what are +known as "denominational schools" and other institutions of learning. +Those that maintain the necessity of an intimate union between religion +and education, as for example the great majority of Roman Catholics and +an increasing number of Episcopalians and Presbyterians, are taxed for +the support of secular public schools which they do not use, while they +must maintain at additional, and very great, expense, parochial and +other private schools where their children may be taught after a fashion +which they hold to be necessary from their own point of view. Again, +state support is refused to such schools or colleges as may be under +specific religious control, while pension funds for the teachers, +established by generous benefactions, are explicitly reserved for those +who are on the faculties of institutions which formally dissociate +themselves from any religious influence. I maintain that this is both +unjust and against public policy. Under our present system of religious +individualism and ecclesiastical multiplicity, approximations only are +possible, but I believe the wise and just plan would be for the state to +fix certain standards which all schools receiving financial support from +the public funds must maintain, and then, this condition being carried +out, distribute the funds received from general taxation to public and +private schools alike. This would enable Episcopalians, let us say, or +Roman Catholics, or Jews, when in any community they are numerous enough +to provide a sufficiency of scholars for any primary, grammar, or high +school, to establish such a school in as close a relationship to their +own religion as they desired, and have this school maintained out of the +funds of the city. This is not a purely theoretical proposition; after +an agitation lasting nearly half a century, Holland has this year put +such a law in force. From every point of view we should do well to +recognize this plan as both just and expedient. One virtue it would +have, apart from those already noted, is the variation it would permit +in curricula, text books, personnel and scholastic life as between one +school and another. There is no more fatal error in education than that +standardization which has recently become a fad and which finds its most +mechanistic manifestation in France. + +Of course this need for the fortifying of education by religion is +recognized even now, but the only plan devised for putting it into +effect is one whereby various ministers of religion are allowed a +certain brief period each week in which they may enter the public +schools and give denominational instruction to those who desire their +particular ministrations. This is one of the compromises, like the older +method of Bible reading without commentary or exposition, which avails +nothing and is apt to be worse than frank and avowed secularism. It is +putting religion on exactly the same plane as analytical chemistry, +psychoanalysis or salesmanship, (the latter I am told is about to be +introduced in the Massachusetts high schools) or any other "elective," +whereas if it is to have any value whatever it must be an ever-present +force permeating the curriculum, the minds of the teachers, and the +school life from end to end, and there is no way in which this can be +accomplished except by a policy that will permit the maintenance of +schools under religious domination at the expense of the state, provided +they comply with certain purely educational requirements established and +enforced by the state. + +I have already pointed out what seems to me the desirability of a +considerable variation between the curriculum of one school and another. +This would be possible and probably certain under the scheme proposed, +but barring this, it is surely an open question whether the pretty +thoroughly standardized curriculum now in operation would not be +considerably modified to advantage if it is recognized that the prime +object of education is character rather than mental training and the +fitting of a pupil to obtain a paying job on graduation. From my own +point of view the answer is in a vociferous affirmative. I suggest the +drastic reduction of the very superficial science courses in all schools +up to and including the high school, certainly in chemistry, physics and +biology, but perhaps with some added emphasis on astronomy, geology and +botany. History should become one of the fundamental subjects, and +English, both being taught for their humanistic value and not as +exercises in memory or for the purpose of making a student a sort of +dictionary of dates. This would require a considerable rewriting of +history text books, as well as a corresponding change in the methods of +teaching, but after all, are not these both consummations devoutly to be +wished. There are few histories like Mr. Chesterton's "Short History of +England," unfortunately. One would, perhaps, hardly commend this +stimulating book as a sufficient statement of English history for +general use in schools, but its approach is wholly right and it +possesses the singular virtue of interest. Another thing that commends +it is the fact that while it runs from Caesar to Mr. Lloyd George, it +contains, I believe, only seven specific dates, three of which are +possibly wrong. This is as it should be--not the inaccuracies but the +commendable frugality in point of number. Dates, apart from a few key +years, are of small historical importance; so are the details of palace +intrigues and military campaigns. History is, or should be, life +expressed in terms of romance, and it is of little moment whether the +narrated incidents are established by documentary evidence or whether +they are contemporary legend quite unsubstantiated by what are known +(and overestimated) as "facts." There is more of the real Middle Ages in +Mallory's "Mort d'Arthur" than there is in all Hallam, and the same +antithesis can be established for nearly all other periods of history. + +The history of man is one great dramatic romance, and so used it may be +made perhaps the most stimulating agency in education as character +development. I do not mean romance in the sense in which Mr. Wells takes +it, that is to say, the dramatic assembling and clever coördination of +unsubstantiated theories, personal preferences, prejudices and +aversions, under the guise of solemn and irrefutable truth attested by +all the exact sciences known to man, but romance which aims like any +other art at communicating from one person to another something of the +inner and essential quality of life as it has been lived, even if the +material used is textually doubtful or even probably apocryphal. The +deadly enemy of good, sound history is scientific historical criticism. +The true history is romantic tradition; the stimulating thing, the tale +that makes the blood leap, the pictorial incident that raises up in an +instant the luminous vision of some great thing that once was. + +I would not exchange Kit Marlowe's + + _"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships + And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"_ + +for all the critical commentaries of Teutonic pedants on the character +and attributes of Helen of Troy as these have (to them) been revealed by +archaeological investigations. I dare say that Bishop St. Remi of Reims +never said in so many words "Bow thy proud head, Sicambrian; destroy +what thou hast worshipped, worship what thou hast destroyed," and that +the Meroving monarch did not go thence to issue an "order of the day" +that the army should forthwith march down to the river and be baptized +by battalions; but _there_ is the clear, unforgettable picture of the +times and the men, and it will remain after the world has forgotten that +some one has proved that St. Remi never met Clovis, and that he himself +was probably only a variant of the great and original "sun-myth." + +Closely allied with the teaching of history and forming a link as it +were with the teaching of English, is a branch of study at present +unformulated and unknown, but, I am convinced, of great importance in +education as a method of character development. Life has always focused +in great personalities, and formal history has recognized the fact while +showing little discretion, and sometimes very defective judgment, in the +choices it has made. A past period becomes our own in so far as we +translate it through its personalities and its art; the original +documents matter little, except when they become misleading, as they +frequently do, when read through contemporary spectacles. Now the great +figures of a time are not only princes and politicians, conquerors and +conspirators, they are quite as apt to be the knights and heroes and +brave gentlemen who held no conspicuous position in Church or state. I +think we need what might be called "The Golden Book of Knighthood"--or a +series of text books adapted to elementary and advanced schools--made up +of the lives and deeds (whether attested by "original documents," or +legendary or even fabulous does not matter) of those in all times, and +amongst all peoples, who were the glory of knighthood; the "parfait +gentyl Knyghtes" "without fear and without reproach." Such for example, +to go no farther back than the Christian Era, as St. George and St. +Martin, King Arthur and Launcelot and Galahad, Charles Martel and +Roland, St. Louis, Godfrey de Bouillon and Saladin, the Earl of +Strafford, Montrose and Claverhouse, the Chevalier Bayard, Don John of +Austria, Washington and Robert Lee and George Wyndham. These are but a +few names, remembered at random; there are scores besides, and I think +that they should be held up to honour and emulation throughout the +formative period of youth. After all, they became, during the years when +these qualities were exalted, the personification of the ideals of +honour and chivalry, of compassion and generosity, of service and +self-sacrifice and courtesy, and these, the qualifications of a +gentleman and a man or honour, are, with the religion that fostered +them, and the practice of that religion, the just objective of +education. + +Much of all this can even now be taught through a judicious use of the +opportunities offered instructors in English, whether this is through +the graded "readers" of elementary education, or the more extended +courses in colleges and universities. Very frequently these +opportunities are ignored, and will be until we achieve something of a +new orientation in the matter of teaching English. + +Now it may be I hold a vain and untenable view of this subject, but I am +willing to confess that I believe the object of teaching English is the +unlocking of the treasures of thought, character and emotion preserved +in the written records of the tongue, and the arousing of a desire to +know and assimilate these treasures on the part of the pupil. I am very +sure that English should not be taught as a thing ending in "ology," not +as an intricate science with all sorts of laws and rules and exceptions; +not as a system whereby the little children of the Ghetto, and the +offspring of Pittsburgh millionaires, and the spectacled infant elect of +Beacon Hill may all be raised to the point where they can write with +acceptable fluency the chiseled phrases of Matthew Arnold, the cadenced +Latinity of Sir Thomas Browne, the sonorous measures of Bolingbroke or +the distinguished and resonant periods of the King James Bible. Such an +aim as this will always result in failure. + +The English language is the great storehouse of the rich thought and the +burning emotion of the English race, and all this, as it has issued out +of character, works towards the development of character, when it is +made operative in new generations. There is no other language but Latin +that has preserved so great a wealth of invaluable things, and English +is taught in order that it all may be more available through that +appreciation that comes from familiarity. There is no nobler record in +the world: from Chaucer down to the moderns is one splendid sequence of +character-revelations through a perfect but varied art, for literature +is also a fine art, and one of the greatest of all. Is it not fair to +say that the chief duty of the teacher of English is to lead the student +to like great literature, to find it and enjoy it for himself, and +through it to come to the liking of great ideas? + +In the old days there was an historical, or rather archaeological, +method that was popular; also an analytical and grammarian method. There +was also the philological method which was quite the worst of all and +had almost as devastating results as in the case of Latin. It almost +seems as though English were being taught for the production of a +community of highly specialized teachers. No one would now go back to +any of those quaint and archaic ways digged up out of the dim and remote +past of the XIXth century. We should all agree, I think, that for +general education, specialized technical knowledge is unimportant and +scientific intensive methods unjustifiable. For one student who will +turn out a teacher there are five hundred that will be just simple +voters, wage-earners, readers of the Saturday Evening Post and the New +Republic, members of the Fourth Presbyterian Church or the Ethical +Society, and respectable heads of families. The School of Pedagogy has +its own methods (I am given to understand), but under correction I +submit they are not those of general education. Shall I put the whole +thing in a phrase and say that the object of teaching English is to get +young people to like good things? + +You may say this is English Literature, not English. Are the two so very +far apart? English as a language is taught to make literature available. +"Example is better than precept." Reading good literature for the love +of it will bring in the habit of grammatical speaking and writing far +more effectively than what is known as "a thorough grounding in the +principles of English grammar." I doubt if the knowledge of, and +facility in, English can be built up on such a basis; rather the laws +should be deduced from examples. Philology, etymology, syntax are +derivatives, not foundations. "Practice makes perfect" is a saying that +needs to be followed by the old scholastic defensive _"distinguo."_ +Practice in reading, rather than practice in writing, makes good English +composition possible. The "daily theme" may be overdone; it is of little +use unless _thought_ keeps ahead of the pen. + +I would plead then for the teaching of English after a fashion that will +reveal great thoughts and stimulate to greater life, through the noble +art of English literature and the perfectly illogical but altogether +admirable English language. The function of education is to make +students feel, think and act, after a fashion that increasingly reveals +and utilizes the best that is in them, and increasingly serves the uses +of society, and both history and English can be so taught as to help +towards the accomplishment of these ends. + +There is another factor that may be so used, but I confess I shall speak +of it with some hesitation. It is at present, and has been for ages, +entirely outside the possibility even of consideration, and in a sense +that goes beyond the general ignoring of religion, for while Catholics, +who form the great majority of Christians, still hold to religion as a +prime element in education, there are none--or only a minority so small +as to be negligible--who give a thought to art in this connection. I +bring forward the word, and the thing it represents, with diffidence, +even apologetically: indeed, it is perhaps better to renounce the word +altogether and substitute the term "beauty," for during the nineteenth +century art got a bad name, not altogether undeservedly, and the +disrepute lingers. So long as beauty is an instinct native to men (and +it was this, except for very brief and periodic intervals, until hardly +more than a century ago, though latterly in a vanishing form), it is +wholesome, stimulating and indispensable, but when it becomes +self-conscious, when it finds itself the possession of a few highly +differentiated individuals instead of the attribute of man as such, then +it tends to degenerate into something abnormal and, in its last estate, +both futile and unclean. In its good estate, as for example in Greece, +Byzantium, the Middle Ages, and in Oriental countries until the last few +decades, beauty was so natural an object of endeavour and a mode of +expression, and its universality resulted in so characteristic an +environment, it was unnecessary to talk about it very much, or to give +any particular thought to the educational value of the arts which were +its manifestation through and to man, or how this was to be applied. The +things were there, everywhere at hand; the temples and churches, the +painting and the sculpture and the works of handicraft; the music and +poetry and drama, the ceremonial and costume of daily life, both secular +and religious, the very cities in which men congregated and the villages +in which they were dispersed. Beauty, in all its concrete forms of art, +was highly valued, almost as highly as religion or liberty or bodily +health, but then it was a part of normal life and therefore taken for +granted. + +Now all is changed. For just an hundred years (the process definitely +began here in America between 1820 and 1823) we have been eliminating +beauty as an attribute of life and living until, during the last two +generations, it is true to say that the instinctive impulse of the race +as a whole is towards ugliness in those categories of creation and +appreciation where formerly it had been towards beauty. Of course the +corollary of this was the driving of the unhappy man in whom was born +some belated impulse towards the apprehending of beauty and its visible +expression in some art, back upon himself, until, conscious of his +isolation and confident of his own superiority, he not only made his art +a form of purely personal expression (or even of exposure), but held +himself to be, and so conducted himself, as a being apart, for whom the +laws of the herd were not, and to whom all men should bow. + +The separation of art from life is only less disastrous in its results +than the separation of religion from life, particularly since with the +former went the separation of art (and therefore of beauty) from its +immemorial alliance with religion. It was bad for art, it was bad for +religion, and it was worst of all for life itself. Beyond a certain +point man cannot live in and with and through ugliness, nor can society +endure under such conditions, and the fact is that, however it came to +pass, modern civilization has functioned through explicit ugliness, and +the environment it has made for its votaries and its rebels +indifferently, is unique in its palpable hideousness; from the clothes +it wears and the motives it extols, to the cities it builds, and the +structures therein, and the scheme of life that romps along in its +ruthless career within the sordid suburbs that take the place of the +once enclosing walls. And the defiant and segregated "artists," mortuary +art museums, the exposed statues and hidden pictures, the opera +subsidized by "high society," and the "arts and crafts" societies and +the "art magazines" and "art schools" and clubs and "city beautiful" +committees, only seem to make the contrast more apparent and the +desperate nature of the situation more profound. + +It is a new situation altogether, and nowhere in history is there any +recorded precedent to which we can return for council and example, for +nothing quite of the same sort ever happened before. It is also a +problem of which formal education must take cognizance, for the lack is +one which must somehow be supplied, while it reveals an astonishing +_lacuna_ in life that means a new deficiency in the unconscious +education of man that renders him ineffective in life; defective even, +it may be, unless from some source he can acquire something of what in +the past life itself could afford. + +Indeed it is not merely a negative influence we deal with, but a +positive, for, to paraphrase a little, "ugly associations corrupt good +morals." Youth is beaten upon at many points by things that not only +look ugly, but are, and as in compassion we are bound to offer some new +agency to fill a lack, so in self-defence we must take thought as to how +the evil influence of contemporaneousness is to be nullified and its +results corrected. + +I confess the method seems to me to lean more closely to the indirect +influence rather than the direct. It is doubtful if "art" can really be +taught in any sense; the inherent sense of beauty can be fostered and an +inherent aptitude developed, but that is about all. As for the building +up of a non-professional passion for art I am quite sure it cannot be +done, and should hardly be attempted, and very likely the same is true +of the application of beauty. + +Text books on "How to Understand" this art or that are interesting +ventures into abstract theory, but they are little more. We must always +remember that art is a result, not a product, and that sense of beauty +is a natural gift and not an accomplishment. On the other hand, much can +be accomplished by indirection, and by this I mean the buildings and the +grounds and the cultural adjuncts that are offered by any school or +college. The ordinary type of school-house--primary, grammar or high +school--is, in its barren ugliness and its barbarous "efficiency," a +very real outrage on decency, and a few Braun photographs and plaster +casts and potted plants avail nothing. Private schools and some +colleges--by no means all--are apt to be somewhat better, and here the +improvement during the last ten years has been amazing, one or two +universities having acquired single buildings, or groups, of the most +astonishing architectural beauty. In no case, however, has as yet +complete unity been achieved, while the arts of painting, sculpture, +music and the drama, as vital and operative and pervasive influences, +lag far behind, and formal religion with its liturgies and ceremonial, +its constant and varied services and its fine and appealing +pageantry--religion which is the greatest vitalizing and stimulating +force in beauty is hardly touched at all. + +Bad art of any kind is bad anywhere, but in any type of educational +institution, from the kindergarten to the post graduate college, it is +worse and less excusable than it is elsewhere, unless it be in +association with religion, while the absence of beauty at the +instigation of parsimony or efficiency is just as bad. I am firmly +persuaded that we need, not more courses of study but more beautiful +environment for scholars under instruction. + +I have touched cursorily on certain elements in education which need +either a new emphasis or an altogether new interpretation; religion, +history, art, but this does not mean that the same treatment should not +be accorded elsewhere. There are certain studies that should be revived, +such as formal logic, there are others that need immediate and complete +restoration, as Latin for example, there are many, chiefly along +scientific and vocational lines, that could well be minimized, or in +some cases dispensed with altogether: one might go on indefinitely on +this line, however, weighing and testing studies in relation to their +character-value, but certainly enough has already been said to indicate +the point of view I would urge for consideration. Before I close, +however, I want to touch on two points that arise in connection with +college education, if, even for the sake of argument, we admit that the +primary object of all formal education is the "education" of the +character-capacity in each individual. + +Of these two, the first has to do with the college curriculum, but I +need to devote little time to this for the principle has already been +developed and applied in a singularly stimulating and lucid book called +"The Liberal College," by President Meiklejohn of Amherst, to which I +beg to refer you. The scheme is a remarkable blending of the prescribed +and the elective systems, and provides for the freshman year five +compulsory studies, viz.: Social and Economic Institutions, Mathematics +and Formal Logic, Science, English and Foreign Languages; for the +sophomore year European History, Philosophy, Science, Literature, and +one elective; for the junior year American History, History of Thought +and two electives, and for the senior year one required study, +Intellectual and Moral Problems, and one elective, the latter, which +takes two-thirds of the student's time, must be a continuation of one of +the four subjects included in the junior year. It seems to me that this +is a singularly wise programme, since it not only determines the few +studies which are fundamental, and imposes them on the student in +diminishing number as he advances in his work, but it also provides for +that freedom of choice which permits any student to find out and +continue the particular line along which his inclinations lead him to +travel, until his senior year is chiefly given over to the fullest +possible development of the special subject. The fad for free electives +all along the line was one of those curious phenomena, both humorous and +tragic, that grew out of the evolutionary philosophy and the empirical +democracy of the nineteenth century, and it wrought disaster, while the +ironclad curriculum that preceded it was almost as bad along an opposite +line. This project of Dr. Meiklejohn's seems to me to recognize life as +a force and to base itself on this sure foundation instead of on the +shifting sands of doctrinaire theory, and if this is so then it is +right. + +For after all there is such a thing as life, and it is more potent than +theory as it also has a way of disregarding or even smashing the +machine. It is this force of life that should be more regarded in +education, and more relied upon. It is the living in a school or a +college that counts more than a curriculum; the association with others, +students and teachers, the communal life, the common adventures and +scrapes, the common sports, yes, and as it will be sometime, the common +worship. It is through these that life works and character develops, and +to this development and instigation of life the school and college +should work more assiduously, minimizing for the moment the problems of +curricula and pedagogic methods. If I am right in this there is no place +for the "correspondence school," while the college or university that +numbers its students by thousands becomes at least of doubtful value, +and perhaps impossible. In any case it seems to me self-evident that a +college, whatever its numbers, must have, as its primal and essential +units, self-contained groups of not more than 150 students segregated in +their own residential quad, with its common-room, refectory and chapel, +and with a certain number of faculty members in residence, the whole +being united under one "head." There may be perhaps no reason why, +granting this unit system, these should not be multiplied in number +until the whole student body is as great as that of a western state +university today, but to me the idea is abhorrent of an "university" +with five or ten thousand students all jostling together In one inchoate +mass, eating in numerical mobs, assembling in social "unions" as large +as a metropolitan hotel and almost as homelike, or taking refuge for +safety from mere numbers in clubs, fraternities and secret societies. A +college such as this is a mob, not an organism, and as a mob it ought to +be put down. + +I said at the outset of this lecture that we could not lay the present +failure of civilization to the doors of education, however great its +shortcomings, for the causes lay deeper than this. I maintain that this +is true; and yet formal education can not escape scatheless, for it has +failed to admit this decline while acknowledging the claim set up for it +that it could and would achieve this end. Certainly it will incur a +heavy responsibility if it does not at once recognize the fact that +while it can not do the half that has been claimed for it, it can do far +more than it is doing now, and that in a very large degree the future +does depend for its honour or its degradation on the part formal +education is to perform at the present crisis. To do this it must +execute a _volte face_ and confess that it can only develop inherent +potential, not create capacity, and that the primary object of its +activities must be not the stall-feeding of intellect and the practical +preparation for a business career, but the fostering and the building up +of the personal character that denotes the Christian gentleman. I do not +think that I can do better for a conclusion than to quote from the +"Philosophy of Education" by the late Dr. Thomas Edward Shields. + +"The unchanging aim of Christian education is, and always has been, to +put the pupil into possession of a body of truth derived from nature and +from Divine Revelation, from the concrete work of man's hand and from +the content of human speech, in order to bring his conduct into +conformity with Christian ideals and with the standards of the +civilization of his day. + +"Christian education, therefore, aims at transforming native instincts +while preserving and enlarging their powers. It aims at bringing the +flesh under the control of the spirit. It draws upon the experience and +the wisdom of the race, upon Divine Revelation and upon the power of +Divine grace, in order that it may bring the conduct of the individual +into conformity with Christian ideals and with the standards of the +civilization of the day. It aims at the development of the whole man, at +the preservation of unity and continuity in his conscious life; it aims +at transforming man's native egotism to altruism; at developing the +social side of his nature to such an extent that he may regard all men +as his brothers; sharing with them the common Fatherhood of God. In one +word, it aims at transforming a child of the flesh into a child of God." + + + + +VII + + +THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC RELIGION + +If philosophy is "the science of the totality of things," and "they are +called wise who put things in their right order and control them well," +then it is religion, above all other factors and potencies, that enters +in to reveal the right relationships and standards of value, and to +contribute the redemptive and energizing force that makes possible the +adequate control which is the second factor in the conduct of the man +that is "called wise." Philosophy and religion are not to be confounded; +religion is sufficient in itself and develops its own philosophy, but +the latter is not sufficient in itself, and when it assumes the +functions and prerogatives of religion, it brings disaster. + +Religion is the force that relates action to life. Of course it has +other aspects, higher in essence and more impalpable in quality, but it +is this first aspect I shall deal with, because I am not now speaking of +religion as a purely spiritual power but only of its quality as the +great coordinator of human action, the power that establishes a right +ratio of values and gives the capacity for right control. Whether we +accept the religion of the Middle Ages or not; whether we look on the +period as one of high and edifying Christian civilization, or as a time +of ignorance and superstition, we are bound to admit that society in its +physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects was highly organized, and +coordinated after a most masterly fashion. It was more nearly an unit, +functioning lucidly and consistently, than anything the world has known +since the Roman Empire. Whatever its defects, lack of coherency was not +one of them. Life was not divided into water-tight compartments, but +moved on as a consistent whole. Failures were constant, for the world +even then was made up of men, but the ideal was perfectly clear-cut, the +principles exactly seen and explicitly formulated; life was organic, +consistent, highly articulated, and withal as full of the passion of +aspiration towards an ultimate ideal as was the Gothic cathedral which +is its perfect exemplar. + +The reason for this coherency and consistency was the universal +recognition and acceptance of religion as the one energizing and +standardizing force in life, the particular kind of religion that then +prevailed, and the organic power which this religion had established; +that is to say, the Church as an operative institution. So long as this +condition obtained, which was, roughly speaking, for three hundred +years, from the "Truce of God" in 1041 to the beginning of the +"Babylonian Captivity" of the Papacy at Avignon in 1309, there was +substantial unity in life, but as soon as it was shaken, this unity +began to break up into a diversity that accomplished a condition of +chaos, at and around the opening of the sixteenth century, which only +yielded to the absolutism of the Renaissance, destined in its turn to +break up into a second condition of chaos under the influence of +industrialism, Puritanism and revolution. + +Since the accomplishment of the Reformation, this function of religion +has never been restored to society in any degree comparable with that +which it maintained during the Middle Ages. The Counter-Reformation +preserved the institution itself in the Mediterranean lands, but it did +not restore its old spiritual power in its entirety. Amongst the peoples +that accepted the Reformation the new religion assumed for a time the +authority of the old, but the centrifugal force inherent in its nature +soon split the reformed churches into myriad fragments, so destroying +their power of action, while the abandonment of the sacramental system +progressively weakened their dynamic force. As it had from the first +compounded, under compulsion, with absolutism and tyranny, so in the end +it compromised with the cruelty, selfishness, injustice and avarice of +industrialism, and when finally this achieved world supremacy, and +physical science, materialistic philosophy and social revolution entered +the field as co-combatants, it no longer possessed a sufficient original +power either of resistance or of re-creative energy. + +Religion is in itself not the reaction of the human mind, under process +of evolution, to certain physical stimuli of experience and phenomena, +it is supernatural in that its source is outside nature; it is a +manifestation of the grace of God, and as such it cannot be brought into +existence by any conscious action of man or by any of his works. On the +other hand, it can be fostered and preserved, or debilitated and +dispersed, by these human acts and institutions, and in the same way man +himself may be made more receptive to this divine grace, or turned +against it, by the same agencies, the teachings of Dr. John Calvin to +the contrary notwithstanding. This is part of the Catholic doctrine of +free-will as opposed to the sixteenth-century dogma of predestination +which, distorted and degraded from the doctrine of St. Paul and St. +Augustine, played so large a part in that transformation of the +Christian religion from which we have suffered ever since. God offers +the free gift of religion and of faith to every child of man, but the +recipient must cooperate if the gift is to be accepted. The Church, that +is to say, the supernatural organism that is given material form in time +and space and operates through human agencies, is for this reason +subject to great vicissitudes, now rising to the highest level of +righteousness and power, now sinking into depths of unrighteousness and +impotence. Nothing, however, can affect the validity and the potency of +its supernatural content and its supernatural channels of grace. These +remain unaffected, whether the human organism is exalted or debased. The +sacraments and devotions and practices of worship, are in themselves as +potent if a Borgia sits in the chair of St. Peter as they are if a +Hildebrand, and Innocent III or a Leo XIII is the occupant; nevertheless +every weakening or degradation of the visible organism affects, and +inevitably, the attitude of men towards the thing itself, and when this +declension sets in and continues unchecked, the result is, first, a +falling away and a discrediting of religion that sometimes results in +general abandonment, and second--and after a time--a new outpouring of +spiritual power that results in complete regeneration. The Church, in +its human manifestation, is as subject to the rhythmical rise and fall +of the currents of life as is the social organism or man himself, +therefore it is not to be expected that it will pursue a course of even +exaltation, or maintain a status that is impeccable. + +Now the working out of this law had issue in a great decline that began +with the Exile at Avignon and was not terminated until the Council of +Trent. In the depth of this catastrophe came the natural and righteous +revolt against the manifold and intolerable abuses, but, like all +reforming movements that take on a revolutionary character, reform and +regeneration were soon forgotten in the unleashed passion for +destruction and innovation, while the new doctrines of emancipation from +authority, and the right of private judgment in religious matters, were +seized upon by sovereigns chafing under ecclesiastical control, as a +providential means of effecting and establishing their own independence, +and so given an importance, and an ultimate victory that, in and by +themselves, they could hardly have achieved. In the end it was the +secular and autocratic state that reaped the victory, not the reformed +religion, which was first used as a tool and then abandoned to its +inevitable break-up into numberless antagonistic sects, some of them +retaining a measure of the old faith and polity, others representing all +the illiteracy and uncouthness and fanaticism of the new racial and +social factors as these emerged at long last from the submergence and +the oppression that had been their fate with the dissolution of +Mediaevalism. + +Meanwhile the Roman Church which stood rigidly for historic Christianity +and had been preserved by the Counter-Reformation to the Mediterranean +states, continued bound to the autocratic and highly centralized +administrative system that had become universal among secular powers +during the decadence of Mediaevalism, and from which it had taken its +colour, and it kept even pace for the future with the progressive +intensification of this absolutism. This was natural, though in many +respects deplorable, and it can be safely said that adverse criticism of +the Catholic Church today is based only on qualities it acquired during +the period of Renaissance autocracy and revived paganism; qualities that +do not affect its essential integrity or authority but do misrepresent +it before men, and work as a handicap in its adaptability and in its +work of winning souls to Christianity and re-establishing the unity of +Christendom. Fortunately this very immobility has saved it from a +surrender to the new forces that were developed in secular society +during the last two centuries, as it did yield to the compulsion of +those that were let loose in the two that preceded them. It has never +subjected questions of faith and morals to popular vote nor has it +determined discipline by parliamentary practice under a well developed +party system, therefore it has preserved its unity, its integrity and +its just standard of comparative values. On the other hand, it has held +so stubbornly to some of the ill ways of Renaissance centralization, +which are in no sense consonant with its character, that it has failed +to retard the constant movement of society away from a life wherein +religion was the dominating and coordinating force, while at the present +crisis it is as yet hardly more able than a divisive Protestantism to +offer the regenerative energy that a desperate case demands. + +I do not know whether secular society is responsible for the decadence +of religion, or the decadence of religion is responsible for the failure +of secular society, nor does it particularly matter. What I am concerned +with is a condition amounting to almost complete severance between the +two, and how we may "knit up this ravelled sleeve" of life so that once +more we may have an wholesome unity in place of the present disunity; +for until this is accomplished, until once more religion enters into the +very marrow of social being, enters with all its powers of judgment and +determination and co-ordination and creative energy, just so long shall +we seek in vain for our way out into the Great Peace of righteous and +consistent living. + +Of course there is only one sure way, one method by which this, and all +our manifold difficulties, can be resolved, and that is through the +achieved enlightenment of the individual. As I have insisted in each of +these lectures, salvation is not through machinery but through the +individual soul, for it is life itself that is operating, not the +instruments that man devises in his ingenuity. Yet the mechanism is of +great value for even itself may give aid and stimulus in the personal +regenerative process, or, on the contrary, it may deter this by the +confusing and misleading influences it creates. Therefore we are bound +to regard material reforms, and of these, as they suggest themselves in +the field of organized religion, I propose to speak. + +No one will deny the progressive alienation of life from religion that +has developed since the Reformation and has now reached a point of +almost complete severance. Religion, once a public preoccupation, has +now withdrawn to the fastnesses of the individual soul, when it has not +vanished altogether, as it has in the case of the majority of citizens +of this Republic in so far as definite faith, explicit belief, +application, practice and action are concerned. In the hermitage that +some still make within themselves, religion still lives on as ardent and +as potent and as regenerative as before, but in general, if we are to +judge from the conduct of recent life, it is held, when it is accepted +at all, with a certain formality, and is neither cherished with +conviction nor allowed to interfere with the everyday life of the +practical man. As a great English statesman remarked in the last +century, "No one has a higher regard for religion than I, but when it +comes to intruding it into public affairs, well, really--!" + +The situation is one not unnaturally to be anticipated, for the whole +course of religious, secular and sociological development during the +last few centuries has been such as to make any other result improbable. +I already have tried to show what seem to me the destructive factors, +secularly and sociologically. As for the factors in religious +development that have worked towards the same end, they are, first, the +shattering of the unity of Christendom, with the denial by those of the +reformed religions of the existence of a Church, one, visible and +Catholic and infallible in matters of faith and morals; second, the +denial of sacramental philosophy and abandonment of the sacraments (or +all but one, or at most two of them) as instruments of Divine Grace; +third, the surrender of the various religious organisms to the +compulsion of the materialistic, worldly and opportunist factors in the +secular life of modernism. The truths corresponding to these three +errors are, Unity, Sacramentalism and Unworldliness. Until these three +things are won back, Christianity will fail of its full mission, society +will continue aimless, uncoördinate and on the verge of disaster, life +itself will lack the meaning and the reality that give both joy in the +living and victory in achievement, while the individual man will be +gravely handicapped in the process of personal regeneration. + +It is not my purpose to frame a general indictment against persons and +movements, but rather to suggest certain ways and means of possible +recovery, and in general I shall try to confine myself to that form of +organized religion to which I personally adhere, that is to say, the +Anglican or Episcopal Church, partly because of my better knowledge of +its conditions, and partly because whatever is said may in most cases be +equally well applied to the Protestant denominations. + +_The unity of the Church._ It is no longer necessary to demonstrate this +fundamental necessity. The old days of the nineteenth century are gone, +those days when honest men vociferously acclaimed as honourable and +glorious "the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the +Protestant religion." Everyone knows now, everyone, that is, that +accepts Christianity, that disunion is disgrace if not a very palpable +sin. The desire for a restored unity is almost universal, but every +effort in this direction, whatever its source, meets with failure, and +the reason would appear to be that the approach is made from the wrong +direction. In every case the individual is left alone, his personal +beliefs and practices are, he is assured, jealously guarded; all that is +asked is that some mechanical amalgamation, some official approximation +shall be effected. + +Free interchange of pulpits, a system of reciprocal re-ordination, a +"merger" of church property and parsons, an "irreducible minimum" of +credal insistencies these, and others even more ingeniously +compromising, are the well-meaning schemes that are put forward, and in +the process one point after another is surrendered, as a _quid pro quo_ +for the formal and technical capitulation of some other religious group. + +It is demonstrable that even if these well-meaning approximations were +received with favour--and thus far nothing of the kind has appeared--the +result, so far as essential unity is concerned, would be _nil._ There is +a perfectly definite line of division between the Catholic and the +Protestant, and until this line is erased there is no possible unity, +even if this were only official and administrative. The Catholic (and in +respect to this one particular point I include under this title members +of the Roman, Anglican and Eastern Communions) maintains and practices +the sacramental system; the Protestant does not. There is no reason, +there is indeed grave danger of sacrilege, in a joint reception of the +Holy Communion by those who look on it as a mere symbol and those who +accept it as the very Body and Blood of Christ. Protestant clergy are +urged to accept ordination at the hands of Anglican bishops, but the +plea is made on the ground of order, expediency, and the preservation of +tradition; whereas the Apostolical succession was established and +enforced not for these reasons but in order that the grace of God, +originally imparted by Christ Himself, may be continued through the +lines He ordained, for the making and commissioning of priests who have +power to serve as the channels for the accomplishing of the divine +miracle of the Holy Eucharist, to offer the eternal Sacrifice of the +Body and Blood of Christ for the quick and the dead, and to remit the +penalty of sins through confession and absolution. If the laying on of +hands by the bishop were solely a matter of tradition and discipline, +neither Rome nor the Anglican Communion would be justified in holding to +it as a condition of unity; if it is for the transmission of the Holy +Ghost for the making of a Catholic priest, with all that implies and has +always implied, then it is wrong, even in the interests of a formal +unity, to offer it to those who believe neither in the priesthood nor in +the sacraments in the Catholic and historic sense. + +The conversion of the individual must take precedence of corporate +action of any sort. When the secularist comes to believe in the Godhead +of Christ he will unite himself with the rest of the faithful in a +Church polity, but he will not do this, he has too much self-respect, +simply because he is told by some ardent but minimizing parson that he +does not have to believe in the Divinity of Christ in order to "join the +church." When a Protestant comes to accept the sacramental system, to +desire to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, to make +confession of his sins and receive absolution, and to nourish and +develop his spiritual nature by the use of the devotions that have grown +up during nineteen hundred years, he will renounce his Protestantism, +when his self-respect would not permit him to do this just because he +had been assured that he need not really change any of his previous +beliefs in order to ally himself with a Church that had better +architecture and a more artistic ceremonial, and locally a higher social +standing. When Anglicans or the Eastern Orthodox come to believe that a +vernacular liturgy and a married priesthood and provincial autonomy are +of less importance than Catholic unity, and when Roman Catholics can see +that the same is of greater moment than a rigid preservation of +Renaissance centralization and a cold _"non possumus"_ in the matter of +Orders, then the way will be open for the reunion of the West, where +this operation cannot be affected by formal negotiations looking towards +some form of legalistic concordat. + +The evil heritage of the sixteenth century is still heavy upon us, and +this heritage is one of jealousy and hate, not of charity and +toleration. It is an heritage of legalism and technicalities, of +self-will and individualism, of shibboleths that have become a dead +letter, of prejudices that are fostered on distorted history and the +propaganda of the self-seeking and the vain. The spirit of Christ is not +in it, but the malice of Satan working upon the better natures of men +and justifying in the name of conscience and principle what are +frequently the workings of self-will and pride and intellectual +obsession. This is the tragedy of it all; that Protestants and Anglicans +and Roman Catholics are, so far as the majority are concerned, honestly +convinced that they are right in maintaining their own divisiveness; in +perpetuating an hundred Protestant sects on the basis of some variation +in the form of baptism or church government or the method of conversion; +in splitting up the Catholic Church because of a thousand year old +disagreement as to a clause in the Creed which has a technical and +theological significance only, or because one sector is alleged to have +added unjustifiably to the Faith while the other is alleged to have +unjustifiably taken away. Self-will and lack of charity, not love and +the common will as these are revealed to the world through the Divine +Will of Christ, are working here. The momentary triumph of evil over +good, the passing victory that yet means the banishment of religion from +the world, and the assurance of disaster still greater than that which +is now upon us unless every man bends all his energies to the task of +making the will of God prevail, first in himself, and so in the secular +and ecclesiastical societies in and through which he plays his part in +the life of the world--these are the fruits of a divided Christendom. + +I honestly believe that the first real step towards reunion would be a +prompt cessation of the whole process of criticism, vilification and +abuse, one of the other, that now marks the attitude of what are known +as "church periodicals." Roman, Anglican, Protestant, are all alike, for +all maintain a consistent slanging of each other. I have in mind in +particular weekly religious papers in the United States which maintain +departments almost wholly made up of attacks on Roman Catholicism and +the derision of incidents of bad taste or illiteracy in the Protestant +denominations, and others which lose no opportunity to discredit or +abuse the Episcopal Church and the Protestant denominations, and finally +a curiously malevolent newspaper representing the worst type of +Protestant ignorance and prejudice, which exists on its libelous and +indecent and dishonest assaults on Catholicism wherever it may be found. +These are not alone, for the condition of ascerbity and nagging is +practically universal. It merely echoes the pulpit and a portion of the +general public. We all know of the so called "church" in Boston that is +the forum of "escaped nuns" and "unfrocked priests," but in many places +of better repute the sermon that bitterly attacks Christian Science, or +"High Church Episcopalianism," or the errors of Protestantism generally, +or the "usurpations of Rome" is by no means unknown, while elsewhere +than in Ireland, the public as a whole finds much pleasure in bating any +religion that happens to differ from its own,--or offends its sense of +the uselessness of all religion. Let us have a new "Truce of God," and +for the space of a year let all clergy, lecturers, newspapers, religious +journals, and private individuals, totally abstain from sneering and +ill-natured attacks on other religions and their followers. Could this +be accomplished a greater step would be taken towards the reunion of +Christendom than could be achieved by any number of conferences, +commissions, councils and conventions. + +It was the will and the intent of Christ "that they all may be one, that +the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me," and in disunity we deny +Christ. There is no consideration of inheritance, of personal taste, of +interests, of intellectual persuasion that can stand in the way of an +affirmative answer to this prayer. Every man who calls himself a +Christian and yet is not praying and working to break down the self-will +and the self-conceit that, so often under the masquerade of conscience, +hold him back from a return, even if it is only step by step, to the +original unity of the Catholic Faith, is guilty of sin, while it is sin +of an even graver degree that stands to the account of those who +consciously work to perpetuate the division that now exists. + +_Sacramentalism._ The stumbling block, the apparently impassable +barrier, is that which was erected when belief was substituted for +faith; it is the intellectualizing of religion that has brought about +the present failure of Christianity as a vital and controlling force in +man and in society. The danger revealed itself even in the Middle Ages, +and through perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher, and certainly +one of the most commanding intellects, the world has known: St. Thomas +Aquinas. In his case, and that of the others of his time, the intellect +was still directed by spiritual forces, the chiefest of which was faith, +therefore the inherent danger in the intellectualizing process did not +clearly reveal itself or come into actual operation, but with the +Renaissance and the Reformation it stood boldly forth, and since then as +mind increased in its dominion faith declined. The Reformation, in all +its later phases, that is to say, after it ceased to be a protest +against moral defects and administrative abuses and became a +revolutionary invention of new dogmas and practices, was the result of +clever, stupid or perverse minds working overtime on religious problems +which could not be solved or even apprehended by the intellect, whether +it was that of an acute and highly trained master such as Calvin, or +that of any one of the hundred founders of less savage but more curious +and uncouth types of "reformed religion." + +What we need now for the recovery and re-establishment of Christianity +is not so much increased belief as it is a renewed faith; faith in +Christ, faith in His doctrine, faith in His Church. We lost this faith +when we abandoned the sacraments and sacramentalism as superstitions, or +retained some of them in form and as symbols while denying to them all +supernatural power. If we would aid the individual soul to regain this +lost faith we could do no better than to restore the seven sacraments of +the historic Christian faith, and Christian Church to the place they +once held for all Christians, and still hold in the Roman Catholic +Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and (with limitations) in the +Anglican Church. Faith begets faith; faith in Christ brings faith in the +sacraments, and faith in the sacraments brings faith in Christ. + +It is disbelief in the efficacy of the sacraments and in the sacramental +principle in life that is the essential barrier between Protestantism +and Catholicism, and until this barrier is dissolved there can be +neither formal unity nor unity by compromise. This is already widely +recognized, and as well the actual loss that comes with the denial and +abandonment of the sacraments. There is in the Presbyterian church of +Scotland a strong tendency towards a reassertion of the full sacramental +doctrine; the "Free Catholic" movement throughout Great Britain is made +up of Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, and other +representatives of Evangelical Protestantism, and it is working +unreservedly for the recovery and application of all the Catholic +sacraments, with the devotions and ritual that go with them. Dr. +Orchard, the head, and a Congregational minister, maintains in London a +church where, as a Methodist member of the "Free Catholic" organization +wrote me the other day, "the Blessed Sacrament is perpetually reserved +and 'High Mass' is celebrated on Sundays with the full Catholic +ceremonial." In my own practice of architecture I am constantly +providing Presbyterian, Congregational, and even Unitarian churches, by +request, with chancels containing altars properly vested and ornamented +with crosses and candles, while the almost universal demand is for +church edifices that shall approach as nearly as possible in appearance +to the typical Catholic church of the Middle Ages. Of course some of +this is due to a revived instinct for beauty, that almost sacramental +quality in life which was ruthlessly destroyed by Protestantism, and +also to a renewed sense of the value of symbol and ritual; but back of +it all is the growing consciousness that, as Dr. Newman Smythe says, +Protestantism has definitely failed, or at least become superannuated; +that the essence of religion is spiritual not intellectual, affirmative +not negative, and that the only measure of safety lies in a return +towards, if not actually to, the Catholic faith and practice from which +the old revolt was affected. It is a movement both significant and full +of profound encouragement. + +Here then are two tendencies that surely show the way and demand +encouragement and furtherance; recovery of the sense of Christian unity +in Christ and through an united Catholic Church, and the re-acceptance +of sacramentalism as the expression of that faith and as the method of +that Church. I feel very strongly that wherever these tendencies show +themselves they must be acclaimed and cherished. The Protestant +denominations must be aided in every way in their process of recovery of +the good things once thrown away; Episcopalians must be persuaded that +nothing can be wrong that leads souls to Christ, and that therefore they +must cease their opposition to Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament +explicitly for adoration, to such devotions as Benediction and the +Rosary simply because they have not explicit Apostolic sanction, or to +vestments, incense and holy water because certain prescriptive laws +passed four hundred years ago in England have never been repealed. Above +all is it necessary that the Episcopal Church should declare itself +formally for the reinstitution of the seven Catholic sacraments, with +the Mass as the one supreme act of worship, obligatory as the chief +service on Sundays and Holy Days, and both as communion and as +sacrifice. In this connection there is one reform that would I think be +more effective than any other, (except the exaltation of the Holy +Eucharist itself) and that is the complete cessation of the practice of +commissioning lay readers and using them for mission work and clerical +assistance. A mission can be established and made fruitful only on the +basis of the sacraments, and chiefly on those of the Holy Eucharist and +Penance. It is not enough to send a zealous and well intentioned layman +to "a promising mission field" in order that he may read Morning and +Evening Prayer and some sermon already published. What is needed is a +priest to say Mass and hear confessions, and nothing else will serve as +a substitute. How this is to be accomplished, now when the candidates +for Holy Orders are constantly falling off in number, with no immediate +prospect of recovery, is a question. Perhaps we may learn something from +the old custom of ordaining "Mass priests," without cure of souls and +with a commission to celebrate the Holy Mysteries even while they +continue their own secular work in the world. For my own part I am +persuaded that the best solution lies in the establishing of diocesan +monasteries where men may take vows for short terms, and, during the +period of these vows, remain at the orders of the bishop to go out at +any time and anywhere in the diocese and to do such temporary or +periodical mission work as he may direct. + +_Unworldliness:_ I have referred to the great falling off in the number +of candidates for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church; the same +phenomenon is apparent in all the Protestant denominations, so far as I +know, but it has not shown itself in the Roman Catholic Church. This +defection parallels the falling-off of membership in the various +churches (except again the Roman Catholic) in proportion to the increase +in population. We are told that the diminution of the ministry is due to +the starvation wages that are paid in the vast majority of cases, and of +course it is true that where a married clergy is allowed, men who +believe they have a calling both to ministerial and to domestic life +will think twice before they follow the call of the first when the +pecuniary returns are such as to make the second impossible, which is, +generally speaking, the situation today. To obviate this difficulty many +religious bodies have recently established pension funds, but even this +form of clerical insurance, together with the increase that has been +effected in clerical stipends, has shown no results in an increase of +students in theological seminaries and in candidates for Orders. The man +who has enough of faith in God and a strong enough call to the ministry +of Christ, will answer the call even if he does think twice before doing +so. The trouble lies, I believe, in the very lack of faith and in a +failure of confidence in organized religion largely brought about by +organized religion itself through the methods it has pursued during the +last two or three generations. There is a widespread belief that it is +compromising with the world; that it is playing fast and loose with +faith and discipline in a vain opportunism that voids it of spiritual +power. Even where distrust does not reach this disastrous conclusion, +there is a growing feeling of repugnance to the methods now being +adopted in high quarters to "sell religion" to the public, as is the +phrase which is sufficient in itself to explain the falling away that +now seems to be in process. The attempt to win unwilling support by the +methods of the "institutional church," the rampant advertising, so +frequently under the management of paid "publicity agents"; the setting +apart of half the Sundays in the year for some one or other special +purpose, usually the raising of money for a specific and frequently +worthy object; the "drives" for millions, the huge and impressive +organizations, "scientifically" conducted, for rounding up lapsed +communicants, or doubtful converts, or cash and pledges for missions, or +pensions, or the raising of clergy stipends; the "Nation-wide Campaign," +the "Inter-Church World Movement"; these--not to speak of the growing +policy of "making it easy" for the hesitant to "come into the church" by +minimizing unpopular clauses in the Creeds or loosening-up on +discipline, and of attracting "advanced" elements by the advocacy and +exploiting of each new social or industrial or political fad as it +arises--are strong deterrents to those who honestly and ardently hunger +for religion that _is_ religion and neither social service nor "big +business." + +Christ said "you _cannot_ serve both God and mammon," and this is one of +the few cases where He stated a moral condition as a fact instead of +indicating the right or the wrong possibility in action. Organized +Christianity has for some time been trying to render this dual service, +and the penalty thereof is now on the world. This consideration seems to +me so important and so near the root of our troubles, and not in the +field of organized religion alone, that I am going to quote at length +from the Rev. Fr. Duffy of the American "Society of the Divine +Compassion." What he has said came to me while I was preparing this +lecture, and it is so much better than anything I could say that for my +present purpose I make it my own. + +"To the thoughtful person, and the need of reformation will appeal only +to the thoughtful person, it must on reflection become abundantly +evident that the chief necessity of our times in the religious world is +the recovery of Faith. Probably lack of the true measure of Faith has +been the story of every generation, with few exceptions, in the long +history of Christianity, but there possibly never has been a time when +men talked more of it and possessed less than in our own day. * * * *" + +"Christianity is a new thing of splendid vision for each and every +generation of men, unique in its promise and unapproached in its +attraction. And yet how small a factor we have made it in the world's +moulding compared with what it might be. We have not achieved a tiny +part of what we might have achieved, because we lack the essentials of +achievement; Faith and Faith's vision. Obsessed, after centuries of +discussion and persecution, with the notion that faith is made up of +mere belief, we have lost the secret of that victorious power that +overcomes the world, and are weakly dependent upon the world's means for +what spiritual operation we undertake. And so content have we grown with +things as they are, that what they might be comes only as a dream that +passes away quickly with the night; blind to our appalling +money-dependency in modern religion, satisfied that the Kingdom of +Heaven is as nigh to us as is possible under present conditions of +society, we practically have substituted for the theological virtues, +Faith, Hope and Charity, the ascending degrees of belief, resignation, +money. This is partly due to our religious inheritance and partly to +mental and spiritual sloth which dislikes the effort of thinking, +preferring easy acquiescence in conditions that are the resultants of +blinded vision. For dependency upon money is not something merely of the +present, but a condition in the spiritual sphere that is largely a +product of a long past. The really inexcusable thing is our willingness, +in a day of greater light and knowledge, to close our eyes to the true +nature of the unattractive, anaemic thing we _call_ faith, which would +be seen as powerless to achieve at all, if taken out of the soil of +material means in which it has been planted." + +He then gives various instances of methods actually put in practice +amongst the churches and denominations which indicate the renunciation +of faith and an exclusive reliance on worldy agencies and he then +continues: + +"The Joint Commission on Clergy Pensions, appointed by the General +Convention of 1913, made as the basis for apportionment, not the +services of self-denial of, but the amount of stipend received by, the +clergy eligible for pension, thus penalizing the priest who, for the +love of God, sacrificed a larger income to accept work in the most +needed places where toil is abundant and money scarce. It must be +evident, of course, that the motive of the Commission is not an +endorsement of the blasphemous gospel of Success, by adding penalty to +the self-denying clergy; what is painfully obvious is their apparent +unbounded confidence that there are no clergy sufficiently foolish to +sacrifice stipend at the call of faith's venture! And since the +Armistice, the only real activity in organized religion has been a +series of "drives" for vast sums of money, in most cases professionally +directed. + +"A consideration of a few facts such as the forgoing must readily +convince even the most unimaginative person that whatever power faith +might have had in the past, it counts for little today; that its +secrets, its very meaning have been forgotten. Otherwise there could not +be this extraordinary exaggeration of the place of money in spiritual +operation, and the unblushing, tacit admission that mammon, which Christ +so warned against, had been recognized as the master of spiritual +situation, instead of the willing servant and useful adjunct of faith it +was designed to be in the Christian vision. Indeed they all speak of +that, largely unconscious, atmosphere of distrust of God which is so +all-prevailing among Christian people today. If the great, positive vice +of the age is covetousness, the great negative one is distrust of God; +the two invariably go together as parts of a whole--one is the reverse +side of the other--for, it is not that we _must_ not, or _ought_ not, +but that we "_cannot_ serve God and mammon." And this atmosphere is one +in which faith cannot exist, it is stifled, crushed, killed, except it +breathe the pure, sweet air of God, with which it can alone surround +itself when human hearts will. + +"It is not surprising that out of such conditions should grow false +values, and that spirituality should be measured by the world's +standard. Thus we have fallen into the vicious habit of adjudging +qualifications for spiritual leadership among the clergy by the amount +of their stipends, and measuring their potentialities for usefulness in +the Kingdom of God by the amount of their yearly incomes; among the +laity, the men of power are ever the men of material means, whom we +permit to play the part of Providence in feeding and sustaining the +Church from large purses, the filling of which will not always bear +close investigation, and the really successful parish is always the one +that, no matter what its spiritual condition, rejoices in abundant +material means. So evident is it that the means of spiritual life have +been so confused with the purely material, that it occasions no surprise +when a neighbourhood having changed from the residence district of the +comparatively well-to-do to the very poor, the vestry feels bound to +consider the moving of the church to a more 'desirable' quarter. + +"These, of course, are hard facts to face, and it is not strange that we +should seek to evade them by a false optimism that thinks evil is +eliminated by merely contemplating good. The point is, _they must be +faced,_ and at a time when there is some evidence of a little awakening, +it must more and more force itself into the consciousness of the +thoughtful that the dead spiritual conditions of today are due to the +shifting of faith from God to material things as the means of achieving. +The only hope lies in the apparent unconsciousness of the error. This is +invariably the atmosphere that prevails when ecclesiastical history +repeats itself in corruption; it had been true of more than two or three +generations, though obviously unseen save by a few of those contemporary +with the times, that in Jerusalem, 'the heads thereof judge for reward, +and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for +money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say: Is not the Lord among +us? None evil can come upon us.' Corporate unconsciousness, in greater +or less measure, of these conditions, may influence the degree of guilt, +but never can acquit of the sin. And the cold, naked truth is that today +we stand almost helpless before a world of peculiar problems. + +"What is there here to reflect the _power_ and _might_ of Christianity, +such as the early Church, especially, possessed, and subsequent +generations, in times of great faith, really knew so much of--the power +to heal the sick, to cast out devils, to achieve wonders out of Christ's +poverty, to experience the thrilling joy of religion in the ever-abiding +Divine Presence, and witness the marvels of faith in the conquering of +the world? How is it we are no longer able to communicate the secrets to +the suffering world which are able to transmute the people's want into +God's plenty, and attract and hold the hearts of men with the joys of +the Vision Splendid? Why is it that hope has given way to resignation, +that the preaching of forgiveness has been dwarfed by the insistence +upon penalty, that distinct evils in the physical sphere are attributed +to God and, because of that, held up to religious estimation as good; +the day of miracles is regarded as belonging to a far distant past, the +answering of prayer looked upon as the exception instead of the rule, +and the old melody of joy in religion exchanged for the wail of despair +in an interpretation of 'Thy will be done' that is only associated with +human calamity? The reply is as simple as, to the thoughtful person, it +is obvious: we have lost knowledge of a living, vital, conquering faith +that is rooted in God Himself, and have satisfied the hunger of human +sense by placing trust in the things of the earth which we see and +touch, and in so doing lost the power spiritually to achieve. + +"Now we can only approach, in the hope of a day of better things, the +great practical and intellectual problems of our times from the +standpoint of faith's recovery, for it is only in their relationship to +faith they can be viewed intelligently by the Christian. And it will be +found that at the root of all our difficulties and all our +negligences--so many of them unconscious--and as the cause of our vain +expediencies and attempts to justify the corporate spiritual situation, +is the absence of vital faith and a _whole_ obedience to which God alone +has conditioned results. We need sorely to reconsider what faith really +is, and when we have recovered in some measure that knowledge of it in +experience, which declared its unspeakable worth in the early Church and +in later periods of ecclesiastical history which stand out before all +others, we shall look back upon our past distrust of God and His +promises with shame and wonderment, and proceed to revise our +cataloguing of spiritual values and degrees of sin. For the really +destructive thing, _before all others,_ is a weakened faith that +compromises in a half obedience to Christ and a search for earthly +props. The work of Satan has even been the prompting of distrust of God +in the human family, just as the work of redemption means so largely the +re-establishing of it in the Person of Jesus Christ. From the first +temptation of man to the present moment, all the forces of evil have +concentrated upon breaking man's trust in God and His promises; every +sin has had that as its ultimate end, and every disaster, ill and trial, +in the world and individual life, is subtly presented by the enemy of +God and man (knowing our haziness of vision), so as to place the +appearances against the Creator in a blind disregard for the created; +just as in the life of the Incarnate Son all the great power of the +forces of darkness were brought to bear unsuccessfully upon the snapping +of His faith in His Father--from the time He was tempted to believe +Himself forgotten, when hungering and physically reduced in the +wilderness after His long fast, until the dreadful cry of dereliction +from the Cross at the very end. + +"The call for reformation today, then, is to the doing of things left +undone, the search for and recovery of almost lost spiritual powers that +alone lastingly can achieve for God and hasten man's salvation. And this +requires the venture and daring that breaks from the world, withdraws +from compromise, and that, rightly estimating the character and attitude +of God, refuses longer to believe Him the author of evils we resignedly +accept today by calling them good; and instead, claims the powers of the +Divine promises for the utter destruction of the world's ills by a +strict dependence upon spiritual forces and weapons for the +accomplishment of results. Above all, this means a change and reform in +corporate conduct as the end of repentance, for the present almost total +disregard of the laws and principles of Christian living as given in the +Sermon on the Mount." + + +These are hard sayings and strong doctrine, but will any one say they +are not true? The weakening of religion, with the consequent decline of +civilization, is ultimately to be traced back to _organized_ religion, +not to religion itself, and still less to any inherent defects in +Christianity. Where organized religion has failed it deserved to fail, +because it countenanced disunion, forsook the saving sacraments, and +finally compromised with worldliness and materialism. With each one of +these false ventures faith began to weaken amongst the mass of people +until at last this, which can always save, and alone can save, ceased to +have either the power or the will to force the organism to conform to +the spirit. If we have indeed accomplished the depth of our fall, then +the time is at hand when we may hope and pray for a new outpouring of +divine grace that will bring recovery. + +There are wide evidences that men earnestly desire this. I have already +spoken of the great corporate movements towards unity, and these mean +much even though they may at present take on something of the quality of +mechanism instead of depending on the individual and the grace of God +working in him. The "World Conference on Faith and Order," the just +effected federation of the Presbyterians, Methodists and +Congregationalists in Canada, above all the eirenic manifesto of the +Bishops at the last Lambeth Conference, all indicate a new spirit +working potently in the souls of men. Concrete results are not as yet +conspicuous, but the spirit is there and a beginning has been made. Even +more significant is the wide testimony to the need for definite, +concrete and pervasive religion that is daily given by men whose names +have hitherto been quite dissociated from matters of this kind; +scientists, educators, men of business and men of public life. It may be +testimony in favour of some new invention, some synthetic product of +curious and abnormal ingredients; as a matter of fact it frequently is, +and we confront such remarkable products as Mr. Wells has given us, for +example. The significant thing, however, is the fact of the desire and +the avowal; if we have this I think we may leave it to God to see that +the desire is satisfied in the end by heavenly food and not by the +nostrums of ingenuity. For the same reason we may look without dismay on +certain novel phenomena of the moment. In their divergence from "the +Faith once delivered to the Saints" and left in the keeping of the +Church Christ founded as a living and eternal organism through which His +Spirit would work forever, they are wrong and therefore they cannot +endure, but each testifies to the passionate desire in man for religion +as a reality, and no one of them comes into existence except as the +result of desperate action by men to recover something that had been +taken from them and that their souls needed, and would have at any cost. +Each one of these strange manifestations is a reaction from some old +error that had become established belief or custom. No one who holds to +historic Christianity is interested in them, but those who have found +religion intellectualized beyond endurance and transformed either by +materialism or rationalism, seek for the mysticism they know to be a +reality (to employ a paradox) in the ultra mysticism of Oriental cults; +those who revolt against the exaggeration of evil and its exaltation to +eminence that rivals that of God Himself, which is the legacy of one +powerful movement in the Reformation, rush to the other extreme and deny +the existence of evil and even the reality of matter, while spiritism, +the most insidious, perilous and fatal of all the spiritual temptations +that beset the world at this time, gains as its adherents those who have +been deprived of the Catholic belief in the Communion of Saints and have +been forbidden to pray for the dead or to ask for their prayers and +intercessions. + +However strange and erroneous the actual manifestation, there is no +question as to the reality and prevalence of the desire for the recovery +of spiritual power through the channels of religion. It shows itself, as +it should, first of all in the individual, and it is only recently that +organized religion, Catholic or Protestant, has begun to show a +sympathetic consciousness and to take the first hesitant steps towards +meeting the demand. Because of this the seekers for reality have been +left unshepherded and have wandered off into strange wildernesses. The +call is now to the churches, to organized religion, and if the call is +heeded our troubles are well on the road to an end. If the old way of +jealousy, hatred and fear is maintained, then humanly speaking, our case +is hopeless. If the older way of brotherhood, charity and +loving-kindness is followed the future is secure in the Great Peace. +Nothing is wrong that leads men to Christ, and this is true from the +Salvation Army at one end of the scale to the Seven Sacraments of +Catholicity at the other. The world demands now not denial but +affirmation, not protest and division but the ringing "Credo" of +Catholic unity. + + + + +VIII + + +PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY + + Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of + Hosts. + +We have tried to approach each subject in this course of lectures in the +spirit of peace, and the greatest contributory factor in the achieving +of the Great Peace is the individual himself, on whom, humanly speaking, +rests the final responsibility. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My +Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Not by majestical engines and curious +devices and mass-action, nor yet by an imposed human authority enforced +by arms and the law, but by the Holy Spirit of God working through the +individual soul and compelling the individual will. Peace is one of the +promised fruits of the Holy Spirit, and like the others is manifested +through human lives; therefore on us rests the preëminent responsibility +of showing forth in ourselves, first of all, those things we desire for +others and for society. + +We have experienced the Great War, we endure its aftermath, and amidst +the perils and dangers that follow both there is none greater than that +which attaches to exterior war, viz., that the attention of both +combatants is focussed on the faults and the weaknesses and the crimes +of the opponent, with the result that both become destructive critics +rather than constructive examples. Chesterton rightly says, "What is +wrong with the critic is that he does not criticise himself * * * rather +he identifies himself with the ideal." Seeing evil in others and +flattering one's self is the antithesis of the spirit that would lead to +the Great Peace, for in that spirit the field of warfare is transferred +from the external to the internal, and the interior contest, which alone +establishes lasting results, necessitates a recognition of our own error +and the need of amendment of our own life. + +If our modern devices have failed; if the things we invented with a high +heart and high hope, in government, industry, society, education, +philosophy have in the end brought disappointment, disillusionment, even +despair, it is less because of their inherent defects than because the +individual failed, and himself ceased to act as the sufficient channel +for the divine power which alone energizes our weak little engines and +which acts through the individual alone. There is no better +demonstration of this essential part played by the personal life of man +than the fact that God, for the redemption of the world, took on human +form and became one Man amongst many men. There is no better +demonstration of the fact that it is through the personal lives of +individuals that the Great Peace is to be achieved, both directly and +indirectly, than the fact that peace, the gift of the Holy Spirit, was +promised to the individual man, by Christ Himself, as the legacy he left +to his disciples after His Resurrection and Ascension. Since then the +world has been under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the "Guide and +Comforter" that was promised, even though it has blindly and from time +to time rejected the guidance and therefore known not the comfort. The +Old Law of "Thou shalt not" was followed by the New Law of "Thou shalt," +and this in turn by the law of the third Person of the Trinity which +does not supersede the dispensations of the Father and of the Son, but +fulfills them in that it affords the spiritual power, if we will, to +abide by the inhibitions and to carry out the commands. + +Our search is for peace, the Great Peace, "the Peace of God which +passeth all understanding," and we shall achieve this for ourselves and +for the world only through ourselves as individuals, and so for the +society of which we are a part, and in so far as we bring ourselves into +contact with the Spirit of God. There is deep significance in the fact +that the first time Christ used the salutation "Peace be unto you," was +after His resurrection. It would seem that this special gift of the Holy +Spirit had to be withheld from man until after the human life of God the +Son had been brought to an end in accomplishment, for He says "Peace I +leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I +unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." "It +is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter +will not come unto you: but if I depart I will send Him unto you. When +He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." "Ye +shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." + +It is the spirit that quickeneth. After God had revealed the Law and +given to us the great redeeming and atoning Life, He saw that we had +need of a further manifestation before we should be able to keep the law +and live the life. Therefore the Holy Spirit was sent to quicken us and +give us power to do what we had both heard and seen. Today we accept the +moral law, we recognize the perfection of Chirst's life, but we need to +be reminded again that the power to be "sons of God" is present with us +if we will but use it. As this power is a spirit it can only be +apprehended spiritually; when our minds and hearts are set on material +things, even on good material things, the "still small voice" of the +spirit remains unheard: but if we listen first to that inward voice and +then use the means of grace afforded us, we are enabled to lift up our +hearts and minds to the Creator and then to use in His service all the +material universe which is also His creation. We can not get a right +philosophy by working for right philosophy, but only by living in the +right relationship as individuals: then as a by-product of religion a +right philosophy will come. We can not get a right industrial system by +searching for a right industrial system, but if we show forth in our +lives the Christian virtues, a right industrial system will come as one +of the by-products of religion. So with each one of our so-called +"problems." Life rightly lived has no problems. This is a hard saying +for an intellectual age whose temptation is to trust in its own power +rather than in the power of God, but "except ye become as little +children" and walk by faith and not by sight the Kingdom of God is +withheld. A soldier who suffered in the late war, and out of his +suffering found peace, says, "Christ's hardest work is to teach the +wise: Those who are entrusted with authority and responsibility will be +the least prepared to make the venture of the Spirit, however much they +may believe in it. They are sacrificing least now: they will have to +sacrifice most when the Spirit comes. They have so much to unlearn: +children and working men have so little. The whole of our world today is +rooted and grounded in intellect. Our machinery, our institutions, our +great systems, the entire body of enterprise is governed by brains. It +is this that will alter. Just behind intellect there is a vision that is +purer, keener, more powerful than the vision of your eyes, than the +hearing of your ears, than the touch of your hands. This world is being +transformed into another which comes into being at our spiritual touch. +The world needs something personal, something from the heart. It is sick +to death with the cold machinery of the intellect. But before men see +this they must change their view of life, they must _be born again._ The +scientists, the historians and theologians, the philosophers, have made +the universe too big. It is not a big place: it is very tiny. Life is so +simple, really. Our wise men have made it so difficult, so ugly. It is +only children who can see the risen Christ; children, perhaps, out of +whom seven devils have been cast. The world needs not critics, but +teachers, and children are waiting everywhere to teach, but men, +shutting the windows of their souls, try rather to mould these little +ones to fit into the vacant spaces of their own stupid world. Are not +children the true artists? They won't tolerate anything but Beauty. They +see Beauty everywhere, not because it is there, but because they want it +there. Everything they touch turns into something far more precious than +gold: every word they utter is a song of praise. You are almost in +heaven every time you look into the eyes of a child." Remember, please, +these are the words of a man who has faced the horrible realities of +modern warfare, and so do not dismiss them as mere poetry, or with +Nicodemus' question, "How can a man be born again?", but listen to a +modern interpretation of the answer to that question:--("The Life +Indeed.") "We must be born again even to see the spiritual kingdom, must +be born of water and the spirit to enter its gates at all. So to his +little audience of disciples Our Lord says it is not an affair of +legislation, of discovery, of which men say, 'Lo here, lo there! but the +kingdom of heaven is _within you._ Why a second birth? This is a second +birth because it must needs supervene at a point where two elements can +work together, the element of an appealing, vitalizing spirit from the +unseen and the element of free human choice. Being of the spirit, it is +the birth into freedom: it is the soul emerging from its prison into the +open air of liberty and light and life." Note the element of free +choice. Our first birth is outside our choice and the gifts are +unconditioned; our second birth, when again we become as little +children, demands our response to the Holy Spirit and our persevering +cooperation with Him to make His influence effectual for ourselves and +for the "communion of saints" and the corporate religion into which the +Spirit also baptizes us. In a recent sermon a bishop of the Episcopal +Church says, "This is the creed of the Church--the Divine Father and +Forgiveness: the Divine Son and Redemption: the Divine Spirit and +Abundant Life. Therefore the Church still insists upon the creation of +moral rectitude and spiritual character as the end and purpose of +religion, aye, as the basic problem underlying all questions relating to +human life--social, industrial, civic, and political. The Church still +preaches the gospel of the Grace of God, the obligation and blessing of +worship, the meaning and virtue of the Christian Sacraments." Also "My +brethren, we shall not be content to criticize and find fault with our +own age and time, but rather we shall pray for the power to see within +its questionings, unrest and discontent--aye, its recklessness and +apparent failures--the strivings of the Spirit of God. But each man has +to voice for himself the conviction of the reality of the spiritual +order and the spiritual life. Therefore, let us believe in and practice +the worship of God, 'praying always' as St. Paul says, 'with all prayer +and supplication in the Spirit,' or as St. Jude says, 'building up +yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.'" + +Let us accept this suggestion and try to find in the unrest of our own +time evidences of "the strivings of the Spirit of God," waiting our +perception and response. The soldier of the Great War, having faced +death and imprisonment and suffering in many forms says, "compared with +the depth of good in the world the evil is shallow." The first evidence +of good in our own day is the almost universal discontent with evils and +the desire to find a better way. The humility which recognizes that so +widespread a condition cannot be the fault of any one nation or group +but is rather the responsibility of each one of us, is cause for hope. +Some of us believe that war can breed only war, hatred only hatred; that +governments cannot make peace, but can only cause cessation of open +hostilities, and that the real peace, the Great Peace, must await the +action of the Spirit. This Spirit, of love and forgiveness, breeds love +and forgiveness, indeed is far more potent than the spirit of hate. +Because of this very strength and potency its evidences are not so +immediately apparent, but they are deeper-rooted. Perhaps in this +material sphere we human beings must see, and to a certain extent +experience, hate, before we can really know love, and consciously and +freely choose it. When that choice is made, when we, knowing all that +hate and evil and malice can accomplish, yet deliberately choose to love +our enemies, we have slain the Adversary and made hate and evil +powerless. Of course we have not power of ourselves to do this but only +through the grace of God. When we try God's way, not waiting for the +other person to reform or to be generous or to speak gently or to +forgive, then and only then do we deserve the name of Christians; then +and only then are we walking in love; then and only then are we really +praying effectually "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it +is in Heaven." We have tried the way of the world, the way of reprisals, +the way of distrust, and, thank God, we are none of us satisfied with +the results. Perhaps now we may be ready to try the way of God by making +the great adventure of faith, each one in his own person; faith in +himself and faith in the future. The way of the world has bred fear that +has issue in hate, and hate that has issue in fear; but the better way, +that of faith, breeds trust that has issue in fellowship, and fellowship +that has issue in trust. There is no problem of labour, of politics, of +society that is insoluble if once it is approached in the spirit of +faith and fellowship and trust, but none of these is susceptible of +solution where the controlling motives are hate, distrust and fear. The +modern policy of centralization and segregation has resulted in dealing +with men as groups and not as individuals. When, for example, iron-bound +cults (they are no less than this) meet as "capital" and as "labour," +both merge the individuality of their members in a thing which has no +real or necessary existence but is an artificial creation of thought +operating under the dominion of ephemeral, almost accidental conditions. +As a member of an "interest" or a cult, where humanity and personality +are, so to speak, "in commission," a man does not hesitate to do those +things he would never think of doing for himself, knowing them to be +selfish, cruel, unjust and uncharitable. A case in point--if we need +one, which is hardly probable since they are of daily occurrence--is the +pending contest between the mine operators and mine workers in Great +Britain, where both parties, with Government thrown in, are guilty of +maintaining theories and perpetrating acts for which an individual would +be, even now, excoriated and outlawed. The Irish imbroglio is another +instance of the same kind. + +In a personal letter from a consulting engineer who has had unusual +opportunities, by reason of his official position, to come closely in +contact with the conditions governing industry and finance both in +America and Europe since the war, I find this illuminating statement of +a matured judgment. "As a practical matter, and facing the issue, I +would preach the practice of de-centralization in government and +business which will in time develop the individual and accomplish the +desired end. * * * Decentralization should be carried to such an extent +that the units of business would be of such size that the head could +again have a personal relation with each individual associated with him. +* * * With the personal relation again established, unionism as at +present practiced would again be unnecessary, and the unions would +become once more guilds for the development and advancement of the +individual." It is this nullification of the human element, of the +person as such, the introduction of the gross aggregate with its +artificial corporate quality, and the attempt to establish a +correspondence between these unnatural things, the whole being +intensified by the emotions of fear, distrust and hate, which produces +the contemporary insistence on "rights" and the rank injustice, cruelty +and disorder that follow the blind contest. To quote again from the +soldier who achieved illumination through the recent war, "My friends, +there is no protection of rights in heaven. When we speak of rights we +are blinded by the light of this world of rule and order and +intellectual conceits. It is not justice we need, it is mercy." + +If we honestly endeavour to bring about something more nearly +approaching the Kingdom of God on earth, we should do well to achieve a +little more of the quality of child-like trust which knows that through +the petition to father or mother, or to a guardian angel, or directly to +God, the result will surely follow. We long passionately to see a good, +_our_ good as we see it, accepted here and now, but whatever we offer, +no mater how righteous or how salutary, is but a small part of the great +good, a limited and partial showing forth of only one element, while the +final and comprehensive good is the result of many contributions, and in +the end is not ours, but God's, and by His overruling providence it may +look very unlike what we had predetermined and anticipated. Moreover, +the condition even of our own small good becoming effective, is _faith,_ +and neither sight nor action. There is a faith that can move mountains, +and it is faith in fellowship, in the underlying, indestructible good in +man, above all in the desire and the intent of God to deal mercifully +with us and beyond the dictates of justice and the claims of our own +deserts. When we know and accept this power of faith, placing it above +the efficiency of our own feeble works, then indeed we may become the +patient, hopeful, joyful and faithful Christians we were intended to be, +and therefore the creators of the spirit of peace. Nothing permanent can +be achieved except in coöperation with God; any work of man alone (or of +the devil) has in it the seed of decay and must perish, This knowledge +relieves us of the gloomy responsibility of destroying or trying to +destroy every evil thing we see or think we see. If it is really evil it +is already dying unless nourished by evil within ourselves. Here is a +Buddhist legend which has a lesson for each of us--"The watcher in the +shrine of Buddha rushed in to the Holy Fathers one morning with tidings +of a horrible demon who had usurped the throne of our Lord Buddha. The +Fathers ran to the throne room, each one more infuriated than the other, +and declaimed against the insolence of the demon, who grew huger and +more hideous at every angry word that hurtled through the air. At last +arrived the oldest and most saintly of the monks and threw himself on +his knees before the demon and said, "We thank thee, O Master, for +teaching us how much anger and wrath and jealousy was still hidden in +our hearts." At every word he said, the demon grew smaller and smaller +and at last vanished. He was am Anger-Eating Demon, and anger-rousing +words and even thoughts of ill-feeling nourished him. + +The belief that in comparison with the depth of good in the world the +evil is shallow may also be expressed in the statement that God is Lord +of Eternity while the devil is prince only of this world. As this evil +spirit has power, and as a part of this power is the ability to appear +as an angel of light, so to deceive us, we are bound by +self-examination, constantly indulged in, to scrutinize those things, so +common in our own lives we do not notice them, which may be but the +illusions of this spirit of darkness showing as a fictitious spirit of +light: Hurry and carelessness both in thought and in action; +snap-judgment at short range; compromise with the spirit of the time in +the interest of "good business," "practical considerations" or "sound +policy"; worship of the doctrine of "get results," acceptance of the +horrible principle: that it is every man's business to "sell" something +to another, from a patent medicine or "gilt edged" bonds to a new +philosophy or an old religion; the estimating of values by size, number, +cost. It is common parlance among Christian people to speak of what a +man "is worth" meaning how much money he has. We speak of a man's +"making a living" meaning only how much money he makes, when by making +only money he would be killing his living. Do we not speak of the call +of a missionary from an unshepherded flock to a large city parish as a +call to "a wider sphere of usefulness"? When you or I conceive of any +piece of work as "important" is it not because it involves either great +numbers or great sums of money? Then we hear much today of the need for +leaders. The need could not be exaggerated, but does not this lack +exist, in part, because we have forgot that the Christian's first duty +is to be a follower, and that only from amongst real followers can God +(not man, least of all the man himself) raise up a leader? These are +small matters, you may say, but "straws show which way the wind blows," +and the spirit, like the wind, manifests itself first in small matters. +Every life is made up largely of small things, "the little, nameless +unremembered acts of kindness and of love" which some one has called +"the noblest portion of a good man's life." + +With this brief glance at some of the possible manifestations of the +spirit of evil which we believe to be temporary and therefore of +secondary importance only, let us consider some of the requisites of the +Christian life as exemplified in the life of Christ, especially those of +which we need to be reminded today. We have already spoken of that +child-likeness which takes the faith simply and applies it to the common +things of daily life--Christ's life of ministry, of good works (which +was, in proportion to the time given to preparation for activity and +preaching, of very short duration), full of injunctions to those who +were with him to "tell no man"; therefore the good works which are done +"in His likeness" must not be done in public. If we are "seen of men," +verily we have our reward. Christ's life ended in apparent failure, in +ignominious death on the cross. The world worships today's success and +immediate publicity, the Christian, to be worthy of his Lord, must +accept apparent failure and must offer his best work in secret: "And my +Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." A touching poem +of Francis Thompson's pictures the marveling of a soul on his rewards in +Paradise which, in his humility, he thinks undeserved. The man asks of +God: + + _O when did I give Thee drink erewhile, + Or when embrace Thine unseen feet? + What gifts Thee give for my Lord Christ's smile, + Who am a guest here most unmeet?_ + +and is answered + + _When thou kissedest thy wife and children sweet + (Their eyes are fair in my sight as thine) + I felt the embraces on My feet. + (Lovely their locks in thy sight and Mine.)_ + +A necessary reminder of the fact that for each of us, charity, which is +love, begins at home, and that we love and serve God best in His holy +human relationships--if we love not our brother whom we have seen how +can we love God whom we have not seen? + +Again, the individual Christian life must, like its Great Original, +suffer for others. When we suffer as a result of our own wrongdoing we +are but meeting our just reward; but if patiently and humbly and +voluntarily we bear pain, even unto death, for others, we are +transcending justice, the pagan law, and exemplifying mercy, the +Christian virtue. No sensitive soul in this generation, conscious of the +sacrifice of the millions of young lives who "stormed Heaven" in their +willingness to die that others might live, can doubt this. The essence +of love is sacrifice; voluntary, nay eager sacrifice. Before our Blessed +Lord died He was mocked and ridiculed, He suffered physical hardship, +falling under the weight of the cross, and He was lifted up, crucified, +to suffer the ignominious death of a felon. He was made a spectacle for +the jests and laughter of the multitude. In our own time and amongst +ourselves, except for periods of war, there is little necessity for +physical suffering for our faith, but the need to endure ridicule is as +great as ever, perhaps even greater because of the absence of physical +suffering. Since we are trying to apply these things in small and simple +ways to the individual life let us each one consider how much moral +courage it takes to defend Christian virtues when they are sneered at +under the guise of "jokes." Let us exercise charity by not quoting +instances, but let us be watchful of our laughter and our fellowship, +which are both gifts of God, and see that we do not confuse pagan +pleasure with Christian joy, the evil sneer with the tender recognition +of the absurd in ourselves and in others. It is Mr. Chesterton again who +points out the fact that the pagan virtues of justice and the like which +he calls the "sad virtues" were superseded, when the great Christian +revelation came, by the "gay and exuberant virtues," the virtues of +grace, faith, hope and charity; and who says, "the pagan virtues are the +reasonable virtues, and the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity +are in their essence as unreasonable as they can be. Charity means +pardoning what is unpardonable or it is no virtue at all. Hope means +hoping when things are hopeless or it is no virtue at all. And faith +means believing the incredible or it is no virtue at all." If you say +this is a paradox I reply: it must be so, since it requires faith to +accept a paradox. The realm of reason is the one in which we walk by +sight, and of this fact our age in its pride of intellect has need to be +reminded. If Christ be not the Son of God, and His revelation of the +"faith once delivered" be not the divine and final guide, fulfilling, +completing and at the same time reversing every other ethic, religion +and moral code, then these things be indeed foolishness, for there is no +explaining them on the ground of logic or philosophy. But if, by the +gift of grace, we have faith, we remember "I thank Thee, Father, that +Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed +them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." + +Again, and if as persons we are to grow in relationship to a personal +God, we must both speak and listen to our Father; in other words we must +use the great dynamic of prayer. "More things are wrought by prayer than +this world dreams of." We are told that one of the requisites of the +really good talker is to be a good listener; the apparently good talker +is in reality a monologuist. In our prayer-life today do we recognize +sufficiently the need for _listening_ to God? We are perhaps ready +enough to ask for blessings and mercies, but that is only a part of the +full life of prayer which must include also thanksgiving, lifting of the +heart and mind, and quiet listening or interior prayer. There was an age +in the world when this interior prayer was so much more joyful and +natural a thing than the world of matter that it had to be taught "to +labour is to pray." Today, when we accept the necessity of labour, and +even worship activity for its own sake, do we not need to be reminded +that to pray is to labour? If you doubt this, try to make that +concentrated form of prayer known as meditation, out of which springs a +resolve and determination to do better; try to do this faithfully for +fifteen minutes a day and it may prove the hardest work you have ever +undertaken. A great servant of God has said, "I believe no soul can be +lost which faithfully practices meditation for fifteen minutes a day." +Nor must we forget that in this work of prayer we are companioned by the +Holy Spirit, the Peace-maker, Who maketh intercession for us "with +groanings which can not be uttered" and "Who leads us ever gently but +surely into that closer communion with God whose result is life more +abundant." After prayer it is easier to realize that "to be spiritually +minded is life and peace"; it is easier to obey the injunction "And +grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of +redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and +evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one +to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for +Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." And for those that seek after peace +it must be _all_ wrath, _all_ anger and _all_ evil speaking which are +put away: This leaves no room for what the world calls "just wrath" +"righteous anger," or speaking evil of evil doers. Let us call to mind +the incident in the early life of St. John, afterwards the great +disciple of love, when he wanted to call down wrath on the wicked +inhabitants of a city and was rebuked by Our Lord who said, "Ye know not +in what spirit ye speak." After love had supplanted wrath, and the good +spirit had taken the place of the evil in St. John's heart, he was sent +to convert the people he would have destroyed. Yes, it is the spirit +that matters, the wrath that is wrong and that must be put away before +we can love God or our neighbour as ourself, for the fruit of the Spirit +is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, +meekness, temperance. + +When we understand that the object of life and of education is the +creation of a spirit and not the doing of things, we are freed from the +tyranny of results in this world as a final test and come to realize +that judgment belongs only to God Who as a Spirit judges the effort. + +Of course this does not mean that we are freed from the moral law, that +certain evil things in ourselves and in others are not always the +results of an evil spirit, but rather that in addition to avoiding and +shunning those things which are obviously evil, we must with equal care +avoid doing even good things in a bad spirit. The commandments still +stand, the moral law is abated not one jot, but in Christianity and in +Christianity alone are we given power to fulfill the law and to add the +new commandment, the summing up of them all, of love to God and man. No +human soul comes into the world without some desire to be good, because +each human soul is a child of God. To each one, not blinded by pride +(and surely it should be easy in these days to be humble) comes, sooner +or later, the realization of his own inability of himself to do what he +would, the need for a power outside himself, the power which is +available and of which we have heard "I am come that ye might have life +and more abundantly." Let us examine how the apostles set about living +this abundant life. In Dr. Genung's "The Life Indeed" we read, "One and +all they made it a matter of the spirit that is the man, but the spirit +they recognized was not an abstraction, or a theory, but a present +Person and helper who was witnessing with their spirits. St. John makes +the matter equally definite: 'The Son of God,' he says, 'was manifest +that he might destroy the works of the Devil,' and St. Paul, mindful of +the inner subtleties of the conflict, warns his readers that Satan has +changed his tactics and has transformed himself into an angel of light. +I am not sure that we have gained greatly by letting our notions of +spiritual life grow dim and abstract. Perhaps for this very reason the +rebellious, negative, designing spirit that is so prone to invade the +hearts of us all is the more free to gain a foot-hold and go about +controlling the tone of our life. There is real advantage in bringing +the large issues of life to a point where not only our mind but, as it +were, our senses, can lay hold on them. It is the impulse of +simple-minded men like those early disciples, and if we continue +straight-seeing we do not outgrow it. What makes these views of life so +deep is not that they are less simple than those of others, but that +they are more simple. To St. John the reality that has come to win the +world is not the promise of salvation, or prophecy of an eventual life +eternal, but just life without modification or limitation, life +absolute, full-orbed, pulsating through worlds seen and unseen alike. 'I +am the Life,' he makes Christ say, not, 'I am working to secure it.' St. +John it is who preserves to us that conception of eating the Flesh and +drinking the Blood of the Son of Man. No philosopher in the world, we +may roundly say, would ever have put it so, and yet how effectually is +thus revealed what it means to get the power of the new life thoroughly +incorporated with our blood and breath. He it is who identifies the most +inner values of life with the simplest acts and experiences, reducing it +to terms of eating bread and drinking water, and walking in daylight, +and bearing fruit like the branches of a vine and following like sheep +the voice of a shepherd, and entering a door and finding pasture." + +Let us cease trying materialistic and intellectual means for supplying +the power to live the spiritual life and let us each one establish the +needful relationship with the true source of power. May our time not be +likened to the Oriental traveler, who, appreciating the convenience and +force of electricity as seen in a room he occupied, fitted his palace, +on his return, with a set of elaborate fixtures and was surprised to +find no illumination therefrom! We are torches who can not shine in +themselves, but who, when connected with the great central Source of +Power, the Blessed Trinity in its three glorious manifestations, can +show forth the light of the world. Christians should be torch bearers, +and the true torch bearer lights not his own path so much as the path of +those who come after him. And this brings us to the fundamental reason +for personal responsibility. Our motive in seeking personal +righteousness it not, as might hastily be thought, because of a selfish +desire to save our own souls, or to withdraw either here or hereafter +from other souls, but for "their sakes" to sanctify ourselves; for the +lives we live today create the spiritual atmosphere of tomorrow. + +From Spain come the following suggestive thoughts in regard to the value +of the person. "The individual is the real purpose of the universe. We +may seek the hero of our thought in no philosopher who lived in flesh +and blood, but in a being of fiction and of action, more real than all +the philosophers. He is Don Quixote. One cannot say of Don Quixote that +he was strictly idealistic. He did not fight for ideas: he was of the +spirit and he fought for the spirit. Quixotism is a madness descended +from the madness of the cross; therefore it is despised by reason; Don +Quixote will not resign himself to either the world or its truth, to +science or logic, to art or aesthetics, to morals or ethics. And what +did he leave behind him? one may ask. I reply that he left himself, and +that a man, a man living and immortal, is worth all theories and all +philosophies. Other countries have left us institutions and books: Spain +has left soul. St. Theresa is worth all institutions whatever, or any +'Critique of Pure Reason.'" + +Yes, this is I think the lesson we have to learn, now at this turning +point in history with the epoch of intellect crumbling about our ears, +and the great World's Fair of multiplied, ingenious mechanisms we have +called "modern civilization" at a point of practical bankruptcy. It is +the spirit that counts, the soul of "man living and immortal," and only +through our own living, and the spiritual force that we can command, and +through ourselves apply, shall we be able to compass that social +regeneration that is the only alternative to social degeneration and +catastrophe. The man who does not live his belief is powerless to redeem +or to create, though he were a Solon, a Charlemagne, a Napoleon or a +Washington; the man who lives his belief, even if he is a mill-hand in +Fall River, is contributing something of energizing force to the task of +re-creation. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the +Lord of Hosts." + +Fantastic and paradoxical as it may seem to link together Don Quixote +and St. Theresa, I am not sure that we could do better than to accept +them as models. The loud laughter of an age of intellectual ribaldry and +self-conceit dies away and the gaunt figure of the last of the Crusaders +still stands before us heroic in his childlike refusal of compromise, +his burning compassion, his deafness to ridicule. In a sense we must all +be ready to accept the jeering and the scorn that were poured out on the +Knight of La Mancha, if like him we are to fight, even foolishly, for +the things that are worth fighting for--either that they may be +destroyed, or restored. And with St. Theresa we must be willing to +endure obloquy, suspicion, malice, if like her we live in faith, +subjecting our will to the divine will, and then sparing nothing of +ourselves in the labour of saving the world for God in the twentieth +century as St. Theresa laboured to save it in the sixteenth century. + +The call today is for personal service through the right living that +follows the discovery of a right relationship to God. Not a campaign but +a crusade; and the figures of St. Louis and St. Francis and St. Theresa, +together with all the Knights and Crusaders of Christendom, rise up +before us to point the way. We would find the Great Peace, the world +would find the Great Peace also, but + + _The way is all so very plain + That we may lose the way._ + +We have been told: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His +righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, for your +Heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of these things." If we go forth on +this new and knightly quest--quest indeed in these latter days, for the +Holy Grail, lost long since and hidden away from men--we may, by the +grace of God, achieve. Then, "suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye," and +before we are aware, for "the Kingdom of God cometh not with watching," +we and even the world, shall find that we have compassed the Great +Peace, and if we do not live to see it, yet in our "certain hope" we +shall know that it will come, if not in our time, yet in God's good +time; if not in our way, yet in His more perfect way. + +In these lectures I have from time to time, and perhaps beyond your +patience, criticised and condemned many of those concrete institutions +which form the working mechanism of life, even suggesting possible +substitutes. In ending I would say as in beginning; this is not because +salvation may be found through any device, however perfect, but because +this itself, by reason of its excellence on the one hand or its +depravity on the other, is, under the law of life, contributory to the +operation of the divine spirit (which is the sole effective energy) or a +deterrent. I have tried at long last to gather up this diffuse argument +for the supremacy of spiritual force as it works through the individual, +and to place it before you in this concluding lecture. Perhaps I can +best emphasize my point thus. + +The evil of the institutions which now hold back the progress that must +be made towards social recovery and the Great Peace, is far less the +quality of wrongness in themselves and the ill influence they put in +operation, than it is the revelation they make of personal character. It +is not so much that newspapers are what they are as that there should be +men who are pleased and content to make them this, in apparently honest +ignorance of what they are doing, and that there should be others in +sufficient number to make them profitable business propositions by +giving them their appreciation and support. It is not so much that +government should be what it is as that character should have so far +degenerated in the working majority of citizens that these qualities +should show themselves as a fixed condition, and that there should be no +body of men of numerical distinction, who regard the situation with +sentiments much more active than those of indifference and amused +toleration. It is not so much that the industrial situation should be +what it is, as that there should be on both sides moral wrong, and that +this condition could not have come about, nor could it still be +maintained, except through character degeneration in the individual. It +is not so much that many forms of religion are what they are, as it is +that they should progressively have become this through their exponents +and adherents, and that there should be so many who are still willing to +defend them in this case. + +Every ill thing reveals through its very quality the defects of the +individual man, and as upon him must rest the responsibilities for the +fault, so on him must be placed the responsibility for the recovery. The +failures we have recorded, the false gods we have raised up in idolatry, +even the Great War itself, are revelations of failure in personal and +individual character. We may recognize this, but recognition is not +enough. We may found societies and committees and write books and +deliver lectures, but corporate action is not enough, nor intellectual +assent. There is but one way that is right, sufficient and effective, +and that is the right living of each individual, which is the +incarnation and operation of faith by the grace of God. + +It is my desire to close this course of lectures not with my own words +but with those of one of the great personalities revealed by the war. +First, however, I wish to say this. If there is any thought or word in +what I have said that seems to you true, then I ask you to use it not as +a matter for discussion but as an impulse toward personal action. If +there is anything that is of the nature of explicit error, then I pray +that the Spirit of Truth may make deaf your ears that you hear not, and +blot out of your memory the record of what I have said. If there is +anything that is not consonant with the Christian religion, as this has +been revealed to the world and as it is guarded and interpreted by the +Church to which these powers were committed, then I retract and disavow +it explicitly and _ex animo._ + +There are two great spiritual figures that have been revealed to us +through the Great War: Cardinal Mercier, the great confessor, who held +aloft the standard of spiritual glory through the war itself, and Bishop +Nicholai of Serbia who has testified to eternal truth and righteousness +in the wilderness the war has brought to pass. It is with his inspired +words that I will make an ending of the things I have been impelled to +say. + +"Christ is merciful, but at last He comes as the Judge. * * * He comes +now not to preside in the churches only but to be in your homes, in your +shops, to be everywhere with you. He wants to be first; He has become +last in Europe, * * * Civilization passes like the winds, but the soul +remains. Christianization is the only good and constructive +civilization. Americanization without Christianization means Bolshevism. +Europe is suffering today for her sins. Christ has forgiven seventy +times seven, and now it seems that He is the Judge, turning away, +rejected, leaving Europe and going through the gate of Serbia to Asia. +Pray for us. * * * Send us not your gold and silver for food so much as +send us converted men. Convert your politicians, your members of the +press, your journalists, to preach Christ. + +"Christ is choosing the perfect stones, the marble of all the churches, +to complete His mystical body in Heaven. He thinks only of one Church, +made from those true to Him of all the churches here. Civilizations are +moving pictures, made by man. Without God they perish. The soul, the +spirit, lives. The war is not against externals; the war is against +ourselves." + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +From the point attained in the lecture on "A Working Philosophy," a +point I believe to be clearly indicated by Christian philosophy and +sharply differentiated from that of paganism or modernism, I would +adventure further and even into a field of pure theory where I can +adduce no support or justification from any other source. Speculation +along this line may be dangerous, even unjustifiable; certainly it +introduces the peril of an attempt to intellectualize what cannot be +apprehended by the intellectual faculty, an effort which has been the +obsession of modernism and has resulted in spiritual catastrophe. On the +other hand we are confronted by a definite and plausible system worked +out by those who were without fear of these consequences, and while this +already is losing something of its common acceptance, it is still +operative, indeed is the only working system and consistent theory of +the majority of thinking men outside the limits of Catholicism. I think +it wrong both in its assumptions and its inferences, and it certainly +played a deplorable part in the building up of the latest phase of +modern civilization, while its persistence is, I am persuaded, a barrier +to recovery or advance. This theory, which has gradually been deduced +from the wonderful investigations, tabulations and inferences of Darwin, +Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer and others of the great group of British +intellectuals and scientists of the nineteenth century, is known under +the general title of Evolution. + +The following suggestions are offered with extreme diffidence, and only +as uncertain and indeterminate approximations. In some respects they +seem not inconsistent with the most recent scientific research which +already is casting so much doubt on many of the assumed factors behind +evolution and on the accepted methods of its operation. The true +solution, if it is found, will result from the cooperation of +scientists, philosophers and theologians, illuminated by the fire of the +Divine Wisdom--Hagia Sophia--for in such a problem as this, almost the +final secret of the Cosmos, no single human agency acting alone can hope +to achieve the final revelation, while all acting together could hardly +escape falling into "the falsehoods of their own imaginings" if they +relied solely on their unaided efforts in the intellectual sphere. + +Assuming then that life is an enduring process of the redemption of +matter through the interpenetration of spirit, what is a possible method +of action? To explain what I mean I must use a diagrammatic figure, but +I admit this must be not only inadequate but misleading, for instead of +the two dimensions of a diagram, we must postulate three, with time +added as a vital element, and, I dare say, a "fourth dimension" as well. +Confessing inadequacy in the symbol, let us conceive of a space divided +into four strata. The lowest of these is the primary unknowable, the +region of pure spirit, pure spirit itself, the creative energy of the +universe, the unconditioned Absolute, in the terms of Christian +theology, Almighty God. The second is the plane of matter, an area of +potential, but in itself inert and indeterminate. The third is the space +of what we call life in all its forms, the area in which the +transformation and redemption take place. The fourth is the ultimate +unknowable, that is to say, that which follows on after life and +receives the finished product of redemption. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM NO. 1. The interpenetration of Matter by Spirit. +_x,_ The primary Unknowable; _x',_ the ultimate Unknowable; _[Greek: +alpha],_ the plane of Matter; _[Greek: beta],_ the plane of Life.] + +Now there is eternally in process a penetration of the stratum of matter +by jets of the _élan vital_ from the realm of pure spirit, each as it +were striving to detach from the plane of matter some small portion, +which is transformed in its passage through life and achieves entrance +into the ultimate unknowable, when the process of redemption is, for +this small particle, completed. Always, however, is exerted the +gravitational pull of matter, and the energy that drove through, instead +of pursuing a right line, tends to bend in a parabolic curve, like the +trajectory of a cannon ball. In the completion of the process some +portion of redeemed matter "gets by," so to speak, but other portions do +not; they return to their source of origin and are reabsorbed in matter, +becoming subject to the operation of future interpenetrating jets of +spiritual energy. The upward drive of the _élan vital_ constitutes what +may properly be known as evolution, the declining fall the process of +devolution or degeneration. Evolution then is only one part of the +cosmic process, it is inseparable from degeneration. + +This process holds in the case of individuals, of families, of races, of +states and of eras, or definite and completed periods of time. As man is +begotten, born, developed to maturity and then is brought downward to +the grave, so in the case of races and nations and the clearly defined +epochs into which the history of man divides itself. There is no +mechanical system of "progress," no cumulative wisdom and power that in +the end will inevitably lead to earthly perfection and triumph. For +every individual there is the possibility of spiritual evolution within +the time allotted that will open for him the gates that bar the +frontiers of the world of reality and of redemption that lies beyond +that world of earthly life which is the field of contest between +unredeemed matter and redeeming spirit, of contest and of victory--or of +failure. In the case of races and nations and epochs there is the same +conflict between material factors and spiritual energy; the same +crescent youth with all its primal vitality, maturity with its assurance +and competence, and the dying fall of dissipating energies. In each case +death is the concomitant of life but there is always something that +lasts over, and that is the spiritual achievement, the precious residuum +that remains, defying death and dissolution, that infuses the plane of +life with its redemptive ardour, and is the heritage of lives that come +after, acting with the sacramental agencies of religion in coöperation +with God Who ordained and compassed them both, in that great process of +redemption and salvation that is continually taking place and will +continue until matter, and time which is but the ratio of the resistance +of matter to the redeeming power of spirit, shall be no more. + +I confess the hopelessly mechanical quality in this vain attempt to put +into words something that by its very nature must transcend all modes of +expression that are intellectually apprehendable. Taken literally it +would be entirely false and probably heretical from a theological point +of view, as it certainly is more than inadequate as a philosophical +proposition. It is intended only as a symbol, and a gross symbol at +that, but as such I will let it stand. + +Now if there is indeed a possible truth hidden somewhere within somewhat +clumsy approximations, it must modify some of our generally accepted +ideas. The life-process will appear, not a slow, interrupted, but +substantially forward development from lower and simpler organisms to +higher and more complex, with the end (if there be an end), beyond the +very limits of eternity, but rather a swift creation of some of the +highest forms through the first energy of the creative force, with the +throwing off of ever lower and lower forms as the curve of the +trajectory descends. So through a mass of low and static vitality comes +the sudden and enormous power that produces at the very beginnings of +our own recorded history of man, the almost superhuman intelligence and +capacity of the Greeks and the Egyptians. So each of the definite eras +of civilization opens with the releasing of great energies, the +revealing of great figures of paramount character and force. So, +conversely, as the energy declines, men appear less and less potent and +in a descending scale. This is the case with the Greek states, with the +Roman Republic and the Empire, with Byzantium, with + +Mediaevalism, and with our modern era. I do not know of any other theory +that claims to explain the perpetual and rhythmical fluctuations of +history, as violent in their degree as they are approximately regular in +their rhythm. + +Following the idea a little further, it may even appear that many of the +lower, and particularly the more distorted, forms of animal life, +instead of being abortive or undeveloped stages in a continuous +evolutionary progress, are actually the product of a diminishing energy, +stages in a process of degeneration, and therefore leading not upward to +ever higher stages of development having issue at last in a completed +perfection, but rather downward to ultimate extinction. Geology records +this process in sufficient quantity, so far as many members of the +animal kingdom are concerned, and we, in our own day, have seen the +extinction of the dodo as well as the threatened disappearance of other +species. Creeping and crawling creatures too, that we could crush with +the heel, are but the last and puny descendants of mighty and terrible +monsters that once rolled and crashed through the fetid forests of the +carboniferous era. So there are races of men today, amongst others the +pygmies of Africa and the Australian bushmen, as well as some nearer in +a certain degree to the dominant races of the world, whom large-hearted +optimists regard as stages of retarded development, capable, under +tutelage, of advance to a level with the Caucasian, but who, in this +view of the case, would be but the weakening product of the "dying fall" +of the energy that produced the Greek, the Semite and the Nordic stocks. + +So in the last instance, the ape and the lemur and all their derivatives +may be, not records of some of the many stages through which man has +passed in his process of evolution, sidetracked by the upward rush of +one highly favoured or fortunate line, nor yet an abortive branch from +the common trunk from which sprang both man and ape, but rather the last +degradation of a primaeval energy, producing in its declension these +strange caricatures of the Man in whose production it found its +achievement. In other words, the old evolutionary idea is exactly +reversed, and those phenomena once looked on as passed stages of growth, +become the memorials of a creative process that has already achieved, +and is now returning, with its fantastic manifestations in terms of +declining life, even to that primordial mystery whence it had emerged. + +Granting this theory, the search for the "missing link," whether in the +geological strata below those that revealed the Piltdown skull, or in +the fastnesses of Central Asia, is as vain a quest as it has always +been. Primaeval man, as he is grudgingly revealed to us, may have been +the degenerate remainder of an earlier and fully developed race whose +records are buried in the sunken fastnesses of some vanished Atlantis or +Lemuria, as the races of the South Sea Islands may be less metamorphosed +remnants of the same stock. Into this infinitely degraded residuum of a +vanished race entered the new energizing force when the divine creative +energy came once more into operation, in the fullness of time, and the +Minoan, the Egyptian and the Greek came almost in an hour to their +highest perfection. So through the unnumbered ages of the world's +history, God has from time to time created man in His own image, out of +the dust of the earth, and man so made "a little lower than the angels" +has, also in time, fallen and forfeited his inheritance. Yet the process +goes on without ceasing, and in conformity with some law of divine +periodicity; but it is _Man_ that is created in the beginning, of his +full stature, even as is symbolically recorded in the Book of Genesis; +not a hairy quadrumana that by the operation of the laws of natural +selection and the survival of the fittest, ultimately and through +endless ages, and by the most infinitesimal changes, becomes at last +Plato and Caesar, Leonardo and Dante, St. Louis and Shakespeare and St. +Francis. + +Now in this process of the interpenetration of matter by spirit there +must be a certain periodicity, if it is a constant process and not one +accomplished once and for all time in the very beginnings of the world. +This rhythmical action, which is exemplified by every phenomenon of +nature, the vibratory process of light, sound, heat, electricity, the +pulsation of the heart, the motion of the tides, has never escaped the +observation even of primitive peoples, and always attempts have been +made to determine its periodicity. May it not be infinitely complex, as +the ripple rises on the wave that lifts on the swell of the underlying +tide? Certainly we are now being forced back to a new consideration of +this periodical beat, in history at least, for now that our own era, +which came in by the power of the Renaissance and the Reformation and +received its final energizing force through the revolutions of the +eighteenth century and the industrial revolution of the nineteenth, is +so manifestly coming to its end, we look backward for precedents for +this unexpected debacle and lo, they appear every five hundred years +back as far as history records. 500 B.C., Anno Domini; 500 A.D., 1000 +A.D., and 1500 A.D. are all, to the point of very clear approximation, +nodal points, where the curve of the preceding five centuries, having +achieved its crest, curves downward, and in its fall meets the curve of +rising energy that is to condition the ensuing era. The next nodal +point, calculated on this basis, comes about the year 2000. Are we not +justified, in plotting our trajectory of modernism, in placing the crest +in the year 1914, and in tracing the line of fall from that moment? + +I have plotted this curve, or series of curves, after a rough and ready +fashion (Diagram No. 2) and though the personal equation must, in any +subjective proposition such as this, enter largely into account, I think +the diagram will be accepted in principle if not in details, and not +wholly in its relationships. I have made no effort to estimate or +indicate comparative heights and depths, giving to each five-hundred +year epoch a similar level of rise and depth of fall. Perhaps the actual +difference here would, rightly estimated, be less than we have been led +to believe, though certainly few would lift the Carolingian crest to the +level of that of Hellenism or of the Middle Ages, nor assign to the end +of this latter period as low a fall as that accomplished during the +tenth century in continental Europe. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM No. 2. The rise and fall of the line of +civilization; showing also the nodal points at the Christian Era and at +the years 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 (?)] + +In a third cut (Diagram No. 3) I have roughly indicated in conventional +form a phenomenon which seems to me to show itself around the nodal +point when a descending curve of energy meets and crosses the descending +line. As the _élan vital_ that has made and characterized any period +declines, it throws off reactions, the object of which is if possible to +arrest, or at least delay, the fatal _glissade._ These are, in intent +and in fact, reforms; conscious efforts at saving a desperate situation +by regenerative methods. Trace back their lines of procedure, and in +every case they will be found to issue out of the very force which is +even then in process of degeneration, therefore they are poisoned at the +source and no true or vital reforms, for the sudden energy that urges +them is, after all, in no respect different from that which is already a +failing force. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM No. 3. The reactions thrown off by (a) the +descending line of vital force, (b) by the ascending line.] + +This, I conceive, is why today the multitudinous and specious "reforms," +which beat upon us from all sides, and find such ready acceptance in the +enactments of law, are really no reforms at all, since each one of them +is but an exaggeration or distortion of the very principles and methods +that already are bending downward the curve of our progression until it +disappears in the nether-world of failure, as did those of every +preceding epoch of equal duration. An example of what I mean is the +astute saying, frequently heard nowadays: "The cure for democracy is +more democracy." + +Now while one curve descends and throws off its reformative reactions in +the process, the other is ascending, preparatory to determining the +coming era for its allotted space of five centuries. In this process it +also throws off its own reactions, but these are for the purpose of +lifting the line more rapidly, bringing its force into play before its +determined time. These also are exaggerations, over-emphasized qualities +that are inherent in the ascending force, and they are no more to be +accepted as authoritative than are the others. They have their value +however, for they are prophetic, and even in their exaggeration there is +the clear forecast of things to be. Trace them in turn to the source. +What is their source? The new power issues out of obscurity and its +character is veiled, but we can estimate it from the very nature of the +exaggerated reactions we _can_ see. If something shows itself, in +sociology, economics, politics, religion, art, what you will, that is +especially a denial of what has been a controlling agency during the +past four or five hundred years: if it is by common consent impractical +and "outside the current of manifest evolutionary development," then, +shorn of its exaggerations, reduced to its essential quality, it is very +probably a clear showing forth of what is about to come to birth and +condition human life for the next five hundred years. This, I suppose, +explains the comprehensive return to Medievalism that, to the scorn of +biologists, sociologists and professors of political economy, is +flaunting itself before us today, at the hands of a very small minority, +in all the categories I have named, as well as in many others besides. + +A glance at the diagram will show a curious pattern round about the +nodal point. One may say that the reactions are somewhat mixed. Quite +so. At this moment we are beaten upon by numberless reforms, both +"radical" and "reactionary." Materialism, democracy, rationalism, +anarchy contending against Medievalism of twenty sorts, and strange +mysticisms out of the East. Which shall we choose, _if_ we choose, and +do not content ourselves with an easier inertia that allows nature to +take its course? It is simply the question; On which wave will you ride; +that which is descending to oblivion or that which has within itself the +power and potency to control man's destiny for the next five hundred +years? + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +CERTAIN BOOKS SUGGESTED FOR COLLATERAL READING + + +ADAMS, HENRY Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres. + +ADAMS, HENRY Degradation of the Democratic Dogma. + +BAUDRILLART, A. Catholic Church, Renaissance and Protestantism. + +BELL, BERNARD IDDINGS Right and Wrong after the War. + +BELLOC, HILAIRE The Servile State. + +BRYCE, VISCOUNT Modern Democracies. + +BULL, PAUL B. The Sacramental Principle. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. Orthodoxy. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. What's Wrong with the World. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. + +CONKLIN, E.G. The Direction of Human Evolution. + +CRAM, R.A. The Nemesis of Mediocrity. + +CRAM, R.A. Walled Towns. + +CRAM, R.A. The Ministry of Art. + +CRAM, R.A. The Great Thousand Years. + +FAGUET, E. The Cult of Incompetence. + +FERRERO, G. Europe's Fateful Hour. + +FIGGIS, J.N. Civilization at the Cross Roads. + +FIGGIS, J.N. The Will to Freedom. + +FIGGIS, J.N. Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God." + +GENUNG, J.F. The Life Indeed. + +GRAHAM, STEPHEN Priest of the Ideal. + +HARRISON, McVEIGH Daily Meditations. + +HUBBARD, A.J. The Fate of Empires. + +IRELAND, ALLEYNE Democracy and the Human Equation. + +LeBON, G. The World in Revolt. + +MEIKLEJOHN, ALEXANDER The Liberal College. + +MORRIS, WILLIAM The Dream of John Ball. + +PECK, W.G. From Chaos to Catholicism. + +PENTY, A.J. Old Worlds for New. + +PENTY, A.J. The Restoration of the Guild System. + +PHILLIPPS, L. MARCH Form and Colour. + +PHILLIPPS, L. MARCH Europe Unbound. + +PORTER, A. KINGSLEY Beyond Architecture. + +POWELL, F.C. A Person's Religion. + +RAUPERT, G. Human Destiny and the New Psychology. + +SHIELDS, THOMAS E. The Philosophy of Education. + +TAWNEY, R.H. The Acquisitive Society. + +WALSH, JAMES J. The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries. + +WALSH, JAMES J. Education, How Old the New. + +WORRINGER, W. Form Problems of the Gothic. + +DeWULF, M. History of Mediaeval Philosophy. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Towards the Great Peace, by Ralph Adams Cram + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10642 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..79a5b66 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10642 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10642) diff --git a/old/10642-8.txt b/old/10642-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9845057 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10642-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7031 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Towards the Great Peace, by Ralph Adams Cram + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Towards the Great Peace + +Author: Ralph Adams Cram + +Release Date: January 8, 2004 [EBook #10642] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Gerald Tejada and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE + +BY + +RALPH ADAMS CRAM, LITT.D., LL.D. + + + +1922 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +For the course of lectures I am privileged to deliver at this time, I +desire to take, in some sense as a text, a prayer that came to my +attention at the outset of my preparatory work. It is adapted from a +prayer by Bishop Hacket who flourished about the middle of the +seventeenth century, and is as follows: + + _Lord, lift us out of Private-mindedness and give us Public + souls to work for Thy Kingdom by daily creating that Atmosphere + of a happy temper and generous heart which alone can bring the + Great Peace._ + +Each thought in this noble aspiration is curiously applicable to each +one of us in the times in which we fall: the supersession of narrow and +selfish and egotistical "private-mindedness" by a vital passion for the +winning of a Kingdom of righteousness consonant with the revealed will +of God; the lifting of souls from nervous introspection to a height +where they become indeed "public souls"; the accomplishing of the +Kingdom not by great engines of mechanical power but by the daily +offices of every individual; the substitution in place of current +hatred, fear and jealous covetousness, of the unhappy temper and +"generous heart" which are the only fruitful agencies of accomplishment. +Finally, the "Great Peace" as the supreme object of thought and act and +aspiration for us, and for all the world, at this time of crisis which +has culminated through the antithesis of great peace, which is great +war. + +I have tried to keep this prayer of Bishop Hacket's before me during the +preparation of these lectures. I cannot claim that I have succeeded in +achieving a "happy temper" in all things, but I honestly claim that I +have striven earnestly for the "generous heart," even when forced, by +what seem to me the necessities of the case, to indulge in condemnation +or to bring forward subjects which can only be controversial. If the +"Great War," and the greater war which preceded, comprehended, and +followed it, were the result of many and varied errors, it matters +little whether these were the result of perversity, bad judgment or the +most generous impulses. As they resulted in the Great War, so they are a +detriment to the Great Peace that must follow, and therefore they must +be cast away. Consciousness of sin, repentance, and a will to do better, +must precede the act of amendment, and we must see where we have erred +if we are to forsake our ill ways and make an honest effort to strive +for something better. + +For every failure I have made to achieve either a happy temper or a +generous heart, I hereby express my regret, and tender my apologies in +advance. + + + +CONTENTS + +LECTURE + + INTRODUCTION + + I. A WORLD AT THE CROSSROADS + + II. A WORKING PHILOSOPHY + + III. THE SOCIAL ORGANISM + + IV. THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM + + V. THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY + + VI. THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION AND ART + + VII. THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC RELIGION + + VIII. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY + + APPENDIX A + + APPENDIX B + + + + + + +TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE + + + + +I + + +A WORLD AT THE CROSSROADS + +For two thousand years Christianity has been an operative force in the +world; for more than a century democracy has been the controlling +influence in the public affairs of Europe and the Americas; for two +generations education, free, general and comprehensive, has been the +rule in the West. Wealth incomparable, scientific achievements +unexampled in their number and magnitude, facile means of swift +intercommunication between peoples, have all worked together towards an +earthly realization of the early nineteenth-century dream of proximate +and unescapable millennium. With the opening of the second decade of the +twentieth century it seemed that the stage was set for the last act in +an unquestioned evolutionary drama. Man was master of all things, and +the failures of the past were obliterated by the glory of the imminent +event. + +The Great War was a progressive revelation and disillusionment. Therein, +everything so carefully built up during the preceding four centuries was +tried as by fire, and each failed--save the indestructible qualities of +personal honour, courage and fortitude. Nothing corporate, whether +secular or ecclesiastical, endured the test, nothing of government or +administration, of science or industry, of philosophy or religion. The +victories were those of individual character, the things that stood the +test were not things but _men._ + +The "War to end war," the war "to make the world safe for democracy" +came to a formal ending, and for a few hours the world gazed spellbound +on golden hopes. Greater than the disillusionment of war was that of the +making of the peace. There had never been a war, not even the "Thirty +Years' War" in Germany, the "Hundred Years' War" in France or the wars +of Napoleon, that was fraught with more horror, devastation and +dishonour; there had never been a Peace, not even those of Berlin, +Vienna and Westphalia, more cynical or more deeply infected with the +poison of ultimate disaster. And here it was not things that failed, but +_men._ + +What of the world since the Peace of Versailles? Hatred, suspicion, +selfishness are the dominant notes. The nations of Europe are bankrupt +financially, and the governments of the world are bankrupt politically. +Society is dissolving into classes and factions, either at open war or +manoeuvering for position, awaiting the favourable moment. Law and order +are mocked at, philosophy and religion disregarded, and of all the +varied objects of human veneration so loudly acclaimed and loftily +exalted by the generation that preceded the war, not one remains to +command a wide allegiance. One might put it in a sentence and say that +everyone is dissatisfied with everything, and is showing his feelings +after varied but disquieting fashion. It is a condition of unstable +equilibrium constantly tending by its very nature to a point where +dissolution is apparently inevitable. + +It is no part of my task to elaborate this thesis, and still less to +magnify its perils. Enough has been said and written on this subject +during the last two years; more than enough, perhaps, and in any case no +thinking person is unaware of the conditions that exist, whatever may be +his estimate of their significance, his interpenetration of their +tendency. I have set myself the task of trying to suggest some +constructive measures that we may employ in laying the foundations for +the immediate future; they may be wrong in whole or in part, but at +least my object and motive are not recrimination or invective, but +regeneration. Nevertheless, as a foundation the case must be stated, and +as a necessary preparation to any work that looks forward we must have +at least a working hypothesis as to how the conditions that need +redemption were brought about. I state the case thus, therefore: That +human society, even humanity itself, is now in a state of flux that at +any moment may change into a chaos comparable only with that which came +with the fall of classical civilization and from which five centuries +were necessary for the process of recovery. Christianity, democracy, +science, education, wealth, and the cumulative inheritance of a thousand +years, have not preserved us from the vain repetition of history. How +has this been possible, what has been the sequence of events that has +brought us to this pass? + +It is of course the result of the interaction of certain physical, +material facts and certain spiritual forces. Out of these spiritual +energies come events, phenomena that manifest themselves in political, +social, ecclesiastical transactions and institutions; in wars, +migrations and the reshaping of states; in codes of law, the +organization of society, the development of art, literature and science. +In their turn all these concrete products work on the minds and souls of +men, modifying old spiritual impulses either by exaltation or +degradation, bringing new ones into play; and again these react on the +material fabric of human life, causing new combinations, unloosing new +forces, that in their turn play their part in the eternal process of +building, unbuilding and rebuilding our unstable and fluctuant world. + +Underlying all the varied material forms of ancient society, as this +developed around the shores of the Mediterranean, was the great fact of +slavery: Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, all were +small, sometimes very small, minorities of highly developed, highly +privileged individuals existing on a great sub-stratum of slaves. All +the vast contributions of antiquity in government and law, in science, +letters, art and philosophy, all the building of the culture and +civilization that still remain the foundation stones of human society, +was the work of the few free subsisting on the many un-free. But +freedom, liberty, is an attribute of the soul and it may exist even when +the body is in bondage. The slaves of antiquity were free neither in +body nor in soul, but with the coming of Christianity all this was +changed, for it is one of the great glories of the Christian religion +that it gave freedom to the soul even before the Church could give +freedom to the body of the slave. After the fall of the Roman Empire, +and with the infiltration of the free races of the North, slavery +gradually disappeared, and between the years 1000 and 1500 a very real +liberty existed as the product of Christianity and under its protection. +Society was hierarchical: from the serf up through the peasant, the +guildsman, the burgher, the knighthood, the nobles, to the King, and so +to the Emperor, there was a regular succession of graduations, but the +lines of demarcation were fluid and easily passed, and as through the +Church, the schools and the cloister there was an open road for the son +of a peasant to achieve the Papacy, so through the guilds, chivalry, war +and the court, the layman, if he possessed ability, might from an humble +beginning travel far. An epoch of real liberty, of body, soul and mind, +and the more real in that limits, differences and degrees were +recognized, accepted and enforced. + +This condition existed roughly for five centuries in its swift rise, its +long dominion and its slow decline, that is to say, from 1000 A.D. to +1500 A.D. There was still the traditional aristocracy, now feudal rather +than patriarchal or military; there was still a servile class, now +reduced to a small minority. In between was the great body of men of a +degree of character, ability and intelligence, and with a recognized +status, the like of which had never been seen before. It was not a +bourgeoisie, for it was made up of producers,--agricultural, artisan, +craft, art, mechanic; a great free society, the proudest product of +Christian civilization. + +With the sixteenth century began a process of change that was to +overturn all this and bring in something radically different. The +Renaissance and the Reformation worked in a sense together to build up +their own expressive form of society, and when this process had been +completed we find still an aristocracy, though rapidly changing in the +quality of its personnel and in the sense of its relationship to the +rest of society; a servile class, the proletariat, enormously increased +in proportion to the other social components; and two new classes, one +the bourgeoisie, essentially non-producers and subsisting largely either +on trade, usury or management, and the pauper, a phase of life hitherto +little known under the Christian regime. The great body of free citizens +that had made up the majority of society during the preceding epoch, the +small land-holders, citizens, craftsmen and artists of fifty different +sorts, has begun rapidly to dissolve, has almost vanished by the middle +of the seventeenth century, and in another hundred years has practically +disappeared. + +What had become of them, of this great bulk of the population of western +Europe that, with the feudal aristocracy, the knighthood and the monks +had made Mediaevalism? Some had degenerated into bourgeois traders, +managers and financeers, but the great majority had been crushed down +and down in the mass of submerged proletariat, losing liberty, +degenerating in character, becoming more and more servile in status and +wretched in estate, so forming a huge, inarticulate, dully ebullient +mass, cut off from society, cut off almost from life itself. + +I must insist on these three factors in the development of society and +its present catastrophe: the great, predominant, central body of free +men during the Middle Ages, their supersession during the sixteenth, +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a non-producing bourgeoisie, and +the creation during the same period of a submerged proletariat. They are +factors of great significance and potential force. + +Towards the end of the eighteenth century the industrial-financial +revolution began. Within the space of an hundred years came all the +revelations of the potential inherent in thermo-dynamics and +electricity, and the invention of the machines that have changed the +world. During the Renaissance and Reformation the old social and +economic systems, so laboriously built up on the ruins of Roman tyranny, +had been destroyed; autocracy had abolished liberty, licentiousness had +wrecked the moral stamina, "freedom of conscience" had obliterated the +guiding and restraining power of the old religion. The field was clear +for a new dispensation. + +What happened was interesting and significant. Coal and iron, and their +derivatives--steam and machinery--rapidly revealed their possibilities. +To take advantage of these, it was necessary that labour should be +available in large quantities and freely subject to exploitation; that +unlimited capital should be forthcoming; that adequate markets should be +discovered or created to absorb the surplus product, so enormously +greater than the normal demand; and finally, it was necessary that +directors and organizers and administrators should be ready at the call. +The conditions of the time made all these possible. The land-holding +peasantry of England--and it is here that the revolution was +accomplished--had been largely dispossessed and pauperized under Henry +VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth, while the development of the wool-growing +industry had restricted the arable land to a point where it no longer +gave employment to the mass of field labourers. The first blast of +factory production threw out of work the whole body of cottage weavers, +smiths, craftsmen; and the result was a great mass of men, women, and +children without defense, void of all rights, and given the alternative +of submission to the dominance of the exploiters, or starvation. + +Without capital the new industry could neither begin nor continue. The +exploits of the "joint-stock companies" invented and perfected in the +eighteenth century, showed how this capital could easily be obtained, +while the paralyzing and dismemberment of the Church during the +Reformation had resulted in the abrogation of the old ecclesiastical +inhibition against usury. The necessary capital was forthcoming, and the +foundations were laid for the great system of finance which was one of +the triumphant achievements of the last century. + +The question of markets was more difficult. It was clear that, through +machinery, the exploitation of labour, and the manipulations of finance, +the product would be enormously greater than the local or national +demand. Until they themselves developed their own industrial system, the +other nations of Europe were available, but as this process proceeded +other markets had to be found; the result was achieved through +advertising, i.e., the stimulating in the minds of the general public of +a covetousness for something they had not known of and did not need, and +the exploiting of barbarous or undeveloped races in Asia, Africa, +Oceanica. This last task was easily achieved through "peaceful +penetration" and the preëmpting of "spheres of influence." In the end +(i.e., A.D. 1914), the whole world had so been divided, the stimulated +markets showed signs of repletion, and since exaggerated profits meant +increasing capital demanding investment, and the improvement in +"labour-saving" devices continued unchecked, the contest for others' +markets became acute, and world-politic was concentrated on the vital +problem of markets, lines of communication, and tariffs. + +As for the finding or development of competent organizers and directors, +the history of the world since the end of medievalism had curiously +provided for this after a fashion that seemed almost miraculous. The +type required was different from anything that had been developed +before. Whenever the qualitative standard had been operative, it was +necessary that the leaders in any form of creative action should be men +of highly developed intellect, fine sensibility, wide and penetrating +vision, nobility of instinct, passion for righteousness, and a +consciousness of the eternal force of charity, honour, and service. +During the imperial or decadent stages, courage, dynamic force, the +passion for adventure, unscrupulousness in the matter of method, took +the place of the qualities that marked the earlier periods. In the first +instance the result was the great law-givers, philosophers, prophets, +religious leaders, and artists of every sort; in the second, the great +conquerors. Something quite different was now demanded--men who +possessed some of the qualities needed for the development of +imperialism, but who were unhampered by the restrictive influences of +those who had sought perfection. To organize and administer the new +industrial-financial-commercial régime, the leaders must be shrewd, +ingenious, quick-witted, thick-skinned, unscrupulous, hard-headed, and +avaricious; yet daring, dominating, and gifted with keen prevision and +vivid imagination. These qualities had not been bred under any of the +Mediterranean civilizations, or that of Central Europe in the Middle +Ages, which had inherited so much therefrom. The pursuit of perfection +always implies a definite aristocracy, which is as much a goal of effort +as a noble philosophy, an august civil polity or a great art. This +aristocracy was an accepted and indispensable part of society, and it +was always more or less the same in principle, and always the centre and +source of leadership, without which society cannot endure. It is true +that at the hands of Christianity it acquired a new quality, that of +service as contingent on privilege--one might almost say of privilege as +contingent on service--and the ideals of honour, chivalry, compassion +were established as its object and method of operation even though these +were not always achieved, but the result was not a new creation; it was +an institution as old as society, regenerated and transformed and +playing a greater and a nobler part than ever before. + +Between the years 1455 and 1795 this old aristocracy was largely +exterminated. The Wars of the Roses, the massacres of the Reformation, +and the Civil Wars in England; the Thirty Years' War in Germany; the +Hundred Years' War, the Wars of Religion, and the Revolution in France +had decimated the families old in honour, preserving the tradition of +culture, jealous of their alliances and their breeding--the natural and +actual leaders in thought and action. England suffered badly enough as +the result of war, with the persecutions of Henry VIII, Edward VI and +Elizabeth, and the Black Death, included for full measure. France +suffered also, but Germany fared worst of all. By the end of the Thirty +Years' War the older feudal nobility had largely disappeared, while the +class of "gentlemen" had been almost exterminated. In France, until the +fall of Napoleon III, and in Germany and Great Britain up to the present +moment, the recruiting of the formal aristocracy has gone on steadily, +but on a different basis and from a different class from anything known +before. Demonstrated personal ability to gain and maintain leadership; +distinguished service to the nation in war or statecraft; courage, +honour, fealty--these, in general, had been the ground for admission to +the ranks of the aristocracy. In general, also, advancement to the ranks +of the higher nobility was from the class of "gentlemen," though the +Church, the universities, and chivalry gave, during the Middle Ages, +wide opportunity for personal merit to achieve the highest honours. + +Through the wholesale destruction of the representatives of a class that +from the beginning of history had been the directing and creative force +in civilization, a process began which was almost mechanical. As the +upper strata of society were planed off by war, pestilence, civil +slaughter, and assassination, the pressure on the great mass of men +(peasants, serfs, unskilled labourers, the so-called "lower classes") +was increasingly relaxed, and very soon the thin film of aristocracy, +further weakened by dilution, broke, and through the crumbling shell +burst to the surface those who had behind them no tradition but that of +servility, no comprehension of the ideals of chivalry and honour of the +gentleman, no stored-up results of education and culture, but only an +age-long rage against the age-long dominating class, together with the +instincts of craftiness, parsimony, and almost savage self-interest. + +As a class, it was very far from being what it was under the Roman +Empire; on the other hand, it was equally removed from what it was +during the Middle Ages in England, France and the Rhineland. Under +mediaevalism chattel slavery had disappeared, and the lot of the peasant +was a happier one than he had known before. He had achieved definite +status, and the line that separated him from the gentry was very thin +and constantly traversed, thanks to the accepted system of land tenure, +the guilds, chivalry, the schools and universities, the priesthood and +monasticism. The Renaissance had rapidly changed all this, however; +absolutism in government, dispossession of land, the abolition of the +guilds, and the collapse of the moral order and of the dominance of the +Church, were fast pushing the peasant back into the position he had held +under the Roman Empire, and from which Christianity had lifted him. By +1790 he had been for nearly three centuries under a progressive +oppression that had undone nearly all the beneficent work of the Middle +Ages and made the peasant class practically outlaw, while breaking down +its character, degrading its morals, increasing its ignorance, and +building up a sullen rage and an invincible hatred of all that stood +visible as law and order in the persons of the ruling class. + +Filtering through the impoverished and diluted crust of a dissolving +aristocracy, came this irruption from below. In their own persons +certain of these people possessed the qualities and the will which were +imperative for the organization of the industry, the trade, and the +finance that were to control the world for four generations, and produce +that industrial civilization which is the basis and the energizing force +of modernism. Immediately, and with conspicuous ability, they took hold +of the problem, solved its difficulties, developed its possibilities, +and by the end of the nineteenth century had made it master of the +world. + +Simultaneously an equal revolution and reversal was being effected in +government. The free monarchies of the Middle Ages, beneath which lay +the well recognized principle that no authority, human or divine, could +give any monarch the right to govern wrong, and that there was such a +thing (frequently exercised) as lawful rebellion, gave place to the +absolutism and autocracy of Renaissance kingship and this, which was +fostered both by Renaissance and Reformation, became at once the ally of +the new forces in society and so furthered the growth as well as the +misery and the degradation of the proletariat. In revolt against this +new and very evil thing came the republicanism of the eighteenth +century, inspired and directed in large measure by members of the fast +perishing aristocracy of race, character and tradition. It was a +splendid uprising against tyranny and oppression and is best expressed +in the personalities and the actions of the Constitutional Convention of +the United States in 1787 and the States General of France in 1789. + +The movement is not to be confounded with another that synchronizes with +it, that is to say, democracy, for the two things are radically +different in their antecedents, their protagonists, their modes of +operation and their objects. While the one was the aspiration and the +creation of the more enlightened and cultured, the representatives of +the old aristocracy, the other issued out of the same _milieu_ that was +responsible for the new social organism. That is to say; while certain +of the more shrewd and ingenious were organizing trade, manufacture and +finance and developing its autocratic and imperialistic possibilities at +the expense of the great mass of their blood-brothers, others of the +same social antecedents were devising a new theory, and experimenting in +new schemes, of government, which would take all power away from the +class that had hitherto exercised it and fix it firmly in the hands of +the emancipated proletariat. This new model was called then, and is +called now, democracy. Elsewhere I have tried to distinguish between +democracy of theory and democracy of method. Perhaps I should have used +a more lucid nomenclature if I had simply distinguished between +republicanism and democracy, for this is what it amounts to. The former +is as old as man, and is part of the "passion for perfection" that +characterizes all crescent society, and is indeed the chief difference +between brute and human nature; it means the guaranteeing of justice, +and may be described as consisting of abolition of privilege, equality +of opportunity, and utilization of ability. Democracy of method consists +in a variable and uncertain sequence of devices which are supposed to +achieve the democracy of ideal, but as a matter of fact have thus far +usually worked in the opposite direction. The activity of this movement +synchronizes with the pressing upward of the "the masses" through the +dissolving crust of "the classes," and represents their contribution to +the science of political philosophy, as the contribution of the latter +is current "political economy." + +It will be perceived that the reaction of the new social force in the +case of industrial organization is fundamentally opposed to that which +occurred in the political sphere. The one is working steadily towards an +autocratic imperialism and the "servile state," the other towards the +fluctuating, incoherent control of the making and administering of laws +by the untrained, the uncultivated, and the generally unfit, the issue +of which is anarchy. The industrial-commercial-financial oligarchy that +dominated society for the century preceding the Great War is the result +of the first; Russia, today, is an exemplar of the second. The working +out of these two great devices of the new force released by the +destructive processes of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth +centuries, simultaneously though in apparent opposition, explains why, +when the war broke out, imperialism and democracy synchronized so +exactly: on the one hand, imperial states, industry, commerce, and +finance; on the other, a swiftly accelerating democratic system that was +at the same time the effective means whereby the dominant imperialism +worked, and the omnipresent and increasing threat to its further +continuance. + +A full century elapsed before victory became secure, or even proximate. +Republicanism rapidly extended itself to all the governments of western +Europe, but it could not maintain itself in its primal integrity. Sooner +here, later there, it surrendered to the financial, industrial, +commercial forces that were taking over the control and direction of +society, becoming partners with them and following their aims, conniving +at their schemes, and sharing in their ever-increasing profits. By the +end of the first decade of the twentieth century these supposedly "free" +governments had become as identified with "special privilege," and as +widely severed from the people as a whole, as the autocratic governments +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while they failed +consistently to match them in effectiveness, energy and efficiency of +operation. + +For this latter condition democracy was measurably responsible. For +fifty years it had been slowly filtering into the moribund republican +system until at last, during the same first decade of the present +century, it had wholly transformed the governmental system, making it, +whatever its outward form, whether constitutional monarchy, or republic, +essentially democratic. So government became shifty, opportunist, +incapable, and without the inherent energy to resist, beyond a certain +point, the last great effort of the emergent proletariat to destroy, not +alone the industrial civilization it justly detested, but the very +government it had acquired by "peaceful penetration" and organized and +administered along its chosen lines, and indeed the very fabric of +society itself. + +Now these two remarkable products of the new mentality of a social force +were facts, but they needed an intellectual or philosophical +justification just as a low-born profiteer, when he has acquired a +certain amount of money, needs an expensive club or a coat of arms to +regularize his status. Protestantism and materialistic philosophy were +joint nursing-mothers to modernism, but when, by the middle of the last +century, it had reached man's estate, they proved inadequate; something +else was necessary, and this was furnished to admiration by +evolutionism. Through its doctrine of the survival of the fittest, it +appeared to justify in the fullest degree the gospel of force as the +final test, and "enlightened self-interest" as the new moral law; +through its lucid demonstration of the strictly physical basis of life, +the "descent of man" from primordial slime by way of the lemur or the +anthropoid ape, and the non-existence of any supernatural power that had +devised, or could determine, a code of morality in which certain things +were eternal by right, and other than the variable reactions of very +highly developed animals to experience and environment, it had given +weighty support to the increasingly popular movement towards democracy +both in theory and in act. + +Its greatest contribution, however, was its argument that, since the +invariable law of life was one of progressive evolution, therefore the +acquired characteristics which formed the material of evolution, and +were heritable, could be mechanically increased in number by education; +hence the body of inheritance (which unfortunately varied as between man +and man because of past discrepancies in environment, opportunities, and +education) could be equalized by a system of teaching that aimed to +furnish that mental and physical training hitherto absent. + +Whether the case was ever so stated in set terms does not matter; very +shortly this became the firm conviction of the great mass of men, and +the modern democracy of method is based on the belief that all men are +equal because they are men, and that free, compulsory, secularized, +state-controlled education can and does remove the last difference that +made possible any discrimination in rights and privileges as between one +man and another. + +In another respect, however, the superstition of mechanical evolution +played an important part, and with serious results. Neither the prophets +nor the camp-followers seemed to realize that evolution, while +undoubtedly a law of life within certain limits, was inseparable from +degradation which was its concomitant, that is to say, that as the +rocket rises so must it fall; as man is conceived, born and matures, +even so must he die. The wave rises, but falls again; the state waxes to +greatness, wanes, and the map knows it no more; each epoch of human +history arises out of dim beginnings, magnifies itself in glory, and +then yields to internal corruption, dilution and adulteration of blood, +or prodigal dissipation of spiritual force, and takes its place in the +annals of ancient history. Without recognition of this implacable, +unescapable fact of degradation sequent on evolution, the later becomes +a delusion and an instrument of death, for the eyes of man are blind to +incipient or crescent dangers; content, self-secure, lost in a vain +dream of manifest destiny they are deaf to warnings, incapable even of +the primary gestures of self-defense. Such was one of the results of +nineteenth-century evolutionism, and the generation that saw the last +years of the nineteenth century and the first part of the new, basking +in its day dreams of self-complacency, made no move to avert the dangers +that threatened it then and now menace it with destruction. + +When, therefore, modernism achieved its grand climacteric in July, 1914, +we had on the one hand an imperialism of force, in industry, commerce, +and finance, expressing itself through highly developed specialists, and +dictating the policies and practices of government, society, and +education; on the other, a democracy of form which denied, combated, and +destroyed distinction in personality and authority in thought, and +discouraged constructive leadership in the intellectual, spiritual, and +artistic spheres of activity. The opposition was absolute, the results +catastrophic. The lack of competent leadership in every category of life +finds a sufficient explanation in the two opposed forces, in their +origin and nature, and in the fact of their opposition. + +In the somewhat garish light of the War and the Peace, it would not be +difficult to feel a real and even poignant sympathy for two causes that +were prominent and popular in the first fourteen years of the present +century, namely, the philosophy that based itself on a mechanical system +of evolution which predicted unescapable, irreversible human progress, +and that religion which denied the reality of evil in the world. The +plausibility of each was dissipated by the catastrophic events though +both still linger in stubborn unconsciousness of their demise. The +impulse towards sympathy is mitigated by realization of the unfortunate +effect they exerted on history. This is particularly true of +evolutionary philosophy, which was held as an article of faith, either +consciously or sub-consciously, by the greater part of Western society. +Not only did it deter men from realizing the ominous tendency of events +but, more unhappily, it minimized their power to discriminate between +what was good and bad in current society, and even reversed their sense +of comparative values. If man was indeed progressing steadily from bad +to good, and so to better and best, then the vivid and even splendid +life of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with its headlong +conquest of the powers of nature, its enormous industrial development, +its vast and ever-increasing wealth in material things, must be not only +an amazing advance beyond any former civilization but positively good in +itself, while the future could only be a progressive magnifying of what +then was going on. "Just as" to quote Mr. Chesterton's admirable Dr. +Pelkins, "just as when we see a pig in a litter larger than the other +pigs, we know that by an unalterable law of the Inscrutable, it will +some day be larger than an elephant...so we know and reverently +acknowledge that when any power in human politics has shown for any +period of time any considerable activity, it will go on until it reaches +the sky." + +Nothing but a grave inability to estimate values, based on a +pseudo-scientific dogma, can explain the lack of any just standard of +comparative values that was the essential quality in pre-war society. +Extraordinary as were the material achievements of the time, beneficent +in certain ways, and susceptible in part of sometime being used to the +advantage of humanity, they were largely negatived, and even reversed in +value, just because the sense of proportion had been lost. The image +which might have stimulated reverence had become a fetish. There were +voices crying in the wilderness against a worship that had poisoned into +idolatry, but they were unheard. Progressively the real things of life +were blurred and forgotten and the things that were so obviously real +that they were unreal became the object and the measure of achievement. + +It was an unhappy and almost fatal attitude of mind, and it was +engendered not so much by the trend of civilization since the +Renaissance and Reformation, nor by the compulsion and cumulative +influence of the things themselves, as by the natural temper and +inclinations and the native standards of this emancipated mass of +humanity that, oppressed, outraged and degraded for four hundred years +had at last burst out of its prison-house and had assumed control of +society through industrialism, politics and social life. The saving +grace of the old aristocracies had disappeared with the institution +itself: between 1875 and 1900 the great single leaders, so fine in +character, so brilliant in capacity, so surprising in their numbers, +that had given a deceptive glory to the so-called Victorian Age, had +almost wholly died out, and the new conditions neither fostered the +development of adequate successors, nor gave audience to the few that, +anomalously, appeared. It is not surprising therefore that the new +social element that had played so masterly a part in bringing to its +perfection the industrial-financial-democratic scheme of life should +have developed an apologetic therefor, and imposed it, with all its +materialism, its narrowness, its pragmatism, its, at times, grossness +and cynicism, on the mind of a society where increasingly their own +followers were, by sheer energy and efficiency, acquiring a predominant +position. + +I am not unconscious that these are hard sayings and that few indeed +will accept them. They seem too much like attempting that which Burke +said was impossible, viz., to bring an indictment against a people. I +intend nothing of the sort. Out of this same body of humanity which _as +a whole_ has exerted this very unfavourable influence on modern society, +have come and will come personalities of sudden and startling nobility, +men who have done as great service as any of their contemporaries +whatever their class or status. Out of the depths have come those who +have ascended to the supreme heights, for since Christianity came into +the world to free the souls of men, this new liberty has worked without +limitations of caste or race. Indeed, the very creations of the emergent +force, industrialism and democracy, while they were the betrayal of the +many were the opportunity of the few, taking the place, as they did, of +the older creeds of specifically Christian society, and inviting those +who would to work their full emancipation and so become the servants of +God and mankind. By the very bitterness of their antecedents, the +cruelty of their inheritance, they gained a deeper sense of the reality +of life, a more just sense of right and wrong, a clearer vision of +things as they were, than happened in the case of those who had no such +experience of the deep brutality of the regime of post-Renaissance +society. + +True as this is, it is also true that for one who won through there were +many who gained nothing, and it was, and is, the sheer weight of numbers +of those who failed of this that has made their influence on the modern +life as pervasive and controlling as it is. + +What has happened is a certain degradation of character, a weakening of +the moral stamina of men, and against this no mechanical device in +government, no philosophical or social theory, can stand a chance of +successful resistance, while material progress in wealth and trade and +scientific achievement becomes simply a contributory force in the +process of degeneration. For this degradation of character we are bound +to hold this new social force in a measure responsible, even though it +has so operated because of its inherent qualities and in no material +respect through conscious cynicism or viciousness; indeed it is safe to +say that in so far as it was acting consciously it was with good +motives, which adds an element of even greater tragedy to a situation +already sufficiently depressing. + +If I am right in holding this to be the effective cause of the situation +we have now to meet, it is true that it is by no means the only one. The +emancipation and deliverance of the downtrodden masses of men who owed +their evil estate to the destruction of the Christian society of the +Middle Ages, was a clamourous necessity; it was a slavery as bad in some +ways as any that had existed in antiquity, and the number of its victims +was greater. The ill results of the accomplished fact was largely due to +the condition of religion which existed during the period of +emancipation. No society can endure without vital religion, and any +revolution effected at a time when religion is moribund or dissipated in +contentious fragments, is destined to be evacuated of its ideals and its +potential, and to end in disaster. Now the freeing of the slaves of the +Renaissance and the post-Reformation, and their absorption in the body +politic, was one of the greatest revolutions in history, and it came at +a time when religion, which had been one and vital throughout Western +Europe for six centuries, had been shattered and nullified, and its +place taken, in the lands that saw the great liberation, by Calvinism, +Lutheranism, Puritanism and atheism, none of which could exert a guiding +and redemptive influence on the dazed hordes that had at last come up +into the light of day. + +In point of fact, therefore, we are bound to trace back the +responsibility for the present crisis even to the Reformation itself, as +well as to the tyranny and absolutism of government, and the sordid and +profligate ordering of society, which followed on the end of +Mediaevalism. + +So then we stand today confronting a situation that is ominous and +obscure, since the very ideals and devices which we had held were the +last word in progressive evolution have failed at the crisis, and +because we who created them and have worked through them, have failed in +character, and chiefly because we have accepted low ideals and inferior +standards imposed upon us by social elements betrayed and abandoned by a +world that could not aid them or assimilate them since itself had +betrayed the only thing that could give them force, unity and coherency, +that is, a vital and pervasive religious faith. + +There are those who hold our case to be desperate, to whom the +disillusionment of peace, after the high optimism engendered by the vast +heroism and the exalted ideals instigated by the war, has brought +nothing but a mood of deep pessimism. The sentiment is perhaps natural, +but it is none the less both irrational and wicked. If it is persisted +in, if it becomes widespread, it may perfectly well justify itself, but +only so. We no longer accept the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, +we believe, and must highly believe, that our fate is of our own making, +for Christianity has made us the heirs of free-will. What we will that +shall we be, or rather, what we _are_ that shall we will, and if we make +of ourselves what, by the grace of God, we may, then the victory rests +with us. It is true that we are in the last years of a definite period, +on that decline that precedes the opening of a new epoch. Never in +history has any such period overpassed its limit of five hundred years, +and ours, which came to birth in the last half of the fifteenth century, +cannot outlast the present. But these declining years are preceding +those wherein all things are made new, and the next two generations will +see, not alone the passing of what we may call modernism, since it is +our own age, but the prologue of the epoch that is to come. It is for us +to say what this shall be. It is not foreordained; true, if we will it, +it may be a reign of disaster, a parallel to the well-recognized "Dark +Ages" of history, but also, if we will, it may be a new and a true +"renaissance," a rebirth of old ideals, of old honour, of old faith, +only incarnate in new and noble forms. + +The vision of an old heaven and a new earth was vouchsafed us during the +war, when horror and dishonour and degradation were shot through and +through with an epic heroism and chivalry and self-sacrifice. What if +this all did fade in the miasma of Versailles and the cynicism of trade +fighting to get back to "normalcy," and the red anarchy out of the East? +There is no fiat of God that fixes these things as eternal. Even they +also may be made the instruments of revelation and re-creation. Paris +and London, Rome, Berlin and Washington are meshed in the tangled web of +the superannuated who cannot escape the incubus of the old ways and the +old theories that were themselves the cause of the war and of the +failure of "modern civilization," but another generation is taking the +field and we must believe that this has been burned out of them. They +may have achieved this great perfection in the field, they may have +experienced it through those susceptible years of life just preceding +military age. It does not matter. Somehow they have it, and those who +come much in contact in school or college with boys and men between the +ages of seventeen and twenty-five, know, and thankfully confess, that if +they can control the event the future is secure. + +In the harlequinade of fabulous material success the nations of "modern +civilization" suffered a moral deterioration, in themselves and in their +individual members; by a moral regeneration they may be saved. How is +this to be accomplished? How, humanly speaking, is the redemption of +society to be achieved? Not alone by change of heart in each individual, +though if this could be it would be enough. Humanly speaking there is +not time and we dare not hope for the divine miracle whereby "in the +twinkling of an eye we shall all be changed." Still less by sole +reliance on some series of new political, social, economic and +educational devices; there is no plan, however wise and profound, that +can work effectively under the dead weight of a society that is made up +of individuals whose moral sense is defective. Either of these two +methods, put into operation by itself, will fail. Acting together they +may succeed. + +I repeat what I have said before. The material thing and the spiritual +force work by inter-action and coördinately. The abandonment or reform +of some device that has proved evil or inadequate, and the substitution +of something better, changes to that extent the environment of the +individual and so enables him more perfectly to develop his inherent +possibilities in character and capacity, while every advance in this +direction reacts on the machinery of life and makes its improvement more +possible. With a real sense of my own personal presumption, but with an +equally real sense of the responsibility that rests on every man at the +present crisis, I shall venture certain suggestions as to possible +changes that may well be effected in the material forms of contemporary +society as well as in its methods of thought, in order that the +spiritual energies of the individual may be raised to a higher level +through the amelioration of a hampering environment, and, with even +greater diffidence, others that may bear more directly on the +character-development of the individual. In following out this line of +thought I shall, in the remaining seven lectures, speak successively on: +A Working Philosophy; The Social Organism; The Industrial and Economic +Problem; The Political Organization of Society; The Function of +Education and Art; The Problem of Organic Religion; and Personal +Responsibility. + +I am only too conscious of the fact that the division of my subject +under these categorical heads, and the necessities of special argument, +if not indeed of special pleading, have forced me to such particular +stress on each subject as may very likely give an impression of undue +emphasis. If each lecture were to be taken by itself, such an impression +would, I fear, be unescapable; I ask therefore for the courtesy of a +suspension of judgment until the series is completed, for it is only +when taken as a whole, one paper reacting upon and modifying another, +that whatever merit the course possesses can be made apparent. + + + + +II + + +A WORKING PHILOSOPHY[*] + + [*This lecture has been very considerably re-written + since it was delivered, and much of the matter it then contained + has been cut out, and is now printed in the Appendix. These + excisions were purely speculative, and while they have a certain + bearing on the arguments and conclusions in the other lectures, + might very well be prejudicial to them, and for this reason it + has seemed better to remove them from the general sequence and + give them a supplementary place by themselves.] + +The first reaction of the World War was a great interrogation, and the +technical "Peace" that has followed brings only reiteration. Why did +these things come, and how? The answers are as manifold as the +clamourous tongues that ask, but none carries conviction and the problem +is still unsolved. According to all rational probabilities we had no +right to expect the war that befell; according to all the human +indications as we saw them revealed amongst the Allies we had a right to +expect a better peace; according to our abiding and abounding faith we +had a right to expect a great bettering of life after the war, and even +in spite of the peace. It is all a _non sequitur,_ and still we ask the +reason and the meaning of it all. + +It may be very long before the full answer is given, yet if we are +searching the way towards "The Great Peace" we must establish some +working theory, if only that we may redeem our grave errors and avoid +like perils in the future. The explanation I assume for myself, and on +which I must work, is that, in spite of our intentions (which were of +the best) we were led into the development, acceptance and application +of a false philosophy of life which was not only untenable in itself but +was vitiated and made noxious through its severance from vital religion. +In close alliance with this declension of philosophy upon a basis that +had been abandoned by the Christian world for a thousand years, perhaps +as the ultimate reason for its occurrence, was the tendency to void +religion of its vital power, to cut it out of intimate contact with +life, and, in the end, to abandon it altogether as an energizing force +interpenetrating all existence and controlling it in certain definite +directions and after certain definite methods. + +The rather complete failure of our many modern and ingenious +institutions, the failure of institutionalism altogether, is due far +less to wrong theories underlying them, or to radical defects in their +technique, than it is to this false philosophy and this progressive +abandonment of religion. The wrong theories were there, and the +mechanical defects, for the machines were conditioned by the principle +that lay behind them, but effort at correction and betterment will make +small progress unless we first regain the right religion and a right +philosophy. I said this to Henri Bergson last year in Paris and his +reply was significant as coming from a philosopher. "Yes," he said, "you +are right; and of the two, the religion is the more important." + +If we had this back, and in full measure; if society were infused by it, +through and through, and men lived its life, and in its life, philosophy +would take care of itself and the nature of our institutions would not +matter. On the other hand, without it, no institution can be counted +safe, or will prove efficacious, while no philosophy, however lofty and +magisterial, can take its place, or even play its own part in the life +of man or society. I must in these lectures say much about institutions +themselves, but first I shall try to indicate what seem to me the more +serious errors in current philosophy, leaving until after a study of the +material forms which are so largely conditioned by the philosophical +attitude, the consideration of that religion, both organic and personal, +which I believe can alone verify the philosophy, give the institutions +life and render them reliable agencies for good. + +For a working definition of philosophy, in the sense in which I use it +here, I will take two sayings, one out of the thirteenth century, one +from the twentieth. "They are called wise who put things in their right +order and control them well," says St. Thomas Aquinas. "Philosophy is +the science of the totality of things," says Cardinal Mercier, his +greatest contemporary commentator, and he continues, "Philosophy is the +sum-total of reality." Philosophy is the body of _human_ wisdom, +verified and irradiated by divine wisdom. "The science of the totality +of things": not the isolation of individual phenomena, or even of groups +of phenomena, as is the method of the natural sciences, but the setting +of all in their varied relationships and values, the antithesis of that +narrowness and concentration of vision that follow intensive +specialization and have issue in infinite delusions and unrealities, +"Philosophy regards the sum-total of reality" and it achieves this +consciousness of reality, first by establishing right relations between +phenomena, and then, abandoning the explicit intellectual process, by +falling back on divine illumination which enables it to see through +those well-ordered phenomena the Divine Actuality that lies behind, +informing them with its own finality and using them both as types and as +media of transmission and communication. So men are enabled by +philosophy "to put things in their right order" and by religion "to +control them well," thus becoming indeed worthy to be "called wise." + +Now, from the beginnings of conscious life, man has found himself +surrounded and besieged by un-calculable phenomena. Beaten upon by +forces he could not estimate or predict or control, he has sought to +solve their sphynx-like riddle, to establish some plausible relation +between them, to erect a logical scheme of things. Primitive man, as +Worringer demonstrates in his "Form Problems of the Gothic," strove to +achieve something of certitude and fixity through the crude but definite +lines and forms of neolithic art. Classical man brought into play the +vigour and subtlety and ingenuity of intellect in its primal and most +dynamic form, expressed through static propositions of almost +mathematical exactness. The peoples of the East rejected the +intellectual-mathematical method and solution and sought a way out +through the mysterious operation of the inner sense that manifests +itself in the form of emotion. With the revelation of Christianity came +also, and of course, enlightenment, which was not definite and closed at +some given moment, but progressive and cumulative. At once, speaking +philosophically, the intellectual method of the West and the intuitive +method of the East came together and fused in a new thing, each element +limiting, and at the same time fortifying the other, while the opposed +obscurities of the past were irradiated by the revealing and creative +spirit of Christ. So came the beginnings of that definitive Christian +philosophy which was to proceed from Syria, Anatolia and Constantinople, +through Alexandria to St. Augustine, and was to find its fullest +expression during the Middle Ages and by means of Duns Scotus, Albertus +Magnus, Hugh of St. Victor and St. Thomas Aquinas. + +It is an interesting fact, though apart from my present consideration, +that this philosophical fusion was paralleled in the same places and at +the same time, by an aesthetic fusion that brought into existence the +first great and consistent art of Christianity. This question is +admirably dealt with in Lisle March Phillipps' "Form and Colour." + +This great Christian philosophy which lay behind all the civilization of +the Middle Ages, was positive, comprehensive and new. It demonstrated +divine purpose working consciously through all things with a result in +perfect coherency; it gave history a new meaning as revealing reality +and as a thing forever present and never past, and above all it +elucidated the nature of both matter and spirit and made clear their +operation through the doctrine of sacramentalism. + +In the century that saw the consummation of this great philosophical +system--as well as that of the civilization which was its expositor in +material form--there came a separation and a divergence. The balanced +unity was broken, and on the one hand the tendency was increasingly +towards the exaggerated mysticism that had characterized the Eastern +moiety of the synthesis, on the other towards an exaggerated +intellectualism the seeds of which are inherent even in St. Thomas +himself. The new mysticism withdrew further and further from the common +life, finding refuge in hidden sanctuaries in Spain, Italy, the +Rhineland; the old intellectualism became more and more dominant in the +minds of man and the affairs of the world, and with the Renaissance it +became supreme, as did the other qualities of paganism in art as well as +in every other field of human activity. + +The first fruit of the new intellectualism was the philosophy of Dr. +John Calvin--if we can call it such,--Augustinian philosophy, misread, +distorted and made noxious by its reliance on the intellectual process +cut off from spiritual energy as the sufficient corrective of +philosophical thought. It is this false philosophy, allied with an +equally false theology, that misled for so many centuries those who +accepted the new versions of Christianity that issued out of the +Reformation. The second was the mechanistic system, or systems, the +protagonist of which was Descartes. If, as I believe, Calvinism was +un-Christian, the materialistic philosophies that have gone on from the +year 1637, were anti-Christian. As the power of Christianity declined +through the centuries that have followed the Reformation, Calvinism +played a less and less important part, while the new philosophies of +mechanism and rationalism correspondingly increased. During the +nineteenth century their control was absolute, and what we are today we +have become through this dominance, coupled with the general +devitalizing or abandonment of religion. + +And yet are we not left comfortless. Even in the evolutionary philosophy +engendered by Darwin and formulated by Herbert Spencer and the Germans, +with all its mistaken assumptions and dubious methods, already there is +visible a tendency to get away from the old Pagan static system reborn +with the Renaissance. We can never forget that Bergson has avowed that +"the mind of man, by its very nature, is incapable of apprehending +reality." After this the return towards the scholastic philosophy of the +Middle Ages is not so difficult, nor even its recovery. If we associate +with this process on the part of formal philosophy the very evident, if +sometimes abnormal and exaggerated, progress towards a new mysticism, we +are far from finding ourselves abandoned to despair as to the whole +future of philosophy. + +Now this return and this recovery are, I believe, necessary as one of +the first steps towards establishing a sound basis for the building up +of a new and a better civilization, and one that is in fact as well as +in name a Christian civilization. I do not mean that, with this +restoration of Christian philosophy, there we should rest. Both +revelation and enlightenment are progressive, and once the nexus of our +broken life were restored, philosophical development would be +continuous, and we should go on beyond the scholastics even as they +proceeded beyond Patristic theology and philosophy. I think a break of +continuity was effected in the sixteenth century, with disastrous +effects, and until this break is healed we are cut off from what is in a +sense the Apostolical succession of philosophical verity. + +Before going further I would guard against two possible misconceptions; +of one of them I have already spoken, that is, the error so frequent in +the past as well as today, that would make of philosophy, however sound, +however consonant with the finalities of revealed religion, a substitute +in any degree for religion itself. Philosophy is the reaction of the +intellect, of man to the stimuli of life, but religion _is_ life and is +therefore in many ways a flat contradiction of the concepts of the +intellect, which is only a small portion of life, therefore limited, +partial, and (because of this) sometimes entirely wrong in its +conclusions independently arrived at along these necessarily +circumscribed lines. + +The second possible error is that philosophy is the affair of a small +group of students and specialists, quite outside the purview of the +great mass of men, and that it owes its existence to this same class of +delving scholars, few in number, impractical in their aims, and sharply +differentiated from their fellows. On the contrary it is a vital +consideration for all those who desire to "see life and see it whole" in +order that they may establish a true scale of comparative values and a +right relationship between those things that come from the outside and, +meeting those that come from within, establish that plexus of +interacting force we call life. As for the source of philosophic truth, +Friar Bacon put it well when he said "All the wisdom of philosophy is +created by God and given to the philosophers, and it is Himself that +illumines the minds of men in all wisdom." It is a whimsical +juxtaposition, but the first pastor of the Puritans in America, the Rev. +John Robinson, testifies to the same effect. "All truth," he says, "is +of God ... Wherefore it followeth that nothing true in right reason and +sound philosophy can be false in divinity.... I add, though the truth be +uttered by the devil himself, yet it is originally of God." There are +not two sources of truth, that of Divine Revelation on the one hand, +that of science and philosophy and all the intellectual works of man on +the other. Truth is one, and the Source is one; the channels of +communication alone are different. But truth in its finality, the +Absolute, the _noumenon_ that is the substance of phenomena, is in +itself not a thing that can be directly apprehended by man; it lies +within the "ultra-violet" rays of his intellectual spectrum. "The +trammels of the body prevent man from knowing God in Himself" says +Philo, "He is known only in the Divine forces in which He manifests +Himself." And St. Thomas: "In the present state of life in which the +soul is united to a passable body, it is impossible for the intellect to +understand anything actually except by turning to the phantasm." +Religion confesses this, philosophy constantly tends to forget it, +therefore true religion speaks always through the symbol, rejecting, +because it transcends, the intellectual criterion, while philosophy is +on safe ground only when it unites itself with religion, testing its own +conclusions by a higher reality, and existing not as a rival but as a +coadjutor. + +It is St. Paul who declares that "God has never left Himself without a +witness" and the "witness" was explicit, however clouded, in the +philosophies of paganism. Plato and Aristotle knew the limitations of +man's mind, and the corrective of over-weaning intellectuality in +religion, but thereafter the wisdom faded and pride ousted humility, +with the result that philosophy became not light but darkness. Let me +quote from the great twelfth century philosopher, Hugh of St. Victor, +who deserves a better fate than sepulture in the ponderous tomes of +Migne: + +"There was a certain wisdom that seemed such to them that knew not the +true wisdom. The world found it and began to be puffed up, thinking +itself great in this. Confiding in its wisdom it became presumptuous and +boasted it would attain the highest wisdom. And it made itself a ladder +of the face of creation.... Then those things which were seen were known +and there were other things which were not known; and through those +which were manifest they expected to reach those that were hidden. And +they stumbled and fell into the falsehoods of their own imagining.... So +God made foolish the wisdom of this world; and He pointed out another +wisdom, which seemed foolishness and was not. For it preached Christ +crucified, in order that truth might be sought in humility. But the +world despised it, wishing to contemplate the works of God, which He had +made a source of wonder, and it did not wish to venerate what He had set +for imitation, neither did it look to its own disease, seeking medicine +in piety; but presuming on a false health, it gave itself over with vain +curiosity to the study of alien things." + +Precisely: and this is the destiny that has overtaken not only the pagan +philosophy of which Hugh of St. Victor was speaking, but also that which +followed after St. Thomas Aquinas, from Descartes to Hobbes and Kant and +Comte and Herbert Spencer and William James. The jealously intellectual +philosophies of the nineteenth century, the materialistic and +mechanistic substitutes that were offered and accepted with such +enthusiasm after the great cleavage between religion and life, are but +"the falsehoods of their own imaginings" of which Hugh of St. Victor +speaks, for they were cut off from the stream of spiritual verity, and +are losing themselves in the desert they have made. + +Meanwhile they have played their part in shaping the destinies of the +world, and it was an ill part, if we may judge from the results that +showed themselves in the events that have been recorded between the year +1800 and the present moment. Just what this influence was in determining +the nature of society, of industrial civilization and of the political +organism I shall try to indicate in some of the following lectures, but +apart from these concrete happenings, this influence was, I am +persuaded, most disastrous in its bearing on human character. Neither +wealth nor power, neither education nor environment, not even the +inherent tendencies of race--the most powerful of all--can avail against +the degenerative force of a life without religion, or, what is worse, +that maintains only a desiccated formula; and the post-Renaissance +philosophies are one and all definitely anti-religious and +self-proclaimed substitutes for religion. As such they were offered and +accepted, and as such they must take their share of the responsibility +for what has happened. + +I believe we must and can retrace our steps to that point in time when a +right philosophy was abandoned, and begin again. There is no +impossibility or even difficulty here. History is not a dead thing, a +thing of the past; it is eternally present to man, and this is one of +the sharp differentiations between man and beast. The material monuments +of man crumble and disappear, but the spirit that built the Parthenon or +Reims Cathedral, that inspired St. Paul on Mars' hill or forged Magna +Charta or the Constitution of the United States is, _because of our +quality as men,_ just as present and operative with us today, if we +will, as that which sent the youth of ten nations into a righteous war +five years ago, or spoke yesterday through some noble action that you or +I may have witnessed. It is as easy for us to accept and practice the +philosophy of St. Thomas or the divine humanism of St. Francis as it is +to accept the philosophy of Mr. Wells or the theories of Sir Oliver +Lodge. No spiritual thing dies, or even grows old, nor does it drift +backward in the dwindling perspective of ancient history, and the +foolishest saying of man is that "you cannot turn back the hands of the +clock." + +It is simply a question of will, and will is simply a question of desire +and of faith. + +Manifestly I cannot be expected to recreate in a few words this +philosophy to which I believe we must have recourse in our hour of need. +I have no ability to do this in any case. It begins with St. Paul, is +continued through St. Augustine, and finds its culmination in the great +Mediaeval group of Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, Hugh of St. Victor and +St. Thomas Aquinas. I do not know of any single book that epitomizes it +all in vital form, though Cardinal Mercier and Dr. De Wulf have written +much that is stimulating and helpful. I cannot help thinking that the +great demand today is for a compact volume that synthesizes the whole +magnificent system in terms not of history and scientific exegesis, but +in terms of life. Plato and Aristotle are so preserved to man, and the +philosophers of modernism also; it is only the magisterial and dynamic +philosophy of Christianity that is diffused through many works, some of +them still untranslated and all quite without coordination, save St. +Thomas Aquinas alone, the magnitude of whose product staggers the human +mind and in its profuseness defeats its own ends. We need no more +histories of philosophy, but we need an epitome of Christian philosophy, +not for students but for men. + +Such an epitome I am not fitted to offer, but there are certain rather +fundamental conceptions and postulates that run counter both to pagan +and to modern philosophy, the loss of which out of life has, I maintain, +much to do with our present estate, and that must be regained before we +can go forward with any reasonable hope of betterment. These I will try +to indicate as well as I can. + +Christian philosophy teaches, in so far as it deals with the +relationship between man and these divine forces that are forever +building, unbuilding and rebuilding the fabric of life, somewhat as +follows: + +The world as we know it, man, life itself as it works through all +creation, is the union of matter and spirit; and matter is not spirit, +nor spirit matter, nor is one a mode of the other, but they are two +different creatures. Apart from this union of matter and spirit there is +no life, in the sense in which we know it, and severance is death. "The +body" says St. Thomas, "is not of the essence of the soul; but the soul, +by the nature of its essence, can be united to the body, so that, +properly speaking, the soul alone is not the species, but the +composite", and Duns Scotus makes clear the nature and origin of this +common "essence" when he says there is "on the one hand God as Infinite +Actuality, on the other spiritual and corporeal substances possessing an +homogeneous common element." That is to say; matter and spirit are both +the result of the divine creative act, and though separate, and in a +sense opposed, find their point of origin in the Divine Actuality. + +The created world is the concrete manifestation of matter, through +which, for its transformation and redemption, spirit is active in a +constant process of interpenetration whereby matter itself is being +eternally redeemed. What then is matter and what is spirit? The question +is of sufficient magnitude to absorb all the time assigned to these +lectures, with the strong possibility that even then we should be +scarcely wiser than before. For my own purposes, however, I am content +to accept the definition of matter formulated by Duns Scotus, which +takes over the earlier definition of Plotinus, purges it of its elements +of pagan error, and redeems it by Christian insight. + +"Materia Primo Prima" says the great Franciscan, "is the indeterminate +element of contingent things. This does not exist in Nature, but it has +reality in so far as it constitutes the term of God's creative activity. +By its union with a substantial form it becomes endowed with the +attributes of quantity, and becomes Secundo Prima. Subject to the +substantial changes of Nature, it becomes matter as we see it." + +It is this "Materia Primo Prima," the term of God's creative activity, +that is eternally subjected to the regenerative process of spiritual +interpenetration, and the result is organic life. + +What is spirit? The creative power of the Logos, in the sense in which +St. John interprets and corrects the early, partial, and therefore +erroneous theories of the Stoics and of Philo. God the Son, the Eternal +Word of the Father, "the brightness of His glory and the figure of His +Substance." "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, +not made, being of one substance with the Father: by Whom all things +were made." Pure wisdom, pure will, pure energy, unconditioned by +matter, but creating life out of the operation of the Holy Spirit on and +through matter, and in the fullness of time becoming Incarnate for the +purpose of the final redemption of man. + +Now since man is so compact of matter and spirit, it must follow that he +cannot lay hold of pure spirit, the Absolute that lies beyond and above +all material conditioning, except through the medium of matter, through +its figures, its symbols, its "phantasms." Says St. Thomas: "From +material things we can rise to some kind of knowledge of immaterial +things, but not to the perfect knowledge thereof." The way of life +therefore, is the incessant endeavour of man sacramentally to approach +the Absolute through the leading of the Holy Spirit, so running parallel +to the slow perfecting of matter which is being effected by the same +operation. So matter itself takes on a certain sanctity, not only as +something susceptible, and in process, of perfection, but as the vehicle +of spirit and its tabernacle, since in matter spirit is actually +incarnate. + +From this process follows of necessity the whole sacramental system, in +theology, philosophy and operation, of Christianity. It is of its +_esse;_ its great original, revolutionary and final contribution to the +wisdom that man may have for his own, and it follows inevitably from the +basic facts of the Incarnation and Redemption, which are also its +perfect showing forth. + +Philosophically this is the great contribution of Christianity and for +fifteen centuries it was held implicitly by Christendom, yet it was +rejected, either wholly or in part, by the Protestant organizations that +came out of the Reformation, and it fell into such oblivion that outside +the Catholic Church it was not so much ignored or rejected as totally +forgotten. Recently a series of lectures were delivered at King's +College, London, by various carefully chosen authorities, all +specialists in their own fields, under the general title "Mediaeval +Contributions to Modern Civilization," and neither the pious author of +the address on "The Religious Contribution of the Middle Ages," nor the +learned author of that on "Mediaeval Philosophy," gave evidence of ever +having heard of sacramental philosophy. It may be that I do them an +injustice, and that they would offer as excuse the incontestible fact +that Mediaevalism contributed nothing to "modern civilization," either +in religion or philosophy, that it was willing to accept. + +The peril of all philosophies, outside that of Christianity as it was +developed under the Catholic dispensation, is dualism, and many have +fallen into this grave error. Now dualism is not only the reversal of +truth, it is also the destroyer of righteousness. + + +Sacramentalism is the anthithesis of dualism. The sanctity of matter as +the potential of spirit and its dwelling-place on earth; the humanizing +of spirit through its condescension to man through the making of his +body and all created things its earthly tabernacle, give, when carried +out into logical development, a meaning to life, a glory to the world, +an elucidation of otherwise unsolvable mysteries, and an impulse toward +noble living no other system can afford. It is a real philosophy of +life, a standard of values, a criterion of all possible postulates, and +as its loss meant the world's peril, so its recovery may mean its +salvation. + +Now as the philosophy of Christianity is purely and essentially +sacramental, so must be the operation of God through the Church. This +"Body of Christ" on earth is indeed a fellowship, a veritable communion +of the faithful, whether living or dead, but it is also a divine +organism which lives, and in which each member lives, not by the +preaching of the Word, not even by and through the fellowship in living +and worship, but through the ordained channels of grace known as the +Sacraments. In accordance with the sacramental system, every material +thing is proclaimed as possessing in varying degree sacramental +potentiality, while seven great Sacraments were instituted to be, each +after its own fashion, a special channel for the inflowing of the power +of the Divine Actuality. Each is a symbol, just as so many other created +things are, or may become, symbols, but they are also _realities,_ +veritable media for the veritable communications of veritable divine +grace. Here is the best definition I know, that of Hugh of St. Victor. +"A sacrament is the corporeal or material element set out sensibly, +representing from its similitude, signifying from its institution, and +containing from its sanctification, some invisible and spiritual grace." +This is the unvarying and invariable doctrine of historic Christianity, +and the reason for the existence of the Church as a living and +functioning organism. The whole sacramental system is in a sense an +extension, in time, of the Redemption, just as one particular Sacrament, +the Holy Eucharist, is also in a sense an extension of the Incarnation, +as it is also an extension, in time, of the Atonement, the Sacrifice of +Calvary. + +The Incarnation and the Redemption are not accomplished facts, completed +nineteen centuries ago; they are processes that still continue, and +their term is fixed only by the total regeneration and perfecting of +matter, while the Seven Sacraments are the chiefest amongst an infinity +of sacramental processes which are the agencies of this eternal +transfiguration. + +God the Son became Incarnate, not only to accomplish the redemption of +men as yet unborn, for endless ages, through the Sacrifice of Calvary, +but also to initiate and forever maintain a new method whereby this +result was to be more perfectly attained; that is to say, the Church, +working through the specific sacramental agencies He had ordained, or +was from time to time to ordain, through His everlasting presence in the +Church He had brought into being at Pentecost. He did not come to +establish in material form a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, or to provide +for its ultimate coming. He indeed established a Spiritual Kingdom, His +Church, "in the world, not of it," which is a very different matter +indeed, as the centuries have proved. His Kingdom is not of this world, +nor will it be established here. There has been no _absolute_ advance in +human development since the Incarnation. Nations rise and fall, epochs +wax and wane, civilizations grow out of savagery, crest and sink back +into savagery and oblivion. Redemption is for the individual, not for +the race, nor yet for society as a whole. Then, and only then, and under +that form, it is sure, however long may be the period of its +accomplishment. "Time is the ratio of the resistance of matter to the +interpenetration of spirit," and by this resistance is the duration of +time determined. When it shall have been wholly overcome then "time +shall be no more." + +See therefore how perfect is the correspondence between the Sacraments +and the method of life where they are the agents, and which they +symbolically set forth. There is in each case the material form and the +spiritual substance, or energy. Water, chrism, oil, the spoken word, the +touch of hands, the sign of the cross, and finally and supremely the +bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. Each a material thing, but each +representing, signifying and containing some gift of the Holy Spirit, +real, absolute and potent. So matter and spirit are linked together in +every operation of the Church, from the cradle to the grave, and man has +ever before him the eternal revelation of this linked union of matter +and spirit in his life, the eternal teaching of the honour of the +material thing through its agency and through its existence as the +subject for redemption. So also, through the material association, and +the divine condescension to his earthly and fallible estate (limited by +association with matter only to inadequate presentation) he makes the +Spirit of God his own, to dwell therewith after the fashion of man. + +And how much this explains and justifies: Man approaches, and must +always approach, spiritual things not only through material forms but by +means of material agencies. The highest and most beautiful things, those +where the spirit seems to achieve its loftiest reaches, are frequently +associated with the grossest and most unspiritual forms, yet the very +splendour of the spiritual verity redeems and glorifies the material +agency, while on the other hand the homeliness, and even animal quality, +of the material thing, brings to man, with a poignancy and an appeal +that are incalculable, the spiritual thing that, in its absolute +essence, would be so far beyond his ken and his experience and his +powers of assimilation that it would be inoperative. + +This is the true Humanism; not the fictitious and hollow thing that was +the offspring of neo-paganism and took to itself a title to which it had +no claim. Held tacitly or consciously by the men of the Middle Ages, +from the immortal philosopher to the immortal but nameless craftsman, it +was the force that built up the noble social structure of the time and +poised man himself in a sure equilibrium. Already it had of necessity +developed the whole scheme of religious ceremonial and given art a new +content and direction through its new service. By analogy and +association all material things that could be so used were employed as +figures and symbols, as well as agencies, through the Sacraments, and +after a fashion that struck home to the soul through the organs of +sense. Music, vestments, incense, flowers, poetry, dramatic action, were +linked with the major arts of architecture, painting and sculpture, and +all became not only ministers to the emotional faculties but direct +appeals to the intellect through their function as poignant symbols. So +art received its soul, and was almost a living creature until matter and +spirit were again divorced in the death that severed them during the +Reformation. Thereafter religion had entered upon a period of slow +desiccation and sterilization wherever the symbol was cast away with the +Sacraments and the faith and the philosophy that had made it live. The +bitter hostility to the art and the liturgies and the ceremonial of the +Catholic faith is due far less to ignorance of the meaning and function +of art and to an inherited jealousy of its quality and its power, than +it is to the conscious and determined rejection of the essential +philosophy of Christianity, which is sacramentalism. + +The whole system was of an almost sublime perfection and simplicity, and +the formal Sacraments were both its goal and its type. If they had been +of the same value and identical in nature they would have failed of +perfect exposition, in the sense in which they were types and symbols. +They were not this, for while six of the explicit seven were +substantially of one mode, there was one where the conditions that held +elsewhere were transcended, and where, in addition to the two functions +it was instituted to perform it gave, through its similitude, the clear +revelation of the most significant and poignant fact in the vast mystery +of life. I mean, of course, the Holy Eucharist, commonly called the +Mass. + +If matter is _per se_ forever inert, unchangeable, indestructible, then +we fall into the dilemma of a materialistic monism on the one hand, +Manichaean dualism on the other. Even under the most spiritual +interpretation we could offer--that, shall we say, of those today who +try to run with the hare of religion and hunt with the hounds of +rationalistic materialism--matter and spirit unite in man as body and +soul, and in the Sacraments as the vehicle and the essence, but +temporally and temporarily; doomed always to ultimate severance by death +in the one case, by the completion of the sacramental process in the +other. If, on the other hand, the object of the universe and of time is +the constant redemption and transformation of matter through its +interpenetration by spirit in the power of God the Holy Ghost, then we +escape the falsities of dualism, while in the miracle of the Mass we +find the type and the showing forth of the constant process of life +whereby every instant, matter itself is being changed and glorified and +transferred from the plane of matter to the plane of spirit. + +If this is so: if the Incarnation and the Redemption are not only +fundamental facts but also types and symbols of the divine process +forever going on here on earth, then, while the other Sacraments are in +themselves not only instruments of grace but manifestations of that +process whereby in all things matter is used as the vehicle of spirit, +the Mass, transcending them all, is not only Communion, not only a +Sacrifice acceptable before God, it is also the unique symbol of the +redemption and transformation of matter; since, of all the Sacraments, +it is the only one where the very physical qualities of the material +vehicle are transformed, and while the accidents alone remain, the +substance, finite and perishable, becomes, in an instant of time and by +the operation of God, infinite and immortal. + +It is to sacramentalism then that we must return, not only in religion +and its practice, but in philosophy, if we are to establish a firm +foundation for that newer society and civilization that are to help us +to achieve the "Great Peace." Antecedent systems failed, and subsequent +systems have failed; in this alone, the philosophy of Christianity, is +there safety, for it alone is consonant with the revealed will of God. + + + + +III + + +THE SOCIAL ORGANISM + +Society, that is to say, the association in life of men, women and +children, is the fundamental fact of life, and this is so whether the +association is of the family, the school, the community, industry or +government. Everything else is simply a series of forms, arrangements +and devices by which society works, either for good or ill. Man makes or +mars himself in and through society. He is responsible for his own soul, +but if he sees only this and works directly for his soul's salvation, +disregarding the society of which he is a part, he may lose it, whereas, +if he is faithful to society and honourably plays his part as a social +animal with a soul, he will very probably save it, even though he may +for the time have quite ignored its existence. Man is a member of a +family, a pupil under education, a worker and a citizen. In all these +relationships he is a part of a social group; he is also a component +part of the human race and linked in some measure to every other member +thereof whether living or dead. Into every organization or institution +in which he is involved during his lifetime--family, school, art or +craft, trade union, state, church--enters the social equation. If +society is ill organized either in theory or in practice, in any or all +of its manifestations, then the engines or devices by which it operates +will be impotent for good. Defective society cannot produce either a +good fundamental law, a good philosophy, a good art, or any other thing. +Conversely, these, when brought forth under an wholesome society, will +decay and perish when society degenerates. + +In its large estate, that is, comprehending all the minor groups, as a +nation, a people or an era, society is always in a state of unstable +equilibrium, tending either toward better or worse. It may indeed be of +the very essence of human life, but it is a plant of tender growth and +needs delicate nurture and jealous care; a small thing may work it +irreparable injury. It may reach very great heights of perfection and +spread over a continent, as during the European Middle Ages; it may sink +to low depths with an equal dominion, as in the second dark ages of the +nineteenth century. Sometimes little enclaves of high value hide +themselves in the midst of degradation, as Venice and Ireland in the +Dark Ages. Always, by the grace of God, the primary social unit, the +family may, and frequently does, achieve and maintain both purity and +beauty when the world without riots in ruin and profligacy. + +I have taken the problem of the organization of society as the first to +be considered, for it is fundamental. If society is of the wrong shape +it does not matter in the least how intelligent and admirable may be the +devices we construct for the operation of government or industry or +education; they may be masterly products of human intelligence but they +will not work, whereas on the other hand a sane, wholesome and decent +society can so interpret and administer clumsy and defective instruments +that they will function to admiration. A perfect society would need no +such engines at all, but a perfect society implies perfect individuals, +and I think we are now persuaded that a society of this nature is a +purely academic proposition both now and in the calculable future. What +we have to do is to take mankind as it is; made up of infinitely varied +personalities ranging from the idiot to the "super-man"; cruel and +compassionate, covetous and self-sacrificing, silly and erudite, cynical +and emotional, vulgar and cultured, brutal and fastidious, shameful in +their degradation and splendid in their honour and chivalry, and by the +franchise of liberty and the binding of law, facilitate in every way the +process whereby they themselves work out their own salvation. You cannot +impose morality by statute or guarantee either character or intelligence +by the perfection of the machine. Every institution, good or bad, is the +result of growth from many human impulses, not the creation of +autocratic fiat. But growth may be impeded, hastened, or suspended, and +the most that can be done is to offer incentives to action, remove the +obstacles to development, and establish conditions and influences that +make more easy the finding of the right way. + +Now it seems to me that the two greatest obstacles to the development of +a right society have been first, the enormous scale in which everything +of late has been cast, and second, that element in modern democracy +which denies essential differences in human character, capacity and +potential, and so logically prohibits social distinctions, and refuses +them formal sanction or their recognition through conferred honours. In +questioning the validity and the value of these two factors, imperialism +and social democracy, and in suggesting substitutes, I am, I suppose, +attacking precisely the two institutions which are today--or at all +events have been until very recently--held in most conspicuous honour by +the majority of people, but the question is at least debateable, and for +my own part I have no alternative but to assert their mistaken nature, +and to offer the best I can in the way of substitutes. + +The question of imperialism, of a gross and unhuman and therefore +absolutely wrong scale, is one that will enter into almost all of the +matters with which I propose to deal, certainly with industrialism, with +politics, with education, with religion, as well as with the immediate +problem of the social organism, for not only has it destroyed the human +scale in human life, and therefore brought it into the danger of +immediate destruction, but it has also been a factor in establishing the +quantitative standard in all things, in place of the qualitative +standard, and this, in itself, is simply the antecedent of well-merited +catastrophe. In considering the social organism, therefore, we must have +in mind that this is intimately affected by every organic institution +which man has developed and into which he enters in common with others +of his kind. + +The situation as it confronts us today is one in which man by his very +energy and the stimulus of those cosmic energies he has so astonishingly +mastered, has got far beyond his depth. I say man has mastered these +energies; yes, but this was true only of a brief period in the immediate +past. They now have mastered him. It is the old story of the +Frankenstein monster over again. Man is not omnipotent, he is not God. +There are limits beyond which he cannot go without coming in peril of +death. An isolated individual here and there may become super-man, +perhaps, though at grievous peril to his own soul, and it is conceivable +that to such an one it might be possible to live beyond the human scale, +though hardly. If one could envisage so awful a thing as a community +made up entirely of super-men, one might concede that here also the +human scale might be exceeded without danger of catastrophe. With +society as it is, and always will be, a welter of defectives and +geniuses in small numbers and a vast majority of just plain men, with +all that that implies, the breaking through into the imperial scale is +simply a letting in the jungle; walls and palings and stockades, the +delicate fabrics of architecture, the clever institutions of law, the +thin red line of the army, all melt, crumble, are overcome by the onrush +of primordial things, and where once was the white man's city is now the +eternal jungle, and the vines and thrusting roots and rank herbage blot +out the very memory of a futile civilization, while the monkey and the +jackal and the python come again into their heritage. + +Alexander and Caesar, Charles V and Louis XIV and Napoleon and Disraeli +and William III could function for a few brief years beyond the limits +of the human scale, though even they had an end, but you cannot link +imperialism and democracy without the certainty of an earlier and a more +ignominious fall. + +I have already spoken of the malignant and pathological quality of the +quantitative standard. It is indeed not only the nemesis of culture but +even of civilization itself. Out of this same gross scale of things come +many other evils; great states subsisting on the subjugation and +exploitation of small and alien peoples; great cities which when they +exceed more than 100,000 in population are a menace, when they exceed +1,000,000 are a crime; division of labour and specialization which +degrade men to the level of machines; concentration and segregation of +industries, the factory system, high finance and international finance, +capitalism, trades-unionism and the International, standardized +education, "metropolitan" newspapers, pragmatic philosophy, and churches +"run on business methods" and recruited by advertising and "publicity +agents." + +Greater than all, however, is the social poison that effects society +with pernicious anaemia through cutting man off from his natural social +group and making of him an undistinguishable particle in a sliding +stream of grain. Man belongs to his family, his neighbourhood, his local +trade or craft guild and to his parish church: the essence of wholesome +association is that a man should work with, through and by those whom he +knows personally--and preferably so well that he calls them all by their +first names. + +As a matter of fact, today he works with, through and by the individuals +whom he probably has never seen, and frequently would, as a matter of +personal taste, hesitate to recognize if he did see them. He belongs to +the "local" of a union which is a part of a labour organization which +covers the entire United States and is controlled in all essential +matters from a point from one hundred to two thousand miles away. He +votes for mayor with a group of men, less than one per cent of whom he +knows personally (unless he is a professional politician), with another +group for state officers, and with the whole voting population of the +United States, for President. If he goes to church in a city he finds +himself amongst people drawn from every ward and outlying district, if +he mixes in "society" he associates with those from everywhere, perhaps, +except his own neighbourhood. Only when he is in college, in his club or +in his secret society lodge or the quarters of his ward boss does he +find himself in intimate social relations with human beings of like mind +and a similar social status. He is a cog in a wheel, a thing, a point of +potential, a lonely and numerical unit, instead of a gregarious human +animal rejoicing in his friends and companions, and working, playing and +quarreling with them, as God made him and meant him to be and to do. + +Of course the result of this is that men are forced into unnatural +associations, many of which are purely artificial and all of which are +unsound. It is true that the trade union, the professional society, the +club are natural and wholesome expressions of common and intimate +interests, but they acquire a false value when they are not balanced and +regulated by a prior and more compelling association which cuts, not +vertically but horizontally through society, that is to say, the +neighbourhood or community group. The harsh and perilous division into +classes and castes which is now universal, with its development of +"class consciousness," is the direct and inevitable result of this +imperial scale in life which has annihilated the social unit of human +scale and brought in the gigantic aggregations of peoples, money, +manufacture and labourers, where man can no longer function either as a +human unit or an essential factor in a workable society. + +It is hard to see just how we are to re-fashion this impossible society +in terms even nearly approaching the normal and the human. It is +universal, and it is accepted by everyone as very splendid and quite the +greatest achievement of man. It is practically impossible for any one +today to conceive of a world where great empires, populous cities, mills +and factories and iron-works in their thousands, and employing their +millions through their billions of capitalization, where the stock +exchange and the great banking houses and the insurance companies and +the department stores, the nation-wide trade unions and professional +associations and educational foundations and religious corporations, do +not play their predominant part. Nevertheless they are an aggregation of +false values, their influence is anti-social, and their inherent +weakness was so obviously revealed through the War and the Peace that it +has generally escaped notice. + +There seem but two ways in which the true scale of life can be restored; +either these institutions will continue, growing greater and more +unwieldy with increasing speed until they burst in anarchy and chaos, +and after ruin and long rest we begin all over again (as once before +after the bursting of Roman imperialism), or we shall repeat history (as +we always do) only after another fashion and, learning as we always can +from the annals of monasticism, build our small communities of the right +shape and scale in the very midst of the imperial states themselves, so +becoming perhaps the leavening of the lump. This of course is what the +monasteries of St. Benedict did in the sixth century and those of the +Cluniacs and the Cistercians in the eleventh, and it is what the +Franciscans and Dominicans tried to do in the fourteenth century, and +failed because the fall of the cultural and historic wave had already +begun. + +The trouble today with nearly all schemes of reform and regeneration is +that they are infected with the very imperialism in scale that has +produced the conditions they would redeem. Socialism is now as +completely materialistic as the old capitalism, and as international in +its scope and methods. Anarchy is becoming imperial and magnificent in +its operations. Secular reformers must organize vast committees with +intricate ramifications and elaborate systems supported by "drives" for +money which must run into at least seven figures, and by vast and +efficient bureaus for propaganda, before they can begin operations, and +then the chief reliance for success is frequently placed on legislation +enacted by the highest lawmaking bodies in the land. Even religion has +now surrendered to the same obsession of magnitude and efficiency, and +nothing goes (or tries to, it doesn't always succeed) unless it is +conceived in gigantic "nation-wide" terms and is "put across" by +efficiency experts, highly paid organizers, elaborate "teams" of +propagandists and solicitors, and plenty of impressive advertising. A +good deal can be bought this way, but it will not "stay bought," for no +reform of any sort can be established after any such fashion, since +reform begins in and with the individual, and if it succeeds at all it +will be by the cumulative process. + +I shall speak of this element of scale in every succeeding lecture, for +it vitiates every institution we have. Here, where I am dealing with +society in itself, I can only say that I believe the sane and wholesome +society of the future will eliminate great cities and great corporations +of every sort. It will reverse the whole system of specialization and +the segregation and unification of industries and the division of +labour. It will build upward from the primary unit of the family, +through the neighbourhood, to the small, and closely knit, and +self-supporting community, and so to the state and the final unifying +force which links together a federation of states. In general it will be +a return in principle, though not in form, to the social organization of +a Mediaeval Europe before the extinction of feudalism on the Continent, +and the suppression of the monasteries and the enclosure of the common +lands in England. + +The grave perils of this false scale in human society have been +recognized by many individuals ever since the thing itself became +operative, and every Utopia conceived by man during the last two +centuries, whether it was theoretical or actually put into ephemeral +practice, has been couched in terms of revolt away from imperialism and +towards the unit of human scale. In every case however, the introduction +of some form of communism has been the ruin of those projects actually +materialized, for this in itself is imperialistic in its nature. +Communism implies the standard of the gross aggregate, the denial of +human differentiation and the quantitative standard, as well as the +elimination of private property and the negation of sacred +individuality. Its institution implies an almost immediate descent into +anarchy with a sequent dictatorship and autocracy, for it is the +reversal of the foundation laws of life. Such reversals cannot last, +nothing can last that is inimical to flourishing life; it may triumph +for a day but life itself sloughs it off as a sound body rids itself of +some foreign substance through the sore that festers, bursts and, the +septic conditions done away with, heals itself and returns to normal. + +Now the inhuman scale has produced one set of septic conditions in +society while what is commonly called "democratization" has produced +another. We have a bloated society, but also we have one in which a +false theory has grown up and been put in practice, in accordance with +which an uniformity of human kind has been assumed which never has +existed and does not now, and in the effort to enforce this false theory +the achievement of distinction has been impeded, leadership discouraged +and leaders largely eliminated, the process of leveling downward carried +to a very dangerous point, the sane and vital organization of society +brought near to an end and a peculiarly vicious scale and standard of +social values established. I have urged the return to human scale in +human associations, but this does not imply any admixture of communism, +which is its very antithesis, still less does it permit the retention of +the theoretical uniformity and the unescapable leveling process of +so-called democracy. + +Before the law all men are equal, that is, they are entitled to +even-handed justice. Before God all men are equal, that is, they are +granted charity and mercy which transcends the law, also they possess +immortal souls of equal value. Here their equality stops. In every other +respect they vary in character, capacity, intelligence and potentiality +for development along any or all these lines, almost beyond the limits +of computation. A sane society will recognize this, it will organize +itself accordingly, it will deny to one what it will concede to another, +it will foster emulation and reward accomplishment, and it will add +another category to those in which all men are equal, that is, the +freest scope for advancement, and the greatest facility for passing from +one social group into another, the sole test being demonstrated merit. + +I am prepared at this point to use the word "aristocracy" for we have +the thing even now, only in its worst possible form. The word itself +means two things: a government by the best and most able citizens and, +to quote a standard dictionary "Persons noted for superiority in any +character or quality, taken collectively." There is no harm here, but +the harm comes, and the odium also, and justly, when an aristocratic +government degenerates into an oligarchy of privilege without +responsibility, and when socially it is not "superiority in character or +quality" but political cunning, opulence and sycophancy that are the +touchstones to recognition and acceptance. The latter are the antithesis +of Christianity and common sense, the former is consonant with both and, +paradoxical as it may seem, it is also the fulfilling of the ideals of a +real democracy, since its honours and distinctions imply service, its +relations with those in other estates are reciprocal, it is not a closed +caste but the prize of meritorious achievement, and it is therefore +equality of opportunity, utilization of ability and the abolition of +privilege without responsibility. + +Men are forever and gloriously struggling onward towards better things, +but there is always the gravitational pull of original sin which +scientists denominate "reversion to type." The saving grace in the +individual is the divine gift of faith, hope and charity implanted in +every soul. These every man must guard and cherish for they are the way +of advancement in character. But society is man in association with men, +in a sense a new and complex personality, and the same qualities are as +necessary here as in the individual. Society, like man, may be said to +possess body, soul and spirit, and it must function vitally along all +these lines if it is to maintain a normal and wholesome existence. +Somewhere there must be something that achieves high ideals of honour, +chivalry, courtesy; that maintains right standards of comparative value, +and that guards the social organism as a whole from the danger of +surrender to false and debased standards, to plausible demagogues, and +to mob-psychology. + + +The greater the prevalence of democratic methods, the greater is the +danger of this surrender to propaganda of a thousand sorts and to the +dominance of the demagogue, and the existence of an estate fortified by +the inheritance of high tradition, measurably free from the necessity of +engaging too strenuously in the "struggle for life," guaranteed security +of status so long as it does not betray the ideals of its order, but +open to accessions from other estates on the basis of conspicuous merit +alone, such a force operating in society has proved, and will prove, the +best guardian of civilization as a whole and of the interests and +liberties of those who may rank in what are known as lower social +scales. + +But, it may be objected, such an institution as this has never existed. +Every political or social aristocracy in history has been mixed and +adulterated with bad characters and recreant representatives. There +never has been and never will be a perfect aristocracy. Quite true; +neither has there ever been a perfect democracy, or a perfect monarchy +for that matter. As men we work with imperfections, but we live by +faith, and our sole duty is to establish the highest ideals, and to +compass them, in so far as we may, with unfailing courage, patience and +steadfastness. The _ideal_ of democracy is a great ideal, but the +_working_ of democracy has been a failure because, amongst other things, +it has tried to carry on without the aid of true aristocracy. If the two +can be united, first in ideal and in theory, then in operation, our +present failure may be changed into victory. + +What, after all, does this imply, so far as the social organism is +concerned? It seems to me, something like this. First of all, +recognition of the fact that there are differences in individuals, in +strains of blood, in races, that cannot be overcome by any power of +education and environment, and can only be changed through very long +periods of time, and that these differences must work corresponding +differences in position, function and status in the social organism. +Second, that since society automatically develops an aristocracy of some +sort or other, and apparently cannot be stopped from doing this, it must +be protected from the sort of thing it has produced of late, which is +based on money, political expediency and the unscrupulous cleverness of +the demagogue, and given a more rational substitute in the shape of a +permanent group representing high character and the traditions of +honour, chivalry and courtesy. Third, that character and service should +be fostered and rewarded by that formal and august recognition, that +secure and unquestioned status, and those added opportunities for +service that will form a real and significant distinction. Finally, that +this order or estate must be able to purge itself of unworthy material, +and also must be freely open to constant accessions from without, +whatever the source, and for proved character and service. + +I fear I must argue this case of the inequality in individual potential, +that inequality that does not yield to complex education or favourable +environment, for it is fundamental. If it does not exist, then my +argument for the organization of society along lines that recognize and +regularize diversity of social status and functions, falls to the +ground. I affirm that, the doctrine of evolution and modern democratic +theory to the contrary, it does exist and that the mitigating influence +of education, environment and inherited acquired characters, is small at +best. + +Let us take the most obvious concrete examples. There are certain ethnic +units or races which for periods ranging from five hundred to two +thousand years have produced _character_, and through character the +great contributions that have been made to human culture and have been +expressed through men of distinction, dynamic force, and vivid +personality. Such, amongst many, are the Greeks, the Jews, the Romans, +the Normans, the Franks, the "Anglo-Saxons," and the Celts. There are +others that in all history have produced nothing. There are certain +family names which are a guarantee of distinction, dynamic force, and +vivid personality. There are thousands of these names, and they are to +be found amongst all the races that have contributed towards the +development of culture and civilization. On the other hand, there are +far more that have produced nothing distinctive, and possibly never +will. + +What is the reason for this? Is it the result of blind chance, of +accidents that have left certain races and families isolated in stagnant +eddies from which some sudden current of a whimsical tide might sweep +them out into the full flood of progress, until they then overtook and +passed their hitherto successful rivals, who, in their turn, would drift +off into progressive incompetence and degeneracy? Biology does not look +with enthusiasm on the methods of chance and accident. The choice and +transmission of the forty-eight chromosomes that give to each individual +his character-potential are probably in accordance with some obscure +biological law through which the unfathomable divine will operates. Now +these chromosomes may be selected and combined after a fashion, and with +a persistence of continuity, that would guarantee character-potential, +for good or for ill, through many generations, or they might be so +varied in their combinations that no distinct traits would be carried +over from one generation to another. As a matter of experience all these +three processes take place and are recorded in families of distinct +quality, good, bad and indifferent. If the character-potential is +predetermined, then manifestly education and environment can play only +the subordinate part of fostering its development or retarding it. + +In the same way the character and career of the various races of men are +determined by the potential inherent in the individuals and families +that compose them, and like them the races themselves are for long +periods marked by power and capacity or weakness and lack of +distinction. There are certain races, such as the Hottentot, the Malay, +the American Indian, and mixed bloods, as the Mexican peons and +Mongol-Slavs of a portion of the southeastern Europe, that, so far as +recorded history is concerned, are either static or retrogressive. There +are family units, poverty-stricken and incompetent, in Naples, Canton, +East Side New York; or opulent and aggressive in West Side New York, in +Birmingham, Westphalia, Pittsburgh, that are no more subject to the +cultural and character-creating influences of education and +environment--beyond a certain definite point--than are the amphibians of +Africa or the rampant weeds of my garden. + +This is a hard saying and a provocative. The entire course of democratic +theory, of humanitarian thought and of the popular type of scientific +speculation stands against it, and the Christian religion as well, +unless the statement itself is guarded by exact definitions. If the +contention of the scientific materialist were correct, and the thing +that makes man, and that Christians call the immortal soul, were but the +result of physical processes of growth and differentiation, then slavery +would be justifiable, and exploitation a reasonable and inevitable +process. Since, however, this assumption of materialism is untenable, +and since all men are possessed of immortal souls between which is no +distinction in the sight of God, the situation, regrettable if you like, +is one which at the same time calls for the exercise of a higher +humanitarianism than that so popular during the last generation, and as +well for a very drastic revision of contemporary political and social +and educational methods. + +The soul of the man is the localization of divinity; in a sense each man +is a manifestation of the Incarnation. Black or white, conspicuous or +obscure, intelligent or stupid, offspring of a creative race or bound by +the limitations of one that is static or in process of decay, there is +no difference in the universal claim to justice, charity, and +opportunity. The soul of a Cantonese river-man, of a Congo slave, of an +East Side Jew, is in itself as essentially precious and worth saving as +the soul of a bishop, of a descendant of a Norman viking or an Irish +king, or that of a volunteer soldier in the late armies of France or +Great Britain or the United States. + +Here lies absolute and final equality, and the State, the Law, the +Church are bound to guard this equality in the one case and the other +with equal force; indeed, those of the lower racial and family types +claim even more faithful guardianship than those of the higher, for they +can accomplish less for themselves and by themselves. But the +fundamental and inescapable inequality, in intellect, in character, and +in capacity, which I insist is one of the conditioning factors in life, +is vociferously denied, but ruthlessly enforced, by the people that will +be the first to denounce any restatement of what is after all no more +than a patent fact. + +A little less enthusiasm for shibboleths, and a little more intelligent +regard for history and palpable conditions, will show that the assumed +equality between men "on the strength of their manhood alone," the +sufficiency of education for correcting the accidental differences that +show themselves, and the scheme of life that is worked out along +democratic lines on the basis of this essential (or potential) equality, +are "fond things vainly imagined" which must be radically modified +before the world can begin a sane and wholesome building-up after the +great purgation of war. + +That equality between men which exists by virtue of the presence in each +of an immortal soul, involves an even distribution of justice and the +protection of law, without distinction of persons, and an even measure +of charity and compassion, but it does not involve the admission of a +claim to equality of action or the denial of varied status, since +race-values, both of blood and of the _gens_ enter in to establish +differences in character, in intelligence and in capacity which cannot +be changed by education, environment or heredity within periods which +are practical considerations with society. If we could still hold the +old Darwinian dogmas of the origin of species through the struggle for +existence and the survival of the fittest, and if the equally august and +authoritative dogma of the transmission by inheritance of acquired +characteristics were longer tenable, then perhaps we might invoke faith, +hope and patience and continue our generous method of imperilling +present society while we fixed our eyes on the vision of that to come +when environment, education and heredity had accomplished their perfect +work. Unfortunately--or perhaps fortunately--science is rapidly +reconsidering its earlier and somewhat hasty conclusions, and the +consensus of the most authoritative opinion seems to be that we must +believe these things no longer. Failing these premises, on which we have +laboured so long and so honestly and so sincerely, we are again thrown +back on the testimony of history and our own observation, and with this +reversal we also are bound to reconsider both our premises and the +constitution of those systems and institutions we have erected on them +as a foundation. + +The existence of a general law does not exclude exceptions. The fact +that in the case of human beings we have to take into consideration a +powerful factor that does not come into play in the domain of zoölogy +and botany--the immortal soul--makes impossible the drawing of exact +deductions from precedents therein established. This determining touch +of the divine, which is no result of biological processes, but stands +outside the limitations of heredity and environment and education, may +manifest itself quite as well in one class as in another, for "God is no +respecter of persons." As has been said before, there is no difference +in degree as between immortal souls. The point is, however, that each is +linked to a specific congeries of tendencies, limitations, effective or +defective agencies, that are what they have been made by the parents of +the race. These may be such as enable the soul to triumph in its earthly +experience and in its bodily housing; they may be such as will bring +about failure and defeat. It is not that the soul builds itself "more +stately mansions"; it is that these are provided for it by the physical +processes of life, and it is almost the first duty of man to see that +they are well built. + +Again, the soul is single and personal; as it is not a plexus of +inherited tendencies, so it is not heritable, and a great soul showing +suddenly in the dusk of a dull race contributes nothing of its essential +quality to the issue of the body it has made its house. The stews of a +mill town may suddenly be illuminated by the radiance of a divine soul, +to the amazement of profligate parents and the confusion of eugenists; +but unless the unsolvable mystery of life has determined on a new +species, and so by a sudden influx of the _élan vital_ cuts off the line +of physical succession and establishes one that is wholly new, then the +brightness dies away with the passing of the splendid soul, and the +established tendencies resume their sway. + +The bearing of this theory on the actions of society is immediate. +Through the complete disregard of race-values that has obtained during +the last two or three centuries, and the emergence and complete +supremacy in all categories of life of human groups of low potential, +civilization has been brought down to a level where it is threatened +with disaster. If recovery is to be effected and a second era of "dark +ages" avoided, there must be an entirely new evaluation of things, a new +estimate of the principles and methods that obtained under Modernism, +and a fearless adventure into fields that may prove not to be so +unfamiliar as might at first appear. + +Specifically, we must revise our attitude as to immigration, excluding +whole classes, and even races, that we have hitherto welcomed with open +hands from the disinterested offices of steamship companies: we must +control and in some cases prohibit, the mating of various racial stocks; +finally we must altogether disallow the practice of changing, by law, +one race-name for another. This process is one for which no excuse +exists and unless it can be brought to an end then, apart from certain +physical differentiations on which nature wisely insists, we have no +guaranty against the adulteration that has gone so far towards +substituting the mongrel for the pure racial type, while society is +bound to suffer still further deception and continued danger along the +lines that have recently been indicated by the transformation of +Treibitsch into "Lincoln," Braunstein into "Trotsky" and Samuels into +"Montague." + +For its fulfillment, then, and its regeneration, the real democracy +demands and must achieve the creation and cooperation of a real +aristocracy, not an aristocracy of material force either military or +civil, nor one of land owners or money-getters, nor one of artificial +caste. All these substitutes have been tried from time to time, in Rome, +China, Great Britain, the United States, and all have failed in the end, +for all have ignored the one essential point of _character_, without +which we shall continue to reproduce what we have at present; a thing as +insolent, offensive and tyrannical as the old aristocracies at their +worst, with none of the constructive and beneficent qualities of the old +aristocracies at their best. + +That race-values have much to do with this development of character I +believe to be true, but of far greater efficiency, indeed the actual +motive force, is the Christian religion, working directly on and through +the individual and using race as only one of its material means of +operation. Democracy has accomplished its present failure, not only +because it could not function without the cooperation of aristocracy, +but chiefly because, in its modernist form, it has become in fact +isolated from Christianity. All in it of good it derives from that +Catholic Christianity of the Middle Ages which first put it into +practice, all in it of evil it owes to a falling back on paganism and a +denial of its own parentage and rejection of its control. I shall deal +with this later in more detail; I speak of it now just for the purpose +of entering a caveat against any deduction from what I have said that +any natural force, of race or evolution or anything else, or any formal +institution devised by man, ever has, or ever can, serve in itself as a +way of social redemption. I am anxious not to overemphasize these things +on which the development of my argument forces me to lay particular +stress. + +For those who can go with me so far, the question will arise: How then +are we so to reorganize society that we may gain the end in view? It is +a question not easy of solution. Granted the fact of social +differentiation and the necessity of its recognition, how are we to +break down the wholly wrong system that now obtains and substitute +another in its place? It would be simple enough if within the period +allowed us by safety (apparently not any too extended at the present +moment) a working majority of men could achieve, in the old and exact +phraseology, that change of heart, that spiritual conversion, that would +bring back into permanent authority the supernatural virtues of faith, +hope, and charity, and that sense of right values in life, which +together make almost indifferent the nature of the formal devices man +creates for the organization of society. Certainly this is possible; +greater miracles have happened in history but, failing this, what? + +One turns of course by instinct to old models, but in this is the danger +of an attempt at an archaeological restoration, a futile effort at +reviving dead forms that have had their day. In principle, and in the +working as well, the old orders of chivalry or knighthood strongly +commend themselves, for here there was, in principle, both the +maintenance of high ideals of honour courtesy and _noblesse oblige,_ and +the rendering of chivalrous service. Chesterton has put it well in the +phrase "the giving things which cannot be demanded, the avoiding things +which cannot be punished." Moreover, admission to the orders of +knighthood was free to all provided there were that cause which came +from personal character alone. Knighthood was the crown of knightly +service and it was forfeited for recreancy. Is there not in this some +suggestion of what may again be established as an incentive and a +reward, and as well, as a vital agency for the reorganization of +society? + +Knighthood is personal, and is for the lifetime of the recipient. Is +there any value in an estate where status is heritable? If there is any +validity in the theory of varying and persistent race-values, it would +seem so, yet the idea of recognizing this excellence of certain families +and the reasonable probability of their maintaining the established +standard unimpaired, and so giving them a formal status, would no doubt +be repugnant to the vast majority of men in the United States. I think +this aversion is based on prejudice, natural but ill-founded. We resent +the idea of privilege without responsibility, as we should, but this, +while it was the condition of those aristocracies which were operative +at the time of the founding of the Republic, was opposed to the +Mediaeval, or true idea, which linked responsibility with privilege. The +old privilege is gone and cannot be restored, but already we have a new +privilege which is being claimed and enforced by proletarian groups, and +the legislative representatives of the whole people stand in such terror +of massed votes that they not only fail to check this astonishing and +topsy-turvy movement, but actually further its pretensions. The +"dictatorship of the proletariat" actually means the restoration of +privilege in a form far more tyrannical and monstrous than any ever +exercised by the old aristocracies of Italy, France, Germany and +England. Much recent legislation in Washington exempting certain +industrial and agricultural classes from the operation of laws which +bear heavily on other classes, and some of the claims and pretensions of +unionized labor, tend in precisely the same direction. + +It is not restoration of privilege I have in mind but rather in a sense +the prevention of this through the existence of a class or estate that +has a fixed status dependent first on character and service and then on +an assured position that is not contingent on political favour, the bulk +of votes, or the acquisition of an inordinate amount of money. Surety of +position works towards independence of thought and action and towards +strong leadership. It establishes and maintains certain high ideals of +honour, chivalry, and service as well as of courtesy and manners. If the +things for which the gentlemen, the knighthood and the nobility of +Europe during the Christian dispensation were responsible were stricken +from the record there would be comparatively little left of the history +of European culture and civilization. + +After all, is it merely sentimentalism and a sense of the picturesque +that leads us to look backward with some wistfulness to the days of +which the record is still left us in legends and fairy-tales and old +romance, when ignorance and vulgarity did not sit in high places even if +arrogance and pride and tyranny sometimes did, and when the profiteer +and the oriental financier and the successful politician did not +represent the distinction and the chivalry and the courtesy and the +honour of the social organism man builds for his own habitation? The +idea of knighthood still stirs us and the deeds of chivalry and the +courtesy and the honour of the social Knights of the Round Table, +Crusaders and knights errant, the quest of the Holy Grail, rescue and +adventure, the fighting with paynims and powers of evil, still stir our +blood and arouse in our minds strange contrasts and antinomies. Princes +and fair chatelaines in their wide domains with castle and chase and +delicate pleasaunce, liege-men bound to them by more than the feudal +ties of service. All the varied honours of nobility, vitalized by +significant ritual and symbolized by splendid and beautiful costumes. +Courts of Love and troubadours and trouvères, kings who were kings +indeed, with the splendour and courtesy and beneficence of their +courts--Louis the Saint and Frederic II, Edward III and King +Charles--above all the simple rank and high honour of the "gentleman," +the representative of a long line of honourable tradition, no casual and +purse-proud upstart, but of proud race and unquestioned status, proud +because it stood for certain high ideals of honour and chivalry and +loyalty, of courtesy and breeding and compassion. All these old things +of long ago still rouse in us answering humours, and there are a few of +us who can hardly see just why they are inconsistent with liberty and +opportunity, justice, righteousness and mercy. + +Somehow the last two generations, and especially the last ten years, +have revealed many things hitherto hidden, and as we envisage society as +it has come to be, estimating it by new-found standards and establishing +new comparisons through a recovery of a more just historical sense, the +question comes whether it is indeed more wholesome, more beautiful, more +normal to man as he is, than the older society that in varying forms but +always the same principle, had held throughout all history until the new +model came in, now hardly a century ago. + +I do not think this wistful and bewildered looking backward is +particularly due to a new desire for beauty, that comeliness of +condition that existed then and has now given place to gross ugliness +and ill-conditioned manners and ways. Rather it seems to me it is due to +a sense of irrationality and fundamental injustice in the present order, +coupled with a new terror of the proximate issue as this already is +revealing itself amongst many peoples. We resent the high estate, +purchasable and purchased, of the cynical intriguer and the vulgar +profiteer, of the tradesman in "big business," the cheap prophet and the +pathetic progeny of "successful men" fast reverting to type. We know our +city councils and our state legislatures and our houses of congress, we +know our newspapers, their standards and the motive powers behind them, +and what they record of the character and the doings of what they call +"society men and women." Above all we know that under the ancient +regime, in spite of manifold failures, shortcomings and disloyalty, +there was such a thing as a standard of honour, a principle of chivalry, +an impulse to unselfish service, a criterion of courtesy and good +manners; we look for these things now in vain, except amongst those +little enclaves of oblivion where the old character and old breeding +still maintain a fading existence, and as we consider what we have +become we sometimes wonder if the price we have paid for "democracy" was +not too extortionate. + +Above all, we are tempted to this query when we think of our vanishing +standards of right and wrong, of our progressive reversal of values, of +our diminishing stock of social character. We tore down in indignant +revolt the rotten fabric of a bad social system when it had so far +declined from its ideal and its former estate that it could no longer be +endured, and we made a new thing, full as we were with the fire of +desire for a new righteousness and a new system that would compass it. +Perhaps we did well, at least we hardly could have done anything else; +but now we are again in the position of our forefathers who saw things +as they were and acted with force and decision. There are as many counts +against our society of plutocrats, politicians and proletarians, mingled +in complete and ineffective confusion, as there were against the +aristocracies, so called, of the eighteenth century. Perhaps there are +more, at least many of them are different, but the indictment is no less +sweeping. + +Our plan, so generous, so liberal, so high-minded in many ways, has +failed to produce the results we desired, while it has worked itself out +to the point of menace. It is for us to see these facts clearly, and so +to act, and so promptly, that we may not have to await the destroying +force of cataclysm for the correction of our errors. + + + + +IV + + +THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM + +The solution of the industrial and economic problem that now confronts +the entire world with an insistence that is not to be denied, is +contingent on the restoration, first of all, of the holiness and the joy +of work. Labour is not a curse, it is rather one of the greatest of the +earthly blessings of man, provided its sanctity is recognized and its +performance is accomplished with satisfaction to the labourer. In work +man creates, whether the product is a bushel of potatoes from a space of +once arid ground, or whether it is the Taj Mahal, Westminster Abbey or +the Constitution of the United States, and so working he partakes +something of the divine power of creation. + +When work is subject to slavery, all sense of its holiness is lost, both +by master and bondman; when it is subject to the factory system all the +joy in labour is lost. Ingenuity may devise one clever panacea after +another for the salving work and for lifting the working classes from +the intolerable conditions that have prevailed for more than a century; +they will be ephemeral in their existence and futile in their results +unless sense of holiness is restored, and the joy in production and +creation given back to those who have been defrauded. + +Before Christianity prevailed slavery was universal in civilized +communities, labour, as conducted under that regime, was a curse, and +this at length came home to roost on the gaunt wreckage of imperialism. +Thereafter came slowly increasing liberty under the feudal system with +its small social units and its system of production for use not profits, +monasticism with its doctrine and practice of the sanctity of work, and +the Church with its progressive emancipation of the spiritual part of +man. Work was not easy, on the contrary it was very hard throughout the +Dark Ages and Mediaevalism, but there is no particular merit in easy +work. It was virtually free except for the labour and contributions in +kind exacted by the over-lord (less in proportion than taxes in money +have been at several times since) from the workers on the soil, and in +the crafts of every kind redeemed from undue arduousness by the joy that +comes from doing a thing well and producing something of beauty, +originality and technical perfection. + +The period during which work possessed the most honourable status and +the joy in work was the greatest, extends from the beginnings of the +twelfth century well into the sixteenth. In some centuries, and along +certain lines of activity, it continued much longer, notably in England +and the United States, but social and industrial conditions were rapidly +changing, the old aristocracy was becoming perverted, Lutheranisms, +Calvinism and Puritanism were breaking down the old communal sense of +brotherhood so arduously built up during the Middle Ages, capitalism was +ousting the trade and craft guilds of free labour and political +absolutism was crushing ever lower and lower a proletariat that was fast +losing the last vestiges of old liberty. The fact of slavery without the +name was gradually imposed on the agricultural classes, and after the +suppression of the monasteries in England work as work lost its sacred +character and fell under contempt. With the outbreak of industrialism in +the last quarter of the eighteenth century through the institution and +introduction of "labour-saving" machinery and the consequent division of +labour, the factory system, the joint-stock company and capitalism, this +new slavery was extended to industrial workers, and with its +establishment disappeared the element of joy in labour. + +For fifty years, about the blackest half-century civilization has had to +record, this condition of industrial slavery continued with little +amendment. Very slowly, however, the workers themselves, championed by +certain aristocrats like the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury against +professional Liberals like Cobden, Bright, and Gladstone in England, +began to loosen the shackles that bound them to infamous conditions, and +after the abrogation of laws that made any association of workingmen a +penal offense, the labour unions began to ameliorate certain of the +servile conditions under which for two generations the workman had +suffered. Since then the process of abolishing wage-slavery went slowly +forward until at last the war came not only to threaten its destruction +altogether but also to place the emancipated workers in a position where +they could dictate terms and conditions to capital, to employers, to +government and to the general public; while even now in many parts of +Europe and America, besides Russia, overt attempts are being made to +bring back the old slavery, only with the former bondsmen in supreme +dictatorship, the former employers and the "bourgeoisie" in the new +serfage. + +The old slavery is gone, but the joy in work has not been restored; +instead, those who have achieved triumphant emancipation turn from +labour itself with the same distaste, yes, with greater aversion than +that which obtained under the old régime. With every added liberty and +exemption, with every shortening of hours and increase of pay, +production per hour falls off and the quality of the output declines. +What is the reason for this? Is it due to the viciousness of the worker, +to his natural selfishness, greed and cruelty? I do not think so, but +rather that the explanation is to be found in the fact that the +industrial system of modernism has resulted in a condition where the joy +has been altogether cut out of labour, and that until this state of +things has been reversed and the sense of the holiness of work and the +joy of working have been restored, it is useless to look for workable +solutions of the labour problem. The _fact_ of industrial slavery has +been done away with but the sense of the servile condition that attaches +to work has been retained, therefore the idea of the dignity and +holiness of labour has not come back any more than the old joy and +satisfaction. Failing this recovery, no reorganization of industrial +relations, neither profit-sharing nor shop committees, neither +nationalization nor state socialism, neither the abolition of capital, +nor Soviets nor syndicalism nor the dictatorship of the proletariat will +get us anywhere. It is all a waste of time, and, through its ultimate +failure and disappointments, an intensification of an industrial +disease. + +Why is it that this is so? For an answer I must probe deep and, it may +seem, cut wildly. I believe it is because we have built up a system that +goes far outside the limits of human scale, transcends human capacity, +is forbidden by the laws and conditions of life, and must be abrogated +if it is not to destroy itself and civilization in the process. + +What, precisely has taken place? Late in the eighteenth century two +things happened; the discovery of the potential inherent in coal and its +derivative, steam, with electricity yet unexploited but ready to hand, +and the application of this to industrial purposes, together with the +initiating of a long and astounding series of discoveries and inventions +all applicable to industrial purposes. With a sort of vertiginous +rapidity the whole industrial process was transformed from what it had +been during the period of recorded history; steam and machinery took the +place of brain and hand power directly applied, and a revolution greater +than any other was effected. + +The new devices were hailed as "labour-saving" but they vastly increased +labour both in hours of work and in hands employed. Bulk production +through the factory system was inevitable, the result being an enormous +surplus over the normal and local demand. To organize and conduct these +processes of bulk-production required money greater in amount than +individuals could furnish; so grew up capitalism, the joint-stock +company, credit and cosmopolitan finance. To produce profits and +dividends markets must be found for the huge surplus product. This was +accomplished by stimulating the covetousness of people for things they +had not thought of, under normal conditions would not, in many cases, +need, and very likely would be happier without, and in "dumping" on +supposedly barbarous peoples in remote parts of the world, articles +alien to their traditions and their mode of life and generally +pestiferous in their influence and results. So came advertising in all +its branches, direct and indirect, from the newspaper and the bill-board +to the drummer, the diplomatic representative and the commercial +missionary. + +Every year saw some new invention that increased the product per man, +the development of some new advertising device, the conquest of some new +territory or the delimitation of some new "sphere of influence," and the +revelation of some new possibility in the covetousness of man. Profits +rose to new heights and accumulating dividends clamoured for new +opportunities for investment. Competition tended to cut down returns, +therefore labour was more and more sustained through diminished wages +and laws that savagely prevented any concerted effort towards +self-defense. Improvements in agricultural processes and the application +of machinery and steam power, together with bulk-production and +scientific localization of crops, threw great quantities of +farm-labourers out of work and drove them into the industrial towns, +while advances in medical science and in sanitation raised the +proportion of births to deaths and soon provided a surplus of potential +labour so that the operation of the "law of supply and demand," extolled +by a new philosophy and enforced by the new "representative" or +democratic and parliamentary government, resulted in an unfailing supply +of cheap labour paid wages just beyond the limit of starvation. + +At last there came evidences that the limit had been reached; the whole +world had been opened up and pre-empted, labour was beginning to demand +and even get more adequate wages, competition, once hailed as "the life +of trade" was becoming so fierce that dividends were dwindling. +Something had to be done and in self-defense industries began to +coalesce in enormous "trusts" and "combines" and monopolies. +Capitalization of millions now ran into billions, finance became +international in its scope and gargantuan in its proportions and +ominousness, advertising grew from its original simplicity and naïveté +into a vast industry based on all that the most ingenious professors +could tell of applied psychology, subsidizing artists, poets, men of +letters, employing armies of men along a hundred different lines, +expending millions annually in its operations, making the modern +newspaper possible, and ultimately developing the whole system of +propaganda which has now become the one great determining factor in the +making of public opinion. + +When the twentieth century opened, that industrialism which had begun +just a century before, had, with its various collateral developments, +financial, educational, journalistic, etc., become not only the greatest +force in society, but as well a thing operating on the largest scale +that man had ever essayed: beside it the Roman Empire was parochial. + +The result of this institution, conceived on such imperial lines, was, +in the field we are now considering, the total destruction of the sense +of the holiness of labour and of joy in work. It extended far beyond the +limits of pure industrialism; it moulded and controlled society in all +its forms, destroying ideals old as history, reversing values, confusing +issues and wrecking man's powers of judgment. Until the war it seemed +irresistible, now its weakness and the fallacy of its assumptions are +revealed, but it has become so absolutely a part of our life, indeed of +our nature, that we are unable to estimate it by any sound standards of +judgment, and even when we approximate this we cannot think in other +terms when we try to devise our schemes of redemption. Even the +socialist and the Bolshevik think in imperial terms when they try to +compass the ending of imperialism. + +Under this supreme system, as I see it, the two essential things I have +spoken of cannot be restored, nor could they maintain themselves if, by +some miracle, they were once re-established. The indictment cannot be +closed here. The actual condition that has developed from industrialism +presents certain factors that are not consonant with sane, wholesome and +Christian living. Not only has the unit of human scale in human society +been done away with, not only have the sense of the nobility of work and +joy in the doing been exterminated, but, as well, certain absolutely +false principles and methods have been adopted which are not susceptible +of reform but only of abolition. + +Of some of these I have spoken already; the alarming drift towards +cities, until now in the United States more than one-half the population +is urban; the segregation of industries in certain cities and regions; +the minute division of labour and intensive specialization; the abnormal +growth of a true proletariat or non-land-holding class; the flooding of +the country by cheap labour drawn from the most backward communities and +from peoples of low race-value. Out of this has arisen a bitter class +conflict and the ominous beginnings of a perilous class consciousness, +with actual warfare joined in several countries, and threatened in all +others where industrial civilization is prevalent. With this has grown +up an artificially stimulated covetousness for a thousand futile +luxuries, and a standard of living that presupposes a thousand +non-essentials as basic necessities. Production for profit, not use, +excess production due to machinery, efficient organization, and surplus +of labour, together with the necessity for marketing the product at a +profit, have produced a state of things where at least one-half the +available labour in the country is engaged in the production and sale of +articles which are not necessary to physical, intellectual or spiritual +life, while of the remainder, hardly more than a half is employed in +production, the others are devoting themselves to distribution and to +the war of competition through advertising and the capturing of trade by +ingenious and capable salesmen. It is a significant fact that two of the +greatest industries in the United States are the making of automobiles +and moving pictures. + +It is probably true to say that of the potential labour in the United +States, about one-fourth is producing those things which are physically, +intellectually and spiritually necessary; the remaining three-fourths +are essentially non-producers: they must, however, be housed, fed, +clothed, and amused, and the cost of this support is added to the cost +of the necessities of life. The reason for the present high cost of +living lies possibly here. + +Lest I be misunderstood, let me say here that under the head of +necessities of life I do not mean a new model automobile each year, +moving pictures, mechanical substitutes for music or any other art, and +the thousand catch-trade devices that appear each year for the purpose +of filching business from another or establishing a new desire in the +already over-crowded imaginations of an over-stimulated populace. +Particularly do I not mean advertising in any sense in which it is now +understood and practised. If, as I believe to be the case, production +for profit, rather than for use, the reversal of the ancient doctrine +that the demand must produce the supply, in favour of the doctrine that +the supply must foster the demand, is the foundation of our economic +error and our industrial ills, then it follows that advertising as it is +now carried on by billboards, circulars and newspapers, by drummers, +solicitors and consular agents, falls in the same condemnation, for +except by its offices the system could not have succeeded or continue to +function. It is bad in itself as the support and strength of a bad +institution, but its guilt does not stop here. So plausible is it, so +essential to the very existence of the contemporary régime, so knit up +with all the commonest affairs of life, so powerful in its organization +and broad in its operations, it has poisoned, and continues to poison, +the minds of men so that the headlong process of losing all sense of +comparative values is accelerated, while every instinctive effort at +recovery and readjustment is nullified. How far this process has gone +may be illustrated by two instances. It is only a few months ago that a +most respected clergyman publicly declared that missionaries were the +greatest and most efficient asset to trade because they were unofficial +commercial agents who opened up new and savage countries to Western +commerce through advertising commodities of which the natives had never +heard, and arousing in them a sense of acquisitiveness that meant more +wealth and business for trade and manufacture, which should support +foreign missions on this ground at least. More recently the head of an +advertising concern in New York is reported to have said: "It is +principally through advertising that we have arrived at the high degree +of civilization which this age enjoys, for advertising has taught us the +use of books and how to furnish our homes with the thousand and one +comforts that add so materially to our physical and intellectual +well-being. The future of the world depends on advertising. Advertising +is the salvation of civilization, for civilization cannot outlive +advertising a century." + +It is tempting to linger over such a delectable morsel as this, for even +if it is only the absurd and irresponsible output of one poor, foolish +man, it does express more or less what industrial civilization holds to +be true, though few would avow their faith so whole-heartedly. The +statement was made as propaganda, and propaganda is merely advertising +in its most insidious and dangerous form. The thing revealed its +possibilities during the war, but the black discredit that was then very +justly attached to it could not prevail against its manifest potency, +and it is now universally used after the most comprehensive and +frequently unscrupulous fashion, with results that can only be perilous +in the extreme. The type and calibre of mind that has now been released +from long bondage, and by weight of numbers is now fast taking over the +direction of affairs, is curiously subservient to the written word, and +lacking a true sense of comparative values, without effective leadership +either secular or religious, is easily swayed by every wind of doctrine. +The forces of evil that are ever in conflict with the forces of right +are notoriously ingenious in making the worse appear the better cause, +and with every desire for illumination and for following the right way, +the multitude, whether educated or illiterate, fall into the falsehoods +of others' imaginings. Money, efficiency, an acquired knowledge of mob +psychology, the printing press and the mail service acting in alliance, +and directed by fanatical or cynical energy, form a force of enormous +potency that is now being used effectively throughout society. It is +irresponsible, anonymous and pervasive. Through its operation the last +barriers are broken down between the leadership of character and the +leadership of craft, while all formal distinctions between the valuable +and the valueless are swept away. + +I have spoken at some length of this particular element in the present +condition of things, because in both its aspects, as the support of our +present industrial and economic system and as the efficient moulder of a +fluid and unstable public opinion, it is perhaps the strongest and most +subtle force of which we must take account. + +With a system so prevalent as imperial industry, so knit up with every +phase of life and thought, and so determining a factor in all our +concepts, united as it is with two such invincible allies as advertising +and propaganda, it is inconceivable that it should be overthrown by any +human force from without. Holding it to be essentially wrong, it seems +to me providential that it is already showing signs of falling by its +own weight. Production of commodities has far exceeded production of the +means of payment, and society is now running on promises to pay, on +paper obligations, on anticipations of future production and sale, on +credit, in a word. The war has enormously magnified this condition until +an enforced liquidation would mean bankruptcy for all the nations of the +earth, while the production of utilities is decreasing in proportion to +the production of luxuries, labour is exacting increasing pay for +decreasing hours of work and quality of output, and the enormous +financial structure, elaborately and ingeniously built up through +several generations, is in grave danger of immediate catastrophe. The +whole world is in the position of an insolvent debtor who is so deeply +involved that his creditors cannot afford to let him go into bankruptcy, +and so keep him out of the Poor Debtor's Court by doling out support +from day to day. Confidence is the only thing that keeps matters going; +what happens when this is lost is now being demonstrated in many parts +of Europe. The optimist claims that increased production, coupled with +enforced economy, will produce a satisfactory solution, but there is no +evidence that labour, now having the whip-hand, will give up its present +advantage sufficiently to make this possible; even if it did, payment +must be in the form of exchange or else in further promises to pay, +while the capacity of the world for consumption is limited somewhere, +though thus far "big business" has failed to recognize this fact. At +present the interest charges on debts, both public and private, have +reached a point where they come near to consuming all possible profits +even from a highly accelerated rate of production. Altogether it is +reasonable to assume that the present financial-industrial system is +near its term for reasons inherent in itself, let alone the possibility +of a further extension of the drastic and completely effective measures +of destruction that are characteristics of Bolshevism and its +blood-brothers. + +Assuming that this is so, two questions arise: what is to take the place +of imperial industry, and how is this substitution to be brought about? + +I think the answer to the first is: a social and industrial system based +on small, self-contained, largely self-sufficing units, where supply +follows demand, where production is primarily for use not profit, and +where in all industrial operations some system will obtain which is more +or less that of the guilds of the Middle Ages. I should like to go into +this a little more in detail before trying to answer the second +question. + +The normal social unit is a group of families predominantly of the same +race, territorially compact, of substantially the same ideals as +expressed in religion and the philosophy of life, and sufficiently +numerous to provide from within itself the major part of those things +which are necessary to physical, intellectual and spiritual well-being. +It should consist of a central nucleus of houses, each with its garden, +the churches, schools and public buildings that are requisite, the +manufactories and workshops that supply the needs of the community, the +shops for sale of those things not produced at home, and all necessary +places of amusement. Around this residential centre should be sufficient +agricultural land to furnish all the farm products that will be consumed +by the community itself. The nucleus of habitation and industry, +together with the surrounding farms, make up the social unit, which is +to the fullest possible degree, self-contained, self-sufficient and +self-governing. + +Certain propositions are fundamental, and they are as follows: Every +family should own enough land to support itself at need. The farms +included in the unit must produce enough to meet the needs of the +population. Industry must be so organized that it will normally serve +the resident population along every feasible line. Only such things as +cannot be produced at home on account of climatic or soil limitations +should be imported from outside. All necessary professional services +should be obtainable within the community itself. All financial +transactions such as loans, credits, banking and insurance should be +domestic. Surplus products, whether agricultural, industrial or +professional, should be considered as by-products, and in no case should +the producing agency acquire such magnitude that home-consumption +becomes a side issue and production for profit take the place of +production for use. + +All this is absolutely opposed to our present system, but our present +system is wasteful, artificial, illogical, unsocial, and therefore +vicious. I have said enough as to the falsities, the dangers and the +failures of bulk-production through the operations of capitalism, the +factory system and advertising, but its concomitant, the segregation of +industries, is equally objectionable. To ship hogs 1,500 miles to be +slaughtered and packed in food form, and then ship this manufactured +product back to the source from which the raw material came; to feed a +great city with grain, potatoes and fruits coming from 1,000 to 3,000 +miles away, and vegetables from a distance of several hundred miles, +while the farms within a radius of fifty miles are abandoned and barren; +to make all the shoes for the nation in one small area, to spin the wool +and cotton and weave the cloth in two or three others; to make the +greater part of the furniture in one state, the automobiles in a second +and the breakfast food in a third, is so preposterous a proposition that +it belongs in Gulliver's Travels, not in the annals of a supposedly +intelligent people. The only benefit is that which for a time accrued to +the railways, which carted raw materials and finished products back and +forth over thousands of miles of their lines, the costs of shipment and +reshipment being naturally added to the price to the consumer. The +penalties for this uneconomic procedure were borne by society at large, +not only in the increased costs but through the abnormal communities, +each with its tens of thousands of operatives all engaged in the same +work and generally drawn from foreign races (with the active +co-operation of the steamship lines), and the permanent dislocation of +the labour supply, together with the complete disruption of the social +synthesis. + +With production for profit and segregation of industries has come an +almost infinitesimal division and specialization of labour. Under a +right industrial system this would be reduced, not magnified. The +dignity of labour and the joy of creation demand that in so far as +possible each man should carry through one entire operation. This is of +course now, and always has been under any highly developed civilization, +impossible in practice, except along certain lines of art and +craftsmanship. The evils of the existing system can in a measure be done +away with the moment production for use is the recognized law, for it is +only in bulk-production that this intensive specialization can be made +to pay. Bulk-production there will always be until, and if, the world is +reorganized on the basis of an infinite number of self-contained social +units, but in the ideal community--and I am dealing now with ideals--it +would not exist. + +Allied with this is the whole question of the factory method and the use +and misuse of machinery. It seems to me that the true principle is that +machinery and the factory are admissible only when so employed they +actually do produce, in bulk operations, a better product, and with less +labour, than is possible through hand work. Weaving, forging and all +work where human action must be more or less mechanical, offer a fair +field for the machine and the factory, but wherever the human element +can enter, where personality and the skilled craft of the hand are given +play, the machine and the factory are inadmissible. The great city, +creation of "big business," segregation of industries, advertising, +salesmanship and a hundred other concomitants of modernism, have built +up an abnormal and avaricious demand for bulk-production along lines +where the handicraft should function. It becomes necessary--let us +say--to provide a million dollars worth of furniture for a ten million +dollar hotel (itself to be superseded and scrapped in perhaps ten years) +and naturally only the most intensive and efficient factory system can +meet this demand. Rightly, however, the furniture of a community should +be produced by the local cabinet makers, and so it should be in many +other industries now entirely taken over by the factory system. + +For the future then we must consciously work for the building upward +from primary units, so completely reversing our present practice of +creating the big thing and fighting hopelessly to preserve such small +and few doles of liberty and personality as may be permitted to filter +downward from above. This is the only true democracy, and the thing we +call by the name is not this, largely because we have bent our best +energies to the building up of vast and imperial aggregates which have +inevitably assumed a complete unity in themselves and become dominating, +tyrannical and ruthless forces that have operated regardless of the +sound laws and wholesome principles of a right society. Neither the +vital democracy of principle nor the artificial democracy of practice +can exist in conjunction with imperialism, whether this is established +in government, in industry, in trade, in society or in education. + +If we can assume, then, the gradual development of a new society in +which these principles will be carried out, a society that is made up of +social units of human scale, self-contained, self-supporting and +self-governed, where production is primarily for use not profit, and +where bulk-production is practically non-existent, the sub-division of +labour reduced to the lowest practicable point, machinery employed to a +much less extent than now, and the factory system abolished, what +organic form will labour take on in place of that which now obtains? It +is possible to forecast this only in the most general terms, for life +itself must operate to determine the lines of development and dictate +the consequent forms. If we can acquire a better standard of comparative +values, and with a clearer and more fearless vision estimate the rights +and wrongs of the contemporary system, rejecting the ill thing and +jealously preserving, or passionately regaining, the good, we shall be +able to establish certain broad, fundamental and governing principles, +and doing this we can await in confidence the evolution of the organic +forms that will be the working agencies of the new society. + +I have tried to indicate some of the basic principles of a new society. +The operating forms, so far as industry is concerned, will, I think, +follow in essential respects the craft-guilds of the Middle Ages. They +will not be an archaeological restoration, as some of the English +protagonists of this great revolution seem to anticipate, they will be +variously adapted to the peculiar conditions of a new century, but the +basic principles will be preserved. Whatever happens, I am sure it will +not be either a continuation of the present system of capitalism and +profit-hunting, or nationalization of industries, or state socialism in +any form, or anything remotely resembling Bolshevism, syndicalism or a +"dictatorship of the proletariat." Here, as in government, education and +social relations, the power and the authority of the state must decline, +government itself withdrawing more and more from interference with the +operation of life, and liberty find its way back to the individual and +to the social and economic groups. We live now under a more tyrannical +and inquisitorial regime, in spite of (partly perhaps because of) its +democratic forms and dogmas, than is common in historical records. +Nationalization or state socialism would mean so great a magnifying of +this condition that existence would soon become both grotesque and +intolerable. We must realize, and soon, that man may lose even the last +semblance of liberty, as well under a nominal democracy as under a +nominal despotism or theocracy. + +The guild system was the solution of the industrial problem offered and +enforced by Christianity working through secular life; it presupposed +the small social and industrial unit and becomes meaningless if +conceived in the gigantic and comprehensive scale of modern +institutions. "National guilds" is a contradiction in terms: it takes on +the same element of error that inheres in the idea of "one big union." +In certain respects the Christian guild resembled the modern trade +union, but it differed from it in more ways, and it seems to be true +that wherever this difference exists the guild was right and the union +is wrong. Community of fellowship and action amongst men of each craft +trade or calling is essential under any social system, good or bad, and +it would be inseparable from the better society that must sometime grow +up on the basis of the unit of human scale, for these autonomous groups, +in order to furnish substantially all that their component parts could +require, would have to be of considerable size as compared with the +little farming villages of New England, though in contrast with the +great cities of modernism they would be small indeed. In these new +"walled towns" there would be enough men engaged in agriculture, in the +necessary industrial occupations, in trade and in the professions to +form many guilds of workable size, and normally these guilds would +neither contain members of two or more professions or occupations, nor +those from outside the community itself. The guild cannot function under +intensive methods of production or where production is primarily for +profit, or where the factory system prevails, or where capitalism is the +established system, or under combinations, trusts or other devices for +the establishing and maintenance of great aggregates tending always +towards monopoly. However much we may admire the guild system and desire +its restoration, we may as well recognize this fact at once. The +imperial scale must go and the human scale be restored before the guild +can come back in any general sense. + +I am assuming that this will happen, either through conscious action on +the part of the people or as the result of catastrophe that always +overtakes those who remain wedded to the illusions of falsity. On this +assumption what are these enduring principles that will control the +guild system of industry in the new State, however may be its form? + +The answer is to be found in the old guilds, altars, shrines, vestments +and sacred vessels were given in incredible quantities for the +furnishing and embellishment of the chapel or church; funds also for the +maintenance of priestly offices especially dedicated to the guild. + +Closely allied with the religious spirit was that of good-fellowship and +merrymaking. Every sort of feast and game and pageant was a part of the +guild system, as it was indeed of life generally at this time when men +did not have to depend upon hired professional purveyors of amusement +for their edification. What they wanted they did themselves, and this +community in worship and community in merrymaking did more even than the +merging of common material interests, to knit the whole body together +into a living organism. + +In how far the old system can be revived and put into operation is a +question. Certainly it cannot be adopted as a fad and imposed on an +unwilling society as a clever archaeological restoration. It will have +to grow naturally out of life itself and along lines at present hardly +predicable. There are many evidences that just this spontaneous +generation is taking place. The guild system is being preached widely in +England where the defects of the present scheme are more obvious and the +resulting labour situation--or rather social situation--is more fraught +with danger than elsewhere, and already the restoration seems to have +made considerable headway. I am convinced, however, that the vital +aspects of the case are primarily due to the interior working of a new +spirit born of disillusionment and the undying fire in man that flames +always towards regeneration; what the ardent preaching of the +enthusiastic protagonists of the crusade best accomplishes is the +creation in the minds of those not directly associated with the movement +of a readiness to give sympathy and support to the actual accomplishment +when it manifests itself. Recently I have come in contact here in +America with several cases where the workmen themselves have broken away +from the old ways and have actually established what are to all intents +and purposes craft-guilds, without in the least realizing that they were +doing this. + +I think the process is bound to continue, for the old order has broken +down and is so thoroughly discredited it can hardly be restored. If time +is granted us, great things must follow, but it is increasingly doubtful +if this necessary element of time can be counted on. Daily the situation +grows more menacing. Capital, which so long exploited labour to its own +fabulous profit, is not disposed to sit quiet while the fruits of its +labours and all prospects of future emoluments are being dissipated, and +it is hard at work striving to effect a "return to normalcy." In this it +is being unconsciously aided by the bulk of union labour which, +encouraged by the paramount position it achieved during the war, +influenced by an avarice it may well have learned from its former +masters, as narrow in its vision as they, and increasingly subservient +to a leadership which is frequently cynical and unscrupulous and always +of an order of character and intelligence which is tending to lower and +lower levels, is alienating sympathy and bringing unionism into +disrepute. In the United States the tendency is steadily towards a very +dangerous reactionism, with a corresponding strengthening of the radical +element which aims at revolution, and that impossible thing, a +proletarian dictatorship. It is this latter which is rampant and at +present unchecked in Europe, and this also is a constant menace to the +success of those sane and righteous movements which take their lead from +the guild system of the Middle Ages. A third danger, but one which is +constantly on the decline at present, partly because of the general +disrepute of governments and partly because of the enormous accessions +of power now accruing both to reactionism and radical revolutionism, or +"Bolshevism," is state socialism or nationalization, which leaves +untouched all the fatal elements in industrialism while it changes only +the agents of administration. The complete collapse of able and +constructive and righteous leadership, which is one of the startling +phenomena of modernism, has left uncontrolled the enormous energy that +has been released during the last three generations, and this is working +blindly but effectively towards a cataclysm so precipitate and +comprehensive that it is impossible not to fear that it may determine +long before the sober and informed elements in society have accomplished +very much in the recovery and establishment of sound and righteous +principles and methods. + +Of course we can compass whichever result we will. We may shut our eyes +to the omens and let matters drift to disaster, or we may take thought +and council and avert the penalty that threatens us; the event is in our +own hands. It is as criminal to foresee and predict only catastrophe as +it is to compass this through lethargy, selfishness and illusion. We are +bound to believe that righteousness will prevail, even in our own time, +and believing this, what, in general terms will be the construction of +the new system that must take the place of industrialism? + +I have already indicated what seem to me the fundamental ideas as: the +small social unit that is self-sustaining; production primarily for use, +coöperation in place of competition; a revived guild system with the +abolition of capitalism, exploitation and intensive specialization as we +now know these dominant factors in modern civilization. In the +application of these principles there are certain innovations that will, +I think, take place, and these may be listed somewhat as follows: + +Land holding will become universal and the true proletariat or landless +class will disappear. It may be that the holding of land will become a +prerequisite to active citizenship. Industrial production being for use +not profit, the great city becomes a thing of the past, and life is +rendered simpler through the elimination of a thousand useless and +vicious luxuries; those employed in mechanical industries will be +incalculably fewer than now, while those that remain will give only a +portion of their time to industrial production, the remainder being +available for productive work on their own gardens and farms. The +handicrafts will be restored to their proper place and dignity, taking +over into creative labour large numbers of those who otherwise would be +sacrificed to the factory system. Where bulk production, as in weaving +and the preparation and manufacturing of metals, is economical and +unavoidable and carried on by factory methods, these manufactories will +probably be taken over by the several communities (not by the state as a +whole) and administered as public institutions for the benefit of the +community and under conditions and regulations which ensure justice and +well-being to the employees. All those in any community engaged in a +given occupation, as for example, building, will form one guild made up +of masters, journeymen and apprentices, with the same principles and +much the same methods as prevailed under the ancient guild system. +Fluctuating scales of prices determined by fluctuating conditions of +competition, supply and demand, and power of coercion, will give place +to "the fair price" fixed by concerted community action and revised from +time to time in order to preserve a right balance with the general scale +of cost of raw materials and cost of living. A maximum of returns in the +shape of profits or dividends will be fixed by law. The community itself +will undertake the furnishing of credits, loans and necessary capital +for the establishing of a new business, charging a small rate of +interest and maintaining a reserve fund to meet these operations. +Private banking, insurance and the loaning of money on collateral will +cease to exist. + +I dare say this will all sound chimerical and irrational in the extreme; +I do not see it in that light. Its avowed object is the supersession of +"big business" in all its phases by something that comes down to human +scale. It aims to reduce labour and divide it more evenly by making the +great mass of non-producers--those engaged in distribution, +salesmanship, advertising, propaganda, and the furnishing of things +unnecessary to the bodily, intellectual and spiritual needs of +man--actual producers and self-supporting to a very large extent. It +aims at restoring to work some sense of the joy in creation through +active mind and hand. It aims at the elimination of the parasitic +element in society and of that dangerous factor which subsists on wealth +it acquires without earning, and by sheer force of its own opulence +dominates and degrades society. It does not strike at private ownership, +but rather exalts, extends and defends this, but it _does_ cut into all +the theories and practices of communism and socialism by establishing +the principle and practice of fellowship and coöperation. Is this +"chimerical and irrational"? + +Meanwhile the "walled towns" do not exist and may not for generations. +"Big business" is indisposed to abrogate itself. Trade unionism is +fighting for its life and thereafter for world conquest, while the +enmity between capital and labour increases, with no evidence that a +restored guild system is even approximately ready to take its place. +Strikes and lockouts grow more and more numerous, and wider and more +menacing in their scope. The day of the "general strike" has only been +delayed at the eleventh hour in several countries, and a general strike, +if it can hold for a sufficient period, means, where-ever it occurs and +whenever it succeeds, the end of civilization and the loosing of the +floods of anarchy. There is hardly time for us patiently to await the +slow process of individual and corporate enlightenment or the +spontaneous development of the autonomous communities which, if they +were sufficient in number, would solve the problem through eliminating +the danger. What then, in the premises, can we do? + +There are of course certain concrete things which might help, as for +instance the further extension and honest trying out of the "Kansas +plan" for regulating industrial relations; the forming of "consumers +leagues," and all possible support and furtherance of coöperative +efforts of every sort. There are further possibilities (perhaps hardly +probabilities) of controlling stock issues and stock holdings so that +dividends do not have to be paid on grossly inflated capitalization, and +fixing the maximum of dividends payable to non-active stockholders. +Equally desirable but equally improbable, is the raising of the level of +leadership in the labour unions so that these valuable institutions may +no longer stultify themselves and wreck their own cause by their unjust +and anti-social regulations as to apprentices, control of maximum output +and its standard of quality, division of labour with ironclad +inhibitions against one man doing another's work and against one man +doing what six men can do less well, and as to the obligation to strike +on order when no local or personal grievance exists. Most useful of all +would be a voluntary renunciation, on the part of the purchasing public, +of nine-tenths of the futile luxuries they now insanely demand, coupled +with the production by themselves of some of the commodities which are +easily producable; in other words, establishing some measure of +self-support and so releasing many men and women from the curse of +existence under factory conditions and giving them an opportunity of +living a normal life under self-supporting circumstances. This, coupled +with a fostering of the "back to the farm" movement, and the development +of conditions which would make this process more practicable and the +life more attractive, would do much, though in small ways, towards +producing a more wholesome and less threatening state of affairs. + +Back of the whole problem, however, lies a fallacy in our conception of +existence that must be eliminated before even the most constructive +panaceas can possibly work. I mean the whole doctrine of natural rights +which has become the citadel of capitalism in all its most offensive +aspects, and of labour in its most insolent assumptions. The "rights" of +property, the "right" to strike, the "right" to collective bargaining, +the "right" to shut down an essential industry or to "walk out" and then +picket the place so that it may not be reopened, the "right" to vote and +hold office and do any fool thing you please so long as it is within the +law, these are applications of what I mean when I speak of a gross +fallacy that has come into being and has stultified our intelligence +while bringing near the wrecking of our whole system. + +Neither man nor his community possesses any _absolute_ rights; they are +all conditioned on how they are exercised. If they are not so +conditioned they become privilege, which is a right not subject to +conditions, and privilege is one of the things republicanism and +democracy and every other effort towards human emancipation have set +themselves up to destroy. Even the "right to life, liberty and the +pursuit of happiness" is conditioned by the manner of use, and the same +is true of every other and unspecified right. I do not propose to speak +here of more than one aspect of this self-evident truth, but the single +instance I cite is one that bears closely on the question of our +industrial and economic situation; it is the responsibility to society +of property or capital on the one hand and of labour on the other, when +both invoke their "rights" to justify them in oppressing the general +public in the pursuit of their own natural interests. + +During the Middle Ages, just as the political theory maintained that +while a king ruled by divine right, this right gave him no authority to +govern wrong, so the social theory held that while a man had a right to +private property he had no right to use it against society, nor could +the labourer use his own rights to the injury of the same institution. +Power, property and labour must be used as a _function_, i.e., "an +activity which embodies and expresses the idea of social purpose." +Unless I am mistaken, this is at the basis of our "common law." + +As Mediaevalism gave place to the Renaissance this Christian idea was +abandoned, and increasingly the obligation was severed from the right, +which so became that odious thing, privilege. Intolerable in its +injustice and oppression, this privilege, which by the middle of the +eighteenth century had become the attribute of the aristocracy, was +completely overthrown, in France first of all, and a new doctrine of +rights was enunciated and put in operation. Unfortunately the result was +in essence simply a transforming of privilege from one body to another, +for the old conception of social purpose, as the necessary concomitant +of acknowledged rights, did not emerge from the shadows of the Middle +Ages; it had been too long forgotten. The new "rights" were exclusively +individualistic, in practice, though in the minds of the idealists who +formulated them, they had their social aspect. Their promulgation +synchronized with the sudden rise and violent expansion of +industrialism, and as one country after another followed the lead of +England in accepting the new system, they hardened into an iron-clad +scheme for the defence of property and the free action of the holders +and manipulators of property. Backed by the economic philosophy of +Locke, Adam Smith, Bentham and the Manchester School, generally, and the +evolutionary theories of the exponents of Darwinism, and abetted by an +endless series of statutes, the idea of the exemption of property +holders from any responsibility to society for the use of their +property, became a fixed part of the mental equipment of modernism. +Precisely the same thing happened politically and socially. Rights were +personal and implied no necessary obligation to society as a whole; they +were personal attributes and as such to be defended at all costs. + +Now the result of this profound error as to the existence, nature and +limitation of these personal rights has meant simply the destruction of +a righteous and unified society which works by coöperation and +fellowship, and the substitution of individuals and corporate bodies who +work by competition, strife and mutual aggression towards the attainment +of all they can get under the impulse of what was once praised as +"enlightened self interest." In other words--war. The conflict that +began in 1914 was not a war hurled into the midst of a white peace, it +was only a military war arising in the centre of a far greater social +war, for there is no other word that is descriptive. Rights that are not +contingent on the due discharge of duties and obligations are but +hateful privilege; privilege has issue in selfishness and egotism, which +in turn work themselves out in warfare and in the hatred that both +precedes and follows conflict. + +The net result of a century and a half of industrialism is avarice, +warfare and hate. Society can continue even when avariciousness is +rampant--for a time--and warfare of one sort or another seems +inseparable from humanity, at all events it has always been so, but +hatred is another matter, for it is the negation of social life and is +its solvent. Anger passes; it is sometimes even righteous, but hatred is +synonymous with death in that it dissolves every unit, reducing it to +its component parts and subjecting each of these to dissolution in its +turn. Righteous anger roused the nations into the war that hate had +engendered, but hate has followed after and for the moment is +victorious. Russia seethes with hatred and is perishing of its poison, +while there is not another country in Europe, of those that were +involved in the war, where the same is not true in varying degrees; +hatred of race for race, of nation for nation, of class for class, of +one social or industrial or economic or political institution for +another. This, above all else, is the disintegrating influence, and +against it no social organism, no civilization can stand. Unless it is +abrogated it means an ending of another epoch of human life, a period of +darkness and another beginning, some time after the poison has been +worked out by misery, adversity and forced repentance. + +It is this prevalence of hatred, reinforced by avarice and perpetuated +by incessant warfare, that negatives all the efforts that are made +towards effecting a correspondence between the divided interests that +are the concomitant of industrialism. Strikes and lockouts, trades +unions and employers' associations as they are now constituted and as +they now operate, syndicalism and Bolshevism and proletarian +dictatorships, protective tariffs and commercial spheres of influence, +propaganda and subsidized newspapers are all energized by the principle +of hate, and no good thing can come of any of them. Nor is it enough to +work for the re-establishment of justice even by those methods of +righteousness, and with the impulse towards righteousness, which are so +different from those which are functioning at present along the lines of +contemporary industrial "reform." Justice is a "natural" virtue with a +real place in society, but the only saving force today is a supernatural +virtue. This, amongst other things, Christ brought into the world and +left as the saving force amongst the race He had redeemed and in the +society reconstituted in accordance with His will. This supernatural +virtue is Charity, sometimes expressed in the simpler form of Love, the +essence of the social code of Christianity and the symbol of the New +Dispensation as justice was the symbol of the Old. Just in so far as a +man or a cult or an interest or a corporation or a state or a generation +or a race, relinquishes charity as its controlling spirit, in so far it +relinquishes its place in Christian society and its claim to the +Christian name, while it is voided of all power for good or possibility +of continuance. Where charity is gone, intellectual capacity, effectual +power, and even justice itself become, not energies of good, but potent +contributions to evil. Is this supernatural gift of charity a mark of +contemporary civilization? Does it manifest itself with power today in +the dealings between class and class, between interest and interest, +between nation and nation? If not, then we have forfeited the name of +Christian and betrayed Christian civilization into the hands of its +enemies, while our efforts towards saving what is left to us of a once +consistent and righteous society will be without result except as an +acceleration of the now headlong process of dissolution. + +I am not charging any class or any interest or any people with exclusive +apostacy. In the end there is little to choose between one or another. +Labour is not more culpable than capital, nor the proletarian than the +industrial magnate and the financier, nor the nominal secularist than +the nominal religionist. Nor am I charging conscious and willful +acceptance of wrong in the place of right. It is the institution itself, +industrialism as it has come to be, with all its concomitants and +derivatives, that has betrayed man to his disgrace and his society to +condemnation, and so long as this system endures so long will recovery +be impossible and regeneration a vain thing vainly imagined. Charity, +that is to say, fellowship, generosity, pity, self-sacrifice, chivalry, +all that is comprehended in the thing that Christ was, and preached, and +promulgated as the fundamental law of life, cannot come back to the +world so long as avarice, warfare and hate continue to exist, and +through Charity alone can we find the solution of the industrial and +economic problem that _must_ be solved under penalty of social death. + + + + +V + + +THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY + +In these essays, which look towards a new social synthesis, I find +myself involved in somewhat artificial subdivisions. Industrial, social +and political forces all react one upon another, and the complete social +product is the result of the interplay of these forces, coördinated and +vitalized by philosophy, education and religion. To isolate each factor +and consider it separately is apt to result in false values, but there +seems no other way in which the subject, which is essentially one, may +be divided into the definite parts which are consequent on the form of a +course of lectures. In considering now the political estate of the human +social organism it will be evident that I hold that this must be +contingent on many elements that reveal themselves in a contributory +industrial system, in the principles that are embodied in social +relationships, and in the general scheme of such a working philosophy of +life as may predominate amongst the component parts of the synthetic +society which is the product of all these varied energies and the +organic forms through which they operate. + +Political organization has always been a powerful preoccupation of +mankind, and the earliest records testify to its antiquity. The +regulation of human intercourse, the delimiting of rights and +privileges, protection of life and property, the codifying of laws, +vague, various and conflicting, the making of new laws and the enforcing +of those that have taken organic form; all these and an hundred other +governmental functions, appeal strongly to the mind and touch closely on +personal interests. It is no wonder that the political history of human +society is the most varied, voluminous and popular in its appeal. At the +present moment this problem has, in general, an even more poignant +appeal, and no rival except the industrial problem, for in both cases +systems that, up to ten years ago, were questioned only by a minority +(large in the case of industry, small and obscure in the case of +government) have since completely broken down, and it is probable that a +political system which had existed throughout the greater part of Europe +and the Americas for a century and a half, almost without serious +criticism, has now as many assailants as industrialism itself. + +The change is startling from the "Triumphant Democracy" period, a space +of time as clearly defined and as significant in its characteristics as +the "Victorian Era." Before the war, during the war, and throughout the +earlier years of the even more devastating "peace," the system which +followed the ruin of the Renaissance autocracies, the essential elements +in which were an ever-widening suffrage, parliamentary government, and +the universal operation of the quantitative standard of values, was +never questioned or criticised, except in matters of detail. That it was +the most perfect governmental scheme ever devised and that it must +continue forever, was held to be axiomatic, and with few exceptions the +remedy proposed for such faults as could not possibly escape detection +was a still further extension of the democratic principle. Even the war +itself was held to be "a war to make the world safe for democracy." It +is significant that the form in which this saying now frequently appears +is one in which the word "from" is substituted in place of the word +"for." It is useless to blink the fact that there is now a distrust of +parliamentary and representative government which is almost universal +and this distrust, which is becoming widespread, reaches from the +Bolshevism of Russia on the one hand, through many intermediate social +and intellectual stages, to the conservative elements in England and the +United States, and the fast-strengthening royalist "bloc" in France. + +In many unexpected places there is visible a profound sense that +something is so fundamentally wrong that palliatives are useless and +some drastic reform is necessary, a reform that may almost amount to +revolution. Lord Bryce still believes in democracy in spite of his keen +realizations of its grievous defects, because, as he says, hope is an +inextinguishable quality of the human soul. Mr. Chesterton preaches +democracy in principle while condemning its mechanism and its workings +with his accustomed vigour; the Adamses renounce democracy and all its +works while offering no hint as to what could consistently take its +place with any better chance of success, while the royalists excoriate +it in unmeasured terms and preach an explicit return to monarchy. +Meanwhile international Bolshevism, hating the thing as violently as do +kings in exile, substitutes a crude and venal autocracy, while organized +labour, as a whole, works for the day when a "class-conscious +proletariat" will have taken matters into its own hands and established +a new aristocracy of privilege in which the present working classes will +hold the whip-hand. Meanwhile the more educated element of the general +public withdraws itself more and more from political affairs, going its +own way and making the best of a bad job it thinks itself taught by +experience it cannot mend. + +It is useless to deny that government, in the character of its +personnel, the quality of its output, the standard of its service and +the degree of its beneficence has been steadily deteriorating during the +last century and has now reached, in nearly every civilized country, a +deplorably low level. Popular representatives are less and less men of +character and ability; legislation is absurd in quantity, short-sighted, +frivolous, inquisitorial, and in a large measure prompted by selfish +interests; administration is reckless, wasteful and inefficient, while +it is overloaded in numbers, without any particular aptitude on the part +of its members, and in a measure controlled by personal or corporate +interests. The whole system is in bad odour for it is shot through and +through with the greed for money and influence, while the cynicism of +the professional politician and the low average of character, +intelligence and manners of the strata of society that increasingly are +usurping all power, work towards producing that general contempt and +aversion that have become so evident of late and that are a menace to +society no less than that of the decaying institution itself. + +Confronted by a situation such as this, the natural tendency of those +who suffer under it, either in their material interests or their ideals, +is to condemn the mechanism, perhaps even the very principles for the +operation of which the various machines were devised. Some reject the +whole scheme of representative, parliamentary government, and, failing +any plausible substitute, are driven back on some form of the soviet, or +even government by industrial groups. Those that go to the limit and +reject the whole scheme of democracy are in still worse plight for they +have no alternative to offer except a restored monarchy, and this, the +_terminus ad quem_ of their logic, their courage will not permit them to +avow. + +It is a dilemma, but forced, I believe, by the fatal passion of the man +of modernism for the machine, the mechanical device, the material +equivalent for a thing that has no equivalent, and that is the personal +character of the constituents of society and the working factors in a +political organism. There was never a more foolish saying than that +which is so frequently and so boastfully used: "a government of laws and +not of men." This is the exact reversal of what should be recognized as +a self-evident truth, viz, that the quality of the men, not the nature +of the laws or of the administrative machine, is the determining factor +in government. You may take any form of government ever devised by man, +monarchy, aristocracy, republic, democracy, yes, or soviet, and if the +community in which this government operates has a working majority of +men of character, intelligence and spiritual energy, it will be a good +government, whereas if the working majority is deficient in these +characteristics, or if it makes itself negligible by abstention from +public affairs it will be a bad government. There is no one political +system which is right while all others are wrong. The monarchy of St. +Louis was better than the Third Republic, as this is better than was the +monarchy of Louis XV. The aristocracy of Washington was better than the +democracy of this year of grace, as this in itself is better than the +late junker aristocracy of Prussia. You cannot substitute a machine in +place of character, you cannot supersede life by a theory. + +This does not mean that the form of government is of no moment, it is of +the utmost importance for I cannot too often insist that the organic +life of society is the resultant of two forces; spiritual energy working +through and upon the material forms towards their improvement or--when +this energy is weak or distorted--their degeneration; the material forms +acting as a stimulus towards the development of spiritual energy through +association and environment that are favourable, or towards its +weakening and distortion when these are deterrents because of their own +degraded or degrading nature. If it is futile to look for salvation +through the mechanism, it is equally futile to try to act directly and +exclusively on the character of the social constituents in the patient +hope that their defects may be remedied, and the preponderance of +character of high value achieved, before catastrophe overtakes the +experiment. Life is as sacramental as the Christian religion and +Christian philosophy; neither the spiritual substance nor the material +accidents can operate alone but only in a conjunction so intimate that +it is to all intents and purposes--that is, for the interests and +purposes of God in human life--a perfect unity. However completely and +even passionately we may realize the determining factor of spiritual +energy as this manifests itself through personal character, however +deeply we may distrust the machine, we are bound to recognize the +paramount necessity of the active interplay of both within the limits of +life as we know it on the earth, and therefore it is very much our +concern that the machine, whether it is industrial, political, +educational, ecclesiastical or social, is as perfect in its nature and +stimulating in its operations as we are able to compass. + +In the present liquidation of values, theories and institutions we are +bound therefore to scrutinize each operating agency of human society, to +see wherein it has failed and how it can be bettered, and the problem +before us now is the political organism. + +Now it appears that in the past there have been just two methods whereby +a civil polity has come into existence and established itself for a +short period or a long. These two methods are, first, unpremeditated and +sometimes unconscious growth; second, calculated and self-conscious +revolution. The first method has produced communities, states and +empires that frequently worked well and lasted for long periods; the +second has had issue in nothing that has endured for any length of time +or has left a record of beneficence. Evolution in government is in +accord with the processes of life, even to the extent that it is always +after a time followed by degeneration; revolution in government is the +throwing of a monkey-wrench into the machinery by a disaffected workman, +with the wrecking of the machine, the violent stoppage of the works, and +frequently the sudden death of the worker as a consequence. The English +monarchy from Duke William to Henry VIII, is a case of normal growth by +minor changes and modifications, but its subsequent history has been one +of revolutions, six or seven having occurred in the last four hundred +years; the scheme which now holds, though precariously, is the result of +the great democratic revolution accomplished during the reign of Queen +Victoria. The free monarchies of Europe which began to take form during +the long period of the Dark Ages and pursued their admirable course well +through the Middle Ages, were also normal and slow growths; but the +revolutions that have followed the Great War will meet a different fate, +several of them, indeed, have counted their existence in months and have +already passed into history. + +If we are wise we shall discount revolutions for the future, for nothing +but ill is accomplished by denying life and exalting the ingenious +substitutes of ambitious and presumptuous Frankensteins; the result is +too often a monster that works cleverly at first, and with a semblance +of human intelligence, but in the end shows itself as a destroyer. Our +task is to envisage, as clearly as possible, the political systems +established amongst us, note their weaknesses either in themselves or in +their relationship to society as it is, and then try to find those +remedies that can be applied without any violent methods of dislocation +or substitution; always bearing in mind the fact that the energizing +force that will make them live, preserve them from deterioration, and +adapt them to conditions which will ever change, is the spiritual force +of human personality, and that this force comes only through the +character qualities of the individual components of society. + +Now in considering our own case in this day and generation there are +first of all two matters to be borne in mind. One is that we shall do +well to confine our inquiry to the United States, for while the defects +we shall have to point out are common to practically all the +contemporary governments of Europe and the Americas, our own enginery is +different in certain ways, and our troubles are also different between +one example and another. After all, our immediate interest must lie with +our own national problems. The other point is that in criticising the +workings of government in America we are not necessarily criticising its +founders or the creators of its original constitutions, charters, and +other mechanisms. The Constitution of the United States, for example, +was conceived to meet one series of perfectly definite conditions that +have now been superseded by others which are radically, and even +diametrically different. The original Constitution was a most able +instrument of organic law, but just because it did fit so perfectly +conditions as they were four generations ago, it applies but +indifferently to present circumstances, and even less well than the +Founders hoped would be the case; for the reason that the amendments +which were provided for have seldom taken cognizance of these changing +conditions, and even when this was done the amendments themselves have +not been wisely drawn, while certain of them have been actually +disastrous in their nature, others frivolous, and yet more the result of +ephemeral and hysterical ebullitions of an engineered public opinion. +The same may be said of state constitutions and municipal charters, +which have suffered incessant changes, mostly unfortunate and +ill-judged, except during the last few years, when a spirit of real +wisdom and constructiveness has shown itself, though sporadically and as +yet with some timidity. The reforms, such as they are, are largely in +the line of palliatives; the deep-lying factors, those that control both +success and failure, are seldom touched upon. The necessary courage--or +perhaps temerity--is lacking. What is needed is such a clear seeing of +conditions, and such an approach, as manifested themselves in the +Constitutional Convention of the United States, for in spite of the many +compromises that were in the end necessary to placate a public opinion +not untouched by prejudice, superstition and selfishness, the great +document--and even more the records of the debates--still brilliantly +set forth both the clear-seeing and the lofty attitude that +characterized the Convention. Had these men been gathered together +today, even the same men, they would frame a very different document, +for they took conditions and men as they were, and, with an +indestructible hope to glorify their common sense, they produced a +masterpiece. It is in the same spirit that we must approach our problem +of today. + +Now in considering the situation that confronts us, we find certain +respects in which either the methods are bad, or the results, or both. +There is no unanimity in this criticism, indeed I doubt if any two of us +would agree on all the items in the indictment, though we all might +unite on one or two. I can only give my own list for what it is worth. +In the first place we, in common with all the nations, have drifted into +imperialism of a gross scale and illiberal, even tyrannical working. We +could hardly do otherwise for such has been the universal tendency for +more than an hundred years. By constant progression municipal +governments have absorbed into themselves matters that in decency, and +with any regard for liberty, belong to the individual. Simultaneously +our state governments have followed the same course, infringing even on +the just prerogatives of the towns and cities, while, more than all, the +national government has robbed the states, the cities and the citizens +of what should belong to them, until at last we have an imperial, +autocratic, inquisitorial, and largely irresponsible government at +Washington that is the one supreme political fact; we are no longer a +Federal Republic but an Imperialism, in which is centralized all the +authority inherent in the one hundred and ten millions of our population +and from which a constantly diminishing stream of what is practically +devolved authority, trickles down through state and city to the +individual in the last instance--if it gets there at all! This I believe +to be absolutely and fatally wrong. In the first place, human society +cannot function at this abnormal scale, it is outside the human scale, +for in spite of our pride and insolence there are limits on every hand +to what man can do. In the second place, I conceive it to be absolutely +at variance with any principle of republicanism or democracy or even of +free monarchy. It is at one only with the imperialism of Egypt, Babylon, +Rome and the late Empire of Germany. In a free monarchy, a republic, or +a democracy, the pyramid of political organism stands, not on its point +but broad-based and four-square, tapering upward to its final apex. A +sane and wholesome society begins with the family--natural or +artificial--which has original jurisdiction over a far greater series of +rights and privileges than it now commands. From the family certain +powers are delegated to the next higher social unit, the village or +communal group, which in its turn concedes certain of its inherent +rights to the organic group of communities, or states, and finally the +states commit to the last and general authority, the national +government, some of the elements of authority that have been delegated +to them. The principle of this delegation from one organism to another, +is common interest and welfare; only those functions which can be +performed with more even justice and with greater effectiveness, by the +community for example, than by the family, are so delegated. In the same +way the several groups commit to their common government only so much as +they cannot perform with due justice and equity to the others in the +same group. In the end the national government exists only that it may +provide for a limited number of national necessities, as for example, +defence against extra-national aggression, the conduct of diplomatic +relations with foreign powers, the maintaining of a national currency +and a national postal service, the provision of courts of last resort, +and the raising of revenue for the support of these few and explicit +functions. + +The first step, it seems to me, towards governmental reform, is +decentralization, with a return to the States, the civic communities and +the individual citizens of nine-tenths of the powers and the +prerogatives that have been taken from them in defiance of abstract +justice, of the principles of free government and of the theory of the +workable unit of human scale. In a word we must abandon imperialism and +all its works and go back to the Federal Republic. + +The second cause of our troubles lies, I believe, in the institution of +universal suffrage founded on the theory (or dogma) that the electoral +franchise is an inalienable right. This doctrine is of recent invention, +only coming into force during the "reconstruction period" following the +War between the States, when it was brought forward by certain leaders +of the Republican party to justify their enfranchisement of the negroes +in the hope that by this act they could fix their party in power to +perpetuity. In any case, the plan itself has worked badly, both for the +community and for many of the voters. It is of course impossible for me +to argue the case in detail; I can do hardly more than state my own +personal belief, and this is that the question is wholly one of +expediency, and that the question of abstract justice and the rights of +man does not enter into the consideration. I submit that the electoral +franchise should again be accepted as a privilege involving a duty, and +not as a right inherent in every adult person of twenty-one years or +over and not lunatic or in jail. This privilege, which in itself should +confer honour, should be granted to those who demonstrate their capacity +to use it honestly and intelligently, and taken away for cause. + +The acute critic will not be slow to remind me that this proposition is +somewhat beside the case and that it possesses but an academic interest, +since we are dealing with a _fait accompli._ This is of course perfectly +true. The electoral franchise could be so restricted only by the +suffrages of the present electorate, and it is inconceivable that any +large number, and far less, a majority, of voters would even consider +the proposition for a moment. For good or ill we have unrestricted adult +suffrage, and there is not the faintest chance of any other basis being +established by constitutional means. Something however can be done, and +this is a thing of great value and importance. What I suggest is +concerted effort towards a measured purification of the electorate +through the penalizing of law-breakers by temporary disfranchisement. It +is hardly too much to assume that a man who deliberately breaks the law +is constructively unfit to vote or to hold office, at all events, +conviction for any crime or misdemeanour gives a reasonable ground for +depriving the offender of these privileges, at least for a time. The +law-breaking element, whether it is millionaire or proletarian, is one +of the dangerous factors in society, which would lose nothing if from +time to time these gentry were removed from active participation in +public affairs. If, for example, any one convicted of minor offenses +punishable by fine or imprisonment were disfranchised for a year, if of +major offenses, for varying and increasing periods, from five years +upwards, and if a second offense during the period of disfranchisement +worked an automatic doubling of the time prescribed for a first offense, +I conceive that the electorate would be measurably purified and that +regard for the law would be stimulated. In one instance I am persuaded +that disfranchisement should be for life, and that is in the case of +giving or accepting a bribe or otherwise committing a crime against the +ballot; this, together with treason against the state, should be +sufficient cause for eliminating the offender from all further +participation in public affairs. If the electorate could be purified +after this fashion, and if more stringent laws could be passed in the +matter of naturalization of aliens, together with iron-clad requirements +that every voter should be able to speak, read and write the English +language, we should have achieved something towards the safeguarding of +the suffrage. + +The third weakness in our system, and in some respect the most +dangerous, as it is in all respects the most pestiferous, is the +insanity of law-making. All parliamentary governments suffer from this +malady, but that of the United States most grievously, and this is true +of the national government, the states and the municipalities. It has +become the conviction of legislative bodies that they must justify their +existence by making laws, and the more laws they pass the better they +have discharged their duties. The thing has become a scandal and an +oppression, for the liberties of American citizens and the just +prerogatives of the states and the cities, as vital human groups, have +been more infringed upon, reduced, and degraded by free legislation than +ever happened in similar communities by the action of absolute monarchs. +It is a folly that works its insidious injury in two ways; first by +confusing life by innumerable laws ill-advised, ill-drawn, mutually +contradictory, ephemeral in their nature, inquisitorial in their +workings; second, by creating a condition where any personal or factious +interest can be served by due process of law, until at last we have +reached a point where liberty itself has largely ceased to exist and we +find ourselves crushed under a tyranny of popular government no less +oppressive than the tyranny of absolutism. Nor is this all; the mania +for making laws has bred a complete and ingenious and singularly +effective system of getting laws made by methods familiar to the members +of all legislative bodies whether they are city councils, state +legislatures or the national congress, and this means opportunities for +corruption, and methods of corruption, that are fast degrading +government in the United States to a point where there is none so poor +as to do it reverence. The whole system is preposterous and absurd, +breeding not only bad laws, but a widespread contempt of law, while the +personal freedom for which democracy once fought, is fast becoming a +memory. + +The trouble began as a result of one of the elements in the American +Constitution which was the product not of the sound common sense and the +lofty judgment of the framers, but of a weak yielding to one of the +doctrinaire fads of the time that had no relationship to life but was +the invention of political theorists, and that was the unnatural +separation of the executive, legislative and judicial functions of +government. The error has worked far and the superstition still holds. +What is needed is an initiative in legislation, centred in one +responsible head or group, that, while functioning in all normal and +necessary legislative directions, still allows individual initiative on +the part of the legislators, as a supplementary, or corrective, or +protective agency. No government functions well in fiscal matters +without a budget: what we need in legislative matters is a legislative +budget, and by this phrase, I mean that the primary agency for the +proposing of laws should be the chief executive of a city, or state or +the nation, with the advice and consent of his heads of departments who +would form his cabinet or council. + +Under this plan the Governor and Council, for example, would at the +opening of each legislative session present a programme or agenda of +such laws as they believed the conditions to demand, and in the shape of +bills accurately drawn by the proper law officer of the government. No +such "government" bill could be referred to committee but must be +discussed in open session, and until the bills so offered had been +passed or refused, no private bill could be introduced. A procedure such +as this would certainly reduce the flood of private bills to reasonable +dimensions while it would insure a degree of responsibility now utterly +lacking. There is now no way in which the author of a foolish or +dangerous bill which has been enacted into law by a majority of the +legislature, can be held to account and due responsibility imposed upon +him, but the case would be very different if a mayor, a governor or the +President of the United States made himself responsible for a law or a +series of laws, by offering them for action in his own name. Certainly +if this method were followed we should be preserved in great measure +from the hasty, confused and frivolous legislation that at present makes +up the major part of the output of our various legislative bodies. One +of the greatest gains would be the reduction of the annual grist to a +size where each act could be considered and debated at sufficient length +to guarantee as reasonable a conclusion as would be possible to the +members of the legislative body. The deplorable device of instituting +committees, to each of which certain bunches of bills are referred +before they are permitted to come before the house, would be no longer +necessary. This system, which became necessary in order to deal with the +enormous mass of undigested matter which has overwhelmed every +legislature as a result of the present chaotic and irresponsible +procedure, is perhaps both the most undemocratic device ever put in +practice by a democracy, and the most fruitful of venality, corruption +and injustice. It is unnecessary to labour this point for everyone knows +its grave evils, but there seems no way to get rid of it unless some +curb is placed on the number of bills introduced in any session. The +British Parliament is not necessarily a model of intelligent or capable +procedure, but where in one session at Westminster no more than four +hundred bills were introduced, at Washington, for the same period, the +count ran well over twelve thousand! Manifestly some committee system is +inevitable under conditions such as this, but under the committee system +free government and honest legislation are difficult of attainment. + +One would not of course prevent the proposal of a bill by any member of +the legislature, indeed this free action would be absolutely necessary +as a measure of protection against executive oppression, but this should +be prohibited until after the government programme had been disposed of. +After that task was accomplished the legislature might sit indefinitely, +or as long as the public would stand it, for the purpose of considering +private bills, and these could be referred to committees as at present. +The chances are, however, that the government programme would cover the +most essential matters and what would remain would be the edifying +spectacle of Solons solemnly considering such questions as the minimum +length of sheets on hotel beds, the limitation in inches and fractions, +of the heels of women's shoes, the amount of flesh that could be legally +exposed by a bathing suit, or the pensioning of a Swedish Assistant +Janitor,--all of which are the substance of actual bills introduced in +various State legislatures during the session last closed. + +Another grave weakness in our system is the election by popular vote of +many judicial and administrative officers, coupled with the vigorous +remnants of the old and degrading "spoils system" whereby many thousands +of strictly non-political offices are almost automatically vacated after +any partisan victory. I cannot trust myself to speak of the infamy of an +elective judiciary; fortunately I live in a state where this worst abuse +of democratic practice does not exist, and so it touches me only in so +far as it offends the sense of decency and justice. In the other cases +it is only a question of efficient and intelligent administration. There +is an argument for electing the chief executive of a city, a state or +the nation, by popular vote, and the same holds in the case of the lower +house of the legislature where a bi-cameral system exists, but there is +no argument for the popular election of the administrative officers of a +state. There is even less,--if there can be less than nothing--for the +changes in personnel that take place after every election. Civil service +reform has done a world of good, but as yet it has not gone far enough +in some directions, while its mechanism of examinations is defective in +principle in that it leaves out the personal equation and establishes +its tests only along a very few of the many lines that actually exist. I +would offer it as a proposition that no election should in itself affect +the status of any man except the man elected, and, in the case of a +mayor or governor or the President, those who are directly responsible +to him and to his administration for carrying out his policies; and +further, that the voter, when he votes, should vote once and for one man +in his city, once and for one man in his state, and once and for one man +in the nation, and that man, in each case, should be his representative +in the lower branch of the legislative body. Choosing administrative +officials by majority vote, and the election of judges for short terms +by the same method, are absurdities of a system fast falling into chaos. +The maintenance of a bi-cameral legislative organization, with the +choosing of the members of both houses by the same electorate is in the +same class, a perfectly irrational anomaly which violates the first +principles of logic and leads only to legislative incompetence, and +worse. The referendum is of precisely the same nature, but this already +has become a _reductio ad absurdum,_ and can hardly survive the +discredit into which it has fallen. In any reorganization of government +looking towards better results, these elements must disappear. + +As a matter of fact, government has come to occupy altogether too large +a place in our consciousness; naturally, for it has come to a point +where it pursues us--and overtakes us--at every turn. Democracies always +govern too much, that is one of their great weaknesses. Elections, +law-making, and getting and holding office, have become an obsession and +they shadow our days. So insistent and incessant are the demands, so +artificial and unreal the issues, so barren of vital results all this +pandemonium of partisanship and change, the more intelligent and +scrupulous are losing interest in the whole affair, and while they +increasingly withdraw to matters of a greater degree of reality those +who subsist on the proceeds gain the power, and hold it. At the very +moment when the women of the United States have been given the vote, +there are many men (and women also) who begin to think that the vote is +a very empty institution and in itself practically void of power to +effect anything of really vital moment. I am not now defending this +position, I only assert that it exists, and I believe it is due to the +degradation of government through the very modifications and +transformations that have been effected, since the time of Andrew +Jackson, in a perfectly honest attempt at improvement. + +The best government is that which does the least, which leaves local +matters in the hands of localities, and personal matters in the hands of +persons, and which is modestly inconspicuous. Good government +establishes, or recognizes, conditions which are stable, reliable, and +that may be counted on for more than two years, or four years, at a +time. It has continuity, it preserves tradition, and it follows custom +and common law. Such a government is neither hectic in its vicissitudes +nor inquisitorial in its enactments. It is cautious in its expenditures, +efficient in its administration, proud in maintaining its standards of +honour, justice and "noblesse oblige." Good government is august and +handsome; it surrounds itself with dignity and ceremony, even at times +with splendour and pageantry, for these things are signs of self-respect +and the outward showing of high ideals--or may be made so; that is what +good manners and ceremony and beauty are for. Finally, good government +is where the laws of Christian morals and courtesy and charity that are +supposed to hold between Christian men hold equally, even more +forcefully, in public relations both domestic and foreign. Where +government of this nature exists, whether the form is monarchical, +republican or democratic, there is liberty; where these conditions do +not obtain the form matters not at all, for there is a servile state. + +At the risk of being tedious I will try to sketch the rough outlines of +what, in substance, I believe to be that form of civil polity which, +based on what now exists, changes only along lines that would perhaps +tend towards establishing and maintaining those ideals of liberty, order +and justice which have always been the common aim of those who have +striven to reform a condition of things where they were attained +indifferently or not at all. + +The primary and effective social and political unit is the "vill" or +commune; that is to say, a group of families and individuals living in +one neighbourhood, and of a size that would permit all the members to +know one another if they wished to do so, and also the coming together +of all those holding the electoral franchise, for common discussion and +action. The average American country town, uninvaded by industrialism, +is the natural type, for here the "town meeting" of our forefathers is +practicable, and this remains the everlasting frame and model of +self-government. In the case of a city the primary unit would be of +approximately the same size, and the entire municipality would be +divided into wards each containing, say, about five hundred voters. +These primary units would possess a real unity and a very large measure +of autonomy, but they would be federated for certain common purposes +which would vary in number and importance in proportion to the closeness +of their common interests, from the county, made up of a number of small +villages, to the city which would comprise as many wards as might be +numerically necessary, and whose central government would administer a +great many more affairs than would the county. The city would be in +effect a federation of the wards or boroughs. + +The individual voter would exercise his electoral franchise and perform +his political duties only within the primary unit (the township or ward) +where he had legal residence. At an annual "town meeting" he would vote +for the "selectmen" or the ward council who would have in charge the +local interests of the primary unit, which would be comprehensive in the +case of a township, necessarily more limited in the case of a ward. +These local boards would elect their own chairmen who would also form +the legislative body of the county or the municipality. At the same town +meeting the voter would cast his ballot for a representative in the +lower legislative body of the state. In the smaller commonwealths each +township or ward would elect its own representative, but in states of +excessive population representation would have to be on the basis of +counties and municipalities, for no legislative body should contain more +than a very few hundred members. Nominations in the town meeting should +be _viva voce,_ elections by secret ballot. Legislation should be +primarily on the initiative of the selectmen or ward council, and voting +should be _viva voce._ With the exercise of his privilege of speaking +and voting at the meetings of his primary unit, the direct political +action of the citizen would cease. + +The secondary unit would be the county or the city. Here the legislative +body would consist of the presiding officers of the township or ward +governments. The sheriff of a county or the mayor of a city would be +chosen by these legislative bodies from their own number and should hold +office for a term of several years, while the local governments, and +therefore the legislative bodies of the county or the city, would be +chosen annually. The chief executive of a county or city would appoint +all heads of departments who would form his advisory council, and he +would also frame and submit annually both a fiscal and a legislative +budget. + +The tertiary unit is the state, which is a federation of the counties +and cities forming some one of the historic divisions of the United +States. The legislature would as now be composed of two chambers, one +made up of representatives of the primary units, holding office for a +brief term, and a second representing the secondary units and chosen by +their governing bodies for a long term. The logic of a bi-cameral system +demands that the lower house should represent the changing will of the +people, the upper, in so far as possible, its cumulative wisdom and the +continuity of tradition, while, as already stated, the whole principle +is vitiated if both houses are chosen by the same electorate. The chief +executive should be chosen by the legislative chambers in joint session, +from a panel made up of their own membership and the heads of the county +and city governments. He should hold office for a long term, preferably +for an indeterminate period contingent on "good behaviour." In this case +his cabinet, or council of the heads of departments, would of course be +responsible to the legislature and would resign on a formal vote of +censure or "lack of confidence." The Governor would have the same power +of appointment, and the same authority to present fiscal and legislative +budgets as, already specified in the case of a mayor of a city. No +"commissions," unpaid or otherwise, should be permitted, all the +administrative functions of government being performed by the various +departments and their subordinate bureaux. + +The national government is the final social and political unit, though +it is conceivable that with a territory and population as great and +diversified as that of the United States, and bearing in mind the great +discrepancy in size between the states, something might be gained by the +institution of a system of provinces, some five or six in all, made up +of states grouped in accordance with their general community of +interests, as for example, all New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New +Jersey and Delaware; the states of the old Confederacy, those of the +Pacific Coast, and so on. The point need not be pressed here, but there +are considerations in its favour. In any case the nation as a whole is +the final federal unit. Here the lower legislative house would consist +of not more than four hundred members, allocated on a basis of +population and elected by the representative bodies of the primary units +(the townships and city wards) as already described. The members of the +upper house would be elected by the legislative bodies of the several +states on nomination by the Governor. The chief executive of the nation +would be chosen by the two legislative bodies, in joint session, from +amongst the then governors of the several states. He should certainly +hold office for "good behaviour," and his cabinet would be responsible +to the legislature as provided for in the case of the state governments. + +I do not offer this programme with any pride of paternity; probably it +would not work very well, but it could hardly prove less efficacious +than our present system under conditions as they have come to be. This +cannot continue indefinitely, for it is so hopelessly defective that it +is bound to bring about its own ruin, with the probable substitution of +some doctrinaire device engendered by the natural revolt against an +intolerable abuse. If only we could see conditions clearly and estimate +them at something approaching their real value, we should rapidly +develop a constructive public opinion that, even though it represented a +minority, might by the very force behind it compel the majority to +acquiesce in a radical reformation. Unfortunately we do not do this, we +are hypnotized by phrases and deluded by vain theories, as Mr. +Chesterton says: + +"So drugged and deadened is the public mind by the conventional public +utterances, so accustomed have we grown to public men talking this sort +of pompous nonsense and no other, that we are sometimes quite shocked by +the revelation of what men really think, or else of what they really +say." + +We do, now and then, confess that legislation is as a whole foolish, +frivolous and opportunist; that administration is wasteful, incompetent +and frequently venal; that the governmental personnel, legislative, +administrative and executive, is of a low order in point of character, +intelligence and culture--and tending lower each day. We admit this, for +the evidence is so conspicuous that to deny it would be hypocrisy, but +something holds us back from recognizing the nexus between effect and +cause. Unrestricted immigration, universal suffrage, rotation in office, +the subjection of many offices and measures to popular vote, the +parliamentary system, government by political parties--all these customs +and habits into which we have fallen have arrived at failure which +presages disaster. They have failed because the character of the people +that functioned through these various engines had failed, diluted by the +low mentality and character-content of millions of immigrants and their +offspring, degraded by the false values and vicious standards imposed by +industrial civilization, foot-loose from all binding and control of a +vital and potent religious impulse or religious organism. + +It is the old, vicious circle; spiritual energy declines or is diverted +into wrong channels; thereupon the physical forms, social, industrial, +political, slip a degree or two lower out of sympathy with the failing +energy, and these in their turn exert a degrading influence on the +waning spiritual force, which declines still further only to be pulled +lower still by the material agencies which continue their progressive +declension. Theories, no matter how high-minded and altruistic, cannot +stand before a condition such as this, for self-protection decrees +otherwise even if the higher motive of doing right things and getting +right things just because they _are_ right, does not come into effective +operation. The evil results of the institutions I have catalogued above +are not to be denied, and the institutions themselves must be reformed +or altogether abandoned, in the face of the loud-mouthed exhortations of +those who now make them their means of livelihood, and even at the +expense of the honest upholders of theories and doctrines that do credit +to their humanitarianism but have been weighed and found wanting. + +I am anxious not to put this plan for the reform, in root and branch, of +our political institutions, on the low level of mere caution and +self-defense. The motive power of this is fear, and fear is only second +to hate in its present position as a controlling force in society. We +should have good government not because it is economical and ensures +what are known as "good business conditions," and promises a peaceful +continuance of society, but because it is as worthy an object of +creative endeavour as noble art or a great literature or a just and +merciful economic system, or a life that is full of joy and beauty and +wholesome labour. The political organism is in a sense the microcosm of +life itself, and it should be society lifted up to a level of dignity, +majesty and nobility. The doctrine that in a democracy the government +must exactly express the numerical preponderance in the social +synthesis, and that, if this happens to be ignorant, mannerless and +corrupt, then the government must be after the same fashion, is a low +and a cowardly doctrine. Government should be better than the majority; +better than the minority if this has advantage over the other. It should +be of the best that man can compass, resting above him as in some sort +an ideal; the visible expression of his better self, and the better self +of the society of which he is a part. If a political system, any +political system, produces any other result; if it has issue in a +representation of the lowest and basest in society, or even of the +general average, then it is a bad system and it must be redeemed or it +will bring an end that is couched in terms of catastrophe. + +Reform is difficult, perhaps even impossible of attainment under the +existing system where universal, unlimited suffrage and the party system +are firmly intrenched as opponents of vital reform, and where +representation and legislation take their indelible colour from these +unfortunate institutions. It must freely be admitted that there is no +chance of eliminating or recasting either one or the other by the +recognized methods of platform support and mass action through the +ballot. It comes in the end to a change of viewpoint and of heart on the +part of the individual. No party, no political leader would for a moment +endorse any one of the principles or methods I have suggested, for this +would be a suicidal act. The newspaper, irresponsible, anonymous, +directed by its advertizing interests or by those more sinister still, +yet for all that the factor that controls the opinions of those who hold +the balance of power in the community as it is now constituted, would +reject them with derision, while in themselves they are radically +opposed to the personal interests of the majority. The only hope of +lifting government to the level of dignity and capacity it should hold, +lies in the individual. It is necessary that we should see things +clearly, estimate conditions as they are, and think through to the end. +We do not do this. We admit, in a dull sort of way, that matters are not +as they should be, that legislation is generally silly and oppressive, +that taxation is excessive, that administration is wasteful and reckless +and incompetent, for we know these things by experience. We accept them, +however, with our national good-nature and easy tolerance, assuming that +they are inseparable from democratic government--as indeed they are, but +not for a moment does any large number think of questioning the +principle, or even the system, that must take the responsibility. When +disgust and indifference reach a certain point we stop voting, that is +all. At the last presidential election less than one half the qualified +voters took the trouble to cast their ballots, while in Boston (which is +no exception) it generally happens that at a municipal elections the +ballots cast are less than one-third the total electorate. I wonder how +many there are here today who have ever been to a ward meeting, or have +sat through a legislative session of a city government, as of Boston for +example, or have listened to the debates in a state house of +representatives, or analyzed the annual grist of legislative bills, or +have sat for an hour or two in the Senate or House at Washington. Such +an experience is, I assure you, illuminating, for it shows exactly why +popular government is what it is, while it forms an admirable basis for +a constructive revision of judgment as to the soundness of accepted +principles and the validity of accepted methods. + +Our political attitude today is based on an inherited and automatic +acceptance of certain perfectly automatic formulae. We neither see +things clearly, estimate conditions as they are, nor think a proposition +through to the end: we are obsessed by old formulae, partisan "slogans" +and newspaper aphorisms; the which is both unworthy and perilous. Let us +see things clearly for a moment; if we do this anything is possible, no +matter how idealistic and apparently impracticable it may be. Is there +any one who would confess that character and intelligence are now a +helpless minority in this nation? Such an admission would be almost +constructive treason. The instinct of the majority is right, but it is +defective in will and it is subservient to base leadership, while its +power for good is negatived by the persistence of a mass of formulae +that, under radically changed conditions, have ceased to be beneficient, +or even true, and have become a clog and a stumbling block. + +I may not have indicated better ideals or sounder methods of operation, +but the true ideals exist and it is not beyond our ability to discover a +better working system. Partisanship cannot reveal either one or the +other, nor are they the fruit of organization or the attribute of +political leadership. They belong to the common citizen, to you, to the +individual, and if once superstition is cast out and we fall back on +right reason and the eternal principles of the Christian ethic and the +Christian ideal, we shall not find them difficult of attainment; and +once attained they can be put in practice, for the ill thing exists only +on sufferance, the right thing establishes itself by force of its very +quality of right. + + + + +VI + + +THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION AND ART + +When, as on occasion happens, some hostile criticism is leveled against +the civilization of modernism, or against some one of its many details, +the reply is ready, and the faultfinder is told that the defect, if it +exists, will in the end be obviated by the processes of popular +education. Pressed for more explicit details as to just what may be the +nature of this omnipotent and sovereign "education," the many champions +give various answer, depending more or less on the point of view and the +peculiar predilections of each, but the general principles are the same. +Education, they say, consist of two things; the formal practice and +training of the schools, and the experience that comes through the use +of certain public rights and privileges, such as the ballot, the holding +of office, service on juries, and through various experiences of the +practice of life, as the reading of newspapers (and perhaps books), the +activities of work, business and the professions, and personal +association with other men in social, craft, and professional clubs and +other organizations. + +With the second category of education through experience we need not +deal at this time; it is a question by itself and of no mean quality; +the matter I would consider is the more formal and narrow one of +scholastic training in so far as it bears on the Great Peace that, +though perhaps after many days, must follow the Great War and the little +peace. + +Answering along this line, the protagonists of salvation through +education pretty well agree that the thing itself means the widest +possible extension of our public school system, with free state +universities and technical schools, and the extension of the educational +period, with laws so rigid, and enforcement so pervasive and impartial, +that no child between the ages of six and sixteen can possibly escape. +This free, compulsory and universal education is assumed to be +scrupulously secular and hedged about with every safeguard against the +insidious encroachments of religion; it will aim to give a little +training in most of the sciences, and much in the practical necessities +of business life, as for example, stenography, book-keeping, advertising +and business science; it will cover a broad field of manual training +leading to "graduate courses" in special technical schools; the +"laboratory method" and "field practice" will be increasingly developed +and applied; Latin, Greek, logic and ancient history will be minimized +or done away with altogether, and modern languages, applied psychology +and contemporary history will be correspondingly emphasized. As for the +state university, it will allow the widest range of free electives, and +as an university it will aim to comprise within itself every possible +department of practical activity, such as business administration, +journalism, banking and finance, foreign trade, political science, +psycho-analysis, mining, sanitary engineering, veterinary surgery, as +well as law, medicine, agriculture, and civil and mechanical +engineering. I am curious to inquire at this time if education such as +this does, as a matter of fact, educate, and how far it my be relied +upon as a corrective for present defects in society; or rather, first of +all, whether education of this, or of any sort, may be looked on as a +sufficient saving force, and whether general education, instead of being +extended should not be curtailed, or rather safeguarded and restricted. + +I have already tried to indicate, in my lecture on the Social Organism, +certain doubts that are now arising as to the prophylactic and +regenerative powers of education, whether this is based on the old +foundation of the Trivium and Quadrivium under the supreme dominion of +Theology, or on the new foundation of utilitarianism and applied science +under the dominion of scientific pedagogy. While the active-minded +portion of society believed ardently in progressive evolution, in the +sufficiency of the intellect, the inerrancy of the scientific method, +and the transmission by inheritance of acquired characteristics, this +supreme confidence in free, secular, compulsory education as the +cure-all of the profuse and pervasive ills of society was not only +natural but inevitable. I submit that experience has measurably modified +the situation, and that we are bound therefore to reconsider our earlier +persuasions in the light of somewhat revealing events. + +We may admit that the system of modern education works measurably well +so far as intellectual training is concerned; _training_ as +distinguished from development. It works measurably well also in +preparing youth for participation in the life of applied science and for +making money in business and finance. Conscientious hard labour has been +given, and is being given, to making it more effective along these +lines, and almost every year some new scheme is brought forward +enthusiastically, tried out painstakingly, and then cast aside +ignominiously for some new and even more ingenious device. The amount of +education is enormous; the total of money spent on new foundations, +courses, buildings, equipment--on everything but the pay of the +teachers--is princely; the devotion of the teachers, themselves, in the +face of inadequate wages, is exemplary, and yet, somehow the results are +disappointing. The truth is, the development of _character_ is not in +proportion to the development of public and private education. The moral +standing of the nation, taken as a whole, has been degenerating; in +business, in public affairs, in private life, until the standards of +value have been confused, the line of demarcation between right and +wrong blurred to indistinctness, and the old motives of honour, duty, +service, charity, chivalry and compassion are no longer the controlling +motive, or at least the conscious aspiration, of active men. + +This is not to say that these do not exist; the period that has seen the +retrogression has recorded also a reaction, and there are now perhaps +more who are fired by the ardent passion for active righteousness, than +for several generations, but the average is lower, for where, many times +in the past, there has been a broad, general average of decency, now the +disparity is great between the motives that drive society as a whole, +and its methods of operation, and the remnant that finds itself an +unimportant minority. Newspapers are perhaps hardly a fair criterion of +the moral status of a people--or of anything else for that matter--but +what they record, and the way they do it, is at least an indication of a +condition, and after every possible allowance has been made, what they +record is a very alarming standard of public and private morality, both +in the happenings themselves and in the fashion of their publicity. + +No one would claim that the responsibility for this weakening of moral +standards rests predominantly on the shoulders of the educational system +of today; the causes lie far deeper than this, but the point I wish to +make is that the process has not been arrested by education, in spite of +its prevalence, and that therefore it is unwise to continue our +exclusive faith in its remedial offices. The faith was never well +founded. Education can do much, but what it does, or can do, is to +foster and develop _inherent possibilities,_ whether these are of +character, intelligence or aptitude: it cannot put into a boy or man +what was not there, _in posse,_ at birth, and humanly speaking, the +diversity of potential in any thousand units is limited only by the +number itself. Whether our present educational methods are those best +calculated to foster and develop these inherent possibilities, so varied +in nature and degree, is the question, and it is a question the answer +to which depends largely on whether we look on intelligence, capacity or +character as the thing of greatest moment. For those who believe that +character is the thing of paramount importance--amongst whom I count +myself--the answer must be in the negative. + +Nor is an affirmative reply entirely assured when the question is asked +as to the results in the case of intellect and capacity. There are few +who would claim that in either of these directions the general standard +is now as high as it was, for example, in the last half of the last +century. The Great War brought to the front few personalities of the +first class, and the peace that has followed has an even less +distinguished record to date. We may say with truth, I think, that the +last ten years have provided greater issues, and smaller men to meet +them in the capacity of leaders, than any previous crisis of similar +moment. The art of leadership, and the fact of leadership, have been +lost, and without leadership any society, particularly a democracy, is +in danger of extinction. + +Here again one cannot charge education with our lack of men of +character, intelligence and capacity to lead; as before, the causes lie +far deeper, but the almost fatal absence at this time of the +personalities of such force and power that they can captain society in +its hours of danger from war or peace, must give us some basis for +estimating the efficiency of our educational theory and practice, and +again raise doubts as to whether here also we shall be well advised if +we rely exclusively upon it as the ultimate saviour of society, while we +are bound to ask whether its methods, even of developing intelligence +and capacity, are the best that can be devised. + +Another point worth considering is this. So long as we could lay the +flattering unction to our souls that acquired characteristics were +heritable, and that therefore if an outcast from Posen, migrating to +America, had taken advantage of his new opportunities and so had +developed his character-potential, amassed money and acquired a measure +of education and culture, he would automatically transmit something of +this to his offspring, who would start so much the further forward and +would tend normally to still greater advance, and so on _ad infinitum,_ +so long we were justified in enforcing the widest measure of education +on all and sundry, and in waiting in hope for a future when the +cumulative process should have accomplished its perfect work. Now, +however, we are told that this hope is vain, that acquired +characteristics are not transmitted by heredity, and that the old +folk-proverb "it is only three generations between shirtsleeves and +shirtsleeves," is perhaps more scientifically exact than the +evolutionary dictum of the nineteenth century. Which is what experience +and history have been teaching, lo, these many years. + +The question then seems to divide itself into three parts; (a) are we +justified in pinning our faith in ultimate social salvation to free, +secular, and compulsory education carried to the furthest possible +limits; (b) if not, then what precisely is the function of formal +education; and (c) this being determined, is our present method +adequate, and if not how should it be modified? + +It is unwise to speak dogmatically along any of these lines, they are +too blurred and uncertain. I can only express an individual opinion. + +It seems to me that life unvaryingly testifies to the extreme disparity +of potential in individuals and in families and in racial strains, +though in the two latter the difference is not necessarily absolute and +permanent, but variable in point of both time and degree. In individuals +the limit of this potentiality is inherent, and it can neither be +completely inhibited by adverse education and environment nor measurably +extended by favourable education and environment. Characteristics +acquired _outside_ inherent limitations are personal and non-heritable, +however intimately they may have become a part of the individual +himself. + +If this is true, then the question of education becomes personal also; +that is to say, we educate for the individual, and with an eye to the +part he himself is to play in society. We do not look for cumulative +results but in a sense deal with each personality in regard to itself +alone. I think this has a bearing both on the extent to which education +should be enforced and on the quality and method of education itself, +and though the contention will receive little but ridicule, I am bound +to say that I hold that _general_ education should be reduced in +quantity and considerably changed in nature. + +If the limit of development is substantially determined in each +individual and cannot be extended by human agencies (I say "human" +because God in His wisdom and by His power can raise up a prophet or a +saint out of the lowest depths, and frequently does so), then the +quantity and extent of general education should be determined not by a +period of years and the facilities offered by a government liberal in +its expenditures, but entirely by the demonstrated or indicated capacity +of the individual. Our educational system should, so far as it is free +and compulsory, normally end with the high school grade. Free college, +university and technical training should not be provided, except for +those who had given unmistakable evidences that they could, and probably +would, use it to advantage. This would be provided for by +non-competitive scholarships, limited in number only by the number of +capable candidates, and determination of this capacity would be, not on +the basis of test examinations, but on an average record covering a +considerable period of time. It is doubtful if even these scholarships +should be wholly free; some responsibility should be recognized, for a +good half of the value of a thing (perhaps all its value) lies in +working for it. A grant without service, a favour accepted without +obligations, privilege without function, both cheapen and degrade. + +Let us now turn to the second question, i.e., what precisely is the +function of formal education. For my own part I can answer this in a +sentence. It is primarily the fostering and development of the +character-potential inherent in each individual. In this process +intellectual training and expansion and the furthering of natural +aptitude have a part, but this is secondary to the major object which is +the development of character. + +This is not in accordance with the practice or the theory of recent +times, and in this fact lies one of the prime causes of failure. The one +thing man exists to accomplish is character; not worldly success and +eminence in any line, not the conquest of nature (though some have held +otherwise), not even "adaptation to environment" in the _argot_ of last +century science, but _character;_ the assimilation and fixing in +personality of high and noble qualities of thought and deed, the +furtherance, in a word, of the eternal sacramental process of redemption +of matter through the operation of spiritual forces. Without this, +social and political systems, imperial dominion, wealth and power, a +favourable balance of trade avail nothing; with it, forms and methods +and the enginery of living will look out for themselves. And yet this +thing which comprises "the whole duty of man" has, of late, fallen into +a singular disregard, while the constructive forces that count have +either been discredited and largely abandoned, as in the case of +religion, or, like education, turned into other channels or reversed +altogether, as has happened with the idea and practice of obedience, +discipline, self-denial, duty, honour and unselfishness; surely the most +fantastic issue of the era of enlightenment, of liberty and of freedom +of conscience. + +As a matter of fact character, as the chief end of man and the sole +guaranty of a decent society, has been neglected; it was not disregarded +by any conscious process, but the headlong events that have followed +since the fifteenth century have steadily distorted our judgment and +confused our standards of value even to reversal. By an imperceptible +process other matters have come to engage our interest and control our +action, until at last we are confronted by the nemesis of our own +unwisdom, and we entertain the threat of a dissolving civilization just +because the forces we have engendered or set loose have not been curbed +or directed by that vigorous and potent personal character informing a +people and a society, that we had forgot in our haste and that alone +could give us safety. + +Formal education is but one of the factors that may be employed towards +the development of character; you cannot so easily separate one force in +life from another, assigning a specific duty here, a definite task +there. That is one of the weaknesses of our time, the water-tight +compartment plan of high specialization, the cellular theory of +efficiency. Life must be seen as a whole, organized as a whole, lived as +a whole. Every thought, every emotion, every action, works for the +building or the unbuilding of character, and this synthesis of living +must be reestablished before we can hope for social regeneration. +Nevertheless formal education may be made a powerful factor, even now, +and not only in this one specific direction, but through this, for the +accomplishing of that unification of life that already is indicated as +the next great task that is set before us; and this brings me to a +consideration of the last of the questions I have proposed for answer, +viz.: is our present system of education adequate to the sufficient +development of character, and if not, how should it be modified? + +I do not think it adequate, and experience seems to me to prove the +point. It has not maintained the sturdy if sometimes acutely unpleasant +character of the New England stock, or the strong and handsome character +of the race that dwelt in the thirteen original colonies as this +manifested itself well into the last century, and it has, in general, +bred no new thing in the millions of immigrants and their descendants +who have flooded the country since 1840 and from whom the public schools +and some of the colleges are largely recruited. It is not a question of +expanded brain power or applied aptitude, but of character, and here +there is a larger measure of failure than we had a right to expect. And +yet, had we this right? The avowed object of formal education is mental +and vocational training, and by no stretch of the imagination can we +hold these to be synonymous with character. We have dealt with and +through one thing alone, and that is the intellect, whereas character is +rather the product of emotions judiciously stimulated, balanced (not +controlled) by intellect, and applied through active and varied +experience. Deliberately have we cut out every emotional and spiritual +factor; not only religion and the fine arts, but also the studies, and +the methods of study, and the type of text-books, that might have helped +in the process of spiritual and emotional development. We have +eliminated Latin and Greek, or taught them as a branch of philology; we +have made English a technical exercise in analysis and composition, +disregarding the moral and spiritual significance of the works of the +great masters of English; we minimize ancient history and concentrate on +European history since the French Revolution, and on the history of the +United States, and because of the sensitiveness of our endless variety +of religionists (pro forma) text books are written which leave religion +out of history altogether--and frequently economics and politics as well +when these cannot be made to square with popular convictions; philosophy +and logic are already pretty well discarded, except for special +electives and post-graduate courses, and as for art in its multifarious +forms we know it not, unless it be in the rudimentary and devitalized +form of free-hand drawing and occasional concerted singing. The only +thing that is left in the line of emotional stimulus is competitive +athletics, and for this reason I sometimes think it one of the most +valuable factors in public education. It has, however, another function, +and that is the coordination of training and life; it is in a sense an +_école d'application,_ and through it the student, for once in a way, +tries out his acquired mental equipment and his expanding character--as +well as his physical prowess--against the circumstances of active +vitality. It is just this sort of thing that for so long made the +"public schools" of England, however limited or defective may have been +the curriculum, a vital force in the development of British character. + +At best, however, this seems to me but an indifferent substitute, an +inadequate "extra," doing limitedly the real work of education by +indirection. What we need (granting my assumption of character as the +_terminus ad quem_) is an educational system so recast that the formal +studies and the collateral influences and the school life shall be more +coordinated in themselves and with life, and that the resulting stimulus +shall be equally operative along intellectual, emotional and creative +lines. + +It is sufficiently easy to make suggestions as to how this is to be +accomplished, to lay out programmes and lay down curricula, but here as +elsewhere this does not amount to much; the change must come and the +institutions develop as the result of the operations of life. If we can +change our view of the object of education, the very force of life, +working through experience, will adequately determine the forms. It is +not therefore as a meticulous and mechanical system that I make the +following suggestions as to certain desirable changes, but rather to +indicate more exactly what I mean by a scheme of education that will +work primarily towards the development of character. + +Now in the first place, I must hold that there can be no education which +works primarily for character building, that is not interpenetrated at +every point by definite, concrete religion and the practice of religion. +As I shall try to show in my last two lectures, religion is the force or +factor that links action with life. It is the only power available to +man that makes possible a sound standard of comparative values, and with +philosophy teaching man how to put things in their right order, it +enters to show him how to control them well, while it offers the great +constructive energy that makes the world an orderly unity rather than a +type of chaos. Until the Reformation there was no question as to this, +and even after, in the nations that accepted the great revolution, the +point was for a time maintained; thereafter the centrifugal tendency in +Protestantism resulted in such a wealth of mutually antagonistic sects +that the application of the principle became impracticable, and for +this, as well as for more fundamental reasons, it fell into desuetude. +The condition is as difficult today for the process of denominational +fission has gone steadily forward, and as this energy of the religious +influence weakens the strenuosity of maintenance strengthens. With our +157 varieties of Protestantism confronting Catholicism, Hebraism, and a +mass of frank rationalism and infidelity as large in amount as all +others combined, it would seem at first sight impossible to harmonize +free public education with concrete religion in any intimate way. So it +is; but if the principle is recognized and accepted, ways and means will +offer themselves, and ultimately the principle will be embodied in a +workable scheme. + +For example; there is one thing that can be done anywhere, and whenever +enough votes can be assembled to carry through the necessary +legislation. At present the law regards with an austere disapproval that +reflects a popular opinion (now happily tending towards decay), what are +known as "denominational schools" and other institutions of learning. +Those that maintain the necessity of an intimate union between religion +and education, as for example the great majority of Roman Catholics and +an increasing number of Episcopalians and Presbyterians, are taxed for +the support of secular public schools which they do not use, while they +must maintain at additional, and very great, expense, parochial and +other private schools where their children may be taught after a fashion +which they hold to be necessary from their own point of view. Again, +state support is refused to such schools or colleges as may be under +specific religious control, while pension funds for the teachers, +established by generous benefactions, are explicitly reserved for those +who are on the faculties of institutions which formally dissociate +themselves from any religious influence. I maintain that this is both +unjust and against public policy. Under our present system of religious +individualism and ecclesiastical multiplicity, approximations only are +possible, but I believe the wise and just plan would be for the state to +fix certain standards which all schools receiving financial support from +the public funds must maintain, and then, this condition being carried +out, distribute the funds received from general taxation to public and +private schools alike. This would enable Episcopalians, let us say, or +Roman Catholics, or Jews, when in any community they are numerous enough +to provide a sufficiency of scholars for any primary, grammar, or high +school, to establish such a school in as close a relationship to their +own religion as they desired, and have this school maintained out of the +funds of the city. This is not a purely theoretical proposition; after +an agitation lasting nearly half a century, Holland has this year put +such a law in force. From every point of view we should do well to +recognize this plan as both just and expedient. One virtue it would +have, apart from those already noted, is the variation it would permit +in curricula, text books, personnel and scholastic life as between one +school and another. There is no more fatal error in education than that +standardization which has recently become a fad and which finds its most +mechanistic manifestation in France. + +Of course this need for the fortifying of education by religion is +recognized even now, but the only plan devised for putting it into +effect is one whereby various ministers of religion are allowed a +certain brief period each week in which they may enter the public +schools and give denominational instruction to those who desire their +particular ministrations. This is one of the compromises, like the older +method of Bible reading without commentary or exposition, which avails +nothing and is apt to be worse than frank and avowed secularism. It is +putting religion on exactly the same plane as analytical chemistry, +psychoanalysis or salesmanship, (the latter I am told is about to be +introduced in the Massachusetts high schools) or any other "elective," +whereas if it is to have any value whatever it must be an ever-present +force permeating the curriculum, the minds of the teachers, and the +school life from end to end, and there is no way in which this can be +accomplished except by a policy that will permit the maintenance of +schools under religious domination at the expense of the state, provided +they comply with certain purely educational requirements established and +enforced by the state. + +I have already pointed out what seems to me the desirability of a +considerable variation between the curriculum of one school and another. +This would be possible and probably certain under the scheme proposed, +but barring this, it is surely an open question whether the pretty +thoroughly standardized curriculum now in operation would not be +considerably modified to advantage if it is recognized that the prime +object of education is character rather than mental training and the +fitting of a pupil to obtain a paying job on graduation. From my own +point of view the answer is in a vociferous affirmative. I suggest the +drastic reduction of the very superficial science courses in all schools +up to and including the high school, certainly in chemistry, physics and +biology, but perhaps with some added emphasis on astronomy, geology and +botany. History should become one of the fundamental subjects, and +English, both being taught for their humanistic value and not as +exercises in memory or for the purpose of making a student a sort of +dictionary of dates. This would require a considerable rewriting of +history text books, as well as a corresponding change in the methods of +teaching, but after all, are not these both consummations devoutly to be +wished. There are few histories like Mr. Chesterton's "Short History of +England," unfortunately. One would, perhaps, hardly commend this +stimulating book as a sufficient statement of English history for +general use in schools, but its approach is wholly right and it +possesses the singular virtue of interest. Another thing that commends +it is the fact that while it runs from Caesar to Mr. Lloyd George, it +contains, I believe, only seven specific dates, three of which are +possibly wrong. This is as it should be--not the inaccuracies but the +commendable frugality in point of number. Dates, apart from a few key +years, are of small historical importance; so are the details of palace +intrigues and military campaigns. History is, or should be, life +expressed in terms of romance, and it is of little moment whether the +narrated incidents are established by documentary evidence or whether +they are contemporary legend quite unsubstantiated by what are known +(and overestimated) as "facts." There is more of the real Middle Ages in +Mallory's "Mort d'Arthur" than there is in all Hallam, and the same +antithesis can be established for nearly all other periods of history. + +The history of man is one great dramatic romance, and so used it may be +made perhaps the most stimulating agency in education as character +development. I do not mean romance in the sense in which Mr. Wells takes +it, that is to say, the dramatic assembling and clever coördination of +unsubstantiated theories, personal preferences, prejudices and +aversions, under the guise of solemn and irrefutable truth attested by +all the exact sciences known to man, but romance which aims like any +other art at communicating from one person to another something of the +inner and essential quality of life as it has been lived, even if the +material used is textually doubtful or even probably apocryphal. The +deadly enemy of good, sound history is scientific historical criticism. +The true history is romantic tradition; the stimulating thing, the tale +that makes the blood leap, the pictorial incident that raises up in an +instant the luminous vision of some great thing that once was. + +I would not exchange Kit Marlowe's + + _"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships + And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"_ + +for all the critical commentaries of Teutonic pedants on the character +and attributes of Helen of Troy as these have (to them) been revealed by +archaeological investigations. I dare say that Bishop St. Remi of Reims +never said in so many words "Bow thy proud head, Sicambrian; destroy +what thou hast worshipped, worship what thou hast destroyed," and that +the Meroving monarch did not go thence to issue an "order of the day" +that the army should forthwith march down to the river and be baptized +by battalions; but _there_ is the clear, unforgettable picture of the +times and the men, and it will remain after the world has forgotten that +some one has proved that St. Remi never met Clovis, and that he himself +was probably only a variant of the great and original "sun-myth." + +Closely allied with the teaching of history and forming a link as it +were with the teaching of English, is a branch of study at present +unformulated and unknown, but, I am convinced, of great importance in +education as a method of character development. Life has always focused +in great personalities, and formal history has recognized the fact while +showing little discretion, and sometimes very defective judgment, in the +choices it has made. A past period becomes our own in so far as we +translate it through its personalities and its art; the original +documents matter little, except when they become misleading, as they +frequently do, when read through contemporary spectacles. Now the great +figures of a time are not only princes and politicians, conquerors and +conspirators, they are quite as apt to be the knights and heroes and +brave gentlemen who held no conspicuous position in Church or state. I +think we need what might be called "The Golden Book of Knighthood"--or a +series of text books adapted to elementary and advanced schools--made up +of the lives and deeds (whether attested by "original documents," or +legendary or even fabulous does not matter) of those in all times, and +amongst all peoples, who were the glory of knighthood; the "parfait +gentyl Knyghtes" "without fear and without reproach." Such for example, +to go no farther back than the Christian Era, as St. George and St. +Martin, King Arthur and Launcelot and Galahad, Charles Martel and +Roland, St. Louis, Godfrey de Bouillon and Saladin, the Earl of +Strafford, Montrose and Claverhouse, the Chevalier Bayard, Don John of +Austria, Washington and Robert Lee and George Wyndham. These are but a +few names, remembered at random; there are scores besides, and I think +that they should be held up to honour and emulation throughout the +formative period of youth. After all, they became, during the years when +these qualities were exalted, the personification of the ideals of +honour and chivalry, of compassion and generosity, of service and +self-sacrifice and courtesy, and these, the qualifications of a +gentleman and a man or honour, are, with the religion that fostered +them, and the practice of that religion, the just objective of +education. + +Much of all this can even now be taught through a judicious use of the +opportunities offered instructors in English, whether this is through +the graded "readers" of elementary education, or the more extended +courses in colleges and universities. Very frequently these +opportunities are ignored, and will be until we achieve something of a +new orientation in the matter of teaching English. + +Now it may be I hold a vain and untenable view of this subject, but I am +willing to confess that I believe the object of teaching English is the +unlocking of the treasures of thought, character and emotion preserved +in the written records of the tongue, and the arousing of a desire to +know and assimilate these treasures on the part of the pupil. I am very +sure that English should not be taught as a thing ending in "ology," not +as an intricate science with all sorts of laws and rules and exceptions; +not as a system whereby the little children of the Ghetto, and the +offspring of Pittsburgh millionaires, and the spectacled infant elect of +Beacon Hill may all be raised to the point where they can write with +acceptable fluency the chiseled phrases of Matthew Arnold, the cadenced +Latinity of Sir Thomas Browne, the sonorous measures of Bolingbroke or +the distinguished and resonant periods of the King James Bible. Such an +aim as this will always result in failure. + +The English language is the great storehouse of the rich thought and the +burning emotion of the English race, and all this, as it has issued out +of character, works towards the development of character, when it is +made operative in new generations. There is no other language but Latin +that has preserved so great a wealth of invaluable things, and English +is taught in order that it all may be more available through that +appreciation that comes from familiarity. There is no nobler record in +the world: from Chaucer down to the moderns is one splendid sequence of +character-revelations through a perfect but varied art, for literature +is also a fine art, and one of the greatest of all. Is it not fair to +say that the chief duty of the teacher of English is to lead the student +to like great literature, to find it and enjoy it for himself, and +through it to come to the liking of great ideas? + +In the old days there was an historical, or rather archaeological, +method that was popular; also an analytical and grammarian method. There +was also the philological method which was quite the worst of all and +had almost as devastating results as in the case of Latin. It almost +seems as though English were being taught for the production of a +community of highly specialized teachers. No one would now go back to +any of those quaint and archaic ways digged up out of the dim and remote +past of the XIXth century. We should all agree, I think, that for +general education, specialized technical knowledge is unimportant and +scientific intensive methods unjustifiable. For one student who will +turn out a teacher there are five hundred that will be just simple +voters, wage-earners, readers of the Saturday Evening Post and the New +Republic, members of the Fourth Presbyterian Church or the Ethical +Society, and respectable heads of families. The School of Pedagogy has +its own methods (I am given to understand), but under correction I +submit they are not those of general education. Shall I put the whole +thing in a phrase and say that the object of teaching English is to get +young people to like good things? + +You may say this is English Literature, not English. Are the two so very +far apart? English as a language is taught to make literature available. +"Example is better than precept." Reading good literature for the love +of it will bring in the habit of grammatical speaking and writing far +more effectively than what is known as "a thorough grounding in the +principles of English grammar." I doubt if the knowledge of, and +facility in, English can be built up on such a basis; rather the laws +should be deduced from examples. Philology, etymology, syntax are +derivatives, not foundations. "Practice makes perfect" is a saying that +needs to be followed by the old scholastic defensive _"distinguo."_ +Practice in reading, rather than practice in writing, makes good English +composition possible. The "daily theme" may be overdone; it is of little +use unless _thought_ keeps ahead of the pen. + +I would plead then for the teaching of English after a fashion that will +reveal great thoughts and stimulate to greater life, through the noble +art of English literature and the perfectly illogical but altogether +admirable English language. The function of education is to make +students feel, think and act, after a fashion that increasingly reveals +and utilizes the best that is in them, and increasingly serves the uses +of society, and both history and English can be so taught as to help +towards the accomplishment of these ends. + +There is another factor that may be so used, but I confess I shall speak +of it with some hesitation. It is at present, and has been for ages, +entirely outside the possibility even of consideration, and in a sense +that goes beyond the general ignoring of religion, for while Catholics, +who form the great majority of Christians, still hold to religion as a +prime element in education, there are none--or only a minority so small +as to be negligible--who give a thought to art in this connection. I +bring forward the word, and the thing it represents, with diffidence, +even apologetically: indeed, it is perhaps better to renounce the word +altogether and substitute the term "beauty," for during the nineteenth +century art got a bad name, not altogether undeservedly, and the +disrepute lingers. So long as beauty is an instinct native to men (and +it was this, except for very brief and periodic intervals, until hardly +more than a century ago, though latterly in a vanishing form), it is +wholesome, stimulating and indispensable, but when it becomes +self-conscious, when it finds itself the possession of a few highly +differentiated individuals instead of the attribute of man as such, then +it tends to degenerate into something abnormal and, in its last estate, +both futile and unclean. In its good estate, as for example in Greece, +Byzantium, the Middle Ages, and in Oriental countries until the last few +decades, beauty was so natural an object of endeavour and a mode of +expression, and its universality resulted in so characteristic an +environment, it was unnecessary to talk about it very much, or to give +any particular thought to the educational value of the arts which were +its manifestation through and to man, or how this was to be applied. The +things were there, everywhere at hand; the temples and churches, the +painting and the sculpture and the works of handicraft; the music and +poetry and drama, the ceremonial and costume of daily life, both secular +and religious, the very cities in which men congregated and the villages +in which they were dispersed. Beauty, in all its concrete forms of art, +was highly valued, almost as highly as religion or liberty or bodily +health, but then it was a part of normal life and therefore taken for +granted. + +Now all is changed. For just an hundred years (the process definitely +began here in America between 1820 and 1823) we have been eliminating +beauty as an attribute of life and living until, during the last two +generations, it is true to say that the instinctive impulse of the race +as a whole is towards ugliness in those categories of creation and +appreciation where formerly it had been towards beauty. Of course the +corollary of this was the driving of the unhappy man in whom was born +some belated impulse towards the apprehending of beauty and its visible +expression in some art, back upon himself, until, conscious of his +isolation and confident of his own superiority, he not only made his art +a form of purely personal expression (or even of exposure), but held +himself to be, and so conducted himself, as a being apart, for whom the +laws of the herd were not, and to whom all men should bow. + +The separation of art from life is only less disastrous in its results +than the separation of religion from life, particularly since with the +former went the separation of art (and therefore of beauty) from its +immemorial alliance with religion. It was bad for art, it was bad for +religion, and it was worst of all for life itself. Beyond a certain +point man cannot live in and with and through ugliness, nor can society +endure under such conditions, and the fact is that, however it came to +pass, modern civilization has functioned through explicit ugliness, and +the environment it has made for its votaries and its rebels +indifferently, is unique in its palpable hideousness; from the clothes +it wears and the motives it extols, to the cities it builds, and the +structures therein, and the scheme of life that romps along in its +ruthless career within the sordid suburbs that take the place of the +once enclosing walls. And the defiant and segregated "artists," mortuary +art museums, the exposed statues and hidden pictures, the opera +subsidized by "high society," and the "arts and crafts" societies and +the "art magazines" and "art schools" and clubs and "city beautiful" +committees, only seem to make the contrast more apparent and the +desperate nature of the situation more profound. + +It is a new situation altogether, and nowhere in history is there any +recorded precedent to which we can return for council and example, for +nothing quite of the same sort ever happened before. It is also a +problem of which formal education must take cognizance, for the lack is +one which must somehow be supplied, while it reveals an astonishing +_lacuna_ in life that means a new deficiency in the unconscious +education of man that renders him ineffective in life; defective even, +it may be, unless from some source he can acquire something of what in +the past life itself could afford. + +Indeed it is not merely a negative influence we deal with, but a +positive, for, to paraphrase a little, "ugly associations corrupt good +morals." Youth is beaten upon at many points by things that not only +look ugly, but are, and as in compassion we are bound to offer some new +agency to fill a lack, so in self-defence we must take thought as to how +the evil influence of contemporaneousness is to be nullified and its +results corrected. + +I confess the method seems to me to lean more closely to the indirect +influence rather than the direct. It is doubtful if "art" can really be +taught in any sense; the inherent sense of beauty can be fostered and an +inherent aptitude developed, but that is about all. As for the building +up of a non-professional passion for art I am quite sure it cannot be +done, and should hardly be attempted, and very likely the same is true +of the application of beauty. + +Text books on "How to Understand" this art or that are interesting +ventures into abstract theory, but they are little more. We must always +remember that art is a result, not a product, and that sense of beauty +is a natural gift and not an accomplishment. On the other hand, much can +be accomplished by indirection, and by this I mean the buildings and the +grounds and the cultural adjuncts that are offered by any school or +college. The ordinary type of school-house--primary, grammar or high +school--is, in its barren ugliness and its barbarous "efficiency," a +very real outrage on decency, and a few Braun photographs and plaster +casts and potted plants avail nothing. Private schools and some +colleges--by no means all--are apt to be somewhat better, and here the +improvement during the last ten years has been amazing, one or two +universities having acquired single buildings, or groups, of the most +astonishing architectural beauty. In no case, however, has as yet +complete unity been achieved, while the arts of painting, sculpture, +music and the drama, as vital and operative and pervasive influences, +lag far behind, and formal religion with its liturgies and ceremonial, +its constant and varied services and its fine and appealing +pageantry--religion which is the greatest vitalizing and stimulating +force in beauty is hardly touched at all. + +Bad art of any kind is bad anywhere, but in any type of educational +institution, from the kindergarten to the post graduate college, it is +worse and less excusable than it is elsewhere, unless it be in +association with religion, while the absence of beauty at the +instigation of parsimony or efficiency is just as bad. I am firmly +persuaded that we need, not more courses of study but more beautiful +environment for scholars under instruction. + +I have touched cursorily on certain elements in education which need +either a new emphasis or an altogether new interpretation; religion, +history, art, but this does not mean that the same treatment should not +be accorded elsewhere. There are certain studies that should be revived, +such as formal logic, there are others that need immediate and complete +restoration, as Latin for example, there are many, chiefly along +scientific and vocational lines, that could well be minimized, or in +some cases dispensed with altogether: one might go on indefinitely on +this line, however, weighing and testing studies in relation to their +character-value, but certainly enough has already been said to indicate +the point of view I would urge for consideration. Before I close, +however, I want to touch on two points that arise in connection with +college education, if, even for the sake of argument, we admit that the +primary object of all formal education is the "education" of the +character-capacity in each individual. + +Of these two, the first has to do with the college curriculum, but I +need to devote little time to this for the principle has already been +developed and applied in a singularly stimulating and lucid book called +"The Liberal College," by President Meiklejohn of Amherst, to which I +beg to refer you. The scheme is a remarkable blending of the prescribed +and the elective systems, and provides for the freshman year five +compulsory studies, viz.: Social and Economic Institutions, Mathematics +and Formal Logic, Science, English and Foreign Languages; for the +sophomore year European History, Philosophy, Science, Literature, and +one elective; for the junior year American History, History of Thought +and two electives, and for the senior year one required study, +Intellectual and Moral Problems, and one elective, the latter, which +takes two-thirds of the student's time, must be a continuation of one of +the four subjects included in the junior year. It seems to me that this +is a singularly wise programme, since it not only determines the few +studies which are fundamental, and imposes them on the student in +diminishing number as he advances in his work, but it also provides for +that freedom of choice which permits any student to find out and +continue the particular line along which his inclinations lead him to +travel, until his senior year is chiefly given over to the fullest +possible development of the special subject. The fad for free electives +all along the line was one of those curious phenomena, both humorous and +tragic, that grew out of the evolutionary philosophy and the empirical +democracy of the nineteenth century, and it wrought disaster, while the +ironclad curriculum that preceded it was almost as bad along an opposite +line. This project of Dr. Meiklejohn's seems to me to recognize life as +a force and to base itself on this sure foundation instead of on the +shifting sands of doctrinaire theory, and if this is so then it is +right. + +For after all there is such a thing as life, and it is more potent than +theory as it also has a way of disregarding or even smashing the +machine. It is this force of life that should be more regarded in +education, and more relied upon. It is the living in a school or a +college that counts more than a curriculum; the association with others, +students and teachers, the communal life, the common adventures and +scrapes, the common sports, yes, and as it will be sometime, the common +worship. It is through these that life works and character develops, and +to this development and instigation of life the school and college +should work more assiduously, minimizing for the moment the problems of +curricula and pedagogic methods. If I am right in this there is no place +for the "correspondence school," while the college or university that +numbers its students by thousands becomes at least of doubtful value, +and perhaps impossible. In any case it seems to me self-evident that a +college, whatever its numbers, must have, as its primal and essential +units, self-contained groups of not more than 150 students segregated in +their own residential quad, with its common-room, refectory and chapel, +and with a certain number of faculty members in residence, the whole +being united under one "head." There may be perhaps no reason why, +granting this unit system, these should not be multiplied in number +until the whole student body is as great as that of a western state +university today, but to me the idea is abhorrent of an "university" +with five or ten thousand students all jostling together In one inchoate +mass, eating in numerical mobs, assembling in social "unions" as large +as a metropolitan hotel and almost as homelike, or taking refuge for +safety from mere numbers in clubs, fraternities and secret societies. A +college such as this is a mob, not an organism, and as a mob it ought to +be put down. + +I said at the outset of this lecture that we could not lay the present +failure of civilization to the doors of education, however great its +shortcomings, for the causes lay deeper than this. I maintain that this +is true; and yet formal education can not escape scatheless, for it has +failed to admit this decline while acknowledging the claim set up for it +that it could and would achieve this end. Certainly it will incur a +heavy responsibility if it does not at once recognize the fact that +while it can not do the half that has been claimed for it, it can do far +more than it is doing now, and that in a very large degree the future +does depend for its honour or its degradation on the part formal +education is to perform at the present crisis. To do this it must +execute a _volte face_ and confess that it can only develop inherent +potential, not create capacity, and that the primary object of its +activities must be not the stall-feeding of intellect and the practical +preparation for a business career, but the fostering and the building up +of the personal character that denotes the Christian gentleman. I do not +think that I can do better for a conclusion than to quote from the +"Philosophy of Education" by the late Dr. Thomas Edward Shields. + +"The unchanging aim of Christian education is, and always has been, to +put the pupil into possession of a body of truth derived from nature and +from Divine Revelation, from the concrete work of man's hand and from +the content of human speech, in order to bring his conduct into +conformity with Christian ideals and with the standards of the +civilization of his day. + +"Christian education, therefore, aims at transforming native instincts +while preserving and enlarging their powers. It aims at bringing the +flesh under the control of the spirit. It draws upon the experience and +the wisdom of the race, upon Divine Revelation and upon the power of +Divine grace, in order that it may bring the conduct of the individual +into conformity with Christian ideals and with the standards of the +civilization of the day. It aims at the development of the whole man, at +the preservation of unity and continuity in his conscious life; it aims +at transforming man's native egotism to altruism; at developing the +social side of his nature to such an extent that he may regard all men +as his brothers; sharing with them the common Fatherhood of God. In one +word, it aims at transforming a child of the flesh into a child of God." + + + + +VII + + +THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC RELIGION + +If philosophy is "the science of the totality of things," and "they are +called wise who put things in their right order and control them well," +then it is religion, above all other factors and potencies, that enters +in to reveal the right relationships and standards of value, and to +contribute the redemptive and energizing force that makes possible the +adequate control which is the second factor in the conduct of the man +that is "called wise." Philosophy and religion are not to be confounded; +religion is sufficient in itself and develops its own philosophy, but +the latter is not sufficient in itself, and when it assumes the +functions and prerogatives of religion, it brings disaster. + +Religion is the force that relates action to life. Of course it has +other aspects, higher in essence and more impalpable in quality, but it +is this first aspect I shall deal with, because I am not now speaking of +religion as a purely spiritual power but only of its quality as the +great coordinator of human action, the power that establishes a right +ratio of values and gives the capacity for right control. Whether we +accept the religion of the Middle Ages or not; whether we look on the +period as one of high and edifying Christian civilization, or as a time +of ignorance and superstition, we are bound to admit that society in its +physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects was highly organized, and +coordinated after a most masterly fashion. It was more nearly an unit, +functioning lucidly and consistently, than anything the world has known +since the Roman Empire. Whatever its defects, lack of coherency was not +one of them. Life was not divided into water-tight compartments, but +moved on as a consistent whole. Failures were constant, for the world +even then was made up of men, but the ideal was perfectly clear-cut, the +principles exactly seen and explicitly formulated; life was organic, +consistent, highly articulated, and withal as full of the passion of +aspiration towards an ultimate ideal as was the Gothic cathedral which +is its perfect exemplar. + +The reason for this coherency and consistency was the universal +recognition and acceptance of religion as the one energizing and +standardizing force in life, the particular kind of religion that then +prevailed, and the organic power which this religion had established; +that is to say, the Church as an operative institution. So long as this +condition obtained, which was, roughly speaking, for three hundred +years, from the "Truce of God" in 1041 to the beginning of the +"Babylonian Captivity" of the Papacy at Avignon in 1309, there was +substantial unity in life, but as soon as it was shaken, this unity +began to break up into a diversity that accomplished a condition of +chaos, at and around the opening of the sixteenth century, which only +yielded to the absolutism of the Renaissance, destined in its turn to +break up into a second condition of chaos under the influence of +industrialism, Puritanism and revolution. + +Since the accomplishment of the Reformation, this function of religion +has never been restored to society in any degree comparable with that +which it maintained during the Middle Ages. The Counter-Reformation +preserved the institution itself in the Mediterranean lands, but it did +not restore its old spiritual power in its entirety. Amongst the peoples +that accepted the Reformation the new religion assumed for a time the +authority of the old, but the centrifugal force inherent in its nature +soon split the reformed churches into myriad fragments, so destroying +their power of action, while the abandonment of the sacramental system +progressively weakened their dynamic force. As it had from the first +compounded, under compulsion, with absolutism and tyranny, so in the end +it compromised with the cruelty, selfishness, injustice and avarice of +industrialism, and when finally this achieved world supremacy, and +physical science, materialistic philosophy and social revolution entered +the field as co-combatants, it no longer possessed a sufficient original +power either of resistance or of re-creative energy. + +Religion is in itself not the reaction of the human mind, under process +of evolution, to certain physical stimuli of experience and phenomena, +it is supernatural in that its source is outside nature; it is a +manifestation of the grace of God, and as such it cannot be brought into +existence by any conscious action of man or by any of his works. On the +other hand, it can be fostered and preserved, or debilitated and +dispersed, by these human acts and institutions, and in the same way man +himself may be made more receptive to this divine grace, or turned +against it, by the same agencies, the teachings of Dr. John Calvin to +the contrary notwithstanding. This is part of the Catholic doctrine of +free-will as opposed to the sixteenth-century dogma of predestination +which, distorted and degraded from the doctrine of St. Paul and St. +Augustine, played so large a part in that transformation of the +Christian religion from which we have suffered ever since. God offers +the free gift of religion and of faith to every child of man, but the +recipient must cooperate if the gift is to be accepted. The Church, that +is to say, the supernatural organism that is given material form in time +and space and operates through human agencies, is for this reason +subject to great vicissitudes, now rising to the highest level of +righteousness and power, now sinking into depths of unrighteousness and +impotence. Nothing, however, can affect the validity and the potency of +its supernatural content and its supernatural channels of grace. These +remain unaffected, whether the human organism is exalted or debased. The +sacraments and devotions and practices of worship, are in themselves as +potent if a Borgia sits in the chair of St. Peter as they are if a +Hildebrand, and Innocent III or a Leo XIII is the occupant; nevertheless +every weakening or degradation of the visible organism affects, and +inevitably, the attitude of men towards the thing itself, and when this +declension sets in and continues unchecked, the result is, first, a +falling away and a discrediting of religion that sometimes results in +general abandonment, and second--and after a time--a new outpouring of +spiritual power that results in complete regeneration. The Church, in +its human manifestation, is as subject to the rhythmical rise and fall +of the currents of life as is the social organism or man himself, +therefore it is not to be expected that it will pursue a course of even +exaltation, or maintain a status that is impeccable. + +Now the working out of this law had issue in a great decline that began +with the Exile at Avignon and was not terminated until the Council of +Trent. In the depth of this catastrophe came the natural and righteous +revolt against the manifold and intolerable abuses, but, like all +reforming movements that take on a revolutionary character, reform and +regeneration were soon forgotten in the unleashed passion for +destruction and innovation, while the new doctrines of emancipation from +authority, and the right of private judgment in religious matters, were +seized upon by sovereigns chafing under ecclesiastical control, as a +providential means of effecting and establishing their own independence, +and so given an importance, and an ultimate victory that, in and by +themselves, they could hardly have achieved. In the end it was the +secular and autocratic state that reaped the victory, not the reformed +religion, which was first used as a tool and then abandoned to its +inevitable break-up into numberless antagonistic sects, some of them +retaining a measure of the old faith and polity, others representing all +the illiteracy and uncouthness and fanaticism of the new racial and +social factors as these emerged at long last from the submergence and +the oppression that had been their fate with the dissolution of +Mediaevalism. + +Meanwhile the Roman Church which stood rigidly for historic Christianity +and had been preserved by the Counter-Reformation to the Mediterranean +states, continued bound to the autocratic and highly centralized +administrative system that had become universal among secular powers +during the decadence of Mediaevalism, and from which it had taken its +colour, and it kept even pace for the future with the progressive +intensification of this absolutism. This was natural, though in many +respects deplorable, and it can be safely said that adverse criticism of +the Catholic Church today is based only on qualities it acquired during +the period of Renaissance autocracy and revived paganism; qualities that +do not affect its essential integrity or authority but do misrepresent +it before men, and work as a handicap in its adaptability and in its +work of winning souls to Christianity and re-establishing the unity of +Christendom. Fortunately this very immobility has saved it from a +surrender to the new forces that were developed in secular society +during the last two centuries, as it did yield to the compulsion of +those that were let loose in the two that preceded them. It has never +subjected questions of faith and morals to popular vote nor has it +determined discipline by parliamentary practice under a well developed +party system, therefore it has preserved its unity, its integrity and +its just standard of comparative values. On the other hand, it has held +so stubbornly to some of the ill ways of Renaissance centralization, +which are in no sense consonant with its character, that it has failed +to retard the constant movement of society away from a life wherein +religion was the dominating and coordinating force, while at the present +crisis it is as yet hardly more able than a divisive Protestantism to +offer the regenerative energy that a desperate case demands. + +I do not know whether secular society is responsible for the decadence +of religion, or the decadence of religion is responsible for the failure +of secular society, nor does it particularly matter. What I am concerned +with is a condition amounting to almost complete severance between the +two, and how we may "knit up this ravelled sleeve" of life so that once +more we may have an wholesome unity in place of the present disunity; +for until this is accomplished, until once more religion enters into the +very marrow of social being, enters with all its powers of judgment and +determination and co-ordination and creative energy, just so long shall +we seek in vain for our way out into the Great Peace of righteous and +consistent living. + +Of course there is only one sure way, one method by which this, and all +our manifold difficulties, can be resolved, and that is through the +achieved enlightenment of the individual. As I have insisted in each of +these lectures, salvation is not through machinery but through the +individual soul, for it is life itself that is operating, not the +instruments that man devises in his ingenuity. Yet the mechanism is of +great value for even itself may give aid and stimulus in the personal +regenerative process, or, on the contrary, it may deter this by the +confusing and misleading influences it creates. Therefore we are bound +to regard material reforms, and of these, as they suggest themselves in +the field of organized religion, I propose to speak. + +No one will deny the progressive alienation of life from religion that +has developed since the Reformation and has now reached a point of +almost complete severance. Religion, once a public preoccupation, has +now withdrawn to the fastnesses of the individual soul, when it has not +vanished altogether, as it has in the case of the majority of citizens +of this Republic in so far as definite faith, explicit belief, +application, practice and action are concerned. In the hermitage that +some still make within themselves, religion still lives on as ardent and +as potent and as regenerative as before, but in general, if we are to +judge from the conduct of recent life, it is held, when it is accepted +at all, with a certain formality, and is neither cherished with +conviction nor allowed to interfere with the everyday life of the +practical man. As a great English statesman remarked in the last +century, "No one has a higher regard for religion than I, but when it +comes to intruding it into public affairs, well, really--!" + +The situation is one not unnaturally to be anticipated, for the whole +course of religious, secular and sociological development during the +last few centuries has been such as to make any other result improbable. +I already have tried to show what seem to me the destructive factors, +secularly and sociologically. As for the factors in religious +development that have worked towards the same end, they are, first, the +shattering of the unity of Christendom, with the denial by those of the +reformed religions of the existence of a Church, one, visible and +Catholic and infallible in matters of faith and morals; second, the +denial of sacramental philosophy and abandonment of the sacraments (or +all but one, or at most two of them) as instruments of Divine Grace; +third, the surrender of the various religious organisms to the +compulsion of the materialistic, worldly and opportunist factors in the +secular life of modernism. The truths corresponding to these three +errors are, Unity, Sacramentalism and Unworldliness. Until these three +things are won back, Christianity will fail of its full mission, society +will continue aimless, uncoördinate and on the verge of disaster, life +itself will lack the meaning and the reality that give both joy in the +living and victory in achievement, while the individual man will be +gravely handicapped in the process of personal regeneration. + +It is not my purpose to frame a general indictment against persons and +movements, but rather to suggest certain ways and means of possible +recovery, and in general I shall try to confine myself to that form of +organized religion to which I personally adhere, that is to say, the +Anglican or Episcopal Church, partly because of my better knowledge of +its conditions, and partly because whatever is said may in most cases be +equally well applied to the Protestant denominations. + +_The unity of the Church._ It is no longer necessary to demonstrate this +fundamental necessity. The old days of the nineteenth century are gone, +those days when honest men vociferously acclaimed as honourable and +glorious "the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the +Protestant religion." Everyone knows now, everyone, that is, that +accepts Christianity, that disunion is disgrace if not a very palpable +sin. The desire for a restored unity is almost universal, but every +effort in this direction, whatever its source, meets with failure, and +the reason would appear to be that the approach is made from the wrong +direction. In every case the individual is left alone, his personal +beliefs and practices are, he is assured, jealously guarded; all that is +asked is that some mechanical amalgamation, some official approximation +shall be effected. + +Free interchange of pulpits, a system of reciprocal re-ordination, a +"merger" of church property and parsons, an "irreducible minimum" of +credal insistencies these, and others even more ingeniously +compromising, are the well-meaning schemes that are put forward, and in +the process one point after another is surrendered, as a _quid pro quo_ +for the formal and technical capitulation of some other religious group. + +It is demonstrable that even if these well-meaning approximations were +received with favour--and thus far nothing of the kind has appeared--the +result, so far as essential unity is concerned, would be _nil._ There is +a perfectly definite line of division between the Catholic and the +Protestant, and until this line is erased there is no possible unity, +even if this were only official and administrative. The Catholic (and in +respect to this one particular point I include under this title members +of the Roman, Anglican and Eastern Communions) maintains and practices +the sacramental system; the Protestant does not. There is no reason, +there is indeed grave danger of sacrilege, in a joint reception of the +Holy Communion by those who look on it as a mere symbol and those who +accept it as the very Body and Blood of Christ. Protestant clergy are +urged to accept ordination at the hands of Anglican bishops, but the +plea is made on the ground of order, expediency, and the preservation of +tradition; whereas the Apostolical succession was established and +enforced not for these reasons but in order that the grace of God, +originally imparted by Christ Himself, may be continued through the +lines He ordained, for the making and commissioning of priests who have +power to serve as the channels for the accomplishing of the divine +miracle of the Holy Eucharist, to offer the eternal Sacrifice of the +Body and Blood of Christ for the quick and the dead, and to remit the +penalty of sins through confession and absolution. If the laying on of +hands by the bishop were solely a matter of tradition and discipline, +neither Rome nor the Anglican Communion would be justified in holding to +it as a condition of unity; if it is for the transmission of the Holy +Ghost for the making of a Catholic priest, with all that implies and has +always implied, then it is wrong, even in the interests of a formal +unity, to offer it to those who believe neither in the priesthood nor in +the sacraments in the Catholic and historic sense. + +The conversion of the individual must take precedence of corporate +action of any sort. When the secularist comes to believe in the Godhead +of Christ he will unite himself with the rest of the faithful in a +Church polity, but he will not do this, he has too much self-respect, +simply because he is told by some ardent but minimizing parson that he +does not have to believe in the Divinity of Christ in order to "join the +church." When a Protestant comes to accept the sacramental system, to +desire to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, to make +confession of his sins and receive absolution, and to nourish and +develop his spiritual nature by the use of the devotions that have grown +up during nineteen hundred years, he will renounce his Protestantism, +when his self-respect would not permit him to do this just because he +had been assured that he need not really change any of his previous +beliefs in order to ally himself with a Church that had better +architecture and a more artistic ceremonial, and locally a higher social +standing. When Anglicans or the Eastern Orthodox come to believe that a +vernacular liturgy and a married priesthood and provincial autonomy are +of less importance than Catholic unity, and when Roman Catholics can see +that the same is of greater moment than a rigid preservation of +Renaissance centralization and a cold _"non possumus"_ in the matter of +Orders, then the way will be open for the reunion of the West, where +this operation cannot be affected by formal negotiations looking towards +some form of legalistic concordat. + +The evil heritage of the sixteenth century is still heavy upon us, and +this heritage is one of jealousy and hate, not of charity and +toleration. It is an heritage of legalism and technicalities, of +self-will and individualism, of shibboleths that have become a dead +letter, of prejudices that are fostered on distorted history and the +propaganda of the self-seeking and the vain. The spirit of Christ is not +in it, but the malice of Satan working upon the better natures of men +and justifying in the name of conscience and principle what are +frequently the workings of self-will and pride and intellectual +obsession. This is the tragedy of it all; that Protestants and Anglicans +and Roman Catholics are, so far as the majority are concerned, honestly +convinced that they are right in maintaining their own divisiveness; in +perpetuating an hundred Protestant sects on the basis of some variation +in the form of baptism or church government or the method of conversion; +in splitting up the Catholic Church because of a thousand year old +disagreement as to a clause in the Creed which has a technical and +theological significance only, or because one sector is alleged to have +added unjustifiably to the Faith while the other is alleged to have +unjustifiably taken away. Self-will and lack of charity, not love and +the common will as these are revealed to the world through the Divine +Will of Christ, are working here. The momentary triumph of evil over +good, the passing victory that yet means the banishment of religion from +the world, and the assurance of disaster still greater than that which +is now upon us unless every man bends all his energies to the task of +making the will of God prevail, first in himself, and so in the secular +and ecclesiastical societies in and through which he plays his part in +the life of the world--these are the fruits of a divided Christendom. + +I honestly believe that the first real step towards reunion would be a +prompt cessation of the whole process of criticism, vilification and +abuse, one of the other, that now marks the attitude of what are known +as "church periodicals." Roman, Anglican, Protestant, are all alike, for +all maintain a consistent slanging of each other. I have in mind in +particular weekly religious papers in the United States which maintain +departments almost wholly made up of attacks on Roman Catholicism and +the derision of incidents of bad taste or illiteracy in the Protestant +denominations, and others which lose no opportunity to discredit or +abuse the Episcopal Church and the Protestant denominations, and finally +a curiously malevolent newspaper representing the worst type of +Protestant ignorance and prejudice, which exists on its libelous and +indecent and dishonest assaults on Catholicism wherever it may be found. +These are not alone, for the condition of ascerbity and nagging is +practically universal. It merely echoes the pulpit and a portion of the +general public. We all know of the so called "church" in Boston that is +the forum of "escaped nuns" and "unfrocked priests," but in many places +of better repute the sermon that bitterly attacks Christian Science, or +"High Church Episcopalianism," or the errors of Protestantism generally, +or the "usurpations of Rome" is by no means unknown, while elsewhere +than in Ireland, the public as a whole finds much pleasure in bating any +religion that happens to differ from its own,--or offends its sense of +the uselessness of all religion. Let us have a new "Truce of God," and +for the space of a year let all clergy, lecturers, newspapers, religious +journals, and private individuals, totally abstain from sneering and +ill-natured attacks on other religions and their followers. Could this +be accomplished a greater step would be taken towards the reunion of +Christendom than could be achieved by any number of conferences, +commissions, councils and conventions. + +It was the will and the intent of Christ "that they all may be one, that +the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me," and in disunity we deny +Christ. There is no consideration of inheritance, of personal taste, of +interests, of intellectual persuasion that can stand in the way of an +affirmative answer to this prayer. Every man who calls himself a +Christian and yet is not praying and working to break down the self-will +and the self-conceit that, so often under the masquerade of conscience, +hold him back from a return, even if it is only step by step, to the +original unity of the Catholic Faith, is guilty of sin, while it is sin +of an even graver degree that stands to the account of those who +consciously work to perpetuate the division that now exists. + +_Sacramentalism._ The stumbling block, the apparently impassable +barrier, is that which was erected when belief was substituted for +faith; it is the intellectualizing of religion that has brought about +the present failure of Christianity as a vital and controlling force in +man and in society. The danger revealed itself even in the Middle Ages, +and through perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher, and certainly +one of the most commanding intellects, the world has known: St. Thomas +Aquinas. In his case, and that of the others of his time, the intellect +was still directed by spiritual forces, the chiefest of which was faith, +therefore the inherent danger in the intellectualizing process did not +clearly reveal itself or come into actual operation, but with the +Renaissance and the Reformation it stood boldly forth, and since then as +mind increased in its dominion faith declined. The Reformation, in all +its later phases, that is to say, after it ceased to be a protest +against moral defects and administrative abuses and became a +revolutionary invention of new dogmas and practices, was the result of +clever, stupid or perverse minds working overtime on religious problems +which could not be solved or even apprehended by the intellect, whether +it was that of an acute and highly trained master such as Calvin, or +that of any one of the hundred founders of less savage but more curious +and uncouth types of "reformed religion." + +What we need now for the recovery and re-establishment of Christianity +is not so much increased belief as it is a renewed faith; faith in +Christ, faith in His doctrine, faith in His Church. We lost this faith +when we abandoned the sacraments and sacramentalism as superstitions, or +retained some of them in form and as symbols while denying to them all +supernatural power. If we would aid the individual soul to regain this +lost faith we could do no better than to restore the seven sacraments of +the historic Christian faith, and Christian Church to the place they +once held for all Christians, and still hold in the Roman Catholic +Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and (with limitations) in the +Anglican Church. Faith begets faith; faith in Christ brings faith in the +sacraments, and faith in the sacraments brings faith in Christ. + +It is disbelief in the efficacy of the sacraments and in the sacramental +principle in life that is the essential barrier between Protestantism +and Catholicism, and until this barrier is dissolved there can be +neither formal unity nor unity by compromise. This is already widely +recognized, and as well the actual loss that comes with the denial and +abandonment of the sacraments. There is in the Presbyterian church of +Scotland a strong tendency towards a reassertion of the full sacramental +doctrine; the "Free Catholic" movement throughout Great Britain is made +up of Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, and other +representatives of Evangelical Protestantism, and it is working +unreservedly for the recovery and application of all the Catholic +sacraments, with the devotions and ritual that go with them. Dr. +Orchard, the head, and a Congregational minister, maintains in London a +church where, as a Methodist member of the "Free Catholic" organization +wrote me the other day, "the Blessed Sacrament is perpetually reserved +and 'High Mass' is celebrated on Sundays with the full Catholic +ceremonial." In my own practice of architecture I am constantly +providing Presbyterian, Congregational, and even Unitarian churches, by +request, with chancels containing altars properly vested and ornamented +with crosses and candles, while the almost universal demand is for +church edifices that shall approach as nearly as possible in appearance +to the typical Catholic church of the Middle Ages. Of course some of +this is due to a revived instinct for beauty, that almost sacramental +quality in life which was ruthlessly destroyed by Protestantism, and +also to a renewed sense of the value of symbol and ritual; but back of +it all is the growing consciousness that, as Dr. Newman Smythe says, +Protestantism has definitely failed, or at least become superannuated; +that the essence of religion is spiritual not intellectual, affirmative +not negative, and that the only measure of safety lies in a return +towards, if not actually to, the Catholic faith and practice from which +the old revolt was affected. It is a movement both significant and full +of profound encouragement. + +Here then are two tendencies that surely show the way and demand +encouragement and furtherance; recovery of the sense of Christian unity +in Christ and through an united Catholic Church, and the re-acceptance +of sacramentalism as the expression of that faith and as the method of +that Church. I feel very strongly that wherever these tendencies show +themselves they must be acclaimed and cherished. The Protestant +denominations must be aided in every way in their process of recovery of +the good things once thrown away; Episcopalians must be persuaded that +nothing can be wrong that leads souls to Christ, and that therefore they +must cease their opposition to Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament +explicitly for adoration, to such devotions as Benediction and the +Rosary simply because they have not explicit Apostolic sanction, or to +vestments, incense and holy water because certain prescriptive laws +passed four hundred years ago in England have never been repealed. Above +all is it necessary that the Episcopal Church should declare itself +formally for the reinstitution of the seven Catholic sacraments, with +the Mass as the one supreme act of worship, obligatory as the chief +service on Sundays and Holy Days, and both as communion and as +sacrifice. In this connection there is one reform that would I think be +more effective than any other, (except the exaltation of the Holy +Eucharist itself) and that is the complete cessation of the practice of +commissioning lay readers and using them for mission work and clerical +assistance. A mission can be established and made fruitful only on the +basis of the sacraments, and chiefly on those of the Holy Eucharist and +Penance. It is not enough to send a zealous and well intentioned layman +to "a promising mission field" in order that he may read Morning and +Evening Prayer and some sermon already published. What is needed is a +priest to say Mass and hear confessions, and nothing else will serve as +a substitute. How this is to be accomplished, now when the candidates +for Holy Orders are constantly falling off in number, with no immediate +prospect of recovery, is a question. Perhaps we may learn something from +the old custom of ordaining "Mass priests," without cure of souls and +with a commission to celebrate the Holy Mysteries even while they +continue their own secular work in the world. For my own part I am +persuaded that the best solution lies in the establishing of diocesan +monasteries where men may take vows for short terms, and, during the +period of these vows, remain at the orders of the bishop to go out at +any time and anywhere in the diocese and to do such temporary or +periodical mission work as he may direct. + +_Unworldliness:_ I have referred to the great falling off in the number +of candidates for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church; the same +phenomenon is apparent in all the Protestant denominations, so far as I +know, but it has not shown itself in the Roman Catholic Church. This +defection parallels the falling-off of membership in the various +churches (except again the Roman Catholic) in proportion to the increase +in population. We are told that the diminution of the ministry is due to +the starvation wages that are paid in the vast majority of cases, and of +course it is true that where a married clergy is allowed, men who +believe they have a calling both to ministerial and to domestic life +will think twice before they follow the call of the first when the +pecuniary returns are such as to make the second impossible, which is, +generally speaking, the situation today. To obviate this difficulty many +religious bodies have recently established pension funds, but even this +form of clerical insurance, together with the increase that has been +effected in clerical stipends, has shown no results in an increase of +students in theological seminaries and in candidates for Orders. The man +who has enough of faith in God and a strong enough call to the ministry +of Christ, will answer the call even if he does think twice before doing +so. The trouble lies, I believe, in the very lack of faith and in a +failure of confidence in organized religion largely brought about by +organized religion itself through the methods it has pursued during the +last two or three generations. There is a widespread belief that it is +compromising with the world; that it is playing fast and loose with +faith and discipline in a vain opportunism that voids it of spiritual +power. Even where distrust does not reach this disastrous conclusion, +there is a growing feeling of repugnance to the methods now being +adopted in high quarters to "sell religion" to the public, as is the +phrase which is sufficient in itself to explain the falling away that +now seems to be in process. The attempt to win unwilling support by the +methods of the "institutional church," the rampant advertising, so +frequently under the management of paid "publicity agents"; the setting +apart of half the Sundays in the year for some one or other special +purpose, usually the raising of money for a specific and frequently +worthy object; the "drives" for millions, the huge and impressive +organizations, "scientifically" conducted, for rounding up lapsed +communicants, or doubtful converts, or cash and pledges for missions, or +pensions, or the raising of clergy stipends; the "Nation-wide Campaign," +the "Inter-Church World Movement"; these--not to speak of the growing +policy of "making it easy" for the hesitant to "come into the church" by +minimizing unpopular clauses in the Creeds or loosening-up on +discipline, and of attracting "advanced" elements by the advocacy and +exploiting of each new social or industrial or political fad as it +arises--are strong deterrents to those who honestly and ardently hunger +for religion that _is_ religion and neither social service nor "big +business." + +Christ said "you _cannot_ serve both God and mammon," and this is one of +the few cases where He stated a moral condition as a fact instead of +indicating the right or the wrong possibility in action. Organized +Christianity has for some time been trying to render this dual service, +and the penalty thereof is now on the world. This consideration seems to +me so important and so near the root of our troubles, and not in the +field of organized religion alone, that I am going to quote at length +from the Rev. Fr. Duffy of the American "Society of the Divine +Compassion." What he has said came to me while I was preparing this +lecture, and it is so much better than anything I could say that for my +present purpose I make it my own. + +"To the thoughtful person, and the need of reformation will appeal only +to the thoughtful person, it must on reflection become abundantly +evident that the chief necessity of our times in the religious world is +the recovery of Faith. Probably lack of the true measure of Faith has +been the story of every generation, with few exceptions, in the long +history of Christianity, but there possibly never has been a time when +men talked more of it and possessed less than in our own day. * * * *" + +"Christianity is a new thing of splendid vision for each and every +generation of men, unique in its promise and unapproached in its +attraction. And yet how small a factor we have made it in the world's +moulding compared with what it might be. We have not achieved a tiny +part of what we might have achieved, because we lack the essentials of +achievement; Faith and Faith's vision. Obsessed, after centuries of +discussion and persecution, with the notion that faith is made up of +mere belief, we have lost the secret of that victorious power that +overcomes the world, and are weakly dependent upon the world's means for +what spiritual operation we undertake. And so content have we grown with +things as they are, that what they might be comes only as a dream that +passes away quickly with the night; blind to our appalling +money-dependency in modern religion, satisfied that the Kingdom of +Heaven is as nigh to us as is possible under present conditions of +society, we practically have substituted for the theological virtues, +Faith, Hope and Charity, the ascending degrees of belief, resignation, +money. This is partly due to our religious inheritance and partly to +mental and spiritual sloth which dislikes the effort of thinking, +preferring easy acquiescence in conditions that are the resultants of +blinded vision. For dependency upon money is not something merely of the +present, but a condition in the spiritual sphere that is largely a +product of a long past. The really inexcusable thing is our willingness, +in a day of greater light and knowledge, to close our eyes to the true +nature of the unattractive, anaemic thing we _call_ faith, which would +be seen as powerless to achieve at all, if taken out of the soil of +material means in which it has been planted." + +He then gives various instances of methods actually put in practice +amongst the churches and denominations which indicate the renunciation +of faith and an exclusive reliance on worldy agencies and he then +continues: + +"The Joint Commission on Clergy Pensions, appointed by the General +Convention of 1913, made as the basis for apportionment, not the +services of self-denial of, but the amount of stipend received by, the +clergy eligible for pension, thus penalizing the priest who, for the +love of God, sacrificed a larger income to accept work in the most +needed places where toil is abundant and money scarce. It must be +evident, of course, that the motive of the Commission is not an +endorsement of the blasphemous gospel of Success, by adding penalty to +the self-denying clergy; what is painfully obvious is their apparent +unbounded confidence that there are no clergy sufficiently foolish to +sacrifice stipend at the call of faith's venture! And since the +Armistice, the only real activity in organized religion has been a +series of "drives" for vast sums of money, in most cases professionally +directed. + +"A consideration of a few facts such as the forgoing must readily +convince even the most unimaginative person that whatever power faith +might have had in the past, it counts for little today; that its +secrets, its very meaning have been forgotten. Otherwise there could not +be this extraordinary exaggeration of the place of money in spiritual +operation, and the unblushing, tacit admission that mammon, which Christ +so warned against, had been recognized as the master of spiritual +situation, instead of the willing servant and useful adjunct of faith it +was designed to be in the Christian vision. Indeed they all speak of +that, largely unconscious, atmosphere of distrust of God which is so +all-prevailing among Christian people today. If the great, positive vice +of the age is covetousness, the great negative one is distrust of God; +the two invariably go together as parts of a whole--one is the reverse +side of the other--for, it is not that we _must_ not, or _ought_ not, +but that we "_cannot_ serve God and mammon." And this atmosphere is one +in which faith cannot exist, it is stifled, crushed, killed, except it +breathe the pure, sweet air of God, with which it can alone surround +itself when human hearts will. + +"It is not surprising that out of such conditions should grow false +values, and that spirituality should be measured by the world's +standard. Thus we have fallen into the vicious habit of adjudging +qualifications for spiritual leadership among the clergy by the amount +of their stipends, and measuring their potentialities for usefulness in +the Kingdom of God by the amount of their yearly incomes; among the +laity, the men of power are ever the men of material means, whom we +permit to play the part of Providence in feeding and sustaining the +Church from large purses, the filling of which will not always bear +close investigation, and the really successful parish is always the one +that, no matter what its spiritual condition, rejoices in abundant +material means. So evident is it that the means of spiritual life have +been so confused with the purely material, that it occasions no surprise +when a neighbourhood having changed from the residence district of the +comparatively well-to-do to the very poor, the vestry feels bound to +consider the moving of the church to a more 'desirable' quarter. + +"These, of course, are hard facts to face, and it is not strange that we +should seek to evade them by a false optimism that thinks evil is +eliminated by merely contemplating good. The point is, _they must be +faced,_ and at a time when there is some evidence of a little awakening, +it must more and more force itself into the consciousness of the +thoughtful that the dead spiritual conditions of today are due to the +shifting of faith from God to material things as the means of achieving. +The only hope lies in the apparent unconsciousness of the error. This is +invariably the atmosphere that prevails when ecclesiastical history +repeats itself in corruption; it had been true of more than two or three +generations, though obviously unseen save by a few of those contemporary +with the times, that in Jerusalem, 'the heads thereof judge for reward, +and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for +money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say: Is not the Lord among +us? None evil can come upon us.' Corporate unconsciousness, in greater +or less measure, of these conditions, may influence the degree of guilt, +but never can acquit of the sin. And the cold, naked truth is that today +we stand almost helpless before a world of peculiar problems. + +"What is there here to reflect the _power_ and _might_ of Christianity, +such as the early Church, especially, possessed, and subsequent +generations, in times of great faith, really knew so much of--the power +to heal the sick, to cast out devils, to achieve wonders out of Christ's +poverty, to experience the thrilling joy of religion in the ever-abiding +Divine Presence, and witness the marvels of faith in the conquering of +the world? How is it we are no longer able to communicate the secrets to +the suffering world which are able to transmute the people's want into +God's plenty, and attract and hold the hearts of men with the joys of +the Vision Splendid? Why is it that hope has given way to resignation, +that the preaching of forgiveness has been dwarfed by the insistence +upon penalty, that distinct evils in the physical sphere are attributed +to God and, because of that, held up to religious estimation as good; +the day of miracles is regarded as belonging to a far distant past, the +answering of prayer looked upon as the exception instead of the rule, +and the old melody of joy in religion exchanged for the wail of despair +in an interpretation of 'Thy will be done' that is only associated with +human calamity? The reply is as simple as, to the thoughtful person, it +is obvious: we have lost knowledge of a living, vital, conquering faith +that is rooted in God Himself, and have satisfied the hunger of human +sense by placing trust in the things of the earth which we see and +touch, and in so doing lost the power spiritually to achieve. + +"Now we can only approach, in the hope of a day of better things, the +great practical and intellectual problems of our times from the +standpoint of faith's recovery, for it is only in their relationship to +faith they can be viewed intelligently by the Christian. And it will be +found that at the root of all our difficulties and all our +negligences--so many of them unconscious--and as the cause of our vain +expediencies and attempts to justify the corporate spiritual situation, +is the absence of vital faith and a _whole_ obedience to which God alone +has conditioned results. We need sorely to reconsider what faith really +is, and when we have recovered in some measure that knowledge of it in +experience, which declared its unspeakable worth in the early Church and +in later periods of ecclesiastical history which stand out before all +others, we shall look back upon our past distrust of God and His +promises with shame and wonderment, and proceed to revise our +cataloguing of spiritual values and degrees of sin. For the really +destructive thing, _before all others,_ is a weakened faith that +compromises in a half obedience to Christ and a search for earthly +props. The work of Satan has even been the prompting of distrust of God +in the human family, just as the work of redemption means so largely the +re-establishing of it in the Person of Jesus Christ. From the first +temptation of man to the present moment, all the forces of evil have +concentrated upon breaking man's trust in God and His promises; every +sin has had that as its ultimate end, and every disaster, ill and trial, +in the world and individual life, is subtly presented by the enemy of +God and man (knowing our haziness of vision), so as to place the +appearances against the Creator in a blind disregard for the created; +just as in the life of the Incarnate Son all the great power of the +forces of darkness were brought to bear unsuccessfully upon the snapping +of His faith in His Father--from the time He was tempted to believe +Himself forgotten, when hungering and physically reduced in the +wilderness after His long fast, until the dreadful cry of dereliction +from the Cross at the very end. + +"The call for reformation today, then, is to the doing of things left +undone, the search for and recovery of almost lost spiritual powers that +alone lastingly can achieve for God and hasten man's salvation. And this +requires the venture and daring that breaks from the world, withdraws +from compromise, and that, rightly estimating the character and attitude +of God, refuses longer to believe Him the author of evils we resignedly +accept today by calling them good; and instead, claims the powers of the +Divine promises for the utter destruction of the world's ills by a +strict dependence upon spiritual forces and weapons for the +accomplishment of results. Above all, this means a change and reform in +corporate conduct as the end of repentance, for the present almost total +disregard of the laws and principles of Christian living as given in the +Sermon on the Mount." + + +These are hard sayings and strong doctrine, but will any one say they +are not true? The weakening of religion, with the consequent decline of +civilization, is ultimately to be traced back to _organized_ religion, +not to religion itself, and still less to any inherent defects in +Christianity. Where organized religion has failed it deserved to fail, +because it countenanced disunion, forsook the saving sacraments, and +finally compromised with worldliness and materialism. With each one of +these false ventures faith began to weaken amongst the mass of people +until at last this, which can always save, and alone can save, ceased to +have either the power or the will to force the organism to conform to +the spirit. If we have indeed accomplished the depth of our fall, then +the time is at hand when we may hope and pray for a new outpouring of +divine grace that will bring recovery. + +There are wide evidences that men earnestly desire this. I have already +spoken of the great corporate movements towards unity, and these mean +much even though they may at present take on something of the quality of +mechanism instead of depending on the individual and the grace of God +working in him. The "World Conference on Faith and Order," the just +effected federation of the Presbyterians, Methodists and +Congregationalists in Canada, above all the eirenic manifesto of the +Bishops at the last Lambeth Conference, all indicate a new spirit +working potently in the souls of men. Concrete results are not as yet +conspicuous, but the spirit is there and a beginning has been made. Even +more significant is the wide testimony to the need for definite, +concrete and pervasive religion that is daily given by men whose names +have hitherto been quite dissociated from matters of this kind; +scientists, educators, men of business and men of public life. It may be +testimony in favour of some new invention, some synthetic product of +curious and abnormal ingredients; as a matter of fact it frequently is, +and we confront such remarkable products as Mr. Wells has given us, for +example. The significant thing, however, is the fact of the desire and +the avowal; if we have this I think we may leave it to God to see that +the desire is satisfied in the end by heavenly food and not by the +nostrums of ingenuity. For the same reason we may look without dismay on +certain novel phenomena of the moment. In their divergence from "the +Faith once delivered to the Saints" and left in the keeping of the +Church Christ founded as a living and eternal organism through which His +Spirit would work forever, they are wrong and therefore they cannot +endure, but each testifies to the passionate desire in man for religion +as a reality, and no one of them comes into existence except as the +result of desperate action by men to recover something that had been +taken from them and that their souls needed, and would have at any cost. +Each one of these strange manifestations is a reaction from some old +error that had become established belief or custom. No one who holds to +historic Christianity is interested in them, but those who have found +religion intellectualized beyond endurance and transformed either by +materialism or rationalism, seek for the mysticism they know to be a +reality (to employ a paradox) in the ultra mysticism of Oriental cults; +those who revolt against the exaggeration of evil and its exaltation to +eminence that rivals that of God Himself, which is the legacy of one +powerful movement in the Reformation, rush to the other extreme and deny +the existence of evil and even the reality of matter, while spiritism, +the most insidious, perilous and fatal of all the spiritual temptations +that beset the world at this time, gains as its adherents those who have +been deprived of the Catholic belief in the Communion of Saints and have +been forbidden to pray for the dead or to ask for their prayers and +intercessions. + +However strange and erroneous the actual manifestation, there is no +question as to the reality and prevalence of the desire for the recovery +of spiritual power through the channels of religion. It shows itself, as +it should, first of all in the individual, and it is only recently that +organized religion, Catholic or Protestant, has begun to show a +sympathetic consciousness and to take the first hesitant steps towards +meeting the demand. Because of this the seekers for reality have been +left unshepherded and have wandered off into strange wildernesses. The +call is now to the churches, to organized religion, and if the call is +heeded our troubles are well on the road to an end. If the old way of +jealousy, hatred and fear is maintained, then humanly speaking, our case +is hopeless. If the older way of brotherhood, charity and +loving-kindness is followed the future is secure in the Great Peace. +Nothing is wrong that leads men to Christ, and this is true from the +Salvation Army at one end of the scale to the Seven Sacraments of +Catholicity at the other. The world demands now not denial but +affirmation, not protest and division but the ringing "Credo" of +Catholic unity. + + + + +VIII + + +PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY + + Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of + Hosts. + +We have tried to approach each subject in this course of lectures in the +spirit of peace, and the greatest contributory factor in the achieving +of the Great Peace is the individual himself, on whom, humanly speaking, +rests the final responsibility. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My +Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Not by majestical engines and curious +devices and mass-action, nor yet by an imposed human authority enforced +by arms and the law, but by the Holy Spirit of God working through the +individual soul and compelling the individual will. Peace is one of the +promised fruits of the Holy Spirit, and like the others is manifested +through human lives; therefore on us rests the preëminent responsibility +of showing forth in ourselves, first of all, those things we desire for +others and for society. + +We have experienced the Great War, we endure its aftermath, and amidst +the perils and dangers that follow both there is none greater than that +which attaches to exterior war, viz., that the attention of both +combatants is focussed on the faults and the weaknesses and the crimes +of the opponent, with the result that both become destructive critics +rather than constructive examples. Chesterton rightly says, "What is +wrong with the critic is that he does not criticise himself * * * rather +he identifies himself with the ideal." Seeing evil in others and +flattering one's self is the antithesis of the spirit that would lead to +the Great Peace, for in that spirit the field of warfare is transferred +from the external to the internal, and the interior contest, which alone +establishes lasting results, necessitates a recognition of our own error +and the need of amendment of our own life. + +If our modern devices have failed; if the things we invented with a high +heart and high hope, in government, industry, society, education, +philosophy have in the end brought disappointment, disillusionment, even +despair, it is less because of their inherent defects than because the +individual failed, and himself ceased to act as the sufficient channel +for the divine power which alone energizes our weak little engines and +which acts through the individual alone. There is no better +demonstration of this essential part played by the personal life of man +than the fact that God, for the redemption of the world, took on human +form and became one Man amongst many men. There is no better +demonstration of the fact that it is through the personal lives of +individuals that the Great Peace is to be achieved, both directly and +indirectly, than the fact that peace, the gift of the Holy Spirit, was +promised to the individual man, by Christ Himself, as the legacy he left +to his disciples after His Resurrection and Ascension. Since then the +world has been under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the "Guide and +Comforter" that was promised, even though it has blindly and from time +to time rejected the guidance and therefore known not the comfort. The +Old Law of "Thou shalt not" was followed by the New Law of "Thou shalt," +and this in turn by the law of the third Person of the Trinity which +does not supersede the dispensations of the Father and of the Son, but +fulfills them in that it affords the spiritual power, if we will, to +abide by the inhibitions and to carry out the commands. + +Our search is for peace, the Great Peace, "the Peace of God which +passeth all understanding," and we shall achieve this for ourselves and +for the world only through ourselves as individuals, and so for the +society of which we are a part, and in so far as we bring ourselves into +contact with the Spirit of God. There is deep significance in the fact +that the first time Christ used the salutation "Peace be unto you," was +after His resurrection. It would seem that this special gift of the Holy +Spirit had to be withheld from man until after the human life of God the +Son had been brought to an end in accomplishment, for He says "Peace I +leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I +unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." "It +is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter +will not come unto you: but if I depart I will send Him unto you. When +He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." "Ye +shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." + +It is the spirit that quickeneth. After God had revealed the Law and +given to us the great redeeming and atoning Life, He saw that we had +need of a further manifestation before we should be able to keep the law +and live the life. Therefore the Holy Spirit was sent to quicken us and +give us power to do what we had both heard and seen. Today we accept the +moral law, we recognize the perfection of Chirst's life, but we need to +be reminded again that the power to be "sons of God" is present with us +if we will but use it. As this power is a spirit it can only be +apprehended spiritually; when our minds and hearts are set on material +things, even on good material things, the "still small voice" of the +spirit remains unheard: but if we listen first to that inward voice and +then use the means of grace afforded us, we are enabled to lift up our +hearts and minds to the Creator and then to use in His service all the +material universe which is also His creation. We can not get a right +philosophy by working for right philosophy, but only by living in the +right relationship as individuals: then as a by-product of religion a +right philosophy will come. We can not get a right industrial system by +searching for a right industrial system, but if we show forth in our +lives the Christian virtues, a right industrial system will come as one +of the by-products of religion. So with each one of our so-called +"problems." Life rightly lived has no problems. This is a hard saying +for an intellectual age whose temptation is to trust in its own power +rather than in the power of God, but "except ye become as little +children" and walk by faith and not by sight the Kingdom of God is +withheld. A soldier who suffered in the late war, and out of his +suffering found peace, says, "Christ's hardest work is to teach the +wise: Those who are entrusted with authority and responsibility will be +the least prepared to make the venture of the Spirit, however much they +may believe in it. They are sacrificing least now: they will have to +sacrifice most when the Spirit comes. They have so much to unlearn: +children and working men have so little. The whole of our world today is +rooted and grounded in intellect. Our machinery, our institutions, our +great systems, the entire body of enterprise is governed by brains. It +is this that will alter. Just behind intellect there is a vision that is +purer, keener, more powerful than the vision of your eyes, than the +hearing of your ears, than the touch of your hands. This world is being +transformed into another which comes into being at our spiritual touch. +The world needs something personal, something from the heart. It is sick +to death with the cold machinery of the intellect. But before men see +this they must change their view of life, they must _be born again._ The +scientists, the historians and theologians, the philosophers, have made +the universe too big. It is not a big place: it is very tiny. Life is so +simple, really. Our wise men have made it so difficult, so ugly. It is +only children who can see the risen Christ; children, perhaps, out of +whom seven devils have been cast. The world needs not critics, but +teachers, and children are waiting everywhere to teach, but men, +shutting the windows of their souls, try rather to mould these little +ones to fit into the vacant spaces of their own stupid world. Are not +children the true artists? They won't tolerate anything but Beauty. They +see Beauty everywhere, not because it is there, but because they want it +there. Everything they touch turns into something far more precious than +gold: every word they utter is a song of praise. You are almost in +heaven every time you look into the eyes of a child." Remember, please, +these are the words of a man who has faced the horrible realities of +modern warfare, and so do not dismiss them as mere poetry, or with +Nicodemus' question, "How can a man be born again?", but listen to a +modern interpretation of the answer to that question:--("The Life +Indeed.") "We must be born again even to see the spiritual kingdom, must +be born of water and the spirit to enter its gates at all. So to his +little audience of disciples Our Lord says it is not an affair of +legislation, of discovery, of which men say, 'Lo here, lo there! but the +kingdom of heaven is _within you._ Why a second birth? This is a second +birth because it must needs supervene at a point where two elements can +work together, the element of an appealing, vitalizing spirit from the +unseen and the element of free human choice. Being of the spirit, it is +the birth into freedom: it is the soul emerging from its prison into the +open air of liberty and light and life." Note the element of free +choice. Our first birth is outside our choice and the gifts are +unconditioned; our second birth, when again we become as little +children, demands our response to the Holy Spirit and our persevering +cooperation with Him to make His influence effectual for ourselves and +for the "communion of saints" and the corporate religion into which the +Spirit also baptizes us. In a recent sermon a bishop of the Episcopal +Church says, "This is the creed of the Church--the Divine Father and +Forgiveness: the Divine Son and Redemption: the Divine Spirit and +Abundant Life. Therefore the Church still insists upon the creation of +moral rectitude and spiritual character as the end and purpose of +religion, aye, as the basic problem underlying all questions relating to +human life--social, industrial, civic, and political. The Church still +preaches the gospel of the Grace of God, the obligation and blessing of +worship, the meaning and virtue of the Christian Sacraments." Also "My +brethren, we shall not be content to criticize and find fault with our +own age and time, but rather we shall pray for the power to see within +its questionings, unrest and discontent--aye, its recklessness and +apparent failures--the strivings of the Spirit of God. But each man has +to voice for himself the conviction of the reality of the spiritual +order and the spiritual life. Therefore, let us believe in and practice +the worship of God, 'praying always' as St. Paul says, 'with all prayer +and supplication in the Spirit,' or as St. Jude says, 'building up +yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.'" + +Let us accept this suggestion and try to find in the unrest of our own +time evidences of "the strivings of the Spirit of God," waiting our +perception and response. The soldier of the Great War, having faced +death and imprisonment and suffering in many forms says, "compared with +the depth of good in the world the evil is shallow." The first evidence +of good in our own day is the almost universal discontent with evils and +the desire to find a better way. The humility which recognizes that so +widespread a condition cannot be the fault of any one nation or group +but is rather the responsibility of each one of us, is cause for hope. +Some of us believe that war can breed only war, hatred only hatred; that +governments cannot make peace, but can only cause cessation of open +hostilities, and that the real peace, the Great Peace, must await the +action of the Spirit. This Spirit, of love and forgiveness, breeds love +and forgiveness, indeed is far more potent than the spirit of hate. +Because of this very strength and potency its evidences are not so +immediately apparent, but they are deeper-rooted. Perhaps in this +material sphere we human beings must see, and to a certain extent +experience, hate, before we can really know love, and consciously and +freely choose it. When that choice is made, when we, knowing all that +hate and evil and malice can accomplish, yet deliberately choose to love +our enemies, we have slain the Adversary and made hate and evil +powerless. Of course we have not power of ourselves to do this but only +through the grace of God. When we try God's way, not waiting for the +other person to reform or to be generous or to speak gently or to +forgive, then and only then do we deserve the name of Christians; then +and only then are we walking in love; then and only then are we really +praying effectually "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it +is in Heaven." We have tried the way of the world, the way of reprisals, +the way of distrust, and, thank God, we are none of us satisfied with +the results. Perhaps now we may be ready to try the way of God by making +the great adventure of faith, each one in his own person; faith in +himself and faith in the future. The way of the world has bred fear that +has issue in hate, and hate that has issue in fear; but the better way, +that of faith, breeds trust that has issue in fellowship, and fellowship +that has issue in trust. There is no problem of labour, of politics, of +society that is insoluble if once it is approached in the spirit of +faith and fellowship and trust, but none of these is susceptible of +solution where the controlling motives are hate, distrust and fear. The +modern policy of centralization and segregation has resulted in dealing +with men as groups and not as individuals. When, for example, iron-bound +cults (they are no less than this) meet as "capital" and as "labour," +both merge the individuality of their members in a thing which has no +real or necessary existence but is an artificial creation of thought +operating under the dominion of ephemeral, almost accidental conditions. +As a member of an "interest" or a cult, where humanity and personality +are, so to speak, "in commission," a man does not hesitate to do those +things he would never think of doing for himself, knowing them to be +selfish, cruel, unjust and uncharitable. A case in point--if we need +one, which is hardly probable since they are of daily occurrence--is the +pending contest between the mine operators and mine workers in Great +Britain, where both parties, with Government thrown in, are guilty of +maintaining theories and perpetrating acts for which an individual would +be, even now, excoriated and outlawed. The Irish imbroglio is another +instance of the same kind. + +In a personal letter from a consulting engineer who has had unusual +opportunities, by reason of his official position, to come closely in +contact with the conditions governing industry and finance both in +America and Europe since the war, I find this illuminating statement of +a matured judgment. "As a practical matter, and facing the issue, I +would preach the practice of de-centralization in government and +business which will in time develop the individual and accomplish the +desired end. * * * Decentralization should be carried to such an extent +that the units of business would be of such size that the head could +again have a personal relation with each individual associated with him. +* * * With the personal relation again established, unionism as at +present practiced would again be unnecessary, and the unions would +become once more guilds for the development and advancement of the +individual." It is this nullification of the human element, of the +person as such, the introduction of the gross aggregate with its +artificial corporate quality, and the attempt to establish a +correspondence between these unnatural things, the whole being +intensified by the emotions of fear, distrust and hate, which produces +the contemporary insistence on "rights" and the rank injustice, cruelty +and disorder that follow the blind contest. To quote again from the +soldier who achieved illumination through the recent war, "My friends, +there is no protection of rights in heaven. When we speak of rights we +are blinded by the light of this world of rule and order and +intellectual conceits. It is not justice we need, it is mercy." + +If we honestly endeavour to bring about something more nearly +approaching the Kingdom of God on earth, we should do well to achieve a +little more of the quality of child-like trust which knows that through +the petition to father or mother, or to a guardian angel, or directly to +God, the result will surely follow. We long passionately to see a good, +_our_ good as we see it, accepted here and now, but whatever we offer, +no mater how righteous or how salutary, is but a small part of the great +good, a limited and partial showing forth of only one element, while the +final and comprehensive good is the result of many contributions, and in +the end is not ours, but God's, and by His overruling providence it may +look very unlike what we had predetermined and anticipated. Moreover, +the condition even of our own small good becoming effective, is _faith,_ +and neither sight nor action. There is a faith that can move mountains, +and it is faith in fellowship, in the underlying, indestructible good in +man, above all in the desire and the intent of God to deal mercifully +with us and beyond the dictates of justice and the claims of our own +deserts. When we know and accept this power of faith, placing it above +the efficiency of our own feeble works, then indeed we may become the +patient, hopeful, joyful and faithful Christians we were intended to be, +and therefore the creators of the spirit of peace. Nothing permanent can +be achieved except in coöperation with God; any work of man alone (or of +the devil) has in it the seed of decay and must perish, This knowledge +relieves us of the gloomy responsibility of destroying or trying to +destroy every evil thing we see or think we see. If it is really evil it +is already dying unless nourished by evil within ourselves. Here is a +Buddhist legend which has a lesson for each of us--"The watcher in the +shrine of Buddha rushed in to the Holy Fathers one morning with tidings +of a horrible demon who had usurped the throne of our Lord Buddha. The +Fathers ran to the throne room, each one more infuriated than the other, +and declaimed against the insolence of the demon, who grew huger and +more hideous at every angry word that hurtled through the air. At last +arrived the oldest and most saintly of the monks and threw himself on +his knees before the demon and said, "We thank thee, O Master, for +teaching us how much anger and wrath and jealousy was still hidden in +our hearts." At every word he said, the demon grew smaller and smaller +and at last vanished. He was am Anger-Eating Demon, and anger-rousing +words and even thoughts of ill-feeling nourished him. + +The belief that in comparison with the depth of good in the world the +evil is shallow may also be expressed in the statement that God is Lord +of Eternity while the devil is prince only of this world. As this evil +spirit has power, and as a part of this power is the ability to appear +as an angel of light, so to deceive us, we are bound by +self-examination, constantly indulged in, to scrutinize those things, so +common in our own lives we do not notice them, which may be but the +illusions of this spirit of darkness showing as a fictitious spirit of +light: Hurry and carelessness both in thought and in action; +snap-judgment at short range; compromise with the spirit of the time in +the interest of "good business," "practical considerations" or "sound +policy"; worship of the doctrine of "get results," acceptance of the +horrible principle: that it is every man's business to "sell" something +to another, from a patent medicine or "gilt edged" bonds to a new +philosophy or an old religion; the estimating of values by size, number, +cost. It is common parlance among Christian people to speak of what a +man "is worth" meaning how much money he has. We speak of a man's +"making a living" meaning only how much money he makes, when by making +only money he would be killing his living. Do we not speak of the call +of a missionary from an unshepherded flock to a large city parish as a +call to "a wider sphere of usefulness"? When you or I conceive of any +piece of work as "important" is it not because it involves either great +numbers or great sums of money? Then we hear much today of the need for +leaders. The need could not be exaggerated, but does not this lack +exist, in part, because we have forgot that the Christian's first duty +is to be a follower, and that only from amongst real followers can God +(not man, least of all the man himself) raise up a leader? These are +small matters, you may say, but "straws show which way the wind blows," +and the spirit, like the wind, manifests itself first in small matters. +Every life is made up largely of small things, "the little, nameless +unremembered acts of kindness and of love" which some one has called +"the noblest portion of a good man's life." + +With this brief glance at some of the possible manifestations of the +spirit of evil which we believe to be temporary and therefore of +secondary importance only, let us consider some of the requisites of the +Christian life as exemplified in the life of Christ, especially those of +which we need to be reminded today. We have already spoken of that +child-likeness which takes the faith simply and applies it to the common +things of daily life--Christ's life of ministry, of good works (which +was, in proportion to the time given to preparation for activity and +preaching, of very short duration), full of injunctions to those who +were with him to "tell no man"; therefore the good works which are done +"in His likeness" must not be done in public. If we are "seen of men," +verily we have our reward. Christ's life ended in apparent failure, in +ignominious death on the cross. The world worships today's success and +immediate publicity, the Christian, to be worthy of his Lord, must +accept apparent failure and must offer his best work in secret: "And my +Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." A touching poem +of Francis Thompson's pictures the marveling of a soul on his rewards in +Paradise which, in his humility, he thinks undeserved. The man asks of +God: + + _O when did I give Thee drink erewhile, + Or when embrace Thine unseen feet? + What gifts Thee give for my Lord Christ's smile, + Who am a guest here most unmeet?_ + +and is answered + + _When thou kissedest thy wife and children sweet + (Their eyes are fair in my sight as thine) + I felt the embraces on My feet. + (Lovely their locks in thy sight and Mine.)_ + +A necessary reminder of the fact that for each of us, charity, which is +love, begins at home, and that we love and serve God best in His holy +human relationships--if we love not our brother whom we have seen how +can we love God whom we have not seen? + +Again, the individual Christian life must, like its Great Original, +suffer for others. When we suffer as a result of our own wrongdoing we +are but meeting our just reward; but if patiently and humbly and +voluntarily we bear pain, even unto death, for others, we are +transcending justice, the pagan law, and exemplifying mercy, the +Christian virtue. No sensitive soul in this generation, conscious of the +sacrifice of the millions of young lives who "stormed Heaven" in their +willingness to die that others might live, can doubt this. The essence +of love is sacrifice; voluntary, nay eager sacrifice. Before our Blessed +Lord died He was mocked and ridiculed, He suffered physical hardship, +falling under the weight of the cross, and He was lifted up, crucified, +to suffer the ignominious death of a felon. He was made a spectacle for +the jests and laughter of the multitude. In our own time and amongst +ourselves, except for periods of war, there is little necessity for +physical suffering for our faith, but the need to endure ridicule is as +great as ever, perhaps even greater because of the absence of physical +suffering. Since we are trying to apply these things in small and simple +ways to the individual life let us each one consider how much moral +courage it takes to defend Christian virtues when they are sneered at +under the guise of "jokes." Let us exercise charity by not quoting +instances, but let us be watchful of our laughter and our fellowship, +which are both gifts of God, and see that we do not confuse pagan +pleasure with Christian joy, the evil sneer with the tender recognition +of the absurd in ourselves and in others. It is Mr. Chesterton again who +points out the fact that the pagan virtues of justice and the like which +he calls the "sad virtues" were superseded, when the great Christian +revelation came, by the "gay and exuberant virtues," the virtues of +grace, faith, hope and charity; and who says, "the pagan virtues are the +reasonable virtues, and the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity +are in their essence as unreasonable as they can be. Charity means +pardoning what is unpardonable or it is no virtue at all. Hope means +hoping when things are hopeless or it is no virtue at all. And faith +means believing the incredible or it is no virtue at all." If you say +this is a paradox I reply: it must be so, since it requires faith to +accept a paradox. The realm of reason is the one in which we walk by +sight, and of this fact our age in its pride of intellect has need to be +reminded. If Christ be not the Son of God, and His revelation of the +"faith once delivered" be not the divine and final guide, fulfilling, +completing and at the same time reversing every other ethic, religion +and moral code, then these things be indeed foolishness, for there is no +explaining them on the ground of logic or philosophy. But if, by the +gift of grace, we have faith, we remember "I thank Thee, Father, that +Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed +them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." + +Again, and if as persons we are to grow in relationship to a personal +God, we must both speak and listen to our Father; in other words we must +use the great dynamic of prayer. "More things are wrought by prayer than +this world dreams of." We are told that one of the requisites of the +really good talker is to be a good listener; the apparently good talker +is in reality a monologuist. In our prayer-life today do we recognize +sufficiently the need for _listening_ to God? We are perhaps ready +enough to ask for blessings and mercies, but that is only a part of the +full life of prayer which must include also thanksgiving, lifting of the +heart and mind, and quiet listening or interior prayer. There was an age +in the world when this interior prayer was so much more joyful and +natural a thing than the world of matter that it had to be taught "to +labour is to pray." Today, when we accept the necessity of labour, and +even worship activity for its own sake, do we not need to be reminded +that to pray is to labour? If you doubt this, try to make that +concentrated form of prayer known as meditation, out of which springs a +resolve and determination to do better; try to do this faithfully for +fifteen minutes a day and it may prove the hardest work you have ever +undertaken. A great servant of God has said, "I believe no soul can be +lost which faithfully practices meditation for fifteen minutes a day." +Nor must we forget that in this work of prayer we are companioned by the +Holy Spirit, the Peace-maker, Who maketh intercession for us "with +groanings which can not be uttered" and "Who leads us ever gently but +surely into that closer communion with God whose result is life more +abundant." After prayer it is easier to realize that "to be spiritually +minded is life and peace"; it is easier to obey the injunction "And +grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of +redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and +evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one +to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for +Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." And for those that seek after peace +it must be _all_ wrath, _all_ anger and _all_ evil speaking which are +put away: This leaves no room for what the world calls "just wrath" +"righteous anger," or speaking evil of evil doers. Let us call to mind +the incident in the early life of St. John, afterwards the great +disciple of love, when he wanted to call down wrath on the wicked +inhabitants of a city and was rebuked by Our Lord who said, "Ye know not +in what spirit ye speak." After love had supplanted wrath, and the good +spirit had taken the place of the evil in St. John's heart, he was sent +to convert the people he would have destroyed. Yes, it is the spirit +that matters, the wrath that is wrong and that must be put away before +we can love God or our neighbour as ourself, for the fruit of the Spirit +is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, +meekness, temperance. + +When we understand that the object of life and of education is the +creation of a spirit and not the doing of things, we are freed from the +tyranny of results in this world as a final test and come to realize +that judgment belongs only to God Who as a Spirit judges the effort. + +Of course this does not mean that we are freed from the moral law, that +certain evil things in ourselves and in others are not always the +results of an evil spirit, but rather that in addition to avoiding and +shunning those things which are obviously evil, we must with equal care +avoid doing even good things in a bad spirit. The commandments still +stand, the moral law is abated not one jot, but in Christianity and in +Christianity alone are we given power to fulfill the law and to add the +new commandment, the summing up of them all, of love to God and man. No +human soul comes into the world without some desire to be good, because +each human soul is a child of God. To each one, not blinded by pride +(and surely it should be easy in these days to be humble) comes, sooner +or later, the realization of his own inability of himself to do what he +would, the need for a power outside himself, the power which is +available and of which we have heard "I am come that ye might have life +and more abundantly." Let us examine how the apostles set about living +this abundant life. In Dr. Genung's "The Life Indeed" we read, "One and +all they made it a matter of the spirit that is the man, but the spirit +they recognized was not an abstraction, or a theory, but a present +Person and helper who was witnessing with their spirits. St. John makes +the matter equally definite: 'The Son of God,' he says, 'was manifest +that he might destroy the works of the Devil,' and St. Paul, mindful of +the inner subtleties of the conflict, warns his readers that Satan has +changed his tactics and has transformed himself into an angel of light. +I am not sure that we have gained greatly by letting our notions of +spiritual life grow dim and abstract. Perhaps for this very reason the +rebellious, negative, designing spirit that is so prone to invade the +hearts of us all is the more free to gain a foot-hold and go about +controlling the tone of our life. There is real advantage in bringing +the large issues of life to a point where not only our mind but, as it +were, our senses, can lay hold on them. It is the impulse of +simple-minded men like those early disciples, and if we continue +straight-seeing we do not outgrow it. What makes these views of life so +deep is not that they are less simple than those of others, but that +they are more simple. To St. John the reality that has come to win the +world is not the promise of salvation, or prophecy of an eventual life +eternal, but just life without modification or limitation, life +absolute, full-orbed, pulsating through worlds seen and unseen alike. 'I +am the Life,' he makes Christ say, not, 'I am working to secure it.' St. +John it is who preserves to us that conception of eating the Flesh and +drinking the Blood of the Son of Man. No philosopher in the world, we +may roundly say, would ever have put it so, and yet how effectually is +thus revealed what it means to get the power of the new life thoroughly +incorporated with our blood and breath. He it is who identifies the most +inner values of life with the simplest acts and experiences, reducing it +to terms of eating bread and drinking water, and walking in daylight, +and bearing fruit like the branches of a vine and following like sheep +the voice of a shepherd, and entering a door and finding pasture." + +Let us cease trying materialistic and intellectual means for supplying +the power to live the spiritual life and let us each one establish the +needful relationship with the true source of power. May our time not be +likened to the Oriental traveler, who, appreciating the convenience and +force of electricity as seen in a room he occupied, fitted his palace, +on his return, with a set of elaborate fixtures and was surprised to +find no illumination therefrom! We are torches who can not shine in +themselves, but who, when connected with the great central Source of +Power, the Blessed Trinity in its three glorious manifestations, can +show forth the light of the world. Christians should be torch bearers, +and the true torch bearer lights not his own path so much as the path of +those who come after him. And this brings us to the fundamental reason +for personal responsibility. Our motive in seeking personal +righteousness it not, as might hastily be thought, because of a selfish +desire to save our own souls, or to withdraw either here or hereafter +from other souls, but for "their sakes" to sanctify ourselves; for the +lives we live today create the spiritual atmosphere of tomorrow. + +From Spain come the following suggestive thoughts in regard to the value +of the person. "The individual is the real purpose of the universe. We +may seek the hero of our thought in no philosopher who lived in flesh +and blood, but in a being of fiction and of action, more real than all +the philosophers. He is Don Quixote. One cannot say of Don Quixote that +he was strictly idealistic. He did not fight for ideas: he was of the +spirit and he fought for the spirit. Quixotism is a madness descended +from the madness of the cross; therefore it is despised by reason; Don +Quixote will not resign himself to either the world or its truth, to +science or logic, to art or aesthetics, to morals or ethics. And what +did he leave behind him? one may ask. I reply that he left himself, and +that a man, a man living and immortal, is worth all theories and all +philosophies. Other countries have left us institutions and books: Spain +has left soul. St. Theresa is worth all institutions whatever, or any +'Critique of Pure Reason.'" + +Yes, this is I think the lesson we have to learn, now at this turning +point in history with the epoch of intellect crumbling about our ears, +and the great World's Fair of multiplied, ingenious mechanisms we have +called "modern civilization" at a point of practical bankruptcy. It is +the spirit that counts, the soul of "man living and immortal," and only +through our own living, and the spiritual force that we can command, and +through ourselves apply, shall we be able to compass that social +regeneration that is the only alternative to social degeneration and +catastrophe. The man who does not live his belief is powerless to redeem +or to create, though he were a Solon, a Charlemagne, a Napoleon or a +Washington; the man who lives his belief, even if he is a mill-hand in +Fall River, is contributing something of energizing force to the task of +re-creation. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the +Lord of Hosts." + +Fantastic and paradoxical as it may seem to link together Don Quixote +and St. Theresa, I am not sure that we could do better than to accept +them as models. The loud laughter of an age of intellectual ribaldry and +self-conceit dies away and the gaunt figure of the last of the Crusaders +still stands before us heroic in his childlike refusal of compromise, +his burning compassion, his deafness to ridicule. In a sense we must all +be ready to accept the jeering and the scorn that were poured out on the +Knight of La Mancha, if like him we are to fight, even foolishly, for +the things that are worth fighting for--either that they may be +destroyed, or restored. And with St. Theresa we must be willing to +endure obloquy, suspicion, malice, if like her we live in faith, +subjecting our will to the divine will, and then sparing nothing of +ourselves in the labour of saving the world for God in the twentieth +century as St. Theresa laboured to save it in the sixteenth century. + +The call today is for personal service through the right living that +follows the discovery of a right relationship to God. Not a campaign but +a crusade; and the figures of St. Louis and St. Francis and St. Theresa, +together with all the Knights and Crusaders of Christendom, rise up +before us to point the way. We would find the Great Peace, the world +would find the Great Peace also, but + + _The way is all so very plain + That we may lose the way._ + +We have been told: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His +righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, for your +Heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of these things." If we go forth on +this new and knightly quest--quest indeed in these latter days, for the +Holy Grail, lost long since and hidden away from men--we may, by the +grace of God, achieve. Then, "suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye," and +before we are aware, for "the Kingdom of God cometh not with watching," +we and even the world, shall find that we have compassed the Great +Peace, and if we do not live to see it, yet in our "certain hope" we +shall know that it will come, if not in our time, yet in God's good +time; if not in our way, yet in His more perfect way. + +In these lectures I have from time to time, and perhaps beyond your +patience, criticised and condemned many of those concrete institutions +which form the working mechanism of life, even suggesting possible +substitutes. In ending I would say as in beginning; this is not because +salvation may be found through any device, however perfect, but because +this itself, by reason of its excellence on the one hand or its +depravity on the other, is, under the law of life, contributory to the +operation of the divine spirit (which is the sole effective energy) or a +deterrent. I have tried at long last to gather up this diffuse argument +for the supremacy of spiritual force as it works through the individual, +and to place it before you in this concluding lecture. Perhaps I can +best emphasize my point thus. + +The evil of the institutions which now hold back the progress that must +be made towards social recovery and the Great Peace, is far less the +quality of wrongness in themselves and the ill influence they put in +operation, than it is the revelation they make of personal character. It +is not so much that newspapers are what they are as that there should be +men who are pleased and content to make them this, in apparently honest +ignorance of what they are doing, and that there should be others in +sufficient number to make them profitable business propositions by +giving them their appreciation and support. It is not so much that +government should be what it is as that character should have so far +degenerated in the working majority of citizens that these qualities +should show themselves as a fixed condition, and that there should be no +body of men of numerical distinction, who regard the situation with +sentiments much more active than those of indifference and amused +toleration. It is not so much that the industrial situation should be +what it is, as that there should be on both sides moral wrong, and that +this condition could not have come about, nor could it still be +maintained, except through character degeneration in the individual. It +is not so much that many forms of religion are what they are, as it is +that they should progressively have become this through their exponents +and adherents, and that there should be so many who are still willing to +defend them in this case. + +Every ill thing reveals through its very quality the defects of the +individual man, and as upon him must rest the responsibilities for the +fault, so on him must be placed the responsibility for the recovery. The +failures we have recorded, the false gods we have raised up in idolatry, +even the Great War itself, are revelations of failure in personal and +individual character. We may recognize this, but recognition is not +enough. We may found societies and committees and write books and +deliver lectures, but corporate action is not enough, nor intellectual +assent. There is but one way that is right, sufficient and effective, +and that is the right living of each individual, which is the +incarnation and operation of faith by the grace of God. + +It is my desire to close this course of lectures not with my own words +but with those of one of the great personalities revealed by the war. +First, however, I wish to say this. If there is any thought or word in +what I have said that seems to you true, then I ask you to use it not as +a matter for discussion but as an impulse toward personal action. If +there is anything that is of the nature of explicit error, then I pray +that the Spirit of Truth may make deaf your ears that you hear not, and +blot out of your memory the record of what I have said. If there is +anything that is not consonant with the Christian religion, as this has +been revealed to the world and as it is guarded and interpreted by the +Church to which these powers were committed, then I retract and disavow +it explicitly and _ex animo._ + +There are two great spiritual figures that have been revealed to us +through the Great War: Cardinal Mercier, the great confessor, who held +aloft the standard of spiritual glory through the war itself, and Bishop +Nicholai of Serbia who has testified to eternal truth and righteousness +in the wilderness the war has brought to pass. It is with his inspired +words that I will make an ending of the things I have been impelled to +say. + +"Christ is merciful, but at last He comes as the Judge. * * * He comes +now not to preside in the churches only but to be in your homes, in your +shops, to be everywhere with you. He wants to be first; He has become +last in Europe, * * * Civilization passes like the winds, but the soul +remains. Christianization is the only good and constructive +civilization. Americanization without Christianization means Bolshevism. +Europe is suffering today for her sins. Christ has forgiven seventy +times seven, and now it seems that He is the Judge, turning away, +rejected, leaving Europe and going through the gate of Serbia to Asia. +Pray for us. * * * Send us not your gold and silver for food so much as +send us converted men. Convert your politicians, your members of the +press, your journalists, to preach Christ. + +"Christ is choosing the perfect stones, the marble of all the churches, +to complete His mystical body in Heaven. He thinks only of one Church, +made from those true to Him of all the churches here. Civilizations are +moving pictures, made by man. Without God they perish. The soul, the +spirit, lives. The war is not against externals; the war is against +ourselves." + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +From the point attained in the lecture on "A Working Philosophy," a +point I believe to be clearly indicated by Christian philosophy and +sharply differentiated from that of paganism or modernism, I would +adventure further and even into a field of pure theory where I can +adduce no support or justification from any other source. Speculation +along this line may be dangerous, even unjustifiable; certainly it +introduces the peril of an attempt to intellectualize what cannot be +apprehended by the intellectual faculty, an effort which has been the +obsession of modernism and has resulted in spiritual catastrophe. On the +other hand we are confronted by a definite and plausible system worked +out by those who were without fear of these consequences, and while this +already is losing something of its common acceptance, it is still +operative, indeed is the only working system and consistent theory of +the majority of thinking men outside the limits of Catholicism. I think +it wrong both in its assumptions and its inferences, and it certainly +played a deplorable part in the building up of the latest phase of +modern civilization, while its persistence is, I am persuaded, a barrier +to recovery or advance. This theory, which has gradually been deduced +from the wonderful investigations, tabulations and inferences of Darwin, +Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer and others of the great group of British +intellectuals and scientists of the nineteenth century, is known under +the general title of Evolution. + +The following suggestions are offered with extreme diffidence, and only +as uncertain and indeterminate approximations. In some respects they +seem not inconsistent with the most recent scientific research which +already is casting so much doubt on many of the assumed factors behind +evolution and on the accepted methods of its operation. The true +solution, if it is found, will result from the cooperation of +scientists, philosophers and theologians, illuminated by the fire of the +Divine Wisdom--Hagia Sophia--for in such a problem as this, almost the +final secret of the Cosmos, no single human agency acting alone can hope +to achieve the final revelation, while all acting together could hardly +escape falling into "the falsehoods of their own imaginings" if they +relied solely on their unaided efforts in the intellectual sphere. + +Assuming then that life is an enduring process of the redemption of +matter through the interpenetration of spirit, what is a possible method +of action? To explain what I mean I must use a diagrammatic figure, but +I admit this must be not only inadequate but misleading, for instead of +the two dimensions of a diagram, we must postulate three, with time +added as a vital element, and, I dare say, a "fourth dimension" as well. +Confessing inadequacy in the symbol, let us conceive of a space divided +into four strata. The lowest of these is the primary unknowable, the +region of pure spirit, pure spirit itself, the creative energy of the +universe, the unconditioned Absolute, in the terms of Christian +theology, Almighty God. The second is the plane of matter, an area of +potential, but in itself inert and indeterminate. The third is the space +of what we call life in all its forms, the area in which the +transformation and redemption take place. The fourth is the ultimate +unknowable, that is to say, that which follows on after life and +receives the finished product of redemption. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM NO. 1. The interpenetration of Matter by Spirit. +_x,_ The primary Unknowable; _x',_ the ultimate Unknowable; _[Greek: +alpha],_ the plane of Matter; _[Greek: beta],_ the plane of Life.] + +Now there is eternally in process a penetration of the stratum of matter +by jets of the _élan vital_ from the realm of pure spirit, each as it +were striving to detach from the plane of matter some small portion, +which is transformed in its passage through life and achieves entrance +into the ultimate unknowable, when the process of redemption is, for +this small particle, completed. Always, however, is exerted the +gravitational pull of matter, and the energy that drove through, instead +of pursuing a right line, tends to bend in a parabolic curve, like the +trajectory of a cannon ball. In the completion of the process some +portion of redeemed matter "gets by," so to speak, but other portions do +not; they return to their source of origin and are reabsorbed in matter, +becoming subject to the operation of future interpenetrating jets of +spiritual energy. The upward drive of the _élan vital_ constitutes what +may properly be known as evolution, the declining fall the process of +devolution or degeneration. Evolution then is only one part of the +cosmic process, it is inseparable from degeneration. + +This process holds in the case of individuals, of families, of races, of +states and of eras, or definite and completed periods of time. As man is +begotten, born, developed to maturity and then is brought downward to +the grave, so in the case of races and nations and the clearly defined +epochs into which the history of man divides itself. There is no +mechanical system of "progress," no cumulative wisdom and power that in +the end will inevitably lead to earthly perfection and triumph. For +every individual there is the possibility of spiritual evolution within +the time allotted that will open for him the gates that bar the +frontiers of the world of reality and of redemption that lies beyond +that world of earthly life which is the field of contest between +unredeemed matter and redeeming spirit, of contest and of victory--or of +failure. In the case of races and nations and epochs there is the same +conflict between material factors and spiritual energy; the same +crescent youth with all its primal vitality, maturity with its assurance +and competence, and the dying fall of dissipating energies. In each case +death is the concomitant of life but there is always something that +lasts over, and that is the spiritual achievement, the precious residuum +that remains, defying death and dissolution, that infuses the plane of +life with its redemptive ardour, and is the heritage of lives that come +after, acting with the sacramental agencies of religion in coöperation +with God Who ordained and compassed them both, in that great process of +redemption and salvation that is continually taking place and will +continue until matter, and time which is but the ratio of the resistance +of matter to the redeeming power of spirit, shall be no more. + +I confess the hopelessly mechanical quality in this vain attempt to put +into words something that by its very nature must transcend all modes of +expression that are intellectually apprehendable. Taken literally it +would be entirely false and probably heretical from a theological point +of view, as it certainly is more than inadequate as a philosophical +proposition. It is intended only as a symbol, and a gross symbol at +that, but as such I will let it stand. + +Now if there is indeed a possible truth hidden somewhere within somewhat +clumsy approximations, it must modify some of our generally accepted +ideas. The life-process will appear, not a slow, interrupted, but +substantially forward development from lower and simpler organisms to +higher and more complex, with the end (if there be an end), beyond the +very limits of eternity, but rather a swift creation of some of the +highest forms through the first energy of the creative force, with the +throwing off of ever lower and lower forms as the curve of the +trajectory descends. So through a mass of low and static vitality comes +the sudden and enormous power that produces at the very beginnings of +our own recorded history of man, the almost superhuman intelligence and +capacity of the Greeks and the Egyptians. So each of the definite eras +of civilization opens with the releasing of great energies, the +revealing of great figures of paramount character and force. So, +conversely, as the energy declines, men appear less and less potent and +in a descending scale. This is the case with the Greek states, with the +Roman Republic and the Empire, with Byzantium, with + +Mediaevalism, and with our modern era. I do not know of any other theory +that claims to explain the perpetual and rhythmical fluctuations of +history, as violent in their degree as they are approximately regular in +their rhythm. + +Following the idea a little further, it may even appear that many of the +lower, and particularly the more distorted, forms of animal life, +instead of being abortive or undeveloped stages in a continuous +evolutionary progress, are actually the product of a diminishing energy, +stages in a process of degeneration, and therefore leading not upward to +ever higher stages of development having issue at last in a completed +perfection, but rather downward to ultimate extinction. Geology records +this process in sufficient quantity, so far as many members of the +animal kingdom are concerned, and we, in our own day, have seen the +extinction of the dodo as well as the threatened disappearance of other +species. Creeping and crawling creatures too, that we could crush with +the heel, are but the last and puny descendants of mighty and terrible +monsters that once rolled and crashed through the fetid forests of the +carboniferous era. So there are races of men today, amongst others the +pygmies of Africa and the Australian bushmen, as well as some nearer in +a certain degree to the dominant races of the world, whom large-hearted +optimists regard as stages of retarded development, capable, under +tutelage, of advance to a level with the Caucasian, but who, in this +view of the case, would be but the weakening product of the "dying fall" +of the energy that produced the Greek, the Semite and the Nordic stocks. + +So in the last instance, the ape and the lemur and all their derivatives +may be, not records of some of the many stages through which man has +passed in his process of evolution, sidetracked by the upward rush of +one highly favoured or fortunate line, nor yet an abortive branch from +the common trunk from which sprang both man and ape, but rather the last +degradation of a primaeval energy, producing in its declension these +strange caricatures of the Man in whose production it found its +achievement. In other words, the old evolutionary idea is exactly +reversed, and those phenomena once looked on as passed stages of growth, +become the memorials of a creative process that has already achieved, +and is now returning, with its fantastic manifestations in terms of +declining life, even to that primordial mystery whence it had emerged. + +Granting this theory, the search for the "missing link," whether in the +geological strata below those that revealed the Piltdown skull, or in +the fastnesses of Central Asia, is as vain a quest as it has always +been. Primaeval man, as he is grudgingly revealed to us, may have been +the degenerate remainder of an earlier and fully developed race whose +records are buried in the sunken fastnesses of some vanished Atlantis or +Lemuria, as the races of the South Sea Islands may be less metamorphosed +remnants of the same stock. Into this infinitely degraded residuum of a +vanished race entered the new energizing force when the divine creative +energy came once more into operation, in the fullness of time, and the +Minoan, the Egyptian and the Greek came almost in an hour to their +highest perfection. So through the unnumbered ages of the world's +history, God has from time to time created man in His own image, out of +the dust of the earth, and man so made "a little lower than the angels" +has, also in time, fallen and forfeited his inheritance. Yet the process +goes on without ceasing, and in conformity with some law of divine +periodicity; but it is _Man_ that is created in the beginning, of his +full stature, even as is symbolically recorded in the Book of Genesis; +not a hairy quadrumana that by the operation of the laws of natural +selection and the survival of the fittest, ultimately and through +endless ages, and by the most infinitesimal changes, becomes at last +Plato and Caesar, Leonardo and Dante, St. Louis and Shakespeare and St. +Francis. + +Now in this process of the interpenetration of matter by spirit there +must be a certain periodicity, if it is a constant process and not one +accomplished once and for all time in the very beginnings of the world. +This rhythmical action, which is exemplified by every phenomenon of +nature, the vibratory process of light, sound, heat, electricity, the +pulsation of the heart, the motion of the tides, has never escaped the +observation even of primitive peoples, and always attempts have been +made to determine its periodicity. May it not be infinitely complex, as +the ripple rises on the wave that lifts on the swell of the underlying +tide? Certainly we are now being forced back to a new consideration of +this periodical beat, in history at least, for now that our own era, +which came in by the power of the Renaissance and the Reformation and +received its final energizing force through the revolutions of the +eighteenth century and the industrial revolution of the nineteenth, is +so manifestly coming to its end, we look backward for precedents for +this unexpected debacle and lo, they appear every five hundred years +back as far as history records. 500 B.C., Anno Domini; 500 A.D., 1000 +A.D., and 1500 A.D. are all, to the point of very clear approximation, +nodal points, where the curve of the preceding five centuries, having +achieved its crest, curves downward, and in its fall meets the curve of +rising energy that is to condition the ensuing era. The next nodal +point, calculated on this basis, comes about the year 2000. Are we not +justified, in plotting our trajectory of modernism, in placing the crest +in the year 1914, and in tracing the line of fall from that moment? + +I have plotted this curve, or series of curves, after a rough and ready +fashion (Diagram No. 2) and though the personal equation must, in any +subjective proposition such as this, enter largely into account, I think +the diagram will be accepted in principle if not in details, and not +wholly in its relationships. I have made no effort to estimate or +indicate comparative heights and depths, giving to each five-hundred +year epoch a similar level of rise and depth of fall. Perhaps the actual +difference here would, rightly estimated, be less than we have been led +to believe, though certainly few would lift the Carolingian crest to the +level of that of Hellenism or of the Middle Ages, nor assign to the end +of this latter period as low a fall as that accomplished during the +tenth century in continental Europe. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM No. 2. The rise and fall of the line of +civilization; showing also the nodal points at the Christian Era and at +the years 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 (?)] + +In a third cut (Diagram No. 3) I have roughly indicated in conventional +form a phenomenon which seems to me to show itself around the nodal +point when a descending curve of energy meets and crosses the descending +line. As the _élan vital_ that has made and characterized any period +declines, it throws off reactions, the object of which is if possible to +arrest, or at least delay, the fatal _glissade._ These are, in intent +and in fact, reforms; conscious efforts at saving a desperate situation +by regenerative methods. Trace back their lines of procedure, and in +every case they will be found to issue out of the very force which is +even then in process of degeneration, therefore they are poisoned at the +source and no true or vital reforms, for the sudden energy that urges +them is, after all, in no respect different from that which is already a +failing force. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM No. 3. The reactions thrown off by (a) the +descending line of vital force, (b) by the ascending line.] + +This, I conceive, is why today the multitudinous and specious "reforms," +which beat upon us from all sides, and find such ready acceptance in the +enactments of law, are really no reforms at all, since each one of them +is but an exaggeration or distortion of the very principles and methods +that already are bending downward the curve of our progression until it +disappears in the nether-world of failure, as did those of every +preceding epoch of equal duration. An example of what I mean is the +astute saying, frequently heard nowadays: "The cure for democracy is +more democracy." + +Now while one curve descends and throws off its reformative reactions in +the process, the other is ascending, preparatory to determining the +coming era for its allotted space of five centuries. In this process it +also throws off its own reactions, but these are for the purpose of +lifting the line more rapidly, bringing its force into play before its +determined time. These also are exaggerations, over-emphasized qualities +that are inherent in the ascending force, and they are no more to be +accepted as authoritative than are the others. They have their value +however, for they are prophetic, and even in their exaggeration there is +the clear forecast of things to be. Trace them in turn to the source. +What is their source? The new power issues out of obscurity and its +character is veiled, but we can estimate it from the very nature of the +exaggerated reactions we _can_ see. If something shows itself, in +sociology, economics, politics, religion, art, what you will, that is +especially a denial of what has been a controlling agency during the +past four or five hundred years: if it is by common consent impractical +and "outside the current of manifest evolutionary development," then, +shorn of its exaggerations, reduced to its essential quality, it is very +probably a clear showing forth of what is about to come to birth and +condition human life for the next five hundred years. This, I suppose, +explains the comprehensive return to Medievalism that, to the scorn of +biologists, sociologists and professors of political economy, is +flaunting itself before us today, at the hands of a very small minority, +in all the categories I have named, as well as in many others besides. + +A glance at the diagram will show a curious pattern round about the +nodal point. One may say that the reactions are somewhat mixed. Quite +so. At this moment we are beaten upon by numberless reforms, both +"radical" and "reactionary." Materialism, democracy, rationalism, +anarchy contending against Medievalism of twenty sorts, and strange +mysticisms out of the East. Which shall we choose, _if_ we choose, and +do not content ourselves with an easier inertia that allows nature to +take its course? It is simply the question; On which wave will you ride; +that which is descending to oblivion or that which has within itself the +power and potency to control man's destiny for the next five hundred +years? + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +CERTAIN BOOKS SUGGESTED FOR COLLATERAL READING + + +ADAMS, HENRY Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres. + +ADAMS, HENRY Degradation of the Democratic Dogma. + +BAUDRILLART, A. Catholic Church, Renaissance and Protestantism. + +BELL, BERNARD IDDINGS Right and Wrong after the War. + +BELLOC, HILAIRE The Servile State. + +BRYCE, VISCOUNT Modern Democracies. + +BULL, PAUL B. The Sacramental Principle. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. Orthodoxy. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. What's Wrong with the World. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. + +CONKLIN, E.G. The Direction of Human Evolution. + +CRAM, R.A. The Nemesis of Mediocrity. + +CRAM, R.A. Walled Towns. + +CRAM, R.A. The Ministry of Art. + +CRAM, R.A. The Great Thousand Years. + +FAGUET, E. The Cult of Incompetence. + +FERRERO, G. Europe's Fateful Hour. + +FIGGIS, J.N. Civilization at the Cross Roads. + +FIGGIS, J.N. The Will to Freedom. + +FIGGIS, J.N. Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God." + +GENUNG, J.F. The Life Indeed. + +GRAHAM, STEPHEN Priest of the Ideal. + +HARRISON, McVEIGH Daily Meditations. + +HUBBARD, A.J. The Fate of Empires. + +IRELAND, ALLEYNE Democracy and the Human Equation. + +LeBON, G. The World in Revolt. + +MEIKLEJOHN, ALEXANDER The Liberal College. + +MORRIS, WILLIAM The Dream of John Ball. + +PECK, W.G. From Chaos to Catholicism. + +PENTY, A.J. Old Worlds for New. + +PENTY, A.J. The Restoration of the Guild System. + +PHILLIPPS, L. MARCH Form and Colour. + +PHILLIPPS, L. MARCH Europe Unbound. + +PORTER, A. KINGSLEY Beyond Architecture. + +POWELL, F.C. A Person's Religion. + +RAUPERT, G. Human Destiny and the New Psychology. + +SHIELDS, THOMAS E. The Philosophy of Education. + +TAWNEY, R.H. The Acquisitive Society. + +WALSH, JAMES J. The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries. + +WALSH, JAMES J. Education, How Old the New. + +WORRINGER, W. Form Problems of the Gothic. + +DeWULF, M. History of Mediaeval Philosophy. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Towards the Great Peace, by Ralph Adams Cram + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE *** + +***** This file should be named 10642-8.txt or 10642-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/4/10642/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Gerald Tejada and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10642-8.zip b/old/10642-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..32a350f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10642-8.zip diff --git a/old/10642.txt b/old/10642.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9ae885 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10642.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7031 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Towards the Great Peace, by Ralph Adams Cram + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Towards the Great Peace + +Author: Ralph Adams Cram + +Release Date: January 8, 2004 [EBook #10642] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Gerald Tejada and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE + +BY + +RALPH ADAMS CRAM, LITT.D., LL.D. + + + +1922 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +For the course of lectures I am privileged to deliver at this time, I +desire to take, in some sense as a text, a prayer that came to my +attention at the outset of my preparatory work. It is adapted from a +prayer by Bishop Hacket who flourished about the middle of the +seventeenth century, and is as follows: + + _Lord, lift us out of Private-mindedness and give us Public + souls to work for Thy Kingdom by daily creating that Atmosphere + of a happy temper and generous heart which alone can bring the + Great Peace._ + +Each thought in this noble aspiration is curiously applicable to each +one of us in the times in which we fall: the supersession of narrow and +selfish and egotistical "private-mindedness" by a vital passion for the +winning of a Kingdom of righteousness consonant with the revealed will +of God; the lifting of souls from nervous introspection to a height +where they become indeed "public souls"; the accomplishing of the +Kingdom not by great engines of mechanical power but by the daily +offices of every individual; the substitution in place of current +hatred, fear and jealous covetousness, of the unhappy temper and +"generous heart" which are the only fruitful agencies of accomplishment. +Finally, the "Great Peace" as the supreme object of thought and act and +aspiration for us, and for all the world, at this time of crisis which +has culminated through the antithesis of great peace, which is great +war. + +I have tried to keep this prayer of Bishop Hacket's before me during the +preparation of these lectures. I cannot claim that I have succeeded in +achieving a "happy temper" in all things, but I honestly claim that I +have striven earnestly for the "generous heart," even when forced, by +what seem to me the necessities of the case, to indulge in condemnation +or to bring forward subjects which can only be controversial. If the +"Great War," and the greater war which preceded, comprehended, and +followed it, were the result of many and varied errors, it matters +little whether these were the result of perversity, bad judgment or the +most generous impulses. As they resulted in the Great War, so they are a +detriment to the Great Peace that must follow, and therefore they must +be cast away. Consciousness of sin, repentance, and a will to do better, +must precede the act of amendment, and we must see where we have erred +if we are to forsake our ill ways and make an honest effort to strive +for something better. + +For every failure I have made to achieve either a happy temper or a +generous heart, I hereby express my regret, and tender my apologies in +advance. + + + +CONTENTS + +LECTURE + + INTRODUCTION + + I. A WORLD AT THE CROSSROADS + + II. A WORKING PHILOSOPHY + + III. THE SOCIAL ORGANISM + + IV. THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM + + V. THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY + + VI. THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION AND ART + + VII. THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC RELIGION + + VIII. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY + + APPENDIX A + + APPENDIX B + + + + + + +TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE + + + + +I + + +A WORLD AT THE CROSSROADS + +For two thousand years Christianity has been an operative force in the +world; for more than a century democracy has been the controlling +influence in the public affairs of Europe and the Americas; for two +generations education, free, general and comprehensive, has been the +rule in the West. Wealth incomparable, scientific achievements +unexampled in their number and magnitude, facile means of swift +intercommunication between peoples, have all worked together towards an +earthly realization of the early nineteenth-century dream of proximate +and unescapable millennium. With the opening of the second decade of the +twentieth century it seemed that the stage was set for the last act in +an unquestioned evolutionary drama. Man was master of all things, and +the failures of the past were obliterated by the glory of the imminent +event. + +The Great War was a progressive revelation and disillusionment. Therein, +everything so carefully built up during the preceding four centuries was +tried as by fire, and each failed--save the indestructible qualities of +personal honour, courage and fortitude. Nothing corporate, whether +secular or ecclesiastical, endured the test, nothing of government or +administration, of science or industry, of philosophy or religion. The +victories were those of individual character, the things that stood the +test were not things but _men._ + +The "War to end war," the war "to make the world safe for democracy" +came to a formal ending, and for a few hours the world gazed spellbound +on golden hopes. Greater than the disillusionment of war was that of the +making of the peace. There had never been a war, not even the "Thirty +Years' War" in Germany, the "Hundred Years' War" in France or the wars +of Napoleon, that was fraught with more horror, devastation and +dishonour; there had never been a Peace, not even those of Berlin, +Vienna and Westphalia, more cynical or more deeply infected with the +poison of ultimate disaster. And here it was not things that failed, but +_men._ + +What of the world since the Peace of Versailles? Hatred, suspicion, +selfishness are the dominant notes. The nations of Europe are bankrupt +financially, and the governments of the world are bankrupt politically. +Society is dissolving into classes and factions, either at open war or +manoeuvering for position, awaiting the favourable moment. Law and order +are mocked at, philosophy and religion disregarded, and of all the +varied objects of human veneration so loudly acclaimed and loftily +exalted by the generation that preceded the war, not one remains to +command a wide allegiance. One might put it in a sentence and say that +everyone is dissatisfied with everything, and is showing his feelings +after varied but disquieting fashion. It is a condition of unstable +equilibrium constantly tending by its very nature to a point where +dissolution is apparently inevitable. + +It is no part of my task to elaborate this thesis, and still less to +magnify its perils. Enough has been said and written on this subject +during the last two years; more than enough, perhaps, and in any case no +thinking person is unaware of the conditions that exist, whatever may be +his estimate of their significance, his interpenetration of their +tendency. I have set myself the task of trying to suggest some +constructive measures that we may employ in laying the foundations for +the immediate future; they may be wrong in whole or in part, but at +least my object and motive are not recrimination or invective, but +regeneration. Nevertheless, as a foundation the case must be stated, and +as a necessary preparation to any work that looks forward we must have +at least a working hypothesis as to how the conditions that need +redemption were brought about. I state the case thus, therefore: That +human society, even humanity itself, is now in a state of flux that at +any moment may change into a chaos comparable only with that which came +with the fall of classical civilization and from which five centuries +were necessary for the process of recovery. Christianity, democracy, +science, education, wealth, and the cumulative inheritance of a thousand +years, have not preserved us from the vain repetition of history. How +has this been possible, what has been the sequence of events that has +brought us to this pass? + +It is of course the result of the interaction of certain physical, +material facts and certain spiritual forces. Out of these spiritual +energies come events, phenomena that manifest themselves in political, +social, ecclesiastical transactions and institutions; in wars, +migrations and the reshaping of states; in codes of law, the +organization of society, the development of art, literature and science. +In their turn all these concrete products work on the minds and souls of +men, modifying old spiritual impulses either by exaltation or +degradation, bringing new ones into play; and again these react on the +material fabric of human life, causing new combinations, unloosing new +forces, that in their turn play their part in the eternal process of +building, unbuilding and rebuilding our unstable and fluctuant world. + +Underlying all the varied material forms of ancient society, as this +developed around the shores of the Mediterranean, was the great fact of +slavery: Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, all were +small, sometimes very small, minorities of highly developed, highly +privileged individuals existing on a great sub-stratum of slaves. All +the vast contributions of antiquity in government and law, in science, +letters, art and philosophy, all the building of the culture and +civilization that still remain the foundation stones of human society, +was the work of the few free subsisting on the many un-free. But +freedom, liberty, is an attribute of the soul and it may exist even when +the body is in bondage. The slaves of antiquity were free neither in +body nor in soul, but with the coming of Christianity all this was +changed, for it is one of the great glories of the Christian religion +that it gave freedom to the soul even before the Church could give +freedom to the body of the slave. After the fall of the Roman Empire, +and with the infiltration of the free races of the North, slavery +gradually disappeared, and between the years 1000 and 1500 a very real +liberty existed as the product of Christianity and under its protection. +Society was hierarchical: from the serf up through the peasant, the +guildsman, the burgher, the knighthood, the nobles, to the King, and so +to the Emperor, there was a regular succession of graduations, but the +lines of demarcation were fluid and easily passed, and as through the +Church, the schools and the cloister there was an open road for the son +of a peasant to achieve the Papacy, so through the guilds, chivalry, war +and the court, the layman, if he possessed ability, might from an humble +beginning travel far. An epoch of real liberty, of body, soul and mind, +and the more real in that limits, differences and degrees were +recognized, accepted and enforced. + +This condition existed roughly for five centuries in its swift rise, its +long dominion and its slow decline, that is to say, from 1000 A.D. to +1500 A.D. There was still the traditional aristocracy, now feudal rather +than patriarchal or military; there was still a servile class, now +reduced to a small minority. In between was the great body of men of a +degree of character, ability and intelligence, and with a recognized +status, the like of which had never been seen before. It was not a +bourgeoisie, for it was made up of producers,--agricultural, artisan, +craft, art, mechanic; a great free society, the proudest product of +Christian civilization. + +With the sixteenth century began a process of change that was to +overturn all this and bring in something radically different. The +Renaissance and the Reformation worked in a sense together to build up +their own expressive form of society, and when this process had been +completed we find still an aristocracy, though rapidly changing in the +quality of its personnel and in the sense of its relationship to the +rest of society; a servile class, the proletariat, enormously increased +in proportion to the other social components; and two new classes, one +the bourgeoisie, essentially non-producers and subsisting largely either +on trade, usury or management, and the pauper, a phase of life hitherto +little known under the Christian regime. The great body of free citizens +that had made up the majority of society during the preceding epoch, the +small land-holders, citizens, craftsmen and artists of fifty different +sorts, has begun rapidly to dissolve, has almost vanished by the middle +of the seventeenth century, and in another hundred years has practically +disappeared. + +What had become of them, of this great bulk of the population of western +Europe that, with the feudal aristocracy, the knighthood and the monks +had made Mediaevalism? Some had degenerated into bourgeois traders, +managers and financeers, but the great majority had been crushed down +and down in the mass of submerged proletariat, losing liberty, +degenerating in character, becoming more and more servile in status and +wretched in estate, so forming a huge, inarticulate, dully ebullient +mass, cut off from society, cut off almost from life itself. + +I must insist on these three factors in the development of society and +its present catastrophe: the great, predominant, central body of free +men during the Middle Ages, their supersession during the sixteenth, +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a non-producing bourgeoisie, and +the creation during the same period of a submerged proletariat. They are +factors of great significance and potential force. + +Towards the end of the eighteenth century the industrial-financial +revolution began. Within the space of an hundred years came all the +revelations of the potential inherent in thermo-dynamics and +electricity, and the invention of the machines that have changed the +world. During the Renaissance and Reformation the old social and +economic systems, so laboriously built up on the ruins of Roman tyranny, +had been destroyed; autocracy had abolished liberty, licentiousness had +wrecked the moral stamina, "freedom of conscience" had obliterated the +guiding and restraining power of the old religion. The field was clear +for a new dispensation. + +What happened was interesting and significant. Coal and iron, and their +derivatives--steam and machinery--rapidly revealed their possibilities. +To take advantage of these, it was necessary that labour should be +available in large quantities and freely subject to exploitation; that +unlimited capital should be forthcoming; that adequate markets should be +discovered or created to absorb the surplus product, so enormously +greater than the normal demand; and finally, it was necessary that +directors and organizers and administrators should be ready at the call. +The conditions of the time made all these possible. The land-holding +peasantry of England--and it is here that the revolution was +accomplished--had been largely dispossessed and pauperized under Henry +VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth, while the development of the wool-growing +industry had restricted the arable land to a point where it no longer +gave employment to the mass of field labourers. The first blast of +factory production threw out of work the whole body of cottage weavers, +smiths, craftsmen; and the result was a great mass of men, women, and +children without defense, void of all rights, and given the alternative +of submission to the dominance of the exploiters, or starvation. + +Without capital the new industry could neither begin nor continue. The +exploits of the "joint-stock companies" invented and perfected in the +eighteenth century, showed how this capital could easily be obtained, +while the paralyzing and dismemberment of the Church during the +Reformation had resulted in the abrogation of the old ecclesiastical +inhibition against usury. The necessary capital was forthcoming, and the +foundations were laid for the great system of finance which was one of +the triumphant achievements of the last century. + +The question of markets was more difficult. It was clear that, through +machinery, the exploitation of labour, and the manipulations of finance, +the product would be enormously greater than the local or national +demand. Until they themselves developed their own industrial system, the +other nations of Europe were available, but as this process proceeded +other markets had to be found; the result was achieved through +advertising, i.e., the stimulating in the minds of the general public of +a covetousness for something they had not known of and did not need, and +the exploiting of barbarous or undeveloped races in Asia, Africa, +Oceanica. This last task was easily achieved through "peaceful +penetration" and the preempting of "spheres of influence." In the end +(i.e., A.D. 1914), the whole world had so been divided, the stimulated +markets showed signs of repletion, and since exaggerated profits meant +increasing capital demanding investment, and the improvement in +"labour-saving" devices continued unchecked, the contest for others' +markets became acute, and world-politic was concentrated on the vital +problem of markets, lines of communication, and tariffs. + +As for the finding or development of competent organizers and directors, +the history of the world since the end of medievalism had curiously +provided for this after a fashion that seemed almost miraculous. The +type required was different from anything that had been developed +before. Whenever the qualitative standard had been operative, it was +necessary that the leaders in any form of creative action should be men +of highly developed intellect, fine sensibility, wide and penetrating +vision, nobility of instinct, passion for righteousness, and a +consciousness of the eternal force of charity, honour, and service. +During the imperial or decadent stages, courage, dynamic force, the +passion for adventure, unscrupulousness in the matter of method, took +the place of the qualities that marked the earlier periods. In the first +instance the result was the great law-givers, philosophers, prophets, +religious leaders, and artists of every sort; in the second, the great +conquerors. Something quite different was now demanded--men who +possessed some of the qualities needed for the development of +imperialism, but who were unhampered by the restrictive influences of +those who had sought perfection. To organize and administer the new +industrial-financial-commercial regime, the leaders must be shrewd, +ingenious, quick-witted, thick-skinned, unscrupulous, hard-headed, and +avaricious; yet daring, dominating, and gifted with keen prevision and +vivid imagination. These qualities had not been bred under any of the +Mediterranean civilizations, or that of Central Europe in the Middle +Ages, which had inherited so much therefrom. The pursuit of perfection +always implies a definite aristocracy, which is as much a goal of effort +as a noble philosophy, an august civil polity or a great art. This +aristocracy was an accepted and indispensable part of society, and it +was always more or less the same in principle, and always the centre and +source of leadership, without which society cannot endure. It is true +that at the hands of Christianity it acquired a new quality, that of +service as contingent on privilege--one might almost say of privilege as +contingent on service--and the ideals of honour, chivalry, compassion +were established as its object and method of operation even though these +were not always achieved, but the result was not a new creation; it was +an institution as old as society, regenerated and transformed and +playing a greater and a nobler part than ever before. + +Between the years 1455 and 1795 this old aristocracy was largely +exterminated. The Wars of the Roses, the massacres of the Reformation, +and the Civil Wars in England; the Thirty Years' War in Germany; the +Hundred Years' War, the Wars of Religion, and the Revolution in France +had decimated the families old in honour, preserving the tradition of +culture, jealous of their alliances and their breeding--the natural and +actual leaders in thought and action. England suffered badly enough as +the result of war, with the persecutions of Henry VIII, Edward VI and +Elizabeth, and the Black Death, included for full measure. France +suffered also, but Germany fared worst of all. By the end of the Thirty +Years' War the older feudal nobility had largely disappeared, while the +class of "gentlemen" had been almost exterminated. In France, until the +fall of Napoleon III, and in Germany and Great Britain up to the present +moment, the recruiting of the formal aristocracy has gone on steadily, +but on a different basis and from a different class from anything known +before. Demonstrated personal ability to gain and maintain leadership; +distinguished service to the nation in war or statecraft; courage, +honour, fealty--these, in general, had been the ground for admission to +the ranks of the aristocracy. In general, also, advancement to the ranks +of the higher nobility was from the class of "gentlemen," though the +Church, the universities, and chivalry gave, during the Middle Ages, +wide opportunity for personal merit to achieve the highest honours. + +Through the wholesale destruction of the representatives of a class that +from the beginning of history had been the directing and creative force +in civilization, a process began which was almost mechanical. As the +upper strata of society were planed off by war, pestilence, civil +slaughter, and assassination, the pressure on the great mass of men +(peasants, serfs, unskilled labourers, the so-called "lower classes") +was increasingly relaxed, and very soon the thin film of aristocracy, +further weakened by dilution, broke, and through the crumbling shell +burst to the surface those who had behind them no tradition but that of +servility, no comprehension of the ideals of chivalry and honour of the +gentleman, no stored-up results of education and culture, but only an +age-long rage against the age-long dominating class, together with the +instincts of craftiness, parsimony, and almost savage self-interest. + +As a class, it was very far from being what it was under the Roman +Empire; on the other hand, it was equally removed from what it was +during the Middle Ages in England, France and the Rhineland. Under +mediaevalism chattel slavery had disappeared, and the lot of the peasant +was a happier one than he had known before. He had achieved definite +status, and the line that separated him from the gentry was very thin +and constantly traversed, thanks to the accepted system of land tenure, +the guilds, chivalry, the schools and universities, the priesthood and +monasticism. The Renaissance had rapidly changed all this, however; +absolutism in government, dispossession of land, the abolition of the +guilds, and the collapse of the moral order and of the dominance of the +Church, were fast pushing the peasant back into the position he had held +under the Roman Empire, and from which Christianity had lifted him. By +1790 he had been for nearly three centuries under a progressive +oppression that had undone nearly all the beneficent work of the Middle +Ages and made the peasant class practically outlaw, while breaking down +its character, degrading its morals, increasing its ignorance, and +building up a sullen rage and an invincible hatred of all that stood +visible as law and order in the persons of the ruling class. + +Filtering through the impoverished and diluted crust of a dissolving +aristocracy, came this irruption from below. In their own persons +certain of these people possessed the qualities and the will which were +imperative for the organization of the industry, the trade, and the +finance that were to control the world for four generations, and produce +that industrial civilization which is the basis and the energizing force +of modernism. Immediately, and with conspicuous ability, they took hold +of the problem, solved its difficulties, developed its possibilities, +and by the end of the nineteenth century had made it master of the +world. + +Simultaneously an equal revolution and reversal was being effected in +government. The free monarchies of the Middle Ages, beneath which lay +the well recognized principle that no authority, human or divine, could +give any monarch the right to govern wrong, and that there was such a +thing (frequently exercised) as lawful rebellion, gave place to the +absolutism and autocracy of Renaissance kingship and this, which was +fostered both by Renaissance and Reformation, became at once the ally of +the new forces in society and so furthered the growth as well as the +misery and the degradation of the proletariat. In revolt against this +new and very evil thing came the republicanism of the eighteenth +century, inspired and directed in large measure by members of the fast +perishing aristocracy of race, character and tradition. It was a +splendid uprising against tyranny and oppression and is best expressed +in the personalities and the actions of the Constitutional Convention of +the United States in 1787 and the States General of France in 1789. + +The movement is not to be confounded with another that synchronizes with +it, that is to say, democracy, for the two things are radically +different in their antecedents, their protagonists, their modes of +operation and their objects. While the one was the aspiration and the +creation of the more enlightened and cultured, the representatives of +the old aristocracy, the other issued out of the same _milieu_ that was +responsible for the new social organism. That is to say; while certain +of the more shrewd and ingenious were organizing trade, manufacture and +finance and developing its autocratic and imperialistic possibilities at +the expense of the great mass of their blood-brothers, others of the +same social antecedents were devising a new theory, and experimenting in +new schemes, of government, which would take all power away from the +class that had hitherto exercised it and fix it firmly in the hands of +the emancipated proletariat. This new model was called then, and is +called now, democracy. Elsewhere I have tried to distinguish between +democracy of theory and democracy of method. Perhaps I should have used +a more lucid nomenclature if I had simply distinguished between +republicanism and democracy, for this is what it amounts to. The former +is as old as man, and is part of the "passion for perfection" that +characterizes all crescent society, and is indeed the chief difference +between brute and human nature; it means the guaranteeing of justice, +and may be described as consisting of abolition of privilege, equality +of opportunity, and utilization of ability. Democracy of method consists +in a variable and uncertain sequence of devices which are supposed to +achieve the democracy of ideal, but as a matter of fact have thus far +usually worked in the opposite direction. The activity of this movement +synchronizes with the pressing upward of the "the masses" through the +dissolving crust of "the classes," and represents their contribution to +the science of political philosophy, as the contribution of the latter +is current "political economy." + +It will be perceived that the reaction of the new social force in the +case of industrial organization is fundamentally opposed to that which +occurred in the political sphere. The one is working steadily towards an +autocratic imperialism and the "servile state," the other towards the +fluctuating, incoherent control of the making and administering of laws +by the untrained, the uncultivated, and the generally unfit, the issue +of which is anarchy. The industrial-commercial-financial oligarchy that +dominated society for the century preceding the Great War is the result +of the first; Russia, today, is an exemplar of the second. The working +out of these two great devices of the new force released by the +destructive processes of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth +centuries, simultaneously though in apparent opposition, explains why, +when the war broke out, imperialism and democracy synchronized so +exactly: on the one hand, imperial states, industry, commerce, and +finance; on the other, a swiftly accelerating democratic system that was +at the same time the effective means whereby the dominant imperialism +worked, and the omnipresent and increasing threat to its further +continuance. + +A full century elapsed before victory became secure, or even proximate. +Republicanism rapidly extended itself to all the governments of western +Europe, but it could not maintain itself in its primal integrity. Sooner +here, later there, it surrendered to the financial, industrial, +commercial forces that were taking over the control and direction of +society, becoming partners with them and following their aims, conniving +at their schemes, and sharing in their ever-increasing profits. By the +end of the first decade of the twentieth century these supposedly "free" +governments had become as identified with "special privilege," and as +widely severed from the people as a whole, as the autocratic governments +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while they failed +consistently to match them in effectiveness, energy and efficiency of +operation. + +For this latter condition democracy was measurably responsible. For +fifty years it had been slowly filtering into the moribund republican +system until at last, during the same first decade of the present +century, it had wholly transformed the governmental system, making it, +whatever its outward form, whether constitutional monarchy, or republic, +essentially democratic. So government became shifty, opportunist, +incapable, and without the inherent energy to resist, beyond a certain +point, the last great effort of the emergent proletariat to destroy, not +alone the industrial civilization it justly detested, but the very +government it had acquired by "peaceful penetration" and organized and +administered along its chosen lines, and indeed the very fabric of +society itself. + +Now these two remarkable products of the new mentality of a social force +were facts, but they needed an intellectual or philosophical +justification just as a low-born profiteer, when he has acquired a +certain amount of money, needs an expensive club or a coat of arms to +regularize his status. Protestantism and materialistic philosophy were +joint nursing-mothers to modernism, but when, by the middle of the last +century, it had reached man's estate, they proved inadequate; something +else was necessary, and this was furnished to admiration by +evolutionism. Through its doctrine of the survival of the fittest, it +appeared to justify in the fullest degree the gospel of force as the +final test, and "enlightened self-interest" as the new moral law; +through its lucid demonstration of the strictly physical basis of life, +the "descent of man" from primordial slime by way of the lemur or the +anthropoid ape, and the non-existence of any supernatural power that had +devised, or could determine, a code of morality in which certain things +were eternal by right, and other than the variable reactions of very +highly developed animals to experience and environment, it had given +weighty support to the increasingly popular movement towards democracy +both in theory and in act. + +Its greatest contribution, however, was its argument that, since the +invariable law of life was one of progressive evolution, therefore the +acquired characteristics which formed the material of evolution, and +were heritable, could be mechanically increased in number by education; +hence the body of inheritance (which unfortunately varied as between man +and man because of past discrepancies in environment, opportunities, and +education) could be equalized by a system of teaching that aimed to +furnish that mental and physical training hitherto absent. + +Whether the case was ever so stated in set terms does not matter; very +shortly this became the firm conviction of the great mass of men, and +the modern democracy of method is based on the belief that all men are +equal because they are men, and that free, compulsory, secularized, +state-controlled education can and does remove the last difference that +made possible any discrimination in rights and privileges as between one +man and another. + +In another respect, however, the superstition of mechanical evolution +played an important part, and with serious results. Neither the prophets +nor the camp-followers seemed to realize that evolution, while +undoubtedly a law of life within certain limits, was inseparable from +degradation which was its concomitant, that is to say, that as the +rocket rises so must it fall; as man is conceived, born and matures, +even so must he die. The wave rises, but falls again; the state waxes to +greatness, wanes, and the map knows it no more; each epoch of human +history arises out of dim beginnings, magnifies itself in glory, and +then yields to internal corruption, dilution and adulteration of blood, +or prodigal dissipation of spiritual force, and takes its place in the +annals of ancient history. Without recognition of this implacable, +unescapable fact of degradation sequent on evolution, the later becomes +a delusion and an instrument of death, for the eyes of man are blind to +incipient or crescent dangers; content, self-secure, lost in a vain +dream of manifest destiny they are deaf to warnings, incapable even of +the primary gestures of self-defense. Such was one of the results of +nineteenth-century evolutionism, and the generation that saw the last +years of the nineteenth century and the first part of the new, basking +in its day dreams of self-complacency, made no move to avert the dangers +that threatened it then and now menace it with destruction. + +When, therefore, modernism achieved its grand climacteric in July, 1914, +we had on the one hand an imperialism of force, in industry, commerce, +and finance, expressing itself through highly developed specialists, and +dictating the policies and practices of government, society, and +education; on the other, a democracy of form which denied, combated, and +destroyed distinction in personality and authority in thought, and +discouraged constructive leadership in the intellectual, spiritual, and +artistic spheres of activity. The opposition was absolute, the results +catastrophic. The lack of competent leadership in every category of life +finds a sufficient explanation in the two opposed forces, in their +origin and nature, and in the fact of their opposition. + +In the somewhat garish light of the War and the Peace, it would not be +difficult to feel a real and even poignant sympathy for two causes that +were prominent and popular in the first fourteen years of the present +century, namely, the philosophy that based itself on a mechanical system +of evolution which predicted unescapable, irreversible human progress, +and that religion which denied the reality of evil in the world. The +plausibility of each was dissipated by the catastrophic events though +both still linger in stubborn unconsciousness of their demise. The +impulse towards sympathy is mitigated by realization of the unfortunate +effect they exerted on history. This is particularly true of +evolutionary philosophy, which was held as an article of faith, either +consciously or sub-consciously, by the greater part of Western society. +Not only did it deter men from realizing the ominous tendency of events +but, more unhappily, it minimized their power to discriminate between +what was good and bad in current society, and even reversed their sense +of comparative values. If man was indeed progressing steadily from bad +to good, and so to better and best, then the vivid and even splendid +life of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with its headlong +conquest of the powers of nature, its enormous industrial development, +its vast and ever-increasing wealth in material things, must be not only +an amazing advance beyond any former civilization but positively good in +itself, while the future could only be a progressive magnifying of what +then was going on. "Just as" to quote Mr. Chesterton's admirable Dr. +Pelkins, "just as when we see a pig in a litter larger than the other +pigs, we know that by an unalterable law of the Inscrutable, it will +some day be larger than an elephant...so we know and reverently +acknowledge that when any power in human politics has shown for any +period of time any considerable activity, it will go on until it reaches +the sky." + +Nothing but a grave inability to estimate values, based on a +pseudo-scientific dogma, can explain the lack of any just standard of +comparative values that was the essential quality in pre-war society. +Extraordinary as were the material achievements of the time, beneficent +in certain ways, and susceptible in part of sometime being used to the +advantage of humanity, they were largely negatived, and even reversed in +value, just because the sense of proportion had been lost. The image +which might have stimulated reverence had become a fetish. There were +voices crying in the wilderness against a worship that had poisoned into +idolatry, but they were unheard. Progressively the real things of life +were blurred and forgotten and the things that were so obviously real +that they were unreal became the object and the measure of achievement. + +It was an unhappy and almost fatal attitude of mind, and it was +engendered not so much by the trend of civilization since the +Renaissance and Reformation, nor by the compulsion and cumulative +influence of the things themselves, as by the natural temper and +inclinations and the native standards of this emancipated mass of +humanity that, oppressed, outraged and degraded for four hundred years +had at last burst out of its prison-house and had assumed control of +society through industrialism, politics and social life. The saving +grace of the old aristocracies had disappeared with the institution +itself: between 1875 and 1900 the great single leaders, so fine in +character, so brilliant in capacity, so surprising in their numbers, +that had given a deceptive glory to the so-called Victorian Age, had +almost wholly died out, and the new conditions neither fostered the +development of adequate successors, nor gave audience to the few that, +anomalously, appeared. It is not surprising therefore that the new +social element that had played so masterly a part in bringing to its +perfection the industrial-financial-democratic scheme of life should +have developed an apologetic therefor, and imposed it, with all its +materialism, its narrowness, its pragmatism, its, at times, grossness +and cynicism, on the mind of a society where increasingly their own +followers were, by sheer energy and efficiency, acquiring a predominant +position. + +I am not unconscious that these are hard sayings and that few indeed +will accept them. They seem too much like attempting that which Burke +said was impossible, viz., to bring an indictment against a people. I +intend nothing of the sort. Out of this same body of humanity which _as +a whole_ has exerted this very unfavourable influence on modern society, +have come and will come personalities of sudden and startling nobility, +men who have done as great service as any of their contemporaries +whatever their class or status. Out of the depths have come those who +have ascended to the supreme heights, for since Christianity came into +the world to free the souls of men, this new liberty has worked without +limitations of caste or race. Indeed, the very creations of the emergent +force, industrialism and democracy, while they were the betrayal of the +many were the opportunity of the few, taking the place, as they did, of +the older creeds of specifically Christian society, and inviting those +who would to work their full emancipation and so become the servants of +God and mankind. By the very bitterness of their antecedents, the +cruelty of their inheritance, they gained a deeper sense of the reality +of life, a more just sense of right and wrong, a clearer vision of +things as they were, than happened in the case of those who had no such +experience of the deep brutality of the regime of post-Renaissance +society. + +True as this is, it is also true that for one who won through there were +many who gained nothing, and it was, and is, the sheer weight of numbers +of those who failed of this that has made their influence on the modern +life as pervasive and controlling as it is. + +What has happened is a certain degradation of character, a weakening of +the moral stamina of men, and against this no mechanical device in +government, no philosophical or social theory, can stand a chance of +successful resistance, while material progress in wealth and trade and +scientific achievement becomes simply a contributory force in the +process of degeneration. For this degradation of character we are bound +to hold this new social force in a measure responsible, even though it +has so operated because of its inherent qualities and in no material +respect through conscious cynicism or viciousness; indeed it is safe to +say that in so far as it was acting consciously it was with good +motives, which adds an element of even greater tragedy to a situation +already sufficiently depressing. + +If I am right in holding this to be the effective cause of the situation +we have now to meet, it is true that it is by no means the only one. The +emancipation and deliverance of the downtrodden masses of men who owed +their evil estate to the destruction of the Christian society of the +Middle Ages, was a clamourous necessity; it was a slavery as bad in some +ways as any that had existed in antiquity, and the number of its victims +was greater. The ill results of the accomplished fact was largely due to +the condition of religion which existed during the period of +emancipation. No society can endure without vital religion, and any +revolution effected at a time when religion is moribund or dissipated in +contentious fragments, is destined to be evacuated of its ideals and its +potential, and to end in disaster. Now the freeing of the slaves of the +Renaissance and the post-Reformation, and their absorption in the body +politic, was one of the greatest revolutions in history, and it came at +a time when religion, which had been one and vital throughout Western +Europe for six centuries, had been shattered and nullified, and its +place taken, in the lands that saw the great liberation, by Calvinism, +Lutheranism, Puritanism and atheism, none of which could exert a guiding +and redemptive influence on the dazed hordes that had at last come up +into the light of day. + +In point of fact, therefore, we are bound to trace back the +responsibility for the present crisis even to the Reformation itself, as +well as to the tyranny and absolutism of government, and the sordid and +profligate ordering of society, which followed on the end of +Mediaevalism. + +So then we stand today confronting a situation that is ominous and +obscure, since the very ideals and devices which we had held were the +last word in progressive evolution have failed at the crisis, and +because we who created them and have worked through them, have failed in +character, and chiefly because we have accepted low ideals and inferior +standards imposed upon us by social elements betrayed and abandoned by a +world that could not aid them or assimilate them since itself had +betrayed the only thing that could give them force, unity and coherency, +that is, a vital and pervasive religious faith. + +There are those who hold our case to be desperate, to whom the +disillusionment of peace, after the high optimism engendered by the vast +heroism and the exalted ideals instigated by the war, has brought +nothing but a mood of deep pessimism. The sentiment is perhaps natural, +but it is none the less both irrational and wicked. If it is persisted +in, if it becomes widespread, it may perfectly well justify itself, but +only so. We no longer accept the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, +we believe, and must highly believe, that our fate is of our own making, +for Christianity has made us the heirs of free-will. What we will that +shall we be, or rather, what we _are_ that shall we will, and if we make +of ourselves what, by the grace of God, we may, then the victory rests +with us. It is true that we are in the last years of a definite period, +on that decline that precedes the opening of a new epoch. Never in +history has any such period overpassed its limit of five hundred years, +and ours, which came to birth in the last half of the fifteenth century, +cannot outlast the present. But these declining years are preceding +those wherein all things are made new, and the next two generations will +see, not alone the passing of what we may call modernism, since it is +our own age, but the prologue of the epoch that is to come. It is for us +to say what this shall be. It is not foreordained; true, if we will it, +it may be a reign of disaster, a parallel to the well-recognized "Dark +Ages" of history, but also, if we will, it may be a new and a true +"renaissance," a rebirth of old ideals, of old honour, of old faith, +only incarnate in new and noble forms. + +The vision of an old heaven and a new earth was vouchsafed us during the +war, when horror and dishonour and degradation were shot through and +through with an epic heroism and chivalry and self-sacrifice. What if +this all did fade in the miasma of Versailles and the cynicism of trade +fighting to get back to "normalcy," and the red anarchy out of the East? +There is no fiat of God that fixes these things as eternal. Even they +also may be made the instruments of revelation and re-creation. Paris +and London, Rome, Berlin and Washington are meshed in the tangled web of +the superannuated who cannot escape the incubus of the old ways and the +old theories that were themselves the cause of the war and of the +failure of "modern civilization," but another generation is taking the +field and we must believe that this has been burned out of them. They +may have achieved this great perfection in the field, they may have +experienced it through those susceptible years of life just preceding +military age. It does not matter. Somehow they have it, and those who +come much in contact in school or college with boys and men between the +ages of seventeen and twenty-five, know, and thankfully confess, that if +they can control the event the future is secure. + +In the harlequinade of fabulous material success the nations of "modern +civilization" suffered a moral deterioration, in themselves and in their +individual members; by a moral regeneration they may be saved. How is +this to be accomplished? How, humanly speaking, is the redemption of +society to be achieved? Not alone by change of heart in each individual, +though if this could be it would be enough. Humanly speaking there is +not time and we dare not hope for the divine miracle whereby "in the +twinkling of an eye we shall all be changed." Still less by sole +reliance on some series of new political, social, economic and +educational devices; there is no plan, however wise and profound, that +can work effectively under the dead weight of a society that is made up +of individuals whose moral sense is defective. Either of these two +methods, put into operation by itself, will fail. Acting together they +may succeed. + +I repeat what I have said before. The material thing and the spiritual +force work by inter-action and cooerdinately. The abandonment or reform +of some device that has proved evil or inadequate, and the substitution +of something better, changes to that extent the environment of the +individual and so enables him more perfectly to develop his inherent +possibilities in character and capacity, while every advance in this +direction reacts on the machinery of life and makes its improvement more +possible. With a real sense of my own personal presumption, but with an +equally real sense of the responsibility that rests on every man at the +present crisis, I shall venture certain suggestions as to possible +changes that may well be effected in the material forms of contemporary +society as well as in its methods of thought, in order that the +spiritual energies of the individual may be raised to a higher level +through the amelioration of a hampering environment, and, with even +greater diffidence, others that may bear more directly on the +character-development of the individual. In following out this line of +thought I shall, in the remaining seven lectures, speak successively on: +A Working Philosophy; The Social Organism; The Industrial and Economic +Problem; The Political Organization of Society; The Function of +Education and Art; The Problem of Organic Religion; and Personal +Responsibility. + +I am only too conscious of the fact that the division of my subject +under these categorical heads, and the necessities of special argument, +if not indeed of special pleading, have forced me to such particular +stress on each subject as may very likely give an impression of undue +emphasis. If each lecture were to be taken by itself, such an impression +would, I fear, be unescapable; I ask therefore for the courtesy of a +suspension of judgment until the series is completed, for it is only +when taken as a whole, one paper reacting upon and modifying another, +that whatever merit the course possesses can be made apparent. + + + + +II + + +A WORKING PHILOSOPHY[*] + + [*This lecture has been very considerably re-written + since it was delivered, and much of the matter it then contained + has been cut out, and is now printed in the Appendix. These + excisions were purely speculative, and while they have a certain + bearing on the arguments and conclusions in the other lectures, + might very well be prejudicial to them, and for this reason it + has seemed better to remove them from the general sequence and + give them a supplementary place by themselves.] + +The first reaction of the World War was a great interrogation, and the +technical "Peace" that has followed brings only reiteration. Why did +these things come, and how? The answers are as manifold as the +clamourous tongues that ask, but none carries conviction and the problem +is still unsolved. According to all rational probabilities we had no +right to expect the war that befell; according to all the human +indications as we saw them revealed amongst the Allies we had a right to +expect a better peace; according to our abiding and abounding faith we +had a right to expect a great bettering of life after the war, and even +in spite of the peace. It is all a _non sequitur,_ and still we ask the +reason and the meaning of it all. + +It may be very long before the full answer is given, yet if we are +searching the way towards "The Great Peace" we must establish some +working theory, if only that we may redeem our grave errors and avoid +like perils in the future. The explanation I assume for myself, and on +which I must work, is that, in spite of our intentions (which were of +the best) we were led into the development, acceptance and application +of a false philosophy of life which was not only untenable in itself but +was vitiated and made noxious through its severance from vital religion. +In close alliance with this declension of philosophy upon a basis that +had been abandoned by the Christian world for a thousand years, perhaps +as the ultimate reason for its occurrence, was the tendency to void +religion of its vital power, to cut it out of intimate contact with +life, and, in the end, to abandon it altogether as an energizing force +interpenetrating all existence and controlling it in certain definite +directions and after certain definite methods. + +The rather complete failure of our many modern and ingenious +institutions, the failure of institutionalism altogether, is due far +less to wrong theories underlying them, or to radical defects in their +technique, than it is to this false philosophy and this progressive +abandonment of religion. The wrong theories were there, and the +mechanical defects, for the machines were conditioned by the principle +that lay behind them, but effort at correction and betterment will make +small progress unless we first regain the right religion and a right +philosophy. I said this to Henri Bergson last year in Paris and his +reply was significant as coming from a philosopher. "Yes," he said, "you +are right; and of the two, the religion is the more important." + +If we had this back, and in full measure; if society were infused by it, +through and through, and men lived its life, and in its life, philosophy +would take care of itself and the nature of our institutions would not +matter. On the other hand, without it, no institution can be counted +safe, or will prove efficacious, while no philosophy, however lofty and +magisterial, can take its place, or even play its own part in the life +of man or society. I must in these lectures say much about institutions +themselves, but first I shall try to indicate what seem to me the more +serious errors in current philosophy, leaving until after a study of the +material forms which are so largely conditioned by the philosophical +attitude, the consideration of that religion, both organic and personal, +which I believe can alone verify the philosophy, give the institutions +life and render them reliable agencies for good. + +For a working definition of philosophy, in the sense in which I use it +here, I will take two sayings, one out of the thirteenth century, one +from the twentieth. "They are called wise who put things in their right +order and control them well," says St. Thomas Aquinas. "Philosophy is +the science of the totality of things," says Cardinal Mercier, his +greatest contemporary commentator, and he continues, "Philosophy is the +sum-total of reality." Philosophy is the body of _human_ wisdom, +verified and irradiated by divine wisdom. "The science of the totality +of things": not the isolation of individual phenomena, or even of groups +of phenomena, as is the method of the natural sciences, but the setting +of all in their varied relationships and values, the antithesis of that +narrowness and concentration of vision that follow intensive +specialization and have issue in infinite delusions and unrealities, +"Philosophy regards the sum-total of reality" and it achieves this +consciousness of reality, first by establishing right relations between +phenomena, and then, abandoning the explicit intellectual process, by +falling back on divine illumination which enables it to see through +those well-ordered phenomena the Divine Actuality that lies behind, +informing them with its own finality and using them both as types and as +media of transmission and communication. So men are enabled by +philosophy "to put things in their right order" and by religion "to +control them well," thus becoming indeed worthy to be "called wise." + +Now, from the beginnings of conscious life, man has found himself +surrounded and besieged by un-calculable phenomena. Beaten upon by +forces he could not estimate or predict or control, he has sought to +solve their sphynx-like riddle, to establish some plausible relation +between them, to erect a logical scheme of things. Primitive man, as +Worringer demonstrates in his "Form Problems of the Gothic," strove to +achieve something of certitude and fixity through the crude but definite +lines and forms of neolithic art. Classical man brought into play the +vigour and subtlety and ingenuity of intellect in its primal and most +dynamic form, expressed through static propositions of almost +mathematical exactness. The peoples of the East rejected the +intellectual-mathematical method and solution and sought a way out +through the mysterious operation of the inner sense that manifests +itself in the form of emotion. With the revelation of Christianity came +also, and of course, enlightenment, which was not definite and closed at +some given moment, but progressive and cumulative. At once, speaking +philosophically, the intellectual method of the West and the intuitive +method of the East came together and fused in a new thing, each element +limiting, and at the same time fortifying the other, while the opposed +obscurities of the past were irradiated by the revealing and creative +spirit of Christ. So came the beginnings of that definitive Christian +philosophy which was to proceed from Syria, Anatolia and Constantinople, +through Alexandria to St. Augustine, and was to find its fullest +expression during the Middle Ages and by means of Duns Scotus, Albertus +Magnus, Hugh of St. Victor and St. Thomas Aquinas. + +It is an interesting fact, though apart from my present consideration, +that this philosophical fusion was paralleled in the same places and at +the same time, by an aesthetic fusion that brought into existence the +first great and consistent art of Christianity. This question is +admirably dealt with in Lisle March Phillipps' "Form and Colour." + +This great Christian philosophy which lay behind all the civilization of +the Middle Ages, was positive, comprehensive and new. It demonstrated +divine purpose working consciously through all things with a result in +perfect coherency; it gave history a new meaning as revealing reality +and as a thing forever present and never past, and above all it +elucidated the nature of both matter and spirit and made clear their +operation through the doctrine of sacramentalism. + +In the century that saw the consummation of this great philosophical +system--as well as that of the civilization which was its expositor in +material form--there came a separation and a divergence. The balanced +unity was broken, and on the one hand the tendency was increasingly +towards the exaggerated mysticism that had characterized the Eastern +moiety of the synthesis, on the other towards an exaggerated +intellectualism the seeds of which are inherent even in St. Thomas +himself. The new mysticism withdrew further and further from the common +life, finding refuge in hidden sanctuaries in Spain, Italy, the +Rhineland; the old intellectualism became more and more dominant in the +minds of man and the affairs of the world, and with the Renaissance it +became supreme, as did the other qualities of paganism in art as well as +in every other field of human activity. + +The first fruit of the new intellectualism was the philosophy of Dr. +John Calvin--if we can call it such,--Augustinian philosophy, misread, +distorted and made noxious by its reliance on the intellectual process +cut off from spiritual energy as the sufficient corrective of +philosophical thought. It is this false philosophy, allied with an +equally false theology, that misled for so many centuries those who +accepted the new versions of Christianity that issued out of the +Reformation. The second was the mechanistic system, or systems, the +protagonist of which was Descartes. If, as I believe, Calvinism was +un-Christian, the materialistic philosophies that have gone on from the +year 1637, were anti-Christian. As the power of Christianity declined +through the centuries that have followed the Reformation, Calvinism +played a less and less important part, while the new philosophies of +mechanism and rationalism correspondingly increased. During the +nineteenth century their control was absolute, and what we are today we +have become through this dominance, coupled with the general +devitalizing or abandonment of religion. + +And yet are we not left comfortless. Even in the evolutionary philosophy +engendered by Darwin and formulated by Herbert Spencer and the Germans, +with all its mistaken assumptions and dubious methods, already there is +visible a tendency to get away from the old Pagan static system reborn +with the Renaissance. We can never forget that Bergson has avowed that +"the mind of man, by its very nature, is incapable of apprehending +reality." After this the return towards the scholastic philosophy of the +Middle Ages is not so difficult, nor even its recovery. If we associate +with this process on the part of formal philosophy the very evident, if +sometimes abnormal and exaggerated, progress towards a new mysticism, we +are far from finding ourselves abandoned to despair as to the whole +future of philosophy. + +Now this return and this recovery are, I believe, necessary as one of +the first steps towards establishing a sound basis for the building up +of a new and a better civilization, and one that is in fact as well as +in name a Christian civilization. I do not mean that, with this +restoration of Christian philosophy, there we should rest. Both +revelation and enlightenment are progressive, and once the nexus of our +broken life were restored, philosophical development would be +continuous, and we should go on beyond the scholastics even as they +proceeded beyond Patristic theology and philosophy. I think a break of +continuity was effected in the sixteenth century, with disastrous +effects, and until this break is healed we are cut off from what is in a +sense the Apostolical succession of philosophical verity. + +Before going further I would guard against two possible misconceptions; +of one of them I have already spoken, that is, the error so frequent in +the past as well as today, that would make of philosophy, however sound, +however consonant with the finalities of revealed religion, a substitute +in any degree for religion itself. Philosophy is the reaction of the +intellect, of man to the stimuli of life, but religion _is_ life and is +therefore in many ways a flat contradiction of the concepts of the +intellect, which is only a small portion of life, therefore limited, +partial, and (because of this) sometimes entirely wrong in its +conclusions independently arrived at along these necessarily +circumscribed lines. + +The second possible error is that philosophy is the affair of a small +group of students and specialists, quite outside the purview of the +great mass of men, and that it owes its existence to this same class of +delving scholars, few in number, impractical in their aims, and sharply +differentiated from their fellows. On the contrary it is a vital +consideration for all those who desire to "see life and see it whole" in +order that they may establish a true scale of comparative values and a +right relationship between those things that come from the outside and, +meeting those that come from within, establish that plexus of +interacting force we call life. As for the source of philosophic truth, +Friar Bacon put it well when he said "All the wisdom of philosophy is +created by God and given to the philosophers, and it is Himself that +illumines the minds of men in all wisdom." It is a whimsical +juxtaposition, but the first pastor of the Puritans in America, the Rev. +John Robinson, testifies to the same effect. "All truth," he says, "is +of God ... Wherefore it followeth that nothing true in right reason and +sound philosophy can be false in divinity.... I add, though the truth be +uttered by the devil himself, yet it is originally of God." There are +not two sources of truth, that of Divine Revelation on the one hand, +that of science and philosophy and all the intellectual works of man on +the other. Truth is one, and the Source is one; the channels of +communication alone are different. But truth in its finality, the +Absolute, the _noumenon_ that is the substance of phenomena, is in +itself not a thing that can be directly apprehended by man; it lies +within the "ultra-violet" rays of his intellectual spectrum. "The +trammels of the body prevent man from knowing God in Himself" says +Philo, "He is known only in the Divine forces in which He manifests +Himself." And St. Thomas: "In the present state of life in which the +soul is united to a passable body, it is impossible for the intellect to +understand anything actually except by turning to the phantasm." +Religion confesses this, philosophy constantly tends to forget it, +therefore true religion speaks always through the symbol, rejecting, +because it transcends, the intellectual criterion, while philosophy is +on safe ground only when it unites itself with religion, testing its own +conclusions by a higher reality, and existing not as a rival but as a +coadjutor. + +It is St. Paul who declares that "God has never left Himself without a +witness" and the "witness" was explicit, however clouded, in the +philosophies of paganism. Plato and Aristotle knew the limitations of +man's mind, and the corrective of over-weaning intellectuality in +religion, but thereafter the wisdom faded and pride ousted humility, +with the result that philosophy became not light but darkness. Let me +quote from the great twelfth century philosopher, Hugh of St. Victor, +who deserves a better fate than sepulture in the ponderous tomes of +Migne: + +"There was a certain wisdom that seemed such to them that knew not the +true wisdom. The world found it and began to be puffed up, thinking +itself great in this. Confiding in its wisdom it became presumptuous and +boasted it would attain the highest wisdom. And it made itself a ladder +of the face of creation.... Then those things which were seen were known +and there were other things which were not known; and through those +which were manifest they expected to reach those that were hidden. And +they stumbled and fell into the falsehoods of their own imagining.... So +God made foolish the wisdom of this world; and He pointed out another +wisdom, which seemed foolishness and was not. For it preached Christ +crucified, in order that truth might be sought in humility. But the +world despised it, wishing to contemplate the works of God, which He had +made a source of wonder, and it did not wish to venerate what He had set +for imitation, neither did it look to its own disease, seeking medicine +in piety; but presuming on a false health, it gave itself over with vain +curiosity to the study of alien things." + +Precisely: and this is the destiny that has overtaken not only the pagan +philosophy of which Hugh of St. Victor was speaking, but also that which +followed after St. Thomas Aquinas, from Descartes to Hobbes and Kant and +Comte and Herbert Spencer and William James. The jealously intellectual +philosophies of the nineteenth century, the materialistic and +mechanistic substitutes that were offered and accepted with such +enthusiasm after the great cleavage between religion and life, are but +"the falsehoods of their own imaginings" of which Hugh of St. Victor +speaks, for they were cut off from the stream of spiritual verity, and +are losing themselves in the desert they have made. + +Meanwhile they have played their part in shaping the destinies of the +world, and it was an ill part, if we may judge from the results that +showed themselves in the events that have been recorded between the year +1800 and the present moment. Just what this influence was in determining +the nature of society, of industrial civilization and of the political +organism I shall try to indicate in some of the following lectures, but +apart from these concrete happenings, this influence was, I am +persuaded, most disastrous in its bearing on human character. Neither +wealth nor power, neither education nor environment, not even the +inherent tendencies of race--the most powerful of all--can avail against +the degenerative force of a life without religion, or, what is worse, +that maintains only a desiccated formula; and the post-Renaissance +philosophies are one and all definitely anti-religious and +self-proclaimed substitutes for religion. As such they were offered and +accepted, and as such they must take their share of the responsibility +for what has happened. + +I believe we must and can retrace our steps to that point in time when a +right philosophy was abandoned, and begin again. There is no +impossibility or even difficulty here. History is not a dead thing, a +thing of the past; it is eternally present to man, and this is one of +the sharp differentiations between man and beast. The material monuments +of man crumble and disappear, but the spirit that built the Parthenon or +Reims Cathedral, that inspired St. Paul on Mars' hill or forged Magna +Charta or the Constitution of the United States is, _because of our +quality as men,_ just as present and operative with us today, if we +will, as that which sent the youth of ten nations into a righteous war +five years ago, or spoke yesterday through some noble action that you or +I may have witnessed. It is as easy for us to accept and practice the +philosophy of St. Thomas or the divine humanism of St. Francis as it is +to accept the philosophy of Mr. Wells or the theories of Sir Oliver +Lodge. No spiritual thing dies, or even grows old, nor does it drift +backward in the dwindling perspective of ancient history, and the +foolishest saying of man is that "you cannot turn back the hands of the +clock." + +It is simply a question of will, and will is simply a question of desire +and of faith. + +Manifestly I cannot be expected to recreate in a few words this +philosophy to which I believe we must have recourse in our hour of need. +I have no ability to do this in any case. It begins with St. Paul, is +continued through St. Augustine, and finds its culmination in the great +Mediaeval group of Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, Hugh of St. Victor and +St. Thomas Aquinas. I do not know of any single book that epitomizes it +all in vital form, though Cardinal Mercier and Dr. De Wulf have written +much that is stimulating and helpful. I cannot help thinking that the +great demand today is for a compact volume that synthesizes the whole +magnificent system in terms not of history and scientific exegesis, but +in terms of life. Plato and Aristotle are so preserved to man, and the +philosophers of modernism also; it is only the magisterial and dynamic +philosophy of Christianity that is diffused through many works, some of +them still untranslated and all quite without coordination, save St. +Thomas Aquinas alone, the magnitude of whose product staggers the human +mind and in its profuseness defeats its own ends. We need no more +histories of philosophy, but we need an epitome of Christian philosophy, +not for students but for men. + +Such an epitome I am not fitted to offer, but there are certain rather +fundamental conceptions and postulates that run counter both to pagan +and to modern philosophy, the loss of which out of life has, I maintain, +much to do with our present estate, and that must be regained before we +can go forward with any reasonable hope of betterment. These I will try +to indicate as well as I can. + +Christian philosophy teaches, in so far as it deals with the +relationship between man and these divine forces that are forever +building, unbuilding and rebuilding the fabric of life, somewhat as +follows: + +The world as we know it, man, life itself as it works through all +creation, is the union of matter and spirit; and matter is not spirit, +nor spirit matter, nor is one a mode of the other, but they are two +different creatures. Apart from this union of matter and spirit there is +no life, in the sense in which we know it, and severance is death. "The +body" says St. Thomas, "is not of the essence of the soul; but the soul, +by the nature of its essence, can be united to the body, so that, +properly speaking, the soul alone is not the species, but the +composite", and Duns Scotus makes clear the nature and origin of this +common "essence" when he says there is "on the one hand God as Infinite +Actuality, on the other spiritual and corporeal substances possessing an +homogeneous common element." That is to say; matter and spirit are both +the result of the divine creative act, and though separate, and in a +sense opposed, find their point of origin in the Divine Actuality. + +The created world is the concrete manifestation of matter, through +which, for its transformation and redemption, spirit is active in a +constant process of interpenetration whereby matter itself is being +eternally redeemed. What then is matter and what is spirit? The question +is of sufficient magnitude to absorb all the time assigned to these +lectures, with the strong possibility that even then we should be +scarcely wiser than before. For my own purposes, however, I am content +to accept the definition of matter formulated by Duns Scotus, which +takes over the earlier definition of Plotinus, purges it of its elements +of pagan error, and redeems it by Christian insight. + +"Materia Primo Prima" says the great Franciscan, "is the indeterminate +element of contingent things. This does not exist in Nature, but it has +reality in so far as it constitutes the term of God's creative activity. +By its union with a substantial form it becomes endowed with the +attributes of quantity, and becomes Secundo Prima. Subject to the +substantial changes of Nature, it becomes matter as we see it." + +It is this "Materia Primo Prima," the term of God's creative activity, +that is eternally subjected to the regenerative process of spiritual +interpenetration, and the result is organic life. + +What is spirit? The creative power of the Logos, in the sense in which +St. John interprets and corrects the early, partial, and therefore +erroneous theories of the Stoics and of Philo. God the Son, the Eternal +Word of the Father, "the brightness of His glory and the figure of His +Substance." "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, +not made, being of one substance with the Father: by Whom all things +were made." Pure wisdom, pure will, pure energy, unconditioned by +matter, but creating life out of the operation of the Holy Spirit on and +through matter, and in the fullness of time becoming Incarnate for the +purpose of the final redemption of man. + +Now since man is so compact of matter and spirit, it must follow that he +cannot lay hold of pure spirit, the Absolute that lies beyond and above +all material conditioning, except through the medium of matter, through +its figures, its symbols, its "phantasms." Says St. Thomas: "From +material things we can rise to some kind of knowledge of immaterial +things, but not to the perfect knowledge thereof." The way of life +therefore, is the incessant endeavour of man sacramentally to approach +the Absolute through the leading of the Holy Spirit, so running parallel +to the slow perfecting of matter which is being effected by the same +operation. So matter itself takes on a certain sanctity, not only as +something susceptible, and in process, of perfection, but as the vehicle +of spirit and its tabernacle, since in matter spirit is actually +incarnate. + +From this process follows of necessity the whole sacramental system, in +theology, philosophy and operation, of Christianity. It is of its +_esse;_ its great original, revolutionary and final contribution to the +wisdom that man may have for his own, and it follows inevitably from the +basic facts of the Incarnation and Redemption, which are also its +perfect showing forth. + +Philosophically this is the great contribution of Christianity and for +fifteen centuries it was held implicitly by Christendom, yet it was +rejected, either wholly or in part, by the Protestant organizations that +came out of the Reformation, and it fell into such oblivion that outside +the Catholic Church it was not so much ignored or rejected as totally +forgotten. Recently a series of lectures were delivered at King's +College, London, by various carefully chosen authorities, all +specialists in their own fields, under the general title "Mediaeval +Contributions to Modern Civilization," and neither the pious author of +the address on "The Religious Contribution of the Middle Ages," nor the +learned author of that on "Mediaeval Philosophy," gave evidence of ever +having heard of sacramental philosophy. It may be that I do them an +injustice, and that they would offer as excuse the incontestible fact +that Mediaevalism contributed nothing to "modern civilization," either +in religion or philosophy, that it was willing to accept. + +The peril of all philosophies, outside that of Christianity as it was +developed under the Catholic dispensation, is dualism, and many have +fallen into this grave error. Now dualism is not only the reversal of +truth, it is also the destroyer of righteousness. + + +Sacramentalism is the anthithesis of dualism. The sanctity of matter as +the potential of spirit and its dwelling-place on earth; the humanizing +of spirit through its condescension to man through the making of his +body and all created things its earthly tabernacle, give, when carried +out into logical development, a meaning to life, a glory to the world, +an elucidation of otherwise unsolvable mysteries, and an impulse toward +noble living no other system can afford. It is a real philosophy of +life, a standard of values, a criterion of all possible postulates, and +as its loss meant the world's peril, so its recovery may mean its +salvation. + +Now as the philosophy of Christianity is purely and essentially +sacramental, so must be the operation of God through the Church. This +"Body of Christ" on earth is indeed a fellowship, a veritable communion +of the faithful, whether living or dead, but it is also a divine +organism which lives, and in which each member lives, not by the +preaching of the Word, not even by and through the fellowship in living +and worship, but through the ordained channels of grace known as the +Sacraments. In accordance with the sacramental system, every material +thing is proclaimed as possessing in varying degree sacramental +potentiality, while seven great Sacraments were instituted to be, each +after its own fashion, a special channel for the inflowing of the power +of the Divine Actuality. Each is a symbol, just as so many other created +things are, or may become, symbols, but they are also _realities,_ +veritable media for the veritable communications of veritable divine +grace. Here is the best definition I know, that of Hugh of St. Victor. +"A sacrament is the corporeal or material element set out sensibly, +representing from its similitude, signifying from its institution, and +containing from its sanctification, some invisible and spiritual grace." +This is the unvarying and invariable doctrine of historic Christianity, +and the reason for the existence of the Church as a living and +functioning organism. The whole sacramental system is in a sense an +extension, in time, of the Redemption, just as one particular Sacrament, +the Holy Eucharist, is also in a sense an extension of the Incarnation, +as it is also an extension, in time, of the Atonement, the Sacrifice of +Calvary. + +The Incarnation and the Redemption are not accomplished facts, completed +nineteen centuries ago; they are processes that still continue, and +their term is fixed only by the total regeneration and perfecting of +matter, while the Seven Sacraments are the chiefest amongst an infinity +of sacramental processes which are the agencies of this eternal +transfiguration. + +God the Son became Incarnate, not only to accomplish the redemption of +men as yet unborn, for endless ages, through the Sacrifice of Calvary, +but also to initiate and forever maintain a new method whereby this +result was to be more perfectly attained; that is to say, the Church, +working through the specific sacramental agencies He had ordained, or +was from time to time to ordain, through His everlasting presence in the +Church He had brought into being at Pentecost. He did not come to +establish in material form a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, or to provide +for its ultimate coming. He indeed established a Spiritual Kingdom, His +Church, "in the world, not of it," which is a very different matter +indeed, as the centuries have proved. His Kingdom is not of this world, +nor will it be established here. There has been no _absolute_ advance in +human development since the Incarnation. Nations rise and fall, epochs +wax and wane, civilizations grow out of savagery, crest and sink back +into savagery and oblivion. Redemption is for the individual, not for +the race, nor yet for society as a whole. Then, and only then, and under +that form, it is sure, however long may be the period of its +accomplishment. "Time is the ratio of the resistance of matter to the +interpenetration of spirit," and by this resistance is the duration of +time determined. When it shall have been wholly overcome then "time +shall be no more." + +See therefore how perfect is the correspondence between the Sacraments +and the method of life where they are the agents, and which they +symbolically set forth. There is in each case the material form and the +spiritual substance, or energy. Water, chrism, oil, the spoken word, the +touch of hands, the sign of the cross, and finally and supremely the +bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. Each a material thing, but each +representing, signifying and containing some gift of the Holy Spirit, +real, absolute and potent. So matter and spirit are linked together in +every operation of the Church, from the cradle to the grave, and man has +ever before him the eternal revelation of this linked union of matter +and spirit in his life, the eternal teaching of the honour of the +material thing through its agency and through its existence as the +subject for redemption. So also, through the material association, and +the divine condescension to his earthly and fallible estate (limited by +association with matter only to inadequate presentation) he makes the +Spirit of God his own, to dwell therewith after the fashion of man. + +And how much this explains and justifies: Man approaches, and must +always approach, spiritual things not only through material forms but by +means of material agencies. The highest and most beautiful things, those +where the spirit seems to achieve its loftiest reaches, are frequently +associated with the grossest and most unspiritual forms, yet the very +splendour of the spiritual verity redeems and glorifies the material +agency, while on the other hand the homeliness, and even animal quality, +of the material thing, brings to man, with a poignancy and an appeal +that are incalculable, the spiritual thing that, in its absolute +essence, would be so far beyond his ken and his experience and his +powers of assimilation that it would be inoperative. + +This is the true Humanism; not the fictitious and hollow thing that was +the offspring of neo-paganism and took to itself a title to which it had +no claim. Held tacitly or consciously by the men of the Middle Ages, +from the immortal philosopher to the immortal but nameless craftsman, it +was the force that built up the noble social structure of the time and +poised man himself in a sure equilibrium. Already it had of necessity +developed the whole scheme of religious ceremonial and given art a new +content and direction through its new service. By analogy and +association all material things that could be so used were employed as +figures and symbols, as well as agencies, through the Sacraments, and +after a fashion that struck home to the soul through the organs of +sense. Music, vestments, incense, flowers, poetry, dramatic action, were +linked with the major arts of architecture, painting and sculpture, and +all became not only ministers to the emotional faculties but direct +appeals to the intellect through their function as poignant symbols. So +art received its soul, and was almost a living creature until matter and +spirit were again divorced in the death that severed them during the +Reformation. Thereafter religion had entered upon a period of slow +desiccation and sterilization wherever the symbol was cast away with the +Sacraments and the faith and the philosophy that had made it live. The +bitter hostility to the art and the liturgies and the ceremonial of the +Catholic faith is due far less to ignorance of the meaning and function +of art and to an inherited jealousy of its quality and its power, than +it is to the conscious and determined rejection of the essential +philosophy of Christianity, which is sacramentalism. + +The whole system was of an almost sublime perfection and simplicity, and +the formal Sacraments were both its goal and its type. If they had been +of the same value and identical in nature they would have failed of +perfect exposition, in the sense in which they were types and symbols. +They were not this, for while six of the explicit seven were +substantially of one mode, there was one where the conditions that held +elsewhere were transcended, and where, in addition to the two functions +it was instituted to perform it gave, through its similitude, the clear +revelation of the most significant and poignant fact in the vast mystery +of life. I mean, of course, the Holy Eucharist, commonly called the +Mass. + +If matter is _per se_ forever inert, unchangeable, indestructible, then +we fall into the dilemma of a materialistic monism on the one hand, +Manichaean dualism on the other. Even under the most spiritual +interpretation we could offer--that, shall we say, of those today who +try to run with the hare of religion and hunt with the hounds of +rationalistic materialism--matter and spirit unite in man as body and +soul, and in the Sacraments as the vehicle and the essence, but +temporally and temporarily; doomed always to ultimate severance by death +in the one case, by the completion of the sacramental process in the +other. If, on the other hand, the object of the universe and of time is +the constant redemption and transformation of matter through its +interpenetration by spirit in the power of God the Holy Ghost, then we +escape the falsities of dualism, while in the miracle of the Mass we +find the type and the showing forth of the constant process of life +whereby every instant, matter itself is being changed and glorified and +transferred from the plane of matter to the plane of spirit. + +If this is so: if the Incarnation and the Redemption are not only +fundamental facts but also types and symbols of the divine process +forever going on here on earth, then, while the other Sacraments are in +themselves not only instruments of grace but manifestations of that +process whereby in all things matter is used as the vehicle of spirit, +the Mass, transcending them all, is not only Communion, not only a +Sacrifice acceptable before God, it is also the unique symbol of the +redemption and transformation of matter; since, of all the Sacraments, +it is the only one where the very physical qualities of the material +vehicle are transformed, and while the accidents alone remain, the +substance, finite and perishable, becomes, in an instant of time and by +the operation of God, infinite and immortal. + +It is to sacramentalism then that we must return, not only in religion +and its practice, but in philosophy, if we are to establish a firm +foundation for that newer society and civilization that are to help us +to achieve the "Great Peace." Antecedent systems failed, and subsequent +systems have failed; in this alone, the philosophy of Christianity, is +there safety, for it alone is consonant with the revealed will of God. + + + + +III + + +THE SOCIAL ORGANISM + +Society, that is to say, the association in life of men, women and +children, is the fundamental fact of life, and this is so whether the +association is of the family, the school, the community, industry or +government. Everything else is simply a series of forms, arrangements +and devices by which society works, either for good or ill. Man makes or +mars himself in and through society. He is responsible for his own soul, +but if he sees only this and works directly for his soul's salvation, +disregarding the society of which he is a part, he may lose it, whereas, +if he is faithful to society and honourably plays his part as a social +animal with a soul, he will very probably save it, even though he may +for the time have quite ignored its existence. Man is a member of a +family, a pupil under education, a worker and a citizen. In all these +relationships he is a part of a social group; he is also a component +part of the human race and linked in some measure to every other member +thereof whether living or dead. Into every organization or institution +in which he is involved during his lifetime--family, school, art or +craft, trade union, state, church--enters the social equation. If +society is ill organized either in theory or in practice, in any or all +of its manifestations, then the engines or devices by which it operates +will be impotent for good. Defective society cannot produce either a +good fundamental law, a good philosophy, a good art, or any other thing. +Conversely, these, when brought forth under an wholesome society, will +decay and perish when society degenerates. + +In its large estate, that is, comprehending all the minor groups, as a +nation, a people or an era, society is always in a state of unstable +equilibrium, tending either toward better or worse. It may indeed be of +the very essence of human life, but it is a plant of tender growth and +needs delicate nurture and jealous care; a small thing may work it +irreparable injury. It may reach very great heights of perfection and +spread over a continent, as during the European Middle Ages; it may sink +to low depths with an equal dominion, as in the second dark ages of the +nineteenth century. Sometimes little enclaves of high value hide +themselves in the midst of degradation, as Venice and Ireland in the +Dark Ages. Always, by the grace of God, the primary social unit, the +family may, and frequently does, achieve and maintain both purity and +beauty when the world without riots in ruin and profligacy. + +I have taken the problem of the organization of society as the first to +be considered, for it is fundamental. If society is of the wrong shape +it does not matter in the least how intelligent and admirable may be the +devices we construct for the operation of government or industry or +education; they may be masterly products of human intelligence but they +will not work, whereas on the other hand a sane, wholesome and decent +society can so interpret and administer clumsy and defective instruments +that they will function to admiration. A perfect society would need no +such engines at all, but a perfect society implies perfect individuals, +and I think we are now persuaded that a society of this nature is a +purely academic proposition both now and in the calculable future. What +we have to do is to take mankind as it is; made up of infinitely varied +personalities ranging from the idiot to the "super-man"; cruel and +compassionate, covetous and self-sacrificing, silly and erudite, cynical +and emotional, vulgar and cultured, brutal and fastidious, shameful in +their degradation and splendid in their honour and chivalry, and by the +franchise of liberty and the binding of law, facilitate in every way the +process whereby they themselves work out their own salvation. You cannot +impose morality by statute or guarantee either character or intelligence +by the perfection of the machine. Every institution, good or bad, is the +result of growth from many human impulses, not the creation of +autocratic fiat. But growth may be impeded, hastened, or suspended, and +the most that can be done is to offer incentives to action, remove the +obstacles to development, and establish conditions and influences that +make more easy the finding of the right way. + +Now it seems to me that the two greatest obstacles to the development of +a right society have been first, the enormous scale in which everything +of late has been cast, and second, that element in modern democracy +which denies essential differences in human character, capacity and +potential, and so logically prohibits social distinctions, and refuses +them formal sanction or their recognition through conferred honours. In +questioning the validity and the value of these two factors, imperialism +and social democracy, and in suggesting substitutes, I am, I suppose, +attacking precisely the two institutions which are today--or at all +events have been until very recently--held in most conspicuous honour by +the majority of people, but the question is at least debateable, and for +my own part I have no alternative but to assert their mistaken nature, +and to offer the best I can in the way of substitutes. + +The question of imperialism, of a gross and unhuman and therefore +absolutely wrong scale, is one that will enter into almost all of the +matters with which I propose to deal, certainly with industrialism, with +politics, with education, with religion, as well as with the immediate +problem of the social organism, for not only has it destroyed the human +scale in human life, and therefore brought it into the danger of +immediate destruction, but it has also been a factor in establishing the +quantitative standard in all things, in place of the qualitative +standard, and this, in itself, is simply the antecedent of well-merited +catastrophe. In considering the social organism, therefore, we must have +in mind that this is intimately affected by every organic institution +which man has developed and into which he enters in common with others +of his kind. + +The situation as it confronts us today is one in which man by his very +energy and the stimulus of those cosmic energies he has so astonishingly +mastered, has got far beyond his depth. I say man has mastered these +energies; yes, but this was true only of a brief period in the immediate +past. They now have mastered him. It is the old story of the +Frankenstein monster over again. Man is not omnipotent, he is not God. +There are limits beyond which he cannot go without coming in peril of +death. An isolated individual here and there may become super-man, +perhaps, though at grievous peril to his own soul, and it is conceivable +that to such an one it might be possible to live beyond the human scale, +though hardly. If one could envisage so awful a thing as a community +made up entirely of super-men, one might concede that here also the +human scale might be exceeded without danger of catastrophe. With +society as it is, and always will be, a welter of defectives and +geniuses in small numbers and a vast majority of just plain men, with +all that that implies, the breaking through into the imperial scale is +simply a letting in the jungle; walls and palings and stockades, the +delicate fabrics of architecture, the clever institutions of law, the +thin red line of the army, all melt, crumble, are overcome by the onrush +of primordial things, and where once was the white man's city is now the +eternal jungle, and the vines and thrusting roots and rank herbage blot +out the very memory of a futile civilization, while the monkey and the +jackal and the python come again into their heritage. + +Alexander and Caesar, Charles V and Louis XIV and Napoleon and Disraeli +and William III could function for a few brief years beyond the limits +of the human scale, though even they had an end, but you cannot link +imperialism and democracy without the certainty of an earlier and a more +ignominious fall. + +I have already spoken of the malignant and pathological quality of the +quantitative standard. It is indeed not only the nemesis of culture but +even of civilization itself. Out of this same gross scale of things come +many other evils; great states subsisting on the subjugation and +exploitation of small and alien peoples; great cities which when they +exceed more than 100,000 in population are a menace, when they exceed +1,000,000 are a crime; division of labour and specialization which +degrade men to the level of machines; concentration and segregation of +industries, the factory system, high finance and international finance, +capitalism, trades-unionism and the International, standardized +education, "metropolitan" newspapers, pragmatic philosophy, and churches +"run on business methods" and recruited by advertising and "publicity +agents." + +Greater than all, however, is the social poison that effects society +with pernicious anaemia through cutting man off from his natural social +group and making of him an undistinguishable particle in a sliding +stream of grain. Man belongs to his family, his neighbourhood, his local +trade or craft guild and to his parish church: the essence of wholesome +association is that a man should work with, through and by those whom he +knows personally--and preferably so well that he calls them all by their +first names. + +As a matter of fact, today he works with, through and by the individuals +whom he probably has never seen, and frequently would, as a matter of +personal taste, hesitate to recognize if he did see them. He belongs to +the "local" of a union which is a part of a labour organization which +covers the entire United States and is controlled in all essential +matters from a point from one hundred to two thousand miles away. He +votes for mayor with a group of men, less than one per cent of whom he +knows personally (unless he is a professional politician), with another +group for state officers, and with the whole voting population of the +United States, for President. If he goes to church in a city he finds +himself amongst people drawn from every ward and outlying district, if +he mixes in "society" he associates with those from everywhere, perhaps, +except his own neighbourhood. Only when he is in college, in his club or +in his secret society lodge or the quarters of his ward boss does he +find himself in intimate social relations with human beings of like mind +and a similar social status. He is a cog in a wheel, a thing, a point of +potential, a lonely and numerical unit, instead of a gregarious human +animal rejoicing in his friends and companions, and working, playing and +quarreling with them, as God made him and meant him to be and to do. + +Of course the result of this is that men are forced into unnatural +associations, many of which are purely artificial and all of which are +unsound. It is true that the trade union, the professional society, the +club are natural and wholesome expressions of common and intimate +interests, but they acquire a false value when they are not balanced and +regulated by a prior and more compelling association which cuts, not +vertically but horizontally through society, that is to say, the +neighbourhood or community group. The harsh and perilous division into +classes and castes which is now universal, with its development of +"class consciousness," is the direct and inevitable result of this +imperial scale in life which has annihilated the social unit of human +scale and brought in the gigantic aggregations of peoples, money, +manufacture and labourers, where man can no longer function either as a +human unit or an essential factor in a workable society. + +It is hard to see just how we are to re-fashion this impossible society +in terms even nearly approaching the normal and the human. It is +universal, and it is accepted by everyone as very splendid and quite the +greatest achievement of man. It is practically impossible for any one +today to conceive of a world where great empires, populous cities, mills +and factories and iron-works in their thousands, and employing their +millions through their billions of capitalization, where the stock +exchange and the great banking houses and the insurance companies and +the department stores, the nation-wide trade unions and professional +associations and educational foundations and religious corporations, do +not play their predominant part. Nevertheless they are an aggregation of +false values, their influence is anti-social, and their inherent +weakness was so obviously revealed through the War and the Peace that it +has generally escaped notice. + +There seem but two ways in which the true scale of life can be restored; +either these institutions will continue, growing greater and more +unwieldy with increasing speed until they burst in anarchy and chaos, +and after ruin and long rest we begin all over again (as once before +after the bursting of Roman imperialism), or we shall repeat history (as +we always do) only after another fashion and, learning as we always can +from the annals of monasticism, build our small communities of the right +shape and scale in the very midst of the imperial states themselves, so +becoming perhaps the leavening of the lump. This of course is what the +monasteries of St. Benedict did in the sixth century and those of the +Cluniacs and the Cistercians in the eleventh, and it is what the +Franciscans and Dominicans tried to do in the fourteenth century, and +failed because the fall of the cultural and historic wave had already +begun. + +The trouble today with nearly all schemes of reform and regeneration is +that they are infected with the very imperialism in scale that has +produced the conditions they would redeem. Socialism is now as +completely materialistic as the old capitalism, and as international in +its scope and methods. Anarchy is becoming imperial and magnificent in +its operations. Secular reformers must organize vast committees with +intricate ramifications and elaborate systems supported by "drives" for +money which must run into at least seven figures, and by vast and +efficient bureaus for propaganda, before they can begin operations, and +then the chief reliance for success is frequently placed on legislation +enacted by the highest lawmaking bodies in the land. Even religion has +now surrendered to the same obsession of magnitude and efficiency, and +nothing goes (or tries to, it doesn't always succeed) unless it is +conceived in gigantic "nation-wide" terms and is "put across" by +efficiency experts, highly paid organizers, elaborate "teams" of +propagandists and solicitors, and plenty of impressive advertising. A +good deal can be bought this way, but it will not "stay bought," for no +reform of any sort can be established after any such fashion, since +reform begins in and with the individual, and if it succeeds at all it +will be by the cumulative process. + +I shall speak of this element of scale in every succeeding lecture, for +it vitiates every institution we have. Here, where I am dealing with +society in itself, I can only say that I believe the sane and wholesome +society of the future will eliminate great cities and great corporations +of every sort. It will reverse the whole system of specialization and +the segregation and unification of industries and the division of +labour. It will build upward from the primary unit of the family, +through the neighbourhood, to the small, and closely knit, and +self-supporting community, and so to the state and the final unifying +force which links together a federation of states. In general it will be +a return in principle, though not in form, to the social organization of +a Mediaeval Europe before the extinction of feudalism on the Continent, +and the suppression of the monasteries and the enclosure of the common +lands in England. + +The grave perils of this false scale in human society have been +recognized by many individuals ever since the thing itself became +operative, and every Utopia conceived by man during the last two +centuries, whether it was theoretical or actually put into ephemeral +practice, has been couched in terms of revolt away from imperialism and +towards the unit of human scale. In every case however, the introduction +of some form of communism has been the ruin of those projects actually +materialized, for this in itself is imperialistic in its nature. +Communism implies the standard of the gross aggregate, the denial of +human differentiation and the quantitative standard, as well as the +elimination of private property and the negation of sacred +individuality. Its institution implies an almost immediate descent into +anarchy with a sequent dictatorship and autocracy, for it is the +reversal of the foundation laws of life. Such reversals cannot last, +nothing can last that is inimical to flourishing life; it may triumph +for a day but life itself sloughs it off as a sound body rids itself of +some foreign substance through the sore that festers, bursts and, the +septic conditions done away with, heals itself and returns to normal. + +Now the inhuman scale has produced one set of septic conditions in +society while what is commonly called "democratization" has produced +another. We have a bloated society, but also we have one in which a +false theory has grown up and been put in practice, in accordance with +which an uniformity of human kind has been assumed which never has +existed and does not now, and in the effort to enforce this false theory +the achievement of distinction has been impeded, leadership discouraged +and leaders largely eliminated, the process of leveling downward carried +to a very dangerous point, the sane and vital organization of society +brought near to an end and a peculiarly vicious scale and standard of +social values established. I have urged the return to human scale in +human associations, but this does not imply any admixture of communism, +which is its very antithesis, still less does it permit the retention of +the theoretical uniformity and the unescapable leveling process of +so-called democracy. + +Before the law all men are equal, that is, they are entitled to +even-handed justice. Before God all men are equal, that is, they are +granted charity and mercy which transcends the law, also they possess +immortal souls of equal value. Here their equality stops. In every other +respect they vary in character, capacity, intelligence and potentiality +for development along any or all these lines, almost beyond the limits +of computation. A sane society will recognize this, it will organize +itself accordingly, it will deny to one what it will concede to another, +it will foster emulation and reward accomplishment, and it will add +another category to those in which all men are equal, that is, the +freest scope for advancement, and the greatest facility for passing from +one social group into another, the sole test being demonstrated merit. + +I am prepared at this point to use the word "aristocracy" for we have +the thing even now, only in its worst possible form. The word itself +means two things: a government by the best and most able citizens and, +to quote a standard dictionary "Persons noted for superiority in any +character or quality, taken collectively." There is no harm here, but +the harm comes, and the odium also, and justly, when an aristocratic +government degenerates into an oligarchy of privilege without +responsibility, and when socially it is not "superiority in character or +quality" but political cunning, opulence and sycophancy that are the +touchstones to recognition and acceptance. The latter are the antithesis +of Christianity and common sense, the former is consonant with both and, +paradoxical as it may seem, it is also the fulfilling of the ideals of a +real democracy, since its honours and distinctions imply service, its +relations with those in other estates are reciprocal, it is not a closed +caste but the prize of meritorious achievement, and it is therefore +equality of opportunity, utilization of ability and the abolition of +privilege without responsibility. + +Men are forever and gloriously struggling onward towards better things, +but there is always the gravitational pull of original sin which +scientists denominate "reversion to type." The saving grace in the +individual is the divine gift of faith, hope and charity implanted in +every soul. These every man must guard and cherish for they are the way +of advancement in character. But society is man in association with men, +in a sense a new and complex personality, and the same qualities are as +necessary here as in the individual. Society, like man, may be said to +possess body, soul and spirit, and it must function vitally along all +these lines if it is to maintain a normal and wholesome existence. +Somewhere there must be something that achieves high ideals of honour, +chivalry, courtesy; that maintains right standards of comparative value, +and that guards the social organism as a whole from the danger of +surrender to false and debased standards, to plausible demagogues, and +to mob-psychology. + + +The greater the prevalence of democratic methods, the greater is the +danger of this surrender to propaganda of a thousand sorts and to the +dominance of the demagogue, and the existence of an estate fortified by +the inheritance of high tradition, measurably free from the necessity of +engaging too strenuously in the "struggle for life," guaranteed security +of status so long as it does not betray the ideals of its order, but +open to accessions from other estates on the basis of conspicuous merit +alone, such a force operating in society has proved, and will prove, the +best guardian of civilization as a whole and of the interests and +liberties of those who may rank in what are known as lower social +scales. + +But, it may be objected, such an institution as this has never existed. +Every political or social aristocracy in history has been mixed and +adulterated with bad characters and recreant representatives. There +never has been and never will be a perfect aristocracy. Quite true; +neither has there ever been a perfect democracy, or a perfect monarchy +for that matter. As men we work with imperfections, but we live by +faith, and our sole duty is to establish the highest ideals, and to +compass them, in so far as we may, with unfailing courage, patience and +steadfastness. The _ideal_ of democracy is a great ideal, but the +_working_ of democracy has been a failure because, amongst other things, +it has tried to carry on without the aid of true aristocracy. If the two +can be united, first in ideal and in theory, then in operation, our +present failure may be changed into victory. + +What, after all, does this imply, so far as the social organism is +concerned? It seems to me, something like this. First of all, +recognition of the fact that there are differences in individuals, in +strains of blood, in races, that cannot be overcome by any power of +education and environment, and can only be changed through very long +periods of time, and that these differences must work corresponding +differences in position, function and status in the social organism. +Second, that since society automatically develops an aristocracy of some +sort or other, and apparently cannot be stopped from doing this, it must +be protected from the sort of thing it has produced of late, which is +based on money, political expediency and the unscrupulous cleverness of +the demagogue, and given a more rational substitute in the shape of a +permanent group representing high character and the traditions of +honour, chivalry and courtesy. Third, that character and service should +be fostered and rewarded by that formal and august recognition, that +secure and unquestioned status, and those added opportunities for +service that will form a real and significant distinction. Finally, that +this order or estate must be able to purge itself of unworthy material, +and also must be freely open to constant accessions from without, +whatever the source, and for proved character and service. + +I fear I must argue this case of the inequality in individual potential, +that inequality that does not yield to complex education or favourable +environment, for it is fundamental. If it does not exist, then my +argument for the organization of society along lines that recognize and +regularize diversity of social status and functions, falls to the +ground. I affirm that, the doctrine of evolution and modern democratic +theory to the contrary, it does exist and that the mitigating influence +of education, environment and inherited acquired characters, is small at +best. + +Let us take the most obvious concrete examples. There are certain ethnic +units or races which for periods ranging from five hundred to two +thousand years have produced _character_, and through character the +great contributions that have been made to human culture and have been +expressed through men of distinction, dynamic force, and vivid +personality. Such, amongst many, are the Greeks, the Jews, the Romans, +the Normans, the Franks, the "Anglo-Saxons," and the Celts. There are +others that in all history have produced nothing. There are certain +family names which are a guarantee of distinction, dynamic force, and +vivid personality. There are thousands of these names, and they are to +be found amongst all the races that have contributed towards the +development of culture and civilization. On the other hand, there are +far more that have produced nothing distinctive, and possibly never +will. + +What is the reason for this? Is it the result of blind chance, of +accidents that have left certain races and families isolated in stagnant +eddies from which some sudden current of a whimsical tide might sweep +them out into the full flood of progress, until they then overtook and +passed their hitherto successful rivals, who, in their turn, would drift +off into progressive incompetence and degeneracy? Biology does not look +with enthusiasm on the methods of chance and accident. The choice and +transmission of the forty-eight chromosomes that give to each individual +his character-potential are probably in accordance with some obscure +biological law through which the unfathomable divine will operates. Now +these chromosomes may be selected and combined after a fashion, and with +a persistence of continuity, that would guarantee character-potential, +for good or for ill, through many generations, or they might be so +varied in their combinations that no distinct traits would be carried +over from one generation to another. As a matter of experience all these +three processes take place and are recorded in families of distinct +quality, good, bad and indifferent. If the character-potential is +predetermined, then manifestly education and environment can play only +the subordinate part of fostering its development or retarding it. + +In the same way the character and career of the various races of men are +determined by the potential inherent in the individuals and families +that compose them, and like them the races themselves are for long +periods marked by power and capacity or weakness and lack of +distinction. There are certain races, such as the Hottentot, the Malay, +the American Indian, and mixed bloods, as the Mexican peons and +Mongol-Slavs of a portion of the southeastern Europe, that, so far as +recorded history is concerned, are either static or retrogressive. There +are family units, poverty-stricken and incompetent, in Naples, Canton, +East Side New York; or opulent and aggressive in West Side New York, in +Birmingham, Westphalia, Pittsburgh, that are no more subject to the +cultural and character-creating influences of education and +environment--beyond a certain definite point--than are the amphibians of +Africa or the rampant weeds of my garden. + +This is a hard saying and a provocative. The entire course of democratic +theory, of humanitarian thought and of the popular type of scientific +speculation stands against it, and the Christian religion as well, +unless the statement itself is guarded by exact definitions. If the +contention of the scientific materialist were correct, and the thing +that makes man, and that Christians call the immortal soul, were but the +result of physical processes of growth and differentiation, then slavery +would be justifiable, and exploitation a reasonable and inevitable +process. Since, however, this assumption of materialism is untenable, +and since all men are possessed of immortal souls between which is no +distinction in the sight of God, the situation, regrettable if you like, +is one which at the same time calls for the exercise of a higher +humanitarianism than that so popular during the last generation, and as +well for a very drastic revision of contemporary political and social +and educational methods. + +The soul of the man is the localization of divinity; in a sense each man +is a manifestation of the Incarnation. Black or white, conspicuous or +obscure, intelligent or stupid, offspring of a creative race or bound by +the limitations of one that is static or in process of decay, there is +no difference in the universal claim to justice, charity, and +opportunity. The soul of a Cantonese river-man, of a Congo slave, of an +East Side Jew, is in itself as essentially precious and worth saving as +the soul of a bishop, of a descendant of a Norman viking or an Irish +king, or that of a volunteer soldier in the late armies of France or +Great Britain or the United States. + +Here lies absolute and final equality, and the State, the Law, the +Church are bound to guard this equality in the one case and the other +with equal force; indeed, those of the lower racial and family types +claim even more faithful guardianship than those of the higher, for they +can accomplish less for themselves and by themselves. But the +fundamental and inescapable inequality, in intellect, in character, and +in capacity, which I insist is one of the conditioning factors in life, +is vociferously denied, but ruthlessly enforced, by the people that will +be the first to denounce any restatement of what is after all no more +than a patent fact. + +A little less enthusiasm for shibboleths, and a little more intelligent +regard for history and palpable conditions, will show that the assumed +equality between men "on the strength of their manhood alone," the +sufficiency of education for correcting the accidental differences that +show themselves, and the scheme of life that is worked out along +democratic lines on the basis of this essential (or potential) equality, +are "fond things vainly imagined" which must be radically modified +before the world can begin a sane and wholesome building-up after the +great purgation of war. + +That equality between men which exists by virtue of the presence in each +of an immortal soul, involves an even distribution of justice and the +protection of law, without distinction of persons, and an even measure +of charity and compassion, but it does not involve the admission of a +claim to equality of action or the denial of varied status, since +race-values, both of blood and of the _gens_ enter in to establish +differences in character, in intelligence and in capacity which cannot +be changed by education, environment or heredity within periods which +are practical considerations with society. If we could still hold the +old Darwinian dogmas of the origin of species through the struggle for +existence and the survival of the fittest, and if the equally august and +authoritative dogma of the transmission by inheritance of acquired +characteristics were longer tenable, then perhaps we might invoke faith, +hope and patience and continue our generous method of imperilling +present society while we fixed our eyes on the vision of that to come +when environment, education and heredity had accomplished their perfect +work. Unfortunately--or perhaps fortunately--science is rapidly +reconsidering its earlier and somewhat hasty conclusions, and the +consensus of the most authoritative opinion seems to be that we must +believe these things no longer. Failing these premises, on which we have +laboured so long and so honestly and so sincerely, we are again thrown +back on the testimony of history and our own observation, and with this +reversal we also are bound to reconsider both our premises and the +constitution of those systems and institutions we have erected on them +as a foundation. + +The existence of a general law does not exclude exceptions. The fact +that in the case of human beings we have to take into consideration a +powerful factor that does not come into play in the domain of zooelogy +and botany--the immortal soul--makes impossible the drawing of exact +deductions from precedents therein established. This determining touch +of the divine, which is no result of biological processes, but stands +outside the limitations of heredity and environment and education, may +manifest itself quite as well in one class as in another, for "God is no +respecter of persons." As has been said before, there is no difference +in degree as between immortal souls. The point is, however, that each is +linked to a specific congeries of tendencies, limitations, effective or +defective agencies, that are what they have been made by the parents of +the race. These may be such as enable the soul to triumph in its earthly +experience and in its bodily housing; they may be such as will bring +about failure and defeat. It is not that the soul builds itself "more +stately mansions"; it is that these are provided for it by the physical +processes of life, and it is almost the first duty of man to see that +they are well built. + +Again, the soul is single and personal; as it is not a plexus of +inherited tendencies, so it is not heritable, and a great soul showing +suddenly in the dusk of a dull race contributes nothing of its essential +quality to the issue of the body it has made its house. The stews of a +mill town may suddenly be illuminated by the radiance of a divine soul, +to the amazement of profligate parents and the confusion of eugenists; +but unless the unsolvable mystery of life has determined on a new +species, and so by a sudden influx of the _elan vital_ cuts off the line +of physical succession and establishes one that is wholly new, then the +brightness dies away with the passing of the splendid soul, and the +established tendencies resume their sway. + +The bearing of this theory on the actions of society is immediate. +Through the complete disregard of race-values that has obtained during +the last two or three centuries, and the emergence and complete +supremacy in all categories of life of human groups of low potential, +civilization has been brought down to a level where it is threatened +with disaster. If recovery is to be effected and a second era of "dark +ages" avoided, there must be an entirely new evaluation of things, a new +estimate of the principles and methods that obtained under Modernism, +and a fearless adventure into fields that may prove not to be so +unfamiliar as might at first appear. + +Specifically, we must revise our attitude as to immigration, excluding +whole classes, and even races, that we have hitherto welcomed with open +hands from the disinterested offices of steamship companies: we must +control and in some cases prohibit, the mating of various racial stocks; +finally we must altogether disallow the practice of changing, by law, +one race-name for another. This process is one for which no excuse +exists and unless it can be brought to an end then, apart from certain +physical differentiations on which nature wisely insists, we have no +guaranty against the adulteration that has gone so far towards +substituting the mongrel for the pure racial type, while society is +bound to suffer still further deception and continued danger along the +lines that have recently been indicated by the transformation of +Treibitsch into "Lincoln," Braunstein into "Trotsky" and Samuels into +"Montague." + +For its fulfillment, then, and its regeneration, the real democracy +demands and must achieve the creation and cooperation of a real +aristocracy, not an aristocracy of material force either military or +civil, nor one of land owners or money-getters, nor one of artificial +caste. All these substitutes have been tried from time to time, in Rome, +China, Great Britain, the United States, and all have failed in the end, +for all have ignored the one essential point of _character_, without +which we shall continue to reproduce what we have at present; a thing as +insolent, offensive and tyrannical as the old aristocracies at their +worst, with none of the constructive and beneficent qualities of the old +aristocracies at their best. + +That race-values have much to do with this development of character I +believe to be true, but of far greater efficiency, indeed the actual +motive force, is the Christian religion, working directly on and through +the individual and using race as only one of its material means of +operation. Democracy has accomplished its present failure, not only +because it could not function without the cooperation of aristocracy, +but chiefly because, in its modernist form, it has become in fact +isolated from Christianity. All in it of good it derives from that +Catholic Christianity of the Middle Ages which first put it into +practice, all in it of evil it owes to a falling back on paganism and a +denial of its own parentage and rejection of its control. I shall deal +with this later in more detail; I speak of it now just for the purpose +of entering a caveat against any deduction from what I have said that +any natural force, of race or evolution or anything else, or any formal +institution devised by man, ever has, or ever can, serve in itself as a +way of social redemption. I am anxious not to overemphasize these things +on which the development of my argument forces me to lay particular +stress. + +For those who can go with me so far, the question will arise: How then +are we so to reorganize society that we may gain the end in view? It is +a question not easy of solution. Granted the fact of social +differentiation and the necessity of its recognition, how are we to +break down the wholly wrong system that now obtains and substitute +another in its place? It would be simple enough if within the period +allowed us by safety (apparently not any too extended at the present +moment) a working majority of men could achieve, in the old and exact +phraseology, that change of heart, that spiritual conversion, that would +bring back into permanent authority the supernatural virtues of faith, +hope, and charity, and that sense of right values in life, which +together make almost indifferent the nature of the formal devices man +creates for the organization of society. Certainly this is possible; +greater miracles have happened in history but, failing this, what? + +One turns of course by instinct to old models, but in this is the danger +of an attempt at an archaeological restoration, a futile effort at +reviving dead forms that have had their day. In principle, and in the +working as well, the old orders of chivalry or knighthood strongly +commend themselves, for here there was, in principle, both the +maintenance of high ideals of honour courtesy and _noblesse oblige,_ and +the rendering of chivalrous service. Chesterton has put it well in the +phrase "the giving things which cannot be demanded, the avoiding things +which cannot be punished." Moreover, admission to the orders of +knighthood was free to all provided there were that cause which came +from personal character alone. Knighthood was the crown of knightly +service and it was forfeited for recreancy. Is there not in this some +suggestion of what may again be established as an incentive and a +reward, and as well, as a vital agency for the reorganization of +society? + +Knighthood is personal, and is for the lifetime of the recipient. Is +there any value in an estate where status is heritable? If there is any +validity in the theory of varying and persistent race-values, it would +seem so, yet the idea of recognizing this excellence of certain families +and the reasonable probability of their maintaining the established +standard unimpaired, and so giving them a formal status, would no doubt +be repugnant to the vast majority of men in the United States. I think +this aversion is based on prejudice, natural but ill-founded. We resent +the idea of privilege without responsibility, as we should, but this, +while it was the condition of those aristocracies which were operative +at the time of the founding of the Republic, was opposed to the +Mediaeval, or true idea, which linked responsibility with privilege. The +old privilege is gone and cannot be restored, but already we have a new +privilege which is being claimed and enforced by proletarian groups, and +the legislative representatives of the whole people stand in such terror +of massed votes that they not only fail to check this astonishing and +topsy-turvy movement, but actually further its pretensions. The +"dictatorship of the proletariat" actually means the restoration of +privilege in a form far more tyrannical and monstrous than any ever +exercised by the old aristocracies of Italy, France, Germany and +England. Much recent legislation in Washington exempting certain +industrial and agricultural classes from the operation of laws which +bear heavily on other classes, and some of the claims and pretensions of +unionized labor, tend in precisely the same direction. + +It is not restoration of privilege I have in mind but rather in a sense +the prevention of this through the existence of a class or estate that +has a fixed status dependent first on character and service and then on +an assured position that is not contingent on political favour, the bulk +of votes, or the acquisition of an inordinate amount of money. Surety of +position works towards independence of thought and action and towards +strong leadership. It establishes and maintains certain high ideals of +honour, chivalry, and service as well as of courtesy and manners. If the +things for which the gentlemen, the knighthood and the nobility of +Europe during the Christian dispensation were responsible were stricken +from the record there would be comparatively little left of the history +of European culture and civilization. + +After all, is it merely sentimentalism and a sense of the picturesque +that leads us to look backward with some wistfulness to the days of +which the record is still left us in legends and fairy-tales and old +romance, when ignorance and vulgarity did not sit in high places even if +arrogance and pride and tyranny sometimes did, and when the profiteer +and the oriental financier and the successful politician did not +represent the distinction and the chivalry and the courtesy and the +honour of the social organism man builds for his own habitation? The +idea of knighthood still stirs us and the deeds of chivalry and the +courtesy and the honour of the social Knights of the Round Table, +Crusaders and knights errant, the quest of the Holy Grail, rescue and +adventure, the fighting with paynims and powers of evil, still stir our +blood and arouse in our minds strange contrasts and antinomies. Princes +and fair chatelaines in their wide domains with castle and chase and +delicate pleasaunce, liege-men bound to them by more than the feudal +ties of service. All the varied honours of nobility, vitalized by +significant ritual and symbolized by splendid and beautiful costumes. +Courts of Love and troubadours and trouveres, kings who were kings +indeed, with the splendour and courtesy and beneficence of their +courts--Louis the Saint and Frederic II, Edward III and King +Charles--above all the simple rank and high honour of the "gentleman," +the representative of a long line of honourable tradition, no casual and +purse-proud upstart, but of proud race and unquestioned status, proud +because it stood for certain high ideals of honour and chivalry and +loyalty, of courtesy and breeding and compassion. All these old things +of long ago still rouse in us answering humours, and there are a few of +us who can hardly see just why they are inconsistent with liberty and +opportunity, justice, righteousness and mercy. + +Somehow the last two generations, and especially the last ten years, +have revealed many things hitherto hidden, and as we envisage society as +it has come to be, estimating it by new-found standards and establishing +new comparisons through a recovery of a more just historical sense, the +question comes whether it is indeed more wholesome, more beautiful, more +normal to man as he is, than the older society that in varying forms but +always the same principle, had held throughout all history until the new +model came in, now hardly a century ago. + +I do not think this wistful and bewildered looking backward is +particularly due to a new desire for beauty, that comeliness of +condition that existed then and has now given place to gross ugliness +and ill-conditioned manners and ways. Rather it seems to me it is due to +a sense of irrationality and fundamental injustice in the present order, +coupled with a new terror of the proximate issue as this already is +revealing itself amongst many peoples. We resent the high estate, +purchasable and purchased, of the cynical intriguer and the vulgar +profiteer, of the tradesman in "big business," the cheap prophet and the +pathetic progeny of "successful men" fast reverting to type. We know our +city councils and our state legislatures and our houses of congress, we +know our newspapers, their standards and the motive powers behind them, +and what they record of the character and the doings of what they call +"society men and women." Above all we know that under the ancient +regime, in spite of manifold failures, shortcomings and disloyalty, +there was such a thing as a standard of honour, a principle of chivalry, +an impulse to unselfish service, a criterion of courtesy and good +manners; we look for these things now in vain, except amongst those +little enclaves of oblivion where the old character and old breeding +still maintain a fading existence, and as we consider what we have +become we sometimes wonder if the price we have paid for "democracy" was +not too extortionate. + +Above all, we are tempted to this query when we think of our vanishing +standards of right and wrong, of our progressive reversal of values, of +our diminishing stock of social character. We tore down in indignant +revolt the rotten fabric of a bad social system when it had so far +declined from its ideal and its former estate that it could no longer be +endured, and we made a new thing, full as we were with the fire of +desire for a new righteousness and a new system that would compass it. +Perhaps we did well, at least we hardly could have done anything else; +but now we are again in the position of our forefathers who saw things +as they were and acted with force and decision. There are as many counts +against our society of plutocrats, politicians and proletarians, mingled +in complete and ineffective confusion, as there were against the +aristocracies, so called, of the eighteenth century. Perhaps there are +more, at least many of them are different, but the indictment is no less +sweeping. + +Our plan, so generous, so liberal, so high-minded in many ways, has +failed to produce the results we desired, while it has worked itself out +to the point of menace. It is for us to see these facts clearly, and so +to act, and so promptly, that we may not have to await the destroying +force of cataclysm for the correction of our errors. + + + + +IV + + +THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM + +The solution of the industrial and economic problem that now confronts +the entire world with an insistence that is not to be denied, is +contingent on the restoration, first of all, of the holiness and the joy +of work. Labour is not a curse, it is rather one of the greatest of the +earthly blessings of man, provided its sanctity is recognized and its +performance is accomplished with satisfaction to the labourer. In work +man creates, whether the product is a bushel of potatoes from a space of +once arid ground, or whether it is the Taj Mahal, Westminster Abbey or +the Constitution of the United States, and so working he partakes +something of the divine power of creation. + +When work is subject to slavery, all sense of its holiness is lost, both +by master and bondman; when it is subject to the factory system all the +joy in labour is lost. Ingenuity may devise one clever panacea after +another for the salving work and for lifting the working classes from +the intolerable conditions that have prevailed for more than a century; +they will be ephemeral in their existence and futile in their results +unless sense of holiness is restored, and the joy in production and +creation given back to those who have been defrauded. + +Before Christianity prevailed slavery was universal in civilized +communities, labour, as conducted under that regime, was a curse, and +this at length came home to roost on the gaunt wreckage of imperialism. +Thereafter came slowly increasing liberty under the feudal system with +its small social units and its system of production for use not profits, +monasticism with its doctrine and practice of the sanctity of work, and +the Church with its progressive emancipation of the spiritual part of +man. Work was not easy, on the contrary it was very hard throughout the +Dark Ages and Mediaevalism, but there is no particular merit in easy +work. It was virtually free except for the labour and contributions in +kind exacted by the over-lord (less in proportion than taxes in money +have been at several times since) from the workers on the soil, and in +the crafts of every kind redeemed from undue arduousness by the joy that +comes from doing a thing well and producing something of beauty, +originality and technical perfection. + +The period during which work possessed the most honourable status and +the joy in work was the greatest, extends from the beginnings of the +twelfth century well into the sixteenth. In some centuries, and along +certain lines of activity, it continued much longer, notably in England +and the United States, but social and industrial conditions were rapidly +changing, the old aristocracy was becoming perverted, Lutheranisms, +Calvinism and Puritanism were breaking down the old communal sense of +brotherhood so arduously built up during the Middle Ages, capitalism was +ousting the trade and craft guilds of free labour and political +absolutism was crushing ever lower and lower a proletariat that was fast +losing the last vestiges of old liberty. The fact of slavery without the +name was gradually imposed on the agricultural classes, and after the +suppression of the monasteries in England work as work lost its sacred +character and fell under contempt. With the outbreak of industrialism in +the last quarter of the eighteenth century through the institution and +introduction of "labour-saving" machinery and the consequent division of +labour, the factory system, the joint-stock company and capitalism, this +new slavery was extended to industrial workers, and with its +establishment disappeared the element of joy in labour. + +For fifty years, about the blackest half-century civilization has had to +record, this condition of industrial slavery continued with little +amendment. Very slowly, however, the workers themselves, championed by +certain aristocrats like the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury against +professional Liberals like Cobden, Bright, and Gladstone in England, +began to loosen the shackles that bound them to infamous conditions, and +after the abrogation of laws that made any association of workingmen a +penal offense, the labour unions began to ameliorate certain of the +servile conditions under which for two generations the workman had +suffered. Since then the process of abolishing wage-slavery went slowly +forward until at last the war came not only to threaten its destruction +altogether but also to place the emancipated workers in a position where +they could dictate terms and conditions to capital, to employers, to +government and to the general public; while even now in many parts of +Europe and America, besides Russia, overt attempts are being made to +bring back the old slavery, only with the former bondsmen in supreme +dictatorship, the former employers and the "bourgeoisie" in the new +serfage. + +The old slavery is gone, but the joy in work has not been restored; +instead, those who have achieved triumphant emancipation turn from +labour itself with the same distaste, yes, with greater aversion than +that which obtained under the old regime. With every added liberty and +exemption, with every shortening of hours and increase of pay, +production per hour falls off and the quality of the output declines. +What is the reason for this? Is it due to the viciousness of the worker, +to his natural selfishness, greed and cruelty? I do not think so, but +rather that the explanation is to be found in the fact that the +industrial system of modernism has resulted in a condition where the joy +has been altogether cut out of labour, and that until this state of +things has been reversed and the sense of the holiness of work and the +joy of working have been restored, it is useless to look for workable +solutions of the labour problem. The _fact_ of industrial slavery has +been done away with but the sense of the servile condition that attaches +to work has been retained, therefore the idea of the dignity and +holiness of labour has not come back any more than the old joy and +satisfaction. Failing this recovery, no reorganization of industrial +relations, neither profit-sharing nor shop committees, neither +nationalization nor state socialism, neither the abolition of capital, +nor Soviets nor syndicalism nor the dictatorship of the proletariat will +get us anywhere. It is all a waste of time, and, through its ultimate +failure and disappointments, an intensification of an industrial +disease. + +Why is it that this is so? For an answer I must probe deep and, it may +seem, cut wildly. I believe it is because we have built up a system that +goes far outside the limits of human scale, transcends human capacity, +is forbidden by the laws and conditions of life, and must be abrogated +if it is not to destroy itself and civilization in the process. + +What, precisely has taken place? Late in the eighteenth century two +things happened; the discovery of the potential inherent in coal and its +derivative, steam, with electricity yet unexploited but ready to hand, +and the application of this to industrial purposes, together with the +initiating of a long and astounding series of discoveries and inventions +all applicable to industrial purposes. With a sort of vertiginous +rapidity the whole industrial process was transformed from what it had +been during the period of recorded history; steam and machinery took the +place of brain and hand power directly applied, and a revolution greater +than any other was effected. + +The new devices were hailed as "labour-saving" but they vastly increased +labour both in hours of work and in hands employed. Bulk production +through the factory system was inevitable, the result being an enormous +surplus over the normal and local demand. To organize and conduct these +processes of bulk-production required money greater in amount than +individuals could furnish; so grew up capitalism, the joint-stock +company, credit and cosmopolitan finance. To produce profits and +dividends markets must be found for the huge surplus product. This was +accomplished by stimulating the covetousness of people for things they +had not thought of, under normal conditions would not, in many cases, +need, and very likely would be happier without, and in "dumping" on +supposedly barbarous peoples in remote parts of the world, articles +alien to their traditions and their mode of life and generally +pestiferous in their influence and results. So came advertising in all +its branches, direct and indirect, from the newspaper and the bill-board +to the drummer, the diplomatic representative and the commercial +missionary. + +Every year saw some new invention that increased the product per man, +the development of some new advertising device, the conquest of some new +territory or the delimitation of some new "sphere of influence," and the +revelation of some new possibility in the covetousness of man. Profits +rose to new heights and accumulating dividends clamoured for new +opportunities for investment. Competition tended to cut down returns, +therefore labour was more and more sustained through diminished wages +and laws that savagely prevented any concerted effort towards +self-defense. Improvements in agricultural processes and the application +of machinery and steam power, together with bulk-production and +scientific localization of crops, threw great quantities of +farm-labourers out of work and drove them into the industrial towns, +while advances in medical science and in sanitation raised the +proportion of births to deaths and soon provided a surplus of potential +labour so that the operation of the "law of supply and demand," extolled +by a new philosophy and enforced by the new "representative" or +democratic and parliamentary government, resulted in an unfailing supply +of cheap labour paid wages just beyond the limit of starvation. + +At last there came evidences that the limit had been reached; the whole +world had been opened up and pre-empted, labour was beginning to demand +and even get more adequate wages, competition, once hailed as "the life +of trade" was becoming so fierce that dividends were dwindling. +Something had to be done and in self-defense industries began to +coalesce in enormous "trusts" and "combines" and monopolies. +Capitalization of millions now ran into billions, finance became +international in its scope and gargantuan in its proportions and +ominousness, advertising grew from its original simplicity and naivete +into a vast industry based on all that the most ingenious professors +could tell of applied psychology, subsidizing artists, poets, men of +letters, employing armies of men along a hundred different lines, +expending millions annually in its operations, making the modern +newspaper possible, and ultimately developing the whole system of +propaganda which has now become the one great determining factor in the +making of public opinion. + +When the twentieth century opened, that industrialism which had begun +just a century before, had, with its various collateral developments, +financial, educational, journalistic, etc., become not only the greatest +force in society, but as well a thing operating on the largest scale +that man had ever essayed: beside it the Roman Empire was parochial. + +The result of this institution, conceived on such imperial lines, was, +in the field we are now considering, the total destruction of the sense +of the holiness of labour and of joy in work. It extended far beyond the +limits of pure industrialism; it moulded and controlled society in all +its forms, destroying ideals old as history, reversing values, confusing +issues and wrecking man's powers of judgment. Until the war it seemed +irresistible, now its weakness and the fallacy of its assumptions are +revealed, but it has become so absolutely a part of our life, indeed of +our nature, that we are unable to estimate it by any sound standards of +judgment, and even when we approximate this we cannot think in other +terms when we try to devise our schemes of redemption. Even the +socialist and the Bolshevik think in imperial terms when they try to +compass the ending of imperialism. + +Under this supreme system, as I see it, the two essential things I have +spoken of cannot be restored, nor could they maintain themselves if, by +some miracle, they were once re-established. The indictment cannot be +closed here. The actual condition that has developed from industrialism +presents certain factors that are not consonant with sane, wholesome and +Christian living. Not only has the unit of human scale in human society +been done away with, not only have the sense of the nobility of work and +joy in the doing been exterminated, but, as well, certain absolutely +false principles and methods have been adopted which are not susceptible +of reform but only of abolition. + +Of some of these I have spoken already; the alarming drift towards +cities, until now in the United States more than one-half the population +is urban; the segregation of industries in certain cities and regions; +the minute division of labour and intensive specialization; the abnormal +growth of a true proletariat or non-land-holding class; the flooding of +the country by cheap labour drawn from the most backward communities and +from peoples of low race-value. Out of this has arisen a bitter class +conflict and the ominous beginnings of a perilous class consciousness, +with actual warfare joined in several countries, and threatened in all +others where industrial civilization is prevalent. With this has grown +up an artificially stimulated covetousness for a thousand futile +luxuries, and a standard of living that presupposes a thousand +non-essentials as basic necessities. Production for profit, not use, +excess production due to machinery, efficient organization, and surplus +of labour, together with the necessity for marketing the product at a +profit, have produced a state of things where at least one-half the +available labour in the country is engaged in the production and sale of +articles which are not necessary to physical, intellectual or spiritual +life, while of the remainder, hardly more than a half is employed in +production, the others are devoting themselves to distribution and to +the war of competition through advertising and the capturing of trade by +ingenious and capable salesmen. It is a significant fact that two of the +greatest industries in the United States are the making of automobiles +and moving pictures. + +It is probably true to say that of the potential labour in the United +States, about one-fourth is producing those things which are physically, +intellectually and spiritually necessary; the remaining three-fourths +are essentially non-producers: they must, however, be housed, fed, +clothed, and amused, and the cost of this support is added to the cost +of the necessities of life. The reason for the present high cost of +living lies possibly here. + +Lest I be misunderstood, let me say here that under the head of +necessities of life I do not mean a new model automobile each year, +moving pictures, mechanical substitutes for music or any other art, and +the thousand catch-trade devices that appear each year for the purpose +of filching business from another or establishing a new desire in the +already over-crowded imaginations of an over-stimulated populace. +Particularly do I not mean advertising in any sense in which it is now +understood and practised. If, as I believe to be the case, production +for profit, rather than for use, the reversal of the ancient doctrine +that the demand must produce the supply, in favour of the doctrine that +the supply must foster the demand, is the foundation of our economic +error and our industrial ills, then it follows that advertising as it is +now carried on by billboards, circulars and newspapers, by drummers, +solicitors and consular agents, falls in the same condemnation, for +except by its offices the system could not have succeeded or continue to +function. It is bad in itself as the support and strength of a bad +institution, but its guilt does not stop here. So plausible is it, so +essential to the very existence of the contemporary regime, so knit up +with all the commonest affairs of life, so powerful in its organization +and broad in its operations, it has poisoned, and continues to poison, +the minds of men so that the headlong process of losing all sense of +comparative values is accelerated, while every instinctive effort at +recovery and readjustment is nullified. How far this process has gone +may be illustrated by two instances. It is only a few months ago that a +most respected clergyman publicly declared that missionaries were the +greatest and most efficient asset to trade because they were unofficial +commercial agents who opened up new and savage countries to Western +commerce through advertising commodities of which the natives had never +heard, and arousing in them a sense of acquisitiveness that meant more +wealth and business for trade and manufacture, which should support +foreign missions on this ground at least. More recently the head of an +advertising concern in New York is reported to have said: "It is +principally through advertising that we have arrived at the high degree +of civilization which this age enjoys, for advertising has taught us the +use of books and how to furnish our homes with the thousand and one +comforts that add so materially to our physical and intellectual +well-being. The future of the world depends on advertising. Advertising +is the salvation of civilization, for civilization cannot outlive +advertising a century." + +It is tempting to linger over such a delectable morsel as this, for even +if it is only the absurd and irresponsible output of one poor, foolish +man, it does express more or less what industrial civilization holds to +be true, though few would avow their faith so whole-heartedly. The +statement was made as propaganda, and propaganda is merely advertising +in its most insidious and dangerous form. The thing revealed its +possibilities during the war, but the black discredit that was then very +justly attached to it could not prevail against its manifest potency, +and it is now universally used after the most comprehensive and +frequently unscrupulous fashion, with results that can only be perilous +in the extreme. The type and calibre of mind that has now been released +from long bondage, and by weight of numbers is now fast taking over the +direction of affairs, is curiously subservient to the written word, and +lacking a true sense of comparative values, without effective leadership +either secular or religious, is easily swayed by every wind of doctrine. +The forces of evil that are ever in conflict with the forces of right +are notoriously ingenious in making the worse appear the better cause, +and with every desire for illumination and for following the right way, +the multitude, whether educated or illiterate, fall into the falsehoods +of others' imaginings. Money, efficiency, an acquired knowledge of mob +psychology, the printing press and the mail service acting in alliance, +and directed by fanatical or cynical energy, form a force of enormous +potency that is now being used effectively throughout society. It is +irresponsible, anonymous and pervasive. Through its operation the last +barriers are broken down between the leadership of character and the +leadership of craft, while all formal distinctions between the valuable +and the valueless are swept away. + +I have spoken at some length of this particular element in the present +condition of things, because in both its aspects, as the support of our +present industrial and economic system and as the efficient moulder of a +fluid and unstable public opinion, it is perhaps the strongest and most +subtle force of which we must take account. + +With a system so prevalent as imperial industry, so knit up with every +phase of life and thought, and so determining a factor in all our +concepts, united as it is with two such invincible allies as advertising +and propaganda, it is inconceivable that it should be overthrown by any +human force from without. Holding it to be essentially wrong, it seems +to me providential that it is already showing signs of falling by its +own weight. Production of commodities has far exceeded production of the +means of payment, and society is now running on promises to pay, on +paper obligations, on anticipations of future production and sale, on +credit, in a word. The war has enormously magnified this condition until +an enforced liquidation would mean bankruptcy for all the nations of the +earth, while the production of utilities is decreasing in proportion to +the production of luxuries, labour is exacting increasing pay for +decreasing hours of work and quality of output, and the enormous +financial structure, elaborately and ingeniously built up through +several generations, is in grave danger of immediate catastrophe. The +whole world is in the position of an insolvent debtor who is so deeply +involved that his creditors cannot afford to let him go into bankruptcy, +and so keep him out of the Poor Debtor's Court by doling out support +from day to day. Confidence is the only thing that keeps matters going; +what happens when this is lost is now being demonstrated in many parts +of Europe. The optimist claims that increased production, coupled with +enforced economy, will produce a satisfactory solution, but there is no +evidence that labour, now having the whip-hand, will give up its present +advantage sufficiently to make this possible; even if it did, payment +must be in the form of exchange or else in further promises to pay, +while the capacity of the world for consumption is limited somewhere, +though thus far "big business" has failed to recognize this fact. At +present the interest charges on debts, both public and private, have +reached a point where they come near to consuming all possible profits +even from a highly accelerated rate of production. Altogether it is +reasonable to assume that the present financial-industrial system is +near its term for reasons inherent in itself, let alone the possibility +of a further extension of the drastic and completely effective measures +of destruction that are characteristics of Bolshevism and its +blood-brothers. + +Assuming that this is so, two questions arise: what is to take the place +of imperial industry, and how is this substitution to be brought about? + +I think the answer to the first is: a social and industrial system based +on small, self-contained, largely self-sufficing units, where supply +follows demand, where production is primarily for use not profit, and +where in all industrial operations some system will obtain which is more +or less that of the guilds of the Middle Ages. I should like to go into +this a little more in detail before trying to answer the second +question. + +The normal social unit is a group of families predominantly of the same +race, territorially compact, of substantially the same ideals as +expressed in religion and the philosophy of life, and sufficiently +numerous to provide from within itself the major part of those things +which are necessary to physical, intellectual and spiritual well-being. +It should consist of a central nucleus of houses, each with its garden, +the churches, schools and public buildings that are requisite, the +manufactories and workshops that supply the needs of the community, the +shops for sale of those things not produced at home, and all necessary +places of amusement. Around this residential centre should be sufficient +agricultural land to furnish all the farm products that will be consumed +by the community itself. The nucleus of habitation and industry, +together with the surrounding farms, make up the social unit, which is +to the fullest possible degree, self-contained, self-sufficient and +self-governing. + +Certain propositions are fundamental, and they are as follows: Every +family should own enough land to support itself at need. The farms +included in the unit must produce enough to meet the needs of the +population. Industry must be so organized that it will normally serve +the resident population along every feasible line. Only such things as +cannot be produced at home on account of climatic or soil limitations +should be imported from outside. All necessary professional services +should be obtainable within the community itself. All financial +transactions such as loans, credits, banking and insurance should be +domestic. Surplus products, whether agricultural, industrial or +professional, should be considered as by-products, and in no case should +the producing agency acquire such magnitude that home-consumption +becomes a side issue and production for profit take the place of +production for use. + +All this is absolutely opposed to our present system, but our present +system is wasteful, artificial, illogical, unsocial, and therefore +vicious. I have said enough as to the falsities, the dangers and the +failures of bulk-production through the operations of capitalism, the +factory system and advertising, but its concomitant, the segregation of +industries, is equally objectionable. To ship hogs 1,500 miles to be +slaughtered and packed in food form, and then ship this manufactured +product back to the source from which the raw material came; to feed a +great city with grain, potatoes and fruits coming from 1,000 to 3,000 +miles away, and vegetables from a distance of several hundred miles, +while the farms within a radius of fifty miles are abandoned and barren; +to make all the shoes for the nation in one small area, to spin the wool +and cotton and weave the cloth in two or three others; to make the +greater part of the furniture in one state, the automobiles in a second +and the breakfast food in a third, is so preposterous a proposition that +it belongs in Gulliver's Travels, not in the annals of a supposedly +intelligent people. The only benefit is that which for a time accrued to +the railways, which carted raw materials and finished products back and +forth over thousands of miles of their lines, the costs of shipment and +reshipment being naturally added to the price to the consumer. The +penalties for this uneconomic procedure were borne by society at large, +not only in the increased costs but through the abnormal communities, +each with its tens of thousands of operatives all engaged in the same +work and generally drawn from foreign races (with the active +co-operation of the steamship lines), and the permanent dislocation of +the labour supply, together with the complete disruption of the social +synthesis. + +With production for profit and segregation of industries has come an +almost infinitesimal division and specialization of labour. Under a +right industrial system this would be reduced, not magnified. The +dignity of labour and the joy of creation demand that in so far as +possible each man should carry through one entire operation. This is of +course now, and always has been under any highly developed civilization, +impossible in practice, except along certain lines of art and +craftsmanship. The evils of the existing system can in a measure be done +away with the moment production for use is the recognized law, for it is +only in bulk-production that this intensive specialization can be made +to pay. Bulk-production there will always be until, and if, the world is +reorganized on the basis of an infinite number of self-contained social +units, but in the ideal community--and I am dealing now with ideals--it +would not exist. + +Allied with this is the whole question of the factory method and the use +and misuse of machinery. It seems to me that the true principle is that +machinery and the factory are admissible only when so employed they +actually do produce, in bulk operations, a better product, and with less +labour, than is possible through hand work. Weaving, forging and all +work where human action must be more or less mechanical, offer a fair +field for the machine and the factory, but wherever the human element +can enter, where personality and the skilled craft of the hand are given +play, the machine and the factory are inadmissible. The great city, +creation of "big business," segregation of industries, advertising, +salesmanship and a hundred other concomitants of modernism, have built +up an abnormal and avaricious demand for bulk-production along lines +where the handicraft should function. It becomes necessary--let us +say--to provide a million dollars worth of furniture for a ten million +dollar hotel (itself to be superseded and scrapped in perhaps ten years) +and naturally only the most intensive and efficient factory system can +meet this demand. Rightly, however, the furniture of a community should +be produced by the local cabinet makers, and so it should be in many +other industries now entirely taken over by the factory system. + +For the future then we must consciously work for the building upward +from primary units, so completely reversing our present practice of +creating the big thing and fighting hopelessly to preserve such small +and few doles of liberty and personality as may be permitted to filter +downward from above. This is the only true democracy, and the thing we +call by the name is not this, largely because we have bent our best +energies to the building up of vast and imperial aggregates which have +inevitably assumed a complete unity in themselves and become dominating, +tyrannical and ruthless forces that have operated regardless of the +sound laws and wholesome principles of a right society. Neither the +vital democracy of principle nor the artificial democracy of practice +can exist in conjunction with imperialism, whether this is established +in government, in industry, in trade, in society or in education. + +If we can assume, then, the gradual development of a new society in +which these principles will be carried out, a society that is made up of +social units of human scale, self-contained, self-supporting and +self-governed, where production is primarily for use not profit, and +where bulk-production is practically non-existent, the sub-division of +labour reduced to the lowest practicable point, machinery employed to a +much less extent than now, and the factory system abolished, what +organic form will labour take on in place of that which now obtains? It +is possible to forecast this only in the most general terms, for life +itself must operate to determine the lines of development and dictate +the consequent forms. If we can acquire a better standard of comparative +values, and with a clearer and more fearless vision estimate the rights +and wrongs of the contemporary system, rejecting the ill thing and +jealously preserving, or passionately regaining, the good, we shall be +able to establish certain broad, fundamental and governing principles, +and doing this we can await in confidence the evolution of the organic +forms that will be the working agencies of the new society. + +I have tried to indicate some of the basic principles of a new society. +The operating forms, so far as industry is concerned, will, I think, +follow in essential respects the craft-guilds of the Middle Ages. They +will not be an archaeological restoration, as some of the English +protagonists of this great revolution seem to anticipate, they will be +variously adapted to the peculiar conditions of a new century, but the +basic principles will be preserved. Whatever happens, I am sure it will +not be either a continuation of the present system of capitalism and +profit-hunting, or nationalization of industries, or state socialism in +any form, or anything remotely resembling Bolshevism, syndicalism or a +"dictatorship of the proletariat." Here, as in government, education and +social relations, the power and the authority of the state must decline, +government itself withdrawing more and more from interference with the +operation of life, and liberty find its way back to the individual and +to the social and economic groups. We live now under a more tyrannical +and inquisitorial regime, in spite of (partly perhaps because of) its +democratic forms and dogmas, than is common in historical records. +Nationalization or state socialism would mean so great a magnifying of +this condition that existence would soon become both grotesque and +intolerable. We must realize, and soon, that man may lose even the last +semblance of liberty, as well under a nominal democracy as under a +nominal despotism or theocracy. + +The guild system was the solution of the industrial problem offered and +enforced by Christianity working through secular life; it presupposed +the small social and industrial unit and becomes meaningless if +conceived in the gigantic and comprehensive scale of modern +institutions. "National guilds" is a contradiction in terms: it takes on +the same element of error that inheres in the idea of "one big union." +In certain respects the Christian guild resembled the modern trade +union, but it differed from it in more ways, and it seems to be true +that wherever this difference exists the guild was right and the union +is wrong. Community of fellowship and action amongst men of each craft +trade or calling is essential under any social system, good or bad, and +it would be inseparable from the better society that must sometime grow +up on the basis of the unit of human scale, for these autonomous groups, +in order to furnish substantially all that their component parts could +require, would have to be of considerable size as compared with the +little farming villages of New England, though in contrast with the +great cities of modernism they would be small indeed. In these new +"walled towns" there would be enough men engaged in agriculture, in the +necessary industrial occupations, in trade and in the professions to +form many guilds of workable size, and normally these guilds would +neither contain members of two or more professions or occupations, nor +those from outside the community itself. The guild cannot function under +intensive methods of production or where production is primarily for +profit, or where the factory system prevails, or where capitalism is the +established system, or under combinations, trusts or other devices for +the establishing and maintenance of great aggregates tending always +towards monopoly. However much we may admire the guild system and desire +its restoration, we may as well recognize this fact at once. The +imperial scale must go and the human scale be restored before the guild +can come back in any general sense. + +I am assuming that this will happen, either through conscious action on +the part of the people or as the result of catastrophe that always +overtakes those who remain wedded to the illusions of falsity. On this +assumption what are these enduring principles that will control the +guild system of industry in the new State, however may be its form? + +The answer is to be found in the old guilds, altars, shrines, vestments +and sacred vessels were given in incredible quantities for the +furnishing and embellishment of the chapel or church; funds also for the +maintenance of priestly offices especially dedicated to the guild. + +Closely allied with the religious spirit was that of good-fellowship and +merrymaking. Every sort of feast and game and pageant was a part of the +guild system, as it was indeed of life generally at this time when men +did not have to depend upon hired professional purveyors of amusement +for their edification. What they wanted they did themselves, and this +community in worship and community in merrymaking did more even than the +merging of common material interests, to knit the whole body together +into a living organism. + +In how far the old system can be revived and put into operation is a +question. Certainly it cannot be adopted as a fad and imposed on an +unwilling society as a clever archaeological restoration. It will have +to grow naturally out of life itself and along lines at present hardly +predicable. There are many evidences that just this spontaneous +generation is taking place. The guild system is being preached widely in +England where the defects of the present scheme are more obvious and the +resulting labour situation--or rather social situation--is more fraught +with danger than elsewhere, and already the restoration seems to have +made considerable headway. I am convinced, however, that the vital +aspects of the case are primarily due to the interior working of a new +spirit born of disillusionment and the undying fire in man that flames +always towards regeneration; what the ardent preaching of the +enthusiastic protagonists of the crusade best accomplishes is the +creation in the minds of those not directly associated with the movement +of a readiness to give sympathy and support to the actual accomplishment +when it manifests itself. Recently I have come in contact here in +America with several cases where the workmen themselves have broken away +from the old ways and have actually established what are to all intents +and purposes craft-guilds, without in the least realizing that they were +doing this. + +I think the process is bound to continue, for the old order has broken +down and is so thoroughly discredited it can hardly be restored. If time +is granted us, great things must follow, but it is increasingly doubtful +if this necessary element of time can be counted on. Daily the situation +grows more menacing. Capital, which so long exploited labour to its own +fabulous profit, is not disposed to sit quiet while the fruits of its +labours and all prospects of future emoluments are being dissipated, and +it is hard at work striving to effect a "return to normalcy." In this it +is being unconsciously aided by the bulk of union labour which, +encouraged by the paramount position it achieved during the war, +influenced by an avarice it may well have learned from its former +masters, as narrow in its vision as they, and increasingly subservient +to a leadership which is frequently cynical and unscrupulous and always +of an order of character and intelligence which is tending to lower and +lower levels, is alienating sympathy and bringing unionism into +disrepute. In the United States the tendency is steadily towards a very +dangerous reactionism, with a corresponding strengthening of the radical +element which aims at revolution, and that impossible thing, a +proletarian dictatorship. It is this latter which is rampant and at +present unchecked in Europe, and this also is a constant menace to the +success of those sane and righteous movements which take their lead from +the guild system of the Middle Ages. A third danger, but one which is +constantly on the decline at present, partly because of the general +disrepute of governments and partly because of the enormous accessions +of power now accruing both to reactionism and radical revolutionism, or +"Bolshevism," is state socialism or nationalization, which leaves +untouched all the fatal elements in industrialism while it changes only +the agents of administration. The complete collapse of able and +constructive and righteous leadership, which is one of the startling +phenomena of modernism, has left uncontrolled the enormous energy that +has been released during the last three generations, and this is working +blindly but effectively towards a cataclysm so precipitate and +comprehensive that it is impossible not to fear that it may determine +long before the sober and informed elements in society have accomplished +very much in the recovery and establishment of sound and righteous +principles and methods. + +Of course we can compass whichever result we will. We may shut our eyes +to the omens and let matters drift to disaster, or we may take thought +and council and avert the penalty that threatens us; the event is in our +own hands. It is as criminal to foresee and predict only catastrophe as +it is to compass this through lethargy, selfishness and illusion. We are +bound to believe that righteousness will prevail, even in our own time, +and believing this, what, in general terms will be the construction of +the new system that must take the place of industrialism? + +I have already indicated what seem to me the fundamental ideas as: the +small social unit that is self-sustaining; production primarily for use, +cooeperation in place of competition; a revived guild system with the +abolition of capitalism, exploitation and intensive specialization as we +now know these dominant factors in modern civilization. In the +application of these principles there are certain innovations that will, +I think, take place, and these may be listed somewhat as follows: + +Land holding will become universal and the true proletariat or landless +class will disappear. It may be that the holding of land will become a +prerequisite to active citizenship. Industrial production being for use +not profit, the great city becomes a thing of the past, and life is +rendered simpler through the elimination of a thousand useless and +vicious luxuries; those employed in mechanical industries will be +incalculably fewer than now, while those that remain will give only a +portion of their time to industrial production, the remainder being +available for productive work on their own gardens and farms. The +handicrafts will be restored to their proper place and dignity, taking +over into creative labour large numbers of those who otherwise would be +sacrificed to the factory system. Where bulk production, as in weaving +and the preparation and manufacturing of metals, is economical and +unavoidable and carried on by factory methods, these manufactories will +probably be taken over by the several communities (not by the state as a +whole) and administered as public institutions for the benefit of the +community and under conditions and regulations which ensure justice and +well-being to the employees. All those in any community engaged in a +given occupation, as for example, building, will form one guild made up +of masters, journeymen and apprentices, with the same principles and +much the same methods as prevailed under the ancient guild system. +Fluctuating scales of prices determined by fluctuating conditions of +competition, supply and demand, and power of coercion, will give place +to "the fair price" fixed by concerted community action and revised from +time to time in order to preserve a right balance with the general scale +of cost of raw materials and cost of living. A maximum of returns in the +shape of profits or dividends will be fixed by law. The community itself +will undertake the furnishing of credits, loans and necessary capital +for the establishing of a new business, charging a small rate of +interest and maintaining a reserve fund to meet these operations. +Private banking, insurance and the loaning of money on collateral will +cease to exist. + +I dare say this will all sound chimerical and irrational in the extreme; +I do not see it in that light. Its avowed object is the supersession of +"big business" in all its phases by something that comes down to human +scale. It aims to reduce labour and divide it more evenly by making the +great mass of non-producers--those engaged in distribution, +salesmanship, advertising, propaganda, and the furnishing of things +unnecessary to the bodily, intellectual and spiritual needs of +man--actual producers and self-supporting to a very large extent. It +aims at restoring to work some sense of the joy in creation through +active mind and hand. It aims at the elimination of the parasitic +element in society and of that dangerous factor which subsists on wealth +it acquires without earning, and by sheer force of its own opulence +dominates and degrades society. It does not strike at private ownership, +but rather exalts, extends and defends this, but it _does_ cut into all +the theories and practices of communism and socialism by establishing +the principle and practice of fellowship and cooeperation. Is this +"chimerical and irrational"? + +Meanwhile the "walled towns" do not exist and may not for generations. +"Big business" is indisposed to abrogate itself. Trade unionism is +fighting for its life and thereafter for world conquest, while the +enmity between capital and labour increases, with no evidence that a +restored guild system is even approximately ready to take its place. +Strikes and lockouts grow more and more numerous, and wider and more +menacing in their scope. The day of the "general strike" has only been +delayed at the eleventh hour in several countries, and a general strike, +if it can hold for a sufficient period, means, where-ever it occurs and +whenever it succeeds, the end of civilization and the loosing of the +floods of anarchy. There is hardly time for us patiently to await the +slow process of individual and corporate enlightenment or the +spontaneous development of the autonomous communities which, if they +were sufficient in number, would solve the problem through eliminating +the danger. What then, in the premises, can we do? + +There are of course certain concrete things which might help, as for +instance the further extension and honest trying out of the "Kansas +plan" for regulating industrial relations; the forming of "consumers +leagues," and all possible support and furtherance of cooeperative +efforts of every sort. There are further possibilities (perhaps hardly +probabilities) of controlling stock issues and stock holdings so that +dividends do not have to be paid on grossly inflated capitalization, and +fixing the maximum of dividends payable to non-active stockholders. +Equally desirable but equally improbable, is the raising of the level of +leadership in the labour unions so that these valuable institutions may +no longer stultify themselves and wreck their own cause by their unjust +and anti-social regulations as to apprentices, control of maximum output +and its standard of quality, division of labour with ironclad +inhibitions against one man doing another's work and against one man +doing what six men can do less well, and as to the obligation to strike +on order when no local or personal grievance exists. Most useful of all +would be a voluntary renunciation, on the part of the purchasing public, +of nine-tenths of the futile luxuries they now insanely demand, coupled +with the production by themselves of some of the commodities which are +easily producable; in other words, establishing some measure of +self-support and so releasing many men and women from the curse of +existence under factory conditions and giving them an opportunity of +living a normal life under self-supporting circumstances. This, coupled +with a fostering of the "back to the farm" movement, and the development +of conditions which would make this process more practicable and the +life more attractive, would do much, though in small ways, towards +producing a more wholesome and less threatening state of affairs. + +Back of the whole problem, however, lies a fallacy in our conception of +existence that must be eliminated before even the most constructive +panaceas can possibly work. I mean the whole doctrine of natural rights +which has become the citadel of capitalism in all its most offensive +aspects, and of labour in its most insolent assumptions. The "rights" of +property, the "right" to strike, the "right" to collective bargaining, +the "right" to shut down an essential industry or to "walk out" and then +picket the place so that it may not be reopened, the "right" to vote and +hold office and do any fool thing you please so long as it is within the +law, these are applications of what I mean when I speak of a gross +fallacy that has come into being and has stultified our intelligence +while bringing near the wrecking of our whole system. + +Neither man nor his community possesses any _absolute_ rights; they are +all conditioned on how they are exercised. If they are not so +conditioned they become privilege, which is a right not subject to +conditions, and privilege is one of the things republicanism and +democracy and every other effort towards human emancipation have set +themselves up to destroy. Even the "right to life, liberty and the +pursuit of happiness" is conditioned by the manner of use, and the same +is true of every other and unspecified right. I do not propose to speak +here of more than one aspect of this self-evident truth, but the single +instance I cite is one that bears closely on the question of our +industrial and economic situation; it is the responsibility to society +of property or capital on the one hand and of labour on the other, when +both invoke their "rights" to justify them in oppressing the general +public in the pursuit of their own natural interests. + +During the Middle Ages, just as the political theory maintained that +while a king ruled by divine right, this right gave him no authority to +govern wrong, so the social theory held that while a man had a right to +private property he had no right to use it against society, nor could +the labourer use his own rights to the injury of the same institution. +Power, property and labour must be used as a _function_, i.e., "an +activity which embodies and expresses the idea of social purpose." +Unless I am mistaken, this is at the basis of our "common law." + +As Mediaevalism gave place to the Renaissance this Christian idea was +abandoned, and increasingly the obligation was severed from the right, +which so became that odious thing, privilege. Intolerable in its +injustice and oppression, this privilege, which by the middle of the +eighteenth century had become the attribute of the aristocracy, was +completely overthrown, in France first of all, and a new doctrine of +rights was enunciated and put in operation. Unfortunately the result was +in essence simply a transforming of privilege from one body to another, +for the old conception of social purpose, as the necessary concomitant +of acknowledged rights, did not emerge from the shadows of the Middle +Ages; it had been too long forgotten. The new "rights" were exclusively +individualistic, in practice, though in the minds of the idealists who +formulated them, they had their social aspect. Their promulgation +synchronized with the sudden rise and violent expansion of +industrialism, and as one country after another followed the lead of +England in accepting the new system, they hardened into an iron-clad +scheme for the defence of property and the free action of the holders +and manipulators of property. Backed by the economic philosophy of +Locke, Adam Smith, Bentham and the Manchester School, generally, and the +evolutionary theories of the exponents of Darwinism, and abetted by an +endless series of statutes, the idea of the exemption of property +holders from any responsibility to society for the use of their +property, became a fixed part of the mental equipment of modernism. +Precisely the same thing happened politically and socially. Rights were +personal and implied no necessary obligation to society as a whole; they +were personal attributes and as such to be defended at all costs. + +Now the result of this profound error as to the existence, nature and +limitation of these personal rights has meant simply the destruction of +a righteous and unified society which works by cooeperation and +fellowship, and the substitution of individuals and corporate bodies who +work by competition, strife and mutual aggression towards the attainment +of all they can get under the impulse of what was once praised as +"enlightened self interest." In other words--war. The conflict that +began in 1914 was not a war hurled into the midst of a white peace, it +was only a military war arising in the centre of a far greater social +war, for there is no other word that is descriptive. Rights that are not +contingent on the due discharge of duties and obligations are but +hateful privilege; privilege has issue in selfishness and egotism, which +in turn work themselves out in warfare and in the hatred that both +precedes and follows conflict. + +The net result of a century and a half of industrialism is avarice, +warfare and hate. Society can continue even when avariciousness is +rampant--for a time--and warfare of one sort or another seems +inseparable from humanity, at all events it has always been so, but +hatred is another matter, for it is the negation of social life and is +its solvent. Anger passes; it is sometimes even righteous, but hatred is +synonymous with death in that it dissolves every unit, reducing it to +its component parts and subjecting each of these to dissolution in its +turn. Righteous anger roused the nations into the war that hate had +engendered, but hate has followed after and for the moment is +victorious. Russia seethes with hatred and is perishing of its poison, +while there is not another country in Europe, of those that were +involved in the war, where the same is not true in varying degrees; +hatred of race for race, of nation for nation, of class for class, of +one social or industrial or economic or political institution for +another. This, above all else, is the disintegrating influence, and +against it no social organism, no civilization can stand. Unless it is +abrogated it means an ending of another epoch of human life, a period of +darkness and another beginning, some time after the poison has been +worked out by misery, adversity and forced repentance. + +It is this prevalence of hatred, reinforced by avarice and perpetuated +by incessant warfare, that negatives all the efforts that are made +towards effecting a correspondence between the divided interests that +are the concomitant of industrialism. Strikes and lockouts, trades +unions and employers' associations as they are now constituted and as +they now operate, syndicalism and Bolshevism and proletarian +dictatorships, protective tariffs and commercial spheres of influence, +propaganda and subsidized newspapers are all energized by the principle +of hate, and no good thing can come of any of them. Nor is it enough to +work for the re-establishment of justice even by those methods of +righteousness, and with the impulse towards righteousness, which are so +different from those which are functioning at present along the lines of +contemporary industrial "reform." Justice is a "natural" virtue with a +real place in society, but the only saving force today is a supernatural +virtue. This, amongst other things, Christ brought into the world and +left as the saving force amongst the race He had redeemed and in the +society reconstituted in accordance with His will. This supernatural +virtue is Charity, sometimes expressed in the simpler form of Love, the +essence of the social code of Christianity and the symbol of the New +Dispensation as justice was the symbol of the Old. Just in so far as a +man or a cult or an interest or a corporation or a state or a generation +or a race, relinquishes charity as its controlling spirit, in so far it +relinquishes its place in Christian society and its claim to the +Christian name, while it is voided of all power for good or possibility +of continuance. Where charity is gone, intellectual capacity, effectual +power, and even justice itself become, not energies of good, but potent +contributions to evil. Is this supernatural gift of charity a mark of +contemporary civilization? Does it manifest itself with power today in +the dealings between class and class, between interest and interest, +between nation and nation? If not, then we have forfeited the name of +Christian and betrayed Christian civilization into the hands of its +enemies, while our efforts towards saving what is left to us of a once +consistent and righteous society will be without result except as an +acceleration of the now headlong process of dissolution. + +I am not charging any class or any interest or any people with exclusive +apostacy. In the end there is little to choose between one or another. +Labour is not more culpable than capital, nor the proletarian than the +industrial magnate and the financier, nor the nominal secularist than +the nominal religionist. Nor am I charging conscious and willful +acceptance of wrong in the place of right. It is the institution itself, +industrialism as it has come to be, with all its concomitants and +derivatives, that has betrayed man to his disgrace and his society to +condemnation, and so long as this system endures so long will recovery +be impossible and regeneration a vain thing vainly imagined. Charity, +that is to say, fellowship, generosity, pity, self-sacrifice, chivalry, +all that is comprehended in the thing that Christ was, and preached, and +promulgated as the fundamental law of life, cannot come back to the +world so long as avarice, warfare and hate continue to exist, and +through Charity alone can we find the solution of the industrial and +economic problem that _must_ be solved under penalty of social death. + + + + +V + + +THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY + +In these essays, which look towards a new social synthesis, I find +myself involved in somewhat artificial subdivisions. Industrial, social +and political forces all react one upon another, and the complete social +product is the result of the interplay of these forces, cooerdinated and +vitalized by philosophy, education and religion. To isolate each factor +and consider it separately is apt to result in false values, but there +seems no other way in which the subject, which is essentially one, may +be divided into the definite parts which are consequent on the form of a +course of lectures. In considering now the political estate of the human +social organism it will be evident that I hold that this must be +contingent on many elements that reveal themselves in a contributory +industrial system, in the principles that are embodied in social +relationships, and in the general scheme of such a working philosophy of +life as may predominate amongst the component parts of the synthetic +society which is the product of all these varied energies and the +organic forms through which they operate. + +Political organization has always been a powerful preoccupation of +mankind, and the earliest records testify to its antiquity. The +regulation of human intercourse, the delimiting of rights and +privileges, protection of life and property, the codifying of laws, +vague, various and conflicting, the making of new laws and the enforcing +of those that have taken organic form; all these and an hundred other +governmental functions, appeal strongly to the mind and touch closely on +personal interests. It is no wonder that the political history of human +society is the most varied, voluminous and popular in its appeal. At the +present moment this problem has, in general, an even more poignant +appeal, and no rival except the industrial problem, for in both cases +systems that, up to ten years ago, were questioned only by a minority +(large in the case of industry, small and obscure in the case of +government) have since completely broken down, and it is probable that a +political system which had existed throughout the greater part of Europe +and the Americas for a century and a half, almost without serious +criticism, has now as many assailants as industrialism itself. + +The change is startling from the "Triumphant Democracy" period, a space +of time as clearly defined and as significant in its characteristics as +the "Victorian Era." Before the war, during the war, and throughout the +earlier years of the even more devastating "peace," the system which +followed the ruin of the Renaissance autocracies, the essential elements +in which were an ever-widening suffrage, parliamentary government, and +the universal operation of the quantitative standard of values, was +never questioned or criticised, except in matters of detail. That it was +the most perfect governmental scheme ever devised and that it must +continue forever, was held to be axiomatic, and with few exceptions the +remedy proposed for such faults as could not possibly escape detection +was a still further extension of the democratic principle. Even the war +itself was held to be "a war to make the world safe for democracy." It +is significant that the form in which this saying now frequently appears +is one in which the word "from" is substituted in place of the word +"for." It is useless to blink the fact that there is now a distrust of +parliamentary and representative government which is almost universal +and this distrust, which is becoming widespread, reaches from the +Bolshevism of Russia on the one hand, through many intermediate social +and intellectual stages, to the conservative elements in England and the +United States, and the fast-strengthening royalist "bloc" in France. + +In many unexpected places there is visible a profound sense that +something is so fundamentally wrong that palliatives are useless and +some drastic reform is necessary, a reform that may almost amount to +revolution. Lord Bryce still believes in democracy in spite of his keen +realizations of its grievous defects, because, as he says, hope is an +inextinguishable quality of the human soul. Mr. Chesterton preaches +democracy in principle while condemning its mechanism and its workings +with his accustomed vigour; the Adamses renounce democracy and all its +works while offering no hint as to what could consistently take its +place with any better chance of success, while the royalists excoriate +it in unmeasured terms and preach an explicit return to monarchy. +Meanwhile international Bolshevism, hating the thing as violently as do +kings in exile, substitutes a crude and venal autocracy, while organized +labour, as a whole, works for the day when a "class-conscious +proletariat" will have taken matters into its own hands and established +a new aristocracy of privilege in which the present working classes will +hold the whip-hand. Meanwhile the more educated element of the general +public withdraws itself more and more from political affairs, going its +own way and making the best of a bad job it thinks itself taught by +experience it cannot mend. + +It is useless to deny that government, in the character of its +personnel, the quality of its output, the standard of its service and +the degree of its beneficence has been steadily deteriorating during the +last century and has now reached, in nearly every civilized country, a +deplorably low level. Popular representatives are less and less men of +character and ability; legislation is absurd in quantity, short-sighted, +frivolous, inquisitorial, and in a large measure prompted by selfish +interests; administration is reckless, wasteful and inefficient, while +it is overloaded in numbers, without any particular aptitude on the part +of its members, and in a measure controlled by personal or corporate +interests. The whole system is in bad odour for it is shot through and +through with the greed for money and influence, while the cynicism of +the professional politician and the low average of character, +intelligence and manners of the strata of society that increasingly are +usurping all power, work towards producing that general contempt and +aversion that have become so evident of late and that are a menace to +society no less than that of the decaying institution itself. + +Confronted by a situation such as this, the natural tendency of those +who suffer under it, either in their material interests or their ideals, +is to condemn the mechanism, perhaps even the very principles for the +operation of which the various machines were devised. Some reject the +whole scheme of representative, parliamentary government, and, failing +any plausible substitute, are driven back on some form of the soviet, or +even government by industrial groups. Those that go to the limit and +reject the whole scheme of democracy are in still worse plight for they +have no alternative to offer except a restored monarchy, and this, the +_terminus ad quem_ of their logic, their courage will not permit them to +avow. + +It is a dilemma, but forced, I believe, by the fatal passion of the man +of modernism for the machine, the mechanical device, the material +equivalent for a thing that has no equivalent, and that is the personal +character of the constituents of society and the working factors in a +political organism. There was never a more foolish saying than that +which is so frequently and so boastfully used: "a government of laws and +not of men." This is the exact reversal of what should be recognized as +a self-evident truth, viz, that the quality of the men, not the nature +of the laws or of the administrative machine, is the determining factor +in government. You may take any form of government ever devised by man, +monarchy, aristocracy, republic, democracy, yes, or soviet, and if the +community in which this government operates has a working majority of +men of character, intelligence and spiritual energy, it will be a good +government, whereas if the working majority is deficient in these +characteristics, or if it makes itself negligible by abstention from +public affairs it will be a bad government. There is no one political +system which is right while all others are wrong. The monarchy of St. +Louis was better than the Third Republic, as this is better than was the +monarchy of Louis XV. The aristocracy of Washington was better than the +democracy of this year of grace, as this in itself is better than the +late junker aristocracy of Prussia. You cannot substitute a machine in +place of character, you cannot supersede life by a theory. + +This does not mean that the form of government is of no moment, it is of +the utmost importance for I cannot too often insist that the organic +life of society is the resultant of two forces; spiritual energy working +through and upon the material forms towards their improvement or--when +this energy is weak or distorted--their degeneration; the material forms +acting as a stimulus towards the development of spiritual energy through +association and environment that are favourable, or towards its +weakening and distortion when these are deterrents because of their own +degraded or degrading nature. If it is futile to look for salvation +through the mechanism, it is equally futile to try to act directly and +exclusively on the character of the social constituents in the patient +hope that their defects may be remedied, and the preponderance of +character of high value achieved, before catastrophe overtakes the +experiment. Life is as sacramental as the Christian religion and +Christian philosophy; neither the spiritual substance nor the material +accidents can operate alone but only in a conjunction so intimate that +it is to all intents and purposes--that is, for the interests and +purposes of God in human life--a perfect unity. However completely and +even passionately we may realize the determining factor of spiritual +energy as this manifests itself through personal character, however +deeply we may distrust the machine, we are bound to recognize the +paramount necessity of the active interplay of both within the limits of +life as we know it on the earth, and therefore it is very much our +concern that the machine, whether it is industrial, political, +educational, ecclesiastical or social, is as perfect in its nature and +stimulating in its operations as we are able to compass. + +In the present liquidation of values, theories and institutions we are +bound therefore to scrutinize each operating agency of human society, to +see wherein it has failed and how it can be bettered, and the problem +before us now is the political organism. + +Now it appears that in the past there have been just two methods whereby +a civil polity has come into existence and established itself for a +short period or a long. These two methods are, first, unpremeditated and +sometimes unconscious growth; second, calculated and self-conscious +revolution. The first method has produced communities, states and +empires that frequently worked well and lasted for long periods; the +second has had issue in nothing that has endured for any length of time +or has left a record of beneficence. Evolution in government is in +accord with the processes of life, even to the extent that it is always +after a time followed by degeneration; revolution in government is the +throwing of a monkey-wrench into the machinery by a disaffected workman, +with the wrecking of the machine, the violent stoppage of the works, and +frequently the sudden death of the worker as a consequence. The English +monarchy from Duke William to Henry VIII, is a case of normal growth by +minor changes and modifications, but its subsequent history has been one +of revolutions, six or seven having occurred in the last four hundred +years; the scheme which now holds, though precariously, is the result of +the great democratic revolution accomplished during the reign of Queen +Victoria. The free monarchies of Europe which began to take form during +the long period of the Dark Ages and pursued their admirable course well +through the Middle Ages, were also normal and slow growths; but the +revolutions that have followed the Great War will meet a different fate, +several of them, indeed, have counted their existence in months and have +already passed into history. + +If we are wise we shall discount revolutions for the future, for nothing +but ill is accomplished by denying life and exalting the ingenious +substitutes of ambitious and presumptuous Frankensteins; the result is +too often a monster that works cleverly at first, and with a semblance +of human intelligence, but in the end shows itself as a destroyer. Our +task is to envisage, as clearly as possible, the political systems +established amongst us, note their weaknesses either in themselves or in +their relationship to society as it is, and then try to find those +remedies that can be applied without any violent methods of dislocation +or substitution; always bearing in mind the fact that the energizing +force that will make them live, preserve them from deterioration, and +adapt them to conditions which will ever change, is the spiritual force +of human personality, and that this force comes only through the +character qualities of the individual components of society. + +Now in considering our own case in this day and generation there are +first of all two matters to be borne in mind. One is that we shall do +well to confine our inquiry to the United States, for while the defects +we shall have to point out are common to practically all the +contemporary governments of Europe and the Americas, our own enginery is +different in certain ways, and our troubles are also different between +one example and another. After all, our immediate interest must lie with +our own national problems. The other point is that in criticising the +workings of government in America we are not necessarily criticising its +founders or the creators of its original constitutions, charters, and +other mechanisms. The Constitution of the United States, for example, +was conceived to meet one series of perfectly definite conditions that +have now been superseded by others which are radically, and even +diametrically different. The original Constitution was a most able +instrument of organic law, but just because it did fit so perfectly +conditions as they were four generations ago, it applies but +indifferently to present circumstances, and even less well than the +Founders hoped would be the case; for the reason that the amendments +which were provided for have seldom taken cognizance of these changing +conditions, and even when this was done the amendments themselves have +not been wisely drawn, while certain of them have been actually +disastrous in their nature, others frivolous, and yet more the result of +ephemeral and hysterical ebullitions of an engineered public opinion. +The same may be said of state constitutions and municipal charters, +which have suffered incessant changes, mostly unfortunate and +ill-judged, except during the last few years, when a spirit of real +wisdom and constructiveness has shown itself, though sporadically and as +yet with some timidity. The reforms, such as they are, are largely in +the line of palliatives; the deep-lying factors, those that control both +success and failure, are seldom touched upon. The necessary courage--or +perhaps temerity--is lacking. What is needed is such a clear seeing of +conditions, and such an approach, as manifested themselves in the +Constitutional Convention of the United States, for in spite of the many +compromises that were in the end necessary to placate a public opinion +not untouched by prejudice, superstition and selfishness, the great +document--and even more the records of the debates--still brilliantly +set forth both the clear-seeing and the lofty attitude that +characterized the Convention. Had these men been gathered together +today, even the same men, they would frame a very different document, +for they took conditions and men as they were, and, with an +indestructible hope to glorify their common sense, they produced a +masterpiece. It is in the same spirit that we must approach our problem +of today. + +Now in considering the situation that confronts us, we find certain +respects in which either the methods are bad, or the results, or both. +There is no unanimity in this criticism, indeed I doubt if any two of us +would agree on all the items in the indictment, though we all might +unite on one or two. I can only give my own list for what it is worth. +In the first place we, in common with all the nations, have drifted into +imperialism of a gross scale and illiberal, even tyrannical working. We +could hardly do otherwise for such has been the universal tendency for +more than an hundred years. By constant progression municipal +governments have absorbed into themselves matters that in decency, and +with any regard for liberty, belong to the individual. Simultaneously +our state governments have followed the same course, infringing even on +the just prerogatives of the towns and cities, while, more than all, the +national government has robbed the states, the cities and the citizens +of what should belong to them, until at last we have an imperial, +autocratic, inquisitorial, and largely irresponsible government at +Washington that is the one supreme political fact; we are no longer a +Federal Republic but an Imperialism, in which is centralized all the +authority inherent in the one hundred and ten millions of our population +and from which a constantly diminishing stream of what is practically +devolved authority, trickles down through state and city to the +individual in the last instance--if it gets there at all! This I believe +to be absolutely and fatally wrong. In the first place, human society +cannot function at this abnormal scale, it is outside the human scale, +for in spite of our pride and insolence there are limits on every hand +to what man can do. In the second place, I conceive it to be absolutely +at variance with any principle of republicanism or democracy or even of +free monarchy. It is at one only with the imperialism of Egypt, Babylon, +Rome and the late Empire of Germany. In a free monarchy, a republic, or +a democracy, the pyramid of political organism stands, not on its point +but broad-based and four-square, tapering upward to its final apex. A +sane and wholesome society begins with the family--natural or +artificial--which has original jurisdiction over a far greater series of +rights and privileges than it now commands. From the family certain +powers are delegated to the next higher social unit, the village or +communal group, which in its turn concedes certain of its inherent +rights to the organic group of communities, or states, and finally the +states commit to the last and general authority, the national +government, some of the elements of authority that have been delegated +to them. The principle of this delegation from one organism to another, +is common interest and welfare; only those functions which can be +performed with more even justice and with greater effectiveness, by the +community for example, than by the family, are so delegated. In the same +way the several groups commit to their common government only so much as +they cannot perform with due justice and equity to the others in the +same group. In the end the national government exists only that it may +provide for a limited number of national necessities, as for example, +defence against extra-national aggression, the conduct of diplomatic +relations with foreign powers, the maintaining of a national currency +and a national postal service, the provision of courts of last resort, +and the raising of revenue for the support of these few and explicit +functions. + +The first step, it seems to me, towards governmental reform, is +decentralization, with a return to the States, the civic communities and +the individual citizens of nine-tenths of the powers and the +prerogatives that have been taken from them in defiance of abstract +justice, of the principles of free government and of the theory of the +workable unit of human scale. In a word we must abandon imperialism and +all its works and go back to the Federal Republic. + +The second cause of our troubles lies, I believe, in the institution of +universal suffrage founded on the theory (or dogma) that the electoral +franchise is an inalienable right. This doctrine is of recent invention, +only coming into force during the "reconstruction period" following the +War between the States, when it was brought forward by certain leaders +of the Republican party to justify their enfranchisement of the negroes +in the hope that by this act they could fix their party in power to +perpetuity. In any case, the plan itself has worked badly, both for the +community and for many of the voters. It is of course impossible for me +to argue the case in detail; I can do hardly more than state my own +personal belief, and this is that the question is wholly one of +expediency, and that the question of abstract justice and the rights of +man does not enter into the consideration. I submit that the electoral +franchise should again be accepted as a privilege involving a duty, and +not as a right inherent in every adult person of twenty-one years or +over and not lunatic or in jail. This privilege, which in itself should +confer honour, should be granted to those who demonstrate their capacity +to use it honestly and intelligently, and taken away for cause. + +The acute critic will not be slow to remind me that this proposition is +somewhat beside the case and that it possesses but an academic interest, +since we are dealing with a _fait accompli._ This is of course perfectly +true. The electoral franchise could be so restricted only by the +suffrages of the present electorate, and it is inconceivable that any +large number, and far less, a majority, of voters would even consider +the proposition for a moment. For good or ill we have unrestricted adult +suffrage, and there is not the faintest chance of any other basis being +established by constitutional means. Something however can be done, and +this is a thing of great value and importance. What I suggest is +concerted effort towards a measured purification of the electorate +through the penalizing of law-breakers by temporary disfranchisement. It +is hardly too much to assume that a man who deliberately breaks the law +is constructively unfit to vote or to hold office, at all events, +conviction for any crime or misdemeanour gives a reasonable ground for +depriving the offender of these privileges, at least for a time. The +law-breaking element, whether it is millionaire or proletarian, is one +of the dangerous factors in society, which would lose nothing if from +time to time these gentry were removed from active participation in +public affairs. If, for example, any one convicted of minor offenses +punishable by fine or imprisonment were disfranchised for a year, if of +major offenses, for varying and increasing periods, from five years +upwards, and if a second offense during the period of disfranchisement +worked an automatic doubling of the time prescribed for a first offense, +I conceive that the electorate would be measurably purified and that +regard for the law would be stimulated. In one instance I am persuaded +that disfranchisement should be for life, and that is in the case of +giving or accepting a bribe or otherwise committing a crime against the +ballot; this, together with treason against the state, should be +sufficient cause for eliminating the offender from all further +participation in public affairs. If the electorate could be purified +after this fashion, and if more stringent laws could be passed in the +matter of naturalization of aliens, together with iron-clad requirements +that every voter should be able to speak, read and write the English +language, we should have achieved something towards the safeguarding of +the suffrage. + +The third weakness in our system, and in some respect the most +dangerous, as it is in all respects the most pestiferous, is the +insanity of law-making. All parliamentary governments suffer from this +malady, but that of the United States most grievously, and this is true +of the national government, the states and the municipalities. It has +become the conviction of legislative bodies that they must justify their +existence by making laws, and the more laws they pass the better they +have discharged their duties. The thing has become a scandal and an +oppression, for the liberties of American citizens and the just +prerogatives of the states and the cities, as vital human groups, have +been more infringed upon, reduced, and degraded by free legislation than +ever happened in similar communities by the action of absolute monarchs. +It is a folly that works its insidious injury in two ways; first by +confusing life by innumerable laws ill-advised, ill-drawn, mutually +contradictory, ephemeral in their nature, inquisitorial in their +workings; second, by creating a condition where any personal or factious +interest can be served by due process of law, until at last we have +reached a point where liberty itself has largely ceased to exist and we +find ourselves crushed under a tyranny of popular government no less +oppressive than the tyranny of absolutism. Nor is this all; the mania +for making laws has bred a complete and ingenious and singularly +effective system of getting laws made by methods familiar to the members +of all legislative bodies whether they are city councils, state +legislatures or the national congress, and this means opportunities for +corruption, and methods of corruption, that are fast degrading +government in the United States to a point where there is none so poor +as to do it reverence. The whole system is preposterous and absurd, +breeding not only bad laws, but a widespread contempt of law, while the +personal freedom for which democracy once fought, is fast becoming a +memory. + +The trouble began as a result of one of the elements in the American +Constitution which was the product not of the sound common sense and the +lofty judgment of the framers, but of a weak yielding to one of the +doctrinaire fads of the time that had no relationship to life but was +the invention of political theorists, and that was the unnatural +separation of the executive, legislative and judicial functions of +government. The error has worked far and the superstition still holds. +What is needed is an initiative in legislation, centred in one +responsible head or group, that, while functioning in all normal and +necessary legislative directions, still allows individual initiative on +the part of the legislators, as a supplementary, or corrective, or +protective agency. No government functions well in fiscal matters +without a budget: what we need in legislative matters is a legislative +budget, and by this phrase, I mean that the primary agency for the +proposing of laws should be the chief executive of a city, or state or +the nation, with the advice and consent of his heads of departments who +would form his cabinet or council. + +Under this plan the Governor and Council, for example, would at the +opening of each legislative session present a programme or agenda of +such laws as they believed the conditions to demand, and in the shape of +bills accurately drawn by the proper law officer of the government. No +such "government" bill could be referred to committee but must be +discussed in open session, and until the bills so offered had been +passed or refused, no private bill could be introduced. A procedure such +as this would certainly reduce the flood of private bills to reasonable +dimensions while it would insure a degree of responsibility now utterly +lacking. There is now no way in which the author of a foolish or +dangerous bill which has been enacted into law by a majority of the +legislature, can be held to account and due responsibility imposed upon +him, but the case would be very different if a mayor, a governor or the +President of the United States made himself responsible for a law or a +series of laws, by offering them for action in his own name. Certainly +if this method were followed we should be preserved in great measure +from the hasty, confused and frivolous legislation that at present makes +up the major part of the output of our various legislative bodies. One +of the greatest gains would be the reduction of the annual grist to a +size where each act could be considered and debated at sufficient length +to guarantee as reasonable a conclusion as would be possible to the +members of the legislative body. The deplorable device of instituting +committees, to each of which certain bunches of bills are referred +before they are permitted to come before the house, would be no longer +necessary. This system, which became necessary in order to deal with the +enormous mass of undigested matter which has overwhelmed every +legislature as a result of the present chaotic and irresponsible +procedure, is perhaps both the most undemocratic device ever put in +practice by a democracy, and the most fruitful of venality, corruption +and injustice. It is unnecessary to labour this point for everyone knows +its grave evils, but there seems no way to get rid of it unless some +curb is placed on the number of bills introduced in any session. The +British Parliament is not necessarily a model of intelligent or capable +procedure, but where in one session at Westminster no more than four +hundred bills were introduced, at Washington, for the same period, the +count ran well over twelve thousand! Manifestly some committee system is +inevitable under conditions such as this, but under the committee system +free government and honest legislation are difficult of attainment. + +One would not of course prevent the proposal of a bill by any member of +the legislature, indeed this free action would be absolutely necessary +as a measure of protection against executive oppression, but this should +be prohibited until after the government programme had been disposed of. +After that task was accomplished the legislature might sit indefinitely, +or as long as the public would stand it, for the purpose of considering +private bills, and these could be referred to committees as at present. +The chances are, however, that the government programme would cover the +most essential matters and what would remain would be the edifying +spectacle of Solons solemnly considering such questions as the minimum +length of sheets on hotel beds, the limitation in inches and fractions, +of the heels of women's shoes, the amount of flesh that could be legally +exposed by a bathing suit, or the pensioning of a Swedish Assistant +Janitor,--all of which are the substance of actual bills introduced in +various State legislatures during the session last closed. + +Another grave weakness in our system is the election by popular vote of +many judicial and administrative officers, coupled with the vigorous +remnants of the old and degrading "spoils system" whereby many thousands +of strictly non-political offices are almost automatically vacated after +any partisan victory. I cannot trust myself to speak of the infamy of an +elective judiciary; fortunately I live in a state where this worst abuse +of democratic practice does not exist, and so it touches me only in so +far as it offends the sense of decency and justice. In the other cases +it is only a question of efficient and intelligent administration. There +is an argument for electing the chief executive of a city, a state or +the nation, by popular vote, and the same holds in the case of the lower +house of the legislature where a bi-cameral system exists, but there is +no argument for the popular election of the administrative officers of a +state. There is even less,--if there can be less than nothing--for the +changes in personnel that take place after every election. Civil service +reform has done a world of good, but as yet it has not gone far enough +in some directions, while its mechanism of examinations is defective in +principle in that it leaves out the personal equation and establishes +its tests only along a very few of the many lines that actually exist. I +would offer it as a proposition that no election should in itself affect +the status of any man except the man elected, and, in the case of a +mayor or governor or the President, those who are directly responsible +to him and to his administration for carrying out his policies; and +further, that the voter, when he votes, should vote once and for one man +in his city, once and for one man in his state, and once and for one man +in the nation, and that man, in each case, should be his representative +in the lower branch of the legislative body. Choosing administrative +officials by majority vote, and the election of judges for short terms +by the same method, are absurdities of a system fast falling into chaos. +The maintenance of a bi-cameral legislative organization, with the +choosing of the members of both houses by the same electorate is in the +same class, a perfectly irrational anomaly which violates the first +principles of logic and leads only to legislative incompetence, and +worse. The referendum is of precisely the same nature, but this already +has become a _reductio ad absurdum,_ and can hardly survive the +discredit into which it has fallen. In any reorganization of government +looking towards better results, these elements must disappear. + +As a matter of fact, government has come to occupy altogether too large +a place in our consciousness; naturally, for it has come to a point +where it pursues us--and overtakes us--at every turn. Democracies always +govern too much, that is one of their great weaknesses. Elections, +law-making, and getting and holding office, have become an obsession and +they shadow our days. So insistent and incessant are the demands, so +artificial and unreal the issues, so barren of vital results all this +pandemonium of partisanship and change, the more intelligent and +scrupulous are losing interest in the whole affair, and while they +increasingly withdraw to matters of a greater degree of reality those +who subsist on the proceeds gain the power, and hold it. At the very +moment when the women of the United States have been given the vote, +there are many men (and women also) who begin to think that the vote is +a very empty institution and in itself practically void of power to +effect anything of really vital moment. I am not now defending this +position, I only assert that it exists, and I believe it is due to the +degradation of government through the very modifications and +transformations that have been effected, since the time of Andrew +Jackson, in a perfectly honest attempt at improvement. + +The best government is that which does the least, which leaves local +matters in the hands of localities, and personal matters in the hands of +persons, and which is modestly inconspicuous. Good government +establishes, or recognizes, conditions which are stable, reliable, and +that may be counted on for more than two years, or four years, at a +time. It has continuity, it preserves tradition, and it follows custom +and common law. Such a government is neither hectic in its vicissitudes +nor inquisitorial in its enactments. It is cautious in its expenditures, +efficient in its administration, proud in maintaining its standards of +honour, justice and "noblesse oblige." Good government is august and +handsome; it surrounds itself with dignity and ceremony, even at times +with splendour and pageantry, for these things are signs of self-respect +and the outward showing of high ideals--or may be made so; that is what +good manners and ceremony and beauty are for. Finally, good government +is where the laws of Christian morals and courtesy and charity that are +supposed to hold between Christian men hold equally, even more +forcefully, in public relations both domestic and foreign. Where +government of this nature exists, whether the form is monarchical, +republican or democratic, there is liberty; where these conditions do +not obtain the form matters not at all, for there is a servile state. + +At the risk of being tedious I will try to sketch the rough outlines of +what, in substance, I believe to be that form of civil polity which, +based on what now exists, changes only along lines that would perhaps +tend towards establishing and maintaining those ideals of liberty, order +and justice which have always been the common aim of those who have +striven to reform a condition of things where they were attained +indifferently or not at all. + +The primary and effective social and political unit is the "vill" or +commune; that is to say, a group of families and individuals living in +one neighbourhood, and of a size that would permit all the members to +know one another if they wished to do so, and also the coming together +of all those holding the electoral franchise, for common discussion and +action. The average American country town, uninvaded by industrialism, +is the natural type, for here the "town meeting" of our forefathers is +practicable, and this remains the everlasting frame and model of +self-government. In the case of a city the primary unit would be of +approximately the same size, and the entire municipality would be +divided into wards each containing, say, about five hundred voters. +These primary units would possess a real unity and a very large measure +of autonomy, but they would be federated for certain common purposes +which would vary in number and importance in proportion to the closeness +of their common interests, from the county, made up of a number of small +villages, to the city which would comprise as many wards as might be +numerically necessary, and whose central government would administer a +great many more affairs than would the county. The city would be in +effect a federation of the wards or boroughs. + +The individual voter would exercise his electoral franchise and perform +his political duties only within the primary unit (the township or ward) +where he had legal residence. At an annual "town meeting" he would vote +for the "selectmen" or the ward council who would have in charge the +local interests of the primary unit, which would be comprehensive in the +case of a township, necessarily more limited in the case of a ward. +These local boards would elect their own chairmen who would also form +the legislative body of the county or the municipality. At the same town +meeting the voter would cast his ballot for a representative in the +lower legislative body of the state. In the smaller commonwealths each +township or ward would elect its own representative, but in states of +excessive population representation would have to be on the basis of +counties and municipalities, for no legislative body should contain more +than a very few hundred members. Nominations in the town meeting should +be _viva voce,_ elections by secret ballot. Legislation should be +primarily on the initiative of the selectmen or ward council, and voting +should be _viva voce._ With the exercise of his privilege of speaking +and voting at the meetings of his primary unit, the direct political +action of the citizen would cease. + +The secondary unit would be the county or the city. Here the legislative +body would consist of the presiding officers of the township or ward +governments. The sheriff of a county or the mayor of a city would be +chosen by these legislative bodies from their own number and should hold +office for a term of several years, while the local governments, and +therefore the legislative bodies of the county or the city, would be +chosen annually. The chief executive of a county or city would appoint +all heads of departments who would form his advisory council, and he +would also frame and submit annually both a fiscal and a legislative +budget. + +The tertiary unit is the state, which is a federation of the counties +and cities forming some one of the historic divisions of the United +States. The legislature would as now be composed of two chambers, one +made up of representatives of the primary units, holding office for a +brief term, and a second representing the secondary units and chosen by +their governing bodies for a long term. The logic of a bi-cameral system +demands that the lower house should represent the changing will of the +people, the upper, in so far as possible, its cumulative wisdom and the +continuity of tradition, while, as already stated, the whole principle +is vitiated if both houses are chosen by the same electorate. The chief +executive should be chosen by the legislative chambers in joint session, +from a panel made up of their own membership and the heads of the county +and city governments. He should hold office for a long term, preferably +for an indeterminate period contingent on "good behaviour." In this case +his cabinet, or council of the heads of departments, would of course be +responsible to the legislature and would resign on a formal vote of +censure or "lack of confidence." The Governor would have the same power +of appointment, and the same authority to present fiscal and legislative +budgets as, already specified in the case of a mayor of a city. No +"commissions," unpaid or otherwise, should be permitted, all the +administrative functions of government being performed by the various +departments and their subordinate bureaux. + +The national government is the final social and political unit, though +it is conceivable that with a territory and population as great and +diversified as that of the United States, and bearing in mind the great +discrepancy in size between the states, something might be gained by the +institution of a system of provinces, some five or six in all, made up +of states grouped in accordance with their general community of +interests, as for example, all New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New +Jersey and Delaware; the states of the old Confederacy, those of the +Pacific Coast, and so on. The point need not be pressed here, but there +are considerations in its favour. In any case the nation as a whole is +the final federal unit. Here the lower legislative house would consist +of not more than four hundred members, allocated on a basis of +population and elected by the representative bodies of the primary units +(the townships and city wards) as already described. The members of the +upper house would be elected by the legislative bodies of the several +states on nomination by the Governor. The chief executive of the nation +would be chosen by the two legislative bodies, in joint session, from +amongst the then governors of the several states. He should certainly +hold office for "good behaviour," and his cabinet would be responsible +to the legislature as provided for in the case of the state governments. + +I do not offer this programme with any pride of paternity; probably it +would not work very well, but it could hardly prove less efficacious +than our present system under conditions as they have come to be. This +cannot continue indefinitely, for it is so hopelessly defective that it +is bound to bring about its own ruin, with the probable substitution of +some doctrinaire device engendered by the natural revolt against an +intolerable abuse. If only we could see conditions clearly and estimate +them at something approaching their real value, we should rapidly +develop a constructive public opinion that, even though it represented a +minority, might by the very force behind it compel the majority to +acquiesce in a radical reformation. Unfortunately we do not do this, we +are hypnotized by phrases and deluded by vain theories, as Mr. +Chesterton says: + +"So drugged and deadened is the public mind by the conventional public +utterances, so accustomed have we grown to public men talking this sort +of pompous nonsense and no other, that we are sometimes quite shocked by +the revelation of what men really think, or else of what they really +say." + +We do, now and then, confess that legislation is as a whole foolish, +frivolous and opportunist; that administration is wasteful, incompetent +and frequently venal; that the governmental personnel, legislative, +administrative and executive, is of a low order in point of character, +intelligence and culture--and tending lower each day. We admit this, for +the evidence is so conspicuous that to deny it would be hypocrisy, but +something holds us back from recognizing the nexus between effect and +cause. Unrestricted immigration, universal suffrage, rotation in office, +the subjection of many offices and measures to popular vote, the +parliamentary system, government by political parties--all these customs +and habits into which we have fallen have arrived at failure which +presages disaster. They have failed because the character of the people +that functioned through these various engines had failed, diluted by the +low mentality and character-content of millions of immigrants and their +offspring, degraded by the false values and vicious standards imposed by +industrial civilization, foot-loose from all binding and control of a +vital and potent religious impulse or religious organism. + +It is the old, vicious circle; spiritual energy declines or is diverted +into wrong channels; thereupon the physical forms, social, industrial, +political, slip a degree or two lower out of sympathy with the failing +energy, and these in their turn exert a degrading influence on the +waning spiritual force, which declines still further only to be pulled +lower still by the material agencies which continue their progressive +declension. Theories, no matter how high-minded and altruistic, cannot +stand before a condition such as this, for self-protection decrees +otherwise even if the higher motive of doing right things and getting +right things just because they _are_ right, does not come into effective +operation. The evil results of the institutions I have catalogued above +are not to be denied, and the institutions themselves must be reformed +or altogether abandoned, in the face of the loud-mouthed exhortations of +those who now make them their means of livelihood, and even at the +expense of the honest upholders of theories and doctrines that do credit +to their humanitarianism but have been weighed and found wanting. + +I am anxious not to put this plan for the reform, in root and branch, of +our political institutions, on the low level of mere caution and +self-defense. The motive power of this is fear, and fear is only second +to hate in its present position as a controlling force in society. We +should have good government not because it is economical and ensures +what are known as "good business conditions," and promises a peaceful +continuance of society, but because it is as worthy an object of +creative endeavour as noble art or a great literature or a just and +merciful economic system, or a life that is full of joy and beauty and +wholesome labour. The political organism is in a sense the microcosm of +life itself, and it should be society lifted up to a level of dignity, +majesty and nobility. The doctrine that in a democracy the government +must exactly express the numerical preponderance in the social +synthesis, and that, if this happens to be ignorant, mannerless and +corrupt, then the government must be after the same fashion, is a low +and a cowardly doctrine. Government should be better than the majority; +better than the minority if this has advantage over the other. It should +be of the best that man can compass, resting above him as in some sort +an ideal; the visible expression of his better self, and the better self +of the society of which he is a part. If a political system, any +political system, produces any other result; if it has issue in a +representation of the lowest and basest in society, or even of the +general average, then it is a bad system and it must be redeemed or it +will bring an end that is couched in terms of catastrophe. + +Reform is difficult, perhaps even impossible of attainment under the +existing system where universal, unlimited suffrage and the party system +are firmly intrenched as opponents of vital reform, and where +representation and legislation take their indelible colour from these +unfortunate institutions. It must freely be admitted that there is no +chance of eliminating or recasting either one or the other by the +recognized methods of platform support and mass action through the +ballot. It comes in the end to a change of viewpoint and of heart on the +part of the individual. No party, no political leader would for a moment +endorse any one of the principles or methods I have suggested, for this +would be a suicidal act. The newspaper, irresponsible, anonymous, +directed by its advertizing interests or by those more sinister still, +yet for all that the factor that controls the opinions of those who hold +the balance of power in the community as it is now constituted, would +reject them with derision, while in themselves they are radically +opposed to the personal interests of the majority. The only hope of +lifting government to the level of dignity and capacity it should hold, +lies in the individual. It is necessary that we should see things +clearly, estimate conditions as they are, and think through to the end. +We do not do this. We admit, in a dull sort of way, that matters are not +as they should be, that legislation is generally silly and oppressive, +that taxation is excessive, that administration is wasteful and reckless +and incompetent, for we know these things by experience. We accept them, +however, with our national good-nature and easy tolerance, assuming that +they are inseparable from democratic government--as indeed they are, but +not for a moment does any large number think of questioning the +principle, or even the system, that must take the responsibility. When +disgust and indifference reach a certain point we stop voting, that is +all. At the last presidential election less than one half the qualified +voters took the trouble to cast their ballots, while in Boston (which is +no exception) it generally happens that at a municipal elections the +ballots cast are less than one-third the total electorate. I wonder how +many there are here today who have ever been to a ward meeting, or have +sat through a legislative session of a city government, as of Boston for +example, or have listened to the debates in a state house of +representatives, or analyzed the annual grist of legislative bills, or +have sat for an hour or two in the Senate or House at Washington. Such +an experience is, I assure you, illuminating, for it shows exactly why +popular government is what it is, while it forms an admirable basis for +a constructive revision of judgment as to the soundness of accepted +principles and the validity of accepted methods. + +Our political attitude today is based on an inherited and automatic +acceptance of certain perfectly automatic formulae. We neither see +things clearly, estimate conditions as they are, nor think a proposition +through to the end: we are obsessed by old formulae, partisan "slogans" +and newspaper aphorisms; the which is both unworthy and perilous. Let us +see things clearly for a moment; if we do this anything is possible, no +matter how idealistic and apparently impracticable it may be. Is there +any one who would confess that character and intelligence are now a +helpless minority in this nation? Such an admission would be almost +constructive treason. The instinct of the majority is right, but it is +defective in will and it is subservient to base leadership, while its +power for good is negatived by the persistence of a mass of formulae +that, under radically changed conditions, have ceased to be beneficient, +or even true, and have become a clog and a stumbling block. + +I may not have indicated better ideals or sounder methods of operation, +but the true ideals exist and it is not beyond our ability to discover a +better working system. Partisanship cannot reveal either one or the +other, nor are they the fruit of organization or the attribute of +political leadership. They belong to the common citizen, to you, to the +individual, and if once superstition is cast out and we fall back on +right reason and the eternal principles of the Christian ethic and the +Christian ideal, we shall not find them difficult of attainment; and +once attained they can be put in practice, for the ill thing exists only +on sufferance, the right thing establishes itself by force of its very +quality of right. + + + + +VI + + +THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION AND ART + +When, as on occasion happens, some hostile criticism is leveled against +the civilization of modernism, or against some one of its many details, +the reply is ready, and the faultfinder is told that the defect, if it +exists, will in the end be obviated by the processes of popular +education. Pressed for more explicit details as to just what may be the +nature of this omnipotent and sovereign "education," the many champions +give various answer, depending more or less on the point of view and the +peculiar predilections of each, but the general principles are the same. +Education, they say, consist of two things; the formal practice and +training of the schools, and the experience that comes through the use +of certain public rights and privileges, such as the ballot, the holding +of office, service on juries, and through various experiences of the +practice of life, as the reading of newspapers (and perhaps books), the +activities of work, business and the professions, and personal +association with other men in social, craft, and professional clubs and +other organizations. + +With the second category of education through experience we need not +deal at this time; it is a question by itself and of no mean quality; +the matter I would consider is the more formal and narrow one of +scholastic training in so far as it bears on the Great Peace that, +though perhaps after many days, must follow the Great War and the little +peace. + +Answering along this line, the protagonists of salvation through +education pretty well agree that the thing itself means the widest +possible extension of our public school system, with free state +universities and technical schools, and the extension of the educational +period, with laws so rigid, and enforcement so pervasive and impartial, +that no child between the ages of six and sixteen can possibly escape. +This free, compulsory and universal education is assumed to be +scrupulously secular and hedged about with every safeguard against the +insidious encroachments of religion; it will aim to give a little +training in most of the sciences, and much in the practical necessities +of business life, as for example, stenography, book-keeping, advertising +and business science; it will cover a broad field of manual training +leading to "graduate courses" in special technical schools; the +"laboratory method" and "field practice" will be increasingly developed +and applied; Latin, Greek, logic and ancient history will be minimized +or done away with altogether, and modern languages, applied psychology +and contemporary history will be correspondingly emphasized. As for the +state university, it will allow the widest range of free electives, and +as an university it will aim to comprise within itself every possible +department of practical activity, such as business administration, +journalism, banking and finance, foreign trade, political science, +psycho-analysis, mining, sanitary engineering, veterinary surgery, as +well as law, medicine, agriculture, and civil and mechanical +engineering. I am curious to inquire at this time if education such as +this does, as a matter of fact, educate, and how far it my be relied +upon as a corrective for present defects in society; or rather, first of +all, whether education of this, or of any sort, may be looked on as a +sufficient saving force, and whether general education, instead of being +extended should not be curtailed, or rather safeguarded and restricted. + +I have already tried to indicate, in my lecture on the Social Organism, +certain doubts that are now arising as to the prophylactic and +regenerative powers of education, whether this is based on the old +foundation of the Trivium and Quadrivium under the supreme dominion of +Theology, or on the new foundation of utilitarianism and applied science +under the dominion of scientific pedagogy. While the active-minded +portion of society believed ardently in progressive evolution, in the +sufficiency of the intellect, the inerrancy of the scientific method, +and the transmission by inheritance of acquired characteristics, this +supreme confidence in free, secular, compulsory education as the +cure-all of the profuse and pervasive ills of society was not only +natural but inevitable. I submit that experience has measurably modified +the situation, and that we are bound therefore to reconsider our earlier +persuasions in the light of somewhat revealing events. + +We may admit that the system of modern education works measurably well +so far as intellectual training is concerned; _training_ as +distinguished from development. It works measurably well also in +preparing youth for participation in the life of applied science and for +making money in business and finance. Conscientious hard labour has been +given, and is being given, to making it more effective along these +lines, and almost every year some new scheme is brought forward +enthusiastically, tried out painstakingly, and then cast aside +ignominiously for some new and even more ingenious device. The amount of +education is enormous; the total of money spent on new foundations, +courses, buildings, equipment--on everything but the pay of the +teachers--is princely; the devotion of the teachers, themselves, in the +face of inadequate wages, is exemplary, and yet, somehow the results are +disappointing. The truth is, the development of _character_ is not in +proportion to the development of public and private education. The moral +standing of the nation, taken as a whole, has been degenerating; in +business, in public affairs, in private life, until the standards of +value have been confused, the line of demarcation between right and +wrong blurred to indistinctness, and the old motives of honour, duty, +service, charity, chivalry and compassion are no longer the controlling +motive, or at least the conscious aspiration, of active men. + +This is not to say that these do not exist; the period that has seen the +retrogression has recorded also a reaction, and there are now perhaps +more who are fired by the ardent passion for active righteousness, than +for several generations, but the average is lower, for where, many times +in the past, there has been a broad, general average of decency, now the +disparity is great between the motives that drive society as a whole, +and its methods of operation, and the remnant that finds itself an +unimportant minority. Newspapers are perhaps hardly a fair criterion of +the moral status of a people--or of anything else for that matter--but +what they record, and the way they do it, is at least an indication of a +condition, and after every possible allowance has been made, what they +record is a very alarming standard of public and private morality, both +in the happenings themselves and in the fashion of their publicity. + +No one would claim that the responsibility for this weakening of moral +standards rests predominantly on the shoulders of the educational system +of today; the causes lie far deeper than this, but the point I wish to +make is that the process has not been arrested by education, in spite of +its prevalence, and that therefore it is unwise to continue our +exclusive faith in its remedial offices. The faith was never well +founded. Education can do much, but what it does, or can do, is to +foster and develop _inherent possibilities,_ whether these are of +character, intelligence or aptitude: it cannot put into a boy or man +what was not there, _in posse,_ at birth, and humanly speaking, the +diversity of potential in any thousand units is limited only by the +number itself. Whether our present educational methods are those best +calculated to foster and develop these inherent possibilities, so varied +in nature and degree, is the question, and it is a question the answer +to which depends largely on whether we look on intelligence, capacity or +character as the thing of greatest moment. For those who believe that +character is the thing of paramount importance--amongst whom I count +myself--the answer must be in the negative. + +Nor is an affirmative reply entirely assured when the question is asked +as to the results in the case of intellect and capacity. There are few +who would claim that in either of these directions the general standard +is now as high as it was, for example, in the last half of the last +century. The Great War brought to the front few personalities of the +first class, and the peace that has followed has an even less +distinguished record to date. We may say with truth, I think, that the +last ten years have provided greater issues, and smaller men to meet +them in the capacity of leaders, than any previous crisis of similar +moment. The art of leadership, and the fact of leadership, have been +lost, and without leadership any society, particularly a democracy, is +in danger of extinction. + +Here again one cannot charge education with our lack of men of +character, intelligence and capacity to lead; as before, the causes lie +far deeper, but the almost fatal absence at this time of the +personalities of such force and power that they can captain society in +its hours of danger from war or peace, must give us some basis for +estimating the efficiency of our educational theory and practice, and +again raise doubts as to whether here also we shall be well advised if +we rely exclusively upon it as the ultimate saviour of society, while we +are bound to ask whether its methods, even of developing intelligence +and capacity, are the best that can be devised. + +Another point worth considering is this. So long as we could lay the +flattering unction to our souls that acquired characteristics were +heritable, and that therefore if an outcast from Posen, migrating to +America, had taken advantage of his new opportunities and so had +developed his character-potential, amassed money and acquired a measure +of education and culture, he would automatically transmit something of +this to his offspring, who would start so much the further forward and +would tend normally to still greater advance, and so on _ad infinitum,_ +so long we were justified in enforcing the widest measure of education +on all and sundry, and in waiting in hope for a future when the +cumulative process should have accomplished its perfect work. Now, +however, we are told that this hope is vain, that acquired +characteristics are not transmitted by heredity, and that the old +folk-proverb "it is only three generations between shirtsleeves and +shirtsleeves," is perhaps more scientifically exact than the +evolutionary dictum of the nineteenth century. Which is what experience +and history have been teaching, lo, these many years. + +The question then seems to divide itself into three parts; (a) are we +justified in pinning our faith in ultimate social salvation to free, +secular, and compulsory education carried to the furthest possible +limits; (b) if not, then what precisely is the function of formal +education; and (c) this being determined, is our present method +adequate, and if not how should it be modified? + +It is unwise to speak dogmatically along any of these lines, they are +too blurred and uncertain. I can only express an individual opinion. + +It seems to me that life unvaryingly testifies to the extreme disparity +of potential in individuals and in families and in racial strains, +though in the two latter the difference is not necessarily absolute and +permanent, but variable in point of both time and degree. In individuals +the limit of this potentiality is inherent, and it can neither be +completely inhibited by adverse education and environment nor measurably +extended by favourable education and environment. Characteristics +acquired _outside_ inherent limitations are personal and non-heritable, +however intimately they may have become a part of the individual +himself. + +If this is true, then the question of education becomes personal also; +that is to say, we educate for the individual, and with an eye to the +part he himself is to play in society. We do not look for cumulative +results but in a sense deal with each personality in regard to itself +alone. I think this has a bearing both on the extent to which education +should be enforced and on the quality and method of education itself, +and though the contention will receive little but ridicule, I am bound +to say that I hold that _general_ education should be reduced in +quantity and considerably changed in nature. + +If the limit of development is substantially determined in each +individual and cannot be extended by human agencies (I say "human" +because God in His wisdom and by His power can raise up a prophet or a +saint out of the lowest depths, and frequently does so), then the +quantity and extent of general education should be determined not by a +period of years and the facilities offered by a government liberal in +its expenditures, but entirely by the demonstrated or indicated capacity +of the individual. Our educational system should, so far as it is free +and compulsory, normally end with the high school grade. Free college, +university and technical training should not be provided, except for +those who had given unmistakable evidences that they could, and probably +would, use it to advantage. This would be provided for by +non-competitive scholarships, limited in number only by the number of +capable candidates, and determination of this capacity would be, not on +the basis of test examinations, but on an average record covering a +considerable period of time. It is doubtful if even these scholarships +should be wholly free; some responsibility should be recognized, for a +good half of the value of a thing (perhaps all its value) lies in +working for it. A grant without service, a favour accepted without +obligations, privilege without function, both cheapen and degrade. + +Let us now turn to the second question, i.e., what precisely is the +function of formal education. For my own part I can answer this in a +sentence. It is primarily the fostering and development of the +character-potential inherent in each individual. In this process +intellectual training and expansion and the furthering of natural +aptitude have a part, but this is secondary to the major object which is +the development of character. + +This is not in accordance with the practice or the theory of recent +times, and in this fact lies one of the prime causes of failure. The one +thing man exists to accomplish is character; not worldly success and +eminence in any line, not the conquest of nature (though some have held +otherwise), not even "adaptation to environment" in the _argot_ of last +century science, but _character;_ the assimilation and fixing in +personality of high and noble qualities of thought and deed, the +furtherance, in a word, of the eternal sacramental process of redemption +of matter through the operation of spiritual forces. Without this, +social and political systems, imperial dominion, wealth and power, a +favourable balance of trade avail nothing; with it, forms and methods +and the enginery of living will look out for themselves. And yet this +thing which comprises "the whole duty of man" has, of late, fallen into +a singular disregard, while the constructive forces that count have +either been discredited and largely abandoned, as in the case of +religion, or, like education, turned into other channels or reversed +altogether, as has happened with the idea and practice of obedience, +discipline, self-denial, duty, honour and unselfishness; surely the most +fantastic issue of the era of enlightenment, of liberty and of freedom +of conscience. + +As a matter of fact character, as the chief end of man and the sole +guaranty of a decent society, has been neglected; it was not disregarded +by any conscious process, but the headlong events that have followed +since the fifteenth century have steadily distorted our judgment and +confused our standards of value even to reversal. By an imperceptible +process other matters have come to engage our interest and control our +action, until at last we are confronted by the nemesis of our own +unwisdom, and we entertain the threat of a dissolving civilization just +because the forces we have engendered or set loose have not been curbed +or directed by that vigorous and potent personal character informing a +people and a society, that we had forgot in our haste and that alone +could give us safety. + +Formal education is but one of the factors that may be employed towards +the development of character; you cannot so easily separate one force in +life from another, assigning a specific duty here, a definite task +there. That is one of the weaknesses of our time, the water-tight +compartment plan of high specialization, the cellular theory of +efficiency. Life must be seen as a whole, organized as a whole, lived as +a whole. Every thought, every emotion, every action, works for the +building or the unbuilding of character, and this synthesis of living +must be reestablished before we can hope for social regeneration. +Nevertheless formal education may be made a powerful factor, even now, +and not only in this one specific direction, but through this, for the +accomplishing of that unification of life that already is indicated as +the next great task that is set before us; and this brings me to a +consideration of the last of the questions I have proposed for answer, +viz.: is our present system of education adequate to the sufficient +development of character, and if not, how should it be modified? + +I do not think it adequate, and experience seems to me to prove the +point. It has not maintained the sturdy if sometimes acutely unpleasant +character of the New England stock, or the strong and handsome character +of the race that dwelt in the thirteen original colonies as this +manifested itself well into the last century, and it has, in general, +bred no new thing in the millions of immigrants and their descendants +who have flooded the country since 1840 and from whom the public schools +and some of the colleges are largely recruited. It is not a question of +expanded brain power or applied aptitude, but of character, and here +there is a larger measure of failure than we had a right to expect. And +yet, had we this right? The avowed object of formal education is mental +and vocational training, and by no stretch of the imagination can we +hold these to be synonymous with character. We have dealt with and +through one thing alone, and that is the intellect, whereas character is +rather the product of emotions judiciously stimulated, balanced (not +controlled) by intellect, and applied through active and varied +experience. Deliberately have we cut out every emotional and spiritual +factor; not only religion and the fine arts, but also the studies, and +the methods of study, and the type of text-books, that might have helped +in the process of spiritual and emotional development. We have +eliminated Latin and Greek, or taught them as a branch of philology; we +have made English a technical exercise in analysis and composition, +disregarding the moral and spiritual significance of the works of the +great masters of English; we minimize ancient history and concentrate on +European history since the French Revolution, and on the history of the +United States, and because of the sensitiveness of our endless variety +of religionists (pro forma) text books are written which leave religion +out of history altogether--and frequently economics and politics as well +when these cannot be made to square with popular convictions; philosophy +and logic are already pretty well discarded, except for special +electives and post-graduate courses, and as for art in its multifarious +forms we know it not, unless it be in the rudimentary and devitalized +form of free-hand drawing and occasional concerted singing. The only +thing that is left in the line of emotional stimulus is competitive +athletics, and for this reason I sometimes think it one of the most +valuable factors in public education. It has, however, another function, +and that is the coordination of training and life; it is in a sense an +_ecole d'application,_ and through it the student, for once in a way, +tries out his acquired mental equipment and his expanding character--as +well as his physical prowess--against the circumstances of active +vitality. It is just this sort of thing that for so long made the +"public schools" of England, however limited or defective may have been +the curriculum, a vital force in the development of British character. + +At best, however, this seems to me but an indifferent substitute, an +inadequate "extra," doing limitedly the real work of education by +indirection. What we need (granting my assumption of character as the +_terminus ad quem_) is an educational system so recast that the formal +studies and the collateral influences and the school life shall be more +coordinated in themselves and with life, and that the resulting stimulus +shall be equally operative along intellectual, emotional and creative +lines. + +It is sufficiently easy to make suggestions as to how this is to be +accomplished, to lay out programmes and lay down curricula, but here as +elsewhere this does not amount to much; the change must come and the +institutions develop as the result of the operations of life. If we can +change our view of the object of education, the very force of life, +working through experience, will adequately determine the forms. It is +not therefore as a meticulous and mechanical system that I make the +following suggestions as to certain desirable changes, but rather to +indicate more exactly what I mean by a scheme of education that will +work primarily towards the development of character. + +Now in the first place, I must hold that there can be no education which +works primarily for character building, that is not interpenetrated at +every point by definite, concrete religion and the practice of religion. +As I shall try to show in my last two lectures, religion is the force or +factor that links action with life. It is the only power available to +man that makes possible a sound standard of comparative values, and with +philosophy teaching man how to put things in their right order, it +enters to show him how to control them well, while it offers the great +constructive energy that makes the world an orderly unity rather than a +type of chaos. Until the Reformation there was no question as to this, +and even after, in the nations that accepted the great revolution, the +point was for a time maintained; thereafter the centrifugal tendency in +Protestantism resulted in such a wealth of mutually antagonistic sects +that the application of the principle became impracticable, and for +this, as well as for more fundamental reasons, it fell into desuetude. +The condition is as difficult today for the process of denominational +fission has gone steadily forward, and as this energy of the religious +influence weakens the strenuosity of maintenance strengthens. With our +157 varieties of Protestantism confronting Catholicism, Hebraism, and a +mass of frank rationalism and infidelity as large in amount as all +others combined, it would seem at first sight impossible to harmonize +free public education with concrete religion in any intimate way. So it +is; but if the principle is recognized and accepted, ways and means will +offer themselves, and ultimately the principle will be embodied in a +workable scheme. + +For example; there is one thing that can be done anywhere, and whenever +enough votes can be assembled to carry through the necessary +legislation. At present the law regards with an austere disapproval that +reflects a popular opinion (now happily tending towards decay), what are +known as "denominational schools" and other institutions of learning. +Those that maintain the necessity of an intimate union between religion +and education, as for example the great majority of Roman Catholics and +an increasing number of Episcopalians and Presbyterians, are taxed for +the support of secular public schools which they do not use, while they +must maintain at additional, and very great, expense, parochial and +other private schools where their children may be taught after a fashion +which they hold to be necessary from their own point of view. Again, +state support is refused to such schools or colleges as may be under +specific religious control, while pension funds for the teachers, +established by generous benefactions, are explicitly reserved for those +who are on the faculties of institutions which formally dissociate +themselves from any religious influence. I maintain that this is both +unjust and against public policy. Under our present system of religious +individualism and ecclesiastical multiplicity, approximations only are +possible, but I believe the wise and just plan would be for the state to +fix certain standards which all schools receiving financial support from +the public funds must maintain, and then, this condition being carried +out, distribute the funds received from general taxation to public and +private schools alike. This would enable Episcopalians, let us say, or +Roman Catholics, or Jews, when in any community they are numerous enough +to provide a sufficiency of scholars for any primary, grammar, or high +school, to establish such a school in as close a relationship to their +own religion as they desired, and have this school maintained out of the +funds of the city. This is not a purely theoretical proposition; after +an agitation lasting nearly half a century, Holland has this year put +such a law in force. From every point of view we should do well to +recognize this plan as both just and expedient. One virtue it would +have, apart from those already noted, is the variation it would permit +in curricula, text books, personnel and scholastic life as between one +school and another. There is no more fatal error in education than that +standardization which has recently become a fad and which finds its most +mechanistic manifestation in France. + +Of course this need for the fortifying of education by religion is +recognized even now, but the only plan devised for putting it into +effect is one whereby various ministers of religion are allowed a +certain brief period each week in which they may enter the public +schools and give denominational instruction to those who desire their +particular ministrations. This is one of the compromises, like the older +method of Bible reading without commentary or exposition, which avails +nothing and is apt to be worse than frank and avowed secularism. It is +putting religion on exactly the same plane as analytical chemistry, +psychoanalysis or salesmanship, (the latter I am told is about to be +introduced in the Massachusetts high schools) or any other "elective," +whereas if it is to have any value whatever it must be an ever-present +force permeating the curriculum, the minds of the teachers, and the +school life from end to end, and there is no way in which this can be +accomplished except by a policy that will permit the maintenance of +schools under religious domination at the expense of the state, provided +they comply with certain purely educational requirements established and +enforced by the state. + +I have already pointed out what seems to me the desirability of a +considerable variation between the curriculum of one school and another. +This would be possible and probably certain under the scheme proposed, +but barring this, it is surely an open question whether the pretty +thoroughly standardized curriculum now in operation would not be +considerably modified to advantage if it is recognized that the prime +object of education is character rather than mental training and the +fitting of a pupil to obtain a paying job on graduation. From my own +point of view the answer is in a vociferous affirmative. I suggest the +drastic reduction of the very superficial science courses in all schools +up to and including the high school, certainly in chemistry, physics and +biology, but perhaps with some added emphasis on astronomy, geology and +botany. History should become one of the fundamental subjects, and +English, both being taught for their humanistic value and not as +exercises in memory or for the purpose of making a student a sort of +dictionary of dates. This would require a considerable rewriting of +history text books, as well as a corresponding change in the methods of +teaching, but after all, are not these both consummations devoutly to be +wished. There are few histories like Mr. Chesterton's "Short History of +England," unfortunately. One would, perhaps, hardly commend this +stimulating book as a sufficient statement of English history for +general use in schools, but its approach is wholly right and it +possesses the singular virtue of interest. Another thing that commends +it is the fact that while it runs from Caesar to Mr. Lloyd George, it +contains, I believe, only seven specific dates, three of which are +possibly wrong. This is as it should be--not the inaccuracies but the +commendable frugality in point of number. Dates, apart from a few key +years, are of small historical importance; so are the details of palace +intrigues and military campaigns. History is, or should be, life +expressed in terms of romance, and it is of little moment whether the +narrated incidents are established by documentary evidence or whether +they are contemporary legend quite unsubstantiated by what are known +(and overestimated) as "facts." There is more of the real Middle Ages in +Mallory's "Mort d'Arthur" than there is in all Hallam, and the same +antithesis can be established for nearly all other periods of history. + +The history of man is one great dramatic romance, and so used it may be +made perhaps the most stimulating agency in education as character +development. I do not mean romance in the sense in which Mr. Wells takes +it, that is to say, the dramatic assembling and clever cooerdination of +unsubstantiated theories, personal preferences, prejudices and +aversions, under the guise of solemn and irrefutable truth attested by +all the exact sciences known to man, but romance which aims like any +other art at communicating from one person to another something of the +inner and essential quality of life as it has been lived, even if the +material used is textually doubtful or even probably apocryphal. The +deadly enemy of good, sound history is scientific historical criticism. +The true history is romantic tradition; the stimulating thing, the tale +that makes the blood leap, the pictorial incident that raises up in an +instant the luminous vision of some great thing that once was. + +I would not exchange Kit Marlowe's + + _"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships + And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"_ + +for all the critical commentaries of Teutonic pedants on the character +and attributes of Helen of Troy as these have (to them) been revealed by +archaeological investigations. I dare say that Bishop St. Remi of Reims +never said in so many words "Bow thy proud head, Sicambrian; destroy +what thou hast worshipped, worship what thou hast destroyed," and that +the Meroving monarch did not go thence to issue an "order of the day" +that the army should forthwith march down to the river and be baptized +by battalions; but _there_ is the clear, unforgettable picture of the +times and the men, and it will remain after the world has forgotten that +some one has proved that St. Remi never met Clovis, and that he himself +was probably only a variant of the great and original "sun-myth." + +Closely allied with the teaching of history and forming a link as it +were with the teaching of English, is a branch of study at present +unformulated and unknown, but, I am convinced, of great importance in +education as a method of character development. Life has always focused +in great personalities, and formal history has recognized the fact while +showing little discretion, and sometimes very defective judgment, in the +choices it has made. A past period becomes our own in so far as we +translate it through its personalities and its art; the original +documents matter little, except when they become misleading, as they +frequently do, when read through contemporary spectacles. Now the great +figures of a time are not only princes and politicians, conquerors and +conspirators, they are quite as apt to be the knights and heroes and +brave gentlemen who held no conspicuous position in Church or state. I +think we need what might be called "The Golden Book of Knighthood"--or a +series of text books adapted to elementary and advanced schools--made up +of the lives and deeds (whether attested by "original documents," or +legendary or even fabulous does not matter) of those in all times, and +amongst all peoples, who were the glory of knighthood; the "parfait +gentyl Knyghtes" "without fear and without reproach." Such for example, +to go no farther back than the Christian Era, as St. George and St. +Martin, King Arthur and Launcelot and Galahad, Charles Martel and +Roland, St. Louis, Godfrey de Bouillon and Saladin, the Earl of +Strafford, Montrose and Claverhouse, the Chevalier Bayard, Don John of +Austria, Washington and Robert Lee and George Wyndham. These are but a +few names, remembered at random; there are scores besides, and I think +that they should be held up to honour and emulation throughout the +formative period of youth. After all, they became, during the years when +these qualities were exalted, the personification of the ideals of +honour and chivalry, of compassion and generosity, of service and +self-sacrifice and courtesy, and these, the qualifications of a +gentleman and a man or honour, are, with the religion that fostered +them, and the practice of that religion, the just objective of +education. + +Much of all this can even now be taught through a judicious use of the +opportunities offered instructors in English, whether this is through +the graded "readers" of elementary education, or the more extended +courses in colleges and universities. Very frequently these +opportunities are ignored, and will be until we achieve something of a +new orientation in the matter of teaching English. + +Now it may be I hold a vain and untenable view of this subject, but I am +willing to confess that I believe the object of teaching English is the +unlocking of the treasures of thought, character and emotion preserved +in the written records of the tongue, and the arousing of a desire to +know and assimilate these treasures on the part of the pupil. I am very +sure that English should not be taught as a thing ending in "ology," not +as an intricate science with all sorts of laws and rules and exceptions; +not as a system whereby the little children of the Ghetto, and the +offspring of Pittsburgh millionaires, and the spectacled infant elect of +Beacon Hill may all be raised to the point where they can write with +acceptable fluency the chiseled phrases of Matthew Arnold, the cadenced +Latinity of Sir Thomas Browne, the sonorous measures of Bolingbroke or +the distinguished and resonant periods of the King James Bible. Such an +aim as this will always result in failure. + +The English language is the great storehouse of the rich thought and the +burning emotion of the English race, and all this, as it has issued out +of character, works towards the development of character, when it is +made operative in new generations. There is no other language but Latin +that has preserved so great a wealth of invaluable things, and English +is taught in order that it all may be more available through that +appreciation that comes from familiarity. There is no nobler record in +the world: from Chaucer down to the moderns is one splendid sequence of +character-revelations through a perfect but varied art, for literature +is also a fine art, and one of the greatest of all. Is it not fair to +say that the chief duty of the teacher of English is to lead the student +to like great literature, to find it and enjoy it for himself, and +through it to come to the liking of great ideas? + +In the old days there was an historical, or rather archaeological, +method that was popular; also an analytical and grammarian method. There +was also the philological method which was quite the worst of all and +had almost as devastating results as in the case of Latin. It almost +seems as though English were being taught for the production of a +community of highly specialized teachers. No one would now go back to +any of those quaint and archaic ways digged up out of the dim and remote +past of the XIXth century. We should all agree, I think, that for +general education, specialized technical knowledge is unimportant and +scientific intensive methods unjustifiable. For one student who will +turn out a teacher there are five hundred that will be just simple +voters, wage-earners, readers of the Saturday Evening Post and the New +Republic, members of the Fourth Presbyterian Church or the Ethical +Society, and respectable heads of families. The School of Pedagogy has +its own methods (I am given to understand), but under correction I +submit they are not those of general education. Shall I put the whole +thing in a phrase and say that the object of teaching English is to get +young people to like good things? + +You may say this is English Literature, not English. Are the two so very +far apart? English as a language is taught to make literature available. +"Example is better than precept." Reading good literature for the love +of it will bring in the habit of grammatical speaking and writing far +more effectively than what is known as "a thorough grounding in the +principles of English grammar." I doubt if the knowledge of, and +facility in, English can be built up on such a basis; rather the laws +should be deduced from examples. Philology, etymology, syntax are +derivatives, not foundations. "Practice makes perfect" is a saying that +needs to be followed by the old scholastic defensive _"distinguo."_ +Practice in reading, rather than practice in writing, makes good English +composition possible. The "daily theme" may be overdone; it is of little +use unless _thought_ keeps ahead of the pen. + +I would plead then for the teaching of English after a fashion that will +reveal great thoughts and stimulate to greater life, through the noble +art of English literature and the perfectly illogical but altogether +admirable English language. The function of education is to make +students feel, think and act, after a fashion that increasingly reveals +and utilizes the best that is in them, and increasingly serves the uses +of society, and both history and English can be so taught as to help +towards the accomplishment of these ends. + +There is another factor that may be so used, but I confess I shall speak +of it with some hesitation. It is at present, and has been for ages, +entirely outside the possibility even of consideration, and in a sense +that goes beyond the general ignoring of religion, for while Catholics, +who form the great majority of Christians, still hold to religion as a +prime element in education, there are none--or only a minority so small +as to be negligible--who give a thought to art in this connection. I +bring forward the word, and the thing it represents, with diffidence, +even apologetically: indeed, it is perhaps better to renounce the word +altogether and substitute the term "beauty," for during the nineteenth +century art got a bad name, not altogether undeservedly, and the +disrepute lingers. So long as beauty is an instinct native to men (and +it was this, except for very brief and periodic intervals, until hardly +more than a century ago, though latterly in a vanishing form), it is +wholesome, stimulating and indispensable, but when it becomes +self-conscious, when it finds itself the possession of a few highly +differentiated individuals instead of the attribute of man as such, then +it tends to degenerate into something abnormal and, in its last estate, +both futile and unclean. In its good estate, as for example in Greece, +Byzantium, the Middle Ages, and in Oriental countries until the last few +decades, beauty was so natural an object of endeavour and a mode of +expression, and its universality resulted in so characteristic an +environment, it was unnecessary to talk about it very much, or to give +any particular thought to the educational value of the arts which were +its manifestation through and to man, or how this was to be applied. The +things were there, everywhere at hand; the temples and churches, the +painting and the sculpture and the works of handicraft; the music and +poetry and drama, the ceremonial and costume of daily life, both secular +and religious, the very cities in which men congregated and the villages +in which they were dispersed. Beauty, in all its concrete forms of art, +was highly valued, almost as highly as religion or liberty or bodily +health, but then it was a part of normal life and therefore taken for +granted. + +Now all is changed. For just an hundred years (the process definitely +began here in America between 1820 and 1823) we have been eliminating +beauty as an attribute of life and living until, during the last two +generations, it is true to say that the instinctive impulse of the race +as a whole is towards ugliness in those categories of creation and +appreciation where formerly it had been towards beauty. Of course the +corollary of this was the driving of the unhappy man in whom was born +some belated impulse towards the apprehending of beauty and its visible +expression in some art, back upon himself, until, conscious of his +isolation and confident of his own superiority, he not only made his art +a form of purely personal expression (or even of exposure), but held +himself to be, and so conducted himself, as a being apart, for whom the +laws of the herd were not, and to whom all men should bow. + +The separation of art from life is only less disastrous in its results +than the separation of religion from life, particularly since with the +former went the separation of art (and therefore of beauty) from its +immemorial alliance with religion. It was bad for art, it was bad for +religion, and it was worst of all for life itself. Beyond a certain +point man cannot live in and with and through ugliness, nor can society +endure under such conditions, and the fact is that, however it came to +pass, modern civilization has functioned through explicit ugliness, and +the environment it has made for its votaries and its rebels +indifferently, is unique in its palpable hideousness; from the clothes +it wears and the motives it extols, to the cities it builds, and the +structures therein, and the scheme of life that romps along in its +ruthless career within the sordid suburbs that take the place of the +once enclosing walls. And the defiant and segregated "artists," mortuary +art museums, the exposed statues and hidden pictures, the opera +subsidized by "high society," and the "arts and crafts" societies and +the "art magazines" and "art schools" and clubs and "city beautiful" +committees, only seem to make the contrast more apparent and the +desperate nature of the situation more profound. + +It is a new situation altogether, and nowhere in history is there any +recorded precedent to which we can return for council and example, for +nothing quite of the same sort ever happened before. It is also a +problem of which formal education must take cognizance, for the lack is +one which must somehow be supplied, while it reveals an astonishing +_lacuna_ in life that means a new deficiency in the unconscious +education of man that renders him ineffective in life; defective even, +it may be, unless from some source he can acquire something of what in +the past life itself could afford. + +Indeed it is not merely a negative influence we deal with, but a +positive, for, to paraphrase a little, "ugly associations corrupt good +morals." Youth is beaten upon at many points by things that not only +look ugly, but are, and as in compassion we are bound to offer some new +agency to fill a lack, so in self-defence we must take thought as to how +the evil influence of contemporaneousness is to be nullified and its +results corrected. + +I confess the method seems to me to lean more closely to the indirect +influence rather than the direct. It is doubtful if "art" can really be +taught in any sense; the inherent sense of beauty can be fostered and an +inherent aptitude developed, but that is about all. As for the building +up of a non-professional passion for art I am quite sure it cannot be +done, and should hardly be attempted, and very likely the same is true +of the application of beauty. + +Text books on "How to Understand" this art or that are interesting +ventures into abstract theory, but they are little more. We must always +remember that art is a result, not a product, and that sense of beauty +is a natural gift and not an accomplishment. On the other hand, much can +be accomplished by indirection, and by this I mean the buildings and the +grounds and the cultural adjuncts that are offered by any school or +college. The ordinary type of school-house--primary, grammar or high +school--is, in its barren ugliness and its barbarous "efficiency," a +very real outrage on decency, and a few Braun photographs and plaster +casts and potted plants avail nothing. Private schools and some +colleges--by no means all--are apt to be somewhat better, and here the +improvement during the last ten years has been amazing, one or two +universities having acquired single buildings, or groups, of the most +astonishing architectural beauty. In no case, however, has as yet +complete unity been achieved, while the arts of painting, sculpture, +music and the drama, as vital and operative and pervasive influences, +lag far behind, and formal religion with its liturgies and ceremonial, +its constant and varied services and its fine and appealing +pageantry--religion which is the greatest vitalizing and stimulating +force in beauty is hardly touched at all. + +Bad art of any kind is bad anywhere, but in any type of educational +institution, from the kindergarten to the post graduate college, it is +worse and less excusable than it is elsewhere, unless it be in +association with religion, while the absence of beauty at the +instigation of parsimony or efficiency is just as bad. I am firmly +persuaded that we need, not more courses of study but more beautiful +environment for scholars under instruction. + +I have touched cursorily on certain elements in education which need +either a new emphasis or an altogether new interpretation; religion, +history, art, but this does not mean that the same treatment should not +be accorded elsewhere. There are certain studies that should be revived, +such as formal logic, there are others that need immediate and complete +restoration, as Latin for example, there are many, chiefly along +scientific and vocational lines, that could well be minimized, or in +some cases dispensed with altogether: one might go on indefinitely on +this line, however, weighing and testing studies in relation to their +character-value, but certainly enough has already been said to indicate +the point of view I would urge for consideration. Before I close, +however, I want to touch on two points that arise in connection with +college education, if, even for the sake of argument, we admit that the +primary object of all formal education is the "education" of the +character-capacity in each individual. + +Of these two, the first has to do with the college curriculum, but I +need to devote little time to this for the principle has already been +developed and applied in a singularly stimulating and lucid book called +"The Liberal College," by President Meiklejohn of Amherst, to which I +beg to refer you. The scheme is a remarkable blending of the prescribed +and the elective systems, and provides for the freshman year five +compulsory studies, viz.: Social and Economic Institutions, Mathematics +and Formal Logic, Science, English and Foreign Languages; for the +sophomore year European History, Philosophy, Science, Literature, and +one elective; for the junior year American History, History of Thought +and two electives, and for the senior year one required study, +Intellectual and Moral Problems, and one elective, the latter, which +takes two-thirds of the student's time, must be a continuation of one of +the four subjects included in the junior year. It seems to me that this +is a singularly wise programme, since it not only determines the few +studies which are fundamental, and imposes them on the student in +diminishing number as he advances in his work, but it also provides for +that freedom of choice which permits any student to find out and +continue the particular line along which his inclinations lead him to +travel, until his senior year is chiefly given over to the fullest +possible development of the special subject. The fad for free electives +all along the line was one of those curious phenomena, both humorous and +tragic, that grew out of the evolutionary philosophy and the empirical +democracy of the nineteenth century, and it wrought disaster, while the +ironclad curriculum that preceded it was almost as bad along an opposite +line. This project of Dr. Meiklejohn's seems to me to recognize life as +a force and to base itself on this sure foundation instead of on the +shifting sands of doctrinaire theory, and if this is so then it is +right. + +For after all there is such a thing as life, and it is more potent than +theory as it also has a way of disregarding or even smashing the +machine. It is this force of life that should be more regarded in +education, and more relied upon. It is the living in a school or a +college that counts more than a curriculum; the association with others, +students and teachers, the communal life, the common adventures and +scrapes, the common sports, yes, and as it will be sometime, the common +worship. It is through these that life works and character develops, and +to this development and instigation of life the school and college +should work more assiduously, minimizing for the moment the problems of +curricula and pedagogic methods. If I am right in this there is no place +for the "correspondence school," while the college or university that +numbers its students by thousands becomes at least of doubtful value, +and perhaps impossible. In any case it seems to me self-evident that a +college, whatever its numbers, must have, as its primal and essential +units, self-contained groups of not more than 150 students segregated in +their own residential quad, with its common-room, refectory and chapel, +and with a certain number of faculty members in residence, the whole +being united under one "head." There may be perhaps no reason why, +granting this unit system, these should not be multiplied in number +until the whole student body is as great as that of a western state +university today, but to me the idea is abhorrent of an "university" +with five or ten thousand students all jostling together In one inchoate +mass, eating in numerical mobs, assembling in social "unions" as large +as a metropolitan hotel and almost as homelike, or taking refuge for +safety from mere numbers in clubs, fraternities and secret societies. A +college such as this is a mob, not an organism, and as a mob it ought to +be put down. + +I said at the outset of this lecture that we could not lay the present +failure of civilization to the doors of education, however great its +shortcomings, for the causes lay deeper than this. I maintain that this +is true; and yet formal education can not escape scatheless, for it has +failed to admit this decline while acknowledging the claim set up for it +that it could and would achieve this end. Certainly it will incur a +heavy responsibility if it does not at once recognize the fact that +while it can not do the half that has been claimed for it, it can do far +more than it is doing now, and that in a very large degree the future +does depend for its honour or its degradation on the part formal +education is to perform at the present crisis. To do this it must +execute a _volte face_ and confess that it can only develop inherent +potential, not create capacity, and that the primary object of its +activities must be not the stall-feeding of intellect and the practical +preparation for a business career, but the fostering and the building up +of the personal character that denotes the Christian gentleman. I do not +think that I can do better for a conclusion than to quote from the +"Philosophy of Education" by the late Dr. Thomas Edward Shields. + +"The unchanging aim of Christian education is, and always has been, to +put the pupil into possession of a body of truth derived from nature and +from Divine Revelation, from the concrete work of man's hand and from +the content of human speech, in order to bring his conduct into +conformity with Christian ideals and with the standards of the +civilization of his day. + +"Christian education, therefore, aims at transforming native instincts +while preserving and enlarging their powers. It aims at bringing the +flesh under the control of the spirit. It draws upon the experience and +the wisdom of the race, upon Divine Revelation and upon the power of +Divine grace, in order that it may bring the conduct of the individual +into conformity with Christian ideals and with the standards of the +civilization of the day. It aims at the development of the whole man, at +the preservation of unity and continuity in his conscious life; it aims +at transforming man's native egotism to altruism; at developing the +social side of his nature to such an extent that he may regard all men +as his brothers; sharing with them the common Fatherhood of God. In one +word, it aims at transforming a child of the flesh into a child of God." + + + + +VII + + +THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIC RELIGION + +If philosophy is "the science of the totality of things," and "they are +called wise who put things in their right order and control them well," +then it is religion, above all other factors and potencies, that enters +in to reveal the right relationships and standards of value, and to +contribute the redemptive and energizing force that makes possible the +adequate control which is the second factor in the conduct of the man +that is "called wise." Philosophy and religion are not to be confounded; +religion is sufficient in itself and develops its own philosophy, but +the latter is not sufficient in itself, and when it assumes the +functions and prerogatives of religion, it brings disaster. + +Religion is the force that relates action to life. Of course it has +other aspects, higher in essence and more impalpable in quality, but it +is this first aspect I shall deal with, because I am not now speaking of +religion as a purely spiritual power but only of its quality as the +great coordinator of human action, the power that establishes a right +ratio of values and gives the capacity for right control. Whether we +accept the religion of the Middle Ages or not; whether we look on the +period as one of high and edifying Christian civilization, or as a time +of ignorance and superstition, we are bound to admit that society in its +physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects was highly organized, and +coordinated after a most masterly fashion. It was more nearly an unit, +functioning lucidly and consistently, than anything the world has known +since the Roman Empire. Whatever its defects, lack of coherency was not +one of them. Life was not divided into water-tight compartments, but +moved on as a consistent whole. Failures were constant, for the world +even then was made up of men, but the ideal was perfectly clear-cut, the +principles exactly seen and explicitly formulated; life was organic, +consistent, highly articulated, and withal as full of the passion of +aspiration towards an ultimate ideal as was the Gothic cathedral which +is its perfect exemplar. + +The reason for this coherency and consistency was the universal +recognition and acceptance of religion as the one energizing and +standardizing force in life, the particular kind of religion that then +prevailed, and the organic power which this religion had established; +that is to say, the Church as an operative institution. So long as this +condition obtained, which was, roughly speaking, for three hundred +years, from the "Truce of God" in 1041 to the beginning of the +"Babylonian Captivity" of the Papacy at Avignon in 1309, there was +substantial unity in life, but as soon as it was shaken, this unity +began to break up into a diversity that accomplished a condition of +chaos, at and around the opening of the sixteenth century, which only +yielded to the absolutism of the Renaissance, destined in its turn to +break up into a second condition of chaos under the influence of +industrialism, Puritanism and revolution. + +Since the accomplishment of the Reformation, this function of religion +has never been restored to society in any degree comparable with that +which it maintained during the Middle Ages. The Counter-Reformation +preserved the institution itself in the Mediterranean lands, but it did +not restore its old spiritual power in its entirety. Amongst the peoples +that accepted the Reformation the new religion assumed for a time the +authority of the old, but the centrifugal force inherent in its nature +soon split the reformed churches into myriad fragments, so destroying +their power of action, while the abandonment of the sacramental system +progressively weakened their dynamic force. As it had from the first +compounded, under compulsion, with absolutism and tyranny, so in the end +it compromised with the cruelty, selfishness, injustice and avarice of +industrialism, and when finally this achieved world supremacy, and +physical science, materialistic philosophy and social revolution entered +the field as co-combatants, it no longer possessed a sufficient original +power either of resistance or of re-creative energy. + +Religion is in itself not the reaction of the human mind, under process +of evolution, to certain physical stimuli of experience and phenomena, +it is supernatural in that its source is outside nature; it is a +manifestation of the grace of God, and as such it cannot be brought into +existence by any conscious action of man or by any of his works. On the +other hand, it can be fostered and preserved, or debilitated and +dispersed, by these human acts and institutions, and in the same way man +himself may be made more receptive to this divine grace, or turned +against it, by the same agencies, the teachings of Dr. John Calvin to +the contrary notwithstanding. This is part of the Catholic doctrine of +free-will as opposed to the sixteenth-century dogma of predestination +which, distorted and degraded from the doctrine of St. Paul and St. +Augustine, played so large a part in that transformation of the +Christian religion from which we have suffered ever since. God offers +the free gift of religion and of faith to every child of man, but the +recipient must cooperate if the gift is to be accepted. The Church, that +is to say, the supernatural organism that is given material form in time +and space and operates through human agencies, is for this reason +subject to great vicissitudes, now rising to the highest level of +righteousness and power, now sinking into depths of unrighteousness and +impotence. Nothing, however, can affect the validity and the potency of +its supernatural content and its supernatural channels of grace. These +remain unaffected, whether the human organism is exalted or debased. The +sacraments and devotions and practices of worship, are in themselves as +potent if a Borgia sits in the chair of St. Peter as they are if a +Hildebrand, and Innocent III or a Leo XIII is the occupant; nevertheless +every weakening or degradation of the visible organism affects, and +inevitably, the attitude of men towards the thing itself, and when this +declension sets in and continues unchecked, the result is, first, a +falling away and a discrediting of religion that sometimes results in +general abandonment, and second--and after a time--a new outpouring of +spiritual power that results in complete regeneration. The Church, in +its human manifestation, is as subject to the rhythmical rise and fall +of the currents of life as is the social organism or man himself, +therefore it is not to be expected that it will pursue a course of even +exaltation, or maintain a status that is impeccable. + +Now the working out of this law had issue in a great decline that began +with the Exile at Avignon and was not terminated until the Council of +Trent. In the depth of this catastrophe came the natural and righteous +revolt against the manifold and intolerable abuses, but, like all +reforming movements that take on a revolutionary character, reform and +regeneration were soon forgotten in the unleashed passion for +destruction and innovation, while the new doctrines of emancipation from +authority, and the right of private judgment in religious matters, were +seized upon by sovereigns chafing under ecclesiastical control, as a +providential means of effecting and establishing their own independence, +and so given an importance, and an ultimate victory that, in and by +themselves, they could hardly have achieved. In the end it was the +secular and autocratic state that reaped the victory, not the reformed +religion, which was first used as a tool and then abandoned to its +inevitable break-up into numberless antagonistic sects, some of them +retaining a measure of the old faith and polity, others representing all +the illiteracy and uncouthness and fanaticism of the new racial and +social factors as these emerged at long last from the submergence and +the oppression that had been their fate with the dissolution of +Mediaevalism. + +Meanwhile the Roman Church which stood rigidly for historic Christianity +and had been preserved by the Counter-Reformation to the Mediterranean +states, continued bound to the autocratic and highly centralized +administrative system that had become universal among secular powers +during the decadence of Mediaevalism, and from which it had taken its +colour, and it kept even pace for the future with the progressive +intensification of this absolutism. This was natural, though in many +respects deplorable, and it can be safely said that adverse criticism of +the Catholic Church today is based only on qualities it acquired during +the period of Renaissance autocracy and revived paganism; qualities that +do not affect its essential integrity or authority but do misrepresent +it before men, and work as a handicap in its adaptability and in its +work of winning souls to Christianity and re-establishing the unity of +Christendom. Fortunately this very immobility has saved it from a +surrender to the new forces that were developed in secular society +during the last two centuries, as it did yield to the compulsion of +those that were let loose in the two that preceded them. It has never +subjected questions of faith and morals to popular vote nor has it +determined discipline by parliamentary practice under a well developed +party system, therefore it has preserved its unity, its integrity and +its just standard of comparative values. On the other hand, it has held +so stubbornly to some of the ill ways of Renaissance centralization, +which are in no sense consonant with its character, that it has failed +to retard the constant movement of society away from a life wherein +religion was the dominating and coordinating force, while at the present +crisis it is as yet hardly more able than a divisive Protestantism to +offer the regenerative energy that a desperate case demands. + +I do not know whether secular society is responsible for the decadence +of religion, or the decadence of religion is responsible for the failure +of secular society, nor does it particularly matter. What I am concerned +with is a condition amounting to almost complete severance between the +two, and how we may "knit up this ravelled sleeve" of life so that once +more we may have an wholesome unity in place of the present disunity; +for until this is accomplished, until once more religion enters into the +very marrow of social being, enters with all its powers of judgment and +determination and co-ordination and creative energy, just so long shall +we seek in vain for our way out into the Great Peace of righteous and +consistent living. + +Of course there is only one sure way, one method by which this, and all +our manifold difficulties, can be resolved, and that is through the +achieved enlightenment of the individual. As I have insisted in each of +these lectures, salvation is not through machinery but through the +individual soul, for it is life itself that is operating, not the +instruments that man devises in his ingenuity. Yet the mechanism is of +great value for even itself may give aid and stimulus in the personal +regenerative process, or, on the contrary, it may deter this by the +confusing and misleading influences it creates. Therefore we are bound +to regard material reforms, and of these, as they suggest themselves in +the field of organized religion, I propose to speak. + +No one will deny the progressive alienation of life from religion that +has developed since the Reformation and has now reached a point of +almost complete severance. Religion, once a public preoccupation, has +now withdrawn to the fastnesses of the individual soul, when it has not +vanished altogether, as it has in the case of the majority of citizens +of this Republic in so far as definite faith, explicit belief, +application, practice and action are concerned. In the hermitage that +some still make within themselves, religion still lives on as ardent and +as potent and as regenerative as before, but in general, if we are to +judge from the conduct of recent life, it is held, when it is accepted +at all, with a certain formality, and is neither cherished with +conviction nor allowed to interfere with the everyday life of the +practical man. As a great English statesman remarked in the last +century, "No one has a higher regard for religion than I, but when it +comes to intruding it into public affairs, well, really--!" + +The situation is one not unnaturally to be anticipated, for the whole +course of religious, secular and sociological development during the +last few centuries has been such as to make any other result improbable. +I already have tried to show what seem to me the destructive factors, +secularly and sociologically. As for the factors in religious +development that have worked towards the same end, they are, first, the +shattering of the unity of Christendom, with the denial by those of the +reformed religions of the existence of a Church, one, visible and +Catholic and infallible in matters of faith and morals; second, the +denial of sacramental philosophy and abandonment of the sacraments (or +all but one, or at most two of them) as instruments of Divine Grace; +third, the surrender of the various religious organisms to the +compulsion of the materialistic, worldly and opportunist factors in the +secular life of modernism. The truths corresponding to these three +errors are, Unity, Sacramentalism and Unworldliness. Until these three +things are won back, Christianity will fail of its full mission, society +will continue aimless, uncooerdinate and on the verge of disaster, life +itself will lack the meaning and the reality that give both joy in the +living and victory in achievement, while the individual man will be +gravely handicapped in the process of personal regeneration. + +It is not my purpose to frame a general indictment against persons and +movements, but rather to suggest certain ways and means of possible +recovery, and in general I shall try to confine myself to that form of +organized religion to which I personally adhere, that is to say, the +Anglican or Episcopal Church, partly because of my better knowledge of +its conditions, and partly because whatever is said may in most cases be +equally well applied to the Protestant denominations. + +_The unity of the Church._ It is no longer necessary to demonstrate this +fundamental necessity. The old days of the nineteenth century are gone, +those days when honest men vociferously acclaimed as honourable and +glorious "the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the +Protestant religion." Everyone knows now, everyone, that is, that +accepts Christianity, that disunion is disgrace if not a very palpable +sin. The desire for a restored unity is almost universal, but every +effort in this direction, whatever its source, meets with failure, and +the reason would appear to be that the approach is made from the wrong +direction. In every case the individual is left alone, his personal +beliefs and practices are, he is assured, jealously guarded; all that is +asked is that some mechanical amalgamation, some official approximation +shall be effected. + +Free interchange of pulpits, a system of reciprocal re-ordination, a +"merger" of church property and parsons, an "irreducible minimum" of +credal insistencies these, and others even more ingeniously +compromising, are the well-meaning schemes that are put forward, and in +the process one point after another is surrendered, as a _quid pro quo_ +for the formal and technical capitulation of some other religious group. + +It is demonstrable that even if these well-meaning approximations were +received with favour--and thus far nothing of the kind has appeared--the +result, so far as essential unity is concerned, would be _nil._ There is +a perfectly definite line of division between the Catholic and the +Protestant, and until this line is erased there is no possible unity, +even if this were only official and administrative. The Catholic (and in +respect to this one particular point I include under this title members +of the Roman, Anglican and Eastern Communions) maintains and practices +the sacramental system; the Protestant does not. There is no reason, +there is indeed grave danger of sacrilege, in a joint reception of the +Holy Communion by those who look on it as a mere symbol and those who +accept it as the very Body and Blood of Christ. Protestant clergy are +urged to accept ordination at the hands of Anglican bishops, but the +plea is made on the ground of order, expediency, and the preservation of +tradition; whereas the Apostolical succession was established and +enforced not for these reasons but in order that the grace of God, +originally imparted by Christ Himself, may be continued through the +lines He ordained, for the making and commissioning of priests who have +power to serve as the channels for the accomplishing of the divine +miracle of the Holy Eucharist, to offer the eternal Sacrifice of the +Body and Blood of Christ for the quick and the dead, and to remit the +penalty of sins through confession and absolution. If the laying on of +hands by the bishop were solely a matter of tradition and discipline, +neither Rome nor the Anglican Communion would be justified in holding to +it as a condition of unity; if it is for the transmission of the Holy +Ghost for the making of a Catholic priest, with all that implies and has +always implied, then it is wrong, even in the interests of a formal +unity, to offer it to those who believe neither in the priesthood nor in +the sacraments in the Catholic and historic sense. + +The conversion of the individual must take precedence of corporate +action of any sort. When the secularist comes to believe in the Godhead +of Christ he will unite himself with the rest of the faithful in a +Church polity, but he will not do this, he has too much self-respect, +simply because he is told by some ardent but minimizing parson that he +does not have to believe in the Divinity of Christ in order to "join the +church." When a Protestant comes to accept the sacramental system, to +desire to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, to make +confession of his sins and receive absolution, and to nourish and +develop his spiritual nature by the use of the devotions that have grown +up during nineteen hundred years, he will renounce his Protestantism, +when his self-respect would not permit him to do this just because he +had been assured that he need not really change any of his previous +beliefs in order to ally himself with a Church that had better +architecture and a more artistic ceremonial, and locally a higher social +standing. When Anglicans or the Eastern Orthodox come to believe that a +vernacular liturgy and a married priesthood and provincial autonomy are +of less importance than Catholic unity, and when Roman Catholics can see +that the same is of greater moment than a rigid preservation of +Renaissance centralization and a cold _"non possumus"_ in the matter of +Orders, then the way will be open for the reunion of the West, where +this operation cannot be affected by formal negotiations looking towards +some form of legalistic concordat. + +The evil heritage of the sixteenth century is still heavy upon us, and +this heritage is one of jealousy and hate, not of charity and +toleration. It is an heritage of legalism and technicalities, of +self-will and individualism, of shibboleths that have become a dead +letter, of prejudices that are fostered on distorted history and the +propaganda of the self-seeking and the vain. The spirit of Christ is not +in it, but the malice of Satan working upon the better natures of men +and justifying in the name of conscience and principle what are +frequently the workings of self-will and pride and intellectual +obsession. This is the tragedy of it all; that Protestants and Anglicans +and Roman Catholics are, so far as the majority are concerned, honestly +convinced that they are right in maintaining their own divisiveness; in +perpetuating an hundred Protestant sects on the basis of some variation +in the form of baptism or church government or the method of conversion; +in splitting up the Catholic Church because of a thousand year old +disagreement as to a clause in the Creed which has a technical and +theological significance only, or because one sector is alleged to have +added unjustifiably to the Faith while the other is alleged to have +unjustifiably taken away. Self-will and lack of charity, not love and +the common will as these are revealed to the world through the Divine +Will of Christ, are working here. The momentary triumph of evil over +good, the passing victory that yet means the banishment of religion from +the world, and the assurance of disaster still greater than that which +is now upon us unless every man bends all his energies to the task of +making the will of God prevail, first in himself, and so in the secular +and ecclesiastical societies in and through which he plays his part in +the life of the world--these are the fruits of a divided Christendom. + +I honestly believe that the first real step towards reunion would be a +prompt cessation of the whole process of criticism, vilification and +abuse, one of the other, that now marks the attitude of what are known +as "church periodicals." Roman, Anglican, Protestant, are all alike, for +all maintain a consistent slanging of each other. I have in mind in +particular weekly religious papers in the United States which maintain +departments almost wholly made up of attacks on Roman Catholicism and +the derision of incidents of bad taste or illiteracy in the Protestant +denominations, and others which lose no opportunity to discredit or +abuse the Episcopal Church and the Protestant denominations, and finally +a curiously malevolent newspaper representing the worst type of +Protestant ignorance and prejudice, which exists on its libelous and +indecent and dishonest assaults on Catholicism wherever it may be found. +These are not alone, for the condition of ascerbity and nagging is +practically universal. It merely echoes the pulpit and a portion of the +general public. We all know of the so called "church" in Boston that is +the forum of "escaped nuns" and "unfrocked priests," but in many places +of better repute the sermon that bitterly attacks Christian Science, or +"High Church Episcopalianism," or the errors of Protestantism generally, +or the "usurpations of Rome" is by no means unknown, while elsewhere +than in Ireland, the public as a whole finds much pleasure in bating any +religion that happens to differ from its own,--or offends its sense of +the uselessness of all religion. Let us have a new "Truce of God," and +for the space of a year let all clergy, lecturers, newspapers, religious +journals, and private individuals, totally abstain from sneering and +ill-natured attacks on other religions and their followers. Could this +be accomplished a greater step would be taken towards the reunion of +Christendom than could be achieved by any number of conferences, +commissions, councils and conventions. + +It was the will and the intent of Christ "that they all may be one, that +the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me," and in disunity we deny +Christ. There is no consideration of inheritance, of personal taste, of +interests, of intellectual persuasion that can stand in the way of an +affirmative answer to this prayer. Every man who calls himself a +Christian and yet is not praying and working to break down the self-will +and the self-conceit that, so often under the masquerade of conscience, +hold him back from a return, even if it is only step by step, to the +original unity of the Catholic Faith, is guilty of sin, while it is sin +of an even graver degree that stands to the account of those who +consciously work to perpetuate the division that now exists. + +_Sacramentalism._ The stumbling block, the apparently impassable +barrier, is that which was erected when belief was substituted for +faith; it is the intellectualizing of religion that has brought about +the present failure of Christianity as a vital and controlling force in +man and in society. The danger revealed itself even in the Middle Ages, +and through perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher, and certainly +one of the most commanding intellects, the world has known: St. Thomas +Aquinas. In his case, and that of the others of his time, the intellect +was still directed by spiritual forces, the chiefest of which was faith, +therefore the inherent danger in the intellectualizing process did not +clearly reveal itself or come into actual operation, but with the +Renaissance and the Reformation it stood boldly forth, and since then as +mind increased in its dominion faith declined. The Reformation, in all +its later phases, that is to say, after it ceased to be a protest +against moral defects and administrative abuses and became a +revolutionary invention of new dogmas and practices, was the result of +clever, stupid or perverse minds working overtime on religious problems +which could not be solved or even apprehended by the intellect, whether +it was that of an acute and highly trained master such as Calvin, or +that of any one of the hundred founders of less savage but more curious +and uncouth types of "reformed religion." + +What we need now for the recovery and re-establishment of Christianity +is not so much increased belief as it is a renewed faith; faith in +Christ, faith in His doctrine, faith in His Church. We lost this faith +when we abandoned the sacraments and sacramentalism as superstitions, or +retained some of them in form and as symbols while denying to them all +supernatural power. If we would aid the individual soul to regain this +lost faith we could do no better than to restore the seven sacraments of +the historic Christian faith, and Christian Church to the place they +once held for all Christians, and still hold in the Roman Catholic +Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and (with limitations) in the +Anglican Church. Faith begets faith; faith in Christ brings faith in the +sacraments, and faith in the sacraments brings faith in Christ. + +It is disbelief in the efficacy of the sacraments and in the sacramental +principle in life that is the essential barrier between Protestantism +and Catholicism, and until this barrier is dissolved there can be +neither formal unity nor unity by compromise. This is already widely +recognized, and as well the actual loss that comes with the denial and +abandonment of the sacraments. There is in the Presbyterian church of +Scotland a strong tendency towards a reassertion of the full sacramental +doctrine; the "Free Catholic" movement throughout Great Britain is made +up of Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, and other +representatives of Evangelical Protestantism, and it is working +unreservedly for the recovery and application of all the Catholic +sacraments, with the devotions and ritual that go with them. Dr. +Orchard, the head, and a Congregational minister, maintains in London a +church where, as a Methodist member of the "Free Catholic" organization +wrote me the other day, "the Blessed Sacrament is perpetually reserved +and 'High Mass' is celebrated on Sundays with the full Catholic +ceremonial." In my own practice of architecture I am constantly +providing Presbyterian, Congregational, and even Unitarian churches, by +request, with chancels containing altars properly vested and ornamented +with crosses and candles, while the almost universal demand is for +church edifices that shall approach as nearly as possible in appearance +to the typical Catholic church of the Middle Ages. Of course some of +this is due to a revived instinct for beauty, that almost sacramental +quality in life which was ruthlessly destroyed by Protestantism, and +also to a renewed sense of the value of symbol and ritual; but back of +it all is the growing consciousness that, as Dr. Newman Smythe says, +Protestantism has definitely failed, or at least become superannuated; +that the essence of religion is spiritual not intellectual, affirmative +not negative, and that the only measure of safety lies in a return +towards, if not actually to, the Catholic faith and practice from which +the old revolt was affected. It is a movement both significant and full +of profound encouragement. + +Here then are two tendencies that surely show the way and demand +encouragement and furtherance; recovery of the sense of Christian unity +in Christ and through an united Catholic Church, and the re-acceptance +of sacramentalism as the expression of that faith and as the method of +that Church. I feel very strongly that wherever these tendencies show +themselves they must be acclaimed and cherished. The Protestant +denominations must be aided in every way in their process of recovery of +the good things once thrown away; Episcopalians must be persuaded that +nothing can be wrong that leads souls to Christ, and that therefore they +must cease their opposition to Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament +explicitly for adoration, to such devotions as Benediction and the +Rosary simply because they have not explicit Apostolic sanction, or to +vestments, incense and holy water because certain prescriptive laws +passed four hundred years ago in England have never been repealed. Above +all is it necessary that the Episcopal Church should declare itself +formally for the reinstitution of the seven Catholic sacraments, with +the Mass as the one supreme act of worship, obligatory as the chief +service on Sundays and Holy Days, and both as communion and as +sacrifice. In this connection there is one reform that would I think be +more effective than any other, (except the exaltation of the Holy +Eucharist itself) and that is the complete cessation of the practice of +commissioning lay readers and using them for mission work and clerical +assistance. A mission can be established and made fruitful only on the +basis of the sacraments, and chiefly on those of the Holy Eucharist and +Penance. It is not enough to send a zealous and well intentioned layman +to "a promising mission field" in order that he may read Morning and +Evening Prayer and some sermon already published. What is needed is a +priest to say Mass and hear confessions, and nothing else will serve as +a substitute. How this is to be accomplished, now when the candidates +for Holy Orders are constantly falling off in number, with no immediate +prospect of recovery, is a question. Perhaps we may learn something from +the old custom of ordaining "Mass priests," without cure of souls and +with a commission to celebrate the Holy Mysteries even while they +continue their own secular work in the world. For my own part I am +persuaded that the best solution lies in the establishing of diocesan +monasteries where men may take vows for short terms, and, during the +period of these vows, remain at the orders of the bishop to go out at +any time and anywhere in the diocese and to do such temporary or +periodical mission work as he may direct. + +_Unworldliness:_ I have referred to the great falling off in the number +of candidates for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church; the same +phenomenon is apparent in all the Protestant denominations, so far as I +know, but it has not shown itself in the Roman Catholic Church. This +defection parallels the falling-off of membership in the various +churches (except again the Roman Catholic) in proportion to the increase +in population. We are told that the diminution of the ministry is due to +the starvation wages that are paid in the vast majority of cases, and of +course it is true that where a married clergy is allowed, men who +believe they have a calling both to ministerial and to domestic life +will think twice before they follow the call of the first when the +pecuniary returns are such as to make the second impossible, which is, +generally speaking, the situation today. To obviate this difficulty many +religious bodies have recently established pension funds, but even this +form of clerical insurance, together with the increase that has been +effected in clerical stipends, has shown no results in an increase of +students in theological seminaries and in candidates for Orders. The man +who has enough of faith in God and a strong enough call to the ministry +of Christ, will answer the call even if he does think twice before doing +so. The trouble lies, I believe, in the very lack of faith and in a +failure of confidence in organized religion largely brought about by +organized religion itself through the methods it has pursued during the +last two or three generations. There is a widespread belief that it is +compromising with the world; that it is playing fast and loose with +faith and discipline in a vain opportunism that voids it of spiritual +power. Even where distrust does not reach this disastrous conclusion, +there is a growing feeling of repugnance to the methods now being +adopted in high quarters to "sell religion" to the public, as is the +phrase which is sufficient in itself to explain the falling away that +now seems to be in process. The attempt to win unwilling support by the +methods of the "institutional church," the rampant advertising, so +frequently under the management of paid "publicity agents"; the setting +apart of half the Sundays in the year for some one or other special +purpose, usually the raising of money for a specific and frequently +worthy object; the "drives" for millions, the huge and impressive +organizations, "scientifically" conducted, for rounding up lapsed +communicants, or doubtful converts, or cash and pledges for missions, or +pensions, or the raising of clergy stipends; the "Nation-wide Campaign," +the "Inter-Church World Movement"; these--not to speak of the growing +policy of "making it easy" for the hesitant to "come into the church" by +minimizing unpopular clauses in the Creeds or loosening-up on +discipline, and of attracting "advanced" elements by the advocacy and +exploiting of each new social or industrial or political fad as it +arises--are strong deterrents to those who honestly and ardently hunger +for religion that _is_ religion and neither social service nor "big +business." + +Christ said "you _cannot_ serve both God and mammon," and this is one of +the few cases where He stated a moral condition as a fact instead of +indicating the right or the wrong possibility in action. Organized +Christianity has for some time been trying to render this dual service, +and the penalty thereof is now on the world. This consideration seems to +me so important and so near the root of our troubles, and not in the +field of organized religion alone, that I am going to quote at length +from the Rev. Fr. Duffy of the American "Society of the Divine +Compassion." What he has said came to me while I was preparing this +lecture, and it is so much better than anything I could say that for my +present purpose I make it my own. + +"To the thoughtful person, and the need of reformation will appeal only +to the thoughtful person, it must on reflection become abundantly +evident that the chief necessity of our times in the religious world is +the recovery of Faith. Probably lack of the true measure of Faith has +been the story of every generation, with few exceptions, in the long +history of Christianity, but there possibly never has been a time when +men talked more of it and possessed less than in our own day. * * * *" + +"Christianity is a new thing of splendid vision for each and every +generation of men, unique in its promise and unapproached in its +attraction. And yet how small a factor we have made it in the world's +moulding compared with what it might be. We have not achieved a tiny +part of what we might have achieved, because we lack the essentials of +achievement; Faith and Faith's vision. Obsessed, after centuries of +discussion and persecution, with the notion that faith is made up of +mere belief, we have lost the secret of that victorious power that +overcomes the world, and are weakly dependent upon the world's means for +what spiritual operation we undertake. And so content have we grown with +things as they are, that what they might be comes only as a dream that +passes away quickly with the night; blind to our appalling +money-dependency in modern religion, satisfied that the Kingdom of +Heaven is as nigh to us as is possible under present conditions of +society, we practically have substituted for the theological virtues, +Faith, Hope and Charity, the ascending degrees of belief, resignation, +money. This is partly due to our religious inheritance and partly to +mental and spiritual sloth which dislikes the effort of thinking, +preferring easy acquiescence in conditions that are the resultants of +blinded vision. For dependency upon money is not something merely of the +present, but a condition in the spiritual sphere that is largely a +product of a long past. The really inexcusable thing is our willingness, +in a day of greater light and knowledge, to close our eyes to the true +nature of the unattractive, anaemic thing we _call_ faith, which would +be seen as powerless to achieve at all, if taken out of the soil of +material means in which it has been planted." + +He then gives various instances of methods actually put in practice +amongst the churches and denominations which indicate the renunciation +of faith and an exclusive reliance on worldy agencies and he then +continues: + +"The Joint Commission on Clergy Pensions, appointed by the General +Convention of 1913, made as the basis for apportionment, not the +services of self-denial of, but the amount of stipend received by, the +clergy eligible for pension, thus penalizing the priest who, for the +love of God, sacrificed a larger income to accept work in the most +needed places where toil is abundant and money scarce. It must be +evident, of course, that the motive of the Commission is not an +endorsement of the blasphemous gospel of Success, by adding penalty to +the self-denying clergy; what is painfully obvious is their apparent +unbounded confidence that there are no clergy sufficiently foolish to +sacrifice stipend at the call of faith's venture! And since the +Armistice, the only real activity in organized religion has been a +series of "drives" for vast sums of money, in most cases professionally +directed. + +"A consideration of a few facts such as the forgoing must readily +convince even the most unimaginative person that whatever power faith +might have had in the past, it counts for little today; that its +secrets, its very meaning have been forgotten. Otherwise there could not +be this extraordinary exaggeration of the place of money in spiritual +operation, and the unblushing, tacit admission that mammon, which Christ +so warned against, had been recognized as the master of spiritual +situation, instead of the willing servant and useful adjunct of faith it +was designed to be in the Christian vision. Indeed they all speak of +that, largely unconscious, atmosphere of distrust of God which is so +all-prevailing among Christian people today. If the great, positive vice +of the age is covetousness, the great negative one is distrust of God; +the two invariably go together as parts of a whole--one is the reverse +side of the other--for, it is not that we _must_ not, or _ought_ not, +but that we "_cannot_ serve God and mammon." And this atmosphere is one +in which faith cannot exist, it is stifled, crushed, killed, except it +breathe the pure, sweet air of God, with which it can alone surround +itself when human hearts will. + +"It is not surprising that out of such conditions should grow false +values, and that spirituality should be measured by the world's +standard. Thus we have fallen into the vicious habit of adjudging +qualifications for spiritual leadership among the clergy by the amount +of their stipends, and measuring their potentialities for usefulness in +the Kingdom of God by the amount of their yearly incomes; among the +laity, the men of power are ever the men of material means, whom we +permit to play the part of Providence in feeding and sustaining the +Church from large purses, the filling of which will not always bear +close investigation, and the really successful parish is always the one +that, no matter what its spiritual condition, rejoices in abundant +material means. So evident is it that the means of spiritual life have +been so confused with the purely material, that it occasions no surprise +when a neighbourhood having changed from the residence district of the +comparatively well-to-do to the very poor, the vestry feels bound to +consider the moving of the church to a more 'desirable' quarter. + +"These, of course, are hard facts to face, and it is not strange that we +should seek to evade them by a false optimism that thinks evil is +eliminated by merely contemplating good. The point is, _they must be +faced,_ and at a time when there is some evidence of a little awakening, +it must more and more force itself into the consciousness of the +thoughtful that the dead spiritual conditions of today are due to the +shifting of faith from God to material things as the means of achieving. +The only hope lies in the apparent unconsciousness of the error. This is +invariably the atmosphere that prevails when ecclesiastical history +repeats itself in corruption; it had been true of more than two or three +generations, though obviously unseen save by a few of those contemporary +with the times, that in Jerusalem, 'the heads thereof judge for reward, +and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for +money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say: Is not the Lord among +us? None evil can come upon us.' Corporate unconsciousness, in greater +or less measure, of these conditions, may influence the degree of guilt, +but never can acquit of the sin. And the cold, naked truth is that today +we stand almost helpless before a world of peculiar problems. + +"What is there here to reflect the _power_ and _might_ of Christianity, +such as the early Church, especially, possessed, and subsequent +generations, in times of great faith, really knew so much of--the power +to heal the sick, to cast out devils, to achieve wonders out of Christ's +poverty, to experience the thrilling joy of religion in the ever-abiding +Divine Presence, and witness the marvels of faith in the conquering of +the world? How is it we are no longer able to communicate the secrets to +the suffering world which are able to transmute the people's want into +God's plenty, and attract and hold the hearts of men with the joys of +the Vision Splendid? Why is it that hope has given way to resignation, +that the preaching of forgiveness has been dwarfed by the insistence +upon penalty, that distinct evils in the physical sphere are attributed +to God and, because of that, held up to religious estimation as good; +the day of miracles is regarded as belonging to a far distant past, the +answering of prayer looked upon as the exception instead of the rule, +and the old melody of joy in religion exchanged for the wail of despair +in an interpretation of 'Thy will be done' that is only associated with +human calamity? The reply is as simple as, to the thoughtful person, it +is obvious: we have lost knowledge of a living, vital, conquering faith +that is rooted in God Himself, and have satisfied the hunger of human +sense by placing trust in the things of the earth which we see and +touch, and in so doing lost the power spiritually to achieve. + +"Now we can only approach, in the hope of a day of better things, the +great practical and intellectual problems of our times from the +standpoint of faith's recovery, for it is only in their relationship to +faith they can be viewed intelligently by the Christian. And it will be +found that at the root of all our difficulties and all our +negligences--so many of them unconscious--and as the cause of our vain +expediencies and attempts to justify the corporate spiritual situation, +is the absence of vital faith and a _whole_ obedience to which God alone +has conditioned results. We need sorely to reconsider what faith really +is, and when we have recovered in some measure that knowledge of it in +experience, which declared its unspeakable worth in the early Church and +in later periods of ecclesiastical history which stand out before all +others, we shall look back upon our past distrust of God and His +promises with shame and wonderment, and proceed to revise our +cataloguing of spiritual values and degrees of sin. For the really +destructive thing, _before all others,_ is a weakened faith that +compromises in a half obedience to Christ and a search for earthly +props. The work of Satan has even been the prompting of distrust of God +in the human family, just as the work of redemption means so largely the +re-establishing of it in the Person of Jesus Christ. From the first +temptation of man to the present moment, all the forces of evil have +concentrated upon breaking man's trust in God and His promises; every +sin has had that as its ultimate end, and every disaster, ill and trial, +in the world and individual life, is subtly presented by the enemy of +God and man (knowing our haziness of vision), so as to place the +appearances against the Creator in a blind disregard for the created; +just as in the life of the Incarnate Son all the great power of the +forces of darkness were brought to bear unsuccessfully upon the snapping +of His faith in His Father--from the time He was tempted to believe +Himself forgotten, when hungering and physically reduced in the +wilderness after His long fast, until the dreadful cry of dereliction +from the Cross at the very end. + +"The call for reformation today, then, is to the doing of things left +undone, the search for and recovery of almost lost spiritual powers that +alone lastingly can achieve for God and hasten man's salvation. And this +requires the venture and daring that breaks from the world, withdraws +from compromise, and that, rightly estimating the character and attitude +of God, refuses longer to believe Him the author of evils we resignedly +accept today by calling them good; and instead, claims the powers of the +Divine promises for the utter destruction of the world's ills by a +strict dependence upon spiritual forces and weapons for the +accomplishment of results. Above all, this means a change and reform in +corporate conduct as the end of repentance, for the present almost total +disregard of the laws and principles of Christian living as given in the +Sermon on the Mount." + + +These are hard sayings and strong doctrine, but will any one say they +are not true? The weakening of religion, with the consequent decline of +civilization, is ultimately to be traced back to _organized_ religion, +not to religion itself, and still less to any inherent defects in +Christianity. Where organized religion has failed it deserved to fail, +because it countenanced disunion, forsook the saving sacraments, and +finally compromised with worldliness and materialism. With each one of +these false ventures faith began to weaken amongst the mass of people +until at last this, which can always save, and alone can save, ceased to +have either the power or the will to force the organism to conform to +the spirit. If we have indeed accomplished the depth of our fall, then +the time is at hand when we may hope and pray for a new outpouring of +divine grace that will bring recovery. + +There are wide evidences that men earnestly desire this. I have already +spoken of the great corporate movements towards unity, and these mean +much even though they may at present take on something of the quality of +mechanism instead of depending on the individual and the grace of God +working in him. The "World Conference on Faith and Order," the just +effected federation of the Presbyterians, Methodists and +Congregationalists in Canada, above all the eirenic manifesto of the +Bishops at the last Lambeth Conference, all indicate a new spirit +working potently in the souls of men. Concrete results are not as yet +conspicuous, but the spirit is there and a beginning has been made. Even +more significant is the wide testimony to the need for definite, +concrete and pervasive religion that is daily given by men whose names +have hitherto been quite dissociated from matters of this kind; +scientists, educators, men of business and men of public life. It may be +testimony in favour of some new invention, some synthetic product of +curious and abnormal ingredients; as a matter of fact it frequently is, +and we confront such remarkable products as Mr. Wells has given us, for +example. The significant thing, however, is the fact of the desire and +the avowal; if we have this I think we may leave it to God to see that +the desire is satisfied in the end by heavenly food and not by the +nostrums of ingenuity. For the same reason we may look without dismay on +certain novel phenomena of the moment. In their divergence from "the +Faith once delivered to the Saints" and left in the keeping of the +Church Christ founded as a living and eternal organism through which His +Spirit would work forever, they are wrong and therefore they cannot +endure, but each testifies to the passionate desire in man for religion +as a reality, and no one of them comes into existence except as the +result of desperate action by men to recover something that had been +taken from them and that their souls needed, and would have at any cost. +Each one of these strange manifestations is a reaction from some old +error that had become established belief or custom. No one who holds to +historic Christianity is interested in them, but those who have found +religion intellectualized beyond endurance and transformed either by +materialism or rationalism, seek for the mysticism they know to be a +reality (to employ a paradox) in the ultra mysticism of Oriental cults; +those who revolt against the exaggeration of evil and its exaltation to +eminence that rivals that of God Himself, which is the legacy of one +powerful movement in the Reformation, rush to the other extreme and deny +the existence of evil and even the reality of matter, while spiritism, +the most insidious, perilous and fatal of all the spiritual temptations +that beset the world at this time, gains as its adherents those who have +been deprived of the Catholic belief in the Communion of Saints and have +been forbidden to pray for the dead or to ask for their prayers and +intercessions. + +However strange and erroneous the actual manifestation, there is no +question as to the reality and prevalence of the desire for the recovery +of spiritual power through the channels of religion. It shows itself, as +it should, first of all in the individual, and it is only recently that +organized religion, Catholic or Protestant, has begun to show a +sympathetic consciousness and to take the first hesitant steps towards +meeting the demand. Because of this the seekers for reality have been +left unshepherded and have wandered off into strange wildernesses. The +call is now to the churches, to organized religion, and if the call is +heeded our troubles are well on the road to an end. If the old way of +jealousy, hatred and fear is maintained, then humanly speaking, our case +is hopeless. If the older way of brotherhood, charity and +loving-kindness is followed the future is secure in the Great Peace. +Nothing is wrong that leads men to Christ, and this is true from the +Salvation Army at one end of the scale to the Seven Sacraments of +Catholicity at the other. The world demands now not denial but +affirmation, not protest and division but the ringing "Credo" of +Catholic unity. + + + + +VIII + + +PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY + + Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of + Hosts. + +We have tried to approach each subject in this course of lectures in the +spirit of peace, and the greatest contributory factor in the achieving +of the Great Peace is the individual himself, on whom, humanly speaking, +rests the final responsibility. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My +Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Not by majestical engines and curious +devices and mass-action, nor yet by an imposed human authority enforced +by arms and the law, but by the Holy Spirit of God working through the +individual soul and compelling the individual will. Peace is one of the +promised fruits of the Holy Spirit, and like the others is manifested +through human lives; therefore on us rests the preeminent responsibility +of showing forth in ourselves, first of all, those things we desire for +others and for society. + +We have experienced the Great War, we endure its aftermath, and amidst +the perils and dangers that follow both there is none greater than that +which attaches to exterior war, viz., that the attention of both +combatants is focussed on the faults and the weaknesses and the crimes +of the opponent, with the result that both become destructive critics +rather than constructive examples. Chesterton rightly says, "What is +wrong with the critic is that he does not criticise himself * * * rather +he identifies himself with the ideal." Seeing evil in others and +flattering one's self is the antithesis of the spirit that would lead to +the Great Peace, for in that spirit the field of warfare is transferred +from the external to the internal, and the interior contest, which alone +establishes lasting results, necessitates a recognition of our own error +and the need of amendment of our own life. + +If our modern devices have failed; if the things we invented with a high +heart and high hope, in government, industry, society, education, +philosophy have in the end brought disappointment, disillusionment, even +despair, it is less because of their inherent defects than because the +individual failed, and himself ceased to act as the sufficient channel +for the divine power which alone energizes our weak little engines and +which acts through the individual alone. There is no better +demonstration of this essential part played by the personal life of man +than the fact that God, for the redemption of the world, took on human +form and became one Man amongst many men. There is no better +demonstration of the fact that it is through the personal lives of +individuals that the Great Peace is to be achieved, both directly and +indirectly, than the fact that peace, the gift of the Holy Spirit, was +promised to the individual man, by Christ Himself, as the legacy he left +to his disciples after His Resurrection and Ascension. Since then the +world has been under the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the "Guide and +Comforter" that was promised, even though it has blindly and from time +to time rejected the guidance and therefore known not the comfort. The +Old Law of "Thou shalt not" was followed by the New Law of "Thou shalt," +and this in turn by the law of the third Person of the Trinity which +does not supersede the dispensations of the Father and of the Son, but +fulfills them in that it affords the spiritual power, if we will, to +abide by the inhibitions and to carry out the commands. + +Our search is for peace, the Great Peace, "the Peace of God which +passeth all understanding," and we shall achieve this for ourselves and +for the world only through ourselves as individuals, and so for the +society of which we are a part, and in so far as we bring ourselves into +contact with the Spirit of God. There is deep significance in the fact +that the first time Christ used the salutation "Peace be unto you," was +after His resurrection. It would seem that this special gift of the Holy +Spirit had to be withheld from man until after the human life of God the +Son had been brought to an end in accomplishment, for He says "Peace I +leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I +unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." "It +is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter +will not come unto you: but if I depart I will send Him unto you. When +He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." "Ye +shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." + +It is the spirit that quickeneth. After God had revealed the Law and +given to us the great redeeming and atoning Life, He saw that we had +need of a further manifestation before we should be able to keep the law +and live the life. Therefore the Holy Spirit was sent to quicken us and +give us power to do what we had both heard and seen. Today we accept the +moral law, we recognize the perfection of Chirst's life, but we need to +be reminded again that the power to be "sons of God" is present with us +if we will but use it. As this power is a spirit it can only be +apprehended spiritually; when our minds and hearts are set on material +things, even on good material things, the "still small voice" of the +spirit remains unheard: but if we listen first to that inward voice and +then use the means of grace afforded us, we are enabled to lift up our +hearts and minds to the Creator and then to use in His service all the +material universe which is also His creation. We can not get a right +philosophy by working for right philosophy, but only by living in the +right relationship as individuals: then as a by-product of religion a +right philosophy will come. We can not get a right industrial system by +searching for a right industrial system, but if we show forth in our +lives the Christian virtues, a right industrial system will come as one +of the by-products of religion. So with each one of our so-called +"problems." Life rightly lived has no problems. This is a hard saying +for an intellectual age whose temptation is to trust in its own power +rather than in the power of God, but "except ye become as little +children" and walk by faith and not by sight the Kingdom of God is +withheld. A soldier who suffered in the late war, and out of his +suffering found peace, says, "Christ's hardest work is to teach the +wise: Those who are entrusted with authority and responsibility will be +the least prepared to make the venture of the Spirit, however much they +may believe in it. They are sacrificing least now: they will have to +sacrifice most when the Spirit comes. They have so much to unlearn: +children and working men have so little. The whole of our world today is +rooted and grounded in intellect. Our machinery, our institutions, our +great systems, the entire body of enterprise is governed by brains. It +is this that will alter. Just behind intellect there is a vision that is +purer, keener, more powerful than the vision of your eyes, than the +hearing of your ears, than the touch of your hands. This world is being +transformed into another which comes into being at our spiritual touch. +The world needs something personal, something from the heart. It is sick +to death with the cold machinery of the intellect. But before men see +this they must change their view of life, they must _be born again._ The +scientists, the historians and theologians, the philosophers, have made +the universe too big. It is not a big place: it is very tiny. Life is so +simple, really. Our wise men have made it so difficult, so ugly. It is +only children who can see the risen Christ; children, perhaps, out of +whom seven devils have been cast. The world needs not critics, but +teachers, and children are waiting everywhere to teach, but men, +shutting the windows of their souls, try rather to mould these little +ones to fit into the vacant spaces of their own stupid world. Are not +children the true artists? They won't tolerate anything but Beauty. They +see Beauty everywhere, not because it is there, but because they want it +there. Everything they touch turns into something far more precious than +gold: every word they utter is a song of praise. You are almost in +heaven every time you look into the eyes of a child." Remember, please, +these are the words of a man who has faced the horrible realities of +modern warfare, and so do not dismiss them as mere poetry, or with +Nicodemus' question, "How can a man be born again?", but listen to a +modern interpretation of the answer to that question:--("The Life +Indeed.") "We must be born again even to see the spiritual kingdom, must +be born of water and the spirit to enter its gates at all. So to his +little audience of disciples Our Lord says it is not an affair of +legislation, of discovery, of which men say, 'Lo here, lo there! but the +kingdom of heaven is _within you._ Why a second birth? This is a second +birth because it must needs supervene at a point where two elements can +work together, the element of an appealing, vitalizing spirit from the +unseen and the element of free human choice. Being of the spirit, it is +the birth into freedom: it is the soul emerging from its prison into the +open air of liberty and light and life." Note the element of free +choice. Our first birth is outside our choice and the gifts are +unconditioned; our second birth, when again we become as little +children, demands our response to the Holy Spirit and our persevering +cooperation with Him to make His influence effectual for ourselves and +for the "communion of saints" and the corporate religion into which the +Spirit also baptizes us. In a recent sermon a bishop of the Episcopal +Church says, "This is the creed of the Church--the Divine Father and +Forgiveness: the Divine Son and Redemption: the Divine Spirit and +Abundant Life. Therefore the Church still insists upon the creation of +moral rectitude and spiritual character as the end and purpose of +religion, aye, as the basic problem underlying all questions relating to +human life--social, industrial, civic, and political. The Church still +preaches the gospel of the Grace of God, the obligation and blessing of +worship, the meaning and virtue of the Christian Sacraments." Also "My +brethren, we shall not be content to criticize and find fault with our +own age and time, but rather we shall pray for the power to see within +its questionings, unrest and discontent--aye, its recklessness and +apparent failures--the strivings of the Spirit of God. But each man has +to voice for himself the conviction of the reality of the spiritual +order and the spiritual life. Therefore, let us believe in and practice +the worship of God, 'praying always' as St. Paul says, 'with all prayer +and supplication in the Spirit,' or as St. Jude says, 'building up +yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.'" + +Let us accept this suggestion and try to find in the unrest of our own +time evidences of "the strivings of the Spirit of God," waiting our +perception and response. The soldier of the Great War, having faced +death and imprisonment and suffering in many forms says, "compared with +the depth of good in the world the evil is shallow." The first evidence +of good in our own day is the almost universal discontent with evils and +the desire to find a better way. The humility which recognizes that so +widespread a condition cannot be the fault of any one nation or group +but is rather the responsibility of each one of us, is cause for hope. +Some of us believe that war can breed only war, hatred only hatred; that +governments cannot make peace, but can only cause cessation of open +hostilities, and that the real peace, the Great Peace, must await the +action of the Spirit. This Spirit, of love and forgiveness, breeds love +and forgiveness, indeed is far more potent than the spirit of hate. +Because of this very strength and potency its evidences are not so +immediately apparent, but they are deeper-rooted. Perhaps in this +material sphere we human beings must see, and to a certain extent +experience, hate, before we can really know love, and consciously and +freely choose it. When that choice is made, when we, knowing all that +hate and evil and malice can accomplish, yet deliberately choose to love +our enemies, we have slain the Adversary and made hate and evil +powerless. Of course we have not power of ourselves to do this but only +through the grace of God. When we try God's way, not waiting for the +other person to reform or to be generous or to speak gently or to +forgive, then and only then do we deserve the name of Christians; then +and only then are we walking in love; then and only then are we really +praying effectually "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it +is in Heaven." We have tried the way of the world, the way of reprisals, +the way of distrust, and, thank God, we are none of us satisfied with +the results. Perhaps now we may be ready to try the way of God by making +the great adventure of faith, each one in his own person; faith in +himself and faith in the future. The way of the world has bred fear that +has issue in hate, and hate that has issue in fear; but the better way, +that of faith, breeds trust that has issue in fellowship, and fellowship +that has issue in trust. There is no problem of labour, of politics, of +society that is insoluble if once it is approached in the spirit of +faith and fellowship and trust, but none of these is susceptible of +solution where the controlling motives are hate, distrust and fear. The +modern policy of centralization and segregation has resulted in dealing +with men as groups and not as individuals. When, for example, iron-bound +cults (they are no less than this) meet as "capital" and as "labour," +both merge the individuality of their members in a thing which has no +real or necessary existence but is an artificial creation of thought +operating under the dominion of ephemeral, almost accidental conditions. +As a member of an "interest" or a cult, where humanity and personality +are, so to speak, "in commission," a man does not hesitate to do those +things he would never think of doing for himself, knowing them to be +selfish, cruel, unjust and uncharitable. A case in point--if we need +one, which is hardly probable since they are of daily occurrence--is the +pending contest between the mine operators and mine workers in Great +Britain, where both parties, with Government thrown in, are guilty of +maintaining theories and perpetrating acts for which an individual would +be, even now, excoriated and outlawed. The Irish imbroglio is another +instance of the same kind. + +In a personal letter from a consulting engineer who has had unusual +opportunities, by reason of his official position, to come closely in +contact with the conditions governing industry and finance both in +America and Europe since the war, I find this illuminating statement of +a matured judgment. "As a practical matter, and facing the issue, I +would preach the practice of de-centralization in government and +business which will in time develop the individual and accomplish the +desired end. * * * Decentralization should be carried to such an extent +that the units of business would be of such size that the head could +again have a personal relation with each individual associated with him. +* * * With the personal relation again established, unionism as at +present practiced would again be unnecessary, and the unions would +become once more guilds for the development and advancement of the +individual." It is this nullification of the human element, of the +person as such, the introduction of the gross aggregate with its +artificial corporate quality, and the attempt to establish a +correspondence between these unnatural things, the whole being +intensified by the emotions of fear, distrust and hate, which produces +the contemporary insistence on "rights" and the rank injustice, cruelty +and disorder that follow the blind contest. To quote again from the +soldier who achieved illumination through the recent war, "My friends, +there is no protection of rights in heaven. When we speak of rights we +are blinded by the light of this world of rule and order and +intellectual conceits. It is not justice we need, it is mercy." + +If we honestly endeavour to bring about something more nearly +approaching the Kingdom of God on earth, we should do well to achieve a +little more of the quality of child-like trust which knows that through +the petition to father or mother, or to a guardian angel, or directly to +God, the result will surely follow. We long passionately to see a good, +_our_ good as we see it, accepted here and now, but whatever we offer, +no mater how righteous or how salutary, is but a small part of the great +good, a limited and partial showing forth of only one element, while the +final and comprehensive good is the result of many contributions, and in +the end is not ours, but God's, and by His overruling providence it may +look very unlike what we had predetermined and anticipated. Moreover, +the condition even of our own small good becoming effective, is _faith,_ +and neither sight nor action. There is a faith that can move mountains, +and it is faith in fellowship, in the underlying, indestructible good in +man, above all in the desire and the intent of God to deal mercifully +with us and beyond the dictates of justice and the claims of our own +deserts. When we know and accept this power of faith, placing it above +the efficiency of our own feeble works, then indeed we may become the +patient, hopeful, joyful and faithful Christians we were intended to be, +and therefore the creators of the spirit of peace. Nothing permanent can +be achieved except in cooeperation with God; any work of man alone (or of +the devil) has in it the seed of decay and must perish, This knowledge +relieves us of the gloomy responsibility of destroying or trying to +destroy every evil thing we see or think we see. If it is really evil it +is already dying unless nourished by evil within ourselves. Here is a +Buddhist legend which has a lesson for each of us--"The watcher in the +shrine of Buddha rushed in to the Holy Fathers one morning with tidings +of a horrible demon who had usurped the throne of our Lord Buddha. The +Fathers ran to the throne room, each one more infuriated than the other, +and declaimed against the insolence of the demon, who grew huger and +more hideous at every angry word that hurtled through the air. At last +arrived the oldest and most saintly of the monks and threw himself on +his knees before the demon and said, "We thank thee, O Master, for +teaching us how much anger and wrath and jealousy was still hidden in +our hearts." At every word he said, the demon grew smaller and smaller +and at last vanished. He was am Anger-Eating Demon, and anger-rousing +words and even thoughts of ill-feeling nourished him. + +The belief that in comparison with the depth of good in the world the +evil is shallow may also be expressed in the statement that God is Lord +of Eternity while the devil is prince only of this world. As this evil +spirit has power, and as a part of this power is the ability to appear +as an angel of light, so to deceive us, we are bound by +self-examination, constantly indulged in, to scrutinize those things, so +common in our own lives we do not notice them, which may be but the +illusions of this spirit of darkness showing as a fictitious spirit of +light: Hurry and carelessness both in thought and in action; +snap-judgment at short range; compromise with the spirit of the time in +the interest of "good business," "practical considerations" or "sound +policy"; worship of the doctrine of "get results," acceptance of the +horrible principle: that it is every man's business to "sell" something +to another, from a patent medicine or "gilt edged" bonds to a new +philosophy or an old religion; the estimating of values by size, number, +cost. It is common parlance among Christian people to speak of what a +man "is worth" meaning how much money he has. We speak of a man's +"making a living" meaning only how much money he makes, when by making +only money he would be killing his living. Do we not speak of the call +of a missionary from an unshepherded flock to a large city parish as a +call to "a wider sphere of usefulness"? When you or I conceive of any +piece of work as "important" is it not because it involves either great +numbers or great sums of money? Then we hear much today of the need for +leaders. The need could not be exaggerated, but does not this lack +exist, in part, because we have forgot that the Christian's first duty +is to be a follower, and that only from amongst real followers can God +(not man, least of all the man himself) raise up a leader? These are +small matters, you may say, but "straws show which way the wind blows," +and the spirit, like the wind, manifests itself first in small matters. +Every life is made up largely of small things, "the little, nameless +unremembered acts of kindness and of love" which some one has called +"the noblest portion of a good man's life." + +With this brief glance at some of the possible manifestations of the +spirit of evil which we believe to be temporary and therefore of +secondary importance only, let us consider some of the requisites of the +Christian life as exemplified in the life of Christ, especially those of +which we need to be reminded today. We have already spoken of that +child-likeness which takes the faith simply and applies it to the common +things of daily life--Christ's life of ministry, of good works (which +was, in proportion to the time given to preparation for activity and +preaching, of very short duration), full of injunctions to those who +were with him to "tell no man"; therefore the good works which are done +"in His likeness" must not be done in public. If we are "seen of men," +verily we have our reward. Christ's life ended in apparent failure, in +ignominious death on the cross. The world worships today's success and +immediate publicity, the Christian, to be worthy of his Lord, must +accept apparent failure and must offer his best work in secret: "And my +Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." A touching poem +of Francis Thompson's pictures the marveling of a soul on his rewards in +Paradise which, in his humility, he thinks undeserved. The man asks of +God: + + _O when did I give Thee drink erewhile, + Or when embrace Thine unseen feet? + What gifts Thee give for my Lord Christ's smile, + Who am a guest here most unmeet?_ + +and is answered + + _When thou kissedest thy wife and children sweet + (Their eyes are fair in my sight as thine) + I felt the embraces on My feet. + (Lovely their locks in thy sight and Mine.)_ + +A necessary reminder of the fact that for each of us, charity, which is +love, begins at home, and that we love and serve God best in His holy +human relationships--if we love not our brother whom we have seen how +can we love God whom we have not seen? + +Again, the individual Christian life must, like its Great Original, +suffer for others. When we suffer as a result of our own wrongdoing we +are but meeting our just reward; but if patiently and humbly and +voluntarily we bear pain, even unto death, for others, we are +transcending justice, the pagan law, and exemplifying mercy, the +Christian virtue. No sensitive soul in this generation, conscious of the +sacrifice of the millions of young lives who "stormed Heaven" in their +willingness to die that others might live, can doubt this. The essence +of love is sacrifice; voluntary, nay eager sacrifice. Before our Blessed +Lord died He was mocked and ridiculed, He suffered physical hardship, +falling under the weight of the cross, and He was lifted up, crucified, +to suffer the ignominious death of a felon. He was made a spectacle for +the jests and laughter of the multitude. In our own time and amongst +ourselves, except for periods of war, there is little necessity for +physical suffering for our faith, but the need to endure ridicule is as +great as ever, perhaps even greater because of the absence of physical +suffering. Since we are trying to apply these things in small and simple +ways to the individual life let us each one consider how much moral +courage it takes to defend Christian virtues when they are sneered at +under the guise of "jokes." Let us exercise charity by not quoting +instances, but let us be watchful of our laughter and our fellowship, +which are both gifts of God, and see that we do not confuse pagan +pleasure with Christian joy, the evil sneer with the tender recognition +of the absurd in ourselves and in others. It is Mr. Chesterton again who +points out the fact that the pagan virtues of justice and the like which +he calls the "sad virtues" were superseded, when the great Christian +revelation came, by the "gay and exuberant virtues," the virtues of +grace, faith, hope and charity; and who says, "the pagan virtues are the +reasonable virtues, and the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity +are in their essence as unreasonable as they can be. Charity means +pardoning what is unpardonable or it is no virtue at all. Hope means +hoping when things are hopeless or it is no virtue at all. And faith +means believing the incredible or it is no virtue at all." If you say +this is a paradox I reply: it must be so, since it requires faith to +accept a paradox. The realm of reason is the one in which we walk by +sight, and of this fact our age in its pride of intellect has need to be +reminded. If Christ be not the Son of God, and His revelation of the +"faith once delivered" be not the divine and final guide, fulfilling, +completing and at the same time reversing every other ethic, religion +and moral code, then these things be indeed foolishness, for there is no +explaining them on the ground of logic or philosophy. But if, by the +gift of grace, we have faith, we remember "I thank Thee, Father, that +Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed +them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." + +Again, and if as persons we are to grow in relationship to a personal +God, we must both speak and listen to our Father; in other words we must +use the great dynamic of prayer. "More things are wrought by prayer than +this world dreams of." We are told that one of the requisites of the +really good talker is to be a good listener; the apparently good talker +is in reality a monologuist. In our prayer-life today do we recognize +sufficiently the need for _listening_ to God? We are perhaps ready +enough to ask for blessings and mercies, but that is only a part of the +full life of prayer which must include also thanksgiving, lifting of the +heart and mind, and quiet listening or interior prayer. There was an age +in the world when this interior prayer was so much more joyful and +natural a thing than the world of matter that it had to be taught "to +labour is to pray." Today, when we accept the necessity of labour, and +even worship activity for its own sake, do we not need to be reminded +that to pray is to labour? If you doubt this, try to make that +concentrated form of prayer known as meditation, out of which springs a +resolve and determination to do better; try to do this faithfully for +fifteen minutes a day and it may prove the hardest work you have ever +undertaken. A great servant of God has said, "I believe no soul can be +lost which faithfully practices meditation for fifteen minutes a day." +Nor must we forget that in this work of prayer we are companioned by the +Holy Spirit, the Peace-maker, Who maketh intercession for us "with +groanings which can not be uttered" and "Who leads us ever gently but +surely into that closer communion with God whose result is life more +abundant." After prayer it is easier to realize that "to be spiritually +minded is life and peace"; it is easier to obey the injunction "And +grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of +redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and +evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one +to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for +Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." And for those that seek after peace +it must be _all_ wrath, _all_ anger and _all_ evil speaking which are +put away: This leaves no room for what the world calls "just wrath" +"righteous anger," or speaking evil of evil doers. Let us call to mind +the incident in the early life of St. John, afterwards the great +disciple of love, when he wanted to call down wrath on the wicked +inhabitants of a city and was rebuked by Our Lord who said, "Ye know not +in what spirit ye speak." After love had supplanted wrath, and the good +spirit had taken the place of the evil in St. John's heart, he was sent +to convert the people he would have destroyed. Yes, it is the spirit +that matters, the wrath that is wrong and that must be put away before +we can love God or our neighbour as ourself, for the fruit of the Spirit +is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, +meekness, temperance. + +When we understand that the object of life and of education is the +creation of a spirit and not the doing of things, we are freed from the +tyranny of results in this world as a final test and come to realize +that judgment belongs only to God Who as a Spirit judges the effort. + +Of course this does not mean that we are freed from the moral law, that +certain evil things in ourselves and in others are not always the +results of an evil spirit, but rather that in addition to avoiding and +shunning those things which are obviously evil, we must with equal care +avoid doing even good things in a bad spirit. The commandments still +stand, the moral law is abated not one jot, but in Christianity and in +Christianity alone are we given power to fulfill the law and to add the +new commandment, the summing up of them all, of love to God and man. No +human soul comes into the world without some desire to be good, because +each human soul is a child of God. To each one, not blinded by pride +(and surely it should be easy in these days to be humble) comes, sooner +or later, the realization of his own inability of himself to do what he +would, the need for a power outside himself, the power which is +available and of which we have heard "I am come that ye might have life +and more abundantly." Let us examine how the apostles set about living +this abundant life. In Dr. Genung's "The Life Indeed" we read, "One and +all they made it a matter of the spirit that is the man, but the spirit +they recognized was not an abstraction, or a theory, but a present +Person and helper who was witnessing with their spirits. St. John makes +the matter equally definite: 'The Son of God,' he says, 'was manifest +that he might destroy the works of the Devil,' and St. Paul, mindful of +the inner subtleties of the conflict, warns his readers that Satan has +changed his tactics and has transformed himself into an angel of light. +I am not sure that we have gained greatly by letting our notions of +spiritual life grow dim and abstract. Perhaps for this very reason the +rebellious, negative, designing spirit that is so prone to invade the +hearts of us all is the more free to gain a foot-hold and go about +controlling the tone of our life. There is real advantage in bringing +the large issues of life to a point where not only our mind but, as it +were, our senses, can lay hold on them. It is the impulse of +simple-minded men like those early disciples, and if we continue +straight-seeing we do not outgrow it. What makes these views of life so +deep is not that they are less simple than those of others, but that +they are more simple. To St. John the reality that has come to win the +world is not the promise of salvation, or prophecy of an eventual life +eternal, but just life without modification or limitation, life +absolute, full-orbed, pulsating through worlds seen and unseen alike. 'I +am the Life,' he makes Christ say, not, 'I am working to secure it.' St. +John it is who preserves to us that conception of eating the Flesh and +drinking the Blood of the Son of Man. No philosopher in the world, we +may roundly say, would ever have put it so, and yet how effectually is +thus revealed what it means to get the power of the new life thoroughly +incorporated with our blood and breath. He it is who identifies the most +inner values of life with the simplest acts and experiences, reducing it +to terms of eating bread and drinking water, and walking in daylight, +and bearing fruit like the branches of a vine and following like sheep +the voice of a shepherd, and entering a door and finding pasture." + +Let us cease trying materialistic and intellectual means for supplying +the power to live the spiritual life and let us each one establish the +needful relationship with the true source of power. May our time not be +likened to the Oriental traveler, who, appreciating the convenience and +force of electricity as seen in a room he occupied, fitted his palace, +on his return, with a set of elaborate fixtures and was surprised to +find no illumination therefrom! We are torches who can not shine in +themselves, but who, when connected with the great central Source of +Power, the Blessed Trinity in its three glorious manifestations, can +show forth the light of the world. Christians should be torch bearers, +and the true torch bearer lights not his own path so much as the path of +those who come after him. And this brings us to the fundamental reason +for personal responsibility. Our motive in seeking personal +righteousness it not, as might hastily be thought, because of a selfish +desire to save our own souls, or to withdraw either here or hereafter +from other souls, but for "their sakes" to sanctify ourselves; for the +lives we live today create the spiritual atmosphere of tomorrow. + +From Spain come the following suggestive thoughts in regard to the value +of the person. "The individual is the real purpose of the universe. We +may seek the hero of our thought in no philosopher who lived in flesh +and blood, but in a being of fiction and of action, more real than all +the philosophers. He is Don Quixote. One cannot say of Don Quixote that +he was strictly idealistic. He did not fight for ideas: he was of the +spirit and he fought for the spirit. Quixotism is a madness descended +from the madness of the cross; therefore it is despised by reason; Don +Quixote will not resign himself to either the world or its truth, to +science or logic, to art or aesthetics, to morals or ethics. And what +did he leave behind him? one may ask. I reply that he left himself, and +that a man, a man living and immortal, is worth all theories and all +philosophies. Other countries have left us institutions and books: Spain +has left soul. St. Theresa is worth all institutions whatever, or any +'Critique of Pure Reason.'" + +Yes, this is I think the lesson we have to learn, now at this turning +point in history with the epoch of intellect crumbling about our ears, +and the great World's Fair of multiplied, ingenious mechanisms we have +called "modern civilization" at a point of practical bankruptcy. It is +the spirit that counts, the soul of "man living and immortal," and only +through our own living, and the spiritual force that we can command, and +through ourselves apply, shall we be able to compass that social +regeneration that is the only alternative to social degeneration and +catastrophe. The man who does not live his belief is powerless to redeem +or to create, though he were a Solon, a Charlemagne, a Napoleon or a +Washington; the man who lives his belief, even if he is a mill-hand in +Fall River, is contributing something of energizing force to the task of +re-creation. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the +Lord of Hosts." + +Fantastic and paradoxical as it may seem to link together Don Quixote +and St. Theresa, I am not sure that we could do better than to accept +them as models. The loud laughter of an age of intellectual ribaldry and +self-conceit dies away and the gaunt figure of the last of the Crusaders +still stands before us heroic in his childlike refusal of compromise, +his burning compassion, his deafness to ridicule. In a sense we must all +be ready to accept the jeering and the scorn that were poured out on the +Knight of La Mancha, if like him we are to fight, even foolishly, for +the things that are worth fighting for--either that they may be +destroyed, or restored. And with St. Theresa we must be willing to +endure obloquy, suspicion, malice, if like her we live in faith, +subjecting our will to the divine will, and then sparing nothing of +ourselves in the labour of saving the world for God in the twentieth +century as St. Theresa laboured to save it in the sixteenth century. + +The call today is for personal service through the right living that +follows the discovery of a right relationship to God. Not a campaign but +a crusade; and the figures of St. Louis and St. Francis and St. Theresa, +together with all the Knights and Crusaders of Christendom, rise up +before us to point the way. We would find the Great Peace, the world +would find the Great Peace also, but + + _The way is all so very plain + That we may lose the way._ + +We have been told: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His +righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, for your +Heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of these things." If we go forth on +this new and knightly quest--quest indeed in these latter days, for the +Holy Grail, lost long since and hidden away from men--we may, by the +grace of God, achieve. Then, "suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye," and +before we are aware, for "the Kingdom of God cometh not with watching," +we and even the world, shall find that we have compassed the Great +Peace, and if we do not live to see it, yet in our "certain hope" we +shall know that it will come, if not in our time, yet in God's good +time; if not in our way, yet in His more perfect way. + +In these lectures I have from time to time, and perhaps beyond your +patience, criticised and condemned many of those concrete institutions +which form the working mechanism of life, even suggesting possible +substitutes. In ending I would say as in beginning; this is not because +salvation may be found through any device, however perfect, but because +this itself, by reason of its excellence on the one hand or its +depravity on the other, is, under the law of life, contributory to the +operation of the divine spirit (which is the sole effective energy) or a +deterrent. I have tried at long last to gather up this diffuse argument +for the supremacy of spiritual force as it works through the individual, +and to place it before you in this concluding lecture. Perhaps I can +best emphasize my point thus. + +The evil of the institutions which now hold back the progress that must +be made towards social recovery and the Great Peace, is far less the +quality of wrongness in themselves and the ill influence they put in +operation, than it is the revelation they make of personal character. It +is not so much that newspapers are what they are as that there should be +men who are pleased and content to make them this, in apparently honest +ignorance of what they are doing, and that there should be others in +sufficient number to make them profitable business propositions by +giving them their appreciation and support. It is not so much that +government should be what it is as that character should have so far +degenerated in the working majority of citizens that these qualities +should show themselves as a fixed condition, and that there should be no +body of men of numerical distinction, who regard the situation with +sentiments much more active than those of indifference and amused +toleration. It is not so much that the industrial situation should be +what it is, as that there should be on both sides moral wrong, and that +this condition could not have come about, nor could it still be +maintained, except through character degeneration in the individual. It +is not so much that many forms of religion are what they are, as it is +that they should progressively have become this through their exponents +and adherents, and that there should be so many who are still willing to +defend them in this case. + +Every ill thing reveals through its very quality the defects of the +individual man, and as upon him must rest the responsibilities for the +fault, so on him must be placed the responsibility for the recovery. The +failures we have recorded, the false gods we have raised up in idolatry, +even the Great War itself, are revelations of failure in personal and +individual character. We may recognize this, but recognition is not +enough. We may found societies and committees and write books and +deliver lectures, but corporate action is not enough, nor intellectual +assent. There is but one way that is right, sufficient and effective, +and that is the right living of each individual, which is the +incarnation and operation of faith by the grace of God. + +It is my desire to close this course of lectures not with my own words +but with those of one of the great personalities revealed by the war. +First, however, I wish to say this. If there is any thought or word in +what I have said that seems to you true, then I ask you to use it not as +a matter for discussion but as an impulse toward personal action. If +there is anything that is of the nature of explicit error, then I pray +that the Spirit of Truth may make deaf your ears that you hear not, and +blot out of your memory the record of what I have said. If there is +anything that is not consonant with the Christian religion, as this has +been revealed to the world and as it is guarded and interpreted by the +Church to which these powers were committed, then I retract and disavow +it explicitly and _ex animo._ + +There are two great spiritual figures that have been revealed to us +through the Great War: Cardinal Mercier, the great confessor, who held +aloft the standard of spiritual glory through the war itself, and Bishop +Nicholai of Serbia who has testified to eternal truth and righteousness +in the wilderness the war has brought to pass. It is with his inspired +words that I will make an ending of the things I have been impelled to +say. + +"Christ is merciful, but at last He comes as the Judge. * * * He comes +now not to preside in the churches only but to be in your homes, in your +shops, to be everywhere with you. He wants to be first; He has become +last in Europe, * * * Civilization passes like the winds, but the soul +remains. Christianization is the only good and constructive +civilization. Americanization without Christianization means Bolshevism. +Europe is suffering today for her sins. Christ has forgiven seventy +times seven, and now it seems that He is the Judge, turning away, +rejected, leaving Europe and going through the gate of Serbia to Asia. +Pray for us. * * * Send us not your gold and silver for food so much as +send us converted men. Convert your politicians, your members of the +press, your journalists, to preach Christ. + +"Christ is choosing the perfect stones, the marble of all the churches, +to complete His mystical body in Heaven. He thinks only of one Church, +made from those true to Him of all the churches here. Civilizations are +moving pictures, made by man. Without God they perish. The soul, the +spirit, lives. The war is not against externals; the war is against +ourselves." + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +From the point attained in the lecture on "A Working Philosophy," a +point I believe to be clearly indicated by Christian philosophy and +sharply differentiated from that of paganism or modernism, I would +adventure further and even into a field of pure theory where I can +adduce no support or justification from any other source. Speculation +along this line may be dangerous, even unjustifiable; certainly it +introduces the peril of an attempt to intellectualize what cannot be +apprehended by the intellectual faculty, an effort which has been the +obsession of modernism and has resulted in spiritual catastrophe. On the +other hand we are confronted by a definite and plausible system worked +out by those who were without fear of these consequences, and while this +already is losing something of its common acceptance, it is still +operative, indeed is the only working system and consistent theory of +the majority of thinking men outside the limits of Catholicism. I think +it wrong both in its assumptions and its inferences, and it certainly +played a deplorable part in the building up of the latest phase of +modern civilization, while its persistence is, I am persuaded, a barrier +to recovery or advance. This theory, which has gradually been deduced +from the wonderful investigations, tabulations and inferences of Darwin, +Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer and others of the great group of British +intellectuals and scientists of the nineteenth century, is known under +the general title of Evolution. + +The following suggestions are offered with extreme diffidence, and only +as uncertain and indeterminate approximations. In some respects they +seem not inconsistent with the most recent scientific research which +already is casting so much doubt on many of the assumed factors behind +evolution and on the accepted methods of its operation. The true +solution, if it is found, will result from the cooperation of +scientists, philosophers and theologians, illuminated by the fire of the +Divine Wisdom--Hagia Sophia--for in such a problem as this, almost the +final secret of the Cosmos, no single human agency acting alone can hope +to achieve the final revelation, while all acting together could hardly +escape falling into "the falsehoods of their own imaginings" if they +relied solely on their unaided efforts in the intellectual sphere. + +Assuming then that life is an enduring process of the redemption of +matter through the interpenetration of spirit, what is a possible method +of action? To explain what I mean I must use a diagrammatic figure, but +I admit this must be not only inadequate but misleading, for instead of +the two dimensions of a diagram, we must postulate three, with time +added as a vital element, and, I dare say, a "fourth dimension" as well. +Confessing inadequacy in the symbol, let us conceive of a space divided +into four strata. The lowest of these is the primary unknowable, the +region of pure spirit, pure spirit itself, the creative energy of the +universe, the unconditioned Absolute, in the terms of Christian +theology, Almighty God. The second is the plane of matter, an area of +potential, but in itself inert and indeterminate. The third is the space +of what we call life in all its forms, the area in which the +transformation and redemption take place. The fourth is the ultimate +unknowable, that is to say, that which follows on after life and +receives the finished product of redemption. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM NO. 1. The interpenetration of Matter by Spirit. +_x,_ The primary Unknowable; _x',_ the ultimate Unknowable; _[Greek: +alpha],_ the plane of Matter; _[Greek: beta],_ the plane of Life.] + +Now there is eternally in process a penetration of the stratum of matter +by jets of the _elan vital_ from the realm of pure spirit, each as it +were striving to detach from the plane of matter some small portion, +which is transformed in its passage through life and achieves entrance +into the ultimate unknowable, when the process of redemption is, for +this small particle, completed. Always, however, is exerted the +gravitational pull of matter, and the energy that drove through, instead +of pursuing a right line, tends to bend in a parabolic curve, like the +trajectory of a cannon ball. In the completion of the process some +portion of redeemed matter "gets by," so to speak, but other portions do +not; they return to their source of origin and are reabsorbed in matter, +becoming subject to the operation of future interpenetrating jets of +spiritual energy. The upward drive of the _elan vital_ constitutes what +may properly be known as evolution, the declining fall the process of +devolution or degeneration. Evolution then is only one part of the +cosmic process, it is inseparable from degeneration. + +This process holds in the case of individuals, of families, of races, of +states and of eras, or definite and completed periods of time. As man is +begotten, born, developed to maturity and then is brought downward to +the grave, so in the case of races and nations and the clearly defined +epochs into which the history of man divides itself. There is no +mechanical system of "progress," no cumulative wisdom and power that in +the end will inevitably lead to earthly perfection and triumph. For +every individual there is the possibility of spiritual evolution within +the time allotted that will open for him the gates that bar the +frontiers of the world of reality and of redemption that lies beyond +that world of earthly life which is the field of contest between +unredeemed matter and redeeming spirit, of contest and of victory--or of +failure. In the case of races and nations and epochs there is the same +conflict between material factors and spiritual energy; the same +crescent youth with all its primal vitality, maturity with its assurance +and competence, and the dying fall of dissipating energies. In each case +death is the concomitant of life but there is always something that +lasts over, and that is the spiritual achievement, the precious residuum +that remains, defying death and dissolution, that infuses the plane of +life with its redemptive ardour, and is the heritage of lives that come +after, acting with the sacramental agencies of religion in cooeperation +with God Who ordained and compassed them both, in that great process of +redemption and salvation that is continually taking place and will +continue until matter, and time which is but the ratio of the resistance +of matter to the redeeming power of spirit, shall be no more. + +I confess the hopelessly mechanical quality in this vain attempt to put +into words something that by its very nature must transcend all modes of +expression that are intellectually apprehendable. Taken literally it +would be entirely false and probably heretical from a theological point +of view, as it certainly is more than inadequate as a philosophical +proposition. It is intended only as a symbol, and a gross symbol at +that, but as such I will let it stand. + +Now if there is indeed a possible truth hidden somewhere within somewhat +clumsy approximations, it must modify some of our generally accepted +ideas. The life-process will appear, not a slow, interrupted, but +substantially forward development from lower and simpler organisms to +higher and more complex, with the end (if there be an end), beyond the +very limits of eternity, but rather a swift creation of some of the +highest forms through the first energy of the creative force, with the +throwing off of ever lower and lower forms as the curve of the +trajectory descends. So through a mass of low and static vitality comes +the sudden and enormous power that produces at the very beginnings of +our own recorded history of man, the almost superhuman intelligence and +capacity of the Greeks and the Egyptians. So each of the definite eras +of civilization opens with the releasing of great energies, the +revealing of great figures of paramount character and force. So, +conversely, as the energy declines, men appear less and less potent and +in a descending scale. This is the case with the Greek states, with the +Roman Republic and the Empire, with Byzantium, with + +Mediaevalism, and with our modern era. I do not know of any other theory +that claims to explain the perpetual and rhythmical fluctuations of +history, as violent in their degree as they are approximately regular in +their rhythm. + +Following the idea a little further, it may even appear that many of the +lower, and particularly the more distorted, forms of animal life, +instead of being abortive or undeveloped stages in a continuous +evolutionary progress, are actually the product of a diminishing energy, +stages in a process of degeneration, and therefore leading not upward to +ever higher stages of development having issue at last in a completed +perfection, but rather downward to ultimate extinction. Geology records +this process in sufficient quantity, so far as many members of the +animal kingdom are concerned, and we, in our own day, have seen the +extinction of the dodo as well as the threatened disappearance of other +species. Creeping and crawling creatures too, that we could crush with +the heel, are but the last and puny descendants of mighty and terrible +monsters that once rolled and crashed through the fetid forests of the +carboniferous era. So there are races of men today, amongst others the +pygmies of Africa and the Australian bushmen, as well as some nearer in +a certain degree to the dominant races of the world, whom large-hearted +optimists regard as stages of retarded development, capable, under +tutelage, of advance to a level with the Caucasian, but who, in this +view of the case, would be but the weakening product of the "dying fall" +of the energy that produced the Greek, the Semite and the Nordic stocks. + +So in the last instance, the ape and the lemur and all their derivatives +may be, not records of some of the many stages through which man has +passed in his process of evolution, sidetracked by the upward rush of +one highly favoured or fortunate line, nor yet an abortive branch from +the common trunk from which sprang both man and ape, but rather the last +degradation of a primaeval energy, producing in its declension these +strange caricatures of the Man in whose production it found its +achievement. In other words, the old evolutionary idea is exactly +reversed, and those phenomena once looked on as passed stages of growth, +become the memorials of a creative process that has already achieved, +and is now returning, with its fantastic manifestations in terms of +declining life, even to that primordial mystery whence it had emerged. + +Granting this theory, the search for the "missing link," whether in the +geological strata below those that revealed the Piltdown skull, or in +the fastnesses of Central Asia, is as vain a quest as it has always +been. Primaeval man, as he is grudgingly revealed to us, may have been +the degenerate remainder of an earlier and fully developed race whose +records are buried in the sunken fastnesses of some vanished Atlantis or +Lemuria, as the races of the South Sea Islands may be less metamorphosed +remnants of the same stock. Into this infinitely degraded residuum of a +vanished race entered the new energizing force when the divine creative +energy came once more into operation, in the fullness of time, and the +Minoan, the Egyptian and the Greek came almost in an hour to their +highest perfection. So through the unnumbered ages of the world's +history, God has from time to time created man in His own image, out of +the dust of the earth, and man so made "a little lower than the angels" +has, also in time, fallen and forfeited his inheritance. Yet the process +goes on without ceasing, and in conformity with some law of divine +periodicity; but it is _Man_ that is created in the beginning, of his +full stature, even as is symbolically recorded in the Book of Genesis; +not a hairy quadrumana that by the operation of the laws of natural +selection and the survival of the fittest, ultimately and through +endless ages, and by the most infinitesimal changes, becomes at last +Plato and Caesar, Leonardo and Dante, St. Louis and Shakespeare and St. +Francis. + +Now in this process of the interpenetration of matter by spirit there +must be a certain periodicity, if it is a constant process and not one +accomplished once and for all time in the very beginnings of the world. +This rhythmical action, which is exemplified by every phenomenon of +nature, the vibratory process of light, sound, heat, electricity, the +pulsation of the heart, the motion of the tides, has never escaped the +observation even of primitive peoples, and always attempts have been +made to determine its periodicity. May it not be infinitely complex, as +the ripple rises on the wave that lifts on the swell of the underlying +tide? Certainly we are now being forced back to a new consideration of +this periodical beat, in history at least, for now that our own era, +which came in by the power of the Renaissance and the Reformation and +received its final energizing force through the revolutions of the +eighteenth century and the industrial revolution of the nineteenth, is +so manifestly coming to its end, we look backward for precedents for +this unexpected debacle and lo, they appear every five hundred years +back as far as history records. 500 B.C., Anno Domini; 500 A.D., 1000 +A.D., and 1500 A.D. are all, to the point of very clear approximation, +nodal points, where the curve of the preceding five centuries, having +achieved its crest, curves downward, and in its fall meets the curve of +rising energy that is to condition the ensuing era. The next nodal +point, calculated on this basis, comes about the year 2000. Are we not +justified, in plotting our trajectory of modernism, in placing the crest +in the year 1914, and in tracing the line of fall from that moment? + +I have plotted this curve, or series of curves, after a rough and ready +fashion (Diagram No. 2) and though the personal equation must, in any +subjective proposition such as this, enter largely into account, I think +the diagram will be accepted in principle if not in details, and not +wholly in its relationships. I have made no effort to estimate or +indicate comparative heights and depths, giving to each five-hundred +year epoch a similar level of rise and depth of fall. Perhaps the actual +difference here would, rightly estimated, be less than we have been led +to believe, though certainly few would lift the Carolingian crest to the +level of that of Hellenism or of the Middle Ages, nor assign to the end +of this latter period as low a fall as that accomplished during the +tenth century in continental Europe. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM No. 2. The rise and fall of the line of +civilization; showing also the nodal points at the Christian Era and at +the years 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 (?)] + +In a third cut (Diagram No. 3) I have roughly indicated in conventional +form a phenomenon which seems to me to show itself around the nodal +point when a descending curve of energy meets and crosses the descending +line. As the _elan vital_ that has made and characterized any period +declines, it throws off reactions, the object of which is if possible to +arrest, or at least delay, the fatal _glissade._ These are, in intent +and in fact, reforms; conscious efforts at saving a desperate situation +by regenerative methods. Trace back their lines of procedure, and in +every case they will be found to issue out of the very force which is +even then in process of degeneration, therefore they are poisoned at the +source and no true or vital reforms, for the sudden energy that urges +them is, after all, in no respect different from that which is already a +failing force. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM No. 3. The reactions thrown off by (a) the +descending line of vital force, (b) by the ascending line.] + +This, I conceive, is why today the multitudinous and specious "reforms," +which beat upon us from all sides, and find such ready acceptance in the +enactments of law, are really no reforms at all, since each one of them +is but an exaggeration or distortion of the very principles and methods +that already are bending downward the curve of our progression until it +disappears in the nether-world of failure, as did those of every +preceding epoch of equal duration. An example of what I mean is the +astute saying, frequently heard nowadays: "The cure for democracy is +more democracy." + +Now while one curve descends and throws off its reformative reactions in +the process, the other is ascending, preparatory to determining the +coming era for its allotted space of five centuries. In this process it +also throws off its own reactions, but these are for the purpose of +lifting the line more rapidly, bringing its force into play before its +determined time. These also are exaggerations, over-emphasized qualities +that are inherent in the ascending force, and they are no more to be +accepted as authoritative than are the others. They have their value +however, for they are prophetic, and even in their exaggeration there is +the clear forecast of things to be. Trace them in turn to the source. +What is their source? The new power issues out of obscurity and its +character is veiled, but we can estimate it from the very nature of the +exaggerated reactions we _can_ see. If something shows itself, in +sociology, economics, politics, religion, art, what you will, that is +especially a denial of what has been a controlling agency during the +past four or five hundred years: if it is by common consent impractical +and "outside the current of manifest evolutionary development," then, +shorn of its exaggerations, reduced to its essential quality, it is very +probably a clear showing forth of what is about to come to birth and +condition human life for the next five hundred years. This, I suppose, +explains the comprehensive return to Medievalism that, to the scorn of +biologists, sociologists and professors of political economy, is +flaunting itself before us today, at the hands of a very small minority, +in all the categories I have named, as well as in many others besides. + +A glance at the diagram will show a curious pattern round about the +nodal point. One may say that the reactions are somewhat mixed. Quite +so. At this moment we are beaten upon by numberless reforms, both +"radical" and "reactionary." Materialism, democracy, rationalism, +anarchy contending against Medievalism of twenty sorts, and strange +mysticisms out of the East. Which shall we choose, _if_ we choose, and +do not content ourselves with an easier inertia that allows nature to +take its course? It is simply the question; On which wave will you ride; +that which is descending to oblivion or that which has within itself the +power and potency to control man's destiny for the next five hundred +years? + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +CERTAIN BOOKS SUGGESTED FOR COLLATERAL READING + + +ADAMS, HENRY Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres. + +ADAMS, HENRY Degradation of the Democratic Dogma. + +BAUDRILLART, A. Catholic Church, Renaissance and Protestantism. + +BELL, BERNARD IDDINGS Right and Wrong after the War. + +BELLOC, HILAIRE The Servile State. + +BRYCE, VISCOUNT Modern Democracies. + +BULL, PAUL B. The Sacramental Principle. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. Orthodoxy. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. What's Wrong with the World. + +CHESTERTON, G.K. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. + +CONKLIN, E.G. The Direction of Human Evolution. + +CRAM, R.A. The Nemesis of Mediocrity. + +CRAM, R.A. Walled Towns. + +CRAM, R.A. The Ministry of Art. + +CRAM, R.A. The Great Thousand Years. + +FAGUET, E. The Cult of Incompetence. + +FERRERO, G. Europe's Fateful Hour. + +FIGGIS, J.N. Civilization at the Cross Roads. + +FIGGIS, J.N. The Will to Freedom. + +FIGGIS, J.N. Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God." + +GENUNG, J.F. The Life Indeed. + +GRAHAM, STEPHEN Priest of the Ideal. + +HARRISON, McVEIGH Daily Meditations. + +HUBBARD, A.J. The Fate of Empires. + +IRELAND, ALLEYNE Democracy and the Human Equation. + +LeBON, G. The World in Revolt. + +MEIKLEJOHN, ALEXANDER The Liberal College. + +MORRIS, WILLIAM The Dream of John Ball. + +PECK, W.G. From Chaos to Catholicism. + +PENTY, A.J. Old Worlds for New. + +PENTY, A.J. The Restoration of the Guild System. + +PHILLIPPS, L. MARCH Form and Colour. + +PHILLIPPS, L. MARCH Europe Unbound. + +PORTER, A. KINGSLEY Beyond Architecture. + +POWELL, F.C. A Person's Religion. + +RAUPERT, G. Human Destiny and the New Psychology. + +SHIELDS, THOMAS E. The Philosophy of Education. + +TAWNEY, R.H. The Acquisitive Society. + +WALSH, JAMES J. The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries. + +WALSH, JAMES J. Education, How Old the New. + +WORRINGER, W. Form Problems of the Gothic. + +DeWULF, M. History of Mediaeval Philosophy. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Towards the Great Peace, by Ralph Adams Cram + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWARDS THE GREAT PEACE *** + +***** This file should be named 10642.txt or 10642.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/4/10642/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Gerald Tejada and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10642.zip b/old/10642.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3350a7a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10642.zip |