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diff --git a/75631-h/75631-h.htm b/75631-h/75631-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0ddd1b --- /dev/null +++ b/75631-h/75631-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1245 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Whither? | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h2 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1.5em; +} + + +.nindc {text-align:center; text-indent:0;} + +.large {font-size: 125%;} + +.space-above2 { margin-top: 2em; } +.space-below2 { margin-bottom: 2em; } + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + + +/* Images */ + +img {max-width: 100%; width: 100%; height: auto;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent4 {text-indent: -1em;} + + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75631 ***</div> + +<figure class="figcenter" id="cover" style="width: 1000px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="1000" height="1530" alt="Whither, a religious and philosophal essay."> +</figure> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="nindc"><span class="large">WHITHER?</span></p> +</div> + + +<figure class="figcenter" id="titlepage" style="width: 1200px;"> + <img src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="1200" height="1941" alt="Title page of the book Whiter written by an unknown author."> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h1>WHITHER?</h1> + + +<figure class="figcenter" id="logo" style="width: 356px;"> + <img src="images/logo.jpg" width="356" height="465" alt="decorative"> +</figure> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2">BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br> +The Riverside Press Cambridge<br> +1915</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +<span class="allsmcap">COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY</span></p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +<span class="allsmcap">COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</span></p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +<span class="allsmcap">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</span></p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +<i>Published May 1915</i></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="WHITHER">WHITHER?</h2> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="WHITHER_2">WHITHER?</h2> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="I">I</h2> +</div> + + +<p>IN a final division of household possessions of my ancestors, a +quaint gray chest has brought me a heritage of unexpected value in +packages of letters, written many years ago, and tossed carelessly here +with mouse-eaten diplomas and articles of ancient wear. As I read, +deciphering oftentimes with difficulty the old-fashioned handwriting on +the yellowing paper, I pause to marvel. What fullness of life is here! +What richness! What greatness!</p> + +<p>There are letters from a mother to a little daughter at school in the +city; letters from an aged father who has been visiting his clergyman +son; glad letters, written to bring joy at marriages; solemn, and yet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> +joyous letters, written to console in death. Doubtless they are akin to +hundreds of others still resting in the corners of boxes and old desks, +and to others innumerable which have perished, recording the experience +of a generation, two generations ago. Written out of narrower lives, so +far as mere worldly circumstances go, than those with which I come in +contact to-day, they reveal a far deeper life, a profounder hope and +faith, a recognition of wider horizons than most of our contemporary +world knows. Here is a knowledge of spirit as the one great reality; of +divine meanings everywhere; a sense of the greatness of the issue in +life as a warfare waged in the name of the soul; faith in the undying +character of righteousness, in the endlessness of human hope. Words are +here traced which take away one’s breath, in the grandeur of their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> +denial of that which seems, in the splendor of assurance: “My sister +Mary to-day entered upon eternal life—”</p> + +<p>It is not primarily theology upon which they dwell: dogma plays a +lesser part here than I should have supposed. It is upon the inner +sources of hope and consolation, the life-giving power of faith, faith +drawn often from hard experience, faced in the light of a great hope. +Here is a real sense of the swift flitting of things earthly, and the +great promise therein; here is a constant dwelling upon the Master, the +face of the Master, the vision of perfectness. Those writers repeat +lovingly his words, thus bringing one another courage in sharp anguish +of grief and at beds of illness; and the thought of sacrifice is ever +in their minds, of outer loss that is great inner gain. One is aware of +certain immovable tenets of hard theology, but I note that these have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> +small part in their thought, their feeling, in the way in which faith +vitalizes their daily lives.</p> + +<p>Letters that I am privileged to see to-day are as different as if they +were written by a different race; chance articles in newspapers and +journals, intended to appeal to the contemporary public, reinforce +the impression in regard to our present absorptions, our present +limitations. These later letters are no less full of human tenderness, +and possibly they are more outspoken in regard to it, but they bespeak +an inner poverty, a contrasting narrowness of life. Their largeness, if +wide horizons are suggested, is external, geographical,—the largeness +of travel abroad, by land or sea, of motor-trips there or at home. They +are full of restlessness, desire for change, rushing hither and yon. +Their great concern is with material things: diet, dress, details +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> +of operations, fluctuations in stocks. There is much about reform, +suffrage, the fighting of Tammany, measures for the physical betterment +of factory boys and girls. There are many wrongs to right, for the +most part centring in the body; but, in spite of my sympathy with each +distinct measure and my strenuous efforts to help forward some of +them, I feel great sense of lack. The horizon is near and attainable; +the sky comes down like a brass bowl over our heads; I stifle in this +world of nostrums, of remedies, of external cures for moral evils. +This superficial material optimism which ignores the deepest need, the +deepest answer, fails to suffice. One is aware of a lessening life, a +drying of the very sources of vitality; the old sense of illimitable +destiny, of greatness, of the challenge of eternity, is gone.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> + +<p>A kind of materialistic Epicureanism dominates our modern world; robbed +of Eternity, we mean to make Time pay to the uttermost,—hence this +nervous excitement, this feverish activity. Has any question been more +absorbing during the last decades than the question how much space +could be covered, on earth or in air, in a minute of time? Back of our +hurry lies something deeper than the mere desire to excel in this or +that sport, this or that means of rapid transit, this or that business +enterprise or philanthropy. It is an unconfessed manifestation of our +immense sense of loss; a morbid outpouring of that energy which might +work healthily and to great ends if the old hope were there of endless +destiny. We have but a few minutes in which to rob the house of life; +let us seize all the articles in sight; death, the householder, is even +now waiting to take us into custody. We want as much as we can get; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +we want all, and we foolishly think that hurrying feet and twitching +muscles can win it. We will crowd all into the swift, flitting minutes, +though Life should break in the process.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="II">II</h2> +</div> + + +<p>THE question why we, who are the heirs of all the ages, should be so +much worse off than our ancestors in that which means essential life +might well give us pause. In all external matters we seem to have made +great gain. We are carried about more swiftly; our houses have far +superior plumbing; the goods we purchase are delivered more promptly, +and existence has in every way become far more convenient and easy. +Is not this the age of progress? Progress—it is a word constantly +on men’s lips; have earlier ages ever heard such a din of talk about +progress? It would appear as if our forefathers had little claim to be +called happy, having lived before the time of great modern inventions +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> +and discoveries; yet, with this sheaf of old records in my hands, +and many memories at work, I am forced to admit that the comparison +works the other way. Here, in these fading papers, is a sense of +significance in living, of illimitable destiny, that makes me ask why +we are thus stripped, robbed, disinherited. Why is it that we seem to +have inherited all of life except the point? The willful poverty of our +spiritual lives contrasts strangely with their quiet sense of great +possessions.</p> + +<p>After all, are frenzied motion and progress synonymous? Any kitten +chasing its own tail might, if we were really observant, disprove +for us much of our modern claim of great gain. Would any age of +real progress talk so much about progress, and so loudly count its +achievements? Is not much of this done to hide the inner sense of loss +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> +and lack? Perhaps it is from a far-off country childhood that I derive +a persistent belief, not obscured by all the noise and dust and glamour +of our time, that real growth is silent. For many and many a day I have +heard this glowing talk of progress, of widening intellectual horizons, +and for many a day have watched the growing wistfulness of human +faces. The more thoughtful become increasingly sad, while the number +of the merely stolid increases apace, as do the restless ones, with +their apparent longing for distraction and change. Unfinished faces, +unsatisfied faces, are familiar to us all. They lack the high record of +experience greatly taken; expression that denotes profound inner life. +To-day we are so comfortable, so enlightened, and, with our widening +philanthropy, so estimable, that we surely ought to be happy! Yet we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +see few satisfied faces, such as we can remember from long ago, full of +inner content,—faces “on which the dove of peace sat brooding,”—and +we pause to ask what our boasted progress has to offer by way of +compensation for the great loss that has come through the seeming gain +of these later years?</p> + +<p>The whole emphasis of life has changed since those days; its focus +has shifted. The meanings of existence were to our ancestors inner +meanings; now, passionate clutching at externals betrays a different +aim. They show themselves capable of fault and error in these recorded +experiences of old days, yet they are lightened and lifted by a great +power; they touch ever the divine. Their contrasted reading of the +significance of life shows most emphatically in this: they thought +and felt in terms of the spirit. The modern world thinks and lives +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> +and speaks in terms of the body, not of mind and soul. The soul, that +secret of personality, conceived as a part of one not wholly caught in +the mechanical chain of things and capable of choice, was their great +concern. To them a little child was something sacred, immortal, whose +endless destiny commanded of those to whom it was entrusted, alertness, +watchfulness, lest its feet should go astray from the narrow path that +led to the heavenly hills. Words spoken near the cradle where the +new-born baby lay, turned the spot to holy ground.</p> + +<p>To those of us who are most advanced to-day, a little child is a little +animal; few are left who, in its presence, think of sacredness any more +than in the presence of a little pig. There is the utmost alertness in +meeting its physical needs; there is, if possible, a trained nurse to +bring scientific knowledge to its requirements, to keep loving fingers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> +away; but the ideas that encircle it concern for the most part its +body. Meanwhile, the most progressive thought of the age is busy with +the question whether its standard cannot be raised to that of choice +animal stock; whether the infant human being may not be bred, as colt +or calf of approved ancestry is bred, by choice of the physically fit. +This represents the furthest vision of the future; this is the goal +against which the imagination of the present dreams.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="III">III</h2> +</div> + + +<p>IT is an era of the flesh and its needs, its possibilities,—of +unawareness, for the most part, of any aspects deeper than the +physical. Many of us can remember the day when we were taught that we +had immortal souls, to whose safeguarding thought and care and profound +endeavor must go. The chief question was, “Is it right or wrong?” +The chief question to-day is, “Is it sterilized?” Life, which used +to be a brave flight between heaven and hell, has come to be a long +and anxious tip-toeing between the microbe and the antiseptic. It is +not that I object to antiseptics, but that I object to the amount of +good brain-space they have come to occupy, to the exclusion of more +important matters.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p> + +<p>The modern world has a new and elaborate dogma of the body, but +conviction (if it exist) in regard to the soul is tentative and wary. +For many a past year the faith has been taught, the belief has been +growing, that physically fit of necessity means mentally fit, that +physical power is the measure of a man’s efficiency. The one glory +of our college life lies in its sports, and education of mind is +more and more giving way to education of muscle. The only ideal of +perfection now in evidence is an ideal of physical perfection; for +this no sacrifice is too great, no case too onerous. Images of perfect +bodily development are kept before the young,—the Apollo, with beauty +of sinew and muscle; but the face of the Christ is growing ever more +and more dim before their eyes, and is more and more apologetically +presented, if presented at all.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> + +<p>Yet this worship of the body, with its elaborate ritual of observances, +its priests, its solemn rites; its great festivals wherein spellbound +spectators, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand strong, in huge +amphitheatres witness contests of physical strength; this monotheistic +devotion, made up of fears for the flesh, and hope for the flesh, lacks +much of a true religion.</p> + +<p>I have often of late wished that some one wise enough in knowledge +of things Latin would write the history and the inner development +of a young Roman Progressive in the early stages of the Roman +decadence. What feeling of growth and gain would be there to record! +What assurance of outdistancing his crude forefathers! What sense +of widening horizons, and of sudden freedom in laying aside old +scruples! The point of time chosen should be that at which the word +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> +<i>Salus</i>, salvation, began to be interpreted as physical salvation, +and the persistent concern with bodily life marked the beginnings of +decay.</p> + +<p>The one saving grace of our time perhaps lies in its generous +philanthropic and social effort. We are more sensitive to our +neighbor’s needs than we used to be, but we have a most limited +conception of our neighbor’s needs, and, with all our quickened +sympathy, we do our neighbor injustice in failing to recognize his +deepest necessity. Grown so pitiful of hunger, why do we fail to +realize the spiritual starvation of these years? We devise all sorts +of machinery for ameliorating his physical condition, for getting him +more pay, securing him better dramatic spectacles; we teach him that +his house should be plumbed, his children’s food sterilized; but for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> +him and for his benefactors wider vision would mean great gain. We are +feeding the lesser hunger; that is well, but it is not enough; we are +arming him to meet the lesser foe. Does he, too, feel a sense of inner +loss and lack in it all? All that America has to offer may be a poor +exchange for the mystic faith brought with him from the fatherland. +At least we should beware lest harm come to our neighbor through +our manifold preoccupations with the needs of the body, through the +contagion of an ideal of material comfort as the greatest earthly good; +for even perfect physical well-being has its limitations as a solution +of the problem of existence. The destiny of man—once terror and +splendor attended the word; it was once a spiritual mystery, connoting +endless endeavor, endless opportunity. Now the highest dream of high +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +destiny is the porcelain bathtub, or some safe shelter behind a wire +screen, beyond the attack of germs.</p> + +<p>One wonders, moreover, why so much applied Christianity to-day fails +to recognize itself as Christianity, and is disassociated from the +faith in spiritual verities which brought it into being. Now and then +one hears a philanthropic scientist claim that the new efforts to aid +humanity originated with beneficent science, or an economist that the +move toward betterment is the result of economic thought, both ignoring +the great force which has kept alive through ages the impulse toward +love of one’s brother; both mistaking new methods for ancient motive +power and unaware of their own relation to it. Yet back of this recent +effort is the impetus of long years of definite religious teaching, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> +with its potency in quickening the will,—to be reinforced perhaps, +but never replaced, by the teaching of practical efficiency. Will this +effort to succor continue, as that diviner pity, that healing done in +the name of the Father, slips more and more from men’s minds? Will this +present sense that one’s neighbor should have similar clothing and +similar “modern conveniences” to one’s own prove a lasting basis of +human brotherhood? The love of one’s fellow man must be fed from deeper +springs.</p> + +<p>We have need of profounder faith, and of more poignant fear than this +age knows. I am not sure that all the physical benefits that could be +imagined or enumerated for ourselves or for others could make up for +the supreme loss in this shifting the attention, altering the whole +emphasis of life in the innumerable ways in which the physical now +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> +obtains over the mental and spiritual. We look longingly back to our +forefathers, who lived primarily in the spirit, with constant sense +of spirit-values, not in the flesh and that hoped-for immortality of +the flesh,—or the nearest approximation to it,—that haunts our world +to-day. In our great outer prosperity and inner poverty, our immense +acquisition of external knowledge, and incalculable loss of deeper +realities, our morality shifting its great concern from the welfare +of the soul to that of the body, we find no symbol so fitting as the +old fable of the dog and his shadow in the brook. Dropping his bone to +grasp the shadow of the bone, he went hungry away.</p> + +<p>Why this swift renunciation of that which has made for profounder life +in our ancestors, and the loud cry of Progress as the treasure slips +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> +away? There is no age which has known in theory so much regarding +orderly development in human affairs, the growth of the present from +the past, and no age which has shown so little sense of the deeper +meaning of these laws. The human race has never talked so much of +continuity, and never, perhaps, has it made so sharp a turn. Modern +science has taught us much concerning organic growth, cause, and effect +as dominating the physical world; evolutionary theory is the basis +of our study of language, of literature, of all human institutions. +Clearly and unmistakably comes the teaching of our time that, in all +aspects of life, the present is rooted in the past, indissolubly united +in unbroken chain; but, curiously enough, whereas the law has been +grasped in connection with matters material, matters intellectual, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> +matters æsthetic, in matters spiritual there is a sudden halt or break. +We prattle learnedly of evolution, but we have little conception of it +in that which should be the deepest concern of life, the development +of the soul. Nature, we are told, admits no gaps, yet it would seem +that the great modern majority turns abruptly from the faith which has +sustained human life from generation to generation, ignoring, as no +age before has done, the best in the past. In so doing, does it not +repudiate the law upon which our understanding of everything else is +based? Distrusting in the study of physical life any theory not based +upon ideas of growth, sequence, old custom, in matters spiritual we +demand the fresh, the untried; not for reverence of that which has been +attained, but because we find an idea startling and original, do we +welcome it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + +<p>When Bergson assures us that an element of will is to be reckoned with +in all growth, is it because we have drifted so near enslavement to a +purely mechanical system of thought that we hail this as new doctrine +and therefore acceptable? If it were whispered abroad that the idea +is of unimaginable antiquity, that it has been at the basis of every +ethical system ever founded, would his large audiences dwindle? If the +idea of God, of immortality, could be advertised among the novelties, +instead of among the long inheritances, who would refuse to believe? +Belief in the universe as essentially spiritual, God-created; belief in +the deathlessness of the human soul, belief in right-doing in the light +of these great faiths, have been associated with the age-long growth of +the race; can we ignore, or lightly cast aside, that which has been at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> +the very heart of the spiritual evolution of our forefathers?</p> + +<p>It is not merely in matters of religious faith that we find this sudden +break with the past; the ignorance shown by many modern leaders of the +glory of our literature; their pride in this disregard of “the best +that has been thought and said in the world”; their assumption that +which antedates contemporary discovery is worthless, is full of menace. +A great thinker of a hundred years ago, I was recently told, is “a back +number,” and therefore valueless. Again comes that puzzling thought of +continuity, the necessity of recognizing all the stages of growth. Why +the enormous importance of every step in the physical past, this slight +regard for the mental development? The race-experience, or the best of +it, is recorded in our literature; here again are the foundations upon +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> +which we must build, if we are to build truly. Here is treasure too +great to throw away so lightly.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="IV">IV</h2> +</div> + + +<p>BACK of all this absorption in physical and material welfare lies, +of course, the preponderating intellectual influence of the century +just past, with its passionate pursuit of truth through matter. No +one wishes to decry the services of science to our knowledge of the +physical world; the great discoveries in the theoretical field, the +great inventions in the applied. It is one of the profoundest ironies +of human existence that our blessings and our curses come subtly +intertwined; we mortals forget that one seldom comes without the other, +and are prone to take as pure blessing that which is new. The measure +of curse in our latest great achievements may be greater than we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> +dream, although it is difficult for people to believe, in the sweep +of a great movement, that it can mean anything but pure progress in +a straight line. Yet we move ever by zigzags, this extreme and that. +When will the race ever learn the art of mental equilibrium, of steady +advance, employing all the human faculties, instead of exploiting a few?</p> + +<p>The many subtle wrongs done the human spirit by this complete surrender +to the world of matter, it would be difficult to enumerate. I recall +the emphatic assertion of one of the new thinkers, arguing with one +who held in all sincerity the old, simple faith: “The only subject +worth study is man, man considered from a biological point of view.” +The initial genesis, the growth, the inevitable end, the physical +actions and reactions,—that is man from the biological point of +view. In the presence of people who hold this belief I feel as if +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> +an extinguisher were coming down, slowly smothering my very flame of +life. You doubtless recall that iron chamber of Spanish Inquisition +times, so fashioned that it closed in, day by day, a few inches upon +the unfortunate inmate? So life to-day, for unnumbered people, grows +narrower, threatening extinction. That earlier victim had no choice; +one can but marvel at the modern folk, who themselves turn the key that +shuts them in, and are content with their lessening world.</p> + +<p>The voices of those who claim that mind is a secretion of matter, +of those who find the way to truth through matter only, though not +representing the wisest in our intellectual vanguard, have been heard +above the others, and humanity is prone to follow where the loud +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +voices call. Whether it is the fault of the leaders, or of the forlorn +camp-followers who trail after the victorious army, picking up and +misusing scraps of information; whether it is the fault of passive +on-lookers, ready to believe anything that is told by anybody,—be it +professional utterance or popular inferences therefrom, in many cases +unwarranted,—certain it is that we have spent the greater part of +our lives in the shadow of the crass materialism which is one of the +by-products of the machinery, intellectual and other, of the period +just drawing to a close. It is a doctrine which fits absolutely the +great and sudden influx of wealth during the last decades, pandering +to the same tendencies, the same blindnesses, a twofold materialism of +theory and practice.</p> + +<p>It is a materialism stupid, unfounded, turning its back upon the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> +earlier idealisms of poet, philosopher, religious believer, not so +much because of reasoning processes as because of a sudden shifting +of attention. Wonderful things may be observed under the microscope, +wonderful things through the telescope; wonderful things are day by +day invented. Is it likely that there is anything beyond all this? To +recent generations, as to that progressive dog, the reflection in the +water seemed for the moment, as is often the case, more real than the +reflected object; hence this tragedy of loss.</p> + +<p>The human mind has been suddenly diverted by a loud noise outside; a +sudden change of tension results. Where one looks quickly, all heads +are turned. It is a noise of motor-boats, aeroplanes, engines of all +kinds; a sight of airships, flying like birds; of submarines, diving +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> +like fish; of moving pictures with their endless panorama. Mankind +is childishly diverted; the hearing of the ears, the seeing of the +eyes,—it is enough. The skepticisms of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries tried to reason out their origins, to explain upon what +they were based; not so here. This is the most unthinking of systems, +not troubling to give a rational account of itself. Thought is out of +fashion: nowadays we observe! Through this preponderance of observation +over thought in this great period, the human mind has greatly suffered +in surety of process, in logic, in differentiation of mental processes. +The exercise of pure reason has become almost obsolete; the idea that +thought can be exercised apart from sense, from study of phenomena, +is all but forgotten. Whether or not we assume that matter is the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> +origin and the end of all things, the world of to-day thinks in terms +of matter; is content to live and breathe and have its being in matter; +hopes, aspires, and prays, if it hope, aspire, and pray at all, in +terms of matter.</p> + +<p>Our very vocabulary is degraded; the most far-reaching symbols of our +language come seldom into use, or appear with diminished meaning. +Follow, for instance, the course of the word “infinite” through the +antics of contemporary literature. Our phraseology has become carnal; +our vital terms are terms of physical life. Nowhere is the limitation +of contemporary thought more apparent than in these instruments of +speech. One must read again Wordsworth, Shelley, Carlyle, Ruskin, +Arnold, Meredith, to meet great words, now little employed, that make +you realize the utmost reach of life; in so doing, one pauses in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> +dismay, realizing how full contemporary speech is of lesser terms, how +few employ the greater words that tell the inner life of the soul.</p> + +<p>All forms of idealism have suffered during the past century of +progress, more through being ignored than through being refuted; there +still are thinkers who consider Kant, with his demonstration of the +universe mind-made, a wiser teacher than any who have followed him, +yet these have few disciples. Of the two old hypotheses, that this is +a world of spirit, that it is a world of matter, the latter has been +the predominant choice of our time. That choice has been reinforced +by the impact of a wonderful physical and material development, while +there has been no corresponding gain in the spiritual and the purely +intellectual; for many years the best of the fine young energy of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +the race has busied itself, either in investigation or in invention, +with the world of matter. We hear endlessly of the great advance of +our time, of the surety of its knowledge, the doing away with baseless +old idealisms. What, after all, has been achieved? The origin of human +thought, the destination of the human thinker, are as profound a secret +as before this unparalleled progress. Science, which has been the great +intellectual adventure of the last century,—to what has it led us? +Only again to that edge of the unknown, where we confront the infinite. +It has not gained by one hair’s breadth upon the encompassing mystery +of our lives.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="V">V</h2> +</div> + + +<p>THE special form of idealism held by our forefathers, the Christian +faith, with its great central tenets of God, immortality, the +necessity of right-doing in the light of these faiths, has suffered +with the other forms of idealism during the last decades. Those who, +intentionally or unintentionally, have attacked, many of those who have +defended, have alike done it injury. Of our intellectual vanguard, +some have denied, some have ignored, some have been wisely patient +and silent, awaiting the adjustment of new wisdom to old. As for the +first,—surely those who hold sense-observation to be the basis of all +knowledge should take no such vast leap into the dark as that involved +in denial of these old beliefs. It is when certain of these new +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> +thinkers slip beyond their own self-defined province, and philosophize +in ways contradicting their own premises, that one fails to follow +them; when, grown bold with their conquest of physical nature, they +make a vast leap from observation of phenomena into metaphysical +statement, without consciousness of what they are doing, that one +listens with profound distrust. Doubtless we have all known one or two, +ready to make assertions dogmatic beyond the dogmatism of old theology, +founded upon nothing but the assumption that they, who can truly +observe facts in the physical world, could assert nothing but fact. I +respect them when they observe; I tremble when they begin to generalize.</p> + +<p>It is indeed a crowning irony when one is called upon to believe, in +the name of discoveries in the world of phenomena, that faith in God +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> +and in immortality is untenable. Because it is possible to see with the +aided eye organisms unsuspected before our day,—this does not prove +that the immemorial spiritual instincts of humanity have no foundation. +The assumption that the great hopes of mankind cannot be true because +they cannot be detected under microscope or through telescope, has +floated in the air, darkening wise counsel, has assumed an authority +never won; the present is full of unnecessary renunciations and +unproved denials. In the intoxication of new discovery regarding the +laws of organic growth, the leap from belief in unseen realities to +doubt or to denial has been too swift and too absolute. Probably, in +a great majority of cases, thought, intellectual process, has had +little to do with the change. Humanity has lost hope without knowing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> +why; the air has been thick with doubt and fear. Hearing a great noise +in the dark, aware of attack, many have rushed away, leaving great +treasure, while the enemy was still far from taking the stronghold. +This new poverty of life which we call Progress is thus, in many cases, +the misfortune, but not the fault, of those who, unable to think for +themselves, take for granted that the most insistent voice must be the +right voice.</p> + +<p>How greatly the defenders of the faith, in much of the warfare, have +missed the issue! The time that has been lost, the good territory +yielded in contesting the literal interpretation of Genesis, may well +fill us with shame. If the story of the serpent of Eden must slip from +dogma to myth, must faith in the unseen realities therefore go? If our +forefathers were wrong in linking the large faith of their spiritual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> +lives indissolubly with the story of Adam and that of Jonah, we must +discriminate where they failed to discriminate, remembering in all +humility that with their smaller knowledge of external things went a +far profounder knowledge than ours of things spiritual. We must keep +the greater; the less is not to us the sacrifice it was to them; let it +go!</p> + +<p>If we ask, why this close linking with myth, who can answer? We +know only that the human soul develops slowly; shade by shade the +truth grows clear. We, who have learned something of the incredible +slowness of physical development, can afford to have patience with the +spiritual, but we cannot afford to let slip back anything that the soul +has achieved, proved, made its own. In the long quarrels over the husk, +the kernel has too often slipped out of sight; essentials have gone +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +with unessentials. We can no longer in good faith teach the young that +the misfortune of our present predicament may be traced to eating an +apple; but those of us who are unable to step to the marching music of +our time may, in impassioned good faith, until modern thinkers make a +better case against us than they have yet made, teach the young that +the great realities of life are of mind and soul, not body; that growth +and change are necessary, fundamental, vital, the very condition of +life; that it is for them to remove reverently whatever outer veil may +have obscured their forefathers’ great light of faith; but that doom is +upon them if they lose the light.</p> + +<p>Doubtless the greatest wrong done the Christian faith by its defenders +was the attempt to reduce it to a mere matter of reasoning. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> +pity of it is that, at a time when the whole fabric of Christianity +was shaken and the whole spiritual life was at stake, theologians +should so have emphasized fact, clinging to a dead literalness of +interpretation! Through the long decades of the nineteenth century, +trying to meet the geologists upon their own ground, they were very +properly worsted. Why borrow, and use weakly, weapons which belong +to a different warfare, knowledge? Sense-perception, playing a large +part, and rightly, in science, is neither starting-point nor goal here, +nor is historical fact. Proofs of a real religion are not limited +to repetition of fact. When they imitated the scientists, in their +demand for external evidence, and imitated them badly, the inevitable +happened. More and more their own great world of spiritual aspiration +and endeavor was ignored by those whose high privilege it was to make +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> +known the vitalizing power of the faith they held, its subtle answer +to the soul’s deepest need. The doom of a faith is its loss of inner +sources of vitality, its “materialization in fact,” and perhaps the +Church has been rightly punished for forgetting that its weapons should +be primarily weapons of the spirit, its world the world of divine +endeavor. This is no time to haggle over theology; the object is not to +save the church, but to save alive the souls of men.</p> + +<p>Myth could go; dogma itself could go; Christianity would still be. +Milestones in the path of the human spirit, dogmas have done great +service, but none have been great enough to express the potential +greatness of the spiritual life of the human race. Greatly have they +helped; at times they have greatly hindered. Seemingly necessary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +bulwarks in time of stress and siege, the human soul has lived on +after their demolishing; the human spirit is greater than they. Modern +warfare has demonstrated that great forts and intrenchments are +useless; that does not mean that there is to be no fighting. Faiths, +beliefs, patriotisms are still there, but the fighting is to be in the +open, a matter of life and death, the issue an issue of vitality.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="VI">VI</h2> +</div> + + +<p>WE have our choice; both propositions have been made: we are all body, +wholly involved in a mechanical scheme of things, or we are partly +free, recognizing within us faculties not wholly subordinated to the +rigid physical law of necessity, free to choose, to struggle toward +high aims, to succeed in part, in part, perhaps, fail. Pending proof +to the contrary, let us assume that our wills have a certain freedom. +It is at least better “strategy and tactics” in the battle of life +than the reverse. In the absence of a microscopic test to determine +the matter, it may be well to demonstrate the existence of the power +by using it, making decisive choice of the finer hypothesis, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> +asserting our right to do so. Perhaps the trouble has come not wholly +from the activity of the materialists, but partly from the failure of +the idealists to stand by their guns. The folly of perpetual defensive +on the part of the idealist has been abundantly demonstrated in late +years; it is for him to take the offensive, to claim and hold his +own, ceasing to be shame-faced, explanatory, apologetic! Whatever +special form our denial of the supremacy of matter may take, whether +philosophic or religious, of Plato and Kant, or of Christ, we should +band together against this tyranny that threatens the inner life of the +race, and affirm the supremacy of spirit.</p> + +<p>Consider our forefathers’ faith in the light of a working hypothesis, +if you will. It is an age of hypotheses; science is ceaselessly busy +with them. Its finest achievements have followed great imaginative +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> +conceptions, some of which have been verified by observed fact, some of +which have been disproved, some of which, neither proved nor disproved, +are still looked upon as a firm basis of knowledge.</p> + +<p>The odd thing is that, in science, a whole fundamental assumption may +go without interfering with the validity of the information based +thereon; disproving one hypothesis, science goes serenely on. They +taught me in my college days the indivisible atom quite as dogmatically +as, earlier, I had been taught the literal reality of the story of Eve +and the serpent. The fact that the atomic theory is now questioned, if +not overthrown, in no way invalidates the truths of chemistry, while +the passing of the serpent has, in some strange fashion, meant for many +people the passing of the Christian faith. It has, in reality, nothing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> +to do with the central tenets of the Christian faith, which are: that +the universe is a universe of spirit, controlled by a great spiritual +force, for great ends; that, for the guidance of stumbling humanity, +the great spiritual force took human form; that mere human beings, +keeping mind and soul intent upon that great example, may work out +through love and sacrifice immortal meanings in their lives. Has any +better working hypothesis ever been suggested to humankind?</p> + +<p>Science says, “Here are certain phenomena which we can explain in no +other way”; and gives its splendid guess. Why deny to our spiritual +life a method freely used in science, the assumption of an hypothesis +that most nearly explains observed facts, with the hope of proving it +true as knowledge grows more profound? Why may we not say, “Here are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> +certain persistent hopes, inner needs, longings, which we can explain +only on the assumption that the universe is a universe of spirit”? +These beliefs have been associated with the age-long growth of the +race, and are perhaps the very condition of its mental and spiritual +development. These facts of the inner life are as truly facts as are +those of the outer world, though scientific absorption in matter has +made mankind forget this. It is strange that a generation so fond of +emphasizing fact should have ignored or even denied the most important +facts of all, and so have brought about a crushing limitation to our +endeavor. Not only in the external world are facts to be found: the +hope, the faith, the long aspiration of the race, those persistent +convictions of enlarging destiny which have played so great a part +in human growth,—shall these be of no account? When such immense +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> +importance is attached to every phase of physical growth in the past, +how can we deny the wealth of spiritual experience without being false +to the very laws of thought?</p> + +<p>So we ask, not what happened to our remotest forbears in the Garden +of Eden, but what has happened to our nearer forefathers, whose needs +were akin to our own, that will help our human existence. To what have +they gallantly held? To what have they come back? To what did they +inevitably turn in cruel times of suffering? What are the hopes they +could not forget, slow century by century of trial, disappointment, +aspiration, agony? Persistent faith in unending life, in which should +come the crowning of the spiritual endeavor of this; indomitable +belief in righteousness, in distinction between right and wrong; God, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> +a divine wisdom working through all the show of things,—such was their +faith. Our forefathers tried and proved it and found it good, living +difficult lives and dying hard deaths full of a sense of conquest, of +triumph. Their working hypothesis has yet to be surpassed.</p> + +<p>The old teaching—whether or not we share the exact shade of +intellectual interpretation of ultimate mystery—brought a better +sense of relative values than we have now, and a far greater chance of +progress. Faith in soul is a better working programme than faith in +body. Working forward, however eugenically, toward the Perfect Brute +is a poor hope at best. There can be no growth without the boundless, +the illimitable, ahead, and the great hopes, undisproved, still shine +before us. Life must be made great in its scope, its demand, if it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> +is to achieve greatly. It is a sorry thing to have the guiding forces +mere shallow intellectual forces,—mere intellectualism is always +shallow,—to reduce the whole of the hope and the wonder and the +terror of life to the seeing of the eye, the hearing of the ear, the +mere logical deduction, while the larger nature sleeps abashed. A +sound hypothesis must cope with all the facts involved; our working +hypothesis of life must reckon with the deepest striving of our nature, +its furthest longing, its most imaginative reach. There has been +great waste of unused powers in these later decades of our period of +progress. Half only, and the lesser half, of the human being has been +called into activity; the better part of the human faculties have been +among the “unemployed.”</p> + +<p>Is it not time for the sleepers to waken, rub their eyes, and say, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> +“There is a greater in us than you have let us recognize. This attempt +to solve the problems of human nature while leaving the best of human +nature out of account has shown its inadequacy. The materialistic +interpretation of the universe with its attendant cult of the body +is a <i>cul-de-sac</i>. Life, personality, are full of larger needs +and larger powers than the present trend of thought permits us to +recognize; and life must know the diviner hunger, the deeper thirst, +if it is to win significance.” This progress, which ignores the higher +aspiration, the profounder stirring of the nature,—shall we be +therewith content?</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Through hope, through faith, through love’s</div> + <div class="verse indent4">transcendant dower</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We feel that we are greater than we know,</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>wrote a poet-philosopher who dared trust his soul as leader. In this +mathematical and scientific age there is a dread of feeling, of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +impulse; a fear of this greater self that hopes and fears and prays. +We recognize the great part that feeling and impulse play in the +evolution of the world of living creatures; yet man, in trying to +solve the riddle of his destiny, is forever searching for some narrow +rationalistic explanation which will shut these large factors out. +There is great distrust of intuition, of the imaginative faculty, +when dealing with the inner life; yet imagination, intuition, hold +an important place in the study of the outer world; the greatest +discoveries in science are, no less than the great achievements of +creative art, the result of imaginative grasp of the unrealized. If +intuition, daring conjecture, afford such signal service in winning +knowledge of the world of matter, why should we, who wish to believe +something deeper than that world can ever teach us, be deprived of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +the use of our larger faculties? Feeling, emotion, play a large part, +perhaps the best part, in our sum of human wisdom; passion is a fine +instrument of discovery,—spiritual passion, of spiritual truth. Of +the utmost help these can give us we have utmost need, as we have of +imagination, the divining power, that seer into the inner realities of +things, and of “the will as vision.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="VII">VII</h2> +</div> + + +<p>IT is partly because of the largeness of its scope for activity of the +entire man, the fullness of its appeal to the whole human being, that +Christianity surpasses other idealisms as a working basis of life, +proves itself the flower of them all. Sharing with others a purely +idealistic theory, faith in the spiritual nature of the universe, it +brings home that faith in ways unknown to other systems, makes it +human, a matter of the hearth, of daily life. It is an idealism which +is within the reach of the humblest intelligence; in its humanness, +its simplicity, its nearness to the least, it may almost be said to be +the only working idealism of all time. The vision of the Perfect Man +appeals to the larger self; feeling is stirred by it, passion touched, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> +and imagination, that power through which alone creative work is done, +forever shapes fairer and fairer conceptions. No other idealism has +the compelling power which brings the whole nature into play; so many +elements to quicken the will and release hidden stores of energy. In +all creative work, mere reasoning process lags behind; life, with its +high spiritual possibilities, is creative work. It is for us to fashion +it in accordance with our clearest vision of perfection; we have need +of the largest hope that we can muster, the loftiest aim. For shaping +life to great ends, for employment of all the faculties in the service +of a great idealism, impulse, intuition, will, there is nothing that +can match the Christian faith in the greatness of its simplicity.</p> + +<p>The old, old needs of life are always with us, the necessity of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> +consolation in grief and loss, of hope enough to keep us trudging along +our path. Perhaps not even in its swift response to these great needs +of the human being comes the profoundest proof of its supremacy. From +the point of view of potential evolution, from the greatness and depth +of its challenge, we know its greatness. Christianity, with the sting +of its challenge for eternity, suggests enough of progress to satisfy +the human soul once started on its way. What deeper appeal has ever +come than the thought of endless destiny, bringing the awful necessity +of living in the light of it?</p> + +<p>Not long since, I read in some journal an article in which a writer +speaks wistfully of our lost hope in immortality, but adds that we do +not so greatly mind, and that our children will mind still less. If +this faith is indeed gone, what has happened to rob us of so great a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> +hope, once entertained? How the demonstration of organic processes in +the physical world, which has been the great achievement of our time, +can be assumed to reach to that which is beyond sense is hard to say; +it would need eternity to disprove the belief, as it needs eternity +to prove it. When you try with finite means to define the infinite +you make trouble for yourself, and perhaps rob the young of inherited +hopes. If our children do not mind, it will show a phase of degeneracy +in them, of willful shutting off of light and life already attained. We +shall count them craven if they let go any high ideal once conceived, +for that means inevitable retrogression; this should be held as the +unforgotten and unforgettable hope of the race. What mortal, when the +splendor of such a thought had dawned on him, could let it go? The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> +endless possibility, the infinite opportunity for growth, the challenge +for eternity,—who dare take it, and order his life in accordance with +it?</p> + +<p>Again, this is the greatest of all idealisms in that it sets for +the human being the hardest and the highest of all human tasks, +self-sacrifice. The wonder of it, that across the old physical law of +survival of the fittest by brute means, supreme, unchecked, unhindered +two thousand years ago, could have crept the gleam of a higher law, +strangely contradicting it,—the survival of that which is fittest in +the individual, perhaps at the expense of the body. The greatest marvel +in all the world’s history is that Christ could have been; that the +very idea of soul, of human development transcending the physical in +utter self-sacrifice, could have come into existence is proof enough of +the divine. That teaching, so clear, so unmistakable, has been blurred +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> +and forgotten, as nation and individual have succumbed to the lesser +law, but it still is there. Christianity left behind? It is millions of +years ahead, so far ahead that it is still dim before our vision.</p> + +<p>Must æons pass before the human race will begin to realize how great +was that message, how divine, how far it reached into depths which +nothing else had touched, how high, how all but unattainable its +service? Is there no chance for this Christianity, with its stern +teaching of sacrifice, of eternal endeavor, for this faith, never tried +with sufficient freedom from the trammels of dogma, with the deepest +challenge, the highest possibility that has come before the race?</p> + +<p>Since no life can be worth living without faith in power transcending +nature’s manifestations of physical force; without some ideal of human +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> +conduct, of right and wrong, rising above the needs of “biological +man”; without a sense of further scope, of wider opportunity than the +mere span of human existence allows; since our forefathers held these +high beliefs and lived more greatly than we; since no man has disproved +them; since the very effort to disprove is a contradiction of the laws +of thought, carrying processes of reason into depths of life profounder +than reason; since we have powers, capabilities of emotion, divination +of higher meanings; since we know aspiration, hope, love, let us use +these greater powers and let them build our greater world. The choice +is ours; why choose the less, and fling away the greater?</p> + +<p>The only genuine progress for us is progress in the inner life. We +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> +know the greater meaning, the higher significance, not in the mere way +in which the facts of the physical world are known, but in a far higher +way. By that uncertainty, full of challenge, which is the condition of +real growth, rousing the creative will, it is ours to make great our +lives in accordance with the loftiest hope the race has known.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="VIII">VIII</h2> +</div> + + +<p>MUCH of what I have been saying was written before this war began. In +the great hush that has fallen upon the nations, is it not well for +us to stop and ask anew whither our progress has been tending? What +words have those who have been taught to live and breathe and think +in terms of matter, wherewith to voice this awful stirring of the +soul? People cry out that the Dark Ages will come again through this +fearful slaughter, this waste of resources intellectual and material. +Have not the Dark Ages been with us for decades? For mankind, more +and more stripped of the deeper faith, the larger hope, more and more +cut off from the finer part of his own nature, what darker ages can +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> +there be than these shadowed by the dreary positivism, undiscussed and +undefined, but merely assumed, of our day? Many a thinker must see, +in this present awful crisis, not an isolated phenomenon, not a mere +political event for which a train of political causes had been laid, +but also one of the natural results of our ways of thinking, of our +kind of progress. The growth of material over spiritual conceptions in +the last fifty years is appalling; to such an end the Gospel of the +Perfect Brute legitimately leads. We may believe ourselves through this +struggle untouched, apart, and watch with wonder and surprise, but the +same forces are at work with us, and potent. This terrible, crashing +exposure is something to make us, who are not in the thick of the +battle, stop and think.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p> + +<p>We are shuddering at a German nation Nietzscheized, brutalized, as +we conceive, through a brutal ideal; but are the Germans so far +removed? Have they not simply adopted, a little more vigorously, a +little more frankly than we, a doctrine which is becoming the moving +force in all countries, replacing Christianity? Are they not simply +the most progressive of all nations? Since the theory of evolution +was demonstrated, the doctrine of the survival of the fittest, which +should be taught as the mere working of a physical law, has come to +be taught as ethics, and an odd confusion of thought has come about. +How insidiously the idea of the biological necessity is coming to +be considered the whole necessity of man, we are only now faintly +realizing; the need of spiritual struggle, of spur to that instinct +which may save man from much that had seemed biological necessity, is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +becoming more and more dim. It is one thing to recognize warfare in the +physical world, the strife that attended the evolution of man; it is +another thing to exalt this to a code of conduct and deliberately teach +it. A conscious lowering of nature to the first primitive impulse, a +deliberate going backward, is a very different matter from following +these impulses in the slow process of growth. If a higher thought +comes along your line of vision, woe betide you if you choose the +lower! Doubtless dragons and prehistoric monsters would have behaved +differently if they had got better ideas into their heads; we shall not +be acquitted by posterity if, after a finer ideal has been suggested, +we go back to writhing and biting in the slime.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> + +<p>I am a plain American citizen, with no direct connection with this war, +as innocent of having anything to do with starting it as the Kaiser +is claimed by his upholders to be; yet I feel a sense of guilt. I am +ashamed to look the young in the face; it seems to me that, in some +way, we older folk have betrayed them in letting humanity come to such +a pass; in tampering with the ways of thought and of belief which have +let this thing be. This deification of biological man has not as yet +gone with us so far as exalting the gospel of warfare; we cry out, when +we see the logical outcome of ideas taught with such fervor through the +last decades, against the German evangel of the mailed fist.</p> + +<p>Yet England too has her theorists teaching the biological necessity of +war, that the fundamental laws which govern human conduct are the laws +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +of brute force, the survival of the fittest in death struggle. America +has been too profoundly influenced by Germany in educational matters, +has sat too submissively at her feet, to escape. Accepting so many +of the minor premises of her teaching, will not the major ultimately +follow as a matter of course?</p> + +<p>It is Germany that has carried furthest this materialistic modernism, +has perfected it. The word Germany has been a name to conjure with +in swift denial if one but ventured to suggest the possibility of a +spiritual interpretation of life. High intellectual achievement has +been that of the Germany of these later years, but not the highest; she +has kept the mailed fist upon the spiritual aspirations of mankind, +and has made a treaty, on her own terms, with the human soul, with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +what loss of territory! We have not yet accepted the whole of this +new evangel; we have doubts, mental reserves. Neither have we, in our +period of enlightenment, made gain in developing those forces of mind +and soul that would enable us to refute it.</p> + +<p>Man, from a purely biological point of view, indulging in the +biological necessity of war in the year of our Lord 1915, is a sorry +spectacle, but perhaps it is, as Mr. Shandy said, “no year of our +Lord at all,” so progressive are we. Now that we make our swift +leap backward many thousand years, we pause to wonder whether this +means only a quickened pace in a direction already chosen. Of the +achievements of the mailed fist the Neanderthaler man, barring a +difference of weapons, would have been capable. How shall we escape +this progress which is utter retrogression?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p> + +<p>This overwhelming catastrophe has brought the issues squarely before +us. It is well that the forces we have to fight have come into the +open; we know at last the world we live in. We are face to face, with +a distinctness never before presented, with two great principles: the +law of brute force, of the survival of the fittest, made into a code +of conduct; the law of Christianity, with its possibility of higher +development, finer progress than brute force dreamed,—the growth of +the greater through sacrifice of the less; soul-achievement at the +expense of flesh. In this great hour of need shall we let the shallow +intellectualism of much recent thought dominate, or shall we boldly +choose that faith in which the best of human life, from its first dim +stirring to triumphant self-sacrifice, is summed up? One way lies +inevitable slipping backward; the other way lies progress in inner +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> +life too great for word or present vision.</p> + +<p>These are crucial moments; how great the crisis none may understand. +Many an idealist, lost in the more than forty years of materialism of +our time, is praying that out of the horror of the present may come +better things: a deeper sense of the deepest needs of life; a knowledge +that neither material comfort, nor physical health, nor materialistic +thought can wholly satisfy; a hunger and thirst for which only the +spiritual can suffice. Suffering bears strange fruit, and the suffering +of the present days and of the days to come is incalculable. Even the +mental anguish of mere watchers of the strife may help reveal to the +modern world as profound need of faith.</p> + +<p>One thing is evident in all this awful crash: men still are brave; +never before, perhaps, have they fought against such great odds. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +splendor of their courage dims our eyes. Shall the fighters in the +world of spirit, “fighters in the noblest fight,” be less brave in +defending in the face of odds, perhaps never so great before, these +inner truths, deeper than dogma, deeper than theology, deeper than life +itself, the immemorial heritage of the race,—longing unutterable for +righteousness, for faith in the spiritual, for enlarging and unending +life?</p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2">THE END</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="nindc"> +<b>The Riverside Press</b><br> +<span class="allsmcap">CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS</span><br> +U . S . A<br> +</p> +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75631 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |