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padding-left: 3em;} + +.poetry .indentq {text-indent: -3.45em;} +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} + +.x-ebookmaker .poetry .tb {text-align: left; padding-left: 2em;} + +.transnote { + border: .3em double gray; + font-family: sans-serif, serif; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + margin-top: 4em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + padding: 1em; +} +.x-ebookmaker .transnote { + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin-left: 2%; + margin-right: 2%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + padding: .5em; +} + +.wspace {word-spacing: .3em;} + +.pagenum br {display: none; visibility: hidden;} + +.illowe7 {width: 5em;} + + /* ]]> */ </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75294 ***</div> + +<div class="section"> +<p class="p4 center larger wspace">BOOKS BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT</p> + +<p class="center wspace">PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS</p> + +<hr class="narrow"> + +<div> +<table id="tbooks"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">AFRICAN GAME TRAILS. An account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist.<br>Illustrated. Large 8vo</td> + <td class="tdr">$4.00 <i>net</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">OUTDOOR PASTIMES OF AN AMERICAN HUNTER.<br>New Edition. Illustrated. 8vo</td> + <td class="tdr">$3.00 <i>net</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">HISTORY AS LITERATURE and Other Essays.<br>12mo</td> + <td class="tdr">$1.50 <i>net</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">OLIVER CROMWELL. Illustrated. 8vo</td> + <td class="tdr">$2.00 <i>net</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE ROUGH RIDERS. Illustrated. 8vo</td> + <td class="tdr">$1.50 <i>net</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">THE ROOSEVELT BOOK. Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. 16mo</td> + <td class="tdr">50 cents <i>net</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2"><hr class="narrow"></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">THE ELKHORN EDITION. Complete Works of Theodore Roosevelt. 26 volumes. Illustrated. 8vo. Sold by subscription.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div> </div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<h1 class="nobreak">HISTORY AS LITERATURE<br> + +<span class="small">AND OTHER ESSAYS</span></h1> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<p class="center xxlarge vspace"> +HISTORY AS LITERATURE<br> +<span class="smaller">AND OTHER ESSAYS</span></p> + +<p class="p4 center vspace">BY<br> +<span class="larger wspace">THEODORE ROOSEVELT</span></p> + +<p class="p4 center wspace">NEW YORK<br> +<span class="larger">CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS</span><br> +1913 +</p> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<p class="center"> +Copyright, 1913, by<br> +CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br> + +Published September, 1913<br> +Reprinted in December, 1913 +</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe7" id="i_logo"> + <img src="images/i_logo.png" alt="Publisher's logo"> +</figure> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> this volume I have gathered certain addresses +I made before the American Historical Association, +the University of Oxford, the University of +Berlin, and the Sorbonne at Paris, together with +six essays I wrote for <i>The Outlook</i>, and one that +I wrote for <i>The Century</i>.</p> + +<p>In these addresses and essays I have discussed +not merely literary but also historical and scientific +subjects, for my thesis is that the domain of +literature must be ever more widely extended over +the domains of history and science. There is +nothing which in this preface I can say to elaborate +or emphasize what I have said on this subject +in the essays themselves.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt.</span> +</p> + +<p class="in0 smaller"> +<span class="smcap">Sagamore Hill</span>,<br> +<i class="in05">July 4, 1913</i>. +</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table id="toc"> +<tr class="xsmall"> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdr">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">History as Literature</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Biological Analogies in History</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_37">37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The World Movement</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_95">95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Citizenship in a Republic</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_135">135</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Thraldom of Names</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_175">175</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Productive Scholarship</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_195">195</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dante and the Bowery</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_217">217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_231">231</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Search for Truth in a Reverent Spirit</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_245">245</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Ancient Irish Sagas</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_275">275</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">An Art Exhibition</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_301">301</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl tpad" colspan="2"><span class="smaller">⁂ Three chapters, “Biological Analogies in History,” “The World +Movement,” and “Citizenship in a Republic,” were included in the volume +entitled “African and European Addresses.”</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1"></span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="larger">HISTORY AS LITERATURE</span></h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="HISTORY_AS_LITERATURE" title="HISTORY AS LITERATURE"><span id="toclink_1"></span>HISTORY AS LITERATURE<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a></h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">There</span> has been much discussion as to +whether history should not henceforth be +treated as a branch of science rather than +of literature. As with most such discussions, +much of the matter in dispute has referred merely +to terminology. Moreover, as regards part of the +discussion, the minds of the contestants have not +met, the propositions advanced by the two sides +being neither mutually incompatible nor mutually +relevant. There is, however, a real basis for conflict +in so far as science claims exclusive possession +of the field.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">1</a> Annual address of the president of the American Historical Association +delivered at Boston, December 27, 1912.</p> + +</div> + +<p>There was a time—we see it in the marvellous +dawn of Hellenic life—when history was distinguished +neither from poetry, from mythology, nor +from the first dim beginnings of science. There +was a more recent time, at the opening of Rome’s +brief period of literary splendor, when poetry +was accepted by a great scientific philosopher as +the appropriate vehicle for teaching the lessons of +science and philosophy. There was a more recent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> +time still—the time of Holland’s leadership in +arms and arts—when one of the two or three greatest +world painters put his genius at the service of +anatomists.</p> + +<p>In each case the steady growth of specialization +has rendered such combination now impossible. +Virgil left history to Livy; and when Tacitus had +become possible Lucan was a rather absurd anachronism. +The elder Darwin, when he endeavored +to combine the functions of scientist and poet, +may have thought of Lucretius as a model; but +the great Darwin was incapable of such a mistake. +The surgeons of to-day would prefer the services of +a good photographer to those of Rembrandt—even +were those of Rembrandt available. No +one would now dream of combining the history of +the Trojan War with a poem on the wrath of +Achilles. Beowulf’s feats against the witch who +dwelt under the water would not now be mentioned +in the same matter-of-fact way that a +Frisian or Frankish raid is mentioned. We are +long past the stage when we would accept as parts +of the same epic Siegfried’s triumphs over dwarf +and dragon, and even a distorted memory of the +historic Hunnish king in whose feast-hall the Burgundian +heroes held their last revel and made +their death fight. We read of the loves of the +Hound of Muirthemne and Emer the Fair without +attributing to the chariot-riding heroes who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span> +“fought over the ears of their horses” and to +their fierce lady-loves more than a symbolic reality. +The Roland of the Norman trouvères, the Roland +who blew the ivory horn at Roncesvalles, is to our +minds wholly distinct from the actual Warden of +the Marches who fell in a rear-guard skirmish with +the Pyrenean Basques.</p> + +<p>As regards philosophy, as distinguished from +material science and from history, the specialization +has been incomplete. Poetry is still used as +a vehicle for the teaching of philosophy. Goethe +was as profound a thinker as Kant. He has influenced +the thought of mankind far more deeply +than Kant because he was also a great poet. +Robert Browning was a real philosopher, and his +writings have had a hundredfold the circulation +and the effect of those of any similar philosopher +who wrote in prose, just because, and only because, +what he wrote was not merely philosophy +but literature. The form in which he wrote challenged +attention and provoked admiration. That +part of his work which some of us—which I myself, +for instance—most care for is merely poetry. +But in that part of his work which has exercised +most attraction and has given him the widest +reputation, the poetry, the form of expression, +bears to the thought expressed much the same relation +that the expression of Lucretius bears to +the thought of Lucretius. As regards this, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> +great mass of his product, he is primarily a philosopher, +whose writings surpass in value those of +other similar philosophers precisely because they +are not only philosophy but literature. In other +words, Browning the philosopher is read by countless +thousands to whom otherwise philosophy +would be a sealed book, for exactly the same reason +that Macaulay the historian is read by countless +thousands to whom otherwise history would +be a sealed book; because both Browning’s works +and Macaulay’s works are material additions to +the great sum of English literature. Philosophy +is a science just as history is a science. There is +need in one case as in the other for vivid and powerful +presentation of scientific matter in literary +form.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that there is the like need +in the two cases. History can never be truthfully +presented if the presentation is purely emotional. +It can never be truthfully or usefully presented +unless profound research, patient, laborious, painstaking, +has preceded the presentation. No +amount of self-communion and of pondering on +the soul of mankind, no gorgeousness of literary +imagery, can take the place of cool, serious, widely +extended study. The vision of the great historian +must be both wide and lofty. But it must be +sane, clear, and based on full knowledge of the +facts and of their interrelations. Otherwise we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span> +get merely a splendid bit of serious romance-writing, +like Carlyle’s “French Revolution.” Many +hard-working students, alive to the deficiencies +of this kind of romance-writing, have grown to +distrust not only all historical writing that is +romantic, but all historical writing that is vivid. +They feel that complete truthfulness must never +be sacrificed to color. In this they are right. +They also feel that complete truthfulness is incompatible +with color. In this they are wrong. +The immense importance of full knowledge of +a mass of dry facts and gray details has so impressed +them as to make them feel that the dryness +and the grayness are in themselves meritorious.</p> + +<p>These students have rendered invaluable service +to history. They are right in many of their +contentions. They see how literature and science +have specialized. They realize that scientific +methods are as necessary to the proper study of +history as to the proper study of astronomy or +zoology. They know that in many, perhaps in +most, of its forms, literary ability is divorced from +the restrained devotion to the actual fact which +is as essential to the historian as to the scientist. +They know that nowadays science ostentatiously +disclaims any connection with literature. They +feel that if this is essential for science, it is no less +essential for history.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span></p> + +<p>There is much truth in all these contentions. +Nevertheless, taking them all together, they do +not indicate what these hard-working students +believed that they indicate. Because history, +science, and literature have all become specialized, +the theory now is that science is definitely +severed from literature and that history must follow +suit. Not only do I refuse to accept this as +true for history, but I do not even accept it as +true for science.</p> + +<p>Literature may be defined as that which has +permanent interest because both of its substance +and its form, aside from the mere technical value +that inheres in a special treatise for specialists. +For a great work of literature there is the same +demand now that there always has been; and in +any great work of literature the first element is +great imaginative power. The imaginative power +demanded for a great historian is different from +that demanded for a great poet; but it is no less +marked. Such imaginative power is in no sense +incompatible with minute accuracy. On the contrary, +very accurate, very real and vivid, presentation +of the past can come only from one in +whom the imaginative gift is strong. The industrious +collector of dead facts bears to such a +man precisely the relation that a photographer +bears to Rembrandt. There are innumerable +books, that is, innumerable volumes of printed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> +matter between covers, which are excellent for +their own purposes, but in which imagination +would be as wholly out of place as in the blue +prints of a sewer system or in the photographs +taken to illustrate a work on comparative osteology. +But the vitally necessary sewer system +does not take the place of the cathedral of Rheims +or of the Parthenon; no quantity of photographs +will ever be equivalent to one Rembrandt; and +the greatest mass of data, although indispensable +to the work of a great historian, is in no shape or +way a substitute for that work.</p> + +<p>History, taught for a directly and immediately +useful purpose to pupils and the teachers of pupils, +is one of the necessary features of a sound education +in democratic citizenship. A book containing +such sound teaching, even if without any +literary quality, may be as useful to the student +and as creditable to the writer as a similar book +on medicine. I am not slighting such a book +when I say that, once it has achieved its worthy +purpose, it can be permitted to lapse from human +memory as a good book on medicine, which has +outlived its usefulness, lapses from memory. But +the historical work which does possess literary +quality may be a permanent contribution to the +sum of man’s wisdom, enjoyment, and inspiration. +The writer of such a book must add wisdom +to knowledge, and the gift of expression to the +gift of imagination.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span></p> + +<p>It is a shallow criticism to assert that imagination +tends to inaccuracy. Only a distorted imagination +tends to inaccuracy. Vast and fundamental +truths can be discerned and interpreted only by +one whose imagination is as lofty as the soul of a +Hebrew prophet. When we say that the great +historian must be a man of imagination, we use +the word as we use it when we say that the great +statesman must be a man of imagination. Moreover, +together with imagination must go the power +of expression. The great speeches of statesmen +and the great writings of historians can live only +if they possess the deathless quality that inheres +in all great literature. The greatest literary historian +must of necessity be a master of the science +of history, a man who has at his finger-tips all the +accumulated facts from the treasure-houses of the +dead past. But he must also possess the power to +marshal what is dead so that before our eyes it +lives again.</p> + +<p>Many learned people seem to feel that the quality +of readableness in a book is one which warrants +suspicion. Indeed, not a few learned people +seem to feel that the fact that a book is +interesting is proof that it is shallow. This is +particularly apt to be the attitude of scientific +men. Very few great scientists have written interestingly, +and these few have usually felt +apologetic about it. Yet sooner or later the time +will come when the mighty sweep of modern<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span> +scientific discovery will be placed, by scientific +men with the gift of expression, at the service of +intelligent and cultivated laymen. Such service +will be inestimable. Another writer of “Canterbury +Tales,” another singer of “Paradise Lost,” +could not add more to the sum of literary achievement +than the man who may picture to us the +phases of the age-long history of life on this +globe, or make vivid before our eyes the tremendous +march of the worlds through space.</p> + +<p>Indeed, I believe that already science has owed +more than it suspects to the unconscious literary +power of some of its representatives. Scientific +writers of note had grasped the fact of evolution +long before Darwin and Huxley; and the theories +advanced by these men to explain evolution were +not much more unsatisfactory, as full explanations, +than the theory of natural selection itself. Yet, +where their predecessors had created hardly a +ripple, Darwin and Huxley succeeded in effecting +a complete revolution in the thought of the age, +a revolution as great as that caused by the discovery +of the truth about the solar system. I +believe that the chief explanation of the difference +was the very simple one that what Darwin and +Huxley wrote was interesting to read. Every cultivated +man soon had their volumes in his library, +and they still keep their places on our book-shelves. +But Lamarck and Cope are only to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span> +found in the libraries of a few special students. +If they had possessed a gift of expression akin to +Darwin’s, the doctrine of evolution would not in +the popular mind have been confounded with the +doctrine of natural selection and a juster estimate +than at present would obtain as to the relative +merits of the explanations of evolution championed +by the different scientific schools.</p> + +<p>Do not misunderstand me. In the field of historical +research an immense amount can be done +by men who have no literary power whatever. +Moreover, the most painstaking and laborious research, +covering long periods of years, is necessary +in order to accumulate the material for any history +worth writing at all. There are important +by-paths of history, moreover, which hardly admit +of treatment that would make them of interest +to any but specialists. All this I fully +admit. In particular I pay high honor to the +patient and truthful investigator. He does an +indispensable work. My claim is merely that +such work should not exclude the work of the +great master who can use the materials gathered, +who has the gift of vision, the quality of the seer, +the power himself to see what has happened and +to make what he has seen clear to the vision of +others. My only protest is against those who believe +that the extension of the activities of the +most competent mason and most energetic contractor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span> +will supply the lack of great architects. +If, as in the Middle Ages, the journeymen builders +are themselves artists, why this is the best possible +solution of the problem. But if they are not +artists, then their work, however much it represents +of praiseworthy industry, and of positive +usefulness, does not take the place of the work of a +great artist.</p> + +<p>Take a concrete example. It is only of recent +years that the importance of inscriptions has been +realized. To the present-day scholar they are invaluable. +Even to the layman, some of them +turn the past into the present with startling clearness. +The least imaginative is moved by the simple +inscription on the Etruscan sarcophagus: “I, +the great lady”; a lady so haughty that no other +human being was allowed to rest near her; and +yet now nothing remains but this proof of the +pride of the nameless one. Or the inscription in +which Queen Hatshepsu recounts her feats and +her magnificence, and ends by adjuring the onlooker, +when overcome by the recital, not to say +“how wonderful” but “how like her!”—could any +picture of a living queen be more intimately +vivid? With such inscriptions before us the wonder +is that it took us so long to realize their worth. +Not unnaturally this realization, when it did come, +was followed by the belief that inscriptions would +enable us to dispense with the great historians of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span> +antiquity. This error is worse than the former. +Where the inscriptions give us light on what +would otherwise be darkness, we must be profoundly +grateful; but we must not confound the +lesser light with the greater. We could better +afford to lose every Greek inscription that has +ever been found than the chapter in which Thucydides +tells of the Athenian failure before Syracuse. +Indeed, few inscriptions teach us as much history +as certain forms of literature that do not +consciously aim at teaching history at all. The +inscriptions of Hellenistic Greece in the third +century before our era do not, all told, give us +so lifelike a view of the ordinary life of the ordinary +men and women who dwelt in the great Hellenistic +cities of the time, as does the fifteenth idyl +of Theocritus.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that good history can be +unscientific. So far from ignoring science, the +great historian of the future can do nothing unless +he is steeped in science. He can never equal +what has been done by the great historians of the +past unless he writes not merely with full knowledge, +but with an intensely vivid consciousness, +of all that of which they were necessarily ignorant. +He must accept what we now know to be man’s +place in nature. He must realize that man has +been on this earth for a period of such incalculable +length that, from the standpoint of the student<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span> +of his development through time, what our ancestors +used to call “antiquity” is almost indistinguishable +from the present day. If our conception +of history takes in the beast-like man whose +sole tool and weapon was the stone fist-hatchet, +and his advanced successors, the man who etched +on bone pictures of the mammoth, the reindeer, +and the wild horse, in what is now France, and +the man who painted pictures of bison in the +burial caves of what is now Spain; if we also conceive +in their true position our “contemporaneous +ancestors,” the savages who are now no more +advanced than the cave-dwellers of a hundred +thousand or two hundred thousand years back, +then we shall accept Thothmes and Cæsar, Alfred +and Washington, Timoleon and Lincoln, Homer +and Shakespeare, Pythagoras and Emerson, as all +nearly contemporaneous in time and in culture.</p> + +<p>The great historian of the future will have easy +access to innumerable facts patiently gathered by +tens of thousands of investigators, whereas the +great historian of the past had very few facts, +and often had to gather most of these himself. The +great historian of the future can not be excused if +he fails to draw on the vast storehouses of knowledge +that have been accumulated, if he fails to +profit by the wisdom and work of other men, +which are now the common property of all intelligent +men. He must use the instruments which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> +the historians of the past did not have ready to +hand. Yet even with these instruments he can +not do as good work as the best of the elder historians +unless he has vision and imagination, the +power to grasp what is essential and to reject the +infinitely more numerous non-essentials, the power +to embody ghosts, to put flesh and blood on dry +bones, to make dead men living before our eyes. +In short, he must have the power to take the +science of history and turn it into literature.</p> + +<p>Those who wish history to be treated as a purely +utilitarian science often decry the recital of the +mighty deeds of the past, the deeds which always +have aroused, and for a long period to come are +likely to arouse, most interest. These men say +that we should study not the unusual but the +usual. They say that we profit most by laborious +research into the drab monotony of the ordinary, +rather than by fixing our eyes on the purple +patches that break it. Beyond all question the +great historian of the future must keep ever in +mind the relative importance of the usual and the +unusual. If he is a really great historian, if he +possesses the highest imaginative and literary +quality, he will be able to interest us in the gray +tints of the general landscape no less than in the +flame hues of the jutting peaks. It is even more +essential to have such quality in writing of the +commonplace than in writing of the exceptional.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span> +Otherwise no profit will come from study of the +ordinary; for writings are useless unless they are +read, and they can not be read unless they are +readable. Furthermore, while doing full justice +to the importance of the usual, of the commonplace, +the great historian will not lose sight of the +importance of the heroic.</p> + +<p>It is hard to tell just what it is that is most important +to know. The wisdom of one generation +may seem the folly of the next. This is just as +true of the wisdom of the dry-as-dusts as of the +wisdom of those who write interestingly. Moreover, +while the value of the by-products of knowledge +does not readily yield itself to quantitative +expression, it is none the less real. A utilitarian +education should undoubtedly be the foundation +of all education. But it is far from advisable, +it is far from wise, to have it the end of all education. +Technical training will more and more be +accepted as the prime factor in our educational +system, a factor as essential for the farmer, the +blacksmith, the seamstress, and the cook, as for +the lawyer, the doctor, the engineer, and the stenographer. +For similar reasons the purely practical +and technical lessons of history, the lessons +that help us to grapple with our immediate social +and industrial problems, will also receive greater +emphasis than ever before. But if we are wise +we will no more permit this practical training to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> +exclude knowledge of that part of literature which +is history than of that part of literature which is +poetry. Side by side with the need for the perfection +of the individual in the technic of his +special calling goes the need of broad human sympathy, +and the need of lofty and generous emotion +in that individual. Only thus can the citizenship +of the modern state rise level to the complex +modern social needs.</p> + +<p>No technical training, no narrowly utilitarian +study of any kind will meet this second class of +needs. In part they can best be met by a training +that will fit men and women to appreciate, +and therefore to profit by, great poetry and those +great expressions of the historian and the statesman +which rivet our interest and stir our souls. +Great thoughts match and inspire heroic deeds. +The same reasons that make the Gettysburg speech +and the Second Inaugural impress themselves on +men’s minds far more deeply than technical +treatises on the constitutional justification of +slavery or of secession, apply to fitting descriptions +of the great battle and the great contest +which occasioned the two speeches. The tense +epic of the Gettysburg fight, the larger epic of the +whole Civil War, when truthfully and vividly +portrayed, will always have, and ought always to +have, an attraction, an interest, that can not be +roused by the description of the same number of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> +hours or years of ordinary existence. There are +supreme moments in which intensity and not +duration is the all-important element. History +which is not professedly utilitarian, history which +is didactic only as great poetry is unconsciously +didactic, may yet possess that highest form of +usefulness, the power to thrill the souls of men with +stories of strength and craft and daring, and to +lift them out of their common selves to the heights +of high endeavor.</p> + +<p>The greatest historian should also be a great +moralist. It is no proof of impartiality to treat +wickedness and goodness as on the same level. +But of course the obsession of purposeful moral +teaching may utterly defeat its own aim. Moreover, +unfortunately, the avowed teacher of morality, +when he writes history, sometimes goes very +far wrong indeed. It often happens that the man +who can be of real help in inspiring others by his +utterances on abstract principles is wholly unable +to apply his own principles to concrete cases. +Carlyle offers an instance in point. Very few men +have ever been a greater source of inspiration to +other ardent souls than was Carlyle when he confined +himself to preaching morality in the abstract. +Moreover, his theory bade him treat history as +offering material to support that theory. But +not only was he utterly unable to distinguish +either great virtues or great vices when he looked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> +abroad on contemporary life—as witness his attitude +toward our own Civil War—but he was +utterly unable to apply his own principles concretely +in history. His “Frederick the Great” is +literature of a high order. It may, with reservations, +even be accepted as history. But the +“morality” therein jubilantly upheld is shocking +to any man who takes seriously Carlyle’s other +writings in which he lays down principles of conduct. +In his “Frederick the Great” he was not +content to tell the facts. He was not content to +announce his admiration. He wished to square +himself with his theories, and to reconcile what +he admired, both with the actual fact and with +his previously expressed convictions on morality. +He could only do so by refusing to face the facts +and by using words with meanings that shifted to +meet his own mental emergencies. He pretended +to discern morality where no vestige of it existed. +He tortured the facts to support his views. The +“morality” he praised had no connection with +morality as understood in the New Testament. +It was the kind of archaic morality observed by +the Danites in their dealings with the people of +Laish. The sermon of the Mormon bishop in +Owen Wister’s “Pilgrim on the Gila” sets forth +the only moral lessons which it was possible for +Carlyle truthfully to draw from the successes he +described.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span></p> + +<p>History must not be treated as something set +off by itself. It should not be treated as a branch +of learning bound to the past by the shackles +of an iron conservatism. It is neither necessary +rigidly to mark the limits of the province of history, +nor to treat of all that is within that province, nor +to exclude any subject within that province from +treatment, nor yet to treat different methods of +dealing with the same subject as mutually exclusive. +Every writer and every reader has his +own needs, to meet himself or to be met by others. +Among a great multitude of thoughtful people +there is room for the widest possible variety of +appeals. Let each man fearlessly choose what is +of real importance and interest to him personally, +reverencing authority, but not in a superstitious +spirit, because he must needs reverence liberty +even more.</p> + +<p>There is an infinite variety of subjects to treat, +and no need to estimate their relative importance. +Because one man is interested in the history of +finance, it does not mean that another is wrong +in being interested in the history of war. One +man’s need is met by exhaustive tables of statistics; +another’s by the study of the influence +exerted on national life by the great orators, the +Websters and Burkes, or by the poets, the Tyrtæuses +and Körners, who in crises utter what is +in the nation’s heart. There is need of the study +of the historical workings of representative government.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span> +There is no less need of the study of +the economic changes produced by the factory +system. Because we study with profit what +Thorold Rogers wrote of prices we are not debarred +from also profiting by Mahan’s studies of +naval strategy. One man finds what is of most +importance to his own mind and heart in tracing +the effect upon humanity of the spread of malaria +along the shores of the Ægean; or the effect of +the Black Death on the labor-market of mediæval +Europe; or the profound influence upon the development +of the African continent of the fatal +diseases borne by the bites of insects, which close +some districts to human life and others to the +beasts without which humanity rests at the lowest +stage of savagery. One man sees the events +from one view-point, one from another. Yet another +can combine both. We can be stirred by +Thayer’s study of Cavour without abating our +pleasure in the younger Trevelyan’s volumes on +Garibaldi. Because we revel in Froissart, or Joinville, +or Villehardouin, there is no need that we +should lack interest in the books that attempt the +more difficult task of tracing the economic changes +in the status of peasant, mechanic, and burgher +during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>History must welcome the entrance upon its +domain of every science. As James Harvey Robinson +in his “New History” has said:</p> + +<p>“The bounds of all departments of human research<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span> +and speculation are inherently provisional, +indefinite, and fluctuating; moreover, the lines of +demarcation are hopelessly interlaced, for real +men and the real universe in which they live are +so intricate as to defy all attempts even of the +most patient and subtle German to establish satisfactorily +and permanently the <i lang="de">Begriff und Wesen</i> +of any artificially delimited set of natural phenomena, +whether words, thoughts, deeds, forces, animals, +plants, or stars. Each so-called science +or discipline is ever and always dependent on +other sciences and disciplines. It draws its life +from them, and to them it owes, consciously or +unconsciously, a great part of its chances of progress.”</p> + +<p>Elsewhere this writer dwells on the need of +understanding the genetic side of history, if we +are to grasp the real meaning of, and grapple most +effectively with, the phenomena of our present-day +lives; for that which is can be dealt with +best if we realize at least in part from what a +tangled web of causation it has sprung.</p> + +<p>The work of the archæologist, the work of the +anthropologist, the work of the palæo-ethnologist—out +of all these a great literary historian may +gather material indispensable for his use. He, and +we, ought fully to acknowledge our debt to the +collectors of these indispensable facts. The investigator +in any line may do work which puts us<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span> +all under lasting obligations to him, even though +he be totally deficient in the art of literary expression, +that is, totally deficient in the ability to convey +vivid and lifelike pictures to others of the +past whose secrets he has laid bare. I would give +no scanty or grudging acknowledgment to the +deeds of such a man. He does a lasting service; +whereas the man who tries to make literary expression +cover his ignorance or misreading of facts +renders less than no service. But the service done +is immeasurably increased in value when the man +arises who from his study of a myriad dead fragments +is able to paint some living picture of the +past.</p> + +<p>This is why the record as great writers preserve +it has a value immeasurably beyond what is +merely lifeless. Such a record pulses with immortal +life. It may recount the deed or the +thought of a hero at some supreme moment. It +may be merely the portrayal of homely every-day +life. This matters not, so long as in either event +the genius of the historian enables him to paint in +colors that do not fade. The cry of the Ten +Thousand when they first saw the sea still stirs +the hearts of men. The ruthless death scene between +Jehu and Jezebel; wicked Ahab, smitten by +the chance arrow, and propped in his chariot until +he died at sundown; Josiah, losing his life because +he would not heed the Pharaoh’s solemn warning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> +and mourned by all the singing men and all the +singing women—the fates of these kings and of +this king’s daughter, are part of the common stock +of knowledge of mankind. They were petty rulers +of petty principalities; yet, compared with them, +mighty conquerors, who added empire to empire, +Shalmaneser and Sargon, Amenhotep and Rameses, +are but shadows; for the deeds and the deaths of +the kings of Judah and Israel are written in words +that, once read, can not be forgotten. The Peloponnesian +War bulks of unreal size to-day because +it once seemed thus to bulk to a master +mind. Only a great historian can fittingly deal +with a very great subject; yet because the qualities +of chief interest in human history can be +shown on a small field no less than on a large one, +some of the greatest historians have treated subjects +that only their own genius rendered great.</p> + +<p>So true is this that if great events lack a great +historian, and a great poet writes about them, it is +the poet who fixes them in the mind of mankind, +so that in after-time importance the real has become +the shadow and the shadow the reality. +Shakespeare has definitely fixed the character of +the Richard III of whom ordinary men think and +speak. Keats forgot even the right name of the +man who first saw the Pacific Ocean; yet it is +his lines which leap to our minds when we think +of the “wild surmise” felt by the indomitable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span> +explorer-conqueror from Spain when the vast new +sea burst on his vision.</p> + +<p>When, however, the great historian has spoken, +his work will never be undone. No poet can +ever supersede what Napier wrote of the storming +of Badajoz, of the British infantry at Albuera, +and of the light artillery at Fuentes d’Oñoro. +After Parkman had written of Montcalm and +Wolfe there was left for other writers only what +Fitzgerald left for other translators of Omar +Khayyam. Much new light has been thrown on +the history of the Byzantine Empire by the many +men who have studied it of recent years; we read +each new writer with pleasure and profit; and +after reading each we take down a volume of +Gibbon, with renewed thankfulness that a great +writer was moved to do a great task.</p> + +<p>The greatest of future archæologists will be the +great historian who instead of being a mere antiquarian +delver in dust-heaps has the genius +to reconstruct for us the immense panorama of +the past. He must possess knowledge. He must +possess that without which knowledge is of so +little use, wisdom. What he brings from the +charnel-house he must use with such potent wizardry +that we shall see the life that was and not +the death that is. For remember that the past +was life just as much as the present is life. Whether +it be Egypt, or Mesopotamia, or Scandinavia with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> +which he deals, the great historian, if the facts +permit him, will put before us the men and women +as they actually lived so that we shall recognize +them for what they were, living beings. Men like +Maspero, Breasted, and Weigall have already begun +this work for the countries of the Nile and +the Euphrates. For Scandinavia the groundwork +was laid long ago in the “Heimskringla” and in +such sagas as those of Burnt Njal and Gisli +Soursop. Minute descriptions of mummies and of +the furniture of tombs help us as little to understand +the Egypt of the mighty days, as to sit +inside the tomb of Mount Vernon would help us +to see Washington the soldier leading to battle +his scarred and tattered veterans, or Washington +the statesman, by his serene strength of character, +rendering it possible for his countrymen to +establish themselves as one great nation.</p> + +<p>The great historian must be able to paint for +us the life of the plain people, the ordinary men +and women, of the time of which he writes. He +can do this only if he possesses the highest kind of +imagination. Collections of figures no more give +us a picture of the past than the reading of a +tariff report on hides or woollens gives us an idea +of the actual lives of the men and women who live +on ranches or work in factories. The great historian +will in as full measure as possible present +to us the every-day life of the men and women of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> +the age which he describes. Nothing that tells +of this life will come amiss to him. The instruments +of their labor and the weapons of their warfare, +the wills that they wrote, the bargains that +they made, and the songs that they sang when +they feasted and made love: he must use them all. +He must tell us of the toil of the ordinary man in +ordinary times, and of the play by which that +ordinary toil was broken. He must never forget +that no event stands out entirely isolated. He +must trace from its obscure and humble beginnings +each of the movements that in its hour of +triumph has shaken the world.</p> + +<p>Yet he must not forget that the times that are +extraordinary need especial portrayal. In the +revolt against the old tendency of historians to +deal exclusively with the spectacular and the exceptional, +to treat only of war and oratory and +government, many modern writers have gone to +the opposite extreme. They fail to realize that +in the lives of nations as in the lives of men there +are hours so fraught with weighty achievement, +with triumph or defeat, with joy or sorrow, that +each such hour may determine all the years that +are to come thereafter, or may outweigh all the +years that have gone before. In the writings of +our historians, as in the lives of our ordinary +citizens, we can neither afford to forget that it +is the ordinary every-day life which counts most;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span> +nor yet that seasons come when ordinary qualities +count for but little in the face of great contending +forces of good and of evil, the outcome of whose +strife determines whether the nation shall walk +in the glory of the morning or in the gloom of +spiritual death.</p> + +<p>The historian must deal with the days of common +things, and deal with them so that they shall +interest us in reading of them as our own common +things interest us as we live among them. He +must trace the changes that come almost unseen, +the slow and gradual growth that transforms for +good or for evil the children and grandchildren so +that they stand high above or far below the level +on which their forefathers stood. He must also +trace the great cataclysms that interrupt and divert +this gradual development. He can no more +afford to be blind to one class of phenomena than +to the other. He must ever remember that while +the worst offence of which he can be guilty is to +write vividly and inaccurately, yet that unless he +writes vividly he can not write truthfully; for no +amount of dull, painstaking detail will sum up as +the whole truth unless the genius is there to paint +the truth.</p> + +<p>There can be no better illustration of what I +mean than is afforded by the history of Russia +during the last thousand years. The historian +must trace the growth of the earliest Slav communities<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span> +of the forest and the steppe, the infiltration +of Scandinavian invaders who gave them +their first power of mass action, and the slow, +chaotic development of the little communes into +barbarous cities and savage princedoms. In later +Russian history he must show us priest and +noble, merchant and serf, changing slowly from +the days when Ivan the Terrible warred against +Bátory, the Magyar king of Poland, until the +present moment, when with half-suspicious eyes +the people of the Czar watch their remote Bulgarian +kinsmen standing before the last European +stronghold of the Turk. During all these centuries +there were multitudes of wars, foreign and +domestic, any or all of which were of little moment +compared to the slow working of the various forces +that wrought in the times of peace. But there +was one period of storm and overthrow so terrible +that it affected profoundly for all time the +whole growth of the Russian people, in inmost +character no less than in external dominion. +Early in the thirteenth century the genius of +Jenghiz Khan stirred the Mongol horsemen of the +mid-Asian pastures to a movement as terrible to +civilization as the lava flow of a volcano to the +lands around the volcano’s foot. When that century +opened, the Mongols were of no more weight +in the world than the Touaregs of the Sahara are +to-day. Long before the century had closed they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span> +had ridden from the Yellow Sea to the Adriatic +and the Persian Gulf. They had crushed Christian +and Moslem and Buddhist alike beneath the +iron cruelty of their sway. They had conquered +China as their successors conquered India. They +sacked Baghdad, the seat of the Caliph. In mid-Europe +their presence for a moment caused the +same horror to fall on the warring adherents of +the Pope and the Kaiser. To Europe they were a +scourge so frightful, so irresistible, that the people +cowered before them as if they had been demons. +No European army of that day, of any nation, +was able to look them in the face on a stricken +field. Bestial in their lives, irresistible in battle, +merciless in victory, they trampled the lands over +which they rode into bloody mire beneath the +hoofs of their horses. The squat, slit-eyed, brawny +horse-bowmen drew a red furrow across Hungary, +devastated Poland, and in Silesia overthrew the +banded chivalry of Germany. But it was in +Russia that they did their worst. They not +merely conquered Russia, but held the Russians +as cowering and abject serfs for two centuries. +Every feeble effort at resistance was visited with +such bloodthirsty vengeance that finally no Russian +ventured ever to oppose them at all. But +the princes of the cities soon found that the beast-like +fury of the conquerors when their own desires +were thwarted, was only equalled by their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span> +beast-like indifference to all that was done among +the conquered people themselves, and that they +were ever ready to hire themselves out to aid each +Russian against his brother. Under this régime +the Russian who rose was the Russian who with +cringing servility to his Tartar overlords combined +ferocious and conscienceless greed in the +treatment of his fellow Russians. Moscow came +to the front by using the Tartar to help conquer +the other Russian cities, paying as a price abject +obedience to all Tartar demands. In the long +run the fierce and pliant cunning of the conquered +people proved too much for the short-sighted and +arrogant brutality of the conquerors. The Tartar +power, the Mongolian power, waned. Russia +became united, threw off the yoke, and herself +began a career of aggression at the expense of her +former conquerors. But the reconquest of racial +independence, vitally necessary though it was to +Russia, had been paid for by the establishment +of a despotism Asiatic rather than European in its +spirit and working.</p> + +<p>The true historian will bring the past before +our eyes as if it were the present. He will make +us see as living men the hard-faced archers of +Agincourt, and the war-worn spearmen who followed +Alexander down beyond the rim of the +known world. We shall hear grate on the coast +of Britain the keels of the Low-Dutch sea-thieves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span> +whose children’s children were to inherit unknown +continents. We shall thrill to the triumphs of +Hannibal. Gorgeous in our sight will rise the +splendor of dead cities, and the might of the elder +empires of which the very ruins crumbled to dust +ages ago. Along ancient trade-routes, across the +world’s waste spaces, the caravans shall move; +and the admirals of uncharted seas shall furrow +the oceans with their lonely prows. Beyond the +dim centuries we shall see the banners float above +armed hosts. We shall see conquerors riding +forward to victories that have changed the course +of time. We shall listen to the prophecies of forgotten +seers. Ours shall be the dreams of dreamers +who dreamed greatly, who saw in their vision peaks +so lofty that never yet have they been reached +by the sons and daughters of men. Dead poets +shall sing to us the deeds of men of might and +the love and the beauty of women. We shall see +the dancing girls of Memphis. The scent of the +flowers in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon will be +heavy to our senses. We shall sit at feast with the +kings of Nineveh when they drink from ivory and +gold. With Queen Maeve in her sun-parlor we +shall watch the nearing chariots of the champions. +For us the war-horns of King Olaf shall wail +across the flood, and the harps sound high at +festivals in forgotten halls. The frowning strongholds +of the barons of old shall rise before us, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> +the white palace-castles from whose windows +Syrian princes once looked across the blue Ægean. +We shall know the valor of the two-sworded +Samurai. Ours shall be the hoary wisdom and +the strange, crooked folly of the immemorial civilizations +which tottered to a living death in +India and in China. We shall see the terrible +horsemen of Timur the Lame ride over the roof +of the world; we shall hear the drums beat as the +armies of Gustavus and Frederick and Napoleon +drive forward to victory. Ours shall be the woe +of burgher and peasant, and ours the stern joy +when freemen triumph and justice comes to her +own. The agony of the galley-slaves shall be +ours, and the rejoicing when the wicked are +brought low and the men of evil days have their +reward. We shall see the glory of triumphant +violence, and the revel of those who do wrong in +high places; and the broken-hearted despair that +lies beneath the glory and the revel. We shall +also see the supreme righteousness of the wars +for freedom and justice, and know that the men +who fell in these wars made all mankind their +debtors.</p> + +<p>Some day the historians will tell us of these +things. Some day, too, they will tell our children +of the age and the land in which we now live. +They will portray the conquest of the continent. +They will show the slow beginnings of settlement,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span> +the growth of the fishing and trading towns on +the seacoast, the hesitating early ventures into +the Indian-haunted forest. Then they will show +the backwoodsmen, with their long rifles and their +light axes, making their way with labor and peril +through the wooded wilderness to the Mississippi; +and then the endless march of the white-topped +wagon-trains across plain and mountain to the +coast of the greatest of the five great oceans. They +will show how the land which the pioneers won +slowly and with incredible hardship was filled in +two generations by the overflow from the countries +of western and central Europe. The portentous +growth of the cities will be shown, and the change +from a nation of farmers to a nation of business +men and artisans, and all the far-reaching consequences +of the rise of the new industrialism. The +formation of a new ethnic type in this melting-pot +of the nations will be told. The hard materialism +of our age will appear, and also the strange capacity +for lofty idealism which must be reckoned +with by all who would understand the American +character. A people whose heroes are Washington +and Lincoln, a peaceful people who fought to +a finish one of the bloodiest of wars, waged solely +for the sake of a great principle and a noble idea, +surely possess an emergency-standard far above +mere money-getting.</p> + +<p>Those who tell the Americans of the future<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> +what the Americans of to-day and of yesterday +have done, will perforce tell much that is unpleasant. +This is but saying that they will describe +the arch-typical civilization of this age. +Nevertheless, when the tale is finally told, I believe +that it will show that the forces working for +good in our national life outweigh the forces +working for evil, and that, with many blunders and +shortcomings, with much halting and turning +aside from the path, we shall yet in the end prove +our faith by our works, and show in our lives +our belief that righteousness exalteth a nation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="BIOLOGICAL_ANALOGIES_IN_HISTORY" title="BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY"><span id="toclink_37"></span>BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a></h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">An</span> American who, in response to such an invitation +as I have received, speaks in this +university of ancient renown, can not but +feel with peculiar vividness the interest and charm +of his surroundings, fraught as they are with a +thousand associations. Your great universities, +and all the memories that make them great, are +living realities in the minds of scores of thousands +of men who have never seen them and who dwell +across the seas in other lands. Moreover, these +associations are no stronger in the men of English +stock than in those who are not. My people +have been for eight generations in America; but +in one thing I am like the Americans of to-morrow, +rather than like many of the Americans of +to-day; for I have in my veins the blood of men +who came from many different European races. +The ethnic make-up of our people is slowly changing, +so that constantly the race tends to become +more and more akin to that of those Americans<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> +who like myself are of the old stock but not +mainly of English stock. Yet I think that, as +time goes by, mutual respect, understanding, and +sympathy among the English-speaking peoples +grow greater and not less. Any of my ancestors, +Hollander or Huguenot, Scotchman or Irishman, +who had come to Oxford in “the spacious days +of great Elizabeth,” would have felt far more +alien than I, their descendant, now feel. Common +heirship in the things of the spirit makes a +closer bond than common heirship in the things of +the body.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">2</a> Delivered at Oxford, June 7, 1910. This was the Romanes +Lecture for 1910, and has been published by the Oxford University +Press, with whose permission it is included in this volume.</p> + +</div> + +<p>More than ever before in the world’s history +we of to-day seek to penetrate the causes of the +mysteries that surround not only mankind but +all life, both in the present and the past. We +search, we peer, we see things dimly; here and +there we get a ray of clear vision, as we look before +and after. We study the tremendous procession +of the ages, from the immemorial past +when in “cramp elf and saurian forms” the creative +forces “swathed their too-much power,” +down to the yesterday, a few score thousand years +distant only, when the history of man became the +overwhelming fact in the history of life on this +planet; and studying we see strange analogies +in the phenomena of life and death, of birth, +growth, and change, between those physical +groups of animal life which we designate as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span> +species, forms, races, and the highly complex and +composite entities which rise before our minds +when we speak of nations and civilizations.</p> + +<p>It is this study which has given science its +present-day prominence. In the world of intellect, +doubtless, the most marked features in the +history of the past century have been the extraordinary +advances in scientific knowledge and +investigation, and in the position held by the +men of science with reference to those engaged in +other pursuits. I am not now speaking of applied +science; of the science, for instance, which, +having revolutionized transportation on the earth +and the water, is now on the brink of carrying it +into the air; of the science that finds its expression +in such extraordinary achievements as the +telephone and the telegraph; of the sciences +which have so accelerated the velocity of movement +in social and industrial conditions—for the +changes in the mechanical appliances of ordinary +life during the last three generations have been +greater than in all the preceding generations +since history dawned. I speak of the science +which has no more direct bearing upon the affairs +of our every-day life than literature or music, +painting or sculpture, poetry or history. A hundred +years ago the ordinary man of cultivation +had to know something of these last subjects; +but the probabilities were rather against his having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span> +any but the most superficial scientific knowledge. +At present all this has changed, thanks +to the interest taken in scientific discoveries, the +large circulation of scientific books, and the rapidity +with which ideas originating among students +of the most advanced and abstruse sciences become, +at least partially, domiciled in the popular +mind.</p> + +<p>Another feature of the change, of the growth +in the position of science in the eyes of every +one, and of the greatly increased respect naturally +resulting for scientific methods, has been a certain +tendency for scientific students to encroach +on other fields. This is particularly true of the +field of historical study. Not only have scientific +men insisted upon the necessity of considering +the history of man, especially in its early stages, +in connection with what biology shows to be the +history of life, but furthermore there has arisen +a demand that history shall itself be treated as a +science. Both positions are in their essence right; +but as regards each position, the more arrogant +among the invaders of the new realm of knowledge +take an attitude to which it is not necessary to +assent. As regards the latter of the two positions, +that which would treat history henceforth +merely as one branch of scientific study, we must +of course cordially agree that accuracy in recording +facts and appreciation of their relative worth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span> +and interrelationship are just as necessary in historical +study as in any other kind of study. The +fact that a book, though interesting, is untrue, +of course removes it at once from the category +of history, however much it may still deserve to +retain a place in the always desirable group of +volumes which deal with entertaining fiction. +But the converse also holds, at least to the extent +of permitting us to insist upon what would seem +to be the elementary fact that a book which is +written to be read should be readable. This +rather obvious truth seems to have been forgotten +by some of the more zealous scientific historians, +who apparently hold that the worth of a historical +book is directly in proportion to the impossibility +of reading it, save as a painful duty. +Now I am willing that history shall be treated as +a branch of science, but only on condition that +it also remains a branch of literature; and, furthermore, +I believe that as the field of science +encroaches on the field of literature there should +be a corresponding encroachment of literature +upon science; and I hold that one of the great +needs, which can only be met by very able men +whose culture is broad enough to include literature +as well as science, is the need of books for +scientific laymen. We need a literature of science +which shall be readable. So far from doing +away with the school of great historians, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span> +school of Polybius and Tacitus, Gibbon and Macaulay, +we need merely that the future writers +of history, without losing the qualities which +have made these men great, shall also utilize the +new facts and new methods which science has +put at their disposal. Dryness is not in itself a +measure of value. No “scientific” treatise about +St. Louis will displace Joinville, for the very reason +that Joinville’s place is in both history and +literature; no minute study of the Napoleonic +wars will teach us more than Marbot—and Marbot +is as interesting as Walter Scott. Moreover, +certain at least of the branches of science should +likewise be treated by masters in the art of presentment, +so that the layman interested in science, +no less than the layman interested in history, shall +have on his shelves classics which can be read. +Whether this wish be or be not capable of realization, +it assuredly remains true that the great historian +of the future must essentially represent the +ideal striven after by the great historians of the +past. The industrious collector of facts occupies +an honorable, but not an exalted, position, and +the scientific historian who produces books which +are not literature must rest content with the honor, +substantial, but not of the highest type, that belongs +to him who gathers material which some +time some great master shall arise to use.</p> + +<p>Yet, while freely conceding all that can be said<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span> +of the masters of literature, we must insist upon +the historian of mankind working in the scientific +spirit, and using the treasure-houses of science. +He who would fully treat of man must know at +least something of biology, of the science that +treats of living, breathing things; and especially +of that science of evolution which is inseparably +connected with the great name of Darwin. Of +course, there is no exact parallelism between the +birth, growth, and death of species in the animal +world, and the birth, growth, and death of societies +in the world of man. Yet there is a certain +parallelism. There are strange analogies; it may +be that there are homologies.</p> + +<p>How far the resemblances between the two sets +of phenomena are more than accidental, how far +biology can be used as an aid in the interpretation +of human history, we can not at present say. The +historian should never forget, what the highest +type of scientific man is always teaching us to +remember, that willingness to admit ignorance is +a prime factor in developing wisdom out of knowledge. +Wisdom is advanced by research which +enables us to add to knowledge; and, moreover, +the way for wisdom is made ready when men who +record facts of vast but unknown import, if asked +to explain their full significance, are willing +frankly to answer that they do not know. The +research which enables us to add to the sum of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> +complete knowledge stands first; but second only +stands the research which, while enabling us +clearly to pose the problem, also requires us to +say that with our present knowledge we can offer +no complete solution.</p> + +<p>Let me illustrate what I mean by an instance +or two taken from one of the most fascinating +branches of world-history, the history of the higher +forms of life, of mammalian life, on this globe.</p> + +<p>Geologists and astronomers are not agreed as +to the length of time necessary for the changes +that have taken place. At any rate, many hundreds +of thousands of years, some millions of +years, have passed by since in the eocene, at the +beginning of the tertiary period, we find the +traces of an abundant, varied, and highly developed +mammalian life on the land masses out of +which have grown the continents as we see them +to-day. The ages swept by, until, with the advent +of man substantially in the physical shape in +which we now know him, we also find a mammalian +fauna not essentially different in kind, though +widely differing in distribution, from that of the +present day. Throughout this immense period +form succeeds form, type succeeds type, in obedience +to laws of evolution, of progress and retrogression, +of development and death, which we as +yet understand only in the most imperfect manner. +As knowledge increases our wisdom is often<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> +turned into foolishness, and many of the phenomena +of evolution which seemed clearly explicable +to the learned master of science who founded these +lectures, to us nowadays seem far less satisfactorily +explained. The scientific men of most note +now differ widely in their estimates of the relative +parts played in evolution by natural selection, by +mutation, by the inheritance of acquired characteristics; +and we study their writings with a +growing impression that there are forces at work +which our blinded eyes wholly fail to apprehend; +and where this is the case the part of wisdom is +to say that we believe we have such and such partial +explanations, but that we are not warranted +in saying that we have the whole explanation. +In tracing the history of the development of +faunal life during this period, the age of mammals, +there are some facts which are clearly established, +some great and sweeping changes for +which we can with certainty ascribe reasons. +There are other facts as to which we grope in the +dark, and vast changes, vast catastrophes, of which +we can give no adequate explanation.</p> + +<p>Before illustrating these types, let us settle +one or two matters of terminology. In the +changes, the development and extinction, of +species we must remember that such expressions +as “a new species,” or as “a species becoming +extinct,” are each commonly and indiscriminately<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span> +used to express totally different and opposite +meanings. Of course the “new” species is +not new in the sense that its ancestors appeared +later on the globe’s surface than those of any old +species tottering to extinction. Phylogenetically, +each animal now living must necessarily trace its +ancestral descent back through countless generations, +through eons of time, to the early stages of +the appearance of life on the globe. All that +we mean by a “new” species is that from some +cause, or set of causes, one of these ancestral +stems slowly or suddenly develops into a form +unlike any that has preceded it; so that, while in +one form of life the ancestral type is continuously +repeated and the old species continues to exist, +in another form of life there is a deviation from +the ancestral type and a new species appears.</p> + +<p>Similarly, “extinction of species” is a term +which has two entirely different meanings. The +type may become extinct by dying out and leaving +no descendants. Or it may die out because +as the generations go by there is change, slow +or swift, until a new form is produced. Thus in +one case the line of life comes to an end. In +the other case it changes into something different. +The huge titanothere, and the small three-toed +horse, both existed at what may roughly be called +the same period of the world’s history, back in +the middle of the mammalian age. Both are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span> +extinct in the sense that each has completely disappeared +and that nothing like either is to be +found in the world to-day. But whereas all the +individual titanotheres finally died out, leaving no +descendants, a number of the three-toed horses +did leave descendants, and these descendants, constantly +changing as the ages went by, finally developed +into the highly specialized one-toed horses, +asses, and zebras of to-day.</p> + +<p>The analogy between the facts thus indicated +and certain facts in the development of human +societies is striking. A further analogy is supplied +by a very curious tendency often visible in +cases of intense and extreme specialization. When +an animal form becomes highly specialized, the +type at first, because of its specialization, triumphs +over its allied rivals and its enemies, and attains +a great development; until in many cases the +specialization becomes so extreme that from some +cause unknown to us, or at which we merely +guess, it disappears. The new species which +mark a new era commonly come from the less +specialized types, the less distinctive, dominant, +and striking types, of the preceding era.</p> + +<p>When dealing with the changes, cataclysmic +or gradual, which divide one period of paleontological +history from another, we can sometimes +assign causes, and again we can not even guess at +them. In the case of single species, or of faunas<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> +of very restricted localities, the explanation is +often self-evident. A comparatively slight change +in the amount of moisture in the climate, with +the attendant change in vegetation, might readily +mean the destruction of a group of huge herbivores +with a bodily size such that they needed a +vast quantity of food, and with teeth so weak or +so peculiar that but one or two kinds of plants +could furnish this food. Again, we now know +that the most deadly foes of the higher forms of +life are various lower forms of life, such as insects, +or microscopic creatures conveyed into the +blood by insects. There are districts in South +America where many large animals, wild and domestic, +can not live because of the presence either +of certain ticks or of certain baleful flies. In +Africa there is a terrible genus of poison fly, each +species acting as the host of microscopic creatures +which are deadly to certain of the higher vertebrates. +One of these species, though harmless to +man, is fatal to all domestic animals, and this +although harmless to the closely related wild kinsfolk +of these animals. Another is fatal to man +himself, being the cause of the “sleeping-sickness” +which in many large districts has killed out +the entire population. Of course the development +or the extension of the range of any such +insects, and any one of many other causes which +we see actually at work around us, would readily<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span> +account for the destruction of some given species +or even for the destruction of several species in a +limited area of country.</p> + +<p>When whole faunal groups die out over large +areas, the question is different, and may or may +not be susceptible of explanation with the knowledge +we actually possess. In the old arctogæal +continent, for instance, in what is now Europe, +Asia, and North America, the glacial period made +a complete, but of course explicable, change in +the faunal life of the region. At one time the +continent held a rich and varied fauna. Then a +period of great cold supervened, and a different +fauna succeeded the first. The explanation of the +change is obvious.</p> + +<p>But in many other cases we can not so much +as hazard a guess at why a given change occurred. +One of the most striking instances of these inexplicable +changes is that afforded by the history of +South America toward the close of the tertiary +period. For ages South America had been an +island by itself, cut off from North America at +the very time that the latter was at least occasionally +in land communication with Asia. During +this time a very peculiar fauna grew up in South +America, some of the types resembling nothing +now existing, while others are recognizable as +ancestral forms of the ant-eaters, sloths, and armadillos +of to-day. It was a peculiar and diversified<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> +mammalian fauna, of, on the whole, rather small +species, and without any representatives of the +animals with which man has been most familiar +during his career on this earth.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the tertiary period there +was an upheaval of land between this old South +American island and North America, near what +is now the Isthmus of Panama, thereby making a +bridge across which the teeming animal life of the +northern continent had access to this queer southern +continent. There followed an inrush of huge, +or swift, or formidable creatures which had attained +their development in the fierce competition +of the arctogæal realm. Elephants, camels, horses, +tapirs, swine, sabre-toothed tigers, big cats, +wolves, bears, deer, crowded into South America, +warring each against the other incomers and +against the old long-existing forms. A riot of +life followed. Not only was the character of the +South American fauna totally changed by the +invasion of these creatures from the north, which +soon swarmed over the continent, but it was also +changed through the development wrought in the +old inhabitants by the severe competition to +which they were exposed. Many of the smaller +or less capable types died out. Others developed +enormous bulk or complete armor protection, and +thereby saved themselves from the new beasts. +In consequence, South America soon became populated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span> +with various new species of mastodons, +sabre-toothed tigers, camels, horses, deer, cats, +wolves, hooved creatures of strange shapes, and +some of them of giant size, all of these being descended +from the immigrant types; and side by +side with them there grew up large autochthonous +ungulates, giant ground-sloths well-nigh as large +as elephants, and armored creatures as bulky as +an ox but structurally of the armadillo or ant-eater +type; and some of these latter not only +held their own, but actually in their turn wandered +north over the isthmus and invaded North America. +A fauna as varied as that of Africa to-day, +as abundant in species and individuals, even more +noteworthy, because of its huge size or odd type, +and because of the terrific prowess of the more formidable +flesh-eaters, was thus developed in South +America, and flourished for a period which human +history would call very long indeed, but which +geologically was short.</p> + +<p>Then, for no reason that we can assign, destruction +fell on this fauna. All the great and terrible +creatures died out, the same fate befalling the +changed representatives of the old autochthonous +fauna and the descendants of the migrants that +had come down from the north. Ground-sloth +and glyptodon, sabre-tooth, horse and mastodon, +and all the associated animals of large size vanished, +and South America, though still retaining<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span> +its connection with North America, once again became +a land with a mammalian life small and +weak compared to that of North America and +the Old World. Its fauna is now marked, for +instance, by the presence of medium-sized deer +and cats, fox-like wolves, and small camel-like +creatures, as well as by the presence of small +armadillos, sloths, and ant-eaters. In other words, +it includes diminutive representatives of the giants +of the preceding era, both of the giants among the +older forms of mammalia, and of the giants among +the new and intrusive kinds. The change was +wide-spread and extraordinary, and with our present +means of information it is wholly inexplicable. +There was no ice age, and it is hard to imagine +any cause which would account for the extinction +of so many species of huge or moderate size, while +smaller representatives, and here and there +medium-sized representatives, of many of them +were left.</p> + +<p>Now as to all of these phenomena in the evolution +of species, there are, if not homologies, at +least certain analogies, in the history of human +societies, in the history of the rise to prominence, +of the development and change, of the temporary +dominance, and death or transformation, of the +groups of varying kind which form races or nations. +Here, as in biology, it is necessary to keep in +mind that we use each of the words “birth” and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span> +“death,” “youth” and “age,” often very loosely, +and sometimes as denoting either one of two totally +different conceptions. Of course, in one +sense there is no such thing as an “old” or a +“young” nation, any more than there is an “old” +or “young” family. Phylogenetically, the line of +ancestral descent must be of exactly the same +length for every existing individual, and for every +group of individuals, whether forming a family or +a nation. All that can properly be meant by the +terms “new” and “young” is that in a given line +of descent there has suddenly come a period of +rapid change. This change may arise either from +a new development or transformation of the old +elements, or else from a new grouping of these +elements with other and varied elements; so that +the words “new” nation or “young” nation may +have a real difference of significance in one case +from what they have in another.</p> + +<p>As in biology, so in human history, a new form +may result from the specialization of a long-existing, +and hitherto very slowly changing, generalized +or non-specialized form; as, for instance, +occurs when a barbaric race from a variety of +causes suddenly develops a more complex cultivation +and civilization. This is what occurred, for +instance, in western Europe during the centuries +of the Teutonic and, later, the Scandinavian ethnic +overflows from the north. All the modern countries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> +of western Europe are descended from the +states created by these northern invaders. When +first created they would be called “new” or +“young” states in the sense that part or all of +the people composing them were descended from +races that hitherto had not been civilized, and +that therefore, for the first time, entered on the +career of civilized communities. In the southern +part of western Europe the new states thus formed +consisted in bulk of the inhabitants already in +the land under the Roman Empire; and it was +here that the new kingdoms first took shape. +Through a reflex action their influence then extended +back into the cold forests from which the +invaders had come, and Germany and Scandinavia +witnessed the rise of communities with essentially +the same civilization as their southern +neighbors; though in those communities, unlike +the southern communities, there was no infusion +of new blood, so that the new civilized nations +which gradually developed were composed entirely +of members of the same races which in the same +regions had for ages lived the life of a slowly changing +barbarism. The same was true of the Slavs +and the Slavonized Finns of eastern Europe, +when an infiltration of Scandinavian leaders from +the north, and an infiltration of Byzantine culture +from the south, joined to produce the changes +which have gradually, out of the little Slav communities<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span> +of the forest and the steppe, formed the +mighty Russian Empire of to-day.</p> + +<p>Again, the new form may represent merely a +splitting off from a long-established, highly developed, +and specialized nation. In this case the +nation is usually spoken of as a “young,” and is +correctly spoken of as a “new,” nation; but the +term should always be used with a clear sense of +the difference between what is described in such +case, and what is described by the same term in +speaking of a civilized nation just developed from +barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse were new +cities compared to Tyre and Corinth; but the +Greek or Phœnician race was in every sense of the +word as old in the new city as in the old city. +So, nowadays, Victoria or Manitoba is a new community +compared with England or Scotland; but +the ancestral type of civilization and culture is as +old in one case as in the other. I of course do not +mean for a moment that great changes are not +produced by the mere fact that the old civilized +race is suddenly placed in surroundings where it +has again to go through the work of taming the +wilderness, a work finished many centuries before +in the original home of the race; I merely mean +that the ancestral history is the same in each case. +We can rightly use the phrase “a new people,” in +speaking of Canadians or Australians, Americans +or Africanders. But we use it in an entirely different<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span> +sense from that in which we use it when +speaking of such communities as those founded by +the Northmen and their descendants during that +period of astonishing growth which saw the descendants +of the Norse sea-thieves conquer and +transform Normandy, Sicily, and the British Islands; +we use it in an entirely different sense from +that in which we use it when speaking of the new +states that grew up around Warsaw, Kief, Novgorod, +and Moscow, as the wild savages of the +steppes and the marshy forests struggled haltingly +and stumblingly upward to become builders of +cities and to form stable governments. The kingdoms +of Charlemagne and Alfred were “new,” +compared to the empire on the Bosphorus; they +were also in every way different; their lines of +ancestral descent had nothing in common with +that of the polyglot realm which paid tribute to +the Cæsars of Byzantium; their social problems +and after-time history were totally different. This +is not true of those “new” nations which spring +direct from old nations. Brazil, the Argentine, +the United States, are all “new” nations, compared +with the nations of Europe; but, with whatever +changes in detail, their civilization is nevertheless +of the general European type, as shown +in Portugal, Spain, and England. The differences +between these “new” American and these “old” +European nations are not as great as those which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span> +separate the “new” nations one from another, +and the “old” nations one from another. There +are in each case very real differences between the +new and the old nation; differences both for good +and for evil; but in each case there is the same +ancestral history to reckon with, the same type +of civilization, with its attendant benefits and +shortcomings; and, after the pioneer stages are +passed, the problems to be solved, in spite of +superficial differences, are in their essence the +same; they are those that confront all civilized +peoples, not those that confront only peoples +struggling from barbarism into civilization.</p> + +<p>So, when we speak of the “death” of a tribe, +a nation, or a civilization, the term may be used +for either one of two totally different processes, +the analogy with what occurs in biological history +being complete. Certain tribes of savages—the +Tasmanians, for instance, and various little clans +of American Indians—have within the last century +or two completely died out; all of the individuals +have perished, leaving no descendants, +and the blood has disappeared. Certain other +tribes of Indians have as tribes disappeared or are +now disappearing; but their blood remains, being +absorbed into the veins of the white intruders, or +of the black men introduced by those white intruders; +so that in reality they are merely being +transformed into something absolutely different<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span> +from what they were. In the United States, in +the new State of Oklahoma, the Creeks, Cherokees, +Chickasaws, Delawares, and other tribes +are in process of absorption into the mass of the +white population; when the State was admitted +a couple of years ago, one of the two senators, +and three of the five representatives in Congress, +were partly of Indian blood. In but a few years +these Indian tribes will have disappeared as completely +as those that have actually died out; but +the disappearance will be by absorption and transformation +into the mass of the American population.</p> + +<p>A like wide diversity in fact may be covered +in the statement that a civilization has “died +out.” The nationality and culture of the wonderful +city-builders of the lower Mesopotamian Plain +have completely disappeared, and, though doubtless +certain influences dating therefrom are still +at work, they are in such changed and hidden form +as to be unrecognizable. But the disappearance +of the Roman Empire was of no such character. +There was complete change, far-reaching transformation, +and at one period a violent dislocation; +but it would not be correct to speak either of the +blood or the culture of Old Rome as extinct. We +are not yet in a position to dogmatize as to the +permanence or evanescence of the various strains +of blood that go to make up every civilized nationality;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span> +but it is reasonably certain that the +blood of the old Roman still flows through the +veins of the modern Italian; and though there has +been much intermixture, from many different +foreign sources—from foreign conquerors and from +foreign slaves—yet it is probable that the Italian +type of to-day finds its dominant ancestral type +in the ancient Latin. As for the culture, the civilization +of Rome, this is even more true. It has +suffered a complete transformation, partly by +natural growth, partly by absorption of totally +alien elements, such as a Semitic religion, and +certain Teutonic governmental and social customs; +but the process was not one of extinction, but one +of growth and transformation, both from within +and by the accretion of outside elements. In +France and Spain the inheritance of Latin blood +is small; but the Roman culture which was forced +on those countries has been tenaciously retained by +them, throughout all their subsequent ethnical +and political changes, as the basis on which their +civilizations have been built. Moreover, the permanent +spreading of Roman influence was not +limited to Europe. It has extended to and over +half of that New World which was not even +dreamed of during the thousand years of brilliant +life between the birth and the death of pagan +Rome. This New World was discovered by one +Italian, and its mainland first reached and named<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> +by another; and in it, over a territory many times +the size of Trajan’s empire, the Spanish, French, +and Portuguese adventurers founded, beside the +Saint Lawrence and the Amazon, along the flanks +of the Andes, and in the shadow of the snow-capped +volcanoes of Mexico, from the Rio Grande to the +Straits of Magellan, communities, now flourishing +and growing apace, which in speech and culture, +and even as regards one strain in their blood, +are the lineal heirs of the ancient Latin civilization. +When we speak of the disappearance, the +passing away, of ancient Babylon or Nineveh, and +of ancient Rome, we are using the same terms to +describe totally different phenomena.</p> + +<p>The anthropologist and historian of to-day realize +much more clearly than their predecessors of +a couple of generations back, how artificial most +great nationalities are, and how loose is the +terminology usually employed to describe them. +There is an element of unconscious and rather +pathetic humor in the simplicity of half a century +ago which spoke of the Aryan and the Teuton +with reverential admiration, as if the words denoted, +not merely something definite, but something +ethnologically sacred; the writers having +much the same pride and faith in their own and +their fellow countrymen’s purity of descent from +these imaginary Aryan or Teutonic ancestors that +was felt a few generations earlier by the various<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span> +noble families who traced their lineage direct to +Odin, Æneas, or Noah. Nowadays, of course, +all students recognize that there may not be, and +often is not, the slightest connection between kinship +in blood and kinship in tongue. In America +we find three races, white, red, and black, +and three tongues, English, French, and Spanish, +mingled in such a way that the lines of cleavage +of race continually run at right angles to the lines +of cleavage of speech; there being communities +practically of pure blood of each race found speaking +each language. Aryan and Teutonic are +terms having very distinct linguistic meanings; +but whether they have any such ethnical meanings +as were formerly attributed to them is so doubtful, +that we can not even be sure whether the ancestors +of most of those we call Teutons originally +spoke an Aryan tongue at all. The term Celtic, +again, is perfectly clear when used linguistically; +but when used to describe a race it means almost +nothing until we find out which one of several +totally different terminologies the writer or +speaker is adopting. If, for instance, the term is +used to designate the short-headed, medium-sized +type common throughout middle Europe, from +east to west, it denotes something entirely different +from what is meant when the name is applied +to the tall, yellow-haired opponents of the Romans +and the later Greeks; while, if used to designate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span> +any modern nationality, it becomes about +as loose and meaningless as the term Anglo-Saxon +itself.</p> + +<p>Most of the great societies which have developed +a high civilization and have played a +dominant part in the world have been—and are—artificial; +not merely in social structure, but +in the sense of including totally different race +types. A great nation rarely belongs to any one +race, though its citizens generally have one essentially +national speech. Yet the curious fact +remains that these great artificial societies acquire +such unity that in each one all the parts feel a +subtle sympathy, and move or cease to move, go +forward or go back, all together, in response to +some stir or throbbing, very powerful, and yet not +to be discerned by our senses. National unity is +far more apt than race unity to be a fact to reckon +with; until indeed we come to race differences as +fundamental as those which divide from one +another the half-dozen great ethnic divisions of +mankind, when they become so important that +differences of nationality, speech, and creed sink +into littleness.</p> + +<p>An ethnological map of Europe in which the +peoples were divided according to their physical +and racial characteristics, such as stature, coloration, +and shape of head, would bear no resemblance +whatever to a map giving the political divisions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span> +the nationalities, of Europe; while, on the +contrary, a linguistic map would show a general +correspondence between speech and nationality. +The northern Frenchman is in blood and physical +type more nearly allied to his German-speaking +neighbor than to the Frenchman of the Mediterranean +seaboard; and the latter, in his turn, is +nearer to the Catalan than to the man who dwells +beside the Channel or along the tributaries of the +Rhine. But in essential characteristics, in the +qualities that tell in the make-up of a nationality, +all these kinds of Frenchmen feel keenly that they +are one, and are different from all outsiders, their +differences dwindling into insignificance compared +with the extraordinary, artificially produced resemblances +which bring them together and wall +them off from the outside world. The same is +true when we compare the German who dwells +where the Alpine springs of the Danube and the +Rhine interlace, with the physically different German +of the Baltic lands. The same is true of +Kentishman, Cornishman, and Yorkshireman in +England.</p> + +<p>In dealing, not with groups of human beings +in simple and primitive relations, but with highly +complex, highly specialized, civilized, or semi-civilized +societies, there is need of great caution +in drawing analogies with what has occurred in +the development of the animal world. Yet even<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span> +in these cases it is curious to see how some of the +phenomena in the growth and disappearance of +these complex, artificial groups of human beings +resemble what has happened in myriads of instances +in the history of life on this planet.</p> + +<p>Why do great artificial empires, whose citizens +are knit by a bond of speech and culture much +more than by a bond of blood, show periods of +extraordinary growth, and again of sudden or +lingering decay? In some cases we can answer +readily enough; in other cases we can not as yet +even guess what the proper answer should be. +If in any such case the centrifugal forces overcome +the centripetal, the nation will of course fly to +pieces, and the reason for its failure to become +a dominant force is patent to every one. The +minute that the spirit which finds its healthy development +in local self-government, and is the +antidote to the dangers of an extreme centralization, +develops into mere particularism, into inability +to combine effectively for achievement of +a common end, then it is hopeless to expect great +results. Poland and certain republics of the Western +Hemisphere are the standard examples of +failure of this kind; and the United States would +have ranked with them, and her name would have +become a byword of derision, if the forces of union +had not triumphed in the Civil War. So, the +growth of soft luxury after it has reached a certain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> +point becomes a national danger patent to all. +Again, it needs but little of the vision of a seer to +foretell what must happen in any community if +the average woman ceases to become the mother +of a family of healthy children, if the average man +loses the will and the power to work up to old age +and to fight whenever the need arises. If the +homely commonplace virtues die out, if strength +of character vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, +if the virile qualities atrophy, then the nation has +lost what no material prosperity can offset.</p> + +<p>But there are plenty of other phenomena wholly +or partially inexplicable. It is easy to see why +Rome trended downward when great slave-tilled +farms spread over what had once been a countryside +of peasant proprietors, when greed and luxury +and sensuality ate like acids into the fibre of +the upper classes, while the mass of the citizens +grew to depend not upon their own exertions, but +upon the state, for their pleasures and their very +livelihood. But this does not explain why the +forward movement stopped at different times, so +far as different matters were concerned; at one +time as regards literature, at another time as regards +architecture, at another time as regards +city-building. There is nothing mysterious about +Rome’s dissolution at the time of the barbarian +invasions; apart from the impoverishment and +depopulation of the empire, its fall would be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> +quite sufficiently explained by the mere fact that +the average citizen had lost the fighting edge—an +essential even under a despotism, and therefore +far more essential in free, self-governing communities, +such as those of the English-speaking +peoples of to-day. The mystery is rather that +out of the chaos and corruption of Roman society +during the last days of the oligarchic republic, +there should have sprung an empire able to hold +things with reasonable steadiness for three or +four centuries. But why, for instance, should the +higher kinds of literary productiveness have +ceased about the beginning of the second century, +whereas the following centuries witnessed a great +outbreak of energy in the shape of city-building +in the provinces, not only in western Europe, but +in Africa? We can not even guess why the springs +of one kind of energy dried up, while there was yet +no cessation of another kind.</p> + +<p>Take another and smaller instance, that of +Holland. For a period covering a little more +than the seventeenth century, Holland, like some +of the Italian city-states at an earlier period, stood +on the dangerous heights of greatness, beside +nations so vastly her superior in territory and population +as to make it inevitable that sooner or +later she must fall from the glorious and perilous +eminence to which she had been raised by her own +indomitable soul. Her fall came; it could not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span> +have been indefinitely postponed; but it came far +quicker than it needed to come, because of shortcomings +on her part to which both Great Britain +and the United States would be wise to pay heed. +Her government was singularly ineffective, the +decentralization being such as often to permit +the separatist, the particularist, spirit of the provinces +to rob the central authority of all efficiency. +This was bad enough. But the fatal weakness +was that so common in rich, peace-loving societies, +where men hate to think of war as possible, and +try to justify their own reluctance to face it either +by high-sounding moral platitudes, or else by +a philosophy of short-sighted materialism. The +Dutch were very wealthy. They grew to believe +that they could hire others to do their fighting +for them on land; and on sea, where they did +their own fighting, and fought very well, they refused +in time of peace to make ready fleets so +efficient as either to insure them against the peace +being broken or else to give them the victory +when war came. To be opulent and unarmed is +to secure ease in the present at the almost certain +cost of disaster in the future.</p> + +<p>It is therefore easy to see why Holland lost +when she did her position among the powers; but +it is far more difficult to explain why at the same +time there should have come at least a partial loss +of position in the world of art and letters. Some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span> +spark of divine fire burnt itself out in the national +soul. As the line of great statesmen, of +great warriors, by land and sea, came to an end, +so the line of the great Dutch painters ended. +The loss of pre-eminence in the schools followed +the loss of pre-eminence in camp and in council +chamber.</p> + +<p>In the little republic of Holland, as in the great +empire of Rome, it was not death which came, but +transformation. Both Holland and Italy teach +us that races that fall may rise again. In Holland, +as in the Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway +and Sweden, there was in a sense no decadence +at all. There was nothing analogous to what has +befallen so many countries: no lowering of the +general standard of well-being, no general loss of +vitality, no depopulation. What happened was, +first a flowering time, in which the country’s men +of action and men of thought gave it a commanding +position among the nations of the day; then this +period of command passed, and the state revolved +in an eddy, aside from the sweep of the mighty +current of world life; and yet the people themselves +in their internal relations remained substantially +unchanged, and in many fields of endeavor have +now recovered themselves and play again a leading +part.</p> + +<p>In Italy, where history is recorded for a far +longer time, the course of affairs was different.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span> +When the Roman Empire that was really Roman +went down in ruin, there followed an interval of +centuries when the gloom was almost unrelieved. +Every form of luxury and frivolity, of contemptuous +repugnance for serious work, of enervating +self-indulgence, every form of vice and weakness +which we regard as most ominous in the civilization +of to-day, had been at work throughout Italy +for generations. The nation had lost all patriotism. +It had ceased to bring forth fighters or +workers, had ceased to bring forth men of mark +of any kind; and the remnant of the Italian people +cowered in helpless misery among the horsehoofs +of the barbarians, as the wild northern bands +rode in to take the land for a prey and the cities +for a spoil. It was one of the great cataclysms of +history; but in the end it was seen that what came +had been in part change and growth. It was not +all mere destruction. Not only did Rome leave +a vast heritage of language, culture, law, ideas, to +all the modern world; but the people of Italy +kept the old blood as the chief strain in their veins. +In a few centuries came a wonderful new birth +for Italy. Then for four or five hundred years +there was a growth of many little city-states +which, in their energy both in peace and war, in +their fierce, fervent life, in the high quality of their +men of arts and letters, and in their utter inability +to combine so as to preserve order among themselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> +or to repel outside invasion, can not unfairly +be compared with classic Greece. Again +Italy fell, and the land was ruled by Spaniard or +Frenchman or Austrian; and again, in the nineteenth +century, there came for the third time a +wonderful new birth.</p> + +<p>Contrast this persistence of the old type in its +old home, and in certain lands which it had conquered, +with its utter disappearance in certain +other lands where it was intrusive, but where it +at one time seemed as firmly established as in +Italy—certainly as in Spain or Gaul. No more +curious example of the growth and disappearance +of a national type can be found than in the case +of the Greco-Roman dominion in Western Asia +and North Africa. All told it extended over +nearly a thousand years, from the days of Alexander +till after the time of Heraclius. Throughout +these lands there yet remain the ruins of innumerable +cities which tell how firmly rooted that dominion +must once have been. The overshadowing +and far-reaching importance of what occurred +is sufficiently shown by the familiar fact that the +New Testament was written in Greek; while to +the early Christians, North Africa seemed as +much a Latin land as Sicily or the valley of the +Po. The intrusive peoples and their culture flourished +in the lands for a period twice as long as +that which has elapsed since, with the voyage of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span> +Columbus, modern history may fairly be said to +have begun; and then they withered like dry +grass before the flame of the Arab invasion, and +their place knew them no more. They overshadowed +the ground; they vanished; and the +old types reappeared in their old homes, with +beside them a new type, the Arab.</p> + +<p>Now, as to all these changes we can at least +be sure of the main facts. We know that the +Hollander remains in Holland, though the greatness +of Holland has passed; we know that the +Latin blood remains in Italy, whether to a greater +or less extent; and that the Latin culture has +died out in the African realm it once won, while +it has lasted in Spain and France, and thence has +extended itself to continents beyond the ocean. +We may not know the causes of the facts, save +partially; but the facts themselves we do know. +But there are other cases in which we are at present +ignorant even of the facts; we do not know +what the changes really were, still less the hidden +causes and meaning of these changes. Much remains +to be found out before we can speak with +any certainty as to whether some changes mean +the actual dying out or the mere transformation +of types. It is, for instance, astonishing how +little permanent change in the physical make-up +of the people seems to have been worked in Europe +by the migrations of the races in historic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> +times. A tall, fair-haired, long-skulled race penetrates +to some southern country and establishes +a commonwealth. The generations pass. There +is no violent revolution, no break in continuity of +history, nothing in the written records to indicate +an epoch-making change at any given moment; +and yet after a time we find that the old type has +reappeared and that the people of the locality do +not substantially differ in physical form from the +people of other localities that did not suffer such +an invasion. Does this mean that gradually the +children of the invaders have dwindled and died +out; or, as the blood is mixed with the ancient +blood, has there been a change, part reversion and +part assimilation, to the ancient type in its old +surroundings? Do tint of skin, eyes and hair, +shape of skull, and stature change in the new +environment, so as to be like those of the older +people who dwelt in this environment? Do the +intrusive races, without change of blood, tend +under the pressure of their new surroundings to +change in type so as to resemble the ancient peoples +of the land? Or, as the strains mingled, +has the new strain dwindled and vanished, from +causes as yet obscure? Has the blood of the +Lombard practically disappeared from Italy, and +of the Visigoth from Spain, or does it still flow +in large populations where the old physical type +has once more become dominant? Here in England,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> +the long-skulled men of the long barrows, +the short-skulled men of the round barrows—have +they blended, or has one or the other type actually +died out; or are they merged in some older +race which they seemingly supplanted, or have +they adopted the tongue and civilization of some +later race which seemingly destroyed them? We +can not say. We do not know which of the widely +different stocks now speaking Aryan tongues +represents in physical characteristics the ancient +Aryan type, nor where the type originated, nor +how or why it imposed its language on other types, +nor how much or how little mixture of blood accompanied +the change of tongue.</p> + +<p>The phenomena of national growth and decay, +both of those which can and those which can not +be explained, have been peculiarly in evidence +during the four centuries that have gone by since +the discovery of America and the rounding of the +Cape of Good Hope. These have been the four +centuries of by far the most intense and constantly +accelerating rapidity of movement and development +that the world has yet seen. The movement +has covered all the fields of human activity. +It has witnessed an altogether unexampled spread +of civilized mankind over the world, as well as +an altogether unexampled advance in man’s dominion +over nature; and this together with a +literary and artistic activity to be matched in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span> +but one previous epoch. This period of extension +and development has been that of one race, the +so-called white race, or, to speak more accurately, +the group of peoples living in Europe, who undoubtedly +have a certain kinship of blood, who +profess the Christian religion, and trace back +their culture to Greece and Rome.</p> + +<p>The memories of men are short, and it is easy +to forget how brief is this period of unquestioned +supremacy of the so-called white race. It is but +a thing of yesterday. During the thousand years +which went before the opening of this era of European +supremacy, the attitude of Asia and Africa, +of Hun and Mongol, Turk and Tartar, Arab and +Moor, had on the whole been that of successful +aggression against Europe. More than a century +went by after the voyages of Columbus before +the mastery in war began to pass from the Asiatic +to the European. During that time Europe produced +no generals or conquerors able to stand +comparison with Selim and Solyman, Baber and +Akbar. Then the European advance gathered +momentum; until at the present time peoples of +European blood hold dominion over all America +and Australia and the islands of the sea, over most +of Africa, and the major half of Asia. Much of +this world conquest is merely political, and such +a conquest is always likely in the long run to +vanish. But very much of it represents not a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> +merely political, but an ethnic conquest; the intrusive +people having either exterminated or +driven out the conquered peoples, or else having +imposed upon them its tongue, law, culture, and +religion, together with a strain of its blood. During +this period substantially all of the world +achievements worth remembering are to be credited +to the people of European descent. The +first exception of any consequence is the wonderful +rise of Japan within the last generation—a +phenomenon unexampled in history; for both in +blood and in culture the Japanese line of ancestral +descent is as remote as possible from ours; +and yet Japan, while hitherto keeping most of +what was strongest in her ancient character and +traditions, has assimilated with curious completeness +most of the characteristics that have given +power and leadership to the West.</p> + +<p>During this period of intense and feverish activity +among the peoples of European stock, first +one and then another has taken the lead. The +movement began with Spain and Portugal. Their +flowering-time was as brief as it was wonderful. +The gorgeous pages of their annals are illumined +by the figures of warriors, explorers, statesmen, +poets, and painters. Then their days of greatness +ceased. Many partial explanations can be +given, but something remains behind, some hidden +force for evil, some hidden source of weakness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span> +upon which we can not lay our hands. Yet there +are many signs that in the New World, after centuries +of arrested growth, the peoples of Spanish +and Portuguese stock are entering upon another +era of development, and there are other signs that +this is true also in the Iberian peninsula itself.</p> + +<p>About the time that the first brilliant period +of the leadership of the Iberian peoples was drawing +to a close, at the other end of Europe, in the +land of melancholy steppe and melancholy forest, +the Slav turned in his troubled sleep and stretched +out his hand to grasp leadership and dominion. +Since then almost every nation of Europe has at +one time or another sought a place in the movement +of expansion; but for the last three centuries +the great phenomenon of mankind has been +the growth of the English-speaking peoples and +their spread over the world’s waste spaces.</p> + +<p>Comparison is often made between the empire +of Britain and the empire of Rome. When +judged relatively to the effect on all modern civilization, +the empire of Rome is of course the more +important, simply because all the nations of Europe +and their offshoots in other continents trace +back their culture either to the earlier Rome by +the Tiber, or the later Rome by the Bosphorus. +The empire of Rome is the most stupendous fact +in lay history; no empire later in time can be +compared with it. But this is merely another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span> +way of saying that the nearer the source the more +important becomes any deflection of the stream’s +current. Absolutely, comparing the two empires +one with the other in point of actual achievement, +and disregarding the immensely increased effect +on other civilizations which inhered in the older +empire because it antedated the younger by a +couple of thousand years, there is little to choose +between them as regards the wide and abounding +interest and importance of their careers.</p> + +<p>In the world of antiquity each great empire +rose when its predecessor had already crumbled. +By the time that Rome loomed large over the +horizon of history, there were left for her to contend +with only decaying civilizations and raw +barbarism. When she conquered Pyrrhus, she +strove against the strength of but one of the many +fragments into which Alexander’s kingdom had +fallen. When she conquered Carthage, she overthrew +a foe against whom for two centuries the +single Greek city of Syracuse had contended on +equal terms; it was not the Sepoy armies of the +Carthaginian plutocracy, but the towering genius +of the House of Barca, which rendered the struggle +forever memorable. It was the distance and +the desert, rather than the Parthian horse-bowmen, +that set bounds to Rome in the east; and +on the north her advance was curbed by the vast +reaches of marshy woodland, rather than by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span> +tall barbarians who dwelt therein. During the +long generations of her greatness, and until the +sword dropped from her withered hand, the Parthian +was never a menace of aggression, and the +German threatened her but to die.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, the great expansion of England +has occurred, the great empire of Britain +has been achieved, during the centuries that have +also seen mighty military nations rise and flourish +on the continent of Europe. It is as if Rome, +while creating and keeping the empire she won between +the days of Scipio and the days of Trajan, +had at the same time held her own with the Nineveh +of Sargon and Tiglath, the Egypt of Thothmes +and Rameses, and the kingdoms of Persia and +Macedon in the red flush of their warrior-dawn. +The empire of Britain is vaster in space, in population, +in wealth, in wide variety of possession, in +a history of multiplied and manifold achievement +of every kind, than even the glorious empire of +Rome. Yet, unlike Rome, Britain has won dominion +in every clime, has carried her flag by conquest +and settlement to the uttermost ends of +the earth, at the very time that haughty and +powerful rivals, in their abounding youth or +strong maturity, were eager to set bounds to her +greatness, and to tear from her what she had won +afar. England has peopled continents with her +children, has swayed the destinies of teeming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> +myriads of alien race, has ruled ancient monarchies, +and wrested from all corners the right to +the world’s waste spaces, while at home she has +held her own before nations, each of military +power comparable to Rome’s at her zenith.</p> + +<p>Rome fell by attack from without only because +the ills within her own borders had grown incurable. +What is true of your country, my +hearers, is true of my own; while we should be +vigilant against foes from without, yet we need +never really fear them so long as we safeguard +ourselves against the enemies within our own +households; and these enemies are our own passions +and follies. Free peoples can escape being +mastered by others only by being able to master +themselves. We Americans and you people of +the British Isles alike need ever to keep in mind +that, among the many qualities indispensable to +the success of a great democracy, and second only +to a high and stern sense of duty, of moral obligation, +are self-knowledge and self-mastery. +You, my hosts, and I may not agree in all our +views; some of you would think me a very +radical democrat—as, for the matter of that, I +am—and my theory of imperialism would probably +suit the anti-imperialists as little as it would +suit a certain type of forcible-feeble imperialist. +But there are some points on which we must all +agree if we think soundly. The precise form of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> +government, democratic or otherwise, is the instrument, +the tool, with which we work. It is +important to have a good tool. But, even if it +is the best possible, it is only a tool. No implement +can ever take the place of the guiding intelligence +that wields it. A very bad tool will +ruin the work of the best craftsman; but a good +tool in bad hands is no better. In the last analysis +the all-important factor in national greatness is +national character.</p> + +<p>There are questions which we of the great +civilized nations are ever tempted to ask of the +future. Is our time of growth drawing to an +end? Are we as nations soon to come under the +rule of that great law of death which is itself +but part of the great law of life? None can tell. +Forces that we can see, and other forces that are +hidden or that can but dimly be apprehended, are +at work all around us, both for good and for evil. +The growth in luxury, in love of ease, in taste for +vapid and frivolous excitement, is both evident +and unhealthy. The most ominous sign is the diminution +in the birth-rate, in the rate of natural +increase, now to a larger or lesser degree shared +by most of the civilized nations of central and +western Europe, of America and Australia—a +diminution so great that, if it continues for the +next century at the rate which has obtained for +the last twenty-five years, all the more highly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> +civilized peoples will be stationary or else have begun +to go backward in population, while many of +them will have already gone very far backward.</p> + +<p>There is much that should give us concern for +the future. But there is much also which should +give us hope. No man is more apt to be mistaken +than the prophet of evil. After the French +Revolution in 1830 Niebuhr hazarded the guess +that all civilization was about to go down with a +crash, that we were all about to share the fall of +third- and fourth-century Rome—a respectable, +but painfully overworked, comparison. The fears +once expressed by the followers of Malthus as to +the future of the world have proved groundless +as regards the civilized portion of the world; it +is strange indeed to look back at Carlyle’s prophecies +of some seventy years ago, and then think +of the teeming life of achievement, the life of +conquest of every kind, and of noble effort crowned +by success, which has been ours for the two generations +since he complained to High Heaven that +all the tales had been told and all the songs sung, +and that all the deeds really worth doing had been +done. I believe with all my heart that a great +future remains for us; but whether it does or does +not, our duty is not altered. However the battle +may go, the soldier worthy of the name will with +utmost vigor do his allotted task, and bear himself +as valiantly in defeat as in victory. Come<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span> +what will, we belong to peoples who have not +yielded to the craven fear of being great. In the +ages that have gone by, the great nations, the +nations that have expanded and that have played +a mighty part in the world, have in the end +grown old and weakened and vanished; but so +have the nations whose only thought was to avoid +all danger, all effort, who would risk nothing, and +who therefore gained nothing. In the end, the +same fate may overwhelm all alike; but the +memory of the one type perishes with it, while +the other leaves its mark deep on the history of +all the future of mankind.</p> + +<p>A nation that seemingly dies may be born +again; and even though in the physical sense it +die utterly, it may yet hand down a history of +heroic achievement, and for all time to come may +profoundly influence the nations that arise in its +place by the impress of what it has done. Best +of all is it to do our part well, and at the same +time to see our blood live young and vital in men +and women fit to take up the task as we lay it +down; for so shall our seed inherit the earth. +But if this, which is best, is denied us, then at +least it is ours to remember that if we choose we +can be torch-bearers, as our fathers were before +us. The torch has been handed on from nation +to nation, from civilization to civilization, throughout +all recorded time, from the dim years before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> +history dawned down to the blazing splendor of +this teeming century of ours. It dropped from +the hands of the coward and the sluggard, of the +man wrapped in luxury or love of ease, the man +whose soul was eaten away by self-indulgence; it +has been kept alight only by those who were +mighty of heart and cunning of hand. What they +worked at, provided it was worth doing at all, +was of less matter than how they worked, whether +in the realm of the mind or the realm of the body. +If their work was good, if what they achieved +was of substance, then high success was really +theirs.</p> + +<p>In the first part of this lecture I drew certain +analogies between what has occurred to forms of +animal life through the procession of the ages on +this planet, and what has occurred and is occurring +to the great artificial civilizations which have +gradually spread over the world’s surface during +the thousands of years that have elapsed since +cities of temples and palaces first rose beside the +Nile and the Euphrates, and the harbors of Minoan +Crete bristled with the masts of the Ægean +craft. But of course the parallel is true only in +the roughest and most general way. Moreover, +even between the civilizations of to-day and the +civilizations of ancient times there are differences +so profound that we must be cautious in +drawing any conclusions for the present based on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> +what has happened in the past. While freely +admitting all of our follies and weaknesses of to-day, +it is yet mere perversity to refuse to realize +the incredible advance that has been made in +ethical standards. I do not believe that there is +the slightest necessary connection between any +weakening of virile force and this advance in the +moral standard, this growth of the sense of obligation +to one’s neighbor and of reluctance to +do that neighbor wrong. We need have scant patience +with that silly cynicism which insists that +kindliness of character only accompanies weakness +of character. On the contrary, just as in +private life many of the men of strongest character +are the very men of loftiest and most exalted +morality, so I believe that in national life, +as the ages go by, we shall find that the permanent +national types will more and more tend to become +those in which, though intellect stands high, character +stands higher; in which rugged strength +and courage, rugged capacity to resist wrongful +aggression by others, will go hand in hand with a +lofty scorn of doing wrong to others. This is the +type of Timoleon, of Hampden, of Washington, +and Lincoln. These were as good men, as disinterested +and unselfish men, as ever served a +state; and they were also as strong men as ever +founded or saved a state. Surely such examples +prove that there is nothing Utopian in our effort<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span> +to combine justice and strength in the same nation. +The really high civilizations must themselves +supply the antidote to the self-indulgence +and love of ease which they tend to produce.</p> + +<p>Every modern civilized nation has many and +terrible problems to solve within its own borders, +problems that arise not merely from juxtaposition +of poverty and riches, but especially +from the self-consciousness of both poverty and +riches. Each nation must deal with these matters +in its own fashion, and yet the spirit in which +the problem is approached must ever be fundamentally +the same. It must be a spirit of broad +humanity, of brotherly kindness, of acceptance +of responsibility, one for each and each for all, +and at the same time a spirit as remote as the +poles from every form of weakness and sentimentality. +As in war to pardon the coward is +to do cruel wrong to the brave man whose life +his cowardice jeopardizes, so in civil affairs it is +revolting to every principle of justice to give to +the lazy, the vicious, or even the feeble or dull-witted +a reward which is really the robbery of +what braver, wiser, abler men have earned. The +only effective way to help any man is to help him +to help himself; and the worst lesson to teach him +is that he can be permanently helped at the expense +of some one else. True liberty shows itself +to best advantage in protecting the rights of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> +others, and especially of minorities. Privilege +should not be tolerated because it is to the advantage +of a minority; nor yet because it is to +the advantage of a majority. No doctrinaire +theories of vested rights or freedom of contract +can stand in the way of our cutting out abuses +from the body politic. Just as little can we afford +to follow the doctrinaires of an impossible—and +incidentally of a highly undesirable—social revolution +which, in destroying individual rights—including +property rights—and the family, would +destroy the two chief agents in the advance of +mankind, and the two chief reasons why either +the advance or the preservation of mankind is +worth while. It is an evil and a dreadful thing +to be callous to sorrow and suffering and blind to +our duty to do all things possible for the betterment +of social conditions. But it is an unspeakably +foolish thing to strive for this betterment by +means so destructive that they would leave no +social conditions to better. In dealing with all +these social problems, with the intimate relations +of the family, with wealth in private use and +business use, with labor, with poverty, the one +prime necessity is to remember that, though hardness +of heart is a great evil, it is no greater an evil +than softness of head.</p> + +<p>But in addition to these problems, the most +intimate and important of all, and which to a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span> +larger or less degree affect all the modern nations +somewhat alike, we of the great nations that have +expanded, that are now in complicated relations +with one another and with alien races, have +special problems and special duties of our own. +You belong to a nation which possesses the greatest +empire upon which the sun has ever shone. I +belong to a nation which is trying, on a scale +hitherto unexampled, to work out the problems +of government for, of, and by the people, while at +the same time doing the international duty of a +great Power. But there are certain problems +which both of us have to solve, and as to which +our standards should be the same. The Englishman, +the man of the British Isles, in his various +homes across the seas, and the American, both at +home and abroad, are brought into contact with +utterly alien peoples, some with a civilization +more ancient than our own, others still in, or +having but recently arisen from, the barbarism +which our people left behind ages ago. The problems +that arise are of well-nigh inconceivable +difficulty. They can not be solved by the foolish +sentimentality of stay-at-home people, with little +patent recipes and those cut-and-dried theories +of the political nursery which have such limited +applicability amid the crash of elemental forces. +Neither can they be solved by the raw brutality +of the men who, whether at home or on the rough<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> +frontier of civilization, adopt might as the only +standard of right in dealing with other men, and +treat alien races only as subjects for exploitation.</p> + +<p>No hard-and-fast rule can be drawn as applying +to all alien races, because they differ from one +another far more widely than some of them differ +from us. But there are one or two rules which +must not be forgotten. In the long run there +can be no justification for one race managing or +controlling another unless the management and +control are exercised in the interest and for the +benefit of that other race. This is what our peoples +have in the main done, and must continue in +the future in even greater degree to do, in India, +Egypt, and the Philippines alike. In the next +place, as regards every race, everywhere, at home +or abroad, we can not afford to deviate from the +great rule of righteousness which bids us treat +each man on his worth as a man. He must not +be sentimentally favored because he belongs to a +given race; he must not be given immunity in +wrong-doing or permitted to cumber the ground, +or given other privileges which would be denied +to the vicious and unfit among ourselves. On the +other hand, where he acts in a way which would +entitle him to respect and reward if he was one of +our own stock, he is just as entitled to that respect +and reward if he comes of another stock, +even though that other stock produces a much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span> +smaller proportion of men of his type than does +our own. This has nothing to do with social +intermingling, with what is called social equality. +It has to do merely with the question of doing to +each man and each woman that elementary justice +which will permit him or her to gain from +life the reward which should always accompany +thrift, sobriety, self-control, respect for the rights +of others, and hard and intelligent work to a +given end. To more than such just treatment no +man is entitled, and less than such just treatment +no man should receive.</p> + +<p>The other type of duty is the international +duty, the duty owed by one nation to another. +I hold that the laws of morality which should +govern individuals in their dealings one with the +other, are just as binding concerning nations in +their dealings one with the other. The application +of the moral law must be different in the two +cases, because in one case it has, and in the other +it has not, the sanction of a civil law with force +behind it. The individual can depend for his +rights upon the courts, which themselves derive +their force from the police power of the state. +The nation can depend upon nothing of the kind; +and therefore, as things are now, it is the highest +duty of the most advanced and freest peoples +to keep themselves in such a state of readiness +as to forbid to any barbarism or despotism the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span> +hope of arresting the progress of the world by +striking down the nations that lead in that progress. +It would be foolish indeed to pay heed +to the unwise persons who desire disarmament to +be begun by the very peoples who, of all others, +should not be left helpless before any possible foe. +But we must reprobate quite as strongly both the +leaders and the peoples who practise, or encourage, +or condone, aggression and iniquity by the +strong at the expense of the weak. We should +tolerate lawlessness and wickedness neither by the +weak nor by the strong; and both weak and strong +we should in return treat with scrupulous fairness. +The foreign policy of a great and self-respecting +country should be conducted on exactly +the same plane of honor, for insistence upon +one’s own rights and of respect for the rights of +others, that marks the conduct of a brave and +honorable man when dealing with his fellows. +Permit me to support this statement out of my +own experience. For nearly eight years I was +the head of a great nation, and charged especially +with the conduct of its foreign policy; and during +those years I took no action with reference +to any other people on the face of the earth that +I would not have felt justified in taking as an individual +in dealing with other individuals.</p> + +<p>I believe that we of the great civilized nations +of to-day have a right to feel that long careers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span> +achievement lie before our several countries. To +each of us is vouchsafed the honorable privilege +of doing his part, however small, in that work. +Let us strive hardily for success, even if by so doing +we risk failure, spurning the poorer souls of small +endeavor, who know neither failure nor success. +Let us hope that our own blood shall continue +in the land, that our children and children’s children +to endless generations shall arise to take our +places and play a mighty and dominant part in +the world. But whether this be denied or granted +by the years we shall not see, let at least the satisfaction +be ours that we have carried onward the +lighted torch in our own day and generation. If +we do this, then, as our eyes close, and we go +out into the darkness, and others’ hands grasp the +torch, at least we can say that our part has been +borne well and valiantly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">THE WORLD MOVEMENT</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_WORLD_MOVEMENT" title="THE WORLD MOVEMENT"><span id="toclink_95"></span>THE WORLD MOVEMENT<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a></h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap i"><span class="smcap1">I</span> very highly appreciate the chance to address +the University of Berlin in the year +that closes its first centenary of existence. +It is difficult for you in the Old World fully to appreciate +the feelings of a man who comes from a +nation still in the making to a country with an +immemorial historic past; and especially is this +the case when that country, with its ancient past +behind it, yet looks with proud confidence into +the future, and in the present shows all the abounding +vigor of lusty youth. Such is the case with +Germany. More than a thousand years have +passed since the Roman Empire of the West became +in fact a German empire. Throughout +mediæval times the Empire and the Papacy were +the two central features in the history of the Occident. +With the Ottos and the Henrys began the +slow rise of that Western life which has shaped +modern Europe, and therefore ultimately the +whole modern world. Their task was to organize +society and to keep it from crumbling to pieces. +They were castle-builders, city-founders, road-makers;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> +they battled to bring order out of the +seething turbulence around them; and at the +same time they first beat back heathendom and +then slowly wrested from it its possessions.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">3</a> Delivered at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910.</p> + +</div> + +<p>After the downfall of Rome and the breaking +in sunder of the Roman Empire, the first real +crystallization of the forces that were working +for a new uplift of civilization in western Europe +was round the Karling house, and, above all, +round the great Emperor, Karl the Great, the seat +of whose empire was at Aachen. Under the +Karlings the Arab and the Moor were driven back +beyond the Pyrenees; the last of the old heathen +Germans were forced into Christianity, and the +Avars, wild horsemen from the Asian steppes, +who had long held tented dominion in middle +Europe, were utterly destroyed. With the break-up +of the Karling empire came chaos once more, +and a fresh inrush of savagery: Vikings from the +frozen north, and new hordes of outlandish riders +from Asia. It was the early emperors of Germany +proper who quelled these barbarians; in their +time Dane and Norseman and Magyar became +Christians, and most of the Slav peoples as well, +so that Europe began to take on a shape which +we can recognize to-day. Since then the centuries +have rolled by, with strange alternations of +fortune, now well-nigh barren, and again great +with German achievement in arms and in government,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span> +in science and the arts. The centre +of power shifted hither and thither within German +lands; the great house of Hohenzollern rose, +the house which has at last seen Germany spring +into a commanding position in the very forefront +among the nations of mankind.</p> + +<p>To this ancient land, with its glorious past and +splendid present, to this land of many memories +and of eager hopes, I come from a young nation, +which is by blood akin to, and yet different from, +each of the great nations of middle and western +Europe; which has inherited or acquired much +from each, but is changing and developing every +inheritance and acquisition into something new +and strange. The German strain in our blood is +large, for almost from the beginning there has +been a large German element among the successive +waves of newcomers whose children’s children +have been and are being fused into the American +nation; and I myself trace my origin to +that branch of the Low Dutch stock which raised +Holland out of the North Sea. Moreover, we +have taken from you, not only much of the blood +that runs through our veins, but much of the +thought that shapes our minds. For generations +American scholars have flocked to your universities, +and, thanks to the wise foresight of his +Imperial Majesty the present Emperor, the intimate +and friendly connection between the two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span> +countries is now in every way closer than it has +ever been before.</p> + +<p>Germany is pre-eminently a country in which +the world movement of to-day in all of its multitudinous +aspects is plainly visible. The life of +this university covers the period during which +that movement has spread until it is felt throughout +every continent, while its velocity has been +constantly accelerating, so that the face of the +world has changed, and is now changing, as never +before. It is therefore fit and appropriate here +to speak on this subject.</p> + +<p>When, in the slow procession of the ages, man +was developed on this planet, the change worked +by his appearance was at first slight. Further +ages passed while he groped and struggled by +infinitesimal degrees upward through the lower +grades of savagery; for the general law is that +life which is advanced and complex, whatever its +nature, changes more quickly than simpler and +less advanced forms. The life of savages changes +and advances with extreme slowness, and groups +of savages influence one another but little. The +first rudimentary beginnings of that complex life +of communities which we call civilization marked +a period when man had already long been by far +the most important creature on the planet. The +history of the living world had become, in fact, +the history of man, and therefore something<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> +totally different in kind as well as in degree from +what it had been before. There are interesting +analogies between what has gone on in the development +of life generally and what has gone on in the +development of human society. [These I have discussed +in the preceding chapter.] But the differences +are profound, and go to the root of things.</p> + +<p>Throughout their early stages the movements +of civilization—for, properly speaking, there was +no one movement—were very slow, were local +in space, and were partial in the sense that each +developed along but few lines. Of the numberless +years that covered these early stages we have no +record. They were the years that saw such extraordinary +discoveries and inventions as fire, +and the wheel, and the bow, and the domestication +of animals. So local were these inventions +that at the present day there yet linger savage +tribes, still fixed in the half-bestial life of an infinitely +remote past, who know none of them +except fire—and the discovery and use of fire may +have marked, not the beginning of civilization, but +the beginning of the savagery which separated +man from brute.</p> + +<p>Even after civilization and culture had achieved +a relatively high position, they were still purely +local, and from this fact subject to violent shocks. +Modern research has shown the existence in prehistoric +or, at least, protohistoric times of many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> +peoples who, in given localities, achieved a high +and peculiar culture, a culture that was later so +completely destroyed that it is difficult to say +what, if any, traces it left on the subsequent cultures +out of which we have developed our own, +while it is also difficult to say exactly how much +any one of these cultures influenced any other. +In many cases, as where invaders with weapons +of bronze or iron conquered the neolithic peoples, +the higher civilization completely destroyed the +lower civilization, or barbarism, with which it +came in contact. In other cases, while superiority +in culture gave its possessors at the beginning +a marked military and governmental superiority +over the neighboring peoples, yet sooner or later +there accompanied it a certain softness or enervating +quality which left the cultured folk at the +mercy of the stark and greedy neighboring tribes, +in whose savage souls cupidity gradually overcame +terror and awe. Then the people that had +been struggling upward would be engulfed, and +the levelling waves of barbarism wash over them. +But we are not yet in position to speak definitely +on these matters. It is only the researches of +recent years that have enabled us so much as to +guess at the course of events in prehistoric Greece; +while as yet we can hardly even hazard a guess +as to how, for instance, the Hallstadt culture rose +and fell, or as to the history and fate of the builders<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> +of those strange ruins of which Stonehenge is +the type.</p> + +<p>The first civilizations which left behind them +clear records rose in that hoary historic past which +geologically is part of the immediate present—and +which is but a span’s length from the present, even +when compared only with the length of time that +man has lived on this planet. These first civilizations +were those which rose in Mesopotamia +and the Nile valley some six or eight thousand +years ago. As far as we can see, they were well-nigh +independent centres of cultural development, +and our knowledge is not such at present as to +enable us to connect either with the early cultural +movements, in southwestern Europe on the one +hand, or in India on the other, or with that +Chinese civilization which has been so profoundly +affected by Indian influences.</p> + +<p>Compared with the civilizations with which +we are best acquainted, the striking features in +the Mesopotamian and Nilotic civilizations were +the length of time they endured and their comparative +changelessness. The kings, priests, and +peoples who dwelt by the Nile or Euphrates are +found thinking much the same thoughts, doing +much the same deeds, leaving at least very similar +records, while time passes in tens of centuries. +Of course there was change; of course there were +action and reaction in influence between them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span> +and their neighbors; and the movement of change, +of development, material, mental, spiritual, was +much faster than anything that had occurred +during the eons of mere savagery. But in contradistinction +to modern times the movement was +very slow indeed; and, moreover, in each case it +was strongly localized, while the field of endeavor +was narrow. There were certain conquests by +man over nature; there were certain conquests +in the domain of pure intellect; there were certain +extensions which spread the area of civilized mankind. +But it would be hard to speak of it as a +“world movement” at all, for by far the greater +part of the habitable globe was not only unknown, +but its existence unguessed at, so far as peoples +with any civilization whatsoever were concerned.</p> + +<p>With the downfall of these ancient civilizations +there sprang into prominence those peoples +with whom our own cultural history may be said +to begin. Those ideas and influences in our lives +which we can consciously trace back at all are in +the great majority of instances to be traced to +the Jew, the Greek, or the Roman; and the ordinary +man, when he speaks of the nations of +antiquity, has in mind specifically these three +peoples—although, judged even by the history of +which we have record, theirs is a very modern antiquity +indeed.</p> + +<p>The case of the Jew was quite exceptional.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span> +His was a small nation, of little more consequence +than the sister nations of Moab and Damascus, +until all three, and the other petty states of the +country, fell under the yoke of the alien. Then +he survived, while all his fellows died. In the +spiritual domain he contributed a religion which +has been the most potent of all factors in its effect +on the subsequent history of mankind; but none +of his other contributions compare with the legacies +left us by the Greek and the Roman.</p> + +<p>The Greco-Roman world saw a civilization far +more brilliant, far more varied and intense, than +any that had gone before it, and one that affected +a far larger share of the world’s surface. For the +first time there began to be something which at +least foreshadowed a “world movement” in the +sense that it affected a considerable portion of the +world’s surface and that it represented what was +incomparably the most important of all that was +happening in world history at the time. In +breadth and depth the field of intellectual interest +had greatly broadened at the same time +that the physical area affected by the civilization +had similarly extended. Instead of a civilization +affecting only one river valley or one nook of the +Mediterranean, there was a civilization which directly +or indirectly influenced mankind from the +Desert of Sahara to the Baltic, from the Atlantic +Ocean to the westernmost mountain chains that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span> +spring from the Himalayas. Throughout most of +this region there began to work certain influences +which, though with widely varying intensity, did +nevertheless tend to affect a large portion of mankind. +In many of the forms of science, in almost +all the forms of art, there was great activity. In +addition to great soldiers there were great administrators +and statesmen whose concern was +with the fundamental questions of social and +civil life. Nothing like the width and variety of +intellectual achievement and understanding had +ever before been known; and for the first time +we come across great intellectual leaders, great +philosophers and writers, whose works are a part +of all that is highest in modern thought, whose +writings are as alive to-day as when they were +first issued; and there were others of even more +daring and original temper, a philosopher like +Democritus, a poet like Lucretius, whose minds +leaped ahead through the centuries and saw what +none of their contemporaries saw, but who were +so hampered by their surroundings that it was +physically impossible for them to leave to the +later world much concrete addition to knowledge. +The civilization was one of comparatively rapid +change, viewed by the standard of Babylon and +Memphis. There was incessant movement; and, +moreover, the whole system went down with a +crash to seeming destruction after a period short<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span> +compared with that covered by the reigns of a +score of Egyptian dynasties, or with the time that +elapsed between a Babylonian defeat by Elam +and a war sixteen centuries later which fully +avenged it.</p> + +<p>This civilization flourished with brilliant splendor. +Then it fell. In its northern seats it was +overwhelmed by a wave of barbarism from among +those half-savage peoples from whom you and I, +my hearers, trace our descent. In the south and +east it was destroyed later, but far more thoroughly, +by invaders of an utterly different type. +Both conquests were of great importance; but +it was the northern conquest which in its ultimate +effects was of by far the greatest importance.</p> + +<p>With the advent of the Dark Ages the movement +of course ceased, and it did not begin anew +for many centuries; while a thousand years passed +before it was once more in full swing, so far as +European civilization, so far as the world civilization +of to-day, is concerned. During all those +centuries the civilized world, in our acceptation +of the term, was occupied, as its chief task, in +slowly climbing back to the position from which +it had fallen after the age of the Antonines. Of +course a general statement like this must be accepted +with qualifications. There is no hard-and-fast +line between one age or period and another, +and in no age is either progress or retrogression<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> +universal in all things. There were many points +in which the Middle Ages, because of the simple +fact that they were Christian, surpassed the brilliant +pagan civilization of the past; and there +are some points in which the civilization that succeeded +them has sunk below the level of the ages +which saw such mighty masterpieces of poetry, of +architecture—especially cathedral architecture—and +of serene spiritual and forceful lay leadership. +But they were centuries of violence, rapine, and +cruel injustice; and truth was so little heeded +that the noble and daring spirits who sought it, +especially in its scientific form, did so in deadly +peril of the fagot and the halter.</p> + +<p>During this period there were several very important +extra-European movements, one or two +of which deeply affected Europe. Islam arose, +and conquered far and wide, uniting fundamentally +different races into a brotherhood of feeling which +Christianity has never been able to rival, and at +the time of the Crusades profoundly influencing +European culture. It produced a civilization of +its own, brilliant and here and there useful, but +hopelessly limited when compared with the civilization +of which we ourselves are the heirs. The +great cultured peoples of southeastern and eastern +Asia continued their checkered development totally +unaffected by, and without knowledge of, +any European influence.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span></p> + +<p>Throughout the whole period there came +against Europe, out of the unknown wastes of +central Asia, an endless succession of strange and +terrible conqueror races whose mission was mere +destruction—Hun and Avar, Mongol, Tartar, and +Turk. These fierce and squalid tribes of warrior +horsemen flailed mankind with red scourges, +wasted and destroyed, and then vanished from +the ground they had overrun. But in no way +worth noting did they count in the advance of +mankind.</p> + +<p>At last, a little over four hundred years ago, +the movement toward a world civilization took +up its interrupted march. The beginning of the +modern movement may roughly be taken as synchronizing +with the discovery of printing, and +with that series of bold sea ventures which culminated +in the discovery of America; and, after +these two epochal feats had begun to produce +their full effects in material and intellectual life, +it became inevitable that civilization should +thereafter differ not only in degree but even in +kind from all that had gone before. Immediately +after the voyages of Columbus and Vasco da +Gama there began a tremendous religious ferment; +the awakening of intellect went hand in hand +with the moral uprising; the great names of +Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler, and Galileo show that +the mind of man was breaking the fetters that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> +had cramped it; and for the first time experimentation +was used as a check upon observation +and theorization. Since then, century by century, +the changes have increased in rapidity and +complexity, and have attained their maximum in +both respects during the century just past. Instead +of being directed by one or two dominant +peoples, as was the case with all similar movements +of the past, the new movement was shared +by many different nations. From every standpoint +it has been of infinitely greater moment than +anything hitherto seen. Not in one but in many +different peoples there has been extraordinary +growth in wealth, in population, in power of +organization, and in mastery over mechanical +activity and natural resources. All of this has +been accompanied and signalized by an immense +outburst of energy and restless initiative. The +result is as varied as it is striking.</p> + +<p>In the first place, representatives of this civilization, +by their conquest of space, were enabled +to spread into all the practically vacant continents, +while at the same time, by their triumphs +in organization and mechanical invention, they +acquired an unheard-of military superiority as +compared with their former rivals. To these two +facts is primarily due the further fact that for the +first time there is really something that approaches +a world civilization, a world movement. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span> +spread of the European peoples since the days of +Ferdinand the Catholic and Ivan the Terrible has +been across every sea and over every continent. +In places the conquests have been ethnic; that is, +there has been a new wandering of the peoples, +and new commonwealths have sprung up in which +the people are entirely or mainly of European +blood. This is what happened in the temperate +and subtropical regions of the Western Hemisphere, +in Australia, in portions of northern Asia +and southern Africa. In other places the conquest +has been purely political, the Europeans representing +for the most part merely a small caste of +soldiers and administrators, as in most of tropical +Asia and Africa, and in much of tropical America. +Finally, here and there instances occur where +there has been no conquest at all, but where an +alien people is profoundly and radically changed +by the mere impact of Western civilization. The +most extraordinary instance of this, of course, is +Japan; for Japan’s growth and change during the +last half-century has been in many ways the most +striking phenomenon of all history. Intensely +proud of her past history, intensely loyal to certain +of her past traditions, she has yet with a +single effort wrenched herself free from all hampering +ancient ties, and with a bound has taken +her place among the leading civilized nations of +mankind.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span></p> + +<p>There are, of course, many grades between these +different types of influence, but the net outcome +of what has occurred during the last four centuries +is that civilization of the European type now +exercises a more or less profound effect over practically +the entire world. There are nooks and +corners to which it has not yet penetrated; but +there is at present no large space of territory in +which the general movement of civilized activity +does not make itself more or less felt. This represents +something wholly different from what has +ever hitherto been seen. In the greatest days of +Roman dominion the influence of Rome was felt +over only a relatively small portion of the world’s +surface. Over much the larger part of the world +the process of change and development was absolutely +unaffected by anything that occurred in the +Roman Empire; and those communities the play +of whose influence was felt in action and reaction, +and in interaction, among themselves, were +grouped immediately around the Mediterranean. +Now, however, the whole world is bound together +as never before; the bonds are sometimes those +of hatred rather than love, but they are bonds +nevertheless.</p> + +<p>Frowning or hopeful, every man of leadership +in any line of thought or effort must now look +beyond the limits of his own country. The student +of sociology may live in Berlin or Saint Petersburg,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span> +Rome or London, or he may live in Melbourne +or San Francisco or Buenos Ayres; but in +whatever city he lives, he must pay heed to the +studies of men who live in each of the other cities. +When in America we study labor problems and +attempt to deal with subjects such as life-insurance +for wage-workers, we turn to see what you +do here in Germany, and we also turn to see what +the far-off commonwealth of New Zealand is +doing. When a great German scientist is warring +against the most dreaded enemies of mankind, +creatures of infinitesimal size which the microscope +reveals in his blood, he may spend his holidays +of study in central Africa or in eastern Asia; +and he must know what is accomplished in the +laboratories of Tokio, just as he must know the +details of that practical application of science +which has changed the Isthmus of Panama from +a death-trap into what is almost a health resort. +Every progressive in China is striving to introduce +Western methods of education and administration, +and hundreds of European and American books +are now translated into Chinese. The influence +of European governmental principles is strikingly +illustrated by the fact that admiration for them +has broken down the iron barriers of Moslem conservatism, +so that their introduction has become +a burning question in Turkey and Persia; while +the very unrest, the impatience of European or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span> +American control, in India, Egypt, or the Philippines, +takes the form of demanding that the government +be assimilated more closely to what it is +in England or the United States. The deeds and +works of any great statesman, the preachings of +any great ethical, social, or political teacher, now +find echoes in both hemispheres and in every continent. +From a new discovery in science to a +new method of combating or applying socialism, +there is no movement of note which can take +place in any part of the globe without powerfully +affecting masses of people in Europe, America, +and Australia, in Asia and Africa. For weal or +for woe, the peoples of mankind are knit together +far closer than ever before.</p> + +<p>So much for the geographical side of the expansion +of modern civilization. But only a few +of the many and intense activities of modern +civilization have found their expression on this +side. The movement has been just as striking in +its conquest over natural forces, in its searching +inquiry into and about the soul of things.</p> + +<p>The conquest over Nature has included an extraordinary +increase in every form of knowledge +of the world we live in, and also an extraordinary +increase in the power of utilizing the forces of +Nature. In both directions the advance has been +very great during the past four or five centuries, +and in both directions it has gone on with ever-increasing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span> +rapidity during the last century. After +the great age of Rome had passed, the boundaries +of knowledge shrank, and in many cases it was +not until well-nigh our own times that her domain +was once again pushed beyond the ancient landmarks. +About the year 150 A. D., Ptolemy, the +geographer, published his map of central Africa +and the sources of the Nile, and this map was more +accurate than any which we had as late as 1850 +A. D. More was known of physical science, and +more of the truth about the physical world was +guessed at, in the days of Pliny, than was known or +guessed until the modern movement began. The +case was the same as regards military science. At +the close of the Middle Ages the weapons were +what they had always been—sword, shield, bow, +spear; and any improvement in them was more +than offset by the loss in knowledge of military +organization, in the science of war, and in military +leadership since the days of Hannibal and Cæsar. +A hundred years ago, when this university was +founded, the methods of transportation did not +differ in the essentials from what they had been +among the highly civilized nations of antiquity. +Travellers and merchandise went by land in +wheeled vehicles or on beasts of burden, and by +sea in boats propelled by sails or by oars; and +news was conveyed as it always had been conveyed. +What improvements there had been had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span> +been in degree only and not in kind; and in some +respects there had been retrogression rather than +advance. There were many parts of Europe where +the roads were certainly worse than the old +Roman post-roads; and the Mediterranean Sea, +for instance, was by no means as well policed as +in the days of Trajan. Now steam and electricity +have worked a complete revolution; and +the resulting immensely increased ease of communication +has in its turn completely changed all the +physical questions of human life. A voyage from +Egypt to England was nearly as serious an affair +in the eighteenth century as in the second; and +the news communications between the two lands +were not materially improved. A graduate of +your university to-day can go to mid-Asia or +mid-Africa with far less consciousness of performing +a feat of note than would have been the +case a hundred years ago with a student who +visited Sicily and Andalusia. Moreover, the invention +and use of machinery run by steam or +electricity have worked a revolution in industry +as great as the revolution in transportation; so +that here again the difference between ancient +and modern civilization is one not merely of +degree but of kind. In many vital respects the +huge modern city differs more from all preceding +cities than any of these differed one from the +other; and the giant factory town is of and by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span> +itself one of the most formidable problems of +modern life.</p> + +<p>Steam and electricity have given the race dominion +over land and water such as it never +had before; and now the conquest of the air is +directly impending. As books preserve thought +through time, so the telegraph and the telephone +transmit it through the space they annihilate, +and therefore minds are swayed one by another +without regard to the limitations of space and +time which formerly forced each community to +work in comparative isolation. It is the same +with the body as with the brain. The machinery +of the factory and the farm enormously multiplies +bodily skill and vigor. Countless trained intelligences +are at work to teach us how to avoid +or counteract the effects of waste. Of course +some of the agents in the modern scientific development +of natural resources deal with resources +of such a kind that their development means their +destruction, so that exploitation on a grand scale +means an intense rapidity of development purchased +at the cost of a speedy exhaustion. The +enormous and constantly increasing output of +coal and iron necessarily means the approach of +the day when our children’s children, or their +children’s children, shall dwell in an ironless age—and, +later on, in an age without coal—and will +have to try to invent or develop new sources for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span> +the production of heat and use of energy. But +as regards many another natural resource, scientific +civilization teaches us how to preserve it +through use. The best use of field and forest will +leave them decade by decade, century by century, +more fruitful; and we have barely begun to use the +indestructible power that comes from harnessed +water. The conquests of surgery, of medicine, +the conquests in the entire field of hygiene and +sanitation, have been literally marvellous; the +advances in the past century or two have been +over more ground than was covered during the +entire previous history of the human race.</p> + +<p>The advances in the realm of pure intellect +have been of equal note, and they have been both +intensive and extensive. Great virgin fields of +learning and wisdom have been discovered by +the few, and at the same time knowledge has +spread among the many to a degree never dreamed +of before. Old men among us have seen in their +own generation the rise of the first rational science +of the evolution of life. The astronomer and +the chemist, the psychologist and the historian, +and all their brethren in many different fields of +wide endeavor, work with a training and knowledge +and method which are in effect instruments +of precision, differentiating their labors from the +labors of their predecessors as the rifle is differentiated +from the bow.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span></p> + +<p>The play of new forces is as evident in the moral +and spiritual world as in the world of the mind +and the body. Forces for good and forces for +evil are everywhere evident, each acting with a +hundred- or a thousandfold the intensity with +which it acted in former ages. Over the whole +earth the swing of the pendulum grows more and +more rapid, the mainspring coils and spreads at +a rate constantly quickening, the whole world +movement is of constantly accelerating velocity.</p> + +<p>In this movement there are signs of much that +bodes ill. The machinery is so highly geared, the +tension and strain are so great, the effort and the +output have alike so increased, that there is cause +to dread the ruin that would come from any great +accident, from any breakdown, and also the ruin +that may come from the mere wearing out of the +machine itself. The only previous civilization +with which our modern civilization can be in any +way compared is that period of Greco-Roman +civilization extending, say, from the Athens of +Themistocles to the Rome of Marcus Aurelius. +Many of the forces and tendencies which were +then at work are at work now. Knowledge, luxury, +and refinement, wide material conquests, +territorial administration on a vast scale, an increase +in the mastery of mechanical appliances +and in applied science—all these mark our civilization +as they marked the wonderful civilization<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span> +that flourished in the Mediterranean lands twenty +centuries ago; and they preceded the downfall +of the older civilization. Yet the differences are +many, and some of them are quite as striking +as the similarities. The single fact that the old +civilization was based upon slavery shows the +chasm that separates the two. Let me point out +one further and very significant difference in the +development of the two civilizations, a difference +so obvious that it is astonishing that it has not +been dwelt upon by men of letters.</p> + +<p>One of the prime dangers of civilization has +always been its tendency to cause the loss of +virile fighting virtues, of the fighting edge. When +men get too comfortable and lead too luxurious +lives, there is always danger lest the softness eat +like an acid into their manliness of fibre. The +barbarian, because of the very conditions of his +life, is forced to keep and develop certain hardy +qualities which the man of civilization tends to +lose, whether he be clerk, factory hand, merchant, +or even a certain type of farmer. Now, I +will not assert that in modern civilized society +these tendencies have been wholly overcome; but +there has been a much more successful effort to +overcome them than was the case in the early +civilizations. This is curiously shown by the +military history of the Greco-Roman period as +compared with the history of the last four or five<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span> +centuries here in Europe and among nations of +European descent. In the Grecian and Roman +military history the change was steadily from a +citizen army to an army of mercenaries. In the +days of the early greatness of Athens, Thebes, +and Sparta, in the days when the Roman republic +conquered what world it knew, the armies were +filled with citizen soldiers. But gradually the +citizens refused to serve in the armies, or became +unable to render good service. The Greek states +described by Polybius, with but few exceptions, +hired others to do their fighting for them. The +Romans of the days of Augustus had utterly +ceased to furnish any cavalry, and were rapidly +ceasing to furnish any infantry, to the legions and +cohorts. When the civilization came to an end, +there were no longer citizens in the ranks of the +soldiers. The change from the citizen army to the +army of mercenaries had been completed.</p> + +<p>Now the exact reverse has been the case with +us in modern times. A few centuries ago the +mercenary soldier was the principal figure in most +armies, and in great numbers of cases the mercenary +soldier was an alien. In the wars of religion +in France, in the Thirty Years’ War in +Germany, in the wars that immediately thereafter +marked the beginning of the break-up of +the great Polish kingdom, the regiments and +brigades of foreign soldiers formed a striking and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span> +leading feature in every army. Too often the +men of the country in which the fighting took +place played merely the ignoble part of victims, +the burghers and peasants appearing in but limited +numbers in the mercenary armies by which +they were plundered. Gradually this has all +changed, until now practically every army is a +citizen army, and the mercenary has almost disappeared, +while the army exists on a vaster scale +than ever before in history. This is so among +the military monarchies of Europe. In our own +Civil War of the United States the same thing +occurred, peaceful people as we are. At that +time more than two generations had passed since +the war of independence. During the whole of +that period the people had been engaged in no +life-and-death struggle; and yet, when the Civil +War broke out, and after some costly and bitter +lessons at the beginning, the fighting spirit of the +people was shown to better advantage than ever +before. The war was peculiarly a war for a +principle, a war waged by each side for an ideal, +and while faults and shortcomings were plentiful +among the combatants, there was comparatively +little sordidness of motive or conduct. In such +a giant struggle, where across the warp of so many +interests is shot the woof of so many purposes, +dark strands and bright, strands sombre and brilliant, +are always intertwined; inevitably there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span> +was corruption here and there in the Civil War; +but all the leaders on both sides and the great +majority of the enormous masses of fighting men +wholly disregarded, and were wholly uninfluenced +by, pecuniary considerations. There were, of +course, foreigners who came over to serve as +soldiers of fortune for money or for love of adventure; +but the foreign-born citizens served in +much the same proportion, and from the same +motives, as the native-born. Taken as a whole, +it was, even more than the Revolutionary War, a +true citizens’ fight, and the armies of Grant and +Lee were as emphatically citizen armies as the +Athenian, Theban, or Spartan armies in the great +age of Greece, or as a Roman army in the days of +the republic.</p> + +<p>Another striking contrast in the course of +modern civilization as compared with the later +stages of the Greco-Roman or classic civilization +is to be found in the relations of wealth and +politics. In classic times, as the civilization advanced +toward its zenith, politics became a recognized +means of accumulating great wealth. +Cæsar was again and again on the verge of bankruptcy; +he spent an enormous fortune; and he +recouped himself by the money which he made out +of his political-military career. Augustus established +imperial Rome on firm foundations by +the use he made of the huge fortune he had acquired<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span> +by plunder. What a contrast is offered by +the careers of Washington and Lincoln! There +were a few exceptions in ancient days; but the +immense majority of the Greeks and the Romans, +as their civilizations culminated, accepted money-making +on a large scale as one of the incidents of +a successful public career. Now all of this is in +sharp contrast to what has happened within the +last two or three centuries. During this time +there has been a steady growth away from the +theory that money-making is permissible in an +honorable public career. In this respect the +standard has been constantly elevated, and things +which statesmen had no hesitation in doing three +centuries or two centuries ago, and which did not +seriously hurt a public career even a century ago, +are now utterly impossible. Wealthy men still +exercise a large, and sometimes an improper, influence +in politics, but it is apt to be an indirect +influence; and in the advanced states the mere +suspicion that the wealth of public men is obtained +or added to as an incident of their public +careers will bar them from public life. Speaking +generally, wealth may very greatly influence modern +political life, but it is not acquired in political +life. The colonial administrators, German or +American, French or English, of this generation +lead careers which, as compared with the careers +of other men of like ability, show too little rather<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span> +than too much regard for money-making; and +literally a world scandal would be caused by +conduct which a Roman proconsul would have +regarded as moderate, and which would not have +been especially uncommon even in the administration +of England a century and a half ago. On +the whole, the great statesmen of the last few +generations have been either men of moderate +means or, if men of wealth, men whose wealth +was diminished rather than increased by their +public services.</p> + +<p>I have dwelt on these points merely because it +is well to emphasize in the most emphatic fashion +the fact that in many respects there is a complete +lack of analogy between the civilization of to-day +and the only other civilization in any way comparable +to it, that of the ancient Greco-Roman +lands. There are, of course, many points in which +the analogy is close, and in some of these points +the resemblances are as ominous as they are striking. +But most striking of all is the fact that in +point of physical extent, of wide diversity of +interest, and of extreme velocity of movement, +the present civilization can be compared to nothing +that has ever gone before. It is now literally +a world movement, and the movement is growing +ever more rapid and is ever reaching into +new fields. Any considerable influence exerted at +one point is certain to be felt with greater or less<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span> +effect at almost every other point. Every path of +activity open to the human intellect is followed +with an eagerness and success never hitherto +dreamed of. We have established complete liberty +of conscience, and, in consequence, a complete +liberty for mental activity. All free and +daring souls have before them a well-nigh limitless +opening for endeavor of any kind.</p> + +<p>Hitherto every civilization that has arisen has +been able to develop only a comparatively few +activities; that is, its field of endeavor has been +limited in kind as well as in locality. There have, +of course, been great movements, but they were +of practically only one form of activity; and, +although usually this set in motion other kinds of +activities, such was not always the case. The +great religious movements have been the preeminent +examples of this type. But they are not +the only ones. Such peoples as the Mongols and +the Phœnicians, at almost opposite poles of cultivation, +have represented movements in which +one element, military or commercial, so overshadowed +all other elements that the movement +died out chiefly because it was one-sided. The +extraordinary outburst of activity among the +Mongols of the thirteenth century was almost +purely a military movement, without even any +great administrative side; and it was therefore +well-nigh purely a movement of destruction.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span> +The individual prowess and hardihood of the +Mongols, and the perfection of their military organization +rendered their armies incomparably +superior to those of any European, or any other +Asiatic, power of that day. They conquered from +the Yellow Sea to the Persian Gulf and the Adriatic; +they seized the imperial throne of China; +they slew the Caliph in Bagdad; they founded +dynasties in India. The fanaticism of Christianity +and the fanaticism of Mohammedanism +were alike powerless against them. The valor +of the bravest fighting men in Europe was impotent +to check them. They trampled Russia into +bloody mire beneath the hoofs of their horses; +they drew red furrows of destruction across Poland +and Hungary; they overthrew with ease any +force from western Europe that dared encounter +them. Yet they had no root of permanence; +their work was mere evil while it lasted, and it +did not last long; and when they vanished they +left hardly a trace behind them. So the extraordinary +Phœnician civilization was almost purely +a mercantile, a business civilization, and though +it left an impress on the life that came after, this +impress was faint indeed compared to that left, +for instance, by the Greeks with their many-sided +development. Yet the Greek civilization itself +fell because this many-sided development became +too exclusively one of intellect, at the expense<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span> +of character, at the expense of the fundamental +qualities which fit men to govern both +themselves and others. When the Greek lost the +sterner virtues, when his soldiers lost the fighting +edge, and his statesmen grew corrupt, while the +people became a faction-torn and pleasure-loving +rabble, then the doom of Greece was at hand, and +not all their cultivation, their intellectual brilliancy, +their artistic development, their adroitness +in speculative science, could save the Hellenic +peoples as they bowed before the sword of +the iron Roman.</p> + +<p>What is the lesson to us to-day? Are we to +go the way of the older civilizations? The immense +increase in the area of civilized activity +to-day, so that it is nearly coterminous with the +world’s surface; the immense increase in the +multitudinous variety of its activities; the immense +increase in the velocity of the world movement—are +all these to mean merely that the +crash will be all the more complete and terrible +when it comes? We can not be certain that the +answer will be in the negative; but of this we can +be certain, that we shall not go down in ruin unless +we deserve and earn our end. There is no necessity +for us to fall; we can hew out our destiny for +ourselves, if only we have the wit and the courage +and the honesty.</p> + +<p>Personally, I do not believe that our civilization<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span> +will fall. I think that on the whole we have +grown better and not worse. I think that on +the whole the future holds more for us than even +the great past has held. But, assuredly, the +dreams of golden glory in the future will not come +true unless, high of heart and strong of hand, by +our own mighty deeds we make them come true. +We can not afford to develop any one set of +qualities, any one set of activities, at the cost of +seeing others, equally necessary, atrophied. Neither +the military efficiency of the Mongol, the extraordinary +business ability of the Phœnician, nor +the subtle and polished intellect of the Greek +availed to avert destruction.</p> + +<p>We, the men of to-day and of the future, need +many qualities if we are to do our work well. +We need, first of all and most important of all, +the qualities which stand at the base of individual, +of family life, the fundamental and essential qualities—the +homely, every-day, all-important virtues. +If the average man will not work, if he has +not in him the will and the power to be a good +husband and father; if the average woman is not +a good housewife, a good mother of many healthy +children, then the state will topple, will go down, +no matter what may be its brilliance of artistic +development or material achievement. But these +homely qualities are not enough. There must, +in addition, be that power of organization, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span> +power of working in common for a common end, +which the German people have shown in such +signal fashion during the last half-century. Moreover, +the things of the spirit are even more important +than the things of the body. We can +well do without the hard intolerance and arid intellectual +barrenness of what was worst in the +theological systems of the past, but there has +never been greater need of a high and fine religious +spirit than at the present time. So, while we can +laugh good-humoredly at some of the pretensions +of modern philosophy in its various branches, it +would be worse than folly on our part to ignore +our need of intellectual leadership. Your own +great Frederick once said that if he wished to +punish a province he would leave it to be governed +by philosophers; the sneer had in it an element +of justice; and yet no one better than the great +Frederick knew the value of philosophers, the +value of men of science, men of letters, men of +art. It would be a bad thing indeed to accept +Tolstoi as a guide in social and moral matters; +but it would also be a bad thing not to have Tolstoi, +not to profit by the lofty side of his teachings. +There are plenty of scientific men whose hard +arrogance, whose cynical materialism, whose dogmatic +intolerance, put them on a level with the +bigoted mediæval ecclesiasticism which they denounce. +Yet our debt to scientific men is incalculable,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span> +and our civilization of to-day would have +reft from it all that which most highly distinguishes +it if the work of the great masters of +science during the past four centuries were now +undone or forgotten. Never has philanthropy, +humanitarianism, seen such development as now; +and though we must all beware of the folly, and +the viciousness no worse than folly, which marks +the believer in the perfectibility of man when his +heart runs away with his head, or when vanity +usurps the place of conscience, yet we must remember +also that it is only by working along the +lines laid down by the philanthropists, by the +lovers of mankind, that we can be sure of lifting +our civilization to a higher and more permanent +plane of well-being than was ever attained by any +preceding civilization. Unjust war is to be abhorred; +but woe to the nation that does not make +ready to hold its own in time of need against all +who would harm it! And woe thrice over to the +nation in which the average man loses the fighting +edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the +day of need should arise!</p> + +<p>It is no impossible dream to build up a civilization +in which morality, ethical development, +and a true feeling of brotherhood shall all alike +be divorced from false sentimentality, and from +the rancorous and evil passions which, curiously +enough, so often accompany professions of sentimental<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span> +attachment to the rights of man; in which +a high material development in the things of the +body shall be achieved without subordination of +the things of the soul; in which there shall be a +genuine desire for peace and justice without loss +of those virile qualities without which no love of +peace or justice shall avail any race; in which +the fullest development of scientific research, the +great distinguishing feature of our present civilization, +shall yet not imply a belief that intellect +can ever take the place of character—for, from +the standpoint of the nation as of the individual, +it is character that is the one vital possession.</p> + +<p>Finally, this world movement of civilization, +this movement which is now felt throbbing in +every corner of the globe, should bind the nations +of the world together while yet leaving +unimpaired that love of country in the individual +citizen which in the present stage of the world’s +progress is essential to the world’s well-being. +You, my hearers, and I who speak to you, belong +to different nations. Under modern conditions +the books we read, the news sent by telegraph to +our newspapers, the strangers we meet, half of +the things we hear and do each day, all tend to +bring us into touch with other peoples. Each +people can do justice to itself only if it does justice +to others; but each people can do its part in +the world movement for all only if it first does<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span> +its duty within its own household. The good +citizen must be a good citizen of his own country +first before he can with advantage be a citizen of +the world at large. I wish you well. I believe +in you and your future. I admire and wonder at +the extraordinary greatness and variety of your +achievements in so many and such widely different +fields; and my admiration and regard are all the +greater, and not the less, because I am so profound +a believer in the institutions and the people +of my own land.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CITIZENSHIP_IN_A_REPUBLIC" title="CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC"><span id="toclink_135"></span>CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a></h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap b"><span class="smcap1">Strange</span> and impressive associations rise in +the mind of a man from the New World +who speaks before this august body in this +ancient institution of learning. Before his eyes +pass the shadows of mighty kings and warlike +nobles, of great masters of law and theology; +through the shining dust of the dead centuries +he sees crowded figures that tell of the power +and learning and splendor of times gone by; and +he sees also the innumerable host of humble students +to whom clerkship meant emancipation, +to whom it was well-nigh the only outlet from the +dark thraldom of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">4</a> Delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.</p> + +</div> + +<p>This was the most famous university of mediæval +Europe at a time when no one dreamed that +there was a New World to discover. Its services +to the cause of human knowledge already stretched +far back into the remote past at the time when my +forefathers, three centuries ago, were among the +sparse bands of traders, ploughmen, wood-choppers, +and fisherfolk who, in hard struggle with the iron +unfriendliness of the Indian-haunted land, were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span> +laying the foundations of what has now become +the giant republic of the West. To conquer a +continent, to tame the shaggy roughness of wild +nature, means grim warfare; and the generations +engaged in it can not keep, still less add to, the +stores of garnered wisdom which once were theirs, +and which are still in the hands of their brethren +who dwell in the old land. To conquer the +wilderness means to wrest victory from the same +hostile forces with which mankind struggled in +the immemorial infancy of our race. The primeval +conditions must be met by primeval qualities +which are incompatible with the retention of much +that has been painfully acquired by humanity +as through the ages it has striven upward toward +civilization. In conditions so primitive +there can be but a primitive culture. At first +only the rudest schools can be established, for no +others would meet the needs of the hard-driven, +sinewy folk who thrust forward the frontier in the +teeth of savage man and savage nature; and many +years elapse before any of these schools can develop +into seats of higher learning and broader +culture.</p> + +<p>The pioneer days pass; the stump-dotted clearings +expand into vast stretches of fertile farmland; +the stockaded clusters of log cabins change +into towns; the hunters of game, the fellers of +trees, the rude frontier traders and tillers of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span> +soil, the men who wander all their lives long +through the wilderness as the heralds and harbingers +of an oncoming civilization, themselves +vanish before the civilization for which they have +prepared the way. The children of their successors +and supplanters, and then their children +and children’s children, change and develop with +extraordinary rapidity. The conditions accentuate +vices and virtues, energy and ruthlessness, +all the good qualities and all the defects of an +intense individualism, self-reliant, self-centred, far +more conscious of its rights than of its duties, +and blind to its own shortcomings. To the hard +materialism of the frontier days succeeds the hard +materialism of an industrialism even more intense +and absorbing than that of the older nations; +although these themselves have likewise already +entered on the age of a complex and predominantly +industrial civilization.</p> + +<p>As the country grows, its people, who have won +success in so many lines, turn back to try to recover +the possessions of the mind and the spirit, +which perforce their fathers threw aside in order +better to wage the first rough battles for the +continent their children inherit. The leaders of +thought and of action grope their way forward +to a new life, realizing, sometimes dimly, sometimes +clear-sightedly, that the life of material gain, +whether for a nation or an individual, is of value<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span> +only as a foundation, only as there is added to it +the uplift that comes from devotion to loftier +ideals. The new life thus sought can in part be +developed afresh from what is round about in +the New World; but it can be developed in full +only by freely drawing upon the treasure-houses +of the Old World, upon the treasures stored in +the ancient abodes of wisdom and learning, such +as this where I speak to-day. It is a mistake for +any nation merely to copy another; but it is an +even greater mistake, it is a proof of weakness in +any nation, not to be anxious to learn from another, +and willing and able to adapt that learning +to the new national conditions and make it fruitful +and productive therein. It is for us of the +New World to sit at the feet of the Gamaliel of +the Old; then, if we have the right stuff in us, +we can show that Paul in his turn can become a +teacher as well as a scholar.</p> + +<p>To-day I shall speak to you on the subject of +individual citizenship, the one subject of vital +importance to you, my hearers, and to me and +my countrymen, because you and we are citizens +of great democratic republics. A democratic +republic such as each of ours—an effort to realize +in its full sense government by, of, and for the +people—represents the most gigantic of all possible +social experiments, the one fraught with +greatest possibilities alike for good and for evil.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span> +The success of republics like yours and like ours +means the glory, and our failure the despair, of +mankind; and for you and for us the question of +the quality of the individual citizen is supreme. +Under other forms of government, under the rule +of one man or of a very few men, the quality of +the rulers is all-important. If, under such governments, +the quality of the rulers is high enough, +then the nation may for generations lead a brilliant +career, and add substantially to the sum of +world achievement, no matter how low the quality +of the average citizen; because the average citizen +is an almost negligible quantity in working out the +final results of that type of national greatness.</p> + +<p>But with you and with us the case is different. +With you here, and with us in my own home, in +the long run, success or failure will be conditioned +upon the way in which the average man, the +average woman, does his or her duty, first in the +ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in +those great occasional crises which call for the +heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a +good citizen if our republics are to succeed. The +stream will not permanently rise higher than the +main source; and the main source of national +power and national greatness is found in the average +citizenship of the nation. Therefore it behooves +us to do our best to see that the standard +of the average citizen is kept high; and the average<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span> +can not be kept high unless the standard of +the leaders is very much higher.</p> + +<p>It is well if a large proportion of the leaders +in any republic, in any democracy, are, as a +matter of course, drawn from the classes represented +in this audience to-day; but only provided +that those classes possess the gifts of sympathy +with plain people and of devotion to great ideals. +You and those like you have received special advantages; +you have all of you had the opportunity +for mental training; many of you have had +leisure; most of you have had a chance for the +enjoyment of life far greater than comes to the +majority of your fellows. To you and your kind +much has been given, and from you much should +be expected. Yet there are certain failings against +which it is especially incumbent that both men +of trained and cultivated intellect, and men of +inherited wealth and position, should especially +guard themselves, because to these failings they +are especially liable; and if yielded to, their—your—chances +of useful service are at an end.</p> + +<p>Let the man of learning, the man of lettered +leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation +to pose to himself and to others as the cynic, +as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, +the man to whom good and evil are as one. +The poorest way to face life is to face it with a +sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span> +twisted pride in cynicism; there are many who +confine themselves to criticism of the way others +do what they themselves dare not even attempt. +There is no more unhealthy being, no man less +worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, +or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief +toward all that is great and lofty, whether +in achievement or in that noble effort which, +even if it fails, comes second to achievement. +A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness +to criticise work which the critic himself never +tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which +will not accept contact with life’s realities—all +these are marks, not, as the possessor would fain +think, of superiority, but of weakness. They +mark the men unfit to bear their part manfully +in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the +affectation of contempt for the achievements of +others, to hide from others and from themselves +their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is +none easier, save only the rôle of the man who +sneers alike at both criticism and performance.</p> + +<p>It is not the critic who counts; not the man +who points out how the strong man stumbles, or +where the doer of deeds could have done them +better. The credit belongs to the man who is +actually in the arena, whose face is marred by +dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; +who errs, and comes short again and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span> +again, because there is no effort without error and +shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do +the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the +great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy +cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph +of high achievement, and who at the worst, +if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so +that his place shall never be with those cold and +timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. +Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits +refinement to develop into a fastidiousness +that unfits him for doing the rough work of a +workaday world. Among the free peoples who +govern themselves there is but a small field of +usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who +shrink from contact with their fellows. Still +less room is there for those who deride or slight +what is done by those who actually bear the +brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who +always profess that they would like to take action, +if only the conditions of life were not what they +actually are. The man who does nothing cuts +the same sordid figure in the pages of history, +whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There +is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows +nothing of the great and generous emotion, of +the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, +of the men who quell the storm and ride the +thunder. Well for these men if they succeed;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span> +well also, though not so well, if they fail, given +only that they have nobly ventured, and have put +forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn +Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of +the many errors and the valiant end, over whose +memory we love to linger, not over the memory +of the young lord who “but for the vile guns +would have been a soldier.”</p> + +<p>France has taught many lessons to other nations: +surely one of the most important is the +lesson her whole history teaches, that a high +artistic and literary development is compatible +with notable leadership in arms and statecraft. +The brilliant gallantry of the French soldier has +for many centuries been proverbial; and during +these same centuries at every court in Europe the +“freemasons of fashion” have treated the French +tongue as their common speech; while every artist +and man of letters, and every man of science able +to appreciate that marvellous instrument of precision, +French prose, has turned toward France +for aid and inspiration. How long the leadership +in arms and letters has lasted is curiously +illustrated by the fact that the earliest masterpiece +in a modern tongue is the splendid French +epic which tells of Roland’s doom and the vengeance +of Charlemagne when the lords of the +Frankish host were stricken at Roncesvalles.</p> + +<p>Let those who have, keep, let those who have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span> +not, strive to attain, a high standard of cultivation +and scholarship. Yet let us remember that +these stand second to certain other things. There +is need of a sound body, and even more need of a +sound mind. But above mind and above body +stands character—the sum of those qualities +which we mean when we speak of a man’s force +and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor. +I believe in exercise for the body, always provided +that we keep in mind that physical development +is a means and not an end. I believe, of +course, in giving to all the people a good education. +But the education must contain much besides +book-learning in order to be really good. We +must ever remember that no keenness and subtleness +of intellect, no polish, no cleverness, in +any way make up for the lack of the great solid +qualities. Self-restraint, self-mastery, common +sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility +and yet of acting in conjunction with +others, courage and resolution—these are the +qualities which mark a masterful people. Without +them no people can control itself, or save itself +from being controlled from the outside. I +speak to a brilliant assemblage; I speak in a great +university which represents the flower of the highest +intellectual development; I pay all homage to +intellect, and to elaborate and specialized training +of the intellect; and yet I know I shall have the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span> +assent of all of you present when I add that more +important still are the commonplace, every-day +qualities and virtues.</p> + +<p>Such ordinary, every-day qualities include the +will and the power to work, to fight at need, and +to have plenty of healthy children. The need +that the average man shall work is so obvious as +hardly to warrant insistence. There are a few +people in every country so born that they can lead +lives of leisure. These fill a useful function if +they make it evident that leisure does not mean +idleness; for some of the most valuable work +needed by civilization is essentially non-remunerative +in its character, and of course the people +who do this work should in large part be drawn +from those to whom remuneration is an object of +indifference. But the average man must earn his +own livelihood. He should be trained to do so, +and he should be trained to feel that he occupies +a contemptible position if he does not do so; that +he is not an object of envy if he is idle, at whichever +end of the social scale he stands, but an object +of contempt, an object of derision.</p> + +<p>In the next place, the good man should be both +a strong and a brave man; that is, he should be +able to fight, he should be able to serve his country +as a soldier, if the need arises. There are well-meaning +philosophers who declaim against the +unrighteousness of war. They are right only if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span> +they lay all their emphasis upon the unrighteousness. +War is a dreadful thing, and unjust war is +a crime against humanity. But it is such a +crime because it is unjust, not because it is war. +The choice must ever be in favor of righteousness, +and this whether the alternative be peace or +whether the alternative be war. The question +must not be merely, Is there to be peace or war? +The question must be, Is the right to prevail? +Are the great laws of righteousness once more to +be fulfilled? And the answer from a strong and +virile people must be, “Yes,” whatever the cost. +Every honorable effort should always be made to +avoid war, just as every honorable effort should +always be made by the individual in private life +to keep out of a brawl, to keep out of trouble; +but no self-respecting individual, no self-respecting +nation, can or ought to submit to wrong.</p> + +<p>Finally, even more important than ability to +work, even more important than ability to fight +at need, is it to remember that the chief of blessings +for any nation is that it shall leave its seed +to inherit the land. It was the crown of blessings +in Biblical times; and it is the crown of blessings +now. The greatest of all curses is the curse of +sterility, and the severest of all condemnations +should be that visited upon wilful sterility. The +first essential in any civilization is that the man +and the woman shall be father and mother of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span> +healthy children, so that the race shall increase +and not decrease. If this is not so, if through +no fault of the society there is failure to increase, +it is a great misfortune. If the failure is due +to deliberate and wilful fault, then it is not merely +a misfortune, it is one of those crimes of ease and +self-indulgence, of shrinking from pain and effort +and risk, which in the long run Nature punishes +more heavily than any other. If we of the great +republics, if we, the free people who claim to +have emancipated ourselves from the thraldom of +wrong and error, bring down on our heads the +curse that comes upon the wilfully barren, then +it will be an idle waste of breath to prattle of +our achievements, to boast of all that we have +done. No refinement of life, no delicacy of taste, +no material progress, no sordid heaping up of +riches, no sensuous development of art and literature, +can in any way compensate for the loss of +the great fundamental virtues; and of these great +fundamental virtues the greatest is the race’s +power to perpetuate the race.</p> + +<p>Character must show itself in the man’s performance +both of the duty he owes himself and +of the duty he owes the state. The man’s foremost +duty is owed to himself and his family; and +he can do this duty only by earning money, by +providing what is essential to material well-being; +it is only after this has been done that he can hope<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span> +to build a higher superstructure on the solid material +foundation; it is only after this has been +done that he can help in movements for the general +well-being. He must pull his own weight +first, and only after this can his surplus strength +be of use to the general public. It is not good to +excite that bitter laughter which expresses contempt; +and contempt is what we feel for the +being whose enthusiasm to benefit mankind is +such that he is a burden to those nearest him; +who wishes to do great things for humanity in the +abstract, but who can not keep his wife in comfort +or educate his children.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, while laying all stress on this +point, while not merely acknowledging but insisting +upon the fact that there must be a basis +of material well-being for the individual as for +the nation, let us with equal emphasis insist that +this material well-being represents nothing but +the foundation, and that the foundation, though +indispensable, is worthless unless upon it is raised +the superstructure of a higher life. That is why +I decline to recognize the mere multimillionaire, +the man of mere wealth, as an asset of value to +any country; and especially as not an asset to +my own country. If he has earned or uses his +wealth in a way that makes him of real benefit, of +real use—and such is often the case—why, then +he does become an asset of worth. But it is the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span> +way in which it has been earned or used, and not +the mere fact of wealth, that entitles him to the +credit. There is need in business, as in most other +forms of human activity, of the great guiding intelligences. +Their places can not be supplied by +any number of lesser intelligences. It is a good +thing that they should have ample recognition, +ample reward. But we must not transfer our +admiration to the reward instead of to the deed +rewarded; and if what should be the reward +exists without the service having been rendered, +then admiration will come only from those who +are mean of soul. The truth is that, after a certain +measure of tangible material success or reward +has been achieved, the question of increasing +it becomes of constantly less importance compared +to other things that can be done in life. It is a +bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a +false standard of success; and there can be no +falser standard than that set by the deification +of material well-being in and for itself. The man +who, for any cause for which he is himself accountable, +has failed to support himself and those +for whom he is responsible, ought to feel that he +has fallen lamentably short in his prime duty. +But the man who, having far surpassed the limit +of providing for the wants, both of body and mind, +of himself and of those depending upon him, then +piles up a great fortune, for the acquisition or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span> +retention of which he returns no corresponding +benefit to the nation as a whole, should himself +be made to feel that, so far from being a desirable, +he is an unworthy, citizen of the community; +that he is to be neither admired nor envied; that +his right-thinking fellow countrymen put him low +in the scale of citizenship, and leave him to be +consoled by the admiration of those whose level +of purpose is even lower than his own.</p> + +<p>My position as regards the moneyed interests +can be put in a few words. In every civilized +society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; +ordinarily, and in the great majority +of cases, human rights and property rights are +fundamentally and in the long run identical; but +when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict +between them, human rights must have the +upper hand, for property belongs to man and not +man to property.</p> + +<p>In fact, it is essential to good citizenship clearly +to understand that there are certain qualities +which we in a democracy are prone to admire in +and of themselves, which ought by rights to be +judged admirable or the reverse solely from the +standpoint of the use made of them. Foremost +among these I should include two very distinct +gifts—the gift of money-making and the gift of +oratory. Money-making, the money touch, I +have spoken of above. It is a quality which in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span> +a moderate degree is essential. It may be useful +when developed to a very great degree, but +only if accompanied and controlled by other +qualities; and without such control the possessor +tends to develop into one of the least attractive +types produced by a modern industrial democracy. +So it is with the orator. It is highly desirable +that a leader of opinion in a democracy should be +able to state his views clearly and convincingly. +But all that the oratory can do of value to the +community is to enable the man thus to explain +himself; if it enables the orator to persuade his +hearers to put false values on things, it merely +makes him a power for mischief. Some excellent +public servants have not the gift at all, and must +rely upon their deeds to speak for them; and unless +the oratory does represent genuine conviction +based on good common sense and able to be translated +into efficient performance, then the better +the oratory the greater the damage to the public +it deceives. Indeed, it is a sign of marked political +weakness in any commonwealth if the people +tend to be carried away by mere oratory, if they +tend to value words in and for themselves, as +divorced from the deeds for which they are supposed +to stand. The phrase-maker, the phrase-monger, +the ready talker, however great his power, +whose speech does not make for courage, sobriety, +and right understanding, is simply a noxious element<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span> +in the body politic, and it speaks ill for the +public if he has influence over them. To admire +the gift of oratory without regard to the moral +quality behind the gift is to do wrong to the republic.</p> + +<p>Of course all that I say of the orator applies +with even greater force to the orator’s latter-day +and more influential brother, the journalist. The +power of the journalist is great, but he is entitled +neither to respect nor admiration because of that +power unless it is used aright. He can do, and +he often does, great good. He can do, and he +often does, infinite mischief. All journalists, all +writers, for the very reason that they appreciate +the vast possibilities of their profession, should +bear testimony against those who deeply discredit +it. Offences against taste and morals, which are +bad enough in a private citizen, are infinitely +worse if made into instruments for debauching +the community through a newspaper. Mendacity, +slander, sensationalism, inanity, vapid triviality, +all are potent factors for the debauchery of +the public mind and conscience. The excuse advanced +for vicious writing, that the public demands +it and that the demand must be supplied, +can no more be admitted than if it were advanced +by the purveyors of food who sell poisonous adulterations.</p> + +<p>In short, the good citizen in a republic must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span> +realize that he ought to possess two sets of qualities, +and that neither avails without the other. +He must have those qualities which make for +efficiency; and he must also have those qualities +which direct the efficiency into channels for the +public good. He is useless if he is inefficient. +There is nothing to be done with that type of +citizen of whom all that can be said is that he is +harmless. Virtue which is dependent upon a +sluggish circulation is not impressive. There is +little place in active life for the timid good man. +The man who is saved by weakness from robust +wickedness is likewise rendered immune from the +robuster virtues. The good citizen in a republic +must first of all be able to hold his own. He is +no good citizen unless he has the ability which +will make him work hard and which at need will +make him fight hard. The good citizen is not a +good citizen unless he is an efficient citizen.</p> + +<p>But if a man’s efficiency is not guided and regulated +by a moral sense, then the more efficient +he is the worse he is, the more dangerous to the +body politic. Courage, intellect, all the masterful +qualities, serve but to make a man more evil +if they are used merely for that man’s own advancement, +with brutal indifference to the rights +of others. It speaks ill for the community if the +community worships these qualities and treats +their possessors as heroes regardless of whether<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span> +the qualities are used rightly or wrongly. It +makes no difference as to the precise way in which +this sinister efficiency is shown. It makes no +difference whether such a man’s force and ability +betray themselves in the career of money-maker +or politician, soldier or orator, journalist or popular +leader. If the man works for evil, then the +more successful he is the more he should be despised +and condemned by all upright and farseeing +men. To judge a man merely by success +is an abhorrent wrong; and if the people at large +habitually so judge men, if they grow to condone +wickedness because the wicked man triumphs, +they show their inability to understand +that in the last analysis free institutions rest upon +the character of citizenship, and that by such admiration +of evil they prove themselves unfit for +liberty.</p> + +<p>The homely virtues of the household, the ordinary +workaday virtues which make the woman +a good housewife and housemother, which make +the man a hard worker, a good husband and +father, a good soldier at need, stand at the bottom +of character. But of course many others must +be added thereto if a state is to be not only free +but great. Good citizenship is not good citizenship +if exhibited only in the home. There remain +the duties of the individual in relation to the +state, and these duties are none too easy under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span> +the conditions which exist where the effort is +made to carry on free government in a complex, +industrial civilization. Perhaps the most important +thing the ordinary citizen, and, above all, +the leader of ordinary citizens, has to remember +in political life is that he must not be a sheer +doctrinaire. The closet philosopher, the refined +and cultured individual who from his library tells +how men ought to be governed under ideal conditions, +is of no use in actual governmental work; +and the one-sided fanatic, and still more the mob-leader, +and the insincere man who to achieve +power promises what by no possibility can be +performed, are not merely useless but noxious.</p> + +<p>The citizen must have high ideals, and yet he +must be able to achieve them in practical fashion. +No permanent good comes from aspirations so +lofty that they have grown fantastic and have +become impossible and indeed undesirable to realize. +The impracticable visionary is far less often +the guide and precursor than he is the imbittered +foe of the real reformer, of the man who, with +stumblings and shortcomings, yet does in some +shape, in practical fashion, give effect to the +hopes and desires of those who strive for better +things. Woe to the empty phrase-maker, to the +empty idealist, who, instead of making ready the +ground for the man of action, turns against him +when he appears and hampers him as he does the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span> +work! Moreover, the preacher of ideals must remember +how sorry and contemptible is the figure +which he will cut, how great the damage that he +will do, if he does not himself, in his own life, +strive measurably to realize the ideals that he +preaches for others. Let him remember also +that the worth of the ideal must be largely determined +by the success with which it can in +practice be realized. We should abhor the so-called +“practical” men whose practicality assumes +the shape of that peculiar baseness which +finds its expression in disbelief in morality and +decency, in disregard of high standards of living +and conduct. Such a creature is the worst enemy +of the body politic. But only less desirable as a +citizen is his nominal opponent and real ally, the +man of fantastic vision who makes the impossible +better forever the enemy of the possible good.</p> + +<p>We can just as little afford to follow the doctrinaires +of an extreme individualism as the +doctrinaires of an extreme socialism. Individual +initiative, so far from being discouraged, should +be stimulated; and yet we should remember that, +as society develops and grows more complex, we +continually find that things which once it was +desirable to leave to individual initiative can, +under the changed conditions, be performed with +better results by common effort. It is quite impossible, +and equally undesirable, to draw in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span> +theory a hard-and-fast line which shall always +divide the two sets of cases. This every one who +is not cursed with the pride of the closet philosopher +will see, if he will only take the trouble to +think about some of our commonest phenomena. +For instance, when people live on isolated farms +or in little hamlets, each house can be left to attend +to its own drainage and water supply; but +the mere multiplication of families in a given area +produces new problems which, because they differ +in size, are found to differ not only in degree but +in kind from the old; and the questions of drainage +and water supply have to be considered from +the common standpoint. It is not a matter for +abstract dogmatizing to decide when this point +is reached; it is a matter to be tested by practical +experiment. Much of the discussion about socialism +and individualism is entirely pointless, because +of failure to agree on terminology. It is +not good to be the slave of names. I am a strong +individualist by personal habit, inheritance, and +conviction; but it is a mere matter of common +sense to recognize that the state, the community, +the citizens acting together, can do a number of +things better than if they were left to individual +action. The individualism which finds its expression +in the abuse of physical force is checked +very early in the growth of civilization, and we +of to-day should in our turn strive to shackle or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span> +destroy that individualism which triumphs by +greed and cunning, which exploits the weak by +craft instead of ruling them by brutality. We +ought to go with any man in the effort to bring +about justice and the equality of opportunity, to +turn the tool-user more and more into the tool-owner, +to shift burdens so that they can be more +equitably borne. The deadening effect on any +race of the adoption of a logical and extreme socialistic +system could not be overstated; it would +spell sheer destruction; it would produce grosser +wrong and outrage, fouler immorality, than any +existing system. But this does not mean that +we may not with great advantage adopt certain +of the principles professed by some given set of +men who happen to call themselves Socialists; to +be afraid to do so would be to make a mark of +weakness on our part.</p> + +<p>But we should not take part in acting a lie any +more than in telling a lie. We should not say +that men are equal where they are not equal, nor +proceed upon the assumption that there is an +equality where it does not exist; but we should +strive to bring about a measurable equality, at +least to the extent of preventing the inequality +which is due to force or fraud. Abraham Lincoln, +a man of the plain people, blood of their +blood and bone of their bone, who all his life +toiled and wrought and suffered for them, and at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span> +the end died for them, who always strove to represent +them, who would never tell an untruth to +or for them, spoke of the doctrine of equality with +his usual mixture of idealism and sound common +sense. He said (I omit what was of merely local +significance):</p> + +<p>“I think the authors of the Declaration of Independence +intended to include all men, but that +they did not mean to declare all men equal <em>in all +respects</em>. They did not mean to say all men were +equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, +or social capacity. They defined with tolerable +distinctness in what they did consider all men +created equal—equal in certain inalienable rights, +among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness. This they said, and this they meant. +They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth +that all were then actually enjoying that equality, +or yet that they were about to confer it immediately +upon them. They meant to set up a standard +maxim for free society which should be +familiar to all—constantly looked to, constantly +labored for, and, even though never perfectly attained, +constantly approximated, and thereby constantly +spreading and deepening its influence, and +augmenting the happiness and value of life to all +people, everywhere.”</p> + +<p>We are bound in honor to refuse to listen to +those men who would make us desist from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span> +effort to do away with the inequality which means +injustice; the inequality of right, of opportunity, +of privilege. We are bound in honor to strive to +bring ever nearer the day when, as far as is humanly +possible, we shall be able to realize the +ideal that each man shall have an equal opportunity +to show the stuff that is in him by the +way in which he renders service. There should, +so far as possible, be equality of opportunity to +render service; but just so long as there is inequality +of service there should and must be inequality +of reward. We may be sorry for the +general, the painter, the artist, the worker in any +profession or of any kind, whose misfortune rather +than whose fault it is that he does his work ill. +But the reward must go to the man who does his +work well; for any other course is to create a +new kind of privilege, the privilege of folly and +weakness; and special privilege is injustice, whatever +form it takes.</p> + +<p>To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, +the incapable, ought to have the reward given +to those who are far-sighted, capable, and upright, +is to say what is not true and can not be +true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of +the evil of levelling down. If a man stumbles, it +is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every +one of us needs a helping hand now and then. +But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span> +try to carry him; and it is a very bad thing for +every one if we make men feel that the same reward +will come to those who shirk their work and to +those who do it.</p> + +<p>Let us, then, take into account the actual facts +of life, and not be misled into following any proposal +for achieving the millennium, for re-creating +the golden age, until we have subjected it +to hardheaded examination. On the other hand, +it is foolish to reject a proposal merely because it +is advanced by visionaries. If a given scheme is +proposed, look at it on its merits, and, in considering +it, disregard formulas. It does not matter in +the least who proposes it, or why. If it seems +good, try it. If it proves good, accept it; otherwise +reject it. There are plenty of men calling +themselves Socialists with whom, up to a certain +point, it is quite possible to work. If the next +step is one which both we and they wish to take, +why of course take it, without any regard to the +fact that our views as to the tenth step may differ. +But, on the other hand, keep clearly in mind that, +though it has been worth while to take one step, +this does not in the least mean that it may not be +highly disadvantageous to take the next. It is +just as foolish to refuse all progress because people +demanding it desire at some points to go to +absurd extremes, as it would be to go to these +absurd extremes simply because some of the measures +advocated by the extremists were wise.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span></p> + +<p>The good citizen will demand liberty for himself, +and as a matter of pride he will see to it +that others receive the liberty which he thus +claims as his own. Probably the best test of +true love of liberty in any country is the way +in which minorities are treated in that country. +Not only should there be complete liberty in +matters of religion and opinion, but complete +liberty for each man to lead his life as he desires, +provided only that in so doing he does not wrong +his neighbor. Persecution is bad because it is +persecution, and without reference to which side +happens at the moment to be the persecutor and +which the persecuted. Class hatred is bad in just +the same way, and without any regard to the individual +who, at a given time, substitutes loyalty +to a class for loyalty to the nation, or substitutes +hatred of men because they happen to come in a +certain social category, for judgment awarded +them according to their conduct. Remember always +that the same measure of condemnation +should be extended to the arrogance which would +look down upon or crush any man because he is +poor and to the envy and hatred which would +destroy a man because he is wealthy. The overbearing +brutality of the man of wealth or power, +and the envious and hateful malice directed +against wealth or power, are really at root merely +different manifestations of the same quality, +merely the two sides of the same shield. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span> +man who, if born to wealth and power, exploits +and ruins his less fortunate brethren is at heart +the same as the greedy and violent demagogue +who excites those who have not property to +plunder those who have. The gravest wrong upon +his country is inflicted by that man, whatever his +station, who seeks to make his countrymen divide +primarily on the line that separates class from +class, occupation from occupation, men of more +wealth from men of less wealth, instead of remembering +that the only safe standard is that +which judges each man on his worth as a man, +whether he be rich or poor, without regard to +his profession or to his station in life. Such is +the only true democratic test, the only test that +can with propriety be applied in a republic. There +have been many republics in the past, both in +what we call antiquity and in what we call the +Middle Ages. They fell, and the prime factor in +their fall was the fact that the parties tended to +divide along the line that separates wealth from +poverty. It made no difference which side was +successful; it made no difference whether the republic +fell under the rule of an oligarchy or the +rule of a mob. In either case, when once loyalty +to a class had been substituted for loyalty to the +republic, the end of the republic was at hand. +There is no greater need to-day than the need to +keep ever in mind the fact that the cleavage between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span> +right and wrong, between good citizenship +and bad citizenship, runs at right angles to, and +not parallel with, the lines of cleavage between +class and class, between occupation and occupation. +Ruin looks us in the face if we judge a +man by his position instead of judging him by his +conduct in that position.</p> + +<p>In a republic, to be successful we must learn +to combine intensity of conviction with a broad +tolerance of difference of conviction. Wide differences +of opinion in matters of religious, political, +and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect +alike are not to be stunted, if there is to +be room for healthy growth. Bitter internecine +hatreds, based on such differences, are signs, not +of earnestness of belief, but of that fanaticism +which, whether religious or anti-religious, democratic +or anti-democratic, is itself but a manifestation +of the gloomy bigotry which has been the +chief factor in the downfall of so many, many +nations.</p> + +<p>Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, +the citizens of a republic should beware, and +that is of the man who appeals to them to support +him on the ground that he is hostile to other +citizens of the republic, that he will secure for +those who elect him, in one shape or another, +profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. +It makes no difference whether he appeals<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span> +to class hatred or class interest, to religious +or anti-religious prejudice. The man who makes +such an appeal should always be presumed to +make it for the sake of furthering his own interest. +The very last thing that an intelligent and +self-respecting member of a democratic community +should do is to reward any public man because +that public man says he will get the private +citizen something to which this private citizen is +not entitled, or will gratify some emotion or animosity +which this private citizen ought not to +possess. Let me illustrate this by one anecdote +from my own experience. A number of years ago +I was engaged in cattle-ranching on the great +plains of the western United States. There were +no fences. The cattle wandered free, the ownership +of each being determined by the brand; the +calves were branded with the brand of the cows +they followed. If on the round-up an animal was +passed by, the following year it would appear as +an unbranded yearling, and was then called a +maverick. By the custom of the country these +mavericks were branded with the brand of the +man on whose range they were found. One day +I was riding the range with a newly hired cowboy, +and we came upon a maverick. We roped +and threw it; then we built a little fire, took out +a cinch-ring, heated it at the fire; and the cowboy +started to put on the brand. I said to him,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span> +“It is So-and-so’s brand,” naming the man on +whose range we happened to be. He answered: +“That’s all right, boss; I know my business.” +In another moment I said to him: “Hold on, you +are putting on my brand!” To which he answered: +“That’s all right; I always put on the +boss’s brand.” I answered: “Oh, very well. +Now you go straight back to the ranch and +get what is owing to you; I don’t need you any +longer.” He jumped up and said: “Why, what’s +the matter? I was putting on your brand.” And +I answered: “Yes, my friend, and if you will +steal <em>for</em> me you will steal <em>from</em> me.”</p> + +<p>Now, the same principle which applies in private +life applies also in public life. If a public +man tries to get your vote by saying that he will +do something wrong <em>in</em> your interest, you can be +absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth +his while he will do something wrong <em>against</em> your +interest.</p> + +<p>So much for the citizenship of the individual +in his relations to his family, to his neighbor, to +the state. There remain duties of citizenship +which the state, the aggregation of all the individuals, +owes in connection with other states, +with other nations. Let me say at once that I +am no advocate of a foolish cosmopolitanism. I +believe that a man must be a good patriot before +he can be, and as the only possible way of being, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span> +good citizen of the world. Experience teaches us +that the average man who protests that his international +feeling swamps his national feeling, that +he does not care for his country because he cares +so much for mankind, in actual practice proves +himself the foe of mankind; that the man who +says that he does not care to be a citizen of any +one country, because he is a citizen of the world, +is in very fact usually an exceedingly undesirable +citizen of whatever corner of the world he happens +at the moment to be in. In the dim future +all moral needs and moral standards may change; +but at present, if a man can view his own country +and all other countries from the same level +with tepid indifference, it is wise to distrust him, +just as it is wise to distrust the man who can +take the same dispassionate view of his wife and +his mother. However broad and deep a man’s +sympathies, however intense his activities, he +need have no fear that they will be cramped by +love of his native land.</p> + +<p>Now, this does not mean in the least that a +man should not wish to do good outside of his +native land. On the contrary, just as I think +that the man who loves his family is more apt to +be a good neighbor than the man who does not, +so I think that the most useful member of the +family of nations is normally a strongly patriotic +nation. So far from patriotism being inconsistent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span> +with a proper regard for the rights of +other nations, I hold that the true patriot, who is +as jealous of the national honor as a gentleman is +of his own honor, will be careful to see that the +nation neither inflicts nor suffers wrong, just as a +gentleman scorns equally to wrong others or to +suffer others to wrong him. I do not for one +moment admit that political morality is different +from private morality, that a promise made on +the stump differs from a promise made in private +life. I do not for one moment admit that a man +should act deceitfully as a public servant in his +dealings with other nations, any more than that +he should act deceitfully in his dealings as a private +citizen with other private citizens. I do +not for one moment admit that a nation should +treat other nations in a different spirit from +that in which an honorable man would treat +other men.</p> + +<p>In practically applying this principle to the two +sets of cases there is, of course, a great practical +difference to be taken into account. We speak +of international law; but international law is +something wholly different from private or municipal +law, and the capital difference is that there +is a sanction for the one and no sanction for the +other; that there is an outside force which compels +individuals to obey the one, while there is +no such outside force to compel obedience as regards<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span> +the other. International law will, I believe, +as the generations pass, grow stronger and stronger +until in some way or other there develops the +power to make it respected. But as yet it is only +in the first formative period. As yet, as a rule, +each nation is of necessity obliged to judge for +itself in matters of vital importance between it +and its neighbors, and actions must of necessity, +where this is the case, be different from what +they are where, as among private citizens, there +is an outside force whose action is all-powerful +and must be invoked in any crisis of importance. +It is the duty of wise statesmen, gifted with the +power of looking ahead, to try to encourage and +build up every movement which will substitute +or tend to substitute some other agency for force +in the settlement of international disputes. It is +the duty of every honest statesman to try to +guide the nation so that it shall not wrong any +other nation. But as yet the great civilized peoples, +if they are to be true to themselves and to +the cause of humanity and civilization, must keep +ever in mind that in the last resort they must +possess both the will and the power to resent +wrong-doing from others. The men who sanely +believe in a lofty morality preach righteousness; +but they do not preach weakness, whether among +private citizens or among nations. We believe +that our ideals should be high, but not so high as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span> +to make it impossible measurably to realize them. +We sincerely and earnestly believe in peace; but +if peace and justice conflict, we scorn the man +who would not stand for justice though the whole +world came in arms against him.</p> + +<p>And now, my hosts, a word in parting. You +and I belong to the only two republics among the +great powers of the world. The ancient friendship +between France and the United States has +been, on the whole, a sincere and disinterested +friendship. A calamity to you would be a sorrow +to us. But it would be more than that. In +the seething turmoil of the history of humanity +certain nations stand out as possessing a peculiar +power or charm, some special gift of beauty or +wisdom or strength, which puts them among the +immortals, which makes them rank forever with +the leaders of mankind. France is one of these +nations. For her to sink would be a loss to all +the world. There are certain lessons of brilliance +and of generous gallantry that she can teach +better than any of her sister nations. When the +French peasantry sang of Malbrook, it was to tell +how the soul of this warrior-foe took flight upward +through the laurels he had won. Nearly +seven centuries ago, Froissart, writing of a time +of dire disaster, said that the realm of France was +never so stricken that there were not left men who +would valiantly fight for it. You have had a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span> +great past. I believe that you will have a great +future. Long may you carry yourselves proudly +as citizens of a nation which bears a leading part +in the teaching and uplifting of mankind.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">THE THRALDOM OF NAMES</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_THRALDOM_OF_NAMES" title="THE THRALDOM OF NAMES"><span id="toclink_175"></span>THE THRALDOM OF NAMES</h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">It</span> behooves our people never to fall under +the thraldom of names, and least of all to +be misled by designing people who appeal to +the reverence for, or antipathy toward, a given +name in order to achieve some alien purpose. +Of course such misuse of names is as old as the +history of what we understand when we speak of +civilized mankind. The rule of a mob may be +every whit as tyrannical and oppressive as the +rule of a single individual, whether or not called +a dictator; and the rule of an oligarchy, whether +this oligarchy is a plutocracy or a bureaucracy, +or any other small set of powerful men, may in +its turn be just as sordid and just as bloodthirsty +as that of a mob. But the apologists for the mob +or oligarchy or dictator, in justifying the tyranny, +use different words. The mob leaders usually +state that all that they are doing is necessary in +order to advance the cause of “liberty,” while the +dictator and the oligarchy are usually defended +upon the ground that the course they follow is +absolutely necessary so as to secure “order.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span> +Many excellent people are taken in by the use of +the word “liberty” at the one time, and the use +of the word “order” at the other, and ignore the +simple fact that despotism is despotism, tyranny +tyranny, oppression oppression, whether committed +by one individual or by many individuals, +by a state or by a private corporation.</p> + +<p>Moreover, tyranny exercised on behalf of one +set of people is very apt in the long run to damage +especially the representatives of that very class +by the violence of the reaction which it invites. +The course of the second republic in France was +such, with its mobs, its bloody civil tumults, its +national workshops, its bitter factional divisions, +as to invite and indeed insure its overthrow and +the establishment of a dictatorship; while it is +needless to mention the innumerable instances in +which the name of order has been invoked to +sanction tyranny, until there has finally come a +reaction so violent that both the tyranny and +all public order have disappeared together. The +second empire in France led straight up to the +Paris Commune; and nothing so well shows how +far the French people had advanced in fitness +for self-government as the fact that the hideous +atrocities of the Commune, which rendered it +imperative that it should be rigorously repressed, +nevertheless did not produce another violent reaction, +but left the French republic standing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span> +and the French people as resolute in their refusal +to be ruled by a king as by a mob.</p> + +<p>Of course when a great crisis actually comes, +no matter how much people may have been misled +by names, they promptly awaken to their unimportance. +To the individual who suffered under +the guillotine at Paris, or in the drownings in the +Loire, or to the individual who a century before +was expelled from his beloved country, or tortured, +or sent to the galleys, it made no difference +whatever that one set of acts was performed +under Robespierre and Danton and Marat in the +name of liberty and reason and the rights of +the people, or that the other was performed in the +name of order and authority and religion by the +direction of the great monarch. Tyranny and +cruelty were tyranny and cruelty just as much +in one case as in the other, and just as much when +those guilty of them used one shibboleth as when +they used another. All forms of tyranny and +cruelty must alike be condemned by honest men.</p> + +<p>We in this country have been very fortunate. +Thanks to the teaching and the practice of the +men whom we most revere as leaders, of the men +like Washington and Lincoln, we have hitherto +escaped the twin gulfs of despotism and mob rule, +and we have never been in any danger from the +worst forms of religious bitterness. But we should +therefore be all the more careful, as we deal with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span> +our industrial and social problems, not to fall +into mistakes similar to those which have brought +lasting disaster on less fortunately situated peoples. +We have achieved democracy in politics +just because we have been able to steer a middle +course between the rule of the mob and the rule +of the dictator. We shall achieve industrial democracy +because we shall steer a similar middle +course between the extreme individualist and the +Socialist, between the demagogue who attacks all +wealth and who can see no wrong done anywhere +unless it is perpetrated by a man of wealth, and +the apologist for the plutocracy who rails against +so much as a restatement of the eighth commandment +upon the ground that it will “hurt business.”</p> + +<p>First and foremost, we must stand firmly on a +basis of good sound ethics. We intend to do what +is right for the ample and sufficient reason that it +is right. If business is hurt by the stem exposure +of crookedness and the result of efforts to punish +the crooked man, then business must be hurt, +even though good men are involved in the hurting, +until it so adjusts itself that it is possible +to prosecute wrong-doing without stampeding the +business community into a terror-struck defence +of the wrong-doers and an angry assault upon +those who have exposed them. On the other hand, +we must beware, above all things, of being misled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span> +by wicked or foolish men who would condone +homicide and violence, and apologize for the dynamiter +and the assassin because, forsooth, they +choose to take the ground that crime is no crime +if the wicked man happens also to have been a +shiftless and unthrifty or lazy man who has never +amassed property. It is essential that we should +wrest the control of the government out of the +hands of rich men who use it for unhealthy purposes, +and should keep it out of their hands; and +to this end the first requisite is to provide means +adequately to deal with corporations, which are +essential to modern business, but which, under +the decisions of the courts, and because of the +short-sightedness of the public, have become the +chief factors in political and business debasement. +But it would be just as bad to put the control of +the government into the hands of demagogues +and visionaries who seek to pander to ignorance +and prejudice by penalizing thrift and business +enterprise, and ruining all men of means, with, as +an attendant result, the ruin of the entire community. +The tyranny of politicians with a bureaucracy +behind them and a mass of ignorant people +supporting them would be just as insufferable +as the tyranny of big corporations. The tyranny +would be the same in each case, and it would make +no more difference that one was called individualism +and the other collectivism than it made in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span> +French history whether tyranny was exercised in +the name of the Commune or of the Emperor, of +a committee of national safety, or of a king.</p> + +<p>The sinister and adroit reactionary, the sinister +and violent radical, are alike in this, that each +works in the end for the destruction of the cause +that he professedly champions. If the one is left +to his own devices he will make such an exhibition +of brutal and selfish greed as to utterly discredit +the entire system of government by individual +initiative; and if the other is allowed to work his +will he, in his turn, will make men so loathe +interference and control by the state that any +abuses connected with the untrammelled control +of all business by private individuals will seem +small by comparison. We can not afford to be empirical. +We must judge each case on its merits. +It is absolutely indispensable to foster the +spirit of individual initiative, of self-reliance, of +self-help; but this does not mean that we are to +refuse to face facts and to recognize that the +growth of our complex civilization necessitates an +increase in the exercise of the functions of the +state. It has been shown beyond power of refutation +that unrestricted individualism, for instance, +means the destruction of our forests and +our water supply. The dogma of “individualism” +can not be permitted to interfere with the duty of +a great city to see that householders, small as well<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span> +as big, live in decent and healthy buildings, drink +good water, and have the streets adequately lighted +and kept clean. Individual initiative, the reign +of individualism, may be crushed out just as effectively +by the unchecked growth of private +monopoly, if the state does not interfere at all, as +it would be crushed out under communism, or as +it would disappear, together with everything else +that makes life worth living, if we adopted the +tenets of the extreme Socialists.</p> + +<p>In 1896 the party of discontent met with a +smashing defeat for the very reason that, together +with legitimate attacks on real abuses, +they combined wholly illegitimate advocacy even +of the methods of dealing with these real abuses, +and in addition stood for abuses of their own +which, in far-reaching damage, would have cast +quite into the shade the effects of the abuses +against which they warred. It was essential both +to the material and moral progress of the country +that these forces should be beaten; and beaten +they were, overwhelmingly. But the genuine ethical +revolt against these forces was aided by a +very ugly materialism, and this materialism at one +time claimed the victory as exclusively its own, +and advanced it as a warrant and license for the +refusal to interfere with any misdeeds on the part +of men of wealth. What such an attitude meant +was set forth as early as 1896 by an English<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span> +visitor, the journalist Steevens, a man of marked +insight. Mr. Steevens did not see with entire +clearness of vision into the complex American +character; it would have been marvellous if a +stranger of his slight experience here could so have +seen; but it would be difficult to put certain important +facts more clearly than he put them. Immediately +after the election he wrote as follows +(I condense slightly):</p> + +<p>“In the United States legal organization of industry +has been left wholly wanting. Little is +done by the state. All is left to the initiative of +the individual. The apparent negligence is explained +partly by the American horror of retarding +mechanical progress, and partly by their reliance +on competition. They have cast overboard +the law as the safeguard of individual rights, and +have put themselves under the protection of competition, +and of it alone. Now a trust in its exacter +acceptation is the flat negation of competition. +It is certain that commercial concerns make +frequent, powerful, and successful combinations +to override the public interest. All such corporations +are left unfettered in a way that to an Englishman +appears almost a return to savagery. +The defencelessness of individual liberty against +the encroachment of the railway companies, tramway +companies, nuisance-committing manure companies, +and the like, is little less than horrible.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span> +Where regulating acts are proposed, the companies +unite to oppose them; where such acts exist, they +bribe corrupt officials to ignore them. When they +want any act for themselves, it can always be +bought for cash. [This is of course a gross exaggeration; +and allusion should have been made +to the violent and demagogic attacks upon corporations, +which are even more common than and +are quite as noxious as acts of oppression by corporations.] +They maintain their own members +in the legislative bodies—pocket assemblymen, +pocket representatives, pocket senators. In the +name of individual freedom and industrial progress +they have become the tyrants of the whole +community. Lawless greed on one side and lawless +brutality on the other—the outlook frowns. +On the wisdom of the rulers of the country in +salving or imbittering these antagonisms—still +more, on the fortune of the people in either modifying +or hardening their present conviction that +to get dollars is the one end of life—it depends +whether the future of the United States is to be +of eminent beneficence or unspeakable disaster. +It may stretch out the light of liberty to the +whole world. It may become the devil’s drill-ground +where the cohorts of anarchy will furnish +themselves against the social Armageddon.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Steevens here clearly points out, what +every one ought to recognize, that if individualism<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span> +is left absolutely uncontrolled as a modern +business condition the curious result will follow +that all power of individual achievement and individual +effort in the average man will be crushed +out just as effectively as if the state took absolute +control of everything. It would be easy to name +several big corporations each one of which has +within its sphere crushed out all competition so +as to make, not only its rivals, but its customers +as dependent upon it as if the government had +assumed complete charge of the product. It +would, in my judgment, be a very unhealthy +thing for the government thus to assume complete +charge; but it is even more unhealthy to permit +a private monopoly thus to assume it. The simple +truth is that the defenders of the theory of +unregulated lawlessness in the business world are +either insincere or blind to the facts when they +speak of their system as permitting a healthy +individualism and individual initiative. On the +contrary, it crushes out individualism, save in a +very few able and powerful men who tend to +become dictators in the business world precisely +as in the old days a Spanish-American president +tended to become a dictator in the political world.</p> + +<p>Moreover, where there is absolute lawlessness, +absolute failure by the state to control or supervise +these great corporations, the inevitable result +is to favor, among these very able men of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span> +business, the man who is unscrupulous and cunning. +The unscrupulous big man who gets complete +control of a given forest tract, or of a network +of railways which alone give access to a +certain region, or who, in combination with his +fellows, acquires control of a certain industry, may +crush out in the great mass of citizens affected +all individual initiative quite as much as it would +be crushed out by state control. The very reason +why we object to state ownership, that it puts a +stop to individual initiative and to the healthy +development of personal responsibility, is the +reason why we object to an unsupervised, unchecked +monopolistic control in private hands. +We urge control and supervision by the nation +as an antidote to the movement for state socialism. +Those who advocate total lack of regulation, +those who advocate lawlessness in the business +world, themselves give the strongest impulse to +what I believe would be the deadening movement +toward unadulterated state socialism.</p> + +<p>There must be law to control the big men, and +therefore especially the big corporations, in the +industrial world in the interest of our industrial +democracy of to-day. This law must be efficient, +and therefore it must be administered by executive +officers and not by lawsuits in the courts. +If this is not done the agitation to increase out +of all measure the share of the government in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span> +this work will receive an enormous impetus. The +movement for government control of the great +business corporations is no more a movement +against liberty than a movement to put a stop +to violence is a movement against liberty. On +the contrary, in each case alike it is a movement +for liberty; in the one case a movement on behalf +of the hard-working man of small means, just as +in the other case it is a movement on behalf of +the peaceable citizen who does not wish a “liberty” +which puts him at the mercy of any rowdy +who is stronger than he is. The huge, irresponsible +corporation which demands liberty from the +supervision of government agents stands on the +same ground as the less dangerous criminal of the +streets who wishes liberty from police interference.</p> + +<p>But there is an even more important lesson for +us Americans to learn, and this also is touched +upon in what I have quoted above. It is not +true, as Mr. Steevens says, that Americans feel +that the one end of life is to get dollars; but the +statement contains a very unpleasant element of +truth. The hard materialism of greed is just as +objectionable as the hard materialism of brutality, +and the greed of the “haves” is just as objectionable +as the greed of the “have-nots,” and +no more so. The envious and sinister creature +who declaims against a great corporation because +he really desires himself to enjoy what in hard,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span> +selfish, brutal fashion the head of that great corporation +enjoys, offers a spectacle which is both +sad and repellent. The brutal arrogance and +grasping greed of the one man are in reality the +same thing as the bitter envy and hatred and +grasping greed of the other. That kind of “have” +and that kind of “have-not” stand on the same +eminence of infamy. It is as important for the +one as for the other to learn the lesson of the true +relations of life. Of course, the first duty of any +man is to pay his own way, to be able to earn his +own livelihood, to support himself and his wife +and his children and those dependent upon him. +He must be able to give those for whom it is his +duty to care food and clothing, shelter, medicine, +an education, a legitimate chance for reasonable +and healthy amusements, and the opportunity to +acquire the knowledge and power which will fit +them in their turn to do good work in the world. +When once a man has reached this point, which, +of course, will vary greatly under different conditions, +then he has reached the point where +other things become immensely more important +than adding to his wealth. It is emphatically +right, indeed, I am tempted to say, it is emphatically +the first duty of each American, “to get +dollars,” as Mr. Steevens contemptuously phrased +it; for this is only another way of saying that it +is his first duty to earn his own living. But it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span> +is not his only duty, by a great deal; and after +the living has been earned getting dollars should +come far behind many other duties.</p> + +<p>Yet another thing. No movement ever has +done or ever will do good in this country, where assault +is made, not upon evil wherever found, but +simply upon evil as it happens to be found in a +particular class. The big newspaper, owned or +controlled in Wall Street, which is everlastingly +preaching about the iniquity of laboring men, +which is quite willing to hound politicians for +their misdeeds, but which with raving fury defends +all the malefactors of great wealth, stands +on an exact level with, and neither above nor below, +that other newspaper whose whole attack is +upon men of wealth, which declines to condemn, +or else condemns in apologetic, perfunctory, and +wholly inefficient manner, outrages committed by +labor. This is the kind of paper which by torrents +of foul abuse seeks to stir up a bitter class +hatred against every man of means simply because +he is a man of means, against every man of +wealth, whether he is an honest man who by industry +and ability has honorably won his wealth, +and who honorably spends it, or a man whose +wealth represents robbery and whose life represents +either profligacy or at best an inane, useless, +and tasteless extravagance. This country can not +afford to let its conscience grow warped and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span> +twisted, as it must grow if it takes either one of +these two positions. We must draw the line, not +on wealth nor on poverty, but on conduct. We +must stand for the good citizen because he is a +good citizen, whether he be rich or whether he +be poor, and we must mercilessly attack the man +who does evil, wholly without regard to whether +the evil is done in high or low places, whether it +takes the form of homicidal violence among members +of a federation of miners, or of unscrupulous +craft and greed in the head of some great Wall +Street corporation.</p> + +<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> + +<p>The best lesson that any people can learn is +that there is no patent cure-all which will make +the body politic perfect, and that any man who +is able glibly to answer every question as to how +to deal with the evils of the body politic is at best +a foolish visionary and at worst an evil-minded +quack. Neither doctrinaire socialism nor unrestricted +individualism nor any other ism will +bring about the millennium. Collectivism and +individualism must be used as supplementary, not +as antagonistic, philosophies. In the last analysis +the welfare of a nation depends on its having +throughout a healthy development. A healthy +social system must of necessity represent the sum +of very many moral, intellectual, and economic +forces, and each such force must depend in its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span> +turn partly upon the whole system; and all these +many forces are needed to develop a high grade +of character in the individual men and women who +make up the nation. No individual man could +be kept healthy by living in accordance with a +plan which took cognizance only of one set of +muscles or set of organs; his health must depend +upon his general bodily vigor, that is, upon the +general care which affects hundreds of different +organs according to their hundreds of needs. Society +is, of course, infinitely more complex than +the human body. The influences that tell upon +it are countless; they are closely interwoven, +interdependent, and each is acted upon by many +others. It is pathetically absurd, when such are +the conditions, to believe that some one simple +panacea for all evils can be found. Slowly, with +infinite difficulty, with bitter disappointments, +with stumblings and haltings, we are working our +way upward and onward. In this progress something +can be done by continually striving to improve +the social system, now here, now there. +Something more can be done by the resolute +effort for a many-sided higher life. This life must +largely come to each individual from within, by +his own effort, but toward the attainment of it +each of us can help many others. Such a life +must represent the struggle for a higher and +broader humanity, to be shown not merely in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span> +dealings of each of us within the realm of the +state, but even more by the dealings of each of +us in the more intimate realm of the family; for +the life of the state rests and must ever rest upon +the life of the family.</p> + +<p>In one of Lowell’s biting satires he holds up to +special scorn the smug, conscienceless creature +who refuses to consider the morality of any question +of social ethics by remarking that “they +didn’t know everything down in Judee.” It is +to be wished that some of those who preach and +practise a gospel of mere materialism and greed, +and who speak as if the heaping up of wealth by +the community or by the individual were in itself +the be-all and end-all of life, would learn from the +most widely read and oldest of books that true +wisdom which teaches that it is well to have +neither great poverty nor great riches. Worst of +all is it to have great poverty and great riches side +by side in constant contrast. Nevertheless, even +this contrast can be accepted if men are convinced +that the riches are accumulated as the result of +great service rendered to the people as a whole, +and if their use is regulated in the interest of the +whole community.</p> + +<p>The movement for social and industrial reform +has for two of its prime objects the prevention of +the accumulation of wealth save by honest service +to the country, and the supervision and regulation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span> +of its business use, and the determination +of how it shall be taxed, and on what terms inherited, +even when acquired and used honestly. +This movement is a healthy movement. It aims +to replace sullen discontent, restless pessimism, +and evil preparation for revolution, by an aggressive, +healthy determination to get to the bottom +of our troubles and remedy them. To halt in +the movement, as those blinded men wish who +care only for the immediate relief from all obstacles +which would thwart their getting what +is not theirs, would work wide-reaching damage. +Such a halt would turn away the energies of the +energetic and forceful men who desire to reform +matters from a legitimate object into the channel +of bitter and destructive agitation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">PRODUCTIVE SCHOLARSHIP</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PRODUCTIVE_SCHOLARSHIP" title="PRODUCTIVE SCHOLARSHIP"><span id="toclink_195"></span>PRODUCTIVE SCHOLARSHIP<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">What</span> counts in a man or in a nation is +not what the man or the nation can do, +but what he or it actually does. Scholarship +that consists in mere learning, but finds no +expression in production, may be of interest and +value to the individual, just as ability to shoot +well at clay pigeons may be of interest and value +to him, but it ranks no higher unless it finds expression +in achievement. From the standpoint +of the nation, and from the broader standpoint of +mankind, scholarship is of worth chiefly when it +is productive, when the scholar not merely receives +or acquires, but gives.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">5</a> “The Mediæval Mind.” By Henry Osborn Taylor.</p> + +<p>“The Life and Times of Cavour.” By William Roscoe Thayer.</p> + +</div> + +<p>Of course there is much production by scholarly +men which is not, strictly speaking, scholarship; +any more than the men themselves, despite their +scholarly tastes and attributes, would claim to be +scholars in the technical or purely erudite sense. +The exceedingly valuable and extensive work of +Edward Cope comes under the head of science, +and represents original investigation and original +thought concerning what that investigation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span> +showed; yet if the word scholarship is used broadly, +his work must certainly be called productive scientific +scholarship. General Alexander’s capital +“Memoirs of a Confederate” show that a man +who is a first-class citizen as well as a first-class +fighting man may also combine the true scholar’s +power of research and passion for truth with the +ability to see clearly and to state clearly what he +has seen. Mr. Hannis Taylor’s history of “The +Origin and Growth of the American Constitution” +and General Francis V. Greene’s history of +the American Revolution could have been written +only by scholars. Such altogether delightful volumes +of essays as Mr. Crothers’s “Gentle Reader,” +“Pardoner’s Wallet,” and “Among Friends” may +not, in the strictest sense of the word, represent +scholarship any more than the “Essays of Elia” +represent scholarship; but they represent more +than scholarship, and they could have been +written only by a man of scholarly attributes. +The same thing is true of Mr. Maurice Egan, now +our Minister to Denmark—who so well upholds +the tradition which has always identified American +men of letters with American diplomacy—in his +essays in Comparative Literature, named, as I +think not altogether happily, from the first essay, +“The Ghost in Hamlet.” Mr. Egan writes not +merely with charm but as no one but a man of +scholarly attributes could write—and, by the way,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span> +his dedication to Archbishop John Lancaster +Spalding is a dedication to a man whose lofty +spiritual teachings have been expressed in singularly +beautiful English. In its most perfect +expression scholarship must utter itself with literary +charm and distinction; although, I am sorry +to say, the professional scholars sometimes actually +distrust scholarship which is able thus to bring +forth wisdom divorced from pedantry and dryness. +As an example, Gilbert Murray’s “Rise of +the Greek Epic” not only shows profound scholarship +and the profound scholarly instinct which +can alone profit by the mere erudition of scholarship, +but is also so delightfully written as to be +as interesting as the most interesting novel; and, +curiously enough, this very fact, coupled with the +fact that Mr. Murray’s translations of Euripides +and Aristophanes are so attractive, has tended to +excite distrust of him in the minds of worthy +scholars whose productions are themselves free +from all taint of interest, from all taint of literary +charm. Professor Lounsbury’s extraordinary +scholarship has been fully appreciated only by the +best scholars; and this partly because of the very +fact of his many-sided development in the field of +intellectual endeavor.</p> + +<p>But I speak now of works of scholarship in the +more conventional sense, of works which show +scholarship such as Lea showed in his history of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span> +the Inquisition, such as Child showed in his +studies of English ballad poetry.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taylor’s study of “The Mediæval Mind” +is a noteworthy contribution—I am tempted to +say the most noteworthy of recent contributions—to +the best kind of productive scholarship. His +erudition is extraordinary in breadth and depth, +his grasp of the subject no less marked than his +power of conveying to others what he has thus +grasped. He is not only faithful to the truth in +large things, he is accurate in small matters also; +and where he makes use of any statement he always +shows that there is justification for it; although, +by the way, I can only guess at his reason +for calling Attila a “Turanian”—a word which +carries a pleasant flavor of pre-Victorian ethnology, +and might just about as appropriately be +applied to Tecumseh. As he expressly states, +Mr. Taylor is not concerned with the brutalities +of mediæval life, nor with the lower grades of +ignorance and superstition which abounded in the +Middle Ages, but with the more informed and +constructive spirit of the mediæval time. There +is, of course, no hard and sharp line to be drawn +between mediæval time and, on the one hand, +what is “ancient” and, on the other hand, what +is “modern”; but for his purposes he treats the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries as showing the +culmination of the mediæval spirit in its most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span> +characteristic form; although he also incidentally +touches on things that occurred in the fourteenth +century, and of course covers the slow upward +movement through the Dark Ages (as to which +he does rather less than justice to the Carolingian +revival of learning), when men were groping +in the black abyss into which civilization so +rapidly slid after the close of the second century. +His mastery of the facts is well-nigh perfect, and +he handles them with singular sympathy. In +such chapters as “The Spotted Actuality” he +makes it evident that he has constantly before +his own mind the whole picture. The ordinary +reader, however, needs to remember that it is +no part of Mr. Taylor’s purpose to present this +whole picture, but merely to make a study somewhat +analogous to what a study of the intellect +of the nineteenth century would be if it dealt exclusively +with the thought of the various universities +of Europe and America and of circles like +that of Emerson at Concord and Goethe at Weimar. +Indeed, this comparison is hardly accurate, +for the universities of the nineteenth century had +a far closer connection with the living thought +of the day than was true of the universities of the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The latter (like +their feeble survivals in the Spanish-speaking +countries) much more closely resembled the ordinary +type of Mohammedan university of the present<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span> +day, such a university as the big Mohammedan +university at Cairo, than they resembled any +modern university worth calling such, or, indeed, +any ancient university of living and creative force.</p> + +<p>The schoolmen of the Middle Ages and the +universities in which they flourished are well +worth such study as that which Mr. Taylor gives +them, if only because they represented what regarded +itself as the highest spiritual and intellectual +teaching of the time, and because they +symbolized the forces which manifested themselves +with infinitely more permanent value in +that wonderful cathedral architecture which was +one of the two culminating architectural movements +of all time—the other, of course, being +the classical Greek. But the greatest mediæval +effect upon the thought of after time was produced, +not by the schoolmen, but by works which they +would hardly have treated as serious at all—by +the Roland Song, the “Nibelungenlied,” the Norse +and Irish sagas, the Arthurian Cycle, including +“Parsifal”; and modern literature, on its historical +side, may be said to have begun with Villehardouin +and Joinville. None of the leaders of +the schools are to-day living forces in the sense +that is true of the nameless writers who built up +the stories of the immortal death fights in the +Pyrenean pass and in the hall of Etzel, or of the +search for the Holy Grail. There are keen intellects<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span> +still influenced by Thomas Aquinas; but +all the writings of all the most famous doctors of +the schools taken together had no such influence +on the religious thought of mankind as two books +produced long afterward, with no conception of +their far-reaching importance, by the obscure and +humble authors of the “Imitation of Christ” and +the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” In the thirteenth century +the spiritual life in action, as apart from +dogma, and as lived with the earnest desire to +follow in the footsteps of the Christ, reached, in +the person of Saint Francis of Assisi, as lofty a +pinnacle of realized idealism as humanity has ever +attained. But among those who, instead of trying +simply to live up to their spiritual impulses, +endeavored to deal authoritatively in the schools +with spiritual and intellectual interests, the complementary +tyranny and servility in all such +spiritual and intellectual matters were such as +we can now hardly imagine to ourselves. The +one really great scientific investigator, Roger +Bacon, who actually did put as an ideal before +himself the honest search for truth, was imprisoned +for years in consequence; and this in spite +of the fact that his avowals of abject submission +to theological authority and unquestioning adherence +to dogma were such as we of to-day can +with difficulty understand.</p> + +<p>At first sight such an attitude in the intellectual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span> +world seems incompatible with the turbulent and +lawless insistence on the right of each individual +to do whatever he saw fit in the political and +social world which characterized the seething life +of the time. But, as Mr. Taylor points out, the +minute that a man in the Middle Ages began to +be free in any real sense he tended to become an +outlaw; and, moreover, the men who were most +intolerant of restraint in matters physical and +material made no demands whatever for intellectual +or spiritual freedom. The ordinary knight +or nobleman, the typical “man of action” of the +period, promptly resented any attempt to interfere +with his brutal passions or coarse appetites; +but, as he had neither special interest nor deep +conviction in merely intellectual matters, he was +entirely willing to submit to guidance concerning +them. The attitude of the great baron of the +highest class is amusingly shown by a conversation +that Joinville records as having occurred between +himself and King Louis the Saint. Among +the questions which King Louis one day propounded +to Joinville, in the interests of the higher +morality, was whether Joinville would rather have +leprosy or commit a mortal sin; to which Joinville +responded with cordial frankness that he +would rather commit thirty mortal sins than have +leprosy. Now, in addition to being a most delightful +chronicler, Joinville was an exceptionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span> +well-behaved and religious baron, standing far +above the average, and he was very careful to +perform every obligation laid upon him by those +whom he regarded as his spiritual advisers. The +fact simply was that he had no idea of the need +for spiritual or intellectual independence in the +sense that a modern man has need for such independence, +because he took only a superficial interest +in anything concerned with intellectual +inquiry. To harry a heretic or a Jew was not +only a duty but a pleasure, and no effort whatever +was needed to refrain from intellectual inquiry +which presented to him not the slightest attraction; +but leprosy was something tangible, something +real, and the instant that the real came into +collision with even the most insistent supposed +spiritual obligation the rugged old baron went into +immediate revolt.</p> + +<p>The whole way of looking at life was so different +from ours that only a thoroughly sympathetic +and understanding writer like Mr. Taylor +can set it forth in a manner that shall be sympathetic +and yet not revolt us. One of his most +delightful chapters is that on “The Heart of +Heloise.” The qualities that Heloise displayed +are those which eternally appeal to what is high +and fine in human life; as for her lover, Abelard, +it is possible to pardon the abject creature only +by scornfully condemning the age which imposed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span> +upon him the rules of conduct in accordance with +which he lived.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thayer’s “Life of Cavour” is another first-rate +example of productive scholarship. It is +much more than a mere biography. The three +greatest and most influential statesmen, in purpose +and achievement, since the close of the Napoleonic +epoch were Lincoln, Bismarck, and Cavour; +and any account of either of them must +necessarily be an account of the most vitally important +things that happened to mankind during +the period when each was playing his greatest +part. An adequate biography of either must therefore +be a permanent addition to history; such +a biography could be written only by a scholar +and writer of altogether exceptional attainments; +and such a biography has been furnished by +Mr. Thayer. Mr. Thayer is already well known +as the author of various volumes dealing with +Italy, all of them representing work worth doing, +and all of them leading up to and making ready +the way for the really notable history which he +has now written. There are other books which +should be read in connection with it; the younger +Trevelyan’s brilliant studies of Garibaldi and the +Italian revolutionists of 1848 and the dozen years +immediately succeeding, and De La Gorce’s profoundly +interesting histories of the Second Empire +and the Second Republic in France, which contain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span> +the most powerful presentment of the period +from the anti-revolutionary standpoint. Cavour +not only did more than any other one man for +Italian unity and independence, but he symbolized +the movement as neither Garibaldi the Paladin, +nor Mazzini the Republican, nor even King +Victor Emmanuel symbolized it. As Mr. Thayer +describes Cavour’s career it is not only of interest +in itself, but it is of interest as showing that vast +and complex aggregate of contradictory forces +through whose warring chaos every great leader +who fights for the well-being of mankind must +force his way to triumph. Cavour had to contend +against foes within just as much as against foes +without. He had to hold the balance between +the unreasoning reactionary and the unreasoning +revolutionist, just exactly as on a larger or smaller +scale all leaders in the forward movement of mankind +must ever do. Mr. Thayer has set forth in +masterly fashion the task to which the great +statesman addressed himself and the manner in +which that task was performed; his book is absorbingly +interesting to the general reader, and +should be of profit not merely to the special student +but to every active politician who is in politics +for any of the reasons which alone render it +really worth while to be a politician at all. Mr. +Thayer is devoted to his hero, as he ought to +be; and he is a stanch partisan; but his obvious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span> +purpose is to be fair, and the principles of liberty +to which he pins his faith are those upon which +American governmental policy must always rest—although +it is not necessary to follow him in all +his views, as when he suddenly treats free trade +from the fetichistic standpoint instead of as an +economic expedient to be judged on its merits in +any given case. Every man interested not only +in the realities but in the possibilities of political +advance should study this book; and, in addition +to its intrinsic worth and interest, it is an example +of the kind of productive scholarship which adds +to the sum of American achievement.</p> + +<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> + +<p>Anything that Professor Lounsbury writes is +certain to be interesting. Any collection by him +of the writings of others is also certain to be interesting. +Probably when Mr. Lounsbury is doing +what he himself is willing to accept as work, +it is both so profound and so erudite that we +laymen can do little but admire it from a distance. +Fortunately, however, he is also willing +to do what he regards as play, such as a Life of +Fenimore Cooper, or a study of English adapted +to the needs of those who are not scholars; and +all of his writing of this lighter kind adds markedly +to the sum of enjoyment of laymen who are fond +of reading.</p> + +<p>The two volumes before me illustrate the good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span> +that can be done by people of cultivation who at +our different universities provide the means needed +to foster productive scholarship—for, unfortunately, +productive scholarship in this country is +apt to be unremunerative. The slender volume +on the early literary career of Robert Browning<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> +is based on four lectures delivered at the University +of Virginia under the terms of the Barbour-Page +Foundation, a foundation due to the wisdom +and generosity of Mrs. Thomas Nelson Page. +The “Yale Book of American Verse”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> is published +by the Yale University Press under the +auspices of the Elizabethan Club of Yale University, +a club founded by Mr. Alexander Smith +Cochran. It is the kind of club the possession of +which every real university in the country must +envy Yale.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">6</a> “The Early Literary Career of Robert Browning.” By Thomas +R. Lounsbury.</p> + +<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">7</a> “Yale Book of American Verse.” Collected by Thomas R. +Lounsbury.</p> +</div> + +<p>This study of Browning particularly appeals to +any man who, although devoted to Browning, +yet does not care for the pieces that some of the +Browning clubs especially delight in. Browning’s +great poems, those which will last as long as English +literature lasts, are given their full meed of +praise by Professor Lounsbury. The other poems, +those which especially excite the interest of the +average Browning society, are treated very amusingly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span> +and on the whole very justly. Professor +Lounsbury insists that these “poems” will not +permanently last, because they are essentially +formless, and therefore not poetry at all, and indeed +not literature. He holds that the attraction +such poems exercise on certain people is the attraction +of the unintelligible. Mr. Lounsbury’s +writings are always full of delicious touches, and +he is sometimes at his best in this little volume, +as, for instance, where he says: “In fact, commentaries +on Browning generally bear a close resemblance +to fog-horns. They proclaim the existence +of fog, but they do not disperse it.” One +of his main contentions is that fundamentally +the interest in those poems of Browning which +are both very long and very obscure does not differ +in kind from that displayed in guessing the answers +to riddles or, to use a more dignified comparison, +from that employed in the solution of +difficult mathematical problems.</p> + +<p>I think, however, that for the admiration +of these rather obscure philosophical poems of +Browning there is a reason upon which Mr. Lounsbury +has not touched. He says truly that the +men who admire Browning are very apt to be +men not especially drawn to writers in whom +lofty speculations have found their fitting counterpart +in clearness and beauty of expression; and +he instances Wordsworth and Tennyson as poets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span> +to be enjoyed only by men and women who have +a certain degree of fondness for literature as +literature. Now, I think it is true of Browning +(as it is true of Walt Whitman) that many of the +people who labor longest and hardest to master +his meaning are entirely mistaken in thinking that +they enjoy him as a poet. But I do not think +that Mr. Lounsbury’s explanation that they prize +him only as a puzzle fully accounts for the enjoyment +of many of these men or the profit they derive +from their study. The fact is that Browning +does represent very deep thought, very real philosophy—mixed, +of course, with much thought +that is not deep at all but only obscure, and much +would-be philosophy that has no meaning whatsoever. +In an instance that came to my own +knowledge, a class of college boys in a course of +literature, after carefully studying Browning for +a couple of months, and after then taking up +Tennyson, unanimously abandoned Tennyson and +insisted on returning to the study of Browning. +These hard-working, intelligent boys were not all +of them merely interested in puzzles. They were +not all of them blind to poetry as such. They did +care to a certain extent for form, but primarily +they were interested in the great problems of life, +they were interested in great and noble thoughts. +Doubtless many of them rather enjoyed having +to dig out the thought from involved language.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span> +But probably a greater number felt a larger enjoyment +in finding lofty thought expressed in language +which was even more lofty than obscure.</p> + +<p>It is true that as a poet Browning is formless. +But the poets who are great philosophers are few +in number, and great philosophers who have any +gift of expression whatever or any sense of form, +or whose writings so much as approach the outer +hem of literature, are even fewer in number. +Browning the philosopher is not more deep than +many other philosophers, and in form and expression +he is inferior to many poets. But he is a philosopher, +and he has form and expression. The +philosophy he writes is literature, even though +hardly in the highest sense poetic literature. +Therefore he appeals to men who are primarily +interested in his writings as philosophy, but who +do derive a certain pleasure from form or expression; +who, without being conscious of it, do like +to have the writings they read resemble literature. +These men are given by Browning something +that no other poet and no other philosopher can +give them; and I do not think that these men +receive full justice at Mr. Lounsbury’s hands. +Moreover, as compared to Tennyson or Longfellow, +or any other of the more conventional poets—and +I am extremely fond of these conventional +poets—there is far more in Browning, even in +Browning’s simpler and more understandable and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span> +formal poems, that gives expression to certain +deep and complex emotions. There are many +poets whom we habitually read far more often +than Browning, and who minister better to our +more primitive needs and emotions. There are +very few whose lines come so naturally to us in +certain great crises of the soul which are also +crises of the intellect.</p> + +<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> + +<p>“The Yale Book of American Verse” is an +excellent anthology, and the preface is one of the +best things about it. In this preface Mr. Lounsbury +quite unconsciously shows why he appeals +to so many men to whom a college professor who +is nothing more than a college professor does not +readily appeal. He mentions that on the march +to Gettysburg he picked up a torn piece of newspaper +containing certain verses which have always +remained in his mind, and which he includes +in this collection of verse. This is the only hint +in Professor Lounsbury’s writings that he fought +in the Civil War. A professor of English literature +in a great university who in his youth fought +at Gettysburg must necessarily have something +in him that speaks not only to scholars but to men.</p> + +<p>This anthology includes hymns as well as secular +poems. The collection is good in itself, as I have +already said, and, moreover, to all real lovers of +anthologies it will also seem good because each<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span> +of them will take much satisfaction in wondering +why certain of his or her favorite poems have been +left out and why certain other poems have been +put in. I suppose every man who cares for poetry +at all at times wishes that he could compile an +anthology for his own purposes. I certainly so +feel. I would like to compile two anthologies, +one of hymns and one of those poems which our +ancestors designated quite ruthlessly as “profane,” +in opposition to sacred. I should not expect +any one else to read either of my collections. +I should not wish the edition to consist of more +than one copy. But I would like, purely for my +own use, to own that copy! In the anthology of +hymns, for instance, besides all the great hymns, +from Bernard of Morlais to Cowper and Wesley +and Bishop Heber, I would like to put in some +hymns as to which I know nothing except that +I like them. Every Christmas Eve in our own +church at Oyster Bay, for instance, the children +sing a hymn beginning “It’s Christmas Eve on +the River, it’s Christmas Eve on the Bay.” Of +course the hymn has come to us from somewhere +else, but I do not know from where; and the +average native of our village firmly believes that +it is indigenous to our own soil—which it can not +be, unless it deals in hyperbole, for the nearest approach +to a river in our neighborhood is the village +pond.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span></p> + +<p>As for the “profane” anthology, I think I +should like to make one consisting of several volumes. +Even Mr. Lounsbury’s volume of American +verse, though it contains some specimens of verse +I would not have included, omits others which I +certainly should put in. And then, think of the +many, many volumes that would be needed to +include the English poems, and the French poems, +and the German poems from the Bard of the +Dimbovitza, and all the other poems which no +human being could make up his mind to see any +anthology leave out! I fear that a perfect anthology +of the kind that fills my dreams would be +as large as the various rather dismal series of +volumes which contain, as we are told, “the world’s +best literature”—and doubtless would be as unsatisfactory.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, as all this represents an unattainable +dream, we have reason to be glad that Mr. +Lounsbury’s particular anthology has been published.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">DANTE AND THE BOWERY</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="DANTE_AND_THE_BOWERY" title="DANTE AND THE BOWERY"><span id="toclink_217"></span>DANTE AND THE BOWERY</h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">It</span> is the conventional thing to praise Dante +because he of set purpose “used the language +of the market-place,” so as to be understanded +of the common people; but we do not in practice +either admire or understand a man who writes +in the language of our own market-place. It +must be the Florentine market-place of the thirteenth +century—not Fulton Market of to-day. +What infinite use Dante would have made of the +Bowery! Of course, he could have done it only +because not merely he himself, the great poet, +but his audience also, would have accepted it as +natural. The nineteenth century was more apt +than the thirteenth to boast of itself as being the +greatest of the centuries; but, save as regards +purely material objects, ranging from locomotives +to bank buildings, it did not wholly believe in its +boasting. A nineteenth-century poet, when trying +to illustrate some point he was making, obviously +felt uncomfortable in mentioning nineteenth-century +heroes if he also referred to those +of classic times, lest he should be suspected of +instituting comparisons between them. A thirteenth-century<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span> +poet was not in the least troubled +by any such misgivings, and quite simply illustrated +his point by allusions to any character in +history or romance, ancient or contemporary, that +happened to occur to him.</p> + +<p>Of all the poets of the nineteenth century, Walt +Whitman was the only one who dared use the +Bowery—that is, use anything that was striking +and vividly typical of the humanity around him—as +Dante used the ordinary humanity of his +day; and even Whitman was not quite natural in +doing so, for he always felt that he was defying +the conventions and prejudices of his neighbors, +and his self-consciousness made him a little defiant. +Dante was not defiant of conventions: the +conventions of his day did not forbid him to use +human nature just as he saw it, no less than +human nature as he read about it. The Bowery +is one of the great highways of humanity, a highway +of seething life, of varied interest, of fun, of +work, of sordid and terrible tragedy; and it is +haunted by demons as evil as any that stalk +through the pages of the “Inferno.” But no man +of Dante’s art and with Dante’s soul would write +of it nowadays; and he would hardly be understood +if he did. Whitman wrote of homely things +and every-day men, and of their greatness, but his +art was not equal to his power and his purpose; +and, even as it was, he, the poet, by set intention,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span> +of the democracy, is not known to the people as +widely as he should be known; and it is only the +few—the men like Edward FitzGerald, John Burroughs, +and W. E. Henley—who prize him as he +ought to be prized.</p> + +<p>Nowadays, at the outset of the twentieth century, +cultivated people would ridicule the poet +who illustrated fundamental truths, as Dante did +six hundred years ago, by examples drawn alike +from human nature as he saw it around him and +from human nature as he read of it. I suppose +that this must be partly because we are so self-conscious +as always to read a comparison into any +illustration, forgetting the fact that no comparison +is implied between two men, in the sense +of estimating their relative greatness or importance, +when the career of each of them is chosen +merely to illustrate some given quality that both +possess. It is also probably due to the fact that +an age in which the critical faculty is greatly developed +often tends to develop a certain querulous +inability to understand the fundamental truths +which less critical ages accept as a matter of +course. To such critics it seems improper, and +indeed ludicrous, to illustrate human nature by +examples chosen alike from the Brooklyn Navy +Yard or Castle Garden and the Piræus, alike from +Tammany and from the Roman mob organized +by the foes or friends of Cæsar. To Dante such +feeling itself would have been inexplicable.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span></p> + +<p>Dante dealt with those tremendous qualities +of the human soul which dwarf all differences in +outward and visible form and station, and therefore +he illustrated what he meant by any example +that seemed to him apt. Only the great names +of antiquity had been handed down, and so, when +he spoke of pride or violence or flattery, and wished +to illustrate his thesis by an appeal to the past, +he could speak only of great and prominent characters; +but in the present of his day most of the +men he knew, or knew of, were naturally people +of no permanent importance—just as is the case +in the present of our own day. Yet the passions +of these men were the same as those of the heroes +of old, godlike or demoniac; and so he unhesitatingly +used his contemporaries, or his immediate +predecessors, to illustrate his points, without regard +to their prominence or lack of prominence. +He was not concerned with the differences in their +fortunes and careers, with their heroic proportions +or lack of such proportions; he was a mystic +whose imagination soared so high and whose +thoughts plumbed so deeply the far depths of our +being that he was also quite simply a realist; for +the eternal mysteries were ever before his mind, +and, compared to them, the differences between +the careers of the mighty masters of mankind +and the careers of even very humble people seemed +trivial. If we translate his comparisons into the +terms of our day, we are apt to feel amused over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span> +this trait of his, until we go a little deeper and +understand that we are ourselves to blame, because +we have lost the faculty simply and naturally +to recognize that the essential traits of humanity +are shown alike by big men and by little men, in +the lives that are now being lived and in those +that are long ended.</p> + +<p>Probably no two characters in Dante impress +the ordinary reader more than Farinata and +Capaneus: the man who raises himself waist-high +from out his burning sepulchre, unshaken by +torment, and the man who, with scornful disdain, +refuses to brush from his body the falling flames; +the great souls—magnanimous, Dante calls them—whom +no torture, no disaster, no failure of the +most absolute kind could force to yield or to +bow before the dread powers that had mastered +them. Dante has created these men, has made +them permanent additions to the great figures of +the world; they are imaginary only in the sense +that Achilles and Ulysses are imaginary—that is, +they are now as real as the figures of any men +that ever lived. One of them was a mythical +hero in a mythical feat, the other a second-rate +faction leader in a faction-ridden Italian city of +the thirteenth century, whose deeds have not the +slightest importance aside from what Dante’s +mention gives. Yet the two men are mentioned +as naturally as Alexander and Cæsar are mentioned.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span> +Evidently they are dwelt upon at length +because Dante felt it his duty to express a peculiar +horror for that fierce pride which could defy its +overlord, while at the same time, and perhaps unwillingly, +he could not conceal a certain shuddering +admiration for the lofty courage on which this +evil pride was based.</p> + +<p>The point I wish to make is the simplicity with +which Dante illustrated one of the principles on +which he lays most stress, by the example of a +man who was of consequence only in the history +of the parochial politics of Florence. Farinata +will now live forever as a symbol of the soul; yet +as an historical figure he is dwarfed beside any one +of hundreds of the leaders in our own Revolution +and Civil War. Tom Benton, of Missouri, +and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, were opposed +to one another with a bitterness which surpassed +that which rived asunder Guelph from Ghibellin, +or black Guelph from white Guelph. They played +mighty parts in a tragedy more tremendous +than any which any mediæval city ever witnessed +or could have witnessed. Each possessed an iron +will and undaunted courage, physical and moral; +each led a life of varied interest and danger, and +exercised a power not possible in the career of the +Florentine. One, the champion of the Union, +fought for his principles as unyieldingly as the +other fought for what he deemed right in trying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span> +to break up the Union. Each was a colossal +figure. Each, when the forces against which he +fought overcame him—for in his latter years Benton +saw the cause of disunion triumph in Missouri, +just as Jefferson Davis lived to see the cause of +union triumph in the Nation—fronted an adverse +fate with the frowning defiance, the high heart, +and the stubborn will which Dante has commemorated +for all time in his hero who “held hell in +great scorn.” Yet a modern poet who endeavored +to illustrate such a point by reference to +Benton and Davis would be uncomfortably conscious +that his audience would laugh at him. He +would feel ill at ease, and therefore would convey +the impression of being ill at ease, exactly as he +would feel that he was posing, was forced and unnatural, +if he referred to the deeds of the evil +heroes of the Paris Commune as he would without +hesitation refer to the many similar but +smaller leaders of riots in the Roman forum.</p> + +<p>Dante speaks of a couple of French troubadours, +or of a local Sicilian poet, just as he speaks +of Euripides; and quite properly, for they illustrate +as well what he has to teach; but we of to-day +could not possibly speak of a couple of recent +French poets or German novelists in the same +connection without having an uncomfortable feeling +that we ought to defend ourselves from possible +misapprehension; and therefore we could not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span> +speak of them naturally. When Dante wishes to +assail those guilty of crimes of violence, he in +one stanza speaks of the torments inflicted by +divine justice on Attila (coupling him with Pyrrhus +and Sextus Pompey—a sufficiently odd conjunction +in itself, by the way), and in the next stanza +mentions the names of a couple of local highwaymen +who had made travel unsafe in particular +neighborhoods. The two highwaymen in question +were by no means as important as Jesse James +and Billy the Kid; doubtless they were far less +formidable fighting men, and their adventures +were less striking and varied. Yet think of the +way we should feel if a great poet should now +arise who would incidentally illustrate the ferocity +of the human heart by allusions both to the +terrible Hunnish “scourge of God” and to the +outlaws who in our own times defied justice in +Missouri and New Mexico!</p> + +<p>When Dante wishes to illustrate the fierce +passions of the human heart, he may speak of +Lycurgus, or of Saul; or he may speak of two +local contemporary captains, victor or vanquished +in obscure struggles between Guelph and Ghibellin; +men like Jacopo del Cassero or Buonconte, +whom he mentions as naturally as he does Cyrus +or Rehoboam. He is entirely right! What one +among our own writers, however, would be able +simply and naturally to mention Ulrich Dahlgren,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span> +or Custer, or Morgan, or Raphael Semmes, or +Marion, or Sumter, as illustrating the qualities +shown by Hannibal, or Rameses, or William the +Conqueror, or by Moses or Hercules? Yet the +Guelph and Ghibellin captains of whom Dante +speaks were in no way as important as these +American soldiers of the second or third rank. +Dante saw nothing incongruous in treating at +length of the qualities of all of them; he was not +thinking of comparing the genius of the unimportant +local leader with the genius of the great +sovereign conquerors of the past—he was thinking +only of the qualities of courage and daring and of +the awful horror of death; and when we deal with +what is elemental in the human soul it matters +but little whose soul we take. In the same way +he mentions a couple of spendthrifts of Padua and +Siena, who come to violent ends, just as in the +preceding canto he had dwelt upon the tortures +undergone by Dionysius and Simon de Montfort, +guarded by Nessus and his fellow centaurs. For +some reason he hated the spendthrifts in question +as the Whigs of Revolutionary South Carolina +and New York hated Tarleton, Kruger, Saint +Leger, and De Lancey; and to him there was nothing +incongruous in drawing a lesson from one +couple of offenders more than from another. (It +would, by the way, be outside my present purpose +to speak of the rather puzzling manner in which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span> +Dante confounds his own hatreds with those of +heaven, and, for instance, shows a vindictive enjoyment +in putting his personal opponent Filippo +Argenti in hell, for no clearly adequate reason.)</p> + +<p>When he turns from those whom he is glad to +see in hell toward those for whom he cares, he +shows the same delightful power of penetrating +through the externals into the essentials. Cato +and Manfred illustrate his point no better than +Belacqua, a contemporary Florentine maker of +citherns. Alas! what poet to-day would dare +to illustrate his argument by introducing Steinway +in company with Cato and Manfred! Yet +again, when examples of love are needed, he draws +them from the wedding-feast at Cana, from the +actions of Pylades and Orestes, and from the life +of a kindly, honest comb-dealer of Siena who had +just died. Could we now link together Peter +Cooper and Pylades, without feeling a sense of +incongruity? He couples Priscian with a politician +of local note who had written an encyclopædia +and a lawyer of distinction who had lectured +at Bologna and Oxford; we could not now +with such fine unconsciousness bring Evarts and +one of the compilers of the Encyclopædia Britannica +into a like comparison.</p> + +<p>When Dante deals with the crimes which he +most abhorred, simony and barratry, he flails +offenders of his age who were of the same type as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span> +those who in our days flourish by political or +commercial corruption; and he names his offenders, +both those just dead and those still living, +and puts them, popes and politicians alike, in +hell. There have been trust magnates and politicians +and editors and magazine-writers in our +own country whose lives and deeds were no more +edifying than those of the men who lie in the +third and the fifth chasm of the eighth circle of +the Inferno; yet for a poet to name those men +would be condemned as an instance of shocking +taste.</p> + +<p>One age expresses itself naturally in a form +that would be unnatural, and therefore undesirable, +in another age. We do not express ourselves +nowadays in epics at all; and we keep the emotions +aroused in us by what is good or evil in the +men of the present in a totally different compartment +from that which holds our emotions +concerning what was good or evil in the men of +the past. An imitation of the letter of the times +past, when the spirit has wholly altered, would be +worse than useless; and the very qualities that +help to make Dante’s poem immortal would, if +copied nowadays, make the copyist ridiculous. +Nevertheless, it would be a good thing if we could, +in some measure, achieve the mighty Florentine’s +high simplicity of soul, at least to the extent of +recognizing in those around us the eternal qualities<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span> +which we admire or condemn in the men who +wrought good or evil at any stage in the world’s +previous history. Dante’s masterpiece is one of +the supreme works of art that the ages have witnessed; +but he would have been the last to wish +that it should be treated only as a work of art, or +worshipped only for art’s sake, without reference +to the dread lessons it teaches mankind.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_FOUNDATIONS_OF_THE_NINETEENTH_CENTURY" title="THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY"><span id="toclink_231"></span>THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a></h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Mr. H. S. Chamberlain’s</span> work on +“The Foundations of the Nineteenth +Century” is a noteworthy book in more +ways than one. It is written by an Englishman +who has been educated on the Continent, and +has lived there until he is much more German +than English. Previously he had written a book +in French, while this particular book was written +in German, and has only recently been translated +into English. Adequately to review the book, or +rather to write an adequate essay suggested by +it, would need the space that would have been +taken by an old-time Quarterly or Edinburgh Reviewer +a century or fourscore years ago. I have +called the book “noteworthy,” and this it certainly +is. It ranks with Buckle’s “History of +Civilization,” and still more with Gobineau’s +“Inégalité des Races Humaines,” for its brilliancy +and suggestiveness and also for its startling inaccuracies +and lack of judgment. A witty English<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span> +critic once remarked of Mitford that he had +all the qualifications of an historian—violent partiality +and extreme wrath. Mr. Chamberlain +certainly possesses these qualifications in excess, +and, combined with a queer vein of the erratic +in his temperament, they almost completely +offset the value of his extraordinary erudition, extending +into widely varied fields, and of his occasionally +really brilliant inspiration. He is, however, +always entertaining; which is of itself no +mean merit, in view of the fact that most serious +writers seem unable to regard themselves as serious +unless they are also dull.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">8</a> “The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century.” By Houston +Stewart Chamberlain. A translation from the German, by John +Lees. With an introduction by Lord Redesdale. In two volumes.</p> + +</div> + +<p>Mr. Chamberlain’s thesis is that the nineteenth +century, and therefore the twentieth and all future +centuries, depend for everything in them worth +mentioning and preserving upon the Teutonic +branch of the Aryan race. He holds that there +is no such thing as a general progress of mankind, +that progress is only for those whom he +calls the Teutons, and that when they mix with +or are intruded upon by alien and, as he regards +them, lower races, the result is fatal. Much that +he says regarding the prevalent loose and sloppy +talk about the general progress of humanity, the +equality and identity of races, and the like, is +not only perfectly true, but is emphatically worth +considering by a generation accustomed, as its +forefathers for the preceding generations were accustomed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span> +to accept as true and useful thoroughly +pernicious doctrines taught by well-meaning and +feeble-minded sentimentalists; but Mr. Chamberlain +himself is quite as fantastic an extremist as +any of those whom he derides, and an extremist +whose doctrines are based upon foolish hatred is +even more unlovely than an extremist whose doctrines +are based upon foolish benevolence. Mr. +Chamberlain’s hatreds cover a wide gamut. They +include Jews, Darwinists, the Roman Catholic +Church, the people of southern Europe, Peruvians, +Semites, and an odd variety of literary +men and historians.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> To this sufficiently incongruous +collection of antipathies he adds a much +smaller selection of violent attachments, ranging +from imaginary primitive Teutons and Aryans +to Immanuel Kant, and Indian theology, metaphysics, +and philosophy—he draws sharp distinctions +between all three, and I merely use them +to indicate his admiration for the Indian habit +of thought, an admiration which goes hand in +hand with and accentuates his violent hatred for +what most sane people regard as the far nobler +thought contained, for instance, in the Old Testament. +He continually contradicts himself, or at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span> +least uses words in such diametrically opposite +senses as to convey the effect of contradiction; +and so it would be possible to choose phrases of +his which contradict what is here said; but +I think that I give a correct impression of his +teaching as a whole.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">9</a> Some of his antipathies appeal to the present writer; I much +enjoy his irrelevant and hearty denunciation of the folly of treating +the comparatively trivial Latin literature as of such peculiar importance +as to entitle it to be grouped in grotesque association with the +magnificent Greek literature under the unmeaning title of “classic.”</p> + +</div> + +<p>As he touches lightly on an infinitely varied +range of subjects, it would be possible to choose +almost at random passages to justify what is said +above. Take, for instance, his dogmatic assertions +concerning faith and works. He frantically condemns +the doctrine of salvation by works and +frantically exalts the doctrine of salvation by +faith. Much that he says about both doctrines +must be taken in so mystical and involved a sense +that it contains little real meaning to ordinary +men. Yet he is also capable of expressing, on this +very subject, noble thought in a lofty manner. +In one of his sudden lapses into brilliant sanity he +emphasizes the fact that Saint Francis of Assisi +was faith incorporate and yet the special apostle +of good works; and that Martin Luther, the advocate +of redemption by faith, consecrated his +life and revealed to others the secret of good works—“free +works done only to please God, not for +the sake of piety.”</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, these brilliant lapses into sanity +are fixed in a matrix of fairly bedlamite passion +and non-sanity. Mr. Chamberlain jeers with reason<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span> +at the Roman Curia because until 1822 it +kept on the Index all books which taught that the +earth went round the sun; but really such action +is not much worse than that of a man professing +to write a book like this at the outset of the twentieth +century who takes the attitude Mr. Chamberlain +does toward the teaching of Darwin. The +acceptance of the fundamental truths of evolution +are quite as necessary to sound scientific thought +as the acceptance of the fundamental truths concerning +the solar system; and the attempt that +Mr. Chamberlain in one place makes to draw a +distinction between them is fantastic. Again, take +what Mr. Chamberlain says of Aryans and Teutons. +He bursts the flood-gates of scorn when he +deals with persons who idealize humanity, or, as +he styles it, “so-called humanity”; and he says: +“For this humanity about which man has philosophized +to such an extent suffers from the +serious defect that it does not exist at all. History +reveals to us a great number of various human +beings, but no such thing as humanity”; +yet on this very page he attributes the history of +the growth of our civilization to its “Teutonic” +character, and he uses the word “Teuton” as +well as the word “Aryan” with as utter a looseness +and vagueness as ever any philanthropist or +revolutionist used the word “humanity.” All that +he says in derision of such a forced use of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span> +word “humanity” could with a much greater percentage +of truthfulness be said as regards the +words and ideas symbolized by Teutonism and +Aryanism as Mr. Chamberlain uses these terms. +Indeed, as he uses them they amount to little +more than expressions of his personal likes and +dislikes. His statement of the raceless chaos into +which the Roman Empire finally lapsed is, on the +whole, just, and, to use the words continually +coming to one’s mind in dealing with him, both +brilliant and suggestive. But in his anxiety to +claim everything good for Aryans and Teutons +he finally reduces himself to the position of insisting +that wherever he sees a man whom he admires +he must postulate for him Aryan, and, better still, +Teutonic blood. He likes David, so he promptly +makes him an Aryan Amorite. He likes Michael +Angelo, and Dante, and Leonardo da Vinci, and +he instantly says that they are Teutons; but he +does not like Napoleon, and so he says that Napoleon +is a true representative of the raceless chaos. +The noted Italians in question, he states, were all +of German origin, descended from the Germans +who had conquered Italy in the sixth century. +Now, of course, if Mr. Chamberlain is willing to +be serious with himself, he must know perfectly +well that even by the time of Dante seven or +eight centuries had passed, and by the time of the +other great Italians he mentions eight or ten centuries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span> +had passed, since the Germanic invasion. +In other words, these great Italians were separated +from the days of the Gothic and Lombard +invasions by the distance which separates modern +England from the Norman invasion; and his +thesis has just about as much substance as would +be contained in the statement that Wellington, +Nelson, Turner, Wordsworth, and Tennyson excelled +in their several spheres because they were +all pure-blood descendants of the motley crew +that came in with William the Conqueror. The +different ethnic elements which entered into the +Italy of the seventh century were in complete +solution by the thirteenth, and it would have been +quite as impossible to trace them to their several +original strains as nowadays to trace in the +average Englishman the various strains of blood +from his Norman, Saxon, Celtic, and Scandinavian +ancestors. Nor does Mr. Chamberlain mind +believing two incompatible things in the quickest +possible succession if they happen to suit his philosophy +of the moment. Generally, when he +speaks of the Teuton he thinks of the tall, long-headed +man of the north; although, because of +some crank in his mind, he puts in the proviso +that he may have black as well as blond hair. +The round-skulled man of middle Europe he +usually condemns; but if his mind happens to +run with approbation toward the Tyrolese, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span> +instance, he at once forgets what ethnic division +of Europeans it is to which they belong, and accepts +them as typical Teutons. He greatly admires +the teaching of the Apostle Paul, and so he +endeavors to persuade himself that the Apostle +Paul was not really a Jew; but he does not like +the teachings of the Epistle of James on the subject +of good works (teachings for which I have a +peculiar sympathy, by the way), and accordingly +he says that James was a pure Jew.</p> + +<p>Fundamentally, very many of Mr. Chamberlain’s +ideas are true and noble. I admire the +morality with which he condemns the intolerance +of Calvin and Luther no less strongly than the intolerance +of their Roman opponents, and yet his +acceptance of the fact that they could not have +done their great work if there had not been in +their characters an alloy which made it possible +for actual humanity to accept their teaching. +But even his sense of morality is as curiously capricious +as that of Carlyle himself, and as little +trustworthy. He glories in the pointless and +wanton barbarity of the destruction of Carthage +in the Third Punic War as saving Europe from the +Afro-Asiatic peril—pure nonsense, of course, for +Carthage was then no more dangerous to Rome +than Corinth was, and the sacks of the two cities +stand on a par as regards any importance in their +after effects. Perhaps his attitude toward Byron<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span> +is more practically mischievous, or at least shows +a much less desirable trait of character. He says +that the personality of Byron “has something repulsive +in it for every thorough Teuton, because +we nowhere encounter in it the idea of duty,” +which makes him “unsympathetic, un-Teutonic”; +but he adds that Teutons do not object in the +least to his licentiousness, and, on the contrary, +see in it “a proof of genuine race”! Really, this +reconciliation of a high ideal of duty with gross +licentiousness would be infamous if it were not +so unspeakably comic. On the next page, by the +way, Mr. Chamberlain says that Louis XIV was +anti-Teutonic in his persecution of the Protestants, +but a thorough Teuton when he defended +the liberties of the Gallican church against Rome! +Now such intellectual antics as these, and the +haphazard use of any kind of a name (without +the least reference to its ordinary use, provided +Mr. Chamberlain has taken a fancy to it) to represent +or symbolize any individual or attribute of +which he approves, makes it very difficult to +accept the book as having any serious merit whatever. +Yet interspersed with innumerable pages +which at best are those of an able man whose +mind is not quite sound, and at worst lose their +brilliancy without their irrationality, there are +many pages of deep thought and lofty morality +based upon wide learning and wide literary and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span> +even scientific knowledge. There could be no +more unsafe book to follow implicitly, and few +books of such pretensions more ludicrously unsound; +and yet it is a book which students and +scholars, and men who, though neither students +nor scholars, are yet deeply interested in life, must +have on their book-shelves. Much the same criticism +should be passed upon him that he himself +passes upon John Fiske, to whose great work, +“The History of the Discovery of America,” he +gives deserved and unstinted praise, but at whom +he rails for solemnly, and, as Mr. Chamberlain +says, with more than Papal pretensions to infallibility, +setting forth complete patent solutions +for all the problems connected not merely with +the origin but with the destiny of man. Mr. +Chamberlain differentiates sharply between the +admirable work Fiske did in such a book as that +treating of the discovery of America and the work +he did when he ventured to dogmatize loosely, +after the manner of Darwin’s successors in the +’70s and ’80s, upon a scanty collection of facts +very imperfectly understood. But Mr. Chamberlain +himself would have done far better if in +his book he had copied the methods and modesty +of Fiske at his best—the methods and modesty of +such books as Sutherland’s “Origin and Growth +of the Moral Instinct”—and had refrained from +taking an attitude of cock-sureness concerning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span> +problems which at present no one can more than +imperfectly understand. He is unwise to follow +Brougham’s example and make omniscience his +foible.</p> + +<p>Yet, after all is said, a man who can write such +a really beautiful and solemn appreciation of true +Christianity, of true acceptance of Christ’s teachings +and personality, as Mr. Chamberlain has +done, a man who can sketch as vividly as he has +sketched the fundamental facts of the Roman +empire in the first three centuries of our era, a +man who can warn us as clearly as he has warned +about some of the pressing dangers which threaten +our social fabric because of indulgence in a morbid +and false sentimentality, a man, in short, who +has produced in this one book materials for half +a dozen excellent books on utterly diverse subjects, +represents an influence to be reckoned with +and seriously to be taken into account.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN A REVERENT SPIRIT</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SEARCH_FOR_TRUTH_IN_A_REVERENT_SPIRIT" title="THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN A REVERENT SPIRIT"><span id="toclink_245"></span>THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN A REVERENT SPIRIT</h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">There</span> is superstition in science quite as +much as there is superstition in theology, +and it is all the more dangerous because +those suffering from it are profoundly convinced +that they are freeing themselves from all superstition. +No grotesque repulsiveness of mediæval +superstition, even as it survived into nineteenth-century +Spain and Naples, could be much more +intolerant, much more destructive of all that is +fine in morality, in the spiritual sense, and indeed +in civilization itself, than that hard dogmatic +materialism of to-day which often not merely +calls itself scientific but arrogates to itself the +sole right to use the term. If these pretensions +affected only scientific men themselves, it would +be a matter of small moment, but unfortunately +they tend gradually to affect the whole people, and +to establish a very dangerous standard of private +and public conduct in the public mind.</p> + +<p>This tendency is dangerous everywhere, but +nowhere more dangerous than among the nations +in which the movement toward an unshackled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span> +materialism is helped by the reaction against the +deadly thraldom of political and clerical absolutism. +The first of the books mentioned below<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> is +written by a Montevideo gentleman of distinction. +Under the rather fanciful title of “The Death of +the Swan” it deals with the shortcomings of Latin +civilization, accepts whole-heartedly the doctrines +of pure materialism as a remedy for these shortcomings, +and draws lessons from the success of the +Northern races, and especially of our own countrymen,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span> +which I, for one, am unwilling to have drawn. +The author feels that the civilization of France, +Italy, and Spain is going down, and that it owes +its decadence to submission to an outworn governmental +and ecclesiastical tyranny, and especially +to the futility of its ideals in government, +religion, and the whole art of living, a futility so +wrong-headed and far-reaching as to have turned +aside the people from all that makes for real +efficiency and success. In his revolt against sentimentality, +mock humanitarianism, and hypocrisy +the author advocates frank egotism and +brutality as rules of conduct for both individuals +and nations; and in his revolt against the theological +tyranny and superstition from which the +Spanish peoples in the Old and New Worlds have +suffered so much in the past he advocates implicit +obedience to the revolting creed which would treat +gold and force as the true and only gods for +human guidance; and this he does in the name of +science and enlightenment and of exact and correct +thinking. He speaks with admiration of certain +American qualities, confounding in curious +fashion the use and abuse of great but dangerous +traits. He fails to see that the line of separation +between the school of Washington and of Lincoln +and the school of the prophets of brutal force, +as expressed in the deification of either Mars or +Mammon, is as sharp as that which distinguishes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span> +both of these schools from the apostles of the silly +sentimentalism which he justly condemns. He +sees that the really great Americans were thoroughly +practical men; but he is blind to the fact +that they were also lofty idealists. It was precisely +because they were both idealists and practical +men that they made their mark deep in +history. He sees that they abhorred bigotry and +superstition; he does not see that they were sundered +as far from the men who attack all religion +and all order as from the men who uphold +either governmental or religious tyranny. It was +the fact that Washington and Lincoln refused to +carry good policies to bad extremes, and at the +same time refused to be frightened out of supporting +good policies because they might lead to bad +extremes, that made them of such far-reaching +usefulness.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">10</a> “La Mort du Cygne.” By Carlos Reyles. Translation from +Spanish into French by Alfred de Bengoechea.</p> + +<p>“Thoughts of a Catholic Anatomist.” By Thomas Dwight, M.D.</p> + +<p>“The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.” By Henry Osborn +Taylor.</p> + +<p>“Some Neglected Factors in Evolution.” By Henry M. Bernard.</p> + +<p>“The World of Life.” By Alfred Russel Wallace.</p> + +<p>“William James.” By Émile Boutroux.</p> + +<p>“Science et Religion.” By Émile Boutroux.</p> + +<p>“Science and Religion.” By Émile Boutroux. Translation into +English by Jonathan Nield.</p> + +<p>“Creative Evolution.” By Henri Bergson. Authorized translation +by Arthur Mitchell.</p> + +<p>“The Varieties of Religious Experience.” By William James.</p> + +<p>“Time and Free Will.” By Henri Bergson. Translation by F. +L. Pogson.</p> + +<p>“From Epicurus to Christ.” By William De Witt Hyde.</p> + +<p>“The Sixth Sense.” By Bishop Charles H. Brent.</p> + +<p>I need hardly say that I am not attempting to review these books +in even the briefest and most epitomized fashion. I use them only +to illustrate certain phases, good and bad, in the search for truth; as, +for instance, the harm that comes from seeking to apply, universally, +truth as apprehended by the mere materialist, the futility of trying +to check this harm by invoking the spirit of reactionary mediævalism, +and the fundamental agreement reached by truth-seekers of the highest +type, both scientific and religious.</p> + +</div> + +<p>Dr. Dwight’s book is very largely a protest +against the materialistic philosophy which has +produced such conceptions of life, and against these +conceptions of life themselves. With this protest +we must all heartily sympathize; unfortunately, +it is impossible to have such sympathy +with the reactionary spirit in which he makes his +protest. There is much that is true in the assault +he makes; but in his zeal to show where +the leaders of the modern advance have been +guilty of shortcomings he tends to assume positions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span> +which would put an instant stop to any +honest effort to advance at all, and would plunge +us back into the cringing and timid ignorance of +the Dark Ages. Apparently the ideal after which +Dr. Dwight strives is that embodied in the man +of the Middle Ages of whom Professor Henry +Osborn Taylor in one of his profound and able +studies has said: “The mediæval man was not +spiritually self-reliant, his character was not consciously +wrought by its own strength of mind +and purpose. Subject to bursts of unrestraint, he +yet showed no intelligent desire for liberty.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Dwight holds that there is an ominous +parallelism between the lines of thought of the +materialistic scientists of to-day and those of the +French Revolution. Strongly though he disapproves +of much of the thought of modern science, +he disapproves even more strongly of the Revolution. +In speaking of the similarities between them +he says:</p> + +<p>“Among the characters of the Revolution we +meet all kinds of company. There are the honest +men anxious for reform, the protesters against +what they conceived to be religious oppression, +the dreamy idealists without definite plan, the +ranting orators of the ‘mountain,’ fanatics and +demagogues at once, the wily ones who make a +living from the more or less sincere promulgation +of revolutionary doctrines and who find<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span> +legalized plunder very profitable, the army of +those who for fear or for favor prefer to be on the +winning side and follow the fashionable doctrines +without an examination which most of them are +incompetent to make, and finally the mob of the +<i lang="fr">sans-culottes</i> rejoicing in the overthrow of law, +order, and decency.”</p> + +<p>This is true, although it does not contain by +any means the whole truth; moreover, the parallelism +with the scientific movement of the present +day undoubtedly in part obtains. Yet the +saying which Dr. Dwight quotes with approval +from Herbert Spencer applies to what he himself +attempts; to destroy the case of one’s opponents +and to justify one’s own case are two very different +things. At present we are in greater danger +of suffering in things spiritual from a wrong-headed +scientific materialism than from religious +bigotry and intolerance; just as at present we +are threatened rather by what is vicious among +the ideas that triumphed in the Revolution than +we are from what is vicious in the ideas that it +overthrew. But this is merely because victorious +evil necessarily contains more menace than defeated +evil; and it will not do to forget the other +side, nor to let our protest against the evil of the +present drive us into championship of the evil of +the past. The excesses of the French Revolution +were not only hideous in themselves, but were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span> +fraught with a menace to civilization which has +lasted until our time and which has found its +most vicious expression in the Paris Commune of +1871 and its would-be imitators here and in other +lands. Nevertheless, there was hope for mankind +in the French Revolution, and there was +none in the system against which it was a protest, +a system which had reached its highest development +in Spain. Better the terrible flame of the +French Revolution than the worse than Stygian +hopelessness of the tyranny—physical, intellectual, +spiritual—which brooded over the Spain of +that day. So it is with the modern scientific +movement. There is very much in it to regret; +there is much that is misdirected and wrong; and +Dr. Dwight is quite right in the protest he makes +against Haeckel and to a less extent against +Weismann, and against the intolerant arrogance +and fanatical dogmatism which the scientists of +their school display to as great an extent as ever +did any of the ecclesiastics against whom they +profess to be in revolt. The experience of our +sister republic of France has shown us that not +only scientists but politicians, professing to be +radical in their liberalism, may in actual fact show +a bigoted intolerance of the most extreme kind +in their attacks on religion; and bigotry and intolerance +are at least as objectionable when anti-religious +as when nominally religious. But in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span> +entirely proper protest against these men and +their like Dr. Dwight is less than just to Darwin +and to many another seeker after truth, and +he fails to recognize the obligation under which he +and those like him have been put by the fearless +pioneers of the new movement. The debt of +mankind to the modern scientific movement is +incalculable; the evil that has accompanied it +has been real; but the good has much outweighed +the evil. It is only the triumph of the movement +led by the men against whom Dr. Dwight protests +that has rendered it possible for books such +as Dr. Dwight’s to be published with the approval—as +in his case—of the orthodox thought of the +church to which the writer belongs.</p> + +<p>The most significant feature of his book is the +advance it marks in the distance which orthodoxy +has travelled. He grudgingly admits the doctrine +of evolution, although—quite rightly, and in +true scientific spirit, by the way—he insists most +strongly upon the fact that we are as yet groping +in the dark as we essay to explain its causes or +show its significance; and he is again quite right +in holding up as an example to the dogmatists of +modern science what Roger Bacon said in the +thirteenth century: “The first essential for advancement +in knowledge is for men to be willing +to say, ‘We do not know.’” He, of course, treats +of the solar system, the law of gravitation, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span> +the like as every other educated man now treats +of them. Now, all of this represents a great advance. +A half-century ago no recognized authorities +of any church would have treated an evolutionist +as an orthodox man. A century ago Dr. +Dwight would not have been permitted to print +his book as orthodox if it had even contained the +statement that the earth goes round the sun. In +the days of Leonardo da Vinci popular opinion +sustained the church authorities in their refusal +to allow that extraordinary man to dissect dead +bodies, and the use of antitoxin would unquestionably +have been considered a very dangerous +heresy from all standpoints. In their generations +Copernicus and Galileo were held to be dangerous +opponents of orthodoxy, just as Darwin was held +to be when he brought out his “Origin of Species,” +just as Mendel’s work would have been held if +Darwin’s far greater work had not distracted attention +from him. The discovery of the circulation +of the blood was at the time thought by many +worthy people to be in contradiction of what was +taught in Holy Writ; and the men who first felt +their way toward the discovery of the law of gravitation +made as many blunders and opened themselves +to assault on as many points as was the +case with those who first felt their way to the +establishment of the doctrine of evolution. The +Dr. Dwights of to-day can write with the freedom<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span> +they do only because of the triumph of the +ideas of those scientific innovators of the past +whom the Dr. Dwights of their day emphatically +condemned.</p> + +<p>But when Dr. Dwight attacks the loose generalizations, +absurd dogmatism, and ludicrous assumption +of omniscient wisdom of not a few of the +so-called leaders of modern science, he is not only +right but renders a real service. The claims of +certain so-called scientific men as to “science overthrowing +religion” are as baseless as the fears of +certain sincerely religious men on the same subject. +The establishment of the doctrine of evolution +in our time offers no more justification for +upsetting religious beliefs than the discovery of +the facts concerning the solar system a few centuries +ago. Any faith sufficiently robust to stand +the—surely very slight—strain of admitting that +the world is not flat and does move round the sun +need have no apprehensions on the score of evolution, +and the materialistic scientists who gleefully +hail the discovery of the principle of evolution +as establishing their dreary creed might with +just as much propriety rest it upon the discovery +of the principle of gravitation. Science and religion, +and the relations between them, are affected +by one only as they are affected by the other. +Genuine harm has been done by the crass materialism +of men like Haeckel, a materialism which, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span> +its unscientific assumptions and in its utter insufficiency +to explain all the phenomena it professes +to explain, has been exposed in masterly fashion +by such really great thinkers—such masters not +only of philosophy but of material science—as William +James, Émile Boutroux, and Henri Bergson. +It is worth while to quote the remarks of Alfred +Russel Wallace, the veteran evolutionist: “With +Professor Haeckel’s dislike of the dogmas of theologians +and their claims as to the absolute knowledge +of the nature and attributes of the inscrutable +mind that is the power within and behind and +around nature many of us have the greatest sympathy; +but we have none with his unfounded dogmatism +of combined negation and omniscience, and +more especially when this assumption of superior +knowledge seems to be put forward to conceal his +real ignorance of the nature of life itself.” Dr. +Dwight is emphatically right when he denies that +science (using the word, as he does, as meaning +merely the science of material things) has taught +“a new and sufficient gospel,” or that, to use his +own words, there is any truth “in the boast of +infidel science that she and she alone has all that +is worth having.” He could go even further than +he does in refuting the queer optimism of those +evolutionists who insist that evolution in the +human race necessarily means progress; for every +true evolutionist must admit the possibility of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span> +retrogression no less than of progress, and exactly +as species of animals have sunk after having +risen, so in the history of mankind it has again +and again happened that races of men, and whole +civilizations, have sunk after having risen. In so +far as Dr. Dwight’s view of religion is that it +is the gospel of duty and of human service, his +view is emphatically right; and surely when the +doctrine of the gospel of works is taken to mean +the gospel of service to mankind, and not merely +the performance of a barren ceremonial, it must +command the respect, and I hope the adherence, +of all devout men of every creed, and even of +those who adhere to no creed of recognized orthodoxy.</p> + +<p>In the same way I heartily sympathize with his +condemnation of the men who stridently proclaim +that “science has disposed of religion,” and with +his condemnation of the scientific men who would +try to teach the community that there is no real +meaning to the words “right” and “wrong,” and +who therefore deny free-will and accountability. +Even as sound a thinker as Mr. Bernard, whose +book is rightly, as he calls it, “an essay in constructive +biology,” who in his theory of group development +has opened a new biological and even +sociological field of capital importance, who explicitly +recognizes the psychical accompaniment +of physical force as something distinct from it,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span> +and whose final chapter on the integration of the +human aggregate shows that he has a far nobler +view of life than any mere materialist can have, +yet falls into the great mistake of denying freedom +of the will, merely because he with his finite +material intelligence can not understand it. Dr. +Dwight is right in his attitude toward the scientific +men who thus assume that there is no freedom +of the will because on a material basis it is not +explicable. Whenever any so-called scientific men +develop, as an abstract proposition, a theory in accordance +with which it would be quite impossible +to conduct the affairs of mankind for so much +as twenty-four hours, the wise attitude of really +scientific men would be to reject that theory, instead +of following the example of the, I fear not +wholly imaginary, scientist who, when told that +the facts did not fit in with his theory, answered: +“So much the worse for the facts.” M. Bergson, +in his “Creative Evolution,” has brought out with +convincing clearness the great truth that the +human brain, so able to deal with purely material +things, and with sciences, such as geometry, in +which thought is concerned only with unorganized +matter, works under necessarily narrow limitations—limitations +in reality very, very narrow, +and never to be made really broad by mere intellect—when +it comes to grasping any part of +the great principle of life. Reason can deal effectively<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span> +only with certain categories. True wisdom +must necessarily refuse to allow reason to assume +a sway outside of its limitations; and where +experience plainly proves that the intellect has +reasoned wrongly, then it is the part of wisdom +to accept the teachings of experience, and bid +reason be humble—just as under like conditions +it would bid theology be humble. A certain +school of Greek philosophers was able to prove +logically that there was not, and could not be, +any such thing as motion, and that, even if there +were, it was quite impossible logically for a pursuing +creature ever to overtake a fleeing creature +which was going at inferior speed; but all that +was really accomplished by this teaching was to +prove the need of much greater intellectual humility +on the part of those who believed that they +were capable of thinking out an explanation for +everything. Mr. Bernard ought not to have been +caught in such a dilemma, because of the very +fact that he does not cast in his lot with the crass +materialists; for he admits that there are many +things we do not know, that there is much which +our intelligence—necessarily functioning in material +fashion—can not understand. It is just as +idle for a man to try to explain everything in the +moral and spiritual world by that which he is able +to apprehend of the material world as it would +be for a polyp to try to explain the higher emotions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span> +of mankind in terms of polyp materialism. +Not only would it be quite impossible to conduct +even the lowest form of civil society without +practical acknowledgment of free-will and accountability—an +acknowledgment always made in +practice by every single individual of those who +deny it in theory—but even in their writings the +very men who deny free-will and accountability +inevitably and continually use language which +has no meaning except on the supposition that +both of them exist. Mr. Bernard, for instance, +on the same page on which he denies freedom of +the will, makes an impatient plea for just laws, and +explains that by “just laws” he means laws that +are in accordance with the highest conceptions of +human relationships; he complains that the legal +idea of justice is invariably far behind that of our +psychic perceptions; and elsewhere, as on page +457, he speaks of the “duties” of man and of his +“moral perceptions,” and on page 473 he asks +for perfection of the community, so that “social +life worked out by the highest wisdom of mankind +will at once rise to a newer and higher physical +and psychic level.” All of this is meaningless if +there are no such things as freedom of the will and +accountability; and its goes to show that even a +profound and original thinker, if he has dwelt too +long in the realms where the pure materialist is +king, needs to pay heed to M. Bergson’s pregnant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span> +saying that “pure reasoning needs to be supervised +by common sense, which is an altogether +different thing.” A part, and an essential part, +of the same truth is expressed by Mr. Taylor when +he paraphrases Saint Augustine in insisting that +“the truths of love are as valid as the truths of +reason.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Dwight and the many men whose habits +of thought are similar to his perform a real service +when they keep people from being led astray +by the mischievous dogmas of those who would +give to each passing and evanescent phase of materialistic +scientific thought a dogmatic value; +and our full acknowledgment of this service does +not in the least hinder us from also realizing and +acknowledging that the advance in scientific discovery, +which has been and will be of such priceless +worth to mankind, can not be made by men of +this type, but only by the bolder, more self-reliant +spirits, by men whose unfettered freedom of soul +and intellect yields complete fealty only to the +great cause of truth, and will not be hindered by +any outside control in the search to attain it. A +brake is often a useful and sometimes an indispensable +piece of equipment of a wagon; but it is +never as important as the wheels. As the University +of Wisconsin declared when Dr. Richard +T. Ely was tried for economic heresy: “In all +lines of investigation the investigator must be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span> +absolutely free to follow the paths of truth wherever +they may lead.”</p> + +<p>It is always a difficult thing to state a position +which has two sides with such clearness as to +bring it home to the hearers. In the world of +politics it is easy to appeal to the unreasoning +reactionary, and no less easy to appeal to the +unreasoning advocate of change, but difficult to +get people to show for the cause of sanity and +progress combined the zeal so easily aroused +against sanity by one set of extremists and against +progress by another set of extremists. So in the +world of the intellect it is easy to take the position +of the hard materialists who rail against religion, +and easy also to take the position of those whose +zeal for orthodoxy makes them distrust all action +by men of independent mind in the search for +scientific truth; but it is not so easy to make it +understood that we both acknowledge our inestimable +debt to the great masters of science, and +yet are keenly alive to their errors and decline to +surrender our judgment to theirs when they go +wrong. It is imperative to realize how very grave +their errors are, and how foolish we should be to +abandon our adherence to the old ideals of duty +toward God and man without better security than +the more radical among the new prophets can +offer us. The very blindest of those new scientific +prophets are those whose complacency is greatest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span> +in their belief that the material key is that which +unlocks all the mysteries of the universe, and that +the finite mind of man can, not merely understand, +but pass supercilious judgment upon, these mysteries. +Mr. Wallace stands in honorable contrast +to the men of this stamp. No one has criticised +with greater incisiveness what he properly calls +“the vague, incomprehensible, and offensive assertions +of the biologists of the school of Haeckel.” +He shows his scientific superiority to these men by +his entire realization of the limitations of the +human intelligence, by his realization of the folly +of thinking that we have explained what we are +simply unable to understand when we use such +terms as “infinity of time” and “infinity of +space” to cover our ignorance; and he stands +not far away from the school of MM. Boutroux +and Bergson, and, old man though he is, comes +near the attitude of the more serious among the +younger present-day scientific investigators—of +the stamp of Professor Osborn, of the American +Museum of Natural History—in his readiness to +acknowledge that the materialistic and mechanical +explanations of the causes of evolution have +broken down, and that science itself furnishes an +overwhelming argument for “creative power, directive +mind, and ultimate purpose” in the process +of evolution.</p> + +<p>The law of evolution is as unconditionally accepted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span> +by every serious man of science to-day as +is the law of gravitation; and it is no more and no +less foolish to regard one than the other as antagonistic +to religion. To reject either on Biblical +grounds stands on a par with insisting, on the +same grounds, that geological science must reconcile +itself—and astronomy as well—to a universe +only six thousand years old. The type of +theologian who takes such a position occupies +much the same intellectual level with the strutting +materialists of the Haeckel type. To all men of +this kind I most cordially commend a capital +book, “Evolution and Dogma,” by the Rev. J. +A. Zahm, one-time professor of physics at the +University of Notre Dame, in Indiana.</p> + +<p>The great distinguishing feature of the centuries +immediately past has been the extraordinary +growth in man’s knowledge of, and power +to understand and command, his own physical +nature and his physical surroundings in the universe. +It is this growth which so sharply distinguishes +modern civilization, the civilization +which we may roughly date as beginning about +the time of Columbus’s voyage, from all preceding +civilizations; and it has not only immeasurably +increased man’s power over nature, but, when +rightly understood, has also measurably added to +his inner dignity and worth, and to his power and +command over things spiritual no less than material.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span> +This conquest could have been achieved +only by men who dared to follow wherever their +longing for the truth led them, and who were +masters of their own consciences, and as little +servile to the past as to the present. But no +such movement for the uplifting of mankind ever +has taken place, or ever will or can take place, +without being fraught also with great dangers to +mankind. Our hope lies in progress, for if we try +to remain stationary we shall surely go backward; +and yet as soon as we leave the ground on which +we stand in order to advance there is always +danger that we shall plunge into some abyss.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the men who have taken the lead +in these extraordinary material discoveries have +often tended to think that there is nothing to +discover or to believe in except what is material. +Much of the growth in our understanding of +nature has been due to men whose high abilities +were nevertheless rigidly limited in certain directions. +Our knowledge of solar systems so inconceivably +remote that the remoteness is itself +unreal to our senses; our knowledge of animate +and inanimate forces working on a scale so infinitesimal +and yet so powerful as to be almost +impossible for our imaginations to grasp; our +knowledge of the eons through which life has existed +on this planet; the extraordinary advances +in knowledge denoted by the establishment of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span> +such doctrines as those of gravitation and of evolution; +in short, the whole enormous incredible +advance in knowledge of the physical universe +and of man’s physical place in that universe, has +been due to the labor of students whose special +tastes and abilities lay in the direction of dealing +with what is purely material. Their astounding +success, and the far-reaching, indeed the stupendous, +importance of their achievements, have +naturally tended to make those among them who +possess genuine but narrow ability, whose minds +are keen but not broad, assume an attitude of +hard, arrogant, boastful, self-sufficient materialism: +a mental attitude which glorifies and exalts its +own grievous shortcomings and its inability to +perceive anything outside the realm of the body. +This attitude is as profoundly repellent as that +of the civil and ecclesiastical reactionaries, the +foes of all progress, against whom these men profess +to be in revolt; and, moreover, it is an attitude +which is itself as profoundly unscientific +as any of the anti-scientific attitudes which it +condemns. The universal truth can never be +even imperfectly understood or apprehended unless +we have the widest possible knowledge of our +physical surroundings, and unless we fearlessly +endeavor to find out just what the facts and the +teachings of these physical surroundings are; but +neither will it ever be understood if the physical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span> +and material explanations of life are accepted as +all-sufficient. By none is this more clearly recognized +than by the most acute and far-sighted +of the investigators into physical conditions. Says +Mr. Bernard: “There are psychic elements wholly +different in kind from the physical elements ... +[they] constitute, in a way impossible to define, a +new character, quality, element—or shall we at +once boldly borrow a term from mathematics +and call it a new ‘dimension’ of our environment, +hitherto three-dimensional? These various mental +conditions lead us to believe that at any moment, +while being driven through this three-dimensional +environment, we may also be plunged into a +psychic condition which hangs like an atmosphere +over our particular physical surroundings.”</p> + +<p>Not only every truly religious, but every truly +scientific, man must turn with relief from the narrowness +of a shut-in materialism to the profound +and lofty thought contained in the writings of +William James, of his biographer, M. Émile Boutroux, +and of another philosopher of the same +school, M. Bergson. M. Boutroux’s study of +William James gives in brief form—and with a +charm of style and expression possible only for +those who work with that delicate instrument of +precision, French prose—the views which men of +this stamp hold; and be it remembered that, like +James, they are thoroughly scientific men, steeped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span> +in the teachings of material science, who acknowledge +no outside limitation upon them in their +search for truth. They have a far keener understanding +of the world of matter than has been +attained by the purely materialistic scientists, +just because, in addition, they also understand +that outside of the purely physical lies the psychic, +and that the realm of religion stands outside even +of the purely psychic. M. Boutroux’s book on +“Science and Religion” has been translated into +English—and we owe a real debt of gratitude to +Messrs. Nield and Mitchell for their excellent +translations of MM. Boutroux and Bergson. +There is much talk of the conflict between science +and religion. The inherent absurdity of such talk +has never been better expressed than by M. Boutroux +when he says that such opposition “is the +result of our defining both science and religion +in an artificial manner by, on the one hand, identifying +science with physical science, and, on the +other hand, assuming that religion consists in the +dogmas which merely symbolize it.” M. Boutroux’s +book, like M. Bergson’s “Creative Evolution,” +must be read in its entirety; mere extracts +and condensations can not show the profound +philosophical acumen with which these men go +to the heart of things, and prove that science itself, +if correctly understood, renders absurd the +harsh and futile dogmatism of many of those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span> +who pride themselves upon being, above all +things, scientific. For, as these writers point +out, the work of the scientist is conditioned upon +the existence of the free determination of a spirit +which, dominating the scientific spirit, believes +also in an æsthetic and moral ideal. They see +the material, the physical body, in its relation to +other physical bodies; and back of and beyond +the physical they see life itself, consciousness, +which is to be conceived of as something always +dynamic and never static, as a “stream of consciousness,” +a “becoming.”</p> + +<p>As M. Boutroux finely says, religion gives to +the individual his value and treats him as an end +in himself, no less than treating him from the +standpoint of his duties to other individuals. +This philosophy is founded on a wide and sympathetic +understanding of the facts of the material +world, a frank acceptance of evolution and of all +else that modern science has ever taught; and +so those who profess it are in a position of impregnable +strength when they point out that all +this in no shape or way interferes with religion and +with Christianity, because, as they hold, evolution +in religion has merely tended to disengage +it from its own gross and material wrapping, +and to leave unfettered the spirit which is its +essence. To them Christianity, the greatest of +the religious creations which humanity has seen,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span> +rests upon what Christ himself teaches; for, as +M. Boutroux phrases it, the performance of duty +is faith in action, faith in its highest expression, +for duty gives no other reason, and need give no +other reason, for its existence than “its own incorruptible +disinterestedness.” The idea thus expressed +is at bottom based on the same truth to +which expression is given by Mr. Taylor when he +says: “The love of God means not despising but +honoring self; and for Christians on earth the +true love of God must show itself in doing earth’s +duties and living out earth’s full life, and not in +abandoning all for dreams, though the dreams be +of heaven.” To men such as William James and +these two French philosophers physical science, if +properly studied, shows conclusively its own +limitations, shows conclusively that beyond the +material world lies a vast series of phenomena +which all material knowledge is powerless to explain, +so that science itself teaches that outside +of materialism lie the forces of a wholly different +world, a world ordered by religion—religion which, +says M. Boutroux, must, if loyal to itself, work +according to its own nature as a spiritual activity, +striving to transform men from within and not +from without, by persuasion, by example, by love, +by prayer, by the communion of souls, not by restraint +or policy; and such a religion has nothing +to fear from the progress of science, for the spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span> +to which it is loyal is the faith in duty, the search +for what is for the universal good and for the universal +love, the secret springs of all high and +beneficent activity.</p> + +<p>It is striking to see how these two gifted Frenchmen, +by their own road, reach substantially the +same conclusion which, by a wholly different +method, and indeed in treating religion from a +wholly different standpoint, is also reached by the +president of Bowdoin College. Mr. Hyde’s short +volume combines in high degree a lofty nobility +of ethical concept with the most practical and +straightforward common-sense treatment of the +ways in which this concept should be realized in +practice. Each of us must prescribe for himself +in these matters, and one man’s need will not be +wholly met by what does meet another’s; personally, +this book of President Hyde’s gives me +something that no other book does, and means +to me very, very much.</p> + +<p>We must all strive to keep as our most precious +heritage the liberty each to worship his God as to +him seems best, and, as part of this liberty, freely +either to exercise it or to surrender it, in a greater +or less degree, each according to his own beliefs +and convictions, without infringing on the beliefs +and convictions of others. But the professors of +the varying creeds, the men who rely upon authority, +and those who in different measures profess<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span> +the theory of individual liberty, can and must +work together, with mutual respect and with +self-respect, for certain principles which lie deep +at the base of every healthy social system. As +Bishop Brent says: “The only setting for any one +part of the truth is all the rest of the truth. The +only relationship big enough for any one man is +all the rest of mankind.” Abbot Charles, of +Saint Leo Abbey, in Florida, has recently put the +case for friendly agreement among good men of +varying views, when he summed up a notably +fine address in defence—as he truly says, <em>friendly</em> +defence—of his own church by enunciating the +plea for “true peace founded on justice,” worked +out in accordance with what he properly calls one +of the “dearest blessings that heaven can give, +the spirit that springs from religious liberty.” +However widely many earnest and high-minded +men of science and many earnest and high-minded +men of religious convictions may from one side +or the other disagree with the teachings of the +earnest and high-minded students of philosophy +whom I have quoted, yet surely we can all be in +agreement with the fundamentals on which their +philosophy is based. Surely we must all recognize +the search for truth as an imperative duty; +and we ought all of us likewise to recognize that +this search for truth should be carried on, not only +fearlessly, but also with reverence, with humility<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span> +of spirit, and with full recognition of our own +limitations both of the mind and the soul. We +must stand equally against tyranny and against +irreverence in all things of the spirit, with the +firm conviction that we can all work together for +a higher social and individual life if only, whatever +form of creed we profess, we make the doing +of duty and the love of our fellow men two of the +prime articles in our universal faith. To those +who deny the ethical obligation implied in such a +faith we who acknowledge the obligation are aliens; +and we are brothers to all those who do acknowledge +it, whatever their creed or system of philosophy.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">THE ANCIENT IRISH SAGAS</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_ANCIENT_IRISH_SAGAS" title="THE ANCIENT IRISH SAGAS"><span id="toclink_275"></span>THE ANCIENT IRISH SAGAS</h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Next</span> to developing original writers in its +own time, the most fortunate thing, from +the literary standpoint, which can befall +any people is to have revealed to it some new +treasure-house of literature. This treasure-house +may be stored with the writings of another people +in the present, or else with the writings of a buried +past. But a few generations ago, in that innocent +age when Blackstone could speak of the +“Goths, Huns, Franks, and Vandals”—incongruous +gathering—as “Celtic” tribes, the long-vanished +literatures of the ancestors of the present +European nations, the epics, the sagas, the +stories in verse or prose, were hardly known to, +or regarded by, their educated and cultivated +descendants. Gradually, and chiefly in the nineteenth +century, these forgotten literatures, or +fragments of them, were one by one recovered. +They are various in merit and interest, in antiquity +and extent—“Beowulf,” the Norse sagas, +the “Kalevala,” the “Nibelungenlied,” the “Song +of Roland,” the Arthurian cycle of romances. In +some there is but one great poem; in some all the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">278</span> +poems or stories are of one type; in others, as in +the case of the Norse sagas, a wide range of history, +myth, and personal biography is covered. +In our own day there has at last come about a +popular revival of interest in the wealth of poems +and tales to be found in the ancient Celtic, and +especially in the ancient Erse, manuscripts—the +whole forming a body of prose and poetry of +great and well-nigh unique interest from every +standpoint, which in some respects can be matched +only by the Norse sagas, and which has some +striking beauties the like of which are not to be +found even in these Norse sagas.</p> + +<p>For many decades German, French, Irish, and +English students have worked over the ancient +Celtic texts, and recently many of the more striking +and more beautiful stories have been reproduced +or paraphrased in popular form by writers +like Lady Gregory and Miss Hull, Lady Gregory +showing in her prose something of the charm +which her countrywoman Emily Lawless shows +in her poems “With the Wild Geese.” It is greatly +to be regretted that America should have done so +little either in the way of original study and research +in connection with the early Celtic literature, +or in the way of popularizing and familiarizing +that literature, and it is much to be desired +that, wherever possible, chairs of Celtic should be +established in our leading universities. Moreover,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">279</span> +in addition to the scholar’s work which is +especially designed for students, there must ultimately +be done the additional work which puts +the results of the scholarship at the disposal of +the average layman. This has largely been done +for the Norse sagas. William Morris has translated +the “Heimskringla” into language which, +while not exactly English, can nevertheless be +understood without difficulty—which is more than +can be said for his translation of “Beowulf”—and +which has a real, though affectedly archaic, +beauty. Dasent has translated the “Younger +Edda,” the “Njala Saga,” and the “Saga of Gisli +the Outlaw.” It is pleasant for Americans to +feel that it was Longfellow who, in his “Saga of +King Olaf,” rendered one of the most striking of +the old Norse tales into a great poem.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to speak with anything like exactness +of the relative ages of these primitive literatures. +Doubtless in each case the earliest manuscripts +that have come down to us are themselves +based upon far earlier ones which have been destroyed, +and doubtless, when they were first written +down, the tales had themselves been recited, +and during the course of countless recitations had +been changed and added to and built upon, for a +period of centuries. Sometimes, as in the “Song +of Roland,” we know at least in bare outline the +historical incident which for some reason impressed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span> +the popular imagination until around it there +grew up a great epic, of which the facts have been +twisted completely out of shape. In other instances, +as in the “Nibelungenlied,” a tale, adaptable +in its outlines to many different peoples, was +adapted to the geography of a particular people, +and to what that people at least thought was history; +thus the Rhine becomes the great river of +the “Nibelungenlied,” and in the second part of +the epic the revenge of Krimhild becomes connected +with dim memories of Attila’s vast and +evanescent empire. The “Song of Roland” and +the “Nibelungenlied” were much later than the +earliest English, Norse, and Irish poems. Very +roughly, it may perhaps be said that, in the earliest +forms at which we can guess, the Irish sagas +were produced, or at least were in healthy life, +at about the time when “Beowulf” was a live +saga, and two or three centuries or thereabouts +before the early Norse sagas took a shape which +we would recognize as virtually akin to that they +now have.</p> + +<p>These Celtic sagas are conveniently, though +somewhat artificially, arranged in cycles. In +some ways the most interesting of these is the +Cuchulain cycle, although until very recently it +was far less known than the Ossianic cycle—the +cycle which tells of the deeds of Finn and the +Fianna. The poems which tell of the mighty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span> +feats of Cuchulain, and of the heroes whose life-threads +were interwoven with his, date back to a +purely pagan Ireland—an Ireland cut off from all +connection with the splendid and slowly dying +civilization of Rome, an Ireland in which still +obtained ancient customs that had elsewhere +vanished even from the memory of man.</p> + +<p>Thus the heroes of the Cuchulain sagas still +fought in chariots driven each by a charioteer +who was also the stanch friend and retainer of +the hero. Now, at one time war chariots had +held the first place in the armies of all the powerful +empires in the lands adjoining the Mediterranean +and stretching eastward beyond the Tigris. +Strange African tribes had used them north and +south of the Atlas Mountains. When the mighty, +conquering kings of Egypt made their forays into +Syria, and there encountered the Hittite hosts, +the decisive feature in each battle was the shock +between the hundreds of chariots arrayed on each +side. The tyranny of Sisera rested on his nine +hundred chariots of iron. The Homeric heroes +were “tamers of horses,” which were not ridden +in battle, but driven in the war chariots. That +mysterious people, the Etruscans, of whose race +and speech we know nothing, originally fought in +chariots. But in the period of Greek and Roman +splendor the war chariot had already passed +away. It had seemingly never been characteristic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span> +of the wild Teuton tribes; but among the western +Celts it lingered long. Cæsar encountered it +among the hostile tribes when he made his famous +raid into Britain; and in Ireland it lasted later +still.</p> + +<p>The customs of the heroes and people of the +Erin of Cuchulain’s time were as archaic as the +chariots in which they rode to battle. The sagas +contain a wealth of material for the historian. +They show us a land where the men were herdsmen, +tillers of the soil, hunters, bards, seers, but, +above all, warriors. Erin was a world to herself. +Her people at times encountered the peoples of +Britain or of Continental Europe, whether in +trade or in piracy; but her chief interest, her overwhelming +interest, lay in what went on within +her own borders. There was a high king of +shadowy power, whose sway was vaguely recognized +as extending over the island, but whose practical +supremacy was challenged on every hand by +whatever king or under-king felt the fierce whim +seize him. There were chiefs and serfs; there +were halls and fortresses; there were huge herds +of horses and cattle and sheep and swine. The +kings and queens, the great lords and their wives, +the chiefs and the famous fighting men, wore garments +crimson and blue and green and saffron, +plain or checkered, and plaid and striped. They +had rings and clasps and torques of gold and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span> +silver, urns and mugs and troughs and vessels of +iron and silver. They played chess by the fires +in their great halls, and they feasted and drank +and quarrelled within them, and the women had +sun-parlors of their own.</p> + +<p>Among the most striking of the tales are those +of the “Fate of the Sons of Usnach,” telling of +Deirdrè’s life and love and her lamentation for +her slain lover; of the “Wooing of Emer” by +Cuchulain; of the “Feast of Bricriu”; and of +the famous Cattle-Spoil of Cooley, the most famous +romance of ancient Ireland, the story of +the great raid for the Dun Bull of Cooley. But +there are many others of almost equal interest; +such as the story of MacDatho’s pig, with its +Gargantuan carouse of the quarrelsome champions; +and the tale of the siege of Howth.</p> + +<p>In these tales, which in so many points are +necessarily like the similar tales that have come +down from the immemorial past of the peoples of +kindred race, there are also striking peculiarities +that hedge them apart. The tales are found in +many versions, which for the most part have been +enlarged by pedantic scribes of aftertime, who +often made them prolix and tedious, and added +grotesque and fantastic exaggerations of their own +to the barbaric exaggerations already in them, +doing much what Saxo Grammaticus did for the +Scandinavian tales. They might have been woven<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span> +into some great epic, or at least have taken far +more definite and connected shape, if the history +of Ireland had developed along lines similar to +those of the other nations of west Europe. But +her history was broken by terrible national tragedies +and calamities. To the scourge of the vikings +succeeded the Anglo-Norman conquest, with +all its ruinous effects on the growth of the national +life. The early poems of the Erse bards could +not develop as those other early lays developed +which afterward became the romances of Arthur +and Roland and Siegfried. They remain primitive, +as “Beowulf” is primitive, as, in less measure, +“Gisli the Outlaw” is primitive.</p> + +<p>The heroes are much like those of the early +folk of kindred stock everywhere. They are huge, +splendid barbarians, sometimes yellow-haired, +sometimes black- or brown-haired, and their chief +title to glory is found in their feats of bodily prowess. +Among the feats often enumerated or referred +to are the ability to leap like a salmon, to +run like a stag, to hurl great rocks incredible distances, +to toss the wheel, and, like the Norse +berserkers, when possessed with the fury of battle, +to grow demoniac with fearsome rage. This last +feat was especially valued, and was recognized as +the “heroes’ fury.” As with most primitive +peoples, the power to shout loudly was much +prized, and had a distinct place of respect, under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span> +the title of “mad roar,” in any list of a given hero’s +exhibitions of strength or agility; just as Stentor’s +voice was regarded by his comrades as a valuable +military asset. So, when the slaughter begins in +Etzel’s hall, the writer of the Nibelung lay dwells +with admiration on the vast strength of Diederick, +as shown by the way in which his voice rang +like a bison horn, resounding within and without +the walls. Many of the feats chronicled of the +early Erse heroes are now wholly unintelligible +to us; we can not even be sure what they were, +still less why they should have been admired.</p> + +<p>Among the heroes stood the men of wisdom, as +wisdom was in the early world, a vulpine wisdom +of craft and cunning and treachery and double-dealing. +Druids, warlocks, sorcerers, magicians, +witches appear, now as friends, now as unfriends, +of the men of might. Fiercely the heroes fought +and wide they wandered; yet their fights and their +wanderings were not very different from those +that we read about in many other primitive tales. +There is the usual incredible variety of incidents +and character, and, together with the variety, an +endless repetition. But these Erse tales differ +markedly from the early Norse and Teutonic +stories in more than one particular. A vein of +the supernatural and a vein of the romantic run +through them and relieve their grimness and +harshness in a way very different from anything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span> +to be found in the Teutonic. Of course the supernatural +element often takes as grim a form in +early Irish as in early Norse or German; the +Goddess with red eyebrows who on stricken fields +wooed the Erse heroes from life did not differ essentially +from the Valkyrie; and there were land +and water demons in Ireland as terrible as those +against which Beowulf warred. But, in addition, +there is in the Irish tales an unearthliness free +from all that is monstrous and horrible; and their +unearthly creatures could become in aftertime the +fairies of the moonlight and the greenwood, so +different from the trolls and gnomes and misshapen +giants bequeathed to later generations by +the Norse mythology.</p> + +<p>Still more striking is the difference between the +women in the Irish sagas and those, for instance, +of the Norse sagas. Their heirs of the spirit are +the Arthurian heroines, and the heroines of the +romances of the Middle Ages. In the “Song of +Roland”—rather curiously, considering that it is +the first great piece of French literature—woman +plays absolutely no part at all; there is not a +female figure which is more than a name, or +which can be placed beside Roland and Oliver, +Archbishop Turpin and the traitor Ganelon, and +Charlemagne, the mighty emperor of the “barbe +fleurie.” The heroines of the early Norse and +German stories are splendid and terrible, fit to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span> +be the mothers of a mighty race, as stern and relentless +as their lovers and husbands. But it +would be hard indeed to find among them a heroine +who would appeal to our modern ideas as does +Emer, the beloved of Cuchulain, or Dierdrè, the +sweetheart of the fated son of Usnach. Emer and +Deirdrè have the charm, the power of inspiring +and returning romantic love, that belonged to the +ladies whose lords were the knights of the Round +Table, though of course this does not mean that +they lacked some very archaic tastes and attributes.</p> + +<p>Emer, the daughter of Forgall the Wily, who +was wooed by Cuchulain, had the “six gifts of a +girl”—beauty, and a soft voice, and sweet speech, +and wisdom, and needlework, and chastity. In +their wooing the hero and heroine spoke to one +another in riddles, those delights of the childhood +of peoples. She set him journeys to go and feats +to perform, which he did in the manner of later +knight errants. After long courting and many +hardships, he took Emer to wife, and she was +true to him and loved him and gloried in him and +watched over him until the day he went out to +meet his death. All this was in a spirit which we +would find natural in a heroine of modern or of +mediæval times—a spirit which it would be hard +to match either among the civilizations of antiquity, +or in early barbarisms other than the +Erse.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span></p> + +<p>So it was with Deirdrè, the beautiful girl who +forsook her betrothed, the Over-King of Ulster, +for the love of Naisi, and fled with him and his +two brothers across the waters to Scotland. At +last they returned to Ireland, and there Deirdrè’s +lover and his two brothers were slain by the +treachery of the king whose guests they were. +Many versions of the Songs of Deirdrè have come +down to us, of her farewell to Alba and her lament +over her slain lover; for during centuries this +tragedy of Deirdrè, together with the tragical fate +of the Children of Lir and the tragical fate of the +Children of Tuirenn, were known as the “Three +Sorrowful Tales of Erin.” None has better retained +its vitality down to the present day. Even +to us, reading the songs in an alien age and tongue, +they are very beautiful. Deirdrè sings wistfully +of her Scottish abiding-place, with its pleasant, +cuckoo-haunted groves, and its cliffs, and the +white sand on the beaches. She tells of her lover’s +single infidelity, when he came enamoured of the +daughter of a Scottish lord, and Deirdrè, broken-hearted, +put off to sea in a boat, indifferent whether +she should live or die; whereupon the two brothers +of her lover swam after her and brought her back, +to find him very repentant and swearing a threefold +oath that never again would he prove false +to her until he should go to the hosts of the dead. +She dwells constantly on the unfailing tenderness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span> +of the three heroes; for her lover’s two brothers +cared for her as he did:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Much hardship would I take,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Along with the three heroes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I would endure without house, without fire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It is not I that would be gloomy.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Their three shields and their spears</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were often a bed for me.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Put their three hard swords</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Over the grave, O young man!”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>For the most part, in her songs, Deirdrè dwells +on the glories and beauties of the three warriors, +the three dragons, the three champions of the +Red Branch, the three that used to break every +onrush, the three hawks, the three darlings of +the women of Erin, the three heroes who were +not good at homage. She sings of their splendor +in the foray, of their nobleness as they returned to +their home, to bring fagots for the fire, to bear in +an ox or a boar for the table; sweet though the +pipes and flutes and horns were in the house of +the king, sweeter yet was it to hearken to the songs +sung by the sons of Usnach, for “like the sound of +the wave was the voice of Naisi.”</p> + +<p>There were other Irish heroines of a more common +barbarian type. Such was the famous warrior-queen, +Meave, tall and beautiful, with her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span> +white face and yellow hair, terrible in her battle +chariot when she drove at full speed into the press +of fighting men, and “fought over the ears of the +horses.” Her virtues were those of a warlike +barbarian king, and she claimed the like large +liberty in morals. Her husband was Ailill, the +Connaught king, and, as Meave carefully explained +to him in what the old Erse bards called +a “bolster conversation,” their marriage was +literally a partnership wherein she demanded from her +husband an exact equality of treatment according +to her own views and on her own terms; the +three essential qualities upon which she insisted +being that he should be brave, generous, and +completely devoid of jealousy!</p> + +<p>Fair-haired Queen Meave was a myth, a goddess, +and her memory changed and dwindled +until at last she reappeared as Queen Mab of +fairyland. But among the ancient Celts her likeness +was the likeness of many a historic warrior +queen. The descriptions given of her by the first +writers or compilers of the famous romances of +the foray for the Dun Bull of Cooley almost +exactly match the descriptions given by the Latin +historian of the British Queen Boadicea, tall and +terrible-faced, her long, yellow hair flowing to her +hips, spear in hand, golden collar on neck, her +brightly colored mantle fastened across her breast +with a brooch.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span></p> + +<p>Not only were some of Meave’s deeds of a +rather startling kind, but even Emer and Deirdrè +at times showed traits that to a modern reader +may seem out of place, in view of what has been +said of them above. But we must remember the +surroundings, and think of what even the real +women of history were, throughout European +lands, until a far later period. In the “Heimskringla” +we read of Queen Sigrid, the wisest of +women, who grew tired of the small kings who +came to ask her hand, a request which she did not +regard them as warranted to make either by position +or extent of dominion. So one day when two +kings had thus come to woo her, she lodged them +in a separate wooden house, with all their company, +and feasted them until they were all very +drunk, and fell asleep; then in the middle of the +night she had her men fall on them with fire and +sword, burn those who stayed within the hall and +slay those who broke out. The incident is mentioned +in the saga without the slightest condemnation; +on the contrary, it evidently placed the +queen on a higher social level than before, for, +in concluding the account, the saga mentions that +Sigrid said “that she would weary these small +kings of coming from other lands to woo her; so +she was called Sigrid Haughty thereafter.” Now, +Sigrid was an historical character who lived many +hundred years after the time of Emer and Deirdrè<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span> +and Meave, and the simplicity with which her +deed was chronicled at the time, and regarded +afterward, should reconcile us to some of the feats +recorded of those shadowy Erse predecessors of +hers, who were separated from her by an interval +of time as great as that which separates her +from us.</p> + +<p>The story of the “Feast of Bricriu of the Bitter +Tongue” is one of the most interesting of the +tales of the Cuchulain cycle. In all this cycle of +tales, Bricriu appears as the cunning, malevolent +mischief-maker, dreaded for his biting satire and +his power of setting by the ears the boastful, +truculent, reckless, and marvellously short-tempered +heroes among whom he lived. He has +points of resemblance to Thersites, to Sir Kay, of +the Arthurian romances, and to Conan, of the +Ossianic cycle of Celtic sagas. This story is based +upon the custom of the “champion’s portion,” +which at a feast was allotted to the bravest man. +It was a custom which lasted far down into historic +times, and was recognized in the Brehon +laws, where a heavy fine was imposed upon any +person who stole it from the one to whom it belonged. +The story in its present form, like all of +these stories, is doubtless somewhat changed from +the story as it was originally recited among the +pre-Christian Celts of Ireland, but it still +commemorates customs of the most primitive kind,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span> +many of them akin to those of all the races of +Aryan tongue in their earlier days. The queens +cause their maids to heat water for the warriors’ +baths when they return from war, and similarly +made ready to greet their guests, as did the +Homeric heroines. The feasts were Homeric +feasts. The heroes boasted and sulked and fought +as did the Greeks before Troy. At their feasts, +when the pork and beef, the wheaten cakes and +honey, had been eaten, and the beer, and sometimes +the wine of Gaul, had been drunk in huge +quantities, the heroes, vainglorious and quarrelsome, +were always apt to fight. Thus in the three +houses which together made up the palace of the +high king at Emain Macha, it was necessary that +the arms of the heroes should all be kept in one +place, so that they could not attack one another +at the feasts. These three houses of the palace +were the Royal House, in which the high king +himself had his bronzed and jewelled room; the +Speckled House, where the swords, the shields, +and the spears of the heroes were kept; and the +House of the Red Branch, where not only the +weapons, but the heads of the beaten enemies +were stored; and it was in connection with this +last grewsome house that the heroes in the train +of the High King Conchubar took their name of +the “Heroes of the Red Branch.”</p> + +<p>When Bricriu gave his feast, he prepared for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">294</span> +it by building a spacious house even handsomer +than the House of the Red Branch; and it is described +in great detail, as fashioned after “Tara’s +Mead Hall,” and of great strength and magnificence; +and it was stocked with quilts and blankets +and beds and pillows, as well as with abundance +of meat and drink. Then he invited the +high king and all the nobles of Ulster to come to +the feast. An amusing touch in the saga is the +frank consternation of the heroes who were thus +asked. They felt themselves helpless before the +wiles of Bricriu, and at first refused outright to +go, because they were sure that he would contrive +to set them to fighting with one another; +and they went at all only after they had taken +hostages from Bricriu and had arranged that he +should himself leave the feast-hall as soon as the +feast was spread. But their precautions were in +vain, and Bricriu had no trouble in bringing about +a furious dispute among the three leading chiefs, +Loigaire the Triumphant, Conall the Victorious, +and Cuchulain. He promised to each the champion’s +portion, on condition that each should +claim it. Nor did he rest here, but produced what +the saga calls “the war of words of the women of +Ulster,” by persuading the three wives of the +three heroes that each should tread first into the +banquet-hall. Each of the ladies, in whose minds +he thus raised visions of social precedence, had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">295</span> +walked away from the palace with half a hundred +women in her train, when they all three met. The +saga describes how they started to return to the +hall together, walking evenly, gracefully, and +easily at first, and then with quicker steps, until, +when they got near the house, they raised their +robes “to the round of the leg” and ran at full +speed. When they got to the hall the doors were +shut, and, as they stood outside, each wife chanted +her own perfections, but, above all, the valor +and ferocious prowess of her husband, scolding +one another as did Brunhild and Krimhild in the +quarrel that led to Siegfried’s death at the hands +of Hagen. Each husband, as in duty bound, +helped his wife into the hall, and the bickering +which had already taken place about the champion’s +portion was renewed. At last it was settled +that the three rivals should drive in their +chariots to the home of Ailill and Meave, who +should adjudge between them; and the judgment +given, after testing their prowess in many ways, +and especially in encounters with demons and +goblins, was finally in favor of Cuchulain.</p> + +<p>One of the striking parts of the tale is that in +which the three champions, following one another, +arrive at the palace of Meave. The daughter of +Meave goes to the sun-parlor over the high porch +of the hold, and from there she is told by the +queen to describe in turn each chariot and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">296</span> +color of the horses and how the hero looks and how +the chariot courses. The girl obeys, and describes +in detail each chariot as it comes up, and +the queen in each case recognizes the champion +from the description and speaks words of savage +praise of each in turn. Loigaire, a fair man, +driving two fiery dapple-grays, in a wickerwork +chariot with silver-mounted yoke, is chanted by +the queen as:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“A fury of war, a fire of judgment,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A flame of vengeance; in mien a hero,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In face a champion, in heart a dragon;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The long knife of proud victories which will hew us to pieces,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The all-noble, red-handed Loigaire.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="in0">Conall is described as driving a roan and a bay, +in a chariot with two bright wheels of bronze, he +himself fair, in face white and red, his mantle blue +and crimson, and Meave describes him as:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“A wolf among cattle; battle on battle,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Exploit on exploit, head upon head he heaps”;</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="in0">and says that if he is excited to rage he will cut +up her people</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“As a trout on red sandstone is cut.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">297</span></p> +<p class="in0">Then Cuchulain is described, driving at a gallop +a dapple-gray and a dark-gray, in a chariot with +iron wheels and a bright silver pole. The hero +himself is a dark, melancholy man, the comeliest +of the men of Erin, in a crimson tunic, with gold-hilted +sword, a blood-red spear, and over his +shoulders a crimson shield rimmed with silver and +gold. Meave, on hearing the description, chants +the hero as:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“An ocean in fury, a whale that rageth, a fragment of flame and fire;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A bear majestic, a grandly moving billow,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A beast in maddening ire:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In the crash of glorious battle through the hostile foe he leaps,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His shout the fury of doom;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A terrible bear, he is death to the herd of cattle,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Feat upon feat, head upon head he heaps:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Laud ye the hearty one, he who is victor fully.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Bricriu lost his life as a sequel of the great raid +for the Dun Bull of Cooley. This was undertaken +by Queen Meave as the result of the “bolster +conversation,” the curtain quarrel, between her +and Ailill as to which of the two, husband or +wife, had the more treasure. To settle the dispute, +they compared their respective treasures, +beginning with their wooden and iron vessels, +going on with their rings and bracelets and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">298</span> +brooches and fine clothes, and ending with their +flocks of sheep, and herds of swine, horses, and +cattle. The tally was even for both sides until +they came to the cattle, when it appeared that +Ailill had a huge, white-horned bull with which +there was nothing of Meave’s to compare. The +chagrined queen learned from a herald that in +Cooley there was a dun or brown bull which, it +was asserted, was even larger and more formidable.</p> + +<p>Meave announces that by fair means or foul +the dun bull shall be hers, and she raises her hosts. +A great war ensues, in which Cuchulain distinguishes +himself above all others. All the heroes +gather to the fight, and a special canto is devoted +to the fate of a very old man, Iliach, a +chief of Ulster, who resolves to attack the foe and +avenge Ulster’s honor on them. “Whether, then, +I fall or come out of it, is all one,” he said. The +saga tells how his withered and wasted old horses, +which fed on the shore by his little fort, were +harnessed to the ancient chariot, which had long +lost its cushions. Into it he got, mother-naked, +with his sword and his pair of blunt, rusty spears, +and great throwing-stones heaped at his feet; +and thus he attacked the hosts of Meave and +fought till his death. In the Cuchulain sagas the +heroes frequently fight with stones; and the practice +obtained until much later days, for in Olaf’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">299</span> +death-battle with the ships of Hakon his men were +cleared from the decks of the Long Serpent by +dexterously hurled stones as well as by spears.</p> + +<p>Partly by cunning, Meave gets the dun bull +upon which she had set her heart. Then comes +in a thoroughly Erse touch. It appears that the +two bulls have lived many lives in different forms, +and always in hostility to each other, since the +days when their souls were the souls of two swineherds, +who quarrelled and fought to the death. +Now the two great bulls renew their ancient fight. +Bricriu is forced out to witness it, and is trampled +to death by the beasts. At last the white-homed +bull is slain, and the dun, raging and destroying, +goes back to his home, where he too dies. And +this, says the saga, in ending, is the tale of the +Dun Bull of Cooley and the Driving of the Cattle-Herd +by Meave and Ailill, and their war with +Ulster.</p> + +<p>The Erse tales have suffered from many causes. +Taken as a mass, they did not develop as the sagas +and the epics of certain other nations developed; +but they possess extraordinary variety and beauty, +and in their mysticism, their devotion to and appreciation +of natural beauty, their exaltation of +the glorious courage of men and of the charm and +devotion of women, in all the touches that tell +of a long-vanished life, they possess a curious attraction +of their own. They deserve the research<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">300</span> +which can be given only by the lifelong effort of +trained scholars; they should be studied for their +poetry, as countless scholars have studied those +early literatures; moreover, they should be studied +as Victor Bérard has studied the “Odyssey,” for +reasons apart from their poetical worth; and +finally they deserve to be translated and adapted +so as to become a familiar household part of that +literature which all the English-speaking peoples +possess in common.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">301</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">303</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak">AN ART EXHIBITION</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="AN_ART_EXHIBITION" title="AN ART EXHIBITION"><span id="toclink_301"></span>AN ART EXHIBITION</h2> +</div> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> recent “International Exhibition of +Modern Art” in New York was really +noteworthy. Messrs. Davies, Kuhn, Gregg, +and their fellow members of the Association of +American Painters and Sculptors did a work +of very real value in securing such an exhibition +of the works of both foreign and native +painters and sculptors. Primarily their purpose +was to give the public a chance to see what has +recently been going on abroad. No similar collection +of the works of European “moderns” has +ever been exhibited in this country. The exhibitors +were quite right as to the need of showing +to our people in this manner the art forces which +of late have been at work in Europe, forces which +can not be ignored.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that I in the least accept +the view that these men take of the European +extremists whose pictures were here exhibited. It +is true, as the champions of these extremists say, +that there can be no life without change, no development +without change, and that to be afraid +of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">304</span> +of life. It is no less true, however, that change +may mean death and not life, and retrogression +instead of development. Probably we err in +treating most of these pictures seriously. It is +likely that many of them represent in the painters +the astute appreciation of the power to make +folly lucrative which the late P. T. Barnum showed +with his faked mermaid. There are thousands of +people who will pay small sums to look at a faked +mermaid; and now and then one of this kind +with enough money will buy a Cubist picture, or a +picture of a misshapen nude woman, repellent +from every standpoint.</p> + +<p>In some ways it is the work of the American +painters and sculptors which is of most interest +in this collection, and a glance at this work must +convince any one of the real good that is coming +out of the new movements, fantastic though many +of the developments of these new movements are. +There was one note entirely absent from the +exhibition, and that was the note of the commonplace. +There was not a touch of simpering, self-satisfied +conventionality anywhere in the exhibition. +Any sculptor or painter who had in him +something to express and the power of expressing +it found the field open to him. He did not have +to be afraid because his work was not along ordinary +lines. There was no stunting or dwarfing, +no requirement that a man whose gift lay in new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">305</span> +directions should measure up or down to stereotyped +and fossilized standards.</p> + +<p>For all of this there can be only hearty praise. +But this does not in the least mean that the extremists +whose paintings and pictures were represented +are entitled to any praise, save, perhaps, +that they have helped to break fetters. Probably +in any reform movement, any progressive movement, +in any field of life, the penalty for avoiding +the commonplace is a liability to extravagance. +It is vitally necessary to move forward and to +shake off the dead hand, often the fossilized dead +hand, of the reactionaries; and yet we have to +face the fact that there is apt to be a lunatic +fringe among the votaries of any forward movement. +In this recent art exhibition the lunatic +fringe was fully in evidence, especially in the +rooms devoted to the Cubists and the Futurists, +or Near-Impressionists. I am not entirely certain +which of the two latter terms should be used +in connection with some of the various pictures +and representations of plastic art—and, frankly, +it is not of the least consequence. The Cubists +are entitled to the serious attention of all who find +enjoyment in the colored puzzle-pictures of the +Sunday newspapers. Of course there is no reason +for choosing the cube as a symbol, except that it +is probably less fitted than any other mathematical +expression for any but the most formal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">306</span> +decorative art. There is no reason why people +should not call themselves Cubists, or Octagonists, +or Parallelopipedonists, or Knights of the Isosceles +Triangle, or Brothers of the Cosine, if they +so desire; as expressing anything serious and permanent, +one term is as fatuous as another. Take +the picture which for some reason is called “A +Naked Man Going Down Stairs.” There is in +my bathroom a really good Navajo rug which, +on any proper interpretation of the Cubist theory, +is a far more satisfactory and decorative picture. +Now, if, for some inscrutable reason, it suited +somebody to call this rug a picture of, say, “A +Well-Dressed Man Going Up a Ladder,” the name +would fit the facts just about as well as in the +case of the Cubist picture of the “Naked Man +Going Down Stairs.” From the standpoint of terminology +each name would have whatever merit +inheres in a rather cheap straining after effect; and +from the standpoint of decorative value, of sincerity, +and of artistic merit, the Navajo rug is infinitely +ahead of the picture.</p> + +<p>As for many of the human figures in the pictures +of the Futurists, they show that the school +would be better entitled to the name of the +“Past-ists.” I was interested to find that a man +of scientific attainments who had likewise looked +at the pictures had been struck, as I was, by +their resemblance to the later work of the palæolithic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">307</span> +artists of the French and Spanish caves. +There are interesting samples of the strivings for +the representation of the human form among +artists of many different countries and times, all +in the same stage of palæolithic culture, to be +found in a recent number of the “Revue d’Ethnographie.” +The palæolithic artist was able to portray +the bison, the mammoth, the reindeer, and +the horse with spirit and success, while he still +stumbled painfully in the effort to portray man. +This stumbling effort in his case represented progress, +and he was entitled to great credit for it. +Forty thousand years later, when entered into +artificially and deliberately, it represents only a +smirking pose of retrogression, and is not praiseworthy. +So with much of the sculpture. A +family group of precisely the merit that inheres +in a structure made of the wooden blocks in a +nursery is not entitled to be reproduced in marble. +Admirers speak of the kneeling female figure by +Lehmbruck—I use “female” advisedly, for although +obviously mammalian it is not especially +human—as “full of lyric grace,” as “tremendously +sincere,” and “of a jewel-like preciousness.” +I am not competent to say whether these words +themselves represent sincerity or merely a conventional +jargon; it is just as easy to be conventional +about the fantastic as about the commonplace. +In any event one might as well speak of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">308</span> +the “lyric grace” of a praying mantis, which +adopts much the same attitude; and why a deformed +pelvis should be called “sincere,” or a +tibia of giraffe-like length “precious,” seems to a +reasonably sane view of the pictures of Matisse +a question of pathological rather than artistic +significance. This figure and the absurd portrait +head of some young lady have the merit that inheres +in extravagant caricature. It is a merit, +but it is not a high merit. It entitles these pieces +to stand in sculpture where nonsense rhymes +stand in literature and the sketches of Aubrey +Beardsley in pictorial art. These modern sculptured +caricatures in no way approach the gargoyles +of Gothic cathedrals, probably because the modern +artists are too self-conscious and make themselves +ridiculous by pretentiousness. The makers +of the gargoyles knew very well that the gargoyles +did not represent what was most important in +the Gothic cathedrals. They stood for just a little +point of grotesque reaction against, and relief +from, the tremendous elemental vastness and +grandeur of the Houses of God. They were imps, +sinister and comic, grim and yet futile, and they +fitted admirably into the framework of the theology +that found its expression in the towering +and wonderful piles which they ornamented.</p> + +<p>Very little of the work of the extremists among +the European “moderns” seems to be good in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">309</span> +and for itself; nevertheless it has certainly helped +any number of American artists to do work that +is original and serious; and this not only in painting +but in sculpture. I wish the exhibition had +contained some of the work of the late Marcius +Symonds; very few people knew or cared for it +while he lived; but not since Turner has there +been another man on whose canvas glowed so +much of that unearthly “light that never was on +land or sea.” But the exhibition contained so +much of extraordinary merit that it is ungrateful +even to mention an omission. To name the pictures +one would like to possess—and the bronzes +and tanagras and plasters—would mean to make +a catalogue of indefinite length. One of the most +striking pictures was the “Terminal Yards”—the +seeing eye was there, and the cunning hand. I +should like to mention all the pictures of the +president of the association, Arthur B. Davies. +As first-class decorative work of an entirely new +type, the very unexpected pictures of Sheriff Bob +Chandler have a merit all their own. The “Arizona +Desert,” the “Canadian Night,” the group +of girls on the roof of a New York tenement-house, +the studies in the Bronx Zoo, the “Heracles,” +the studies for the Utah monument, the little +group called “Gossip,” which has something of +the quality of the famous fifteenth idyl of Theocritus, +the “Pelf,” with its grim suggestiveness—these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">310</span> +and a hundred others are worthy of +study, each of them; I am naming at random +those which at the moment I happen to recall. +I am not speaking of the acknowledged masters, +of Whistler, Puvis de Chavannes, Monet; nor of +John’s children; nor of Cézanne’s old woman with +a rosary; nor of Redon’s marvellous color-pieces—a +worthy critic should speak of these. All I am +trying to do is to point out why a layman is +grateful to those who arranged this exhibition.</p> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> + +<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made +consistent when a predominant preference was found +in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p> + +<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced +quotation marks were remedied when the change was +obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.</p> + +<p>The illustration near the front of the book is the publisher’s logo.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_219">Page 219</a>: “understanded” was printed that way.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_287">Page 287</a>: “knight errants” was printed that way.</p> + +<div> </div> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75294 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |