Henry Jones IDEALISM As A PRACTICAL Creed Glasgow and Sydney 1909

IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED
BEING THE LECTURES ON PHILOSOPHY AND MODERN LIEE DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
BY
HENRY JONES
LL.D., D.Litt.
FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
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1909
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MACGALLUM
AND
TO THE MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED MASTER
EDWARD CAIRD
ûipeTe
S'
v/meh
Truvre^'
ejueiu
6e
kui
jueTUTTia-Oe
/uiP)](Ta(r6e.
Home)' Hyirvn.
ApolL
Del. 166
PREFACE
AVere
should
people
;
it
not to take too great

this
liberty,
dedicate
for
book to the Australian

of their kindness will
my memory
I
not fade, and

I
would
I
fain let
them know that

it
am
grateful.
have dedicated
for
to one
who
labours
continually
of a
their
welfare,
and to
Teacher
the
memory
great
Idealist
his
and
my
own.
consists of lectures delivered
The book must
be-
fore the University of

differ
Sydney.
But the written

I
from the spoken word, and
have
recast the lectures
and added to them.
The University,
Glasgow, May, 1909.
CONTENTS
L The Tools and the Task
11.
....
. .
PAGE
1
Freedom: First the Blade
.31 .67
.
III.
Freedom Freedom
Then the Ear
IV.
After that the full Corn

. .
103
Y.
VI.
VII.
Wordsworth and Browning

The Call of the Age
.139
193
The Answer of Idealism
....
231
THE TOOLS AND THE TASK.

Hegel's Inaugural Address at Heidelberg
tion
to the
reflective
;
:
An
invita-
life
Philosophy not always in

poetry
;
official
garb
its relation to
why
taken in these
lectures as
meaning Idealism,
it
Man's Life complex because

Napoleon the First
Great
comprises his World

:
Connexion of Philosophy and Life illustrated
which
of
Hegel and them means most now

:
men and
their times.
life
:
Ideas the only agents in man's

a succession of ruling Ideas
:
Human
of
history
The Idea
an
Evolution
now
in
power
at work, before Darwin, in poetry

in the
and
self-
philosophy, and
world
exponent of
expanding
life
which
is life
attaining Freedom.
I.
THE TOOLS AND THE TASK.

In taking up the task with which you have
entrusted and honoured me, and inviting you to
consider the bearing of philosophy upon
life,
I
modern
was
am reminded
of the
first
words addressed
It
by Hegel
to his students in Heidelberg.
in October of 1816.
The Napoleonic wars had

Ger'
just closed with the battle of Waterloo.
many had
fields,
risen
triumphant from those
fatal
on which her sons were taught a base
submission.'
as
She had
'
'
saved her Nationality,'
Hegel
life
'
said,
;
the basis
and essence of the
best
and she could now turn her mind to

fulfil
the arts of peace, and labour to

laws.
the higher
Philosophy
might once
more
engage
the attention and the good-will of men.
She
might again
lift
up her voice grown so
silent,
and

which had become well-nigh deaf to her
listen.
a world
might again be willing to
The
spirit of
its
the time immersed in matters temporal,
whole
powers engaged
in
a fearful strife for the out-
ward means of
inwards upon
riches of its
raise its
life,
might now turn
its
thoughts
itself
and take possession of the
own
content.
The Church might now
head side by side with the secular State,

all
which hitherto had swallowed up

Side by side with the
interests.
Kingdom
of the World,
towards which had streamed the thoughts and

strivings of
men, the Kingdom of God might
become once more an object of contemplation
and along with the

of the outer
Spirit,
life,
political
and other
interests
science, the free rational life of
might again break out into blossom.

for those
Speaking
amidst
the
whose
Hegel
lives
had matured
the
storms,
congratulated
students that their youth had fallen at a time
when they could devote

undisturbed
pursuit
I
it
to Truth,
'
and the
I
of knowledge.
hope,'
he
said,
'
that
may
I
deserve and win your

claim upon you,
confidence.
But
make no
else,
save that, before
all
you put your trust
THE TOOLS AND THE TASK

in knowledge,
and
in yourselves.
is
The
first
con-
dition
of
philosophy
courage
towards the
truth, faith in the
might of mind.
dare, nay,
is
Man, because
to think
he
is
mind,
may
must dare
himself worthy of what
highest.
The greatness
cannot
and
the
power
of
mind he
esteem
enough.
But
if
he be armed with this faith
nothing will prove so hard or stubborn as not

to yield itself
up
to him.
The inner being and

first
essence of the
Universe, at
itself,
hidden and
shut up within
has no force with which
to withstand the courage that will
know.
It
must evolve
for
itself before
its
our eyes, and lay out
our use
treasures
little
and
its
depths.'
It is
not for
men
;
to take
upon
their lips
profit
the language of heroes

their
it
yet
we can
by
example and believe
in their cause.
is
And
has seemed to
me
that there
an analogy,
not too remote, between your present circumstances as a people, and those of the Prussia of Hegel's
day.
You,
too,
have
been long
engaged in an absorbing struggle with outward
and secular things.
You have been
striving,
not without some measure of success, to tame
a vast continent to your use, and to establish therein an independent and

self- sufficient
State
worthy of that from which you have sprung,

gathering yourselves together in
these
years,
amidst
many
troubles, into a single people, conlife.
scious of one political

all
If the task has taxed

all
your strength and claimed

if
your powers,
and
the spirit of your people has been so

in it as to leave little of the leisure
for
immersed
or the
mood
To
aught
else,
who can marvel

live.
all
or
blame?
live well,
man must first

is
Neverrespects
theless the order of time
not in
is
the order of causes
and there
a most true
life
sense in which the great things of
must be
only
as
I
sought
first,
and
all
other
things
addenda and secondary consequences.
And
may, perhaps, be permitted to echo the philosopher's hope,
that for you, too, the time has

serious intent
come when you can with a more
and a more deliberate purpose devote yourselves

to the contemplation of the world within yourselves, the
world in which ideals are the only

will
fully,
powers.
Then you
strive
to
less
comprehend
wastefully.
and
employ more
and

the greatest of
all
the energies of the world,
namely, those which reside within a people's

character.
It is to this
contemplation that
venture to
invite
you
in these lectures
;
on Philosophy and
broad sense that
it
Modern
I
Life
and
it is
in this
I
understand philosophy.
do not conceive
as a technical discipline of the schools, nor as a
succession of systems of abstract thought, each

in turn professing a
rounded comj)leteness and
refuted and overturned
by the one which
follows.
Philosophy
a doctrine.
is
an attitude of mind, rather than

the experience of the world
It is
becoming
prehend
is
reflective,
and endeavouring
to
com-
itself.
Hence a
final philosophic
is
theory
not to be attained, and a fixed system
not to
it
be sought.
is
Experience changes and grows, for

;
a process
and a completed doctrine of an
evolving process, a static theory of a dynamic

reality,
must prove
false.
We
can at best but

its
catch
laws.
its
trend and try to discern
greater
This task of
self- contemplation
and self-comtake
prehension
is
not
one which
man can

or
is
up
It
let
alone
as
it
best
pleases
himself.
is
necessity
which
chooses,
and
not
chosen.
At
It
a certain
stage
of the
evolution
of man's rational nature, reflexion arises inevitably.
becomes the
urgent
condition
of
further development.
The future can be faced
only in the light of the past which only reflexion

recovers
;
and the individual, or a nation, can

if
it
new triumph only the lessons of its own deeds.

achieve a
has learnt
Reflexion
if
must
better
succeed action and set free

action
is
its
meaning,
to follow.
We
by the
can not be deterred from this reflexion

fact that
our experience
it
;
is
ever wider
that, in
than our thoughts concerning

the end,
and
many
of our deeper motives

blind.
lie
is
hidden
and our purposes remain
Man
destined
by
his very greatness to pursue ends he cannot
adequately achieve
and
to
ask
questions
is
he
cannot fully answer.
But
a little light
better
than
total
darkness.
And
as
philosophy,
said, to
even
failed
although she seems, as Kant

to strike a sure path,
have
the natural
sciences
have done, but
'
has kept groping about,
and

groping too, amongst mere
enterprise
ideas,'
remains an
aside.
which
man cannot
set
If
he cannot answer her problems because they

exceed his powers, neither can he forego the
attempt, for these problems spring from the very
nature of his reason.
The
despair
its
of
philosophy has
sprung
in
part from
itself too
own pretensions. It has isolated much it has distinguished itself too

:
proudly from the ordinary reflexion of thoughtful
men.
Like Elijah,
it
has 'been very jealous
for the
Lord God of
hosts,'
and borne unheeded

of
it
'
testimony in times hard
hearing for
the
unseen world of mind.

its
But
out,
has exaggerated
I,
loneliness
left,
and cried
even
it
only,
am
and they seek
my
life,
to take
away.'
It has forgotten the
companionship of
its
reflective
men who have never worn

have not bowed
kissed him.
their
garb,
and yet
nor
in a
knees unto Baal,
Yet these are many.
Even
in
people like yours to

of the passing
whom
the secular interests
day are engrossing, and

it
whom
whom
the pulse of action beats high, as

in a
needs must
young
nation, there are not a few
10

They turn
their
these interests do not satisfy.
minds inwards and seek
to
know something
of
the world of things that are spiritual, in which,

after
'
all,
is
the
true
dwelling-place
of man.
They
are
men who
of
convince themselves
eternal,
of
the
sary,
existence
the
of
the
neces-
of the universal, and
who
seek to form
conceptions which cannot
fail
them, yea, which
are not disturbed, but rather confirmed,
by the
contemplation of that which passes away.'
Pre-eminent amongst such

disturbed and
often
men
philosophers
'
even repelled by
I
philo-
sophy
'
are
must
the poets.
admit the
diflference
between philosophy and poetry, and acknowledge that the quarrel

of art with the spirit
it
which
dissect
in the
It sets
before
reconstructs
is
is
undying.
Yet
end philosophy
the apparent in
It
at one
with poetry.
sharper
contrast with the real.

ticular, dwells
wars with the parit refutes,
amongst contradictions,
argues,
confutes
and demonstrates,
it
as
poetry
never does, except when
forgets its mission, as

is
sometimes
^
it
may.^
But
their goal
the same,
For instance
in the later
poems
of
Browning.

even though the one reaches
flight,
it
11
by an inspired
its
while the other must

its
hew
way, and
drag
steps.
They
are one in their deeper
purpose, and both are alien,
down
to the
marrow
life
of their being, to the spirit which reduces

into
a platitude
by emptying
the
it
of
its
ideal
meaning.
'
When
man
of the
world puts
one passion
in the place of
another
business,
inclinations,
amusements, hobbies, and proves
them
" all
all
is
one after another only to cry out that

'
vanity,"
both poetry and philosophy find
his speech 'blasphemous.'
The world has

it
for
both of them
'
a magic value,' for
has been
the har-
steeped in thought, and they have
felt
mony
of its
spiritual
music.
In
speaking of
philosophy, therefore, I would have you renounce

the shibboleths of the schools
;
and, in order to
life,
understand
of everyone
its significance for
modern
learn
who has sought
'
the higher nature
in nature itself,' or
have vindicated the living
against the dead and mechanical.
To extend the meaning of our subject manner

than
is
in this
evidently to despair of treating more

rim.
I
its
shall,
therefore,
try to limit
12
it

on another
side,
and
shall
do so in a more
I shall dwell,
arbitrary way.
In these lectures
almost exclusively,
of philosophy which
with that particular form

is
most
in touch
with our
in
modern
life
and most akin to the poetry

life
which that
has found
its
best expression.
This form goes by the
name
of Idealism, and,
'Absolute'
more
technically, of
It
is
'Objective,' or
Idealism.
usually identified
in
:
in
one sense
the
too
much and
another too
little
with
theory of Hegel
of looking at
too much, in that this
way
life
belongs not more to Hegel
than
it
;
does to Plato or Aristotle, or even to

too
little,
Spinoza
in that our debt to Hegel,
the debt of the general
mind
of our times,
is
most inadequately recognized.

But, although this limitation of the meaning
of
'
philosophy
it
'
is
arbitrary,
it
is less
arbitrary
than
seems,
first
and there are better reasons
than at
theories.
appear for hard dealing with rival

the
first
In
place,
it
is
not
clear
that they exist as
living
doctrines.
Idealism
the
re-
has for a considerable time engaged

flective
thought of Europe, and especially of

Germany and Great
trine
13
Britain, as
is
no other doctwo-fold.
has
done.
The proof
On
the one hand, those thinkers
who
reject it are
not able to get
away from
by
it.
They propound
on the defects of
is
no
rival
theory of their own, but maintain a

living
precarious existence
Idealism,
and by indicating
which
it
which
left
not
difficult
the problems
has
unsolved.
On
the other hand, the principles of this philosophy
have entered deeply into the theoretical and

practical life of our times.
Its
main hypotheses
in
are
being illustrated
and made good
the
sciences, especially in those
which are biological
and human
they are illumined in the greatest

to
modern poetry, from Lessing and Goethe

in
and they circulate

life.
the arteries of our social and political

is
There
a certain unanimity of endeavour

aspiration
and
community of
amongst the
poets,
:
philosophers and reforming spirits of our times
they
less
all
make
for Idealism.
And
there
is
far
discrepancy amongst the conclusions of the

first
philosophers themselves than at

for it is the
appears
it
is
way
of philosophers, as
of
-J\v^\> 14
.T'

and
politicians,
theologians
to
make much
of
their differences.
If,
however,
can do
little justice
to one
side of our subject

'
and must narrow down the

'
meaning of Philosophy
less justice
it
in this
way,
'
can do
still
to the
life,
'
Modern
Life
upon which
bears.
Man's
is
even when most simple and
rudimentary,
world.
the most complex thing in the
In him the scattered rays of natural

are
existence
gathered
together
even
'
as
is
physical being and
mere organism
he
the
consummation of the scheme of
things.'
And
when we turn
is,
to his mind, the

it
is
mind which he
we
find that
always the counterpart element or item of the
of his whole world.
No
all,
power or the beauty of the world comes to have

existence for
him
at
except
it
enter through
things,
the portals of his
spirit.
The scheme of
the whole furniture
of his heaven and earth,
the multitudinous objects of his thoughts and

purposes, are facts of his experience, the content,
nay, the substance of his soul.

it
His world, be
is
narrow or wide, rich or poor,
focussed in
other.
Its
his spirit,
and the one measures the

reality passes Id to
15
trans-
him
as
meaning
and
it is
muted by
his rational
nature into sensibility,

:
feeling, thought,
volition
if
he thus com-
prises
his
his
world what more need be said to

intrinsic
mark
complexity
need
is
not
attempt to show
how
that complexity
further
life
complicated by the reflexion of one man's

into another's, so as to
form that most wondrous

of
of
all
manifestations
the
power of man's
nature, namely,
human
society.
These,
action
I
then, are the
two
facts
whose
inter-
we have
to consider in these lectures.
may
illustrate the
connexion of Philosophy
with Modern Life by an incident in the history

of both.
There
is
a tradition, which
is
sub-
stantially true, that while the
guns of Napoleon
the First were roaring around Jena, Hegel, the
founder of the modern form of Idealism, was

seen sitting at the that city, writing his
window of
his lodgings in
Phaenomenology of Spirit
Aristotle's Metaphysics,
a
ever
work which, with
ranks as one of the most adventurous voyages
made
in the
world of mind.
At that time
no
less
significant business could well be con-
16
ceived than that on which this solitary

silently engaged, amidst the dreadful
man was
pudder of
the disastrous battle.

decide what
affairs.
is
But
it
is
is
not easy to
great and what
small in
human
justly
If
we
a
look back now, from the vantage
ground
of
new
century,
we
shall
hesitate before resolving which has

for
meant most
of
mankind, whether
philosopher
or
it
was the thought
the
the
'
armed hosts of the

Beware,' says Emerlets loose a
devastating
son,
'
conqueror.
when the
planet.
great
God
all
thinker
on
this
Then
a
things are at risk.
It is as
when
conflagration has broken out
in a
safe,
I
great city, and

or where
it
no
man knows what
is
will end.'^
do not mean to suggest that the history
of the world has been or
made
either
by
battles
by books
though there are some books which

battles.
mean more than most

was
only
a
The writing of
the Phaenomenology, like the battle of Jena,

picturesque
moment
been
in
vast
movement
Significajice
which
had
to
^
long
preparing.
is
belongs
that w^h ich
in
the
^
Crisis.

isolate
17
context of the world, not to that which stands
and
is
singular.
No
:
thinker
is
great and
no
man
potent in action save by virtue of

as
the might of his times
no word has meaning,
and no musical note or architectural curve has

beauty, except in
in great ages,
create.
its
place.
Great
men appear
and they are creatures of what they

in
'
They come
the fulness of time,' their

face, into a
messengers sent before their
world
which
is
waiting for them.

of vast
They
are the con-
sequences
upheavals,
strain,
products of the
world's stress
and
pushed upwards from
beneath by the pressure of mute social forces
which have
reason great
been
long mustering.
For
this
men
come, not singly as a rule,
but in groups, like highest peaks in a mountainous region.
The
greatest of
them does not
stand alone, nor does he rise abruptly from the

level
plain.
His base
is
on the table-land of
some vast public emotion, and around him are

companions
magnitude only than himself. At such a time we behold a whole people

less in
'from the depth Of shameful imbecility uprisen, Fresh as the morning star
'
18

find
'
and
in rudest
men
Self-sacrifice the firmest; generous love
And
continence of mind, and sense of right,

in the midst of fiercest strife.'
Uppermost
Prelude, ix.
All alike,
men
of thought and
men
of action,
the mighty and the lowly, are at such periods
quickened as by some new spiritual

earth has circled round as
if in
force.
The
and
its
sleep,
new
spring has broken upon mankind.

its
Some
new
conception shoots forth
rays and en-
lightens
men
for,
to larger issues.
is
This matter
longer
;
worth looking at
for a
moment
unless I err,
we
are in the afternoon
of sucli a day, in the ppw^p-ofâ conception of

-;io*'-
-^
which both Hegel and Napoleon, each
in
It
his
will
own
.^;^-^
fashion,
were prime exponents.
help us to understand ourselves, and to realize
the magic power of great thoughts.
For they
have great consequences

world.
It
is
nay,
they rule the
Its actions are their offspring.
the unique quality of rational beings
that, in great things as in small, they act

ideas.
from
Man's impulses are never blind, nor are

the beast's.
strike
19
even those desires animal which are most akin to
Rays of
light
from the intelligence

their texture, and,
upon them and pierce
like clouds,
they catch new hues of meaning and
of beauty.
passions
Through
their relation to
mind the
evil, as
become capable of an excess of

;
they never are in the brute
and, for the same--^vvA^<i\AaUe^
reason, they are capable of being ^^jietrfied to
the service of holy causes.
Man
is
always puridea of
suing ends, great or small.

that which seems to
It is the
him
desirable, not his
mere
muscles, or nerves, or bare sense
and impulse,
which
carries
him
is
to his every act.
Only on
;
that account
he free and responsible

first in his
only
because the deed was
intelligence does
'
he appropriate
it
to himself
and say
did
it.
That the root of the idea which brings the

act lay in his blind passions, or the dark
move-
ments of
his impulses,
and
secret needs of his
uncomprehended disposition and organic frame,

need not and can not
be denied.
There
is
moral as well as merely psychological truth in

the saying, that there
is
nothing in the intellect
which was not already in the senses.
20

But there
is
truth also in
its
converse
that
no
there
is
nothing in the senses which was not

the intelligence.
already in
lies in
'
The
;
wliole truth
neither of these sayings

'
for there is
before
and
'
after
'
in the case.
all
No
sense or
impulse exists in man, bare of
intelligence
and no intelligence which

sense.
is
is
not suffused with

sensualist
;
'Even
for
the
basest
what
the
sense but the implement of phantasy

it
vessel
drinks out of ?
'
Man
is
not a machine,
nor machine-made, of parts outside of parts.

conflict
The
within him, so-called, of passion with

has
reason,
sides.
both passion and reason on both

action, base or high, alternate
;
Ends of
ends
before his mind, attracting and repelling

all
and
with
it is
the
alike
are
ideas
weighted
impulse and so carry to their mark.

this,
And
the presence of the ideal element in every
act of
man,
his
pursuit of purposes,
mean
or
noble, which he has set before himself, that dis-
tinguishes
leaves
him abruptly from the

of being free.
brute,
If at
and any
I,
him the promise
time a
man
urges
'
It
was
my
passion,
and not
which did the
act,'
he has deprived himself of

the
privilege
21
is
of being human.
:
His excuse
hardly ever true
when
it is,
his fellows
do not
hold him to his deeds.
Man
picks his
way
in
life.
He
selects
the
strands of his purposes from the multitudinous
elements of a close-woven world of social and

physical environment.
He
is
free
only to the
are narrow
it
extent of his purposes.
and near,
his liberty
is
Where they limited. But

trend
expands
with his comprehension

fullest
of his world,
and
is
when the
better
and tendencies and bebring
of his time have passed into his life
come
forth
his intelligent will.
These
considerations,
however,
ideas
is
;
only
anew the power of

even as
for
they imply
that the master of his time
the
understood
it
it
is
the
prehends the energies of nature
man who has man who comwho can link
them
to his purposes.
Its
is
powers become his
conceptions.
There
no break or division
whatsoever between the stuff of thought and
thought
itself,
between
fact
and
its
meaning.
'Nature
is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean so, o'er the Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes.'
:
art
22
Man Jiiids
is
his true ideas
his
makiug
of
is
them
also
the finding.
Every valid invention

ideas which have
a discovery.
The
power over
;
the world, are the powers of the world the poet, philosopher
or
and
statesman
only sets
is
them
free.
Hence, when man's history
truly
shall
written,
written
from within,
what we
read
is
not of the succession of one Royal House
to another
of
the
House of Hanover
to the to
House of
Stuart, or of the
House of Stuart
:
the Tudors and Plantagenets

rather,
we
shall witness,
the
succession
of dynasties
of
ideas,
liberated, set
on the throne of the age of which

rulers,
they are the natural
by the great minds

glimpse of them.
for centuries to-
which have caught the
first
For generations, and sometimes
gether, such conceptions direct the thoughts
and
purposes of the general mind
and they do so
is
with a power so absolute that their presence

often not suspected,
for
they have insinuated

the
themselves
into
the
very disposition of
men whom they

cised
control.
is
Such absolute, such subtle dominion
exer-
by the
idea
of Evolution
in
our
own

day.
23
to
There
is
no
science,
from
Geology
Theology, which does not contemplate the object

of its
rigid,
enquiry
in
its
light.
The old
static,
is
cataclysmic
obsolete.
way
of regarding objects
well-nigh
We
do not consider that

rightly
we understand anything
nor
plant, nor
animal, nor man, nor even the fixed strata of
the earth's crust, or the planet itself
till
we
can indicate
its
place in a process.
is
The whole
for
order of Nature
science.
in
movement
march,
life,
modern
On
it
the
is
level of biology,
and thence
the
process
upwards,
grand
onwards of one inexhaustible

in
its
multitudinous
energy,
its
within
which every individual

Poetry and
it
form has
own
particular place.
philosophy, and even theology
when
has the
courage of
science
its cause,
take up the tale of natural

it.
and continue
They proclaim that

is
the whole scheme of Spirit the psychologist,
also in
movement
but
moralist
and
sociologist
mark
all
its steps,
explaining, or striving to explain,

are about to
itself,
things
by what they were and
be.
Thus the history of mankind presents

the
through
medium
of
this
conception
of
24
development, which finds the past in the present
and
first
of
all
the future, as the gradual unveilis
ing of a purpose which
universal and therefore
omnipresent,
purpose which overcomes the

while mainof
discrete distinctions of time even
taining
them,
is
and,
like
the
Snake
the
Ancients,
coiled
around the changing order
of the world of reality, and has neither beginning
nor end.
Li a word, the Idea of Evolution
of
all
is
the lord
our present thinking
the subtle presuppoin that of social

is
sition
which suffuses
all
our endeavour, whether
in the sphere of
knowledge or
It
and moral
practice.
the author of our
very temperament, and determines the mental

disposition of our times.
It has
given to the
action,
modern age
and unique
its
characteristic
ways of
features,
making our
era distinct
and distinguishable amongst the ages of the

world in
in
all its
thinking and striving, whether

philosophy, in
science
in
or
in
morals or in
politics,
poetry or in religion.
Now,
it is
customary to attribute the
first
use
of this Idea of Evolution to Charles Darwin.

In a narrow sense
the
first
25
this
it
is
just.
Darwin was
to
apply
in
a great
way
in
one
particular field.
He
did so with such master-
ing power of observation and scientific imagination as to arrest the attention

belief of the general
and compel the

in his
mind.
His success,
own
relatively confined department,
facilitated
the application of this idea to others, and gave

to
it
concrete form and convincing force.

in the
But the idea was working powerfully

world before the days of Darwin.
To
trace it
no further
is
to ignore its use
by
Aristotle,
who
the source of so
many
of the ideas of
modern
science
the
conception
was not only familiar
to the poet-philosophers of
Germany, to Lessing
and Goethe, to Kant and Hegel, to Fichte and

Schelling
and
Schiller, it constituted,
one
may
almost say, the
medium through which they

in
observed the world and by which they sought

to arrange
its
phenomena
a rational order.
it
In
it,
and
in the Idealism
which
implied for
them, in one form or another, was their sole hope

of overcoming
the
dualisms
into
which
the
world
had
fallen,
and of breaking down the
26

contradictions
hard
which
harassed
modern
civilization.
But
it
is
vain to seek the
first
beginnings
of a great conception,
not
less
vain
than to
seek to
mark the
which
first
is
beginnings of the blossom

old as
of a
tree,
as
the
life
that
it
expresses
and adorns.
There are no absolute
origins in a continuous world.
These poets and
philosophers themselves found the conception of
Evolution to
it
their
hand
they only liberated

history
from the mass of modern

it
within
arrived
which
was operative.
When
they
the world was already endeavouring to escape
from the harsh contrasts and to break down

the intolerable antagonisms of the Middle Age,
which had
set the
next world against
this, spirit
against nature, the sacred against the secular.
Men
to
were already in revolt against a theology
which mortified reason, a religion which sought

root
out nature,
and
'
social
state
in
which men were held down and held asunder
by
fixed
class
:
divisions.'
They were seeking

and
enlargement
they would stretch their limbs
and breathe
freely in a world not all alien

unfriendly.
27
Luther had spoken and Cromwell
had fought.
furled,
The banner of
it
liberty
had been un-
and
had become the symbol of many

yet to be
different
rights
made good
for the
lay
and the
'
common man.
voice
Instead of
the
plaintive
feminine
of mediaeval piety/
the voice as of a weary pilgrim and sojourner,
longing in a vain and unsubstantial world for

'
the
native
land,
is
the patria of the

'
:
soul/
manlier cry
for
heard
;
Here, too,
is
our Home,
is
God
God
is
here
and the true Shekina

'Nature
is
in
the soul of man.'

is
not godless, nor

is
;
unnatural.'
The natural world
the
symbol and vesture of a divine power

the natural relations of
vile
and
not
man
to
man
are
and
bestial,
but capable of being smitten
through and through with holiness, as a cloud

is
pierced with light.
Before
into
this
period,
irreverence
had
crept
his
man's worship and

'
blasphemy
late
into
adorations.
Carlyle,
'
Nature
in
centuries,'
said
was irreverently supposed to be dead,
an old eight-day clock made

years ago, and
still
many thousand
ticking on, but as dead as
28

which the Maker at most sat looking
at,
brass,
in a distant, singuLar,
and now plainly indeed,

I
incredible manner.
But now,
am happy
to
observe, she
is
everywhere asserting herself not

all,
to be dead brass at
lous,
but alive and miracu-
celestial-infernal,
with an emphasis that
will
again penetrate the thickest head in the
planet by-and-by.'
ence,
But Idealism cures

Idealism
lifts
irrever-
especially
is.
the
It
of Love,
lowly,
it
which
asserts
Christianity
the
the rights of the weak, and breaks the power

of the
this
strong.
From
of old the prophets of

'
creed were
revolutionaries.
Those who
have turned the world upside down are come

hither
also.'
And
their successors in the
modern
world are engaged in the same task of levelling

upwards,
seats,
'
putting
down
the mighty from their

'
and exalting them of low degree
de-
throning the tyrannic state and the
dogmatic
church, and setting in their place a Sovereignty
whose seat
is
in the heart of
just,
man, a Democracy
which v/ould be
be free
In
and a Religion which would
free to find
God everywhere.
the
speculations of
this
enterprise
the

philosopher, the imaginations of the poet
29
and
the tumultuous strivings of the
man
of action
blend together.
Hegel, Goethe and

in his
Napoleon
were
all alike,
though each
own degree and
manner, products and exponents of that Spirit of
Freedom which has been brooding over the

chaotic history of the
modern world.
The idea
of Evolution
is itself
the hypothesis, the metho-
dizing conception
which we employ to render
intelligible to ourselves the process
which Spirit
follows in
becoming
free.
It suggests that ex-
pansion, that victory of the living thing over

its
own
limits, that
conversion of things external
which bound and restrain, into elements within

its
own
It is
life,
that determination not from without

is.
but from within, which Freedom

our task to explain this
is
movement
Modern
of
;
the Spirit of Freedom, for this
life
and especially to show how

enced
it
has been influis
by
the
Idealism
which
itself
life.
the
effluence
and manifestation of that
II.
FREEDOM FIRST THE BLADE.

:
The
Idea of Freedom not simple, except as the seed

:
is
simple
The
its
civilization of
mankind
is
the process of
life
is
evolving
itself.
meaning, and the process of
life
Spii'it is free
by nature, but things which grow must

:
acquire their nature
The freedom
of the
individual
and
of society is at first a blind

:
movement towards an
is
unknown good
reason
false
:
Mr. Balfour magnifies " unconscious

contrast of tradition and reason
at first assimilative,
"
why
his
life
Man's
and the
social
traditions are the substance of his soul.
Man
social
ceases to be docile
world
The
social
world
:
and becomes a critic of his loses and the individual
conscience gains authority

his negative
Man
:
versus the State
why
attitude
is
false
The true Reformer a

takes the side of
;
lover of the ancient ways,
and takes their part against

as
it is
themselves
errors
But the world

is
its
and he
of
forced into opposition
Yet the web

is
of history is not rent,
although
its
tissue
strained
The spread
the controversy between the authority
within and the authority without.
II.
FEEEDOM: FIEST THE BLADE.

The
or
idea
of Freedom, like
the idea of
Mind
Keason or Will, seems so simple as to need
no explication.
appearance.
the
But
which
this simplicity is all false
These ideas
in
are
simple
of
a
only in
plant
is
sense
:
the
seed
are
simple
its
complexities
asleep
;
hidden,
and
its
powers
are
it
requires
the
whole
scheme of nature, earth and sea and sky and

the
to
revolving seasons,
bring
all
in
it
one conspiracy,
is
them
forth.
So
Spirit
with
Mind,
its
is
with Will,
with the
of
Man and
Spirit
Freedom.
What Mind,
is
Will,
are
revealed only
by what they can
do,
and what
ex-
they can do
made
in
plain
only by the
panding movement of human

expresses
itself
civilization, as it
the sciences
and
arts,
the
34

industries, the moral habits, the
commerce and
social
usages
and the
career.
political
institutions
of
man's advancing
out
the
As the chemist brings

a
qualities
'
of
gas
'
or
liquid,
by
observing
its
give and take
with other subhis experiments,
stances, or as the physicist,
by
puts
the
fact
he would
its
understand in new
latent forces
contexts, in order that

set free, so are
may
be
man's powers made evident

real also
and,
To
indeed,
made
through
his
his interaction
fellows.
is
with
the
world
and with
change the circumstances of a

to try him, but often
man
not only
enough to
exhibit, even
to
himself,
a weakness
he did not fear or a
capacity whose existence he did not suspect.

Civilization
is
nothing
but the
process of
of
revealing
and realizing the

is still
Nature
Man,
and the revelation
going on, mysteriously
and tortuously enough.
The
intrinsic
might of
man's will and reason, the slumbering splendours of his spirit are
liberated.
still
is
in process of being
Human
nature
capable of a greater
'
variety of kinds than any other

is
nature,'
;
and
ever breaking out into
new forms
for every
FREEDOM: FIRST THE BLADE

individual
vidual,
bilities,
is
35
indipossiis
in
his
degree unique.
No
its
however
nor
is
great,
embodies
his
all
he
at
best
his
when he
singular in his greatness,
and
'towering mind
O'erlooks
its
prostrate fellows.'
For only as a member of a society which
is
worthy of him,
and
'
as'
the citizen of a good state,'
in interaction
with his peers in virtue can

fully.
fibres,
man's powers shine forth
And
all
a State
which
is
strong in
all
its
of whose
is
elements are in harmony, in which no one
ignorant of the best or heedless of the highest
such
of
a State as
Hegel called
'
The Kingdom
not 'at hand.'
of their kind
Heaven on Earth'
is,
verily,
Thoughtful
men
wdio
are lovers
and know something of the toilsome road which

civilization has
had
to travel in order to reach
the meagre results they see in the social

political
life
and
around them, are appalled by the
contrast of
what we are and what we might

is
be
are
so
much
yet to learn
till
our swords
beaten
into
ploughshares,
and
man
is
36
adequate to himself and to the framework in
which
It
his life is set.

is
this
process of realizing the intrinsic
powers of Mind, the process by which Spirit
comes into possession of

that
is,
itself
and the world,

in
its
becomes
'
Free,'
which,
most
con-
prominent
template.
features,
we have
now
Spirit
to
There
free.^
is
is
a sense in which
free
is
is
always
It
To be
in
its
essential
nature.
unique
virtue
of
that
fact.
is
But the
nature of a thing which grows

all
the last of
its
achievements.
It
is
not the seed but

rather,
it
is
the
full
grown
plant,
or,
the
wîole
hio;hest
process
from the lowest
stage
to
the
life
which reveals the nature of the

It
is
within.
not
the
crude savage or the
barbarous society, but the wisest
men and
the
the
countless achievements and varied energies of a

civilized
nation,
or,
rather,
it
is
process
from savagery to
^
'
civilization
which reveals the

for thought
Spirit
will
'
is
the best
all
word
and
and
the powers of
know man
and
feeling
in interpenetration
and
indivisible unity.

nature
arises
87
of
Spirit.'
Much
vain
controversy
is
from neglecting the

;
fact that it
the
process which reveals

will
and many questions which
remain unanswerable to the end of time

:
are asked
for instance,
the question whether

or
is
the
Will
of
Man
is,
not,
free.
'
This
question does not admit of a definitive

or
'
Yes
No.
'
Static categories are all out of place
when applied
to
things
in
process,
distort
which
the
'
all
growing things
are.
They
facts.
To do such things
and
is
'
justice
we
require both
Yes'
No.'
It is true, in a sense, that the child

it is
the
man; but
to
also
true
that
he
is .^--/oi^-'^''^^!
not the man, and that his

life
sole Jbusine'ss,
his
through,
is
becjim^'the man.
it
A
speak
de-
-A^tUt-U^^
veloping being
it
is
what
can become "T'and yet

is.
must
become what
it
We
in,
of
'ttvtcc<.n:tie::
'unrealized possibilities, ',--hardly realizing

contradictions
what
we
:
are
dealing
or
knowing
what we mean
^
for
we cannot
'
treat possibilities
is
When
a particulai^ly a
mean
or selfish act
done by any one,

is
soiae
I
men have
way
of exclaiming,
That
human
nature.'
Such actions are not typical of human nature. They are distortions and arrestments of human natui'e. To call them typical is blasphemy against the noblest thing we know.
should like to protest.
38
either as real, or as unreal, either as actual or

as ideal
:
not as
;
real,
because they
are
only-
possibilities
possibilities.
not as unreal, because they are
Life
is
is
placed at the
point of intersection
of what
ideal
and what
is
not,
where actual and

life
meet and mingle, and human

all
;
most
conspicuously of
for it is capable of
more
divergent
extremes,
and can
else.
depart
further
of all
from
itself,
than aught
Man most
compels
us, as
we
strive to take in the fulness
of his meaning, to regard his actual being as

potential
is
;
for his ideals of a
knowledge which
which
fulfils
adequate, and
of conduct
his
his
aims
and
satisfies
spirit,
transcend
his
achievements and are beyond his reach.

yet, these ideals, things that
And
within
all
ought to be and
are not,
are the very deepest realities
him.
For are they not the source of
his
?
striving,
and the very energy of

is
his enterprise
Man's
nature
life
^'.s-
the working of his ideals.
His
free,
a process.
;
He
is
not bond or
is
rational or irrational
but he
moving from
as
promise to fulfilment, in so
far
he
is
true

to himself.
39
He
it
is is
hecoming
free,
and acquiring
reason
that
and
only be cause he can become,
we can
call
is
him
eit her free or rati onal.

life
Now, there
a period in the
of
man
and likewise
in
is
in the history of
letters
human
man's
society,
the large
of
which
it
is
nature
most clearly read
when
hard to detect
so
within
him even the promise of freedom,

is
tender
in
the green blade. the
We
find
him sunk
sense,
victim
of his immediate wants,
the willing, nay, rather, the unconscious, bonds-
man
lates
of powers which he
has not recognized.

is.
Choice of a kind there always
He
assimi-
what he
selects.
He
the
is
turns his lips to a

the
plants
feels
good he does not know as

toward
mother's
turn
its
the
light,
or
child
it
for
breast.
Nor
thus
merely sensuous
seeks
also
;
good
that
he
blindly
is,
but
for
the
its
rational
soul,
which he
feels
nutriment.
And, doubtless,
'He
the mother's breast with innocent milk,
Who
fills
Doth also for our nobler part provide, Under His great correction and control, As innocent instincts, and as innocent food.'^
^
Wordsworth's Prelude.
40

But man's choice
at first
;
is
amongst matters
small, although essential
it
moves within the

with
narrow range of sensible affections and sensuous

needs,
amongst
alternatives
prescribed
his consent
It concerns
unasked and his assent unconscious.
him greatly
does
life
it
not
whether
he be born of vicious or of virtuous parents, amidst affluence or utter poverty

enters on the scene of
e
;
whether he
amongst the Lakecentury and

Yet, in
will
âs
iLz.
dwellers,
or
in
the
twentieth
is
l^Ptce.
""^
.
aO)
''^
amongst a people which
civilized.
these matters he has no choice;
and none
laryyi-i^
/Icc^j i\
or^
deny that they determine the main range and

quality of his
life.
if^hê-cri.'im.
'^dL
^ji
>elf
Born
his
in his
own
place and time and heir of
parents'
strain
he
is
still
not
free
if
freedom means to be emancipate.

his
spirit
For, around
there
presses
continuously
an
all-
encompassing spiritual
him, not in early
life
atmosphere.
We
find
only but not infrequently
throughout his days, without question on his

part or the faintest notion of demurring, saturated with
his
people's
ways
of
life.
'
His
language
is
the language of his people.'
His

opinions and
small,
habits, in
41
in
his
great
things
opinions
and
of
are
the
habits
and
neighbours.
He
has nothing of 'his own.'

tastes,
He
has borrowed
creed.
his
his
morals and his
The world of
is
traditions
and customs
into
which he grows
;
born are assimilated bv him

life,
as he
they enter into his
become
his experience,
and constitute the very structure

has invented nothing
:
of his soul.
He
:
he has
invited nothing
he has but culled from that
which was provided.

around
shell
The general
deep
to
sea,
life
flows
him
his
like
the
and
fills
the
is
of
spirit
overflowing.
He
content to learn and obey, comprehending

of the
'
little
loud prophetic blast

in
'
of the vast social
harmony
and
which his own voice feebly mingles.

strives to understand his people's
criticise
Even when he
life,
to
his
times,
he
does
so
under conditions which they have determined
and with a mind which they themselves have

formed. him.
Indeed
tliey
criticise
themselves
in
He
as
is
their
instrument.
In him they
a^êar
thinking
and
willing,
and
he
is
mighty only through their presence.
Not the
42

.spirit
most revolntionary
risen in revolt against

it
his age escapes its power, nor can
strike its
age
except
with
its
weapons.
And on
the
other hand, the best achievement of the wisest
men '1^
j5VLA^cj)
s
is
but to apprehend the meaning of their

its
time and adopt

is
deeper purposes.
is
Reform
evolution,
^j^^
and proj)hecy
insight.
They
perma-
^^^
discovery and
the use of the
tcnâ-
nent tendencies, a borrowing of the forces of

the living world, in order to
to
help the world
overcome
itself.
Not more
laws which
understand,
gradually
it is
conscious,
or
less
obedient
to
does
a
not deliberately choose or

people
itself
as
whole, the
its
as
it
compacts
into
rational
system of the Political State, with
one
life
and many aims
and
institutions.
itself
people
becomes, and sustains

realizing
is
as a
community,
more or
less
imperfectly a good that

it
is
common, without knowing what

nation
is
doing.
'
Complex of Human Forces and

and
;
Individualities hurled forth, to act
react,
on circumstances and on one another

out what
it
is
to
work
in
them
to work.
The thing

they will do
to
is
43
known
It
is
to no
man
least of all
Coo t(^bc
themselves.
the
inflammable^ im.
measurable
itself.
Fire-work,
generating,
consuming
With what
phases, to
what extent, with

Philosophy and
Trackless,
what
results it will
burn
in
off,
Perspicacity
in
conjecture
vain.'^
very truth, has been
the
path
of man's
history.
all
He
has set forth on the greatest of
his
quests,
namely that
of
living
in
common bond
the gier-eagle
of freedom with his fellows, like
'Stooping at once
Into the vast and unexplored abyss,
. .
.
strenuously beating
The
silent,
boundless regions of the sky.'

also,
:
There
is
law here
beyond
all
doubt.
is
Accident compiles nothing

a
accident
only
word
which
men
employ when
they are
ignorant of the cause.

is
But although the law

it is
there
and operative
follow
it
:
all
unknown
to
those
who
the architect's plan enters
not into the thoughts of those

the
rising
who work upon

fabric.
iv.
walls
of
the
social
It
is
^Carlyle, French Rev., Bk. vii. Chap.
44

up
in the course of the
built
petty commerce
men exchange satisfactions and mutually awaken wants. From the mere
of will with will, as
need to
live,
and
to
be let
live,
arise
slowly
the beneficent customs and usages of a

life,
common
mutual trust and a

;
will
towards public
justice
and,
little
by
little,
they clothe them-
selves in moral
tions.
ways of
first,
life
and stable
institu-
Men,
at
as
they come together

early
society,
or find
themselves together, in
have
little
knowledge of any other good than
that of mere living.
But
discipline of fear,
'By the impressive
By
pleasure and repeated happiness,
So frequently repeated, and by force
Of obscure
feelings representative
Of
things forgotten,'
they are led to achieve ends which they have

not even desired and to attain forms of good
which they
do
not
recognize
It
*
till
they
are
already in their hands.

as
it
was not Saul alone,
has been well said,
who went
race.
forth to
seek his father's asses and found a kingdom.'
This
is
the history of the
human

When we
we cannot be
'
45
contemplate such facts as these,

surprised that
men have
magnified
the unconscious reason of the world,' and found
its
working within the
spirit of
man
far
more
excellent than
any conscious mind or deliberate

'
purpose of his own.
The only
results
which
title
reason can claim as hers
by an exclusive
^
are of the nature of logical conclusions,'
says
Mr. Balfour.
And how
the
'
trifling are these
when
the
^
compared
which
with
all-pervading
'
influences
is
-
flow
from
Authority
which
name Mr. Balfour
gives to tradition.
wijbh-"
"If we are to judge

these rival clainiaiit,,--we
it is
equity between
must not forget that

to which,
Authoritymther than Reason
in
the main,
we owe, not
;
religion
only, but
ethics
and
politics
that
it is
Authority which
supplies us with essential elements in the pre-
mises of Science
that
it
is
Authority rather
than Reason which lays deep the foundations

of social
life
;
that
it
is
Authority rather than

superstructure.
Reason which cements though

it
^
its
And
it
may seem
to savour of paradox,
p. 212.
FoundatioTis of Beliefs 1st edition,
4G
is

yet no exaggeration to say, that
the
quality
in
if
we would
find
which we
most notably
look for
it,
excel the brute creation,
we should
not so
much
in our faculty of convincing
and
being convinced by the exercise of reasoning,

as
in
our capacity
for
influencing and being
vt jl^vt
oruK-v
<3j-
J*:::
influenced through the action of Authority."^

]ârrow, indeed, on his view would
.LTV-
be the
thoughts, and confused the purposes, of a
man
good
who
believed
nothing
and
sought
no
which he could not justify by means of reason.
Keason has a most petty rdle

It
in
human
afiairs.
serves
nothing except to receive, arrange,
register,
and transmit the traditions which are

Reason
the real substance of man's experience.

is
'
formal
'
faculty
is
'
the curator of a
treasures
museum
that
are
who catalogues and

not his own.
its
'
labels
it
Nor
'
matter of regret that

is
;
rdle
is
petty.
Reasoning
a force most
apt
to
divide
and disintegrate
and though
division
and disintegration may often be the

of social
necessary preliminaries
still
development,
more necessary
are the forces which bind
Îbid. pp. 229, 230.

and
stiffen,
47
without which there would be no
society to develop.'^
We
hear the
same news of human reason
from another charming writer on philosophy.
Our conscious
is
life,
for Professor
less
William James,
incomparably
rich
in
meaning and of
is
less
consequence in practice than

life
the sub-
conscious
upon which
it
rests.
The
real
forces of our life
are out of sight.

feeble
circle
Our conlight
sciousness
is
luminary
whose
makes
little
on
the
surface
of
an
unfathomable
rise
ocean
with
whose
heaving
we
and
fall,
and whose unexplored depths hide

passions
the
determining
and
the
elemental
impulses of our being.
Now, there
is
truth,
but there
is
also mis-
chievous error in these views.

disentangle
Let us try to
as
them.
It
is
true,
indeed
we
is
have already recognized, that what a

he
is
man
in virtue of the traditions of his people.
Strip
fully
him
of
all
of these and he stands pitihelpless.
naked and
For these traditions
are not possessions
from which he can divest

Ubid. 229.
48

They
are his experience,
or disentangle himself.
and a man's experience enters into and becomes

the very substance of his rational
operative in
all
life.
It is
that he does.
He
is
can no more
distinguish-
set aside his experience
when he
ing error from truth, right from wrong, or what

has,
from what has not, aesthetic value, than
he can in manhood exercise the judgment or

the tastes of his childhood.
The
self,
at
any
core
moment,
is
not
an
abstract
entity,
;
or
it is
seated at the centre of his experience
the
acts
organized
and living system of
his past
of willing, desiring, knowing, and feeling.
For
although the acts themselves have passed away
one by one,
the
doing
of
them has struck

in a word,
:
inwards in each instance and has modified the

self for
ever more.
The
self,
is
living
and operative memory
memory
which,
so far from being the resuscitation of dead or
sleeping ideas,
is
experience repeating
itself,
the
very
self iterating its operations.

is
There
conscious
conscious.
also
sense
is
in
life
of
man
far
which the submore rich than his

thought
will
No
effort of reflective

enable
49
life.
him
fully to
reconstruct
liis
inner
He knows
himself only in part,
as he
knows
his
other objects only in part.
Nowhere does
plummet reach bottom.

Lastly, I
would allow that
tradition,
is
which
is
the experience of his people,
wiser as well as
wider than his own.

limited aspects
He
it.
can appropriate only

is
of
Nay, he
capable of
incompletely exercising his
own
experience,
and
thereby of falling below himself

is
is
This, as a rule,
what
is
meant by
action from
passion.
It
to neglect, or to refuse, to put the act in a
wide context.
Had
the young
man, tempted
to do wrong, asked
how
his
unworthy purpose
would
affect his life as a
whole
his relation to
totality of the
its
his father or mother,
and to the
connexions in which he stands to his fellows,

the temptation would have lost
relaxed
its
power and
hold.
The power of passion over

it,
him
is
due to
his shutting himself in with
excluding the wide, sane world.

Nevertheless,
tion,
it
does not follow that

its
tradiis
wide and intimate as are

reason,
content,
in itself better than
or has a rightful
50

its voice.
authority to silence
The
is
fact is that
the distinction between

opposition factitious.
is,
them
false
and their
The
tradition of
result
any age
of
after
all,
the product and

of
?
the
rational
activities
its
predecessor.
Whence
upon
and what
has tradition come

its
How
has
it
it
started
way
'?
What compacted
it ?
at
first,
sustains
Customs do not
arise of themselves,
nor do opinions and creeds grow like weeds.
Great and powerful as a people's tradition

it
is,
has been built up, like coral islands amidst

deep,
the
from
the
many
of
little
reasons
and
men.
insignificant
purposes
insignificant
There
is
no customary opinion which was not
once a bold conception, and
no
habit which
enterprise.
was not at one time a venturous

Reason built
tradition,
it.
and reason alone receives
and transmits
traditions
:
Brutes have instincts, but not
for
though they
may
lives
be conscious,
they are not self-conscious.

reflexion
They can not by

an object of
make
their
own
their thought,
and
so enlarge them.
The whole
is
rich heritage of the traditions of a people

])ut as
the bank whose wealth
is all
made up of

the
51
many
savings hoarded by
a time.
its
depositors little
by
little at
As
to the contrast of the
wisdom of
tradition
with that of the individual's reason, whereby

the
latter
is
so
often
rebuked and
silenced,
is
that also conceals a fallacy.

unjust.
The comparison
To make
age
it
just
we must obviously
become
less
compare
with
it
age,
will
and individual with

certain
individual.
Then
that the world was wise only at the beginning

of things,
and that
it
will be
sane only
if
it
refuses to permit the individual to exercise his

faculties.
To bind reason
is
in chains at the feet
of tradition
to enslave it to its
own
and
past.
Nor
tegrates
is
;
it it
reason
is
that
disrupts
disin-
the
absence of reason,
or
set
its
inadequate exercise.
A
;
class
of boys,
to
work a new
exercise in arithmetic, will arrive at
different conclusions
but
let
them
learn more,
in
is
and they
the truth
will
agree.
They come together

well.
life.
when they reason
And
it
not otherwise with the affairs of
It is
not
by darkening the
intelligence or
by rendering
the reasoning powers of
man
inoperative that
o2

to unite a people in the pursuit
we can hope
of the ends which contain their welfare.
The
vast order of the natural world
is
being re-
vealed to man, and the sphere of unintelligible
chaos
the
is
being confined by the combination of

enquiries
rational
filled
of
many
disinterested
minds,
with passion for the truth.
And
the order of society can be comprehended and
achieved by no other method.

tortuous and
at
The uncertain,
in
most expensive ways

public
which
is
present
the
welfare
is
sought
evidence, not of the excessive but of the defective use of reason.
We
are paying the penalties
of the
absence
of
of rational
welfare.
research
into
social
the
principles
social
Our
and
political life is the victim of blind
experiment,
and we find the right way too often only by

trying
first all
the wrong
;
ways and exhausting

because
is
the possibilities of error
it is
the Aôice
of prejudice and passion which
most audible,
and because our statesmen devote themselves

to
making
followers
by persuasion, rather than

social life
it
to enquiry.
We
have no science of
and few, indeed, there be who seek
with

the
sincere
53
disinterestedness
of
the
enquirers
into nature's realm.
The
only
tradition of a people has its value

it is
but
when
taken up and made to live again
in the individual's
thought and
is
will.
The sub;
conscious
life
of
man
rich
and great
its
but
he comes into possession of none of
wealth
except that which breaks out into his conscious
mind and becomes

of
lies
all
it is
his experience.
All the rest
like
the mystery of the world which
around him, a territory unexplored, with

its
treasures
lies
beyond the range of

in
use.
For
value
their spite
not
things
themselves,
but in
in
its
use
and
comprehension.
extent of rich
Australia,
soil
of its vast
and
mountains veined with gold, was a poor continent,
of no account in the world's mart, so

its
long as
inhabitants were savage.
And
the
traditions of the wisest ages are a meaningless
inheritance
to
the
crude
and
ignorant.
Of
what
of
avail
was the art of Greece or the polity

Goths and Vandals
?
Rome
to the
Verily,
they speak not wisely
who would
set tradition
above or against reason.
It is to set the
dead
54

life
body above the

tecting
it
which
sustains
it,
pro-
against disintegration and decay.

situation
The truth of the

usual,
thus proves, as
to
be complex.
Tradition
and reason and can not
are elements which interpenetrate
be sundered without being destroyed.

lives
The one
If
and grows
first
;
in virtue of the other.
man
did not at
accept the beliefs and customs
of his people
if
he were not for a considerable

assimilative
part of his
life docile,
and
uncritical
of the rational habitudes of his time, receiving

his
nutriment prepared,
simplified
life
and
the
made
social
innocent
from
the
larger
of
organism, even as a child
takes
its
mother's
milk, reason could not be fostered within him.
His dependence in
this respect is absolute,
and
is
knows no
the
limit.
On
life
the other hand, there

of the individual
is
no doubt that the

first his
from
very own.
At every
stage
'Mind keeps her own

Inviolate retirement.'
Personality
is
always
single,
profoundly private
it
and enisled within
itself.
But
feeds on the
outer world, and needs the circumambient air

of the social sky.
55
What
the plenteous produce
of the earth
is
for
man's physical organism, the

of his people
are
opinions and habits

spirit.
to
his
The mighty
energies which uphold the

its
life
community,
maintaining
unbroken
life.
through the centuries, pass into his own
The substance of
social
his soul is social.
He
;
is
it
his
is
world gathered into a new focus
individuated
anew
in his person.
Of freedom,
is
if
freedom means separation, there

in promise.
none, except
be,
The conditions of freedom may

detachment,
:
and indeed are being, slowly gathered together.
But the
spirit
is
of
criticism
and
innovation
at first feeble
it is like
the revolt
of the babe
against
its
mother which brings
no cessation of
society
is
love, or care or nutriment.
No
is
so conservative as the society
which
crude,
and no traditions are so inexpugnable,
or can live so long after all their
meaning has
Progress
it
been
is
lost, as
those of a savage people.
a force that gathers acceleration as
goes
and
in early society it is for ages together quite
undiscernible.
But
time
surely
comes
to
every
man,
56

when he
ceases
to
according to his measure,
be the docile
people.
medium of the traditions of his And when he moves he moves society.

;
Absolutely passive he never was

personality
is
the weakest
never mere environment.
Pure
activity he never becomes, for he never

all his
makes
environment
his
own, and his experience

it.
to the end washes against rocks that bound
Man,
free.
in other words,
is
never utterly bond or

his choice
for that
But the range of

It
is
widens and
purpose that
'
his
freedom grows.
society nurses
him on her
knees,
He
sucks
the breasts of the
universal
ethos
'
that he
may some day walk

intelligence
about his own ways, and

eyes
of an
to
survey the world with the fresh

that
is
awake.
to
Society lends
him her wisdom, imparts

elements of her
him the
in
rational
own
life,
order
that
by
means of them he may

challenge
scrutinize her opinions,
her
faith,
and
reform
her
ways.
Otherwise, her customs would become stale and
her faith a
its
lifeless creed.
Social life
would miss
tells us,
immortality, which comes, as Plato
only through
constant
generation.
But the

intimacy of a
57
man and
his people
is
not broken,
his
any more than that of the wise father and
grown-up
It
is
son,
dutiful
in
his
independence.
the spirit which has built up the social

its
world that becomes in

of
own members aware
what
it
it
has achieved.
itself
By means
of their
mind,
It
examines
and achieves freedom.

not, indeed, shaking
it
can
now move onward,
off its past,
but consecrating
to
new purposes
dead
is
self.
and making a stepping-stone of
its
The
first
result of this
change
a certain
It
loss of authority to the social world.
cannot
its
dogmatize any longer, and must
exercise
beliefs,
power
in
another way.
Customs,
rules
of conduct, polities,
institutions, creeds,
which
were matters of course, stable as earth and sky
and
apparently
not
seen
more
to
subject
to
man's
control, are
now
be the products of
first
man's
activities.
Conceived at
to
have
come from the Gods

every people,
barian,
for
it
is
to the
Gods that
Jew and
the
Gentile,
first
Greek and barof their

in
attribute
are
institution
laws
they
found
to
have originated
the warring passions and the groping reason of
58

They
are inventions, conventions, devices
men.
which men have hit upon from time to time and

agreed about in order to abundantly.
live,
and
to live
more
Men have
by
by
their
been broug^ht too;ether
into communities
their wants,
and they are

Utility has
pull
it
held
to^fyether
mutual
use.
built the State
and
utility
spirit
may
of
down
own
again
for
its
when the
man becomes
also destroy,
aware of
rights.
if it
own might, it What it has created

;
will assert its

it
may
is
pleases
for
the worker
ever greater
than his work.

Thus,
there
gradually grows
conviction
up
and
an
inner
world
rights.
of
personal
of private
The individual
all
constitutes himself into
the measure of
all
is
things,
and the
arbiter of
values.
his
The standard of truth and

of right and
error
is
his
own judgment, and own conscience.

certain periods,
wrong
At
as
in
and by certain individuals,

this
Athens and by the Sophists,

is
world
of inner conviction
of objective law
set against the outer order
and custom.
The authority of
is
the State
is
set at nought.
This
the prize and

the penalty,
tlie
59
first
bitter fruit of reflexion,
of that turning of the
mind inward upon

In
all
itself,
which philosophy
the
is.
ages of the world

is
young philosopher,
as Plato tells us,
like
the puppy-dog.
He must
tear things to pieces
while he
is
teething.
There are
men
always,
on the way to wisdom and not yet arrived,

in
whose
ears,
will,
let
the State and
Church say
what they
there is an inner voice which

is all
keeps murmuring, which they think
their
own.
They
will
adopt no belief except that

to
which approves
will
itself
them
as
true
they
obey no law which they do not think just;
they will lend themselves to no purpose which they
do
not
themselves
for
approve
and
they
have no misgivings,
the world has shrunk
into the measure of their thoughts,
and they
know not
system.
that their minds circle within a larger
At such
*
periods
men make much

attitude
of their
Freedom,'
and
they construe
Freedom as Indehold
pendence.
Their
negative.
towards the social

will
all
world
is
They
its
influences at arm's length.
They
desire
none
60

They want
to be let alone to follow
of them.
the guidance of the inner light.

that light
Not only
it
is
is
deemed
all-sufficient
taken to
be original and inborn.
There are no moons

;
amongst minds
self-poised
in these periods
all
are stars,
and
self-illumined.
The tendencies
are
at
work
in
human
and
society at such times
comparable to those we find in a family of
grown-up
trend
sons
daughters.
There
is
a
if
towards
disintegration,
which
may,
powerful enough, leave the parents desolate on

a
hearth grown strangely
silent.
The State
decays with inward feebleness and sinks within

itself,
turning, like old age, from action to re-
flexion,
and idly feeding
itself
on the memory
civilization,
of past nobleness.
A
is
form of
as
was the case

no more.
in Greece, passes
it
away
to return
And
well
if,
as
was again the
case wdth Greece
and
Israel, it leaves a record
of
its
experiences in a literature, from which

patient
of
the
newer world,
the
past
once
more,
may
it
strive to learn.
is
When judgment
as these
is
passed upon such periods

:
all
too apt to be abstract
one

critic sees
61
naught but anarchy, another naught

There
is
but liberty.
there are
in truth neither because
both mutually modified.

lies
As usual
positive
the error
in
not
observing
the
the
beneath
the
negative,
permanent
truth
within the
this
passing falsehood.
spirit
The agents of
which
is
new
of
freedom,
inter-
preted as independence,
of
stray from the paths
wisdom and
of truth not in
what they
assert
but in what they deny.

a
They do
well in setting
in
high
price
to
on
private
judgment and
an
assigning
inner
conscience
authority
last
which
private
are
is
supreme.
But,
in
the
resort,
judgment and the moral voice within

be
prized,
worthy to
not
because
they
are private, but because they stand as spokes-
men and
plenipotentiaries of
is
Good that
is
wider than
embodied
in the objective order
of the State against which they are in revolt.
This truth
is
seen by the wiser
spirits.
It
was/ seen by Socrates but not by the Sophists,
by Burke but not by Bentham.
The former
knew that
'
posterity
men would never look forward to who did not look backward to their
'
G2

and
that
tliey
ancestors,'
cannot
its
serve
the
world
except
by borrowing
powers.
'
To
the
the latter the wisdom of our ancestors was
infantile foolishness of the cradle of the race.'
Such contemners of the past would shut out

the experience of the world, not knowing that
in doing so they
would shut
in their souls
on
emptiness.
Their criticism appears to them to
emanate
solely
from within themselves, and they
are not aware that they have got their objections
to
society
rise
within society, and that no
man
of
it.
can
above his age except by means
The
successful founder of a
new regime
old.
has^
always been the devotee of the
He
has
been a more ardent disciple and a deeper lover

of the
ancient ways than

of
his
others.
He makes
burn within
scrip-
the hearts
followers
to
them because he can open the ancient

tures
of
his
people.
fulfil.
destroy, but to
He has come not to He brings to light the

faith,
better
meaning of the ancient
and by
evolving the present from the past sets free

the future.
He
gives articulate voice
to
the

dim yearnings of
his
63
people,
and
liberates the
ideals surging darkly in their heart.
The true reformer

So
or
far
is
always a generous
spirit.
from feeding on the errors of his time,

its
condemning
institutions,
he takes their
part against
their
lower
selves
and declares
war only against their corruption.

reformation
has ever
either
in
politics
No
in
great
or
religion
:
arisen
is
from the
spirit
of negation
negation
only an accident and bye-product.

either
The true reformer of

does
Church or State
and
in
it is
not aim
his
at overturning them,
not
place.
desire
to
establish
relieve
others
their
He would
the
Church of
en-
crusted falsehoods, he would deliver his country
from the wrongs which
it
inflicts
is
upon
itself.
He
battles for the ideal
which
already in the
world, and asjainst the accidental forms which
cramp
it.
He
;
is
not
less
but more loyal than

loves.
his fellows
and he chastises because he

is
Hence
it
always against his will that he

opposition to the
is
finds himself in
authorities.
constituted
for the error
He
forced into
is
it
which
he
attacks
not
recognized
as
an
64

by
others,
error
and they come

all errors
up
to
its
support.
Moreover,
social
are partial truths,
and
all
wrongs are entangled with the

fabric
right,
and part of the
of the
a
general
customs.
The ancient ways of

is
people die
hard, and their soul
not easily released from

it
the
forms in which
has
embodied
itself.
The State and the Church

the world as
it it
is
resist reforms,
its
and
takes the side of
errors,
not because
prefers
falsehood
to
truth,
or
right to wrong, but because the error and the
wrongs are part of their structure.
They
can-
not be removed, as the reformer generally finds,
without endangering the whole
edifice.
This
fate
is
why
all,
there
falls
upon him the hardest
of
namely, his estrangement from good men.

also
Hence
For
is
the
world
is
at
all
times apt to
it
crucify its saviours, not

it
is
knowing what
doth.
in
their loyalty to the
good which
the slay their prophets not yet come and build

'
visible in
the world
that in one age they

seers
'
of the
good
in
their
sepulchres
the next.
Thus, in the last resort, the web of
human

history shews no rent
;
65
its
deepest changes, as
indeed must be, are changes of the permanent.
Nor
is
such
dissolution
It
of
continuity
the
condition
of freedom.
does
not bring in'
dependence even, but much helplessness.

lives
Man
not except with formulas, with customs,
ivays of doing and living.
Uhi homines sunt
modi
are
sunt.
It
There are modes wherever there

is
men.
the
deepest
is
law of
human
nature,
whereby man
;
a craftsman and tool-
using animal
not the slave of Impulse, Chance,

in
and brute Nature, but

lord.'
^
some measure
their
Nevertheless the change which ensues during

the
conflict
of
the
hero
and
his
age
often
strains the social tissue to the uttermost.
The
be
controversy spreads far beyond any particular

question
of
right
which
happens
to
in
dispute between the hero

or statesman
be he prophet,
At
'
priest,
and
'
his times.
certain periods,
when what we have

freedom, or
universal issue
called the stage of negative

is first
Independence
is
reached, the
raised of the relation of the

ii.
^Carlyle'a French Rev., in.
1.
6G

Shall he obey
is
?
individual to the outer powers.
them,
or
:
they
is
him
Where
or
the
final
it
authority
lie
it
within
without
Does
in
the
inner order of the individual conin

?
science, or
the outer order of the
Church
and State
Has
the
individual
at
any time
the right to challenge and overturn the social order

?
Has the
State at
all
times the right
to overrule the action of its members,

it
and can
at
any time invade the territory of their

life
?
inner
Or has each of them a

it
particular
province within which

If so,
rival,
may
rule
supreme
who
'
shall fix the boundaries, or say to its

far
Thus
thou comest, and not further

has
is
When
Men
by
their
alien
this
question
been
fairly
raised
the banner of freedom
in
very fact unfurled.

it,
slowly rank themselves around

nation,
nation
age by age,
and
strive
all
to
make
and
footing
good
against
despotic
powers,
whether they be the powers of
Nature or the State,

not themselves
'
or
even of
'
a divinity
making
for righteousness.
It is to this controversy that
we must turn
in our
next lecture.
III.
FREEDOM: THEN THE EAR.

The Eastern
peoples lave no genius for Statecraft
:
Greeks discover the Free State

product of the Imagination
paradise
: ;
The The Greek State a

:
its
is
:
characteristics
a social
Reflective thought
of
born, and destroys the
product
the
Imagination
Socrates exercised a stronger destructive
The Greek Sophists power than all

:
the Sophists
for he
:
endowed the individual conscience
with universal rights
The growth
;
of the spirit of free-
dom, shatters
its
outward forms
is
the old institutions
perish and humanity
launched on a
new
enterprise
:
Both the inner aud the outer law are absolute

conflict
;
Their
its
phases exhibited in Stoicism and Christianity,

:
in
Romati Catholicism and in Protestantism

tardily
Why
:
free-
dom comes
pation
It
is
and must take many forms Emancinegative and only the alphabet of true freedom
:
reached
its full
expression in the French Revolution
The preference wisdom
of
Aaron
:
to
Moses
Napoleon
and
Demoiselle Chaumette
;
No
scale
leaps in moral
and
political
and reconstruction must begin at the bottom

:
and run up the whole

the
the ancient world but reinterprets
The new freedom restores it The prophets of

:_
New Age
and
its practical buîa^ss.
III.
FEEEDOM: THEN THE EAR.

It
is
generally recognized,
believe, that only

for
the Western
statecraft
World has shewn any genius

any
strong
or
impulse
towards
political freedom.
In the East, says Hegel,
we
find
'
despotisms
developed
lords
in
magnificent
proportions':
there
or
sovereign
limit,
to
whose
will
was no
save
superstition,
ruling
own caprice over peoples who were

their
rights.
conscious
of
'
no
'
political
Only one
duties,
man was
duty
of
free.
He had
had
rights
and no
while his subjects

absolute
the
one
all-inclusive
in
obedience.
Even
the
history of Israel, to which

is
modern
civilization
all,
in
some respects most indebted of
we
find little promise of free institutions,
and no
conception
of
government except that which
70

rooted
or
in
was
the
will
is
of
it
despotic
God,
to-day
of
priest,
king.
Nor
otherwise
amongst the vast and varied populations

India.
The supreme
obstacle,
which threatens
to
frustrate
the British
people in attempting
lies
to
educate them into self-government,

fact
in
the
rule
that they can
hardly
be taught
to
except as despots, or to obey except as
slaves.
Modern
history
or
presents
no
more
enter-
interesting
prise,
spectacle,
more doubtful
than this of inoculating these
Eastern
peoples with the spirit of the West.
The
first
experiment in
;
political
all
freedom was
made
of
in
Greece
and amongst
the discoveries
that
wonderful people there was none so
great as the discovery of the ide a of a Stat e^^
founded
upon
the
freedom
of
its
members.
None
certainly has brought a greater array of

its train.
beneficent consequences in
virtue of
it
It
was
in
that they broke the brooding quiet

stagnated, and introduced into
it,
of a world
for
the
first
time
according
to
Sir
Henry
Maine, the very idea of progress.
How
to
account for their discovery
we do
FREEDOM: THEN THE EAR

not know.
71
Hegel suggests that
it
sprang from
the temper of the people, which was like that

of the artist,
'
a free individuality, conditioned
by beauty.'
thus of the
all
'
But, of course,
when one speaks

'
temper or disposition
is
of a people,
that
is
meant
that
we
lose sight of the
determining cause amongst a complex totality of

elements.
ceptions,
These terms are merely limiting con-
and a confession of ignorance.
Free,
spontaneous, joyous, the Greeks certainly were
and they were creatively impelled, as

to
artists are,
impress their
own imaginative
Imagination
in its
conceptions
is
upon outward
free,
things.
essentially
:
and a ruling lord

its
own domain
spirit
it
always finds
it
material plastic, and saturates
with
itself.
Hence, while the
of the
East was submerged in nature, and individuality
was overwhelmed, the Greeks looked at
the world with the frank and fearless eyes of

youth.
They were
neither Nature-worshippers
nor Pantheists.
fair
They peopled Olympus with

was
humanities, and kept Destiny in the back-
ground.
Their
Their
religion
'
as
the
sunlight.
fixed
like
Gods
were
ideal
figures,
72

the
eternal
statues in
repose of beauty,' and

affairs of
they mingled freely in the
men.
For the same reason the Greek State was

just
'
the
individual
writ large.'
It
was not
an awesome and alien entity, or abstract power,

elevated above
the
citizen
and endowed with
mysterious authority, in whose face he dared
not look.
himself
He saw
Originally
in
it
only the
replica
of
so
the
Greek State was
intimately at one with the citizens themselves
that in seeking
its
good they never conceived

Indeed,
that they were serving a foreign power.

at
this
stage
neither
their
moral
nor their
political
ends came before them as duties.
The
Greeks, says Hegel, 'had no conscience.'
They
had
fine impulses,
'i'hey
served their country
without reflexion, with the same spontaneous

naturalness with which they served themselves.
'
Their object was their country in

real aspect
its
living
and
this actual Athens, this Sparta,
these Temples, these Altars, this form of social

life,
this
union of fellow-citizens, these manners
and customs.
a
To the Greek
of
life,
his
country was
existence
necessary
without which

was impossible.
not moralized,
periods in our
socialized to
^
'
73
In short, the
if
their politics
were
best
after
manner
of the
own
history, their
morals were
as
degree which
we have not
yet rivalled.
No
the
conditions
of
could be more
political
favourable to
birth
freedom
than
those
of
furnished
Greeks.
by
the
imaginative
first
spirit
the
Nevertheless, this
experiment in
limited
in
freedom was
scale,
timid
in
character,
and of short duration.

in
The Greek State

free city.
was small
Its
extent
it
was only a
citizens
were
few,
and
the
slaves
its
were
many.
Its basis
was so narrow, and

it
memdanger
bers so volatile, that
was constantly
despotism.
it
'
in
of
toppling
over
into
The very
insecure.
If
sentiment of equality rendered
from time
to
time
the people
placed their
confidence in
men
of plastic genius, calling a

for
Solon or Lycurgus to legislate
them, or
placing a Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, or

Pericles at the
head of their
affairs, as
soon as
any of these great men had performed what

^
Hegel's Philosophy of History.
74

i.e.
was needed, envy intruded

the sentiment
talent
the
recoil
of
of equality against
conspicuous
or
and
he
was
either
imprisoned
exiled.'^
The Greek
was
State, in
fact,
was the supreme Every one

;
instance of enlightened comradeship.

free
and equal to
of rights
his
neighbour
raised.
and the
For the
and
question
was not
most part they lived together

saw each other
could
over,
all
in the city,
daily.
In times of danger they

its
take refuge within

citizen
walls.
office.
More*
any
could hold any
He
must be present
business
;
at the critical stages of public

crises
he must take part in decisive
with his entire personality
not
^
with his vote
merely
he must mingle in the heat of action
the passion and the interest of the whole
man
its
being absorbed in the
affair.'
fairer
state
in
than the Greek State at
best, as it
was
Athens at the time of
Pericles,
has never been seen amongst mankind.

is
But
it
evident that
all
it
was not capable of expansion.

it
Least of
could
exhibit the full implications

Ubid.
Îbid.

of freedom.
It
75
was
like
a paradise to
which
mau
will
always look back with longing, but
which he must leave as soon as the quarrel between nature and

is
spirit
breaks out, and right
distinguished from wrong.
And
it
herein
lies
the second supremely inter-
esting aspect of the
Greek
State,
namely, that
it
did lose the paradisaical form which
possessed
as a product of imagination
and
as the expression
of the innocence of natural impulse.

spirit,
The Greek
frank and
as I
have already hinted in a previous

all
lecture,
fearless
its
looking at
eyes,
things with
in
became
It
due course awâre of

itself to
own
in
activity.
found
be supreme.
the world
Mind was the ordering power

and
in
man
was
himself was hidden
the solution
himself,'
of the
enigma of being.
To
'
know
therefore,
his first duty.

itself,
Thought turned
reflective
;
inwards
upon
became
con-
sciousness
emerged as
self-consciousness, impulse
will.
is
and instinct as deliberate purpose and
Now,
reflective
or
self-conscious
thought
at first inimical to the imagination.

its
It hobbles
spontaneity with criticism and brings hesita-
70

;
tion in place of confidence

sis
it
substitutes analy-
for synthetic
construction,
and abstractions
for
sensible
concrete
first
products.
Above
all
it
introduces for the
time a contrast between

the wrong,
the true and
false,
the right and
the permanent reality and the passing
show
Imogen
is
contrasts with which the imagination has nothing

to do.
Who
?
cares whether Cordelia or

is
ever lived, or whether a painting

a portrait
or
not
work of
art has its
own
truth,
but
it
has nothing to do with the context of

:
the wider world
it
is
enough
its
if
it
be
fair,
standing out justified by
own
beauty.^
;
You
cannot universalize a work of art

element, which
tial
is
the sensuous
is
always particular,
as essen-
to
it
as the idea
which
lives
and breathes,
it.
half- revealed
and half-concealed, within

was
set loose
When
reflexion
upon the political

its its
state of Greece,
and the rectitude of

its
claims
and foundations of
bers
authority over
it
mem-
came
to be investigated,
it
was doomed.
^V5unded on impulse,
' '
could
not stand the^
The
artistically true
and the naturally true are entirely
distinct,' says
Goethe.

strain of thouglit.
77
Hence the
ethical enquiries
of Socrates were fatal to the Greek State,

fatal
more
It
is
even than those of the Sophists.

Sophists had found
all things,'
'
true that the
Man
to be
the measure of
unlimited.
and
his rights to
will
be
But though the
that would
destroy the outer order was in their teaching,

the power was not.
For the individual
whom
they set against the State had no better content

than caprice.
He might
think what he pleased
and
will
what he
pleased,
and
anything he
pleased would be true and right for him.

for
But
and
the
same reason they might be

to his neighbour.
false
wrong
Each man's domain
terminated within himself, and there wâs nothing

at his
back to sustain him.
But
it
was other-
wise with Socrates.
He had
the same conviction
as the Sophists of the
primacy of individuality,
its signifi-
but he had a far deeper intuition of

cance.
For him the rights of individuality

its
lay,
not in
singularity or caprice, but in its uni-
versal nature.
Mind, or
deciding
Spirit,
had the
of
intrinsic
capacity
for
questions
right
and
wrong, truth and falsehood, in a
way
that was
78

because
it
final,
was valid for
all.
Socrates
strove to bring his fellow-citizens to recognize,
not only that Virtue
is
knowledge, and that

the right in order to
universal
every
man must know

;
do
it
but also that Virtue has a

It
character.
implies
knowledge of a Good
supreme,
to
lifted
which was good

the
in itself,
above
or
power of the individual
challenge
change.
Here then there

first
is
brought to
light, for the
time,
the sovereign nature of conscience.
It
was not only an authority which claimed,

it
but
had the right to claim, precedence over
every other authority

a
political
be
it
use and wont, or
law and institution.

to death as the
Socrates was
of the State,
condemned
enemy
'
and the sentence, says Hegel,

of unimpeachable rectitude.'
bears the aspect
The Greek State
was not put together on principles that could

sustain the stress, or give
individualities
room
so
for the play of
which
were
ample
and
so
fortified in their claims of freedom.
Its loyalties
were too narrow,

its
its
duties too confined, and
privileges too exclusive.
The State could
pre-

the widest, only to the Greeks
79
scribe loyalty only to Athens, or only to Sparta,

or, at
never to
;
the barbarian, or to
also slaves within
it.
man
as
man.
There were
essential to r
fatal
^.cn-^ I
I
it,
and slavery was
Hence, the teachings of Socrates were

the
TV C.~i OX'
to
Greek
State.
The
spirit
of freedom,
"'
^.
growing apace, shattered the which

a
it
political
form in^,^.
^-^^^.^
'
-,
was confined
It
'
;
as an oak-plant shatters
ûcvf.-fei.
flower pot.'
had, thereafter,
to find,
or
rather to form, an outward political order
more
adequate to
itself;
and mankind
is
launched
on a new and vast enterprise, namely, that of

reconciling
absolute
inner
freedom
with
the
absolute rule of objective law.
This transition
from sense to thought, and

will,
from impulse to conscious
or rather this
sublimation by internal evolution of the former

into the latter,
is
the most
spirit.
momentous
It is
step in
the history of man's

it
is
not abrupt
of a slow
prepared
for.
is
It is the
result
ripening, that
in
of constant decay and re-birth,

is
which
something
always
passing
away
always
and something new, rooted

appearing.
in the old, is
Its stages are so
gradual that they
80
can hardly be discerned.

place a
And
is
yet there takes

or
a
series
momentous
revolution,
of
revolutions.
One day
there
the blind bud,
the next the open blossom, the next the fruit
each
a surprise.
When
sensuous
knowledge
and
impulse
blossom into self-conscious thought and purpose,
^*^V
iirJr^LU^^^^'-^
^^"
'
man comes 'house. He

privilege,
of age,
is
and
is
ruler
in
his
own new
thing
manifestly endowed with a

is
and the privilege

is
the
is
first
'v
of which he
"^^^^
conscious.
But he
also laden
r^
^'^'rî
/-
^^^
well
responsibility.
He
has the duty,
inCic^^'-f'^
a
as well as the right of private as

in
judgment; the
of
i(to>
^^'"^ peril
as
the
privilege
being
free.
And
the last resort, the privilege and the

if
right will be maintained only
he can
rise to
the height of the duty.
The
right of private
judgment
a
is
after all only the right of passing

is
judgment which
is
just; and the right to be

It is the
free
not the right to be capricious.

to will in
right
accord
with the will of the
whole, and therefore to find the nature of things

to be, not an obstruction, but a
side.
power on
v^'-ft->v
''-''
its
For
this alone is freedom.

a cL
ofMîir
acts
etc
LTx^'^n.
'>' <^-
M.V'-C--

Freedom has
tlius
81
two
aspects, both of
them
of infinite value and, in the last resort, incapable

of
any limitation or compromise. and the

outer
Both the
inner
law
must be supreme.
The voice of conscience and the voice of God

are
both authoritative, and they must be in
agreement.
self-imposed^,
categorijofll.
The law of
and yet
its
rational
life
must be
imperatives must be
Hhlman
histo r y
is
the
,
arena wherein
these
two powers come together now

in agreement,
in conflict,
now
in
new
conflict,
and
life
in
now new
agreement.
The peace
of the natural
having
been broken, and the political unions in which

it first
manifested
States
itself
having been destroyed
the
civic
of
Greece
and the
sublime
theocracy of Israel having proved incapable of
standing the strain of the universal truth that
was working within them, a truth which concerned the

destiny
of
all
mankind
we
find
the Imperialism of
Rome
erected on their ruins.
This was a monster State which had no bowels

of compassion for the minor loyalties of national
life,
but with a proud indifterence

F
it
destroyed
82
all

which
it
did not ignore.
It
was
just,
but
not merciful,
extending
its
power above the

was an abstraction
could not delight,
nations like a steel sky.

in
It
which the heart of
man
faith
and which was deaf

it
to his prayers.
in
Moreover
became corrupt, and
the objective
order died within man.

elsewhere
:
He must
seek refuge
;
in himself, said Stoicism

skies,
its
in a
city
beyond the
said
Christianity.
Both of
to
them, each in
own way, sought

for
it
wean
man from
to the
the
world,
was an empty
which men
appearance to the indifference of the one, and

other a place
all
alien,
in
with an eternal mission in their hearts were

pilgrims
its
and
sojourners.
Christianity joined
unresisting
meekness
and the virtues
of
resignation to the enduring pride of Stoicism,
and, with nothing revolutionary in
its
aims,
it
sapped the strength of the imperial institutions.
Only
at such
'
cost
could
'
the
Kingdom
spirit of
of
Heaven
But
be built within, and the
man
be set free to walk in the rays of

it is
its
own
light.
an error to regard this movement
as purely negative.
Man
cannot live amongst

negations.
in freedom,
83
Every new step which was gained

every
could
new
be
truth which came to be
recognized,
made
valid
only
if
it
embodied
of
itself in
an external form.
habitations
in
The
ideals
man must have

like
which
to
dwell, else they lapse
back into empty aspirations
and disappear
smoke
in
air.
'
The word
become
institu-
must
be
made
visible
its
flesh.'
Ideas
must
practice, use
tions.
and wont, stable laws and
Church had
to grow,
and
it
had to build
own
institutions in the world

it.
and hold some commerce with

it
Ultimately
risk its
had to conquer the Empire, and to

life
own
and
spiritual
in
the process, becoming itself a
secular
power,
wielding secular weapons,
oppressing the Spirit of

tive forces
man
a
once more.
Nega;
had to come into play again

first
'
for
Protestantism was at
protest,'
however
future.
we may regard
Thus do we
In
the
its
later history
and
its
find
two laws always operative.

inner
first place,
;
and outer
freedom
grow together
express
itself
for
in
the
former must always

In
it
the
latter.
the
second
place, the spirit
of freedom as
grows must
84
set

up new obstructions
spirit is living,
to
its
own
progress.
The
rest,
an activity that does not

;
process
which does not stop

that
habits,
but
it
must
take
forms
are
in
fixed.
It
must
express itself in
tions,
laws and institu-
vestments
;
'
which
for
'
must grow old and

good customs corrupt
be cast off again

the world
It
is
in
becoming customs.
no marvel, therefore, that the march

or
towards freedom has been slow,

footprints
blood.
intrinsic
that the
of
man's
else
'
history
are
stained
with
Nothing
nature.
can be expected from his

first
The
man
is
of
the
earth,
is
earthy,'
steeped
in
sense,
is
and impulse
to
his
his
only law.
But he
meant
;
wear
on
brow the crown of
spirit
to reign as
to
king
over his
own impulses and

spirit
subject
the world to obedience.
To the natural man,

indeed,
to death.
the
crown
of
is,
crown
If
of
thorns,
worn on the
way
to
he has
not to destroy his natural impulses by ascetic
ways of
vehicles
spiritual
life,
he
has
convert
them
into
and instruments of purposes which are
which
is
still
more
difficult.
If
he

has not to abandon
a
life
85
the
beneficent usages of
within
society,
he
has
to
to
transmute
an
If he
their
meaning by
and
to
lift
referring
them
inner
still
law,
them
into duties.
his
follows
paths worn
easy for
feet
by the
multitudes which have gone before, remaining

a
loyal
citizen
amongst
untried.
his
people,
he must
life
also venture the

is
For the moral
all
lonely
enterprise,
and there
is
no
light
upon the way, except that which shines

clutifulness
from the inner law of

for the right.
and reverence
When we
State
turn
from the individual to the
we
see the
same spectacle of a freedom

infinite toil.
which comes tardily and with

is
It
demanded within the State

to
at first only
by
the few, in regard

a
few matters, and in

find all their
small degree
and these few
world ranged against them.

of the
If the consciousness
Might of
Spirit
and of the inevitableness

an inspired
of
its
victory leads
to
the hero, in
that
'
moment,
proclaim
is
he has overcome
the world,' he
his victory
is
aware at the same time that
gained only in principle.
The
8(>
IDEALISxM AS
'
A PRACTICAL CREED
be
leavened.
'
whole mass
has yet to
The
new
principle has to
become
first
;
the aspiration
and then the habit of the many

sluggish,
and men are

is
and the sleep of sense

freedom has
in
deep.
Further,
the
long
run
to
take
many
as
forms, and to master

It
many
to this
kinds
of resistance.
as well
must be
religious
freedom,
end,
moral freedom.
And
knowledge must oust

cast
superstition,
love
must
out
fear,
the
bondsman must become a
Son, and
God
a Father.
Man must
with
his his
claim to
hold
finite
it
;
immediate
with the
converse
infinite
:
God, the
grant
shall
God
to
shall
face,
and man, seeing God

not death, but
life.
face
find,
It
must
also be social
and
political freedom
life
form of government and a mode of

a whole
is
in
which
people seeks a
common
good,
which
cracy
alone a true Democracy.
For Demo-
is
much more than

all
a claim to rule on the

It is the consciousness
part of
the people.
of the obligation and the privilege of service.

It
is
'a
Kingdom
'
of ends,'
in
to
all
use the great

are
phrase of Kant,
which
sovereigns

and
all
87
life
are
subjects'
form of public
less attained
not clearly conceived as yet, far
by
any community.
Such freedom as
service
this
the
freedom of perfect
has hardly become the conscious purpose

modern State
so far.
of any
Our most generous

Emancipation, and
political impulses, so far,
have too often as their

is
aim the freedom which

which
spirit
is
only the alphabet of true liberty.
The
is,
of
our most revolutionary socialism

fact,
as a
matter of
deeply tainted with
the
is
selfishness of
still
Individualism.
The
own.
life
aspiration
to
endow
individuals with the right and
the
power to
hold
their
Nor
the
is
this
wrong.
Has not the lowest

itself against
task of
maintaining
the whole environing
world, and of preventing forces which are foreign
from invading the sanctuary of
its
inner being
Negation, resistance against, and the exclusion

of,
all
that
is
alien,
is
a necessary condition
of the
humblest individuality.
Without
this
live
self-assertion
its
and repulsion, nothing could
own
life.
But these
forces reach their crisis
in the life of Spirit.
Mind
ruthlessly excludes,
88
nay reduces into meaninglessness and nonentity,

all
that
refuses
to
bend to
or
its
yoke.
is
What
as
Spirit
does
not
it
know
:
purpose
good
it
as nothing for
things come to he for
in
acquiring meaning.
But the freedom which
is
merely freedom
from the world
is,
we
say, only a preliminary
stage of true liberty.
The man who makes most

is
of his detached and irresponsible personality
not
free,
but
the
capricious.
He
spirit
is is
unjust
the
to
himself, for
rational
ness,
;
capricious
least
his
pure independence
is
is
utter weak-
and he
ungrateful to the world.

physical
is
The
objective
order,
and
social,
against
whose
necessities he
in revolt,
is
and from which
he desires to be
nourished him.
free,
the world which has

institutions he
The laws and what
would overthrow, the State which he would

overturn,
or,
is
worse and more
common
amongst
use
as
both
classes
and masses,
of
ruthlessly
mere
means
private
ends,
have
But
in
been to him a shelter and a refuge.

their ardour for emancipation
and the energy
of the assertion of their Individuality
men do

not
89
remember
this.
The Church may have

the virtues,
things
fostered
learning,
cherished
shed
the light of eternity on
the
of time
the State
may have founded
freedom, instituted
and protected every right of person and property

that the individual can claim or seek to enhance
all
this
is
forgotten.
is
When
of
the
Spirit
of
Individualism
the
abroad the stable strength and

benevolence
in the
unobtrusive
the
ancient
authorities
seem to be
way, a standing
is
obstacle to the one thing
which
at
now
'
desired,
is
namely freedom.
for
'
The cry
such periods
is
'
Emancipation.
;
The motto
laissez
alter.
Let
me
be,'
Laissez /aire
loyalties
The old
ties
and
have become irksome bonds.

its
The
walk
will
demos wishes to have

if
it
limbs
free,
to
It
can,
its
unfettered
by conventions.
follow
its
have
at
own way, and

in
own
it
thoughts,
It
any cost and
any manner
pleases.
will express its

all
new-born liberty
in literature
and
the arts in a romantic exuberance of forms.
It will
make
its
own experiments
:
in politics
and
even in religion
it
resolved
to
march,
though
knows not whither.
It prizes
doubt above
90
the creeds outworn, and will prefer Scepticism

to the ancient faith,
and Nihilism to the ancient

'
regime.
It
will
live
according
to
nature,'
which always means living according to the

impulse which happens to be most in evidence
at the
moment.
It prefers to
go naked rather
than to wear the decent habiliments of custom,
and the only vice

It
is
it
recognizes
I
is
'
respectability.'
usual,
and
think right, to say that

its
this
kind of freedom obtained

unrestrained
expression
boldest and
most
in
the
French
Jacques
Revolution.
The
was
Gospel
fairly
of
Jean
to
Rousseau
then
taken
heart.
This people would dissolve the old conventions,

and, if they could not do without any at
if
'
all,
they could not
'
go back to nature
'
without
going on
all foui's,'
they would at least submit

those
to
no conventions except
which
were
forged
by
themselves
by universal
as
consent,
and these should be

bear as possible.
it
few
and
as light to
'
If the State
must
interfere
shall not interfere
much.
go
further
Negation
could
hardly
'
than
it
went
in those days.
Old garnitures and
social

vestures drop
off.
91
being quite decayed, and are

dance.
.
trodden under the National
The
naked
Nation
is
:
for the present, figuratively speaking,
naked
it
has no rule or vesture

Nation.'
set aside
'
but
is
a
ated,
Sanscullotic
Tradition,
secular
and sacred, was

for
it
history was repudiOne.'
was
The Year
There was
:
social
anarchy and religious scepticism
anarchy
not merely as revolt against the evils of the
government which had just perished, but as

a
spirit
of
individualism
as
which regards
;
any
government
merely in
deity a of
restraint
and atheism, not

the
deistic
idol,
the
sense
of
denying
that time
which was only an

ears
far
God remote and without

to
help,
to
hear
or
hands
but
in
the
deeper
and
spirit
more disastrous sense of secularizing the

of
man and And
reducing
it
into
thing with
senses, plus unlimited greed.
yet there was more at work than nihilism
and atheism.
Negation
thing
is
never mere negation.
Men deny one

something
else
because
it
ii.
they
is
believe
with which
'
inconsistent.
Fr. Rev.
iii.
92

is
Negation
is
the collision of two positives

'
it
one segment of experience saying

:
No
'
to
another segment
it
is
often the faith of the

its
present generation at war with the faith of

predecessor.
in
In this case
it
was the
faith of
himself set against

divine,
the
authorities,
man human
and
which had been ruling him without
consulting him.
It is
because negation
is
the collision of two

itself,
positives,
an experience divided against

it.
that no rest can be found in

is
The
situation
if
it
intolerable.
No
house can stand

;
be
all.
divided against itself
that of spirit least of

it
Experience has a varied content, and

entertains
contradictions,
often
if
but not willingly,
they are awake and vocal.
Hence
social, is
scepticism, whether religious, moral or
always in unstable equilibrium.

has
If the
old
faith
become impossible
new one
must be found.
At the very heart
of the wild
anarchy of the French Revolution there was a

striving for
some opinion that men might hold

life
by, for
some way of some
that might be worth
following, for
social
order
within
which

they could find refuge.
93
There was a hurried
obedience to the inner imperative which compels the spirit that negates to escape from its
own achievement.
It
is
no marvel, therefore, that

first
this
people
should at
edifices
build
its
new
:
social
and
religious
'
with slack mortar
that their
Is it
consti-
tutions would not march.'
not a rule of
old that
when men put
aside the sober raiment
of the ancient morals, they will clothe themselves

in the tinselled tags of caprice
?
have never
known
People
a sceptic
who had not

and
his superstitions.
who
reject both Christianity

;
and Science
adopt Christian-Science
trust in
G-od, it is
if
they do not
as likely as not that they
will believe in ghosts.
When
the Israelites lost
sight of
Moses they gathered themselves unto
Aaron
and he took
their offerings
and
'
with
a graving tool fashioned

calf;
them unto
thy
a molten
and they
said,
These be
gods,
Israel.'^
And
French
there was a day in the history
of
the
Revolution
'
when Procureur
Chauraette and Municipals and Departmentals

'
Ex. xxxii.
4.
94

and with them the strangest freightage:
Religion.
a
arrive,
new
;
Demoiselle Candeille, of the

fair
opera
woman
to
look
on when well
rouged; she, borne on palanquin shoulder-high;

with red woollen nightcap
garlanded with oak
;
in
azure mantle
holding in her hand the

sails
Pike of the Jupiter-pe?<pê,
in
heralded
by white young women

is
girt
in
tricolor.
This
our new Divinity

^
Goddess of Reason, and
alone worthy of revering.

adore.'
Her henceforth we
over the
This adoration of Reason went

Republic, and
all
we may
well ask, with Carlyle,
what
while
that
?
'
Reason herself thought

'
of
it
it,
all
the
What
'
can reason think of
except
man
is
a born- worshipper,' if not of the
'
God of all the earth, then of some foolish Mumbo- jumbo made with his own hands. It
'
was the beginning of
religious
reconstruction,
and, in truth, religion could hardly begin again

in a
It
more pathetic way.

is
not
very respectful to Napoleon the
Great to make him take his place at the side of

*
Fr. Rev. in.
iv.

Demoiselle Candeille.
first
95
But he too represents the

;
crude attempt at restoration
and
political
liberty
was not
less caricatured in his
tyranny
reason.
suffi-
than
'
was religion
in
the
'
worship
of
The whifF of grape-shot
announced with
cient emphasis for even that
mad time
to
com-
prehend that the rights of insurrection were

exhausted and that henceforth there must be
peace on any footing, and order at any cost.
The
laid,
first
foundations of the
laid, as
new world were
and
needs must be, on the most

:
rudimentary basis
namely, that of despotism.
For
it
seems to be a universal law that any
new
principle,
whether
it
be moral and concern
merely the
concern the
itself in
life
life
of the individual, or social

of a nation,
and
must
first
express
an elementary form, and operate crudely

energies.
amongst the crudest
Thence
it
must
travel upwards, evolving its content as it goes,
and leavening, one

life
by
one,
the
elements of
within which
it
works.
like
The content of a
meaning
only
first
practical
scientific
principle,
the
of
in
hypothesis,
of
its
comes out
the
process
application.
At
its
signi-
96

is
ficance
small,
as
it
maintains
itself
with
difficulty
amidst the old propensities.
The most
momentous moral
this world
principle ever introduced into
of ours was likened,

it,
by Him who
mustard seed,
his garden.'
^
announced
to
*a
grain
of
which a man took and cast into
But
the
it
gathers strength
as it
life.
works amongst
It
elements of the old
breaks old
habits, nay,
by
its
new
dedication of
them
a
:
it
inspires
them with the
breath
of
nobler
so that
meaning and transmutes them utterly

'
He
that eateth, eateth to the Lord

the
and he
not.'
that eateth not, to

'
Lord he eateth
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man
dieth to himself.'^
This process
is
is
very slow, and
its difficulty
proportionate to the worth of the
new
prin-
ciple.
There
are
no
leaps
in
morals
and
It is
politics,
any more than

to try to
in mathematics.
as vain
social
superimpose an enlightened
polity on a savage people as to expect

in
a beginner
mathematics to solve problems
in the Differential Calculus.

'
Man,
in his pro-
Luke
xiii.
19.
^Romans
xiv. 6, 7.

gress,
97
must run up the whole

all,
scale,
chromatic
political
notes and
in
learning moral and
wisdom.
Nothing
can
be
omitted.
When
religious
history seems to have
forgotten
it.
an aspect of
the good
it
turns back for
The
of
enthusiasm
and moral
rigour
the
age
of
Cromwell forgot the
arts,
and
for the sake of
the arts England had to rejoice for a time in Charles the Second.
It is the tvliole of
human
express
nature which
edifice
is
to
it
be saved, and the social

is
in
which
ultimately
to
itself is to
be a palace of
point
to
many
wings.
From
Candeille
this
of view
even
Demoiselle
pitiful
ceases
be
merely
or
ridiculous.
At the worst she

;
stood for the

is
better cause
free
is
for
any poorest worship that
better than superstition, which always
carries
fear at the heart of

:
it
and abases the
worshipper
and even
if
Reason be not God,
Unreason
is
not amongst His attributes.
And, as
to Napoleon, if he did introduce a

ful
more master-
tyranny which drained the forces of the

still
people
nearer the
lees,
he was, after
all,
tyrant of the people's choice, and they gave G
98
to liim the lives whicli he took.

his
He
exercised
authority in
their
it
name
of
and, as
events
ultimately showed,
was the hand of freedom

the sword.
It
which held
the
hilt
was
freedom that the French people would enforce
on other nations, when they tyrannously de-
manded the death

Nor do
their
of tyrants.
it,
I believe that, in either aspect of
work has proved
vain.
The word which The
has gone forth will not return empty.

ideal of social liberty,
though
it
flickered faint
for a time like a little candle in a high wind,
never went out

to broaden
rejoice
in
and
its
light
is
destined yet
all
downwards
it.
so
that
men
at
shall
Democracy was born
that
it is
time, a Hercules
amongst the snakes, and

its
devoting a growing strength to
more than
twelve labours.
all
In like manner the Ideal of

is
Ideals,
namely, that of Keligion, which

of
the
is
dedication
the
whole
life
to
what
as
I
deemed
highest,
and without which,

live, shall
believe,
no nation can
which
in
yet be
free,
religion
every fibre of
its
credo
shall
commend
itself to
the reason of man, and

satisfy his
99
his
whole heart because
it
satisfies
mind.
What we have
then,
is
to
observe in these
:
events,
new phenomenon
out
to
that of a the
new
principle
setting
master
world.
Man, now completely conscious of

freedom, proceeds to
to establish
it
his right to
make
that freedom good,
amidst the extant powers of the
world,
an
equal,
and
more,
amongst
their
mightiest energies,'
For he has to subordinate

social, political,
them
and
to his spirit,
and make the
religious order the exponents of his freedom.
Hence we
one.
see old
ways of
life
restored one
by
Truths were discovered in the repudiated
creeds, institutions that
were useful and ways
of
life
which were
honourable
and of good
report
old
were found amongst the debris of the
social
and
political
little,
world.
into
These
were
worked,
little
by
the
new
edifice.
But not
in the old way.
History did not turn
back quite along the old track.

Revolution did
not
stultify
The French The

old
itself.
material was put to
new
uses,
in obedience to
the plans
of the
new
architectonic conception
100

IX
of
Freedom
wliicli
was to
itself.
find
no limits any
more, except within
But Freedom
in
itself lias
changed
no
sets
its
meaning
merely-
the meantime.
It
It
is
longer
negative.
no
longer the
the
individual
conscience
against
universal
It is
free,
order of the
Church and the

the State itself
State.
now
divined that
may
be
and the means of
the freedom of
it
its
members.
Men now
regarded
with a new reverence.
History was prized
once more and the

world.
hoary experience of the

'
The
'
Year One
disappeared from the
French Calendar, and men began to count once
more from the opening of the Christian Era

pending the time when they
shall
date the
dawn
'
of man's
hope
still
further
back,
even
when the morning

the sons of
stars
sang together,
for
joy.'
and
all
God shouted
up
to
They
discovered that wisdom had dwelt long in the

world,
and
it
that,
the
measure of their from

of of
capacity,
had
been
guiding
old
the
blind
and
stumbling
footsteps
men.
secular
Religion was brought back.

spirit
The hard
which had cast
its
dusky shadow over

being put to
101
the world, and darkened the ways of mankind,

is
flight.
The
literature
and the
philosophy of the
New Age
for
by no other
name can we
call it
is
instinct with the sense
of a divinity within the world. the promise that all

sacred,
And
there
is
history shall be
deemed
and not merely some nineteen centuries

Nature
life
is
of
it.
also
seen in a
is
larger
light,
and the
of
man
'
freighted with a
a
star
new
with
significance,
light.'
even
as
they load
Hegel and Goethe, Carlyle and Wordsworth

the poetic imagination in
rosy light of the
following
clearness
them catching
first
the
new dawn and
their philosophy
and broadening the light into the
and calm of the common day

I
these
in
poet-philosophers,
their peers
this;
say,
are
unique amongst
and they are unique precisely

it
that
they teach the world as
never was
it
all
taught before, in any age,
how
sacred
is
and how interfused with the light divine.

shall I err
And
is
much, think you,
if I
say that the
practical business
upon which the world

in
its
now
its
engaged,
whether
commerce
and
102

and philosophy, or
and the war of the
real
industries, or in its science

in the battles of the sects
politicians,
is
that of making
prophets, giving
the
ideals
of these
its
them an
actual
footing and the right to rule amongst the com-
mon
affairs
of
the
common world ?
time to come.
It
is
great enterprise and meant to engage the best
might of men
for a long
IV.
FREEDOM: AFTER THAT THE FULL CORN.

The
process which began with the
Athens
:
of Socrates
and
cnhninated in the French Revolution
The conception
illustrated
:
which underlies the process

in
The conception
from
the interaction of the Citizen and the State

citizen
'
The
bad
good state and
distinguished
'
the
'
trade
'
and
profession
the worker and his

is
work
In what sense modern society
a Moloch
Positive
freedom arrives when morality

is
moralized:
of
is socialized and society The Morality, Philosophy, Art and Religion the Modern Age are in concord Their mission is only
: :
to illuminate
Its inevitableness illustrated in

spirit
Words-
worth
but his
was prepared
for it
Moral.
IV.
FEEEDOM: AFTER THAT THE FULL CORN.
Human
history will not
fit
very accurately into
any formula that the philosopher can devise

there are too
many
concurrent ages moving side

collision.
by
side
not
without
Nevertheless,
even without an excessive use of the imagination,
we can
see
in
the Athens of Socrates

process
the
beginning
of
which
gathered
in
strength for the
many
centuries
It
and culminated
was
the
French Revolution.
process
whereby man was learning the

ness of his
intrinsic great-
own nature
has
as a
spiritual
being
and how
the
it
the right, and

its
must acquire
power, of determining
its
own
faith
and
guiding
own
behaviour.
Tliis
process
implied the gradual subjection to criticism of

all
the
institutions
founded
upon
the
might
106
of the stronger, and, in so far as they rested
on that
basis,
their final overthrow.
But, in-
asmuch
in
as
man must have an

live,
objective order
which to
sacred,
these
same
institutions, secular
and
were restored
basis.
again,
though not
they must
be
the
upon the old

express
Henceforth
convictions,
man's
own
and
objective counterpart of his inner
life.
It is this
process of restoration which

consider, with a
we have now
to
view to comprehending someit
thing of the conditions under which

place.
can take
And,
first
of
all,
we must observe the

process
presupposition that underlies the
the
life
idea that was operating within the stubborn
and yet
plastic
material
of the practical
its
of the age
character.
and gradually changing
whole
That idea found
its
prophetic expression in the
imagination of the great poets and the reflective
thought of the philosophers who appeared at

the
is
dawn
of the
New
Epoch.
It
is,
that Spirit
more and higher than any material or natural

and
has superior
is
force,
rights
itself
and
further,
that the natural world
the symbol or
FREEDOM: THE FULL CORN

phenomenal
man's
nature,
heart,
it
107
manifestation
gets
finds
of
into
is
Spirit.
When
of
its
mind
and
entry
the
arcana
at
what
working
will see
something akin to
itself there.
His
its
true
thoughts will express
its
meaning
reality manifests itself in his valid ideas.

is
There
here neither chasm nor

intercourse.
rift
is
but easy
and constant
Nature
not a crass,
material lump, 'or brass clock-work.'
A mechani;
cal explanation of it does not suffice
it is
too
obviously and intimately related to Spirit.

it
is
Nay,
itself spiritual,
shot through and through
with the rays of reason,

significance.
and freighted with
As
to the Social order
the State
it
and
its
secular institutions
and the Church with

not a restraint upon
its rites
and dogmas
it is
the
liberty of Spirit,
through which
free.
must
break in
order to
be
Nor
are
passive
and unquestionable obedience to them, on the

one hand, or an antagonism that shall annul
them, on the other, the only alternatives.
victory of Spirit over
The
them can be much more

'
complete.
It
may
convert them.
'
The Demi-
God who had destroyed
the beautiful world,
108

it
can build
again within, 'with greater majesty.'

in the social
The
Spirit of
order,
man may find itself and much more fully than

coincide,
in the order
of nature.
The law within and the law with-
out
yet
free.
fast,
may
free,
Man may
authority
be obedient and
is
and the more obedient because he

social
The
may
be
still
stead-
and the more steadfast and

it is
imperative
its subjects.
because
rooted in the heart of

is
This, I believe,
clearly the essential
message
of the prophets of the
Modern Age
and the
is
carrying out of this message in practice
the
work on which
reconciling
it is
engaged.
to
We
live
are gradually
ourselves
the
conditions
under
which we necessarily must

promising either
their
without comor
authority
discovering
our
own
their
freedom
for
is
we
are
that
authority
rational
to
it
is
and benevolent, and that

the
pursuit
of
submission
best good.
our
own
We
are re-instituting that authority,

;
converting the law without into a law within
and thereby
Will
realizing the completest liberty.
you permit me
in
to
turn
aside
for
moment
order to illustrate and
bring this

truth more intimately
find
109
?
home
to our
minds
We
and
that
the modern
State protects
life
property, constrains equal justice between
man
and man,
fosters the
restrains the violence of the strong,
weak by educating the young and

It
providing for the needs of the aged poor.
does these things by authoritative enactments,
and
its
decrees carry throughout the whole land

in
much more thoroughly than

State.
*
any rudimentary
irksome
?
Now,
are
these
regulations
'
Certainly
not,'
we
reply,
not to the good
citizen.'
On
the
contrary
they are what he
himself desires, and up to the measure of his

influence,
he has helped to enact them.

is
The
if
taxation they imply

it
no doubt a burden,
be regarded by
itself;
but the intelligent

itself,
is
citizen
does not regard taxation by
but
the
in relation to the
good
it
brings,
which
good of the whole State and comprises his own.

It is thus not only possible,
but
it is
a fact, that
the will of the State and the will of the citizens
can be, not two wills but one.

is
And when
such
the case liberty and law are reconciled.
We
do not see two powers confronting and confining
no IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED

each other
itself itself
;
but one ethical

in
spirit
expressing
at
once
two
directions,
will
manifesting
both in the free
of the citizen and
in
the authoritative imperatives of the State.
And
each sustains the other, as two wills always

in
do when they are
agreement.
The State
finds its enactments ratified
by the consent of
the citizens, and the citizens find their desires

realized in the legislation of the State.
In order to find the conditions which

this possible, let
make
the
us consider for a
moment an
not
opposite
instance.
Let
us
observe,
ideal State
with ideal
citizens,
citizens.
but an imperfect
State
with imperfect
Nor need we
travel far for our examples.
When
is
either the
State or the citizen (or both, as

case)
is
always the
morally crude and undeveloped there
are constant collisions.
The regulations of the
State are irksome to the one, and the liberty

of the citizens constitutes a danger to the other.
The
it
criminal, to the measure of his capacity,
is
an enemy of the social order and would destroy

;
the
autocratic
its
State
is
an enemy to the
repress
it.
freedom of
members and would
<

Even when the
the State
is
111
citizen
is
not a criminal and
not a tyranny
fact,
we have
the
collision
whenever, in
not
the will of the individual

that
of
is
socialized,
;
or
State
is
not
moralized
whenever, in other words, the citizen
does not care

the State for
much
or wisely for the State, or
its citizens.
In such circumstances,
is
the sense of responsibility
weak on both
sides;
and each endeavours

instead of respecting
citizen
to use the other as means,

it
as itself an end.
The
makes
as
much out
It will
of the State as he
citizen
can,
and the State consults the

it
no more
than
it
can avoid.
hoodwink him when
cannot flout his opinions, and enact his will

it
only when
can delay no longer.
How
say
the
:
far this description
answers to any State
that you
know
cannot say.
But
this
can
that
State
so far as such a
is
condition
prevails
political
weak and
unstable.
A
its
society which cares for only
some of
the
members,
while the others
are
denied
rio-hts
and
and
obligations of citizenship,
and are
;
as aliens
foster-children on its hearth
or a State which
'
hearkens only to the voice of a
class
'
and
is
112

;
deaf to wider interests
or a State which protects
and furthers only S07ne of the conditions of a

developed
manhood while
it
neglects
or
re-
pudiates others, can

loyalty.
command
it is
only a limited
It is the scene of dissension,
and the
to
victim of factions, and

steadily towards ends
too
weak
is
move
whose worth
is
universal.
On
the other hand, there
no more certain
symbol of a limited and crude personality than

heedlessness of the
political
common good
its
aTroAt?,
of which the
is
State,
with
institutions,
the
representative.
The
the
man who
is
does
not carry his city within his heart,

starveling.
a spiritual
is
The measure of manhood

its
the
fulness
and generosity of
interests.
The
diviner the
man
the wider the world for which

It does
if
he lives and
a
dies.
not matter what

life
man
does or has,
is
the current of his
sets
inwards he
but a greedy animal with
an unusually voracious appetite.

dignity he has none.
Of
Spiritual
If he cares for the State
only as means
of
securing
his
private
ends,
and uses
its
waters to grind his

class
own
corn, or
is
that of the
with whose interests he
t^tmrn

and he
is
113
immediately bound, he has but aggrandised his

selfishness,
is
as great an
enemy
to his
people as he
to himself. to
The conclusion, then,
which we are driven

ideal
is
is
by the contemplation both of the

the
and of
the
imperfect
State
and
citizen
that
ethical
matter with which we are dealing

character.
On
the one hand,

is,
all
moral questions
questions which
for the individual, that
all
are first in magnitude, are social questions.
The
bad man cannot help being a public calamity,
and the good man, according
to
his
power,
cannot help being the stay and strength of his

people.
Even though he
often errs for lack of
insight, if the well-being of his people pulsates
in his veins there is in his
him what
wonderful
will
correct
And it and how little men

errors.
is
how
rarely
err if their
impulses are
generous and their aims disinterested.

other
On
is
the
are
hand,
questions
of
statesmanship
moral questions, even though morality one thing that no State can enforce.^
*
the
own
For morality must be free, and its motives are the agent's and all that a political State can attempt to secure ai'e
;
114

supreme problem of the State,
it
Tlie
may
be
well to
make
what
clear, is
not merely nor primarily
to secure a particular
form of government
after
but
to
learn
it
ought to strive
under
any form of government.

assume that
provided
its all
We
are inclined to
will
be well with the State

;
government be democratic
the democratic
its
and
we
in
consider
State to be that
which
all
adult citizens have a share in

in
ruling.
But a State may be democratic

and
still
this sense,
be corrupt and degenerate.

it,
a'
It
may
be,
what Plato conceived
slave
to the clamour of passion
and ignorance, and

constituents
a minister a
to the greed of its
thing which
no man can revere and from

seeks
which
every
one
private
gain.
The
question
of
its
turns, once more,
upon the character

is
motives.
is
Any government
ggod^whose
purpose
to serve the
permanent interests_of
to attain
its
the goAêrned; and which seeks
this
end by evolving the character of

the means and outer conditions.
alone, " this year also,
till
;
citizens,
life
it
It
must
let
it,
the moral
it shall
dig about
and dung
and
if
it
bear
fruit, well
and,
8,
9.
if
not, then after that shall it
be cut down."
Luke
xiii.

in
115
which alone
is
is
its
true strength,
demothe
of
cracy
the
best
form
only
is
because
capable
political
wisdom of the many

greater than the
being
much
wisdom of
one, as
it
the political folly of the
many
of
brings with
more
irretrievable disaster than the folly of one.

is
democracy
capable
being
either
the
worst, or the best kind of rule.
It is the best
when
it is
what Plato desired the State

its
to be
in
all
an institution for educating

the virtues.
citizens
For the State ivas an educational
establishment for Plato,
and
all
questions of
statesmanship were moiâl questions.
Taking up both sides once more, we arrive at

the conclusion that the individual finds his tr ue
end
in the State,
and the State

is
in the individual.
Every personal duty

every just and
wise
a social obligation, and

political
enactment has
the evolution of the qualities of personality as

its
end.
No
State
ever legislated well
if
it
weakened the individuality or limited the enterprise of its
copsmuents
truth which jSome

lifeart.
forms of modern Socialism have not laid to
ThîT
is
one more step
still
to be tal^n in
to
loaA
<M-
^^<^
<^^^
ev.'>l^.n^
^/
,^r
i^-"-
116
the analysis of the conditions of a good State.
The recognition of mutual obligation

adequate, and the obligation itself
pletely binding until
it is is
is
not
not com-
known
it
to be self-
imposed
and
it
is
genuinely self-imposed only

as his oivn
when
the agent recognizes

for
good
6-^,^ can have no excuse

line of action freely
revolting against a
determined on by myself,
and
can
have no appeal against
my own
is
conscience.
Nor can
ever justify myself for
not seeking
my own
good.
The obligation
both absolute and
free.
But
ficence.
its
absoluteness
comes from
its
beneof
Duty, the
is
*
'
Stern
daughter
'
the
Voice of God,'
'
a light to guide
as well as
a rod to check the erring, and reprove.'

Stern Lawgiver
!
'
yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds
And
Thou
fragrance in thy footing treads
dost preserve the stars from wrong
And
the most ancient heavens, through
Thee, are fresh
and
strong.'^
1
Wordsworth's 'Ode
to Duty.'

Under the
the social
117
inspiration of duty thus conceived
relations
which
knit
men
to
one
another within the State not only cease to be
irksome bonds, but acquire priceless worth.

duties are the very best things a
His
man
;
has,
for
and
he cannot have too he cannot do

value from
his
is
many
of
them
what
not his duty.

context,
'
He
like
acquires
social
musical
phrase in a beautiful setting, or

in
apples of gold
pictures of silver.'
It is
in his social con-
text that he can exercise his spiritual functions,
which, as Aristotle has shown,
is
happiness.'
What
to
is
it,
for instance, except his obligations

'
his fellowmen,
fills
his station
and
its
duties,'
life
which
with interest and worth the
of
the physician, or judge, or legislator, or teacher,

or the
maker and
distributor of material goods
So
his
far
from confining his freedom, or inhibiting

they are
its
life,
substance and steadfast

let
joy.
Deprive him of these,

social
him stand out
of the
ranks refused,
pitiful
and he presents
one of the most

ever compelled
of spectacles
we
are
to
witness
a
To
willing
worker
to live
holding out empty hands.
man
118
is

The heaviest burden that ever a
to
his cause.
man
its
has
tried
bear
is
life
deprived of
motive.
's
When
gone,'
Othello cries out that 'His
occupation
we seem
It has
to hear the strings

in its
of his heart snap.

context,
seemed to me,
line
almost
the
most pathetic
that
Shakespeare has written.
But
a
'
am
reminded of the difference between

'
profession
and a
'
trade
'
'
trade
in
'
is
said
to be
liveî^
that which a
man
'
follows
is
order to
to
and
'
profession
I
that
follow
/-which a
man
lives.
acknowledge, not wdthlife
out sorrow, that there are stations in
and
rounds of daily duty whose spiritual value for

/^ those
who
are engaged in
them
of
is
very low
and, with the growth of

'
modern invention and

social
<:^'^'^
the increasing
complexity
arrange-
-T-*
ments, their number has vastly increased.
The
symmetry
Athens,
exercising
of character of the citizen of ancient
which
all
gave
him
an opportunity of
his
powers in turn, seems to be
impossible in a modern State where duties are

specialized.
Nor
is
one-sided development the
worst evil which we have to deplore.
For men

are being
raise
119
mechauized by the labour that should

;
them
and society
is
often a parent which

fire,
passes its children through the

to Moloch.
a sacrifice
This
yet to
is
a matter which
modern
society has
less
consider,
on
its
its
own account not

victims.
than on
account of
So
far,
we
have not recognized our responsibility in an

adequate way, nor seriously sought the solution
of a problem which
is
as vital as
it
is difficult.
The more enlightened modern States are striving

to
improve the conditions of labour
but, so
far,
they have not seen their
way
clear to prohibit
much
It
is
of the
labour which dehumanizes men.
recognized, in a theoretic and academic
way, that, even from the

political
point
of view
of
-no
economy, which
is
one of
the
most iUt^^ U
inadequate points of view

the waste of
all
for considering wan^'^^^^'^'^'^

is
^^'
human
qualities
the greatest of
waste.
But even those whose gain would

if
be most immediate
they could devise means

reliable,
by which
all their
employees would be
sober, punctual, sensitive
and
faithful to their
employers'
interests,
have either despaired of
120

or,
bringing this about,
in
many
so.
cases,
have
never seriously attempted to do

cult to say
It is diffi-
whether the men or the masters

in
it is
are
most improvident
is
this
respect.
But
the result
evident
life
the impoverishment
State.
all
of the general
of the
Instead of
economising the greatest of
j^roductive forces,
namely human
up.
I
qualities,
they are being used
Men
are being scrapped like old iron.
cannot
doubt
that
labou r
is
meant ^^^jjg
dignify the labourer,

daily
He
should arise from his
work a
free
better man.
The energies which

coming
he
as
sets
upon
his
handicraft are capable,

of
every
honest
workman knows,
;
back to him enriched

skill,
bringing with them more
the consciousness of a duty well done, and
the satisfaction which the artist knows as his

best
reward.
Provided this takes place, the
diflference
is
between one occupation and another

'
of quite secondary importance.
Two men
honour,'
says
Carlyle,
'
and no
third.
First,
the
toil worn
Craftsman that with earth -made
Implement laboriously conquers the Earth, and
makes her man's.
Venerable to
me
is
the hard

Hand; crooked,
lies
121
coarse; wherein notwithstanding
a cunning Virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of
the Sceptre of this Planet.

the
Venerable, too,
is
rugged
its
face,
all
weather-tanned, besoiled,
;
with
of a
rude intelligence
living
for it
is
the face
Man
manlike.
0,
but the more

even because
!
venerable for thy rudeness, and
we must
pity as well as love thee

!
Hardly-
entreated Brother
For us was thy back so
bent, for us were thy straight limbs

so deformed
:
and
fingers
thou wert our Conscript, on
whom
the
lot
fell,
and fighting our

in
battles wert so
marred.
For
it
thee too
lay
god-created
;
Form, but
was not
to be unfolded
encrusted
must
it
stand with the thick
adhesions
and
like
toil
defacements of
Labour
and thy body,
thy
soul,
was not to know freedom.

:
Yet
on, toil
it
on
thou art in thy duty, be out of

;
who may
thou
toilest
for
the
altogether
indispensable, for daily bread.
'A second man
honour, and
still
more highly
Him who
of Life.
is
;
seen toiling for the spiritually in-
dispensable
Is
not daily bread, but the

not he too in his duty
;
bread
endeavour-
122

Harmony
;
ing towards inward
revealing
his
?
this,
by
act or
by word, through
outward and
all
outward
endeavours, be they high or low

all,
Highest of
when
:
his
his
inward endeavours
Artist
;
are one
when we can name him

heaven-made
us
!
not
earthly Craftsman only, but inspired Thinker,
who
that
with
for
Implement
conquers
toil
Heaven
If the
poor and humble
we have Food, must not the high and glorious toil for him in return, that he have
Light, have
Guidance, Freedom, Immortality

all
These two in
else
is
their degrees
honour
the
all
chaff
and
it
dust,
which
let
wind
blow whither
is it,
listeth.
Unspeakably touching
both dignities united
for the lowest
however, when
I find
toil
and he that must

of man's wants,
highest.
is
outwardly
also toiling inwardly for the

I
Sublimer in this world know
nothing
than a Peasant Saint, could such now anywhere

be met with.
Such a one
will take thee
back
to Nazareth itself; thou wilt see the splendour
of
Heaven spring
forth from the humblest depths

"
'
of Earth, "like a light shining in great darkness.

^
Sartor Iiesartus, Bk.
iii.
(Helotage).
123
In a society where such conditions rule the

State and the individual will verily serve and
strengthen each other.
The
citizen has
its
but to
stand in his station and perform

order to
is
duties in
fulfil
the demands of citizenship.
He
like
an organ to the organism, best where he

his
is
at
own work.
There were then neither
opportunity nor need for that vagrant knighterrantry which sends a

opportunities
of a
man roaming
life,
for
the
good
and we would
witness less
of that
moral condescension and

is
meddlesomeness which
so
well
intentioned
find
and brings so poor a harvest.
He would
is
right things to do where his skill
greatest,
namely, in his own vocation, and perform therein

the unique service which society
demands of him.
more
Doing
that,
none would deserve better of the

is
State, for there
a valid sense, none

all
ulti-
mate,
in
is
which
'service
ranks the same.'
There
purpose
no
humblest
task
;
which
high
may
not ennoble
and no remotest
post on
the confines of a vast empire where
the loyal citizen, like the lonely soldier on the

velt,
may
not
know
that he
is
the representative
124

majesty.
itself
of
it
its
is
And
the State, on
its part,
if
enlightened and worthy of such a
citizen,
will
put forth
all
its
force in
case of
need, in order to protect

in his rights
;
him and
show
sustain
its
him
be
for
he
is
there on
account.
to
Thus does
tog._ii"S.a(iQni
itself
no merely negative thing.
It is emancipation,
non-interference, exclusion, yjde])enden(je jor^tj^^
individu^^ and great, indeed,

civilization
is
the price which
has paid to secure these for him.
But
State
it
;
is
much more.
is
It is
tlie
life
ivithin
the
its
it
the
his
life
of
State within
members,
for
duties to himself are duties
to the State.
'
duty well done radiates
far
shining like a good deed in a naughty world,'

it.
and the world takes note of
The man who
stands firm within his duty, stands not merely

for himself
but
for his family,
and not merely

merely
for
for
his family but for his neighbours, not his neighbours

for
but for his State
nay, he stands
it
what
is
universally right because

'
is
in-
trinsically right.
it
Inasmuch
as ye
have done
brethren,
unto one of the least of these

it
my
ye have done
unto me.'
He
has served the

universal order, and the universal order
his
is
125
at
back to sustain him.

noted, I do not doubt, a certain
You have
who
is
consciousness of invincibility characterize a

considers that he has done the
risfht.
man
It
one of the unique features of the moral con-
sciousness,
and worth considering
as
we
pass.
If his neighbours are against him,
and
his times
condemn him, and he stands alone unsustained by

that
life,
human sympathy which

Having appealed
what remains
decisive.
is
like the sap of
on what secret reservoir of strength does he

?
draw
in vain to the
mind
of his times,
is
to
him
His answer
prompt and
He
appeals to the
hetter
mind
is
of the times to come.
His ultimate
tribunal
'the nature of things.'
For duty,
being an absolute obligation, implies that an

unerring authority has imposed
will of the for religion
it.
It is
the
Absolute for philosophy, and of

:
and
it
must
.
prevail.
?
.
'
If
God God be
for us,
.
who can be
.
against us
Lov ^
<
the ultimate achievement of the t^ci>vscn<) Spirit of Freedom. It cannot demand more. c)w,tt^
is
Herein
Duty being the conscious accord and complicity
126
of the individual's will with the whole scheme
of things,
is
'
Who
is
he that condemneth
?
'
What
Not
of
it
there which can
obstruct or hinder?
it
is
the State, except
when
the
enemy
its
own
welfare, nor humanity, except
when
has
lost its
way.
to
Spirit has
come
to its
own by
was
good
coming
alien
itself,
and
the
world
which
to the
and unfriendly has come over

is
man's side and

enterprise.
his partner in his
spiritual
Now,
of the
this, in its essence, is
what the prophets

'in divers
Modern Age have been teaching
manners,' rending the veil between Nature and

Spirit,
so that the light that dwells 'between

'
the cherubims shall shine forth to the uttermost

parts of the earth.
it is
For morality and philosophy
a gradual process and toilsome achievement
because these are essentially a search and pursuit.
They never count that they have already

' ;
attained, either were already perfect
but they
follow
after,
if
that
they
it is
may
not
apprehend.'
search
For
art
and
:
religion
is
but
possession
it
immediate apprehension, the
consciousness even
now
of the presence in nature

and
in
127
human
of
history of the
object
of their
desire
sense sublime and a disturbing joy.
For
all
them
alike it
is
such a re-translation
secular,
and transformation of the natural and

as to saturate
them with
is
spiritual
significance.
Indeed, this
four
the peculiar
office
of
all
the
of Morality, Philosophy, Art, and Religion,

They
like
elicit
namely, to reveal.
is
the music that
already there,
the
wind amongst the
pines.
Morality does
keeper
:
not
reveals
make
the
man
his
brother's
it
brotherhood
which had been ignored.

devise.
Philosophy does not
It discovers.
all its
The presupposition which

is
underlies
thei'e,
efforts
that
it,
the
truth
is
if it
could only get at
embedded
is
in
the very nature of things.

It
Art
to
not
artifice.
holds
the
mirror
up
nature,
its face.
and the
Religion
:
beauty of nature passes into

does not invent
its best, it finds its
God,
it
finds
Him
and, at
Him
everywhere.
The structure
of things
I
is spiritual.
daresay you have stood of a morning on
one of the heights of your Blue Mountains and
watched the
risinsj
sun
warm
into
wondrous
128
motion the mists that wrapped the world at
your
here,
feet,
in
its
unsubstantial
is lifted
mantle.
for a
Now
deep
ere
now
there, the veil
moment
and you catch a glimpse of a

below,
lying
in
valley,
peaceful
slumber.
before
And
long the whole landscape

in sunshine,
lies
you bathed
every
own
It
:
rock and tree and rivulet
distinct in each line
and curve, and vocal with
peace and
its
particular beauty.
it
The sun
has created nothing
has only brought light

set
free
and warmth.
has
all
the loveliness
forth
which was present

the curves
the
time, called
intensified
and
colours,
and
the
splendour of the scene.
So does the light of
religion illumine this world of ours, lifting the

veil of secularity
from
of
its face,
and raising the

life
common
is
duties
the
common
clear
into
higher value.
eternal,
it
Set in the large context of what
becomes more
to
us
that
some things are worth the doing and others

are better left
undone and
the good stands forth
more
distinct,
evil casts a darker
shadow.
light has
;
Nothing has changed, except that the

come.
Religion
prescribes
no new duties
it
i^^.^^

has no province of
rest of
life.
129
its
own, separate from the
But
it
gives a
new
significance to
duty, and a
new
intensity to our aims.

:
Our
they
echoes
acts are seen to
have vast consequences

flinging
their
reverberate
elsewhere,
beyond the walls of time.

It is a similar illumination
which comes from
Art and Philosophy.

within which
Religion
;
Art has no special sphere

be confined, any more than
it
may
and Philosophy has not a peculiar

its
province of
the
own
outside the sciences
and
seeks
ordinary
reflexions
of
men.
Art
beauty _nd Philosophy
seejks tru^th
all
everywhere.
The
of.
'
'
earth
is theirs,
and
the fulness there-
Art,
Morality,
Philosophy
of
and Religion
spectacular
are
nothing
but points
view,
heights from which Spirit .maj^survey existence;
but a point of view
is
a determining element
in every landscape, natural or spiritual.
They
of
sub-
are protests against disorder, foes of discrepancy,
witnesses
on
behalf
of
ideals,
bringers
facts
architectonic
moods, by which
are
ordinated to some dominant vision, or passion,

or principle
and transubstantiated
in the process.
./
130
for

they are
interfused
with a worth
which
otherwise they cannot have.

It
is
one of the characteristics of the Modern

its
Age,
that
Morality,
illustrating
as
Philosophy,
the
Art and
principle.
Religion
are
same
be,
Their methods,
different,
needs
must
are
quite
in
and
to
each
its
moves
law,
independently
obedience
own
none undertaking
if
the tasks of the others.

are
distinct
their
But
their voices
they make the

concord
is
richer
harmony,
happiest
and
full
of
the
auguries for our age.
There have been times,
even in our own history, when their utterances
were
at
variance,
when
Philosophy was
at
war with Art, Art with Morality, and Religion

with
all
the
three.
Even yet Religion

partner,
is
somewhat
reluctant
lead.
following
rather
than taking the
The cause of
their dis-
crepancy was, no doubt, that not one of them
was near enough to the heart of

feel
reality
to
the throb of
mission,
its
single
life.
They mistook
their
selves.
and did not understand them-
But
in this
life
modern age the grasp of

is
the meaning of
so
much more
close, as

regards the spiritual principle of
different witnesses
it,
131
that these
testi-
support each other's
mony.
Our
greatest
modern poets and
philo-
sophers illumine
one another.
in
Modern poetry
knowledge,
is
has proved
itself,
a peculiar degree, to be
all
'the breath and finer spirit of

the
impassioned
all
expression
science.'
which
in
the
is
countenance of
The imagination
not at war with reason, nor beauty with truth.
The minor poet may, indeed, be

singer of an
still
'
the idle
philo-
empty
day,'
and there are
sophers
their
yet
who
spin
their
abstractions from
own
substance, detached from the living

;
forces of their times
nor
his
is
it
every theologian
who has swept from

webs of antiquated
wings the clinging
traditions.
But the greater

{-^î
poets and philosophers hide in no such reti^
-^l-^
"^"^-^
ment,
and
are
engaged
upon no
little
sjacK
idly ^^^
or, at
'
y^ -y^
private tasks.
least, little
They have
freedom,
caprice.
of the
freedom of
They
express the deep impulse of their epoch yearn-
ing for a more harmonious

necessities
rather,
life,
and they obey
which choose and are not chosen, or
which are chosen because they choose.
132

a poet
is
When
his
at his best there

his
is
a certain
inevitableness
in
work.
He
is
driven by
moods
as
by a strong tempest.
He
;
is
not
always the master of his own conceptions.

says things greater than he
He
knows
and often
enough
it
is
only the slowly maturing experi-
ence of later times which
can bring out and
make good
This was,
his
I
meaning.
believe,
the special, almost the

his
best.
unique character of Wordsworth at
When
himself.
he
is
most himself, he
is
is
least
'
merely
massive
There
in
him
certain
passivity.'
The beauty of the world played

soul,
upon
seems
his
as
upon
a
an
music
organ,
and
his
he
to
give
forth
not
own.
He
appears only to throw open the windows
of his soul, and the beauty of sky and earth
and the grave splendour of the

strike
in.
life
:
of
man
is
no need.
He He
contributes
is
nothing
there
a
not a master but
pupil,
listening with a heart attuned to the majestic
music.
'
Come
forth unto the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.'

'
133
She has a world of ready wealth, Our minds and hearts to bless Spontaneous wisdom, breathed by health, Truth breathed by cheerfulness.'
Poets have used Nature for
many
purposes
sweeping their hands over her strings they have

elicited
what music they

of
pleased. to
It
was the
distinction
Wordsworth not
use nature
at
all.
He was
so trustfully placid,
and lay
so close to her bosom,
that his thoughts rose
and
fell
with her breathing.
'He had only

'^'
to be quiet
'
and attend.'^
The Spirit of Nature was upon me there The Soul of Beauty and Enduring Life
Vouchsafed her inspiration, and diffused Composure and ennobling Harmony.'
He had
but of
only to gaze upon a lovely scene,

'It
itself
became
Far lovelier; and his heart could not sustain
The beauty,
still
more beauteous.'
But he had
to
gaze
with the poet's eye,
and the appearance of mere receptiveness was

as deceptive as
^See
is
the seeming rest of perfect
some
pride.
of
Wordsworth, by Walter Raleigh (Edward Arnold), whose suggestions I have followed with gratitude and
134

Truths break
motion.
upon
the
imagination
of the scientific man, as well as the poet, like
the brightness of a sudden glory, and
we
call
them
intuitive.
;
But they never come

they
are, in fact,
to the
empty mind
for
the sudden
blossoming of
like
much
all
apparently futile reflexion,
the flower of a plant which
seemed
all
dead, and was
naked, throughout the winter.

too, as a rule, to a
These intuitions come

refreshed,
itself,
mind
with
all
its
energies
pent within
ready to break out into a perfect activity

fuses
all
'
which
mass,
past
experience
into
one
living
aglow
with
feeling.
Wordsworth
speaks of
*
a wise passivity.'
Nor less I deem that there are Powers Which of themselves our Minds impress; That we can feed this Mind of ours
In a wise passiveness.'
But the passiveness and

of the
film
sensitiveness are those
mind prepared,
light.
like
the photographer's
Jm'^ the
To the making of the
i^,^^^^. '-^wisdom which can be passive, there has gone a
long discipline of mind and heart

strong;
renunciation,
re straint
and
hig^h
r esolve.
Browning

tells
135
us
how Pompilia
'
could
rise
from law
to law,'
'
The
old to the new, promoted at one

to the
cry-
new
service, not
To
longer bear, but henceforth fight, be found
Sublime in new impatience with the foe
How
'
the fine ear

at first
felt fall
the
first
low Word.'
Thou
prompting of what
laid
I call
God,
And
fools call Nature, didst hear,
comprehend,
Accept the obligation
on thee,
Mother
elect,
to save the unborn child. '^
But
the
fine
ear,
sensitive
to
the
new
command, had been long trained

of virtue.
in the
in the school
Pompilia had been

practised
in
'
true to touch
past,
the
right,
approved
in all docility to all instruction.'
Nor
time
like
is
there a greater fallacy than to think
that the
Beauty of the world comes at any

to
and
truth,
any kind of
or
soul.
it
Beauty
comes
is
is
moral
worth,
not
without much seeking.

in
The
soul that
steeped
for
sense, or disturbed with
low ambitions
possesses
;
things
that
pass,
never
really
the
loveliness of cloud, or sea, or landscape

^
and
The Ring and
the
Book
The Pope.
136

render himself incapable of
re-
man may even

sponding to
'
it.
In vain through every changeful year
A A
Does Nature lead him as before; primrose by a river's brim yellow primrose was to him And it was nothing more.' ^
We
'
find
Wordsworth himself
at
times
es-
tranged from Nature's loveliness.

The world
Little
is
too
Getting and spending,
much with us late and soon, we lay waste our powers;

;
we
see in
Nature that
is
ours.
We
have given our hearts away, a sordid boon

bares her
The sea that The winds
bosom
to the
moon
all
that will be howling at
hours,
And
are up-gathered
For this, for It moves us
now everything, we
like sleeping flowers
are out of tune
not.'
If this quiet passivity, this peace
and purity
of spirit were intermittent and
all
too rare even
to the poet, amidst the speaking silence of the

hills of
Cumberland, and in
his unhurried age,

?
what
shall
we say
of ourselves, in this age
I find
you
here, a
young
nation, with powers
not yet defined, and possibilities not yet circumscribed.
The
virgin peace of a vast continent

^
Peter Bell.

wraps you
all
137
if
about
and one wonders
to its
solemn quietude there responds a complementary

tranquillity in your
own
souls,
and
if
deep answers
unto deep.
Your
city sparkles like a

all its
gem under
your clear skies with

in the
defects a fair thing
midst of loveliness.
May
ask without
presumption whether at times you pause, so that

its
beauty
may
pass into the soul and saturate

I
it
with joy?
do not judge you,

I
for I
do
not know.
But one thing
do
know,
that
no man and no nation was ever truly great

which did not commune with the quiet of the
world
sometimes
by means of
;
reflective
con-
^^
templation, as in the East
sometimes
by^.siegnsê.êrv^^'îe^s
;
of Art, as in Greece and Mediae^r^Tltaly
more
frequently
by means
was
he
of "feligidu.
forth
Israel's greatest
statesman
called
from the land of

sheep.
its
Midian,
where
tended
The most
and
of
picturesque
a
figure
amongst
prophets was
Gilead,
dweller
in
of
a
the
mountains
at
of
lodged
cave
Horeb,
the
mount
God.
These men mustered their powers amidst

Cromwell, who rode the wildest
the silences.
storm which ever broke over your hard-tried
138
'

'
Home
the
that
other
gem amongst
of
quiet,
the
seas,
'
'
little
England with the mighty heart

his
Cromwell had
place,'
times
his
'lown
unit
his
sure refuge.
And
you
so
had
his
rivalled
Ironsides.
And,
most
here,
still
assuredly,
cannot
be
well
with
or
with
us
at home,
who
are heirs to the
unexhausted
inheritance of the stern virtues of the Puritan
Age,
this
if
we
lose utterly this quietness of spirit,
solemn delight in deep communion with

world,
the might and majesty of the

the
or
and of
religion,
or,
mind
of
man.
Either through
through Art and the wisest

still,
literature,
better
throug;ii all of t hem,
we
shall
and
must
listen
to
the
murmuF
of
their
deeper
meaning
other>vise
we can not
prosper.
THE IDEALISM OF WORDSWOETH AND

BROWNING.
What we
phers,
ordinarily expect from the poets and philosofor
and the consequences
Their message to the present age

'a system
them and for ourselves Wordsworth denied

: : '
:
and ordered philosophy
Stupid notions about
philosophic systems and exaggeration of the difference
between poetry and philosophy

judges of
necessarily
either
:
Men who
of
are
not
The prose view

Earnestness
:
the world not

of
true
and
thoroughness
Wordsworth's
contrasted
tellect,
:
Idealism

in-
Browning's Agnosticism as regards the

his Idealism of Love.
and
V.
THE IDEALISM OF WORDSWORTH AND BROWNING.

I
VENTURED,
in
my
last
lecture, to
augur well
its
of the present
age from the concord of
aesthetic, intellectual
and
ethical ideals.
ven-
tured also to set

of
its
it
down
it
as a primary condition
prosperity that
should hold some one
at least of these ideals in high regard, as the
most precious element of
its life,
to be cared for
and fostered beyond every other thing.
But can
ideals be
this faith in the practical efficacy of

?
maintained
Do
the imaginations of
the poet and the theoretic constructions of the
philosopher
life?
verily
mean much
of
in
people's
Of the
investigations
the
man
of
science,
we have no
doubt.
These issue
in dis-
coveries,
and the discoveries
in inventions,
whose
142

means
for
usefulness for man, as
mastering the
material
world,
is
palpable
and greater than
can be measured.
But we hardly expect such
a service from the exponents of ideals.

see visions
They
their
and dream dreams and have
own
but,
for
great qualities, none nobler or more divine
amongst these
qualities,
we do not look
The
Idealists
hard and unadorned
utilities.
are not of this world, nor do they help us directly

in
the conquest of
it.
It
is
enough
if
they
can allure mankind at times to forget the pressure of

its
woes.
We
are content
if
the poet
charms the vacant hour, or
the
philosopher
stimulates the dulled intelligence to some transient sense of the
mystery of being.
We
should
not dream of making the poet our guide along

the
muddy ways
of
life,
or of converting our
philosophers into kings.
The consequences of
and inevitable enough.
the poets
this attitude are natural
We
turn
aside
from
real
when we
life,
are engaged
upon the
business of
and make them companions, at
the best, of only our lighter hours.
And
this
means that
we
do
not
really
believe
their
WORDSWORTH AND BROWNING

message, and have no use for
feed us on ambrosia and
is
it.
143
They would
what we want
manna
The
bread and butter.

Carlyle tells us
that
'
old
Arab
tribes
sing,
would gather
in liveliest
gaudeamus, and
and kindle
bonfires,
and wreathe
crowns
of
honour, and solemnly thank the gods that, in

their Tribe too, a
Poet had shown himself.

;
As
I
indeed they well might
for
what
usefuler,
say not nobler and heavenlier thing could the

gods,
doing their very kindest,
send to any
?
Tribe or Nation, in any time or circumstances
We
behave otherwise.
'We English
made
find a poet,
as brave a
man
as has been
for a
hundred and do
?
years or so anywhere under the
Sun
we
at
kindle bonfires, or
all.
thank the gods

of
it,
Not
We, taking due counsel
set the
man
fries,
to
gauge ale-barrels in the Burgh of
Dum-
and
'
pique ourselves on our " patronage of

^
genius."
We
keep Wordsworth and Browning
waiting in our forecourts, like Johnson

Chesterfield, for fifty years
upon
for re-
not
merely
cognition, but for the wages of ordinary honest

^
Past and Present,
144
hand-labour.
age, that
We tarry so
long, bringing patron-
we
all,
set Carlyle, the prophet
we needed
most of
in the
thinking of a shovel and pickaxe

all
American backwoods,
heart
'
:
but breaking
fit
the proud
either,
Thou
art
not
for that
my
good
fellow.'
And we
compelled
are so con-
sistent in
our conduct, so persevering in our
neglect,
that
we
are
to
seek
its
meaning.
What can it mean, except that we deem such men to stand outside our lives, aloof from our real interests ? Men do not ignore what they
can use, nor are they usually slow to acknowledge the benefits which they recognize.
But
is
the votary
recognized.
of the
'
ideal,
from of
old,
not
;
He
hath no form nor comeliness

is
and when we
that
lacks
shall see him, there
no beauty
we should
truth,
is
desire him.'
its
Either his message

is
or
import
lost
upon
us.
Either he
not worthy of that genuine homage
which
is
obedience from his fellow-men, or their

is
standard of worth
ask where the
practical
efficacy
wrong.
lies.
blame
from
And we may Do ideals

of
well lack
want
contact
with

the nature of things
?
145
to
Or
are
men prone
:
weigh the issues of

ful,
life
in a false balance
care?
alas
of the husks, careless of the grain
What manner
I
of ideals the prophets of the

as the truth of things,
in
modern age have declared

have already
indicated
briefest
'
fashion.
The essence of
salvation,'
their message, their

it
scheme of
form
whether
was delivered
in the
of Art or Morality, of Philosophy or Religion,
was the conviction that

the soul
of
this world of ours
and
man
are
saturated with
spiritual
.^(x-n.
significance.
They had found deliverance from

dualisms
of
^''*'_
7^-
the
cramping
the previous age. -.'êrs
Spirit
and nature, man and the world, things >i^^^*T^'

"
sacred and things secular, did not stand opposed^/^j^^ ^ v<*^^
and exclusive
over
all,'
but
'
the Canopy of
Heaven wasyA^n^
^'-T'^
'
'
bringing harmony and reconcilement.
^^z/r
-
',\,^^ ^'^
These apparent opposites were found to \m]Aj ^pd

one another, to subsist by mutual interfusion,
to interpenetrate
so
that
they cannot be rent

is
asunder.
Mind upholds and

and matter
upheld by the
sea.
world, like a net in the

presses matter,
Spirit sees
its
open
fills
Form
the
ex-
out the form.

in
own
expression
world,
146

it
and communing with

itself.
holds
discourse with
Natural science corroborates the truth which

the poets and philosophers divine.
is
Man,
it tells,
not an exception to the scheme of things, or
a divine after-thought and

world.
addendum
to a dead
He
is
part of nature's
tissue.
;
He
is
brother and blood-relation to the brute
nay,
he was present in promise at the dawn of being,

waiting to be evolved.
spirit
The potencies
For
of his
slumbered
amongst the molten masses

all
is
and the
fiery vapours.
one scheme.
Evolution tolerates no break, brings forth nothing altogether new, permits nothing to become
altogether
old.
It
builds
the
living
present
from the dying

doning nothing
past, forgetting nothing, abanin

its
course,
least of all the

ideal.
dormant promise of the emerging

is
That and
immortal,
present
from
first
to
last
maintaining
in
itself in
every change.
is
Every step
the
at
cosmic process
length
itself
;
its
self- emancipation,
until
it
stands
it
declared
in
a form
worthy of
and
this,
shows
itself as spirit.
In the light of
the last achievement, the

meaning of the whole process becomes
and Nature, bereft of
life
147
visible,
by the abstract dual-
isms of the previous age, comes to her

again.
own
Presenting her as instinct with purpose
and order and beauty, the poetry and philosophy

of the present day, present her in her truth.
For she
they
is
their treasury.
She possesses what

discover,
find,
reveals
all
what they
boun-
teously yields
that they gain.

:
Their thoughts
their mind.
re-
are her communications
she
fills
Enlightened by his
strained
world,
laws,
guided and
by
its
mute
man
some
achieves some
knowledge,
strength.
and
acquires
wisdom
and
Left to himself he were utterly with-
out resource, a blind soul groping in an empty

void.
Man becomes
;
strong only in the strength

sustained
of nature
for
he
is
by her
in
verities.
She
is
his coadjutor
life.
and partner
the enter-
prise of
On
the other hand, nature has

in
meaning and highest worth only

to the
relation
full
man
she evolves.
She blooms into For
significance only in his spirit.
spirit holds
together what else
were scattered, overcoming
the discreteness of time and space and circum-
148

Only where there
is
stance.
mind
is
there
order, or beauty, or purpose, or significance.

It is this
borrowing and lending which modern

discovered,
thought
has
and
the
conditions
which make such commerce

dead
nature
possible.
Between
it
and
never
lie
an
empty mind
and
could,
we
believe,
arise.
The wealth
useless,
of the
world
would
inert
and the
dormant,
isolate.
powers of
were
they
!
man would
by
nature
be for
ever
divorced
and
Why
your very gold mines were but dross
for
your aborigines.
But man and the physical

;
world are not alien to one another

interfused, like
they are
mind and
of
its
experience.
Such
man's
poets
;
interchange
commodities
is
between
spirit
and nature's
it
is
illustrated in
many
real
but
in
Wordsworth that the

is
depth of their inter-communion

sively
for
most impres-
revealed.
And
of
their
intercourse rested
of their being, the
him upon the community

unity
their
essential
substance.
a
For him
distinction
there was between

of function, or a
them hardly
possible delimitation of doin
main.
They partake
one another's moods,

because
the
149
both.
same
presence
dwells
in
There
is
no break or boundary between them,

is
any more than there
between the church-
yard of a sweet English village and the quiet
meadows beyond.
'Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends, Is marked by no distinguishable line The turf unites, the pathways intertwine.'
:
Nature blends with man, and

as the colours fuse
in the
man
with nature,
and fade into one another

There
is
evening sky.
nor
no passion, nor
is
purpose,
brooding
thought which
not
nature's very own.
Gladness, love, the restful
quietude of a stable majesty, she possesses and

feels.
They
are
her
emotions.
;
Wordsworth
educes them from Nature

'
he treats her as a
mystic text, to be deciphered,' by those
who
hold in their
own
souls the key.
'He looked
Ocean and
earth, the solid
frame of earth
And
Ocean's liquid mass, in gladness lay
Beneath him.
Far and wide the clouds were touched,
And
in their silent faces could be read
Unutterable love.
Sound needed none

:
Nor any voice The spectacle;
of joy
his spirit
sensation, soul
drank and form,
150

All melted into
him
they swallowed up
His animal being;
in
them did he
live,
life.'^
And by them
It
is
did he live;
they were his
not easy to realize the depth of this
interfusion of spirit with spirit.
An
intercom-
munion that
understanding
is
voiceless
because the mutual

a
is
deep,
love
which
is
so
intimate that the boundaries between soul and

soul
are
obscured,
we
rarely
witness
never,
of the
probably,
except in
the deep
w^here
recesses
happiest
wedded
life,
much has been

endured.
this
enjoyed in
common and much

at
his
But
AVordsworth,
altitude
in
times,
rose
to
sublime
communion with the natural

him no more
at such periods,
soul.
world
natural for
but a breathing
But what
are
we
?
to
make
are
of such an attitude
towards Nature
How
these,
we
to understand
such passages as
which constitute the
main body of Wordsworth's greatest poetry?

That
their
poetic
value
is
unsurpassed,
and
care
possibly unsurpassable, no one

to deny.
now would
They
are the evidences of his Genius,

^
The Wanderer.

and the speaking splendour of
his
151
unique en-
dowment: by them, 'he has widened the sphere

of
human
But,
'
sensibility,
and introduced a new
element into the intellectual universe.'

are
they true
the
'
?
'
is
the question that

lie
recurs.
Did
Ocean's liquid mass

'
in
gladness,'
and was there

'
unutterable love in
the faces of the clouds
Or was not Wordsnay
worth just taking the
licence, pardonable,
fair
admirable in a poet, of borrowing

tions from his
concep-
own
peculiar
realm of beauty,
indifferent world
and clothing an inanimate and
with a spiritual splendour which was in no wise

its
own
Was
he idealizing the real
or did
he, in virtue of the intimacy of his deeper love,
see
more deeply into the true essence of
its
being than other
men ?
in these lectures the question
I
For our purpose

is
fundamental
perhaps
for
may add
true
that
it
is
fundamental,
of the poet.
If
too,
the
understanding
we
listen to the
exponents of Wordsworth,
at variance on this matter
we
shall find
them
One eminent man
of letters tells us that
'
it
152
is
best to be entirely sceptical as to the existence
of system and
ordered philosophy in Words-
worth.
When
he
tells
us that
*One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can,'
such a proposition
as
cannot be seriously taken

sally for the benefit
more than a half playful some too bookish

and
friend.
of
No
impulse from
at all of
a vernal
wood can teach us anything

good.'
moral
evil
Common
does
sense
endorses
the
criticism.
So
common
warning
experience of the
against
common
too
poets.
The
being
generously
credulous might even be deemed unnecessary.
When
poets
endow nature with the
attributes
of man, they are manifestly, as a rule, indulging

their phantasy,
and they do not mean precisely
what they
say.
We
can distinguish
between
their imaginative flights
and
their sober faith

injustice.
?
without doing them any serious
But
can we do so with Wordsworth
Or are we
not deterred by the fact that he wrote in this

the whole of his highest poetic
cisely
life
?
153
manner, and uttered these thoughts throughout

It is pre-
when he
deals with such themes as these
that his diction acquires that mass and weight
which can hardly be accounted
for unless it
was
laden with the convictions of his deliberate
faith.
That Wordsworth had

philosophy'
is
'
no system or ordered
These imply a
true in a sense.
method and
a spirit of
working which are not

intuition of
'
compatible with
poetry.
the
passion and
Philosophy carries us
far
into
the
region of abstraction and
division,
Analyis",
of controis
versy and contradiction.'
which
the
weapon of death,
and the synthesis
is it
so constantly in its hand,
seeks
is
so far
beyond
its
it
power to complete, that the element in which

lives
'
must always be dangerous, and may even

element to the
poet.'
be a
fatal
Nevertheless, the distinction between poetry
and philosophy
is
easily
exaggerated.
It
is
even apt to disappear when they are at their

best.
'
In
the case of the greatest poets
we
are driven
by
a kind of necessity to ask
what
wâs their philosophy.'
The poet 'looks
steadily
154

and
his subject
is
at his subject,'
human
to
'
life,
and Wordsworth claimed to have done

fulfilment
*
this in
of his
own
mission.
For,
him,
;
poetry was the image of

is
man and
nature
its
object
truth,
not individual and
local,
but
general and operative'
a definition which
might
the
stand for the object of philosophy.

other hand,
On
we
are driven to feel the poetry

It is
of the greatest philosophers.
only those
who
entertain
'
a lurking consciousness that the
realities
of the
muse
are but shows
'
who can
avoid giving the
name
of poetry to the massive
conclusions and the profound enthusiasm which
come
with
the
long- delayed
and
hard- won
affirmations of a Plato or Spinoza.
The Muses
about
are sisters,
and of one blood.
There
is
much nonsense
'
in
the talk
philosophic
system
'
a
an
;
parade of mechanical
order where that a
it
does not
is
exist.
One would think

contrivance,
philosophy
artificial
compact and complete
its
parts fitted together,
morticed and jointed into premisses and conclusions, that can be pulled
down and put up
again at one's pleasure.

But no system
such a description
155
of philosophy ever answered

:
not Plato's, or Aristotle's,

;
or Kant's, or Hegel's, nor even Spinoza's

Spinoza's
for
geometrical
method
is
only surface
is
;
show.
The
philosopher's
world
too
its
large,
and he
feels it in too
many ways
organic
filaments
are
too
numerous,
its
contradicits
life
is
tions too intense,
and the unity of

permit
the
of
too
of
intimate
to
specious
display
logic.
the
fiicile
is,
connexions
barren
Philosophy
thought,
it
indeed, an attempt at coherent
employs argument and aims at proof.
But
it
seeks these where
common
sense seeks
them,
seeking
them with
is
somewhat
greater
persistency.
is
There
no mode of thought which
less
esoteric,
or
more
frank
in
its
comis
munion with the open

none
which
;
world.
Nay, there
of
its
is
less
the
victim
own
hypotheses
for it
examines the presuppositions

lets
which ordinary thought

its
pass,
and shows
in
best
wisdom and
its
greatest care
the
it
choice of its premisses.

treats
Having chosen them,

of
its
them
of
as the
medium
thinking, and
the
li^^ht
all its seeing.
But
it is
continually
156

them
of
to
briDging
the
is
test
of
fact,
and
its
application
birth
them
their
continuous
new
like
and
recreation.
The 'system' grows

is,
a living thing, which experience

are in the
still
for its roots
waters.
The
sopher
relation
is
between the poet and the philo-
described with precision in a letter of
Goethe to Jacobi
You
'
can easily imagine

'
my
attitude to philosophy,' says Goethe.

it
When
lays itself out for division, I cannot get on

it;
with
indeed
may
say that
it
has occasionally
in
done
me harm by
disturbing
it
me
my
natural
course.
it
But when
unites,
or rather, w^hen
confirms our original feeling as though

it
we
were one with nature, and elevates

peaceful intuition that under
its
into a
external avyKpi(n<s
and
if
StaKpia-i^
a divine
life is
present to us, even

life
we
are
not
permitted to live such a

it is
ourselves
in this
then
welcome
to me.'^
Regarded
way
it is
altogether impossible to deny
'philosophy' and 'ordered system' to Wordsworth.

1
To do
so were to take
away from him

:
Quoted by E. Caird, Essays on Literature
'
Goethe and
Philosophy.'

the main secret of his strength.
157
his
He had
enduring view of
life,
and an
inconquerable
conviction as to the nature of the outer universe.
He
the
'
held
it
to be true as a matter of fact that

all its
moral world and

far
play of passion
extended
beyond the domain of human
nature.'
No
philosopher held to his conception

;
with greater tenacity
no
scientific
truth was
maintained with more

is
literal seriousness.
There
a slow and massive persistence, a deliberate
resoluteness, in his thinking

as of one
upon these matters,

his foot
who had planted

it.
upon
a rock
and
will not lift
'To every natural form, rock, fruits or flower, Even the loose stones that cover the high way, I gave a moral life. I saw them feel Or linked them to some feeling the great mass Lay bedded in a quickening soul, and all That I beheld respired with inward meaning.'
:
find
in
such passages a spiritual realism
which
nothing
can
daunt
faith
and
philosophy that will brook no exception to their

sway.
They
are
the
utterances
will follow
of one
who
trusts his principles,
and
them home.
There
is
more than metaphor or
similitude, or
158

:
analogue here
words,
for
Wordsworth meant
There
his
weighty
he believed seriously in 'Nature's

is
depth of
soul.'
more even than that

qualities
anthropomorphism which projects man's

outwards.
The poetry,
like the religion, of the
world's youth might be content
with anthroit.
pomorphism.
his view,
Wordsworth
rejects
Man,
in
was more recipient than donor.

*
would not do
Like Grecian
artists,
give thee
human
cheeks,
be,
Channels for tears; no Naiad shouldst thou
Have
It
neither limbs, feet, feathers, joints nor hairs

is
seems the Eternal Soul
clothed in thee
With purer robes than
those of flesh and blood,
And
hath bestowed on thee a safer good

joy,
Unwearied
and
life
without
its
cares.'
There
is
one passage in the Ethics of Aristotle

point
to as
which
critics
rare,
if
not the
singular occasion,
spirit
is
when the calm
of his scientific
It
is
broken by enthusiasm.
life
where
he sees man's
touch,
of contemplation coming into
nay,
into
unity with
fusion,
the
life
divine.
is
Such contact and
he maintains,
not
possible except for intermittent
moments.
finite.
The
divine
is
high,
man
*
is
weak and
He
Brook.

the atmosphere
is is
159
:
cannot long maintain himself at that altitude

too rare and his
own nature
too crass.
There
is
something analogous in Wordsworth's
view of man's communion with nature.
She
is
so replete with spiritual meaning, so 'majestical,'
that
man
is
not
fit
to hold converse with her,
nor can he receive of her fulness, except in his

sublimer moods.
He must
be humbled
first,
in
order to be raised afterwards.

'
He must
be
Trained
faith,'
To meekness, and
ere
exalted by humble
he can
'Hold up before the mind, intoxicate With present objects and the busy dance
Of things that pass away, a temperate Show of objects that endure.'
Nay, there
is
need of preparation, according

order even
to
to Wordsworth, in
understand
'
the poet's
for
communion with the
world.
And
the sublime
if
we
consider
what are the
cares that
occupy the passing day, and how

the practice and the
course
of
life
remote
is
from the sources of sublimity, in the soul of
man
can
it
be wondered that there
is
little
160

preparation for
a
existing
poet charged with
new mission
to extend its kingdom,

its
is
and to
'
augment and spread

author,
as far as he
enjoyments
?
'
Every
great and at the same
time original, has had the task of creating the

taste
by which he
it
is
to be enjoyed/
Can
be that
it is
the lack of such prepara-
tion which leads us so often to apologize for
Wordsworth's way
ideal
?
'
of
presenting the real
as
He was
inspired,'
we
say.
'
When
he
spoke in his great fashion, he was the vehicle

of enthusiasm
:
eVOeo?
Km
cKcppcou
filled
with the
God, but out of
his mind.
For the light he

:
saw
really never
was on sea or land
the presence
which disturbed him with the joy of elevated

thoughts was not in nature, but in himself.'
Thus, by one means or another, often enough
unconsciously, do
his message,
we take away the import

delectation.
of
and convert
his deepest faith into
matter for mere
Translated into
plain speech our attitude towards

'
him means
of
he was not himself at the time, but the mouthof a spirit which
piece
was not the

but
spirit
simple truth.'
It lied, in fact,
lied magnifi-

cently.
161
For
is
it
not certain that the nature

is
he adorned, and then adored,

crass,
dead, secular,
intelligence
?
material,
and void of
it
all
Do we
with
its
not find
difficult
even to raise the
issue seriously as
between our own common-sense
materialistic realism,
and the idealisms

?
of the poets and philosophers
Nevertheless,
it
was to
raise this precise issue
that the poets and philosophers of our day have

laboured.
Press
as
we may
the
distinction
between the truth of poetry and the matter-offact
of literal
observation, which
is
the kind
of truth
that
philosophy
seeks,
Wordsworth
must
still
be regarded as a deliberate idealist

"
and a very great one.

said that the
'
As philosophers have
that
real
is
the rational,' so a poet

'
may
be allowed
to
declare
the real
is
is
poetic,'"
and the concord between them

than
their
difference.
far
deeper
quarrel
Indeed,
their
is
not with one another, but with mere
common
is,'
sense and the ordinary understanding,

'
which assume that they take the world

but which really interpret
it
as it
in
the light
of transient needs and
'the cares that occupy
162

For
sees
tlie
the passing day.'
eye brings with eye of the
it
much
of
what
it
the
is
man
of
the world, no less than that of the philosopher
and the
poet.
There
need of the consecraworld can be conseit is
tion of the self ere the
crated
self
nor
is it less
true that
a desecrated
which finds a desecrated universe.

poetic and philosophic
It
The agreement of the

view of the world
is is
easily accounted for.
the
unique quality of the great poet and

all
the great philosopher that in

see the whole.
things they
The world shows

itself
itself rational,
and
it
shows
poetic,
under the
it is
'
same
suh
'
conditions,
namely,
when
Then
viewed
specie
aeternitatis.
its
accidents
its
are
divested
of
their
unreason,
and
events
finds
cease to be crude occurrences.

this
The poet
his
unity
by
the
method of
own,
as
and
poet
combines
should.
sensuous
material
Relations which are causal to the
man
of science, or logical to the metaphysician, become

in
his
hands
lyrical,
mystical.
his
Truth breaks
into
measured music at
touch.
But the
method
of their attainment of the sense of unity.
^B

and the way
in
163
is
which they respond to

:
it,
matter of secondary consequence

fact
is,
the central
that they can admit no break in the
continuity,
object,
no ultimate disconnexion
in
their
It is
no mere chance or brute accident.
ignorance
and
the
lack
of
love
and of the
insight which love brings that conceal the con-
nexions of the world, and

harmonies.
make
us deaf to its
For Wordsworth, most of

poets, there
all
amongst the
was one principle
in the universe,
and the principle was

being was void of
'
spiritual.
No form
of
it.
Spirit
knows no
insulated spot,
;
No
chasm, no solitude
from link to link
It circulates, the Soul of all the world.'
To deny him
conviction
believe,
is
this conviction, or to reduce his
into a sensuously delectable

to
make-
degrade the
poet
(Ic<,y.
himself into
'
an
'
idle
singer of an
empty
It
is
not
possible.
But, admitting that this view was held by
him
can
as a theory, held seriously

it
and even
literally,
be admitted by us
This, I conjecture,
164
is

lies
the question that
at the
shall
background of
all
your thoughts.
In
the
We
come
I
to
it
by
you
and bye.
to
meantime may
ask
try
to
maintain a mind unprejudiced
do not wish you to conclude that the poetic

version of the world
is
the true version.
But,
on the other hand,

against what
should like to warn you

is
we know
the greater danger,
namely, the assumption that the only version
which can be true

There are men
life
is
the prose version.
for
whom
the best things_of

call
are
not
real,
and we
them shrewd.
meanest
They
are the
men who
interpret the motives
and actions of
aspects,
their fellows
by
their
and think thereby that they
see beneath
the show of things.
The man-of-the-world does
not believe in goodness that seeks no reward.
Devotion to the public good

sake
care
;
for
its
own
sole
the simplicity
of
heart that does not

or con-
very much
for
power, or rank,
is
sideration, or wealth,
folly
'
the foolishness of the

it.
either false display, or

Cross,' as St.
Paul
called
But
it is
just possible that these things verily

are,
165
and that the worldling's interpretation of

is
the world
of
wrong.
For, after
it
all,
the
mind
man must make what

it is
receives.
The eye
must construct the beauty

even although
the
the
ear
of the evening sky,

to
there
be constructed
in
must catch the music
order
that
music
may
be.
There are no harmonies

nor possibly any beauty
Verily
it
for the
tuneless ear,
of scenery for a cow.

to
requires
mind
commune with mind, love to respond to love, and a spiritual soul to know the spiritual world. Some one told Johnson once, that he was no
gentleman.
'
Sir,'
was the
reply,
'
you are no
judge
Peter Bell, with his prose mind,
may
be an
incompetent judge of the verities of this world

of ours,
little
and
in
the
man-of-the-world,
with
his
faith
God and
all,
his great trust in
the
Devil, may,
after
not be taking things as
they
are.
The music of the universe may have

ears,
been spilled into deaf

folded over an
and
its
glory un-
empty
eye-socket.
vales
'He roved among the
and streams,
dell
',
In the green wood and hollow
166

They were his dwelling, night and day But Nature ne'er could find the way
Into the heart of Peter Bell.
'At noon, when by the
forest's
edge
He
The
lay beneath the branches high,

soft blue
sky did never melt

;
Into his heart
he never
felt
!
The witchery
of the soft blue sky
The witchery was there
but
it
was not there
for Peter Bell, nor for his ass.
And who
needs press
is
shall
all
cast the first stone at
him
For are we not
beings upon
whom
physical
first
;
and with an urgency which

is
imperious
and
not the ascent through

Is it
sense to spirit arduous?

to take for granted,
not
difficult
not
as a thing of course
is
and
obvious, that the natural
alone
verily real
rest
is
and
significant,
and that
?
all
the
of
but
prein
is
pleasing
glamour
is,
The
risk
such
of
supposition
possibly,
greatest
all
it
a
in
community
great
like
yours,
constituted as
in
measure of men
whom
the spirit of
industrial
and
commercial
enterprise
was
so
strong as to break their old faithful intimacies,
and to bring them across the vast and barren

all
life
167
seas to brave the isolated expanse of a continent
untamed.
In the old and comparatively safe
of the mother country, where the

life
many
paths
of
is
have been travelled smooth, and there
wealth of matured experience and spiritual

there was
tradition,
much
to sustain the indi-
vidual's hi2:her
moods
of mind.
In
this
new
if
world,
it
would not have been

left
surprising
naught remained of a culture

its
behind except
fading
echoes.
But
see
evidences that,
in
embarking, your forefathers did not forget
their spiritual freightage.
And
trust that as
you proceed
life,
in the construction of
collision of parties
your national
amidst the
and the
strife
of interests,
the spiritual view of things will

;
not be permitted to become obsolete
but that
you
will
ever set value upon your churches,

all
your schools, and universities, and on

institutions, if there be any,
other
is
whose mission
the making of men.

as
You
will
probably conquer
you stand even though
affairs press
hard
for
neither a nation nor an individual can constrain
nature
into
serviceableness
without
learning
something of their own needs and powers in
168

But your victory
will be the
the process.
more
sure for your idealists

is
for
men
'
to
whom religion
'
a great power
and the love of learning, and

useless learning
especially of the so-called
of
the humanities, a great passion.
The
significance of
Nature
for
man depends
as a
upon the evolution of man's own powers,
book has meaning only to him who can read

the language in which
it is
written.
Nor have
the idealists in their exaltation of Nature for-
gotten this truth

to her
or,
while making
to learn
man
akin
and setting him
from her as a
pupil at her feet, overlooked the significance of

his mind.
for
It has
been
easier,
it
is
true,
both
the poetry and for the science of modern
times to apprehend the order of the material
world than to conceive the reign of law amongst

the capricious fortuities of
human
and
volitions
for
men's purposes are held to be
free,
and freedom
seems to be opposed to law

are multitudinous,
their interests
all
and seemingly
entangled
and
at war.
Nevertheless, even
Wordsworth did not always

His
spiritual inter-
equalize Nature with man.
169
if
pretation of the world was the counterpart,
not even the consequence of his mind's descent

into itself
by
in
'
treading the steps of thought.
For
it
is
the
mind that the elements and
conditions of truth and beauty, elsewhere dis-
persed and sown abroad, are brought together
and
blended
into
harmony.
Hence
man's
spirit is
'A thousand
times more beautiful than the earth

dwells
: .
On which he
Of
Frail as
itself
quality and fabric
more
divine.'
'
man
is
is,
and mortal, yet the
liberty
divine'
'
his,
at large
To roam
among unpeopled
;
glens
And mountainous retirements, By devious footsteps regions

To
oldest time
;
only trod
consecrate
and reckless of the storm
That keeps the raven quiet in her nest, Be as a presence or a motion one Among the many there and while the mists
;
Flying, and rainy vapours, call out shapes
And phantoms
from the crags and
solid earth
As fast as a musician Out of an instrument.
scatters sounds
.
. .
What
a joy to roam,
^
An
equal amongst mightiest energies.'

1
The Solitary.
no IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED

Thus Wordsworth's ultimate theme was Man
but not
man
psychologically considered
;
as
in
previous times
for
though the individual mind

'Keeps her own
Inviolate retirement,'
she
is
not isolated, nor does she beggar herself

:
by exclusion
her
she
comprehends the world

it off
in
own depths and rounds
within herself.
greatness.
Hence her marvel, and her mystic

'Not
chaos, not
The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out
By
As
help of dreams
fall
can
breed such fear and awe
upon us often when we look
Into our Minds, into the
Mind
of
Man
My
'
haunt, and the main region of

is,'
'
my
song.'
There
he
tells
us in one
of his
great
prefaces,
a meditative as well as as a
human
pathos
an enthusiastic as well as an ordinary

a sadness that has
its
sorrow
seat in the depths
of reason, to which the

of itself
mind cannot sink gently

it
but
the
to
which
of
'
must
descend by
In youth,
treading
steps
thought.'
in
all.'
Nature was to him

'
all
The Recluse.

'The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms, were then to me
:
171
An
appetite.'
That time
passed
but
he
fainted
gifts
not,
nor
fol-
mourned nor murmured.
Other
had
lowed, bringing 'abundant recompense.'

'
For
have learned
To look on Nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth, but hearing often-times The still, sad music of humanity.' ^
Reflexion, like a quiet evening spreading in his
soul,
brought out the deeper meaning of the
world
a holy time,
'Quiet as a
Nun
Breathless with adoration.'
For he found
'
the gentleness of heaven brood
over the whole universe.

'
Listen
the mighty Being
is
awake,
And
doth with his eternal motion make

like
sound
thunder
everlastingly.'
Everywhere was
Spirit,
He
found
God
everywhere.
the revelation of the
same Eternal
their
to
which
all
things
owed
^
meaning,
their
music, and their inmost being and substance.

Tintem Abbey.
172

'And
I
have
felt
Presence that disturbs

;
me
with the joy
Of elevated thoughts a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man
motion and a
rolls
spirit,
all
that impels
objects of
i
All thinking things,
all
thought,
And
It
through
all
things.'
was
for her
testimony to this Presence, which

ideal
was her
own
meaning, that
he loved
Nature so much, and found through intercourse

with
her the
stay
of his
faltering
footsteps,
even when he trod the mazes of man's history,

'Intent to weigh
The good and
evil of
our mortal
state.'
I
still
'Therefore
am
lover of the meadows, and the woods,
And
From
Therefore
mountains; and of
this
all
that
we behold
green earth.'
I
'
am
Well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of Of all my moral being.'

^
my
heart,
and soul
Tintern Ahhet/.
'^
Ibid.
WORDSWORTH AND BJIOWNING

The meaning of the world broadened
while
rill
178
for him,
sense
deepened into thought.
As the
becomes a stream and the stream a broad
river,
and
still
they carry within them an intui-
tion of the boundless sea

so in early
which
is
their
home,
youth and thoughtful manhood the
murnmr
his
of the Spirit of all the world was ever

;
in the poet's ears
and
it
grew
till
it
possessed
soul
'
enduringly.
:
Men
vessel.
call
this
'Natural
Religion
it is
Spiritual Religion tuith Nature
as
its
all too
narroiv
Browning's interest in
interest in
man was
more, and his
Nature
less direct
than Wordsworth's.
brief as it
The contrast between them,
must
be,
may
prove instructive.
at
Wordsworth could
himself as
Sordello
'
no time have described

did
in
his
Browning
Preface
to
My
stress
lay on the incidents in

;
the development of a soul

study.
I,
little else is
so.'
worth
at least, always thought
But
Wordsworth
his
lays no
'
stress
'
on the objects of
passive
'
contemplation,
;
he
are
was
few
in
'
their
in his
possession
poetic
life,
there
it
incidents
was too
full
of their omnipresent
174

;
meaning
and he found much besides man
'
well
worth study.'
He was
like
one who stood on
a bold headland looking far out upon the open

ocean.
'
On Man, on
Musing
Nature, and on
human
life,
in solitude, I oft perceive
Fair trains of imagery before
me
rise,
Accompanied by
feelings of delight
Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed.
To these emotions, whencosoe'er they come, Whether from breath of circumstance, Or from the soul an impulse to herself
would give utterance
in
numerous
verse.'
We
patient
miss in Browning the vast expanse, the

expectation,
'
and the brooding peace.

;
He
is
a dweller in the cities
and
it
is
not
the music of the winds and streams, nor the
speaking pause of the silent mountains that we

hear in his verse.
He makes
own Aht
his music,
scat-
tering sounds from an instrument with many-
powers, and, like his
Vogler, exultantly
raising his palace of praise.
But
his instrument
was of human
device.
And
there are disson-
ances in his harmonies, discords that will hardly

^
The Recluse.

be resolved
poets.
:
175
for
he
is
Wagner among
the
He went
evil
forth to seek
contradictions,
challenged the anomalous, outbraved scepticism,
bade
do
its
uttermost
'
slid
by semitones,
sank to the minor,' before he found his restingplace again

:
'
The C major
of this
life.'
No two
Yet
great poets diifer more from one another
than do Wordsworth and Browning.

their mission
and
their testimony
were
'the same.
They triumphed by
virtue of the
same convictions.
unity of
Browning's expression of the

nature in
man and
God was not

It
so
inevitable as Wordsworth's.
was more
;
arti-
culate
and defined and punctuated
but
it
was
less like the
circumambient atmosphere, or the
open eye of universal day.
The unity
of
man
and Nature
and
it
for
Wordsworth was temperamental,

itself
expressed
to both
:
in
moods that were
common
in
the same gladness, love
and peace
the
motion of the Spirit within

the deep breathing of
intuition
them was
a strong
tranquil, like
asleep.
man
But Browning's
of their unity
was acquired.
We
feel
that he
176

sat
had
at
the
feet
of
modern
its
science,
even
hear
of the
though he transfigured
from him
visible
lessons.
We
in
of
the
unity
of
the
structure
things.
He
brooks
no break
ascent from lowest being to man's
endowment
The
ele-
but he delights to mark
its
stages.
ments of physical and human nature are not

fused, as they are in
Wordsworth
'Dwells in
and though
God
all
From life's minute beginnings, up at last To man the consummation of this scheme
Of Of
still
being, the completion of this sphere

life,'
the
differences are
marked and the
dis-
tinction is kept inviolate.

It is interaction rather
than interfusion that,
on the whole, we find in Browning.

a divine dwelling-place, and
'
Nature
is
God
joys therein,'
life
but she
is
not one with the spiritual

is
of
which
she
the
abode.
She
is
rather
the
the
instrument
of
the
universal
its
soul
and
love,
external exhibition of
its
might and
than
living
embodiment.
is
And
the unity of nature
with
man
not always intrinsic and constitutive.

'If
177
two
lives join, there is yet a scar,
They are one and one with One near one is too far.'^
a shadowy third
Nature
is
not spiritual as
it
were in her own
right for Browning, as she was for Wordsworth.
There were eighteenth-century orthodoxies in

his
mind which seemed

the
light
freely.
it
is
to prevent
spirit
him from
natural
fitted
lavishing
of
upon
nature
things
quite
Man and
one another,
player's hand.
true
like
the lute and the
Nature was made to be known,

her.
and mind was made to know

'
Wherefore did
contrive for thee that ear
Hungry for music, and direct thine eye To where I hold a seven-stringed instrument
Unless
Still
I
meant thee
to beseech
me
play
1
'
the
natural
its
world
does
It
not
escape
entirely
from
of
naturalness.
needs
to
is
the
medium
man's mind in order

its
become
promise
emancipate from
unfulfilled,
latency.
Nature
and
in pointing to
man
she points
beyond
herself.
'
His
Attributes had here and there Been scattered o'er the visible world before. Asking to be combined, dim fragments meant
'
B^
the Fireside.
2 ']^^|^Q
Camels.
178

in
To be united
some wondrous whole,
Imperfect qualities throughout creation,
Suggesting some one creature yet to make,
Some
point where
all
the scattered rays should meet
Convergent
in the faculties of man.'
Even with the help

is
of
man
the emancipation
perfect
not complete.
The calm of
knowitself
ledge,
where
to
spirit holds
communion with
is
and
is
itself
transparent,
not reached.
There remains a strangeness to be overcome.

'
No
intuition,
but the slow

toil,
Uncertain fruit of an enhancing
Strengthened by
love.'
And
even the love, which
for
Browning always
is
surpasses knowledge in
'
its
atoning powers,
Not serenely pure But strong from weakness, like a chance-sown plant Which, cast on stubborn soil, puts forth changed buds,
And
softer stains,
unknown
in happier climes.
Love which endures and doubts and is oppressed And cherished, suffering much and much sustained.
And
blind, oft-failing, yet believing love,
half-enlightened, often chequered trust.'

is
Everywhere there
promise rather than
full
fruition, process rather
than possession, arduous
endeavour and aspiration without end, rather

than the tranquil joys of what
is
all
in
all

and
at
179
is
one with
battle
itself
and adequate.
There
ever a
to
;
be
won and
in
negative
to
is
be overpowered
and
consequence there
stormful energy in Browning's assurance of his

faith.
There
is
no circumstance
to the test,
it.
in
which he
will
not bring
it
no
strain to
which
he will not subject
His very joy was to
rim with silver-light the packed thunder-clouds

of man's most dreaded fate.
'
Set
down
my
name,
Sir,'
said the Valiant
Man whom
house.
'
Christian saw in the Interpreter's
The which when he had done, he saw

his
the
Man draw
his
Sword and put an Helmet

upon
upon
the
Head, and rush toward the door upon

laid
Armed Men, who

;
him with
all
deadly force
aged,
so,
fell
but the Man, not at
discourfiercely
to cutting
and hacking most

received
after
he
had
and
given
many
and
wounds
out,
to those that
attempted to keep him

all,
he
cut
his
way through them

;
pressed forward into the Palace
at
which there
was a pleasant voice heard
from those that
were within, even of those that walked upon

the top of the Palace, saying
180

'Come
in,
come
in,
Eternal Glory thou shalt win.'
So he went
as they.'
in,
and was clothed with Garments
This
is
the parable of Browning's poetic

in
life.
The ardour of adventure

land
flashes
an unconquered
sunshine from
from his soul
like
armour.
But
Wordsworth
was
one
of
the
native inhabitants of the land of Beulah, 'whose
Air was very sweet and pleasant.
Here he heard
continually the singing of Birds, and saw every
day the Flowers appear
in the Earth,
and heard
In this
the voice of the Turtle in the Land.
country the sun shineth every day

this
wherefore
was beyond the Valley of the Shadow of and

;
Death,
Despair
also
out
of
the
reach
of Giant
neither could they from this place so
much
as see
Doubting
Castle.
^
'
The tranquil gladness of contemplative

tion, as of
frui-
one who had
left
'
the gloom behind
and was
*
'
stepping westward
the greeting
;
was Wordsworth's.
was a sound bound
I liked
't
Of something without
place or
And seemed
To
'
to give
me
spiritual right
travel through that region bright.'
The Pilgrim's Progress.

It
181
was the tumultuous joy of a strenuous wara stubborn land, the sense of
fare in
moving
onwards, with a conquering host that numbered

the elements of heaven and earth, which was
Browning's.
things
Still
their faith in
the nature of the
and
in
the
security
of
enduring
purpose that moved within them was the same.
And
it
was never shaken into
frailty
not for
of
Wordsworth
by the
;
maddest
orgies
the
French Revolution
nor for Browning by his
dark explorations amongst the sunless recesses

of sordid and sinful souls.
It is true that the
world appeared for Browning as

'A dread machinery
of sin and sorrow';
but
it
was meant
'
to evolve the moral qualities
of man.'
*
Winds blow, and waters
roll
Strength to the brave, and Power and Deity.'
And
In
the gain was worth the
cost.
one
itself
respect
only
did
Browning's
faith
show
craven-hearted, at least as compared
with the dawning Idealism of his times.
He
had inherited from the unintentional Agnosticism of the schools of his early years a dis-
182

human knowledge
faith.
trust of
which, consistently
held, should
have supplanted his Idealism and
destroyed his
For no
this
theory did
will
not
merely teach
what
is
one
deny
that
of
human knowledge was

thing
else
incomplete, like everyfell
that
human, and
short
perfection in every way.
It represented
know-
ledge as defective in hind, as failing abruptly
and was
finally
real,
for
it
never comprehended what

escaped,
in
nor
ever
great
things
or in small, from dealing in
mere appearances
and
false shows,
'
To know
of,
think about
effects
!
Is all
man's sum of faculty
When exercised on earth's least atom, Son What is, what was, what may such atom be No answer
!
'
Spiritual
ambition,
in
limitless
in
all
else,
was
rebuked
Back
knowledge.
'Beyond thee
lies
the infinite -
to thy circumscription.'
We know
our
neither of
God nor
is
the world
and
our
ignorance
these
matched
by
ignorance of moral matters.

Â Bean- Stripe.

'
183
Ignorance o'erwraps his moral sense,
Winds him about, relaxing, as it wraps, So much and no more than lets through perhaps The murmured knowledge 'Ignorance exists."
Subjectivity,
solipsism,
relativity,
limitation,
in
inconsistency, insecurity
every defect
his
know-
ledge which philosophy could discover or invent

is
asserted and reiterated
by Browning, especially
poetic inspiration
of
dialectical
in his later years,
when
waned, stricken
argumentation.
by the blight
'My
curls
In youth with knowledge,
were crowned off, alas, crown slipped Next moment, pushed by better knowledge still
Which nowise proved more constant
gain, to-day.
Was
In
toppling loss to-morrow, lay at last

the golden
'i
Knowledge,
all
lacquered
s ave
ignorance
^
'
things
wor thy
in
knowledge,
of
progress
was
the
distinct ive
note
man
progress towards, nay within, an infinite ideal

for his
life
was
divinely
in him.
sustained,
and the
might of God was
In knowledge
man
:
was
for
left to
himself and there was no progress

be,
what progress could there

truth,
?
what
less or
more of phantoms
in
realm peopled
all
with
Â
Pillar at Sebzevar.
184

is
There
fatal
skill
inconsistency
here,
which no
dialectical
on the part of the poet
and
he
tries
many methods
could
finally
overcome.
He
spares no endeavour to turn the failure of

;
knowledge to account
healed.
but the hurt was never
In itself knowledge was lacquer and

;
not gold
'
it
was
useful only as means.

it
!
As
gain
mistrust
.
Not
as
means
to gain
Lacquer we learn by.

. .
Knowledge means
Ever-renewed assurance by defeat
That victory is somehow still to reach, But love is victory, the prize itself: Be rewarded for the trust Love trust to In trust's mere act. In love success is sure, Attainment no delusion, whatsoe'er
The
prize be.'
And when Browning comes

*
back to
'
Love,'
he speaks 'with the great mouth of the gods.'
Taking
his
work
as
whole,
is
it
is
scarcely
possible to
deny that Love

his art,
at once the
supreme
motive of
his
and the principle upon which

rests.
is
moral and religious doctrine
He
is
always strong and convincing when he
dealing
light of
evils
with this theme.

his life
;
It
was evidently the
it
gave him courage to face the

of the world,
185
'to
,
and the power

its
as an
artist
contrive his music from
moans.'
'
It
'
plays
in his phnosopli}^tliej2art_that^
for Hegel, or the 'Blind
Reason
filled
WW^for^Schênh^^
and he
all
is
as fearless as they are in reducing
phenomena
principle.
into forms of the activity of his
first
Love not only gave him firm

wash and welter of the present
fast, life fleets
footing amid the
world, where time spins

is
and
all
change, but
'to
,
it
made him look forward with

For
all
joy
the
immortal course.'
the
is
universe seemed to
him love-woven,
all
life
but treading
can
finally
fools,
'
the love-^way,' and no wanderer

it.^
'
lose
The way-faring men,
though
It
is
shall not err therein.'
altogether beyond the scope
of these
lectures to follow his exposition of this principle,
from which he drew his theory of

all its
life
and of
setting
how
love
is
the sublimest
conception attainable by
which
he
dares
define
is
man the one way in his God how a life

;
inspired
^
by love
the most perfect form
of
Teacher.
See the Lecturer's Browning as a Philosophical and Eeligious MacLehose, Glabgow.
186

is
goodness, and
therefore at once man's absolute
ideal of conduct,
and alone the object worthy
of his worship, worthier far than any exhibition

of power
:
'For the loving
worm
within
its
clod,
Were Amid
diviner than a loveless God,

his worlds, I will dare to say.'
^
Love
in
is
in
its
nature so
it
pure,
'
so perfect
whiteness, that
will
not take pollution.'
In
the
corruptest
it is still
'
hearts,
amidst
the
worst
sensuality,
a power divine,
Incompatible
With
falsehood
purifies, assimilates
itself.'^
All other passions to
'Ne'er wrong yourself so far as quote the world
And
You
say, love can

will
go unrequited here
his
have blessed him to
whole
life's
end
Low
passions hindered, baser cares kept back,
All goodness cherished.'
To
love,
he
tells
us
once and again,

life,
is
the
supreme, the sole object of man's

lesson he
learnt,
in
is
the one
set to learn
on earth
and that once

'
what way matters

soul.'
^
little,
it
leaves
completion in the
^
Christmas Eve.
Colombo's Birthday/.
Ubid.

'
187
There
is
no good of
gives
life
but love
but
love
What
Love
else looks good, is
some shade flung from
love,
gilds
it,
it
worth.'
As Wordsworth extended the domain

Browning
There
is
of Spirit
over the whole realm of created being, so does

teach
the
omnipresence
its
of
Love.
no
fact
without
purpose, no event
broken loose from the universal order,

'No
detail but in place allotted
it,
was prime
And
perfect
'
and love
source
is
the soul of the pur^DOse, and the

security
and
of
the
unfailing
order.
Seen in the light of love, Nature ceases to be

merely natural.
nings
'
Matter and
'
life's
;
minute beginfor the

:
are
more than they seem

not begin with
scheme
is
of love does
man
he
its
consummation.
forth
And Browning
of the
delights to set
;
the
stages
ascent
'
for
he
is
true believer in Evolution.
The
secret of the
world was mine,' he says, revealing himself in

Paracelsus.
'I
knew.
life
I felt
What
^
What God is, what we are. is how God tastes an infinite joy
In infinite ways
one
everlasting bliss,
'^Fifine at the
In a Balcony.
Fair.
188

From whom
Proceeds
;
all
being emanates,
is
all
power
in
whom
life
for evermore,
Yet
whom
existence in
its
lowest form
Includes.'
He
goes back to the beginning of things and
follows the ascending steps from chaos to order,
from matter to physical

to the rational to God,
'
life,
from physical
life
and loving
life
of man, from these

in all the process.
'
who stands revealed
The
centre-fire heaves
underneath the earth
'
the wrath sea's waves are edged with foam
'
'
strange groups of young volcanoes come up,
cyclops-like, staring together with their eyes
on
flame
'
'
the
spring
wind,
like
dancing
psaltress, passes over the

it
'
wintry earth, to waken
'
the shining dorrs are busy, beetles run
along the furrows, ants

fly
make
their ado, birds
in
merry
flocks
'
'
Savage creatures seek
Their loves in wood and plain
and
God renews
His ancient rapture.'
'And
The
all
lead
up higher,
All shape out dimly the superior race,

heir of hopes too fair to turn out false,
And man
appears at
last.'
'All tended to
mankind
its
And, man produced,
all
has
end thus
far.

But the true end
development
is
still
is
189
not yet,
the
Spiritual
to come.
'In completed
man
:
begins anew
tendency to God.
Prognostics told
arise
Man's near approach so in man's self August anticipations, symbols, types Of a dim splendour ever on before
In that eternal circle
life
pursues.'
To
Paracelsus,
proud
at
first
only of the
of love,
all
intellect
and
forgetful of the
role
this
seemed but the exhibition of Power.
His
attitude was like that of the natural man.

'I
gazed on power
I
till
grew
blind.
Power;
'
could not take

'
my
eyes from that.
And power
'
left
weakness unexplained.
:
saw no use in the past only a scene Of degradation, ugliness and tears. The recoi'd of disgraces best forgotten,
sullen page in
human
chronicles
Fit to erase.'
But he
learnt his
own deep
error.
'Love's undoing Taught me the worth of love in man's estate. Love preceding Power, and with much power, always much more Love still too straitened in its present means, And earnest for new power to set love free.'
.
. .
love.
Here, then, in the principle of love, was the
190

tlie
primal motive of
its light
whole movement
plain,
and
in
was
all
made
even
'
the wear and
waste of
faculties.'
Love, having been
made
wise in his
'To
own
heart,
was able
mankind,
love's,
trace love's faint beginnings in
To know even To see a good

In ill-success
;
hate
is
but a mask of
and a hope to sympathize, be proud

in evil,
Of
their half-reasonings, faint aspirings,
dim
Struggles for truth, their poorest
fallacies,
Their prejudice and fears and cares and doubts;

All with a touch of nobleness, despite
Their error, upward tending
all,
though weak;
be,
Like plants in mines which never saw the sun,
But dream of him, and guess where he may And do their best to climb and get to him.'
Many
sung of
exquisite
poets
love,
may
not say
all
poets
have
than
some of them perhaps with more

and
is
.
utterance
lighter
grace
in
Browning.
But there
respect
which
Browning stands alone
He
has given to love
a moral significance, a place and power amongst
the elemental conditions of man's nature and

-<iestiny
;
and he has given
it
a religious
and
metaphysical depth of meaning, which,

are without example in
I believe,
any other
poet.
By
means of Love, daring
to believe the Nazarene

teacher and to adopt
as
191
his
the light of
all
seeing the conception which makes Christianity
sublime and, probably, the ultimate religion of ^
mankind,
divine,
he
identified
the
human with
atonement of
the^^^_,^,^
the'^'^^."'
t<-
and found
in love the
'f^
^.
world.
all
Here lay the
secret of his
power
and'^'^^^r"^
his hope.
The Idealism of Love brought
it
about
that,
contemplating the fate of man, 'he never missed

footing in the maze,'
all,'
'
nor feared the dark at
nor grew faint for any adventure.

'If I stoop
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud

It is
but for a time
I press
its
:
God's lamp
Close to
my
breast;
splendour, soon or late,

I shall
Will pierce the gloom
emerge one day.'

either
Nor do the
fear
life
after-lives
bring
doubt or
'
for
Browning
conceives
of
life
after
in unlimited series.'
Summoning age
in this
life,
to grant the harvest of youth
'Life's struggle
having so far reached
its
term,
Thence A man,
shall I pass,
approved
a god though in the germ.
for
aye removed
:
From
the developed brute

'
Paracelsus,
192

And
I
shall
thereupon
Take rest, Once more on
ere I be
gone
my
adventure, brave and
new
Fearless and unperplexed
When I wage battle next, What weapons to select, what armour
to endue.'
A
is
faith
like
Browning's and Wordsworth's

life
a philosophy of
which,
if true,
we would
purchase at a great price.

right to
it ?
But had they the
VI.
THE CALL OF THE MODERN AGE.

How
to test the statements as to the vital elements of
:
The Argument from Desire never The demand we must make on the Idealists, and their
the modern creed
convincing
only
Eeason can prove or disprove

Idealistic
is
counter-demand on us
only
Solu tions have value

to^
where
experience
offer
found_
be^ discr epant
The present times

which
creeds
of
:
to
Idealism the opportunity

life
it
requires,
for
modern
social
has outgrown the

:
Economic and
of
changes
The irrelevancy
of
the Individualism of Socialism
the past and the fatuity of

:
the
the
present
The need
Ethical
change, before the condition s
^
it ?
a ôm^lete^ênoocracy
can be sustained
religion
:
The attitude of the better spirits to The demand upon the Idealists altogether
:
just
Can the
Idealists
meet
VI.
THE CALL OF THE MODEEN AGE.

I
HAVE been trying
to show, thus far, that the
conception of the unity and spiritual nature of

things dominates the poetry and philosophy of
our day.
the
The same conception

of
is
implicit in
social
harmony
is
individual
and
ends,
which
the condition of true or positive freeto be
dom, and the promise of which seems

present in our practical
life.
Now,
if
should have no ground of complaint

either to assent to, or to dissent
It is
you refused
from, these wide generalizations.
not easy
to discern the tendencies which rule in an age
that
is
beyond
all
comparison
Besides,
rich
live
in
the
variety of
its interests.
we
amongst
them
and we are always
least conscious of those

is
tendencies whose
sway
most constant and
19()

and whose possession of us
is
universal,
most
complete.
When
they have become the objects

usually on
of our reflective thought they are
the point of losing our allegiance or of being
merged
in
wider
principles.
Comprehension
implies mastery, whether in the region of natural

or of spiritual matters.
There
is
one way,
however,
in
which
the
correctness of our generalizations
may
be tested.
In any experience, those conceptions are essential
whose denial would loosen

leave
it
its
continuity,
and
chaos
of unreconciled
to
is
impressions.
In
order,
therefore,
discover
really
whether
vital
the the
conception
science,
indicated
poetry,
to
the
the
philosophy,
or
the
religious
and
social life of
our times, we have

if it
only to ask what would remain of them
were discredited.
Supposing, for instance, the
principle of Evolution were found to be false

in its application to natural
phenomena, or to
the history of
the
natural
human
the
institutions,
historical
what would
retain
or
sciences
beyond a mass of contingent

to be colligated?
particulars waiting
Or supposing the conception
THE CALL OF THE MODERN AGE

of the real as spiritual were to
fail
197
the Idealists,
what message would they

kind
?
still
have for man-
Or, lastly, supposing that

'
Wordsworth
had discovered that and

all
Nature
;
is
in reality trivial
her
pomp
or
tinsel
that neither in her

there
soul,
nor in the mind of

of purpose
man
is
any magnitude
but only
all
depth of
little
bustling passions
which exclude
thought,
how much
survived
?
of his poetic inspiration would have
Browning has
told us
left
us in no doubt.
He
has
how
the failure, even in one instance,
of the
life
principle
on which he had rested his

it.
would have destroyed

'
Of absolute and
irretrievable
And
all-subduing black
white's
black's
:
soul of black
Beyond Of that
My
There
is
life
power to disintensify I saw no sample such may wreck and ruin my philosophy
To-morrow.'
no better way of discovering what
elements amongst our creeds are really vital to

us than that of asking what
we would do
disciples
?
'
if
they broke down.

asked,
'
When
the
were
Will ye also go away
Simon Peter
198

'
answered,
To whom
shall
we go
The
Thou hast
dominant
the words of eternal

principles
is
life.'
loss of
the loss of
test,
I
life's significance.
Tried by this
"^-'j
have
little
doubt that
will
's
>e.i_-
^j^^
conceptions
we
have
indicated
be
^S.
y
:>o-es
y.'.-t-
admitted to be essentially constitutive of the

experience
of
^/^
cwJ-e-Tuce,
our
day
as
expressed
in
its
greatest poetic, philosophic
and
religious litera-
ture
its
and, even also, though less manifestly, in
ethical
and
social
life.
But
are
this does
not show that the conceptions

that
true,
nor even
they have practical
import and real value.
In one respect, indeed,
the conception of the unity: and spiritual nature,

of reality has very great value
it
;
even, though
should prove
as Comte thought to be only

'
the departing shadow of a religious superstition

lingering in an
enlightened age.'
It
has been
an incomparable anodyne to a suffering world
and
it
will
it
always be so to those
seriously.
entertain
men who can Nevertheless we cannot

be only the needful
of
conclude from this circumstance that the conception

is
true.
It
may
nutriment of the childhood
mankind, the
CALL OF THE MODERN AGE

noble-lie that leads to truth.
199
The
'
argument
from desire'
valid which
namely, that those

its
ideas
must be
meet man's deepest wants

forms
;
is
not
convincing in any of
for it rests
upon
optimistic presuppositions which have themselves

to be verified.
Desire
is
as apt to err as reason
indeed, desire, though based on natural wants,

is
itself
the result of our rational constructooBr'^tir!!!:^!^^

,
.
of our wants and of the obiects wjiiehr'we think

will
satisfy
them.
Th.Qx^-îs^ in
fact,
no viî;^"^
'
'
t.
^g
i^,?.-
of testing
a ny truth
except by reag^nT
is
Theb/tLces ^
still
appeal to experience, or to 'the heart,'
"[^^/^
f'^jr^
^^^^
an appeal to reason, and only reason can read(V^^

the results.
For Reason
is
no abstract faculty, '^s

is
but a name for the whole man, who

the living totality of his
himself
own
experience,
when
engaged upon discerning the true and
false.
In short, this rational test cannot be avoided.

Idealism
may
find
it
difficult
to
satisfy
the
demands of the
failure to
critical
intelligence,
and the
do so may bring grave consequences

confess that the
but
are
must frankly
demands
fair.
It
may
be objected, however, that while these
200

justly
demands may be
made upon the

upon the
philopoet.
sopher, they cannot be pressed
Philosophy must retain

sufferance,
its
rights on scientific
itself
but poetry
justifies
in
other
ways.
It has a truth of its
own, a truth which

scientific
we
feel,
though
from
it
the
point
'
of
view we
may admit
and
to be an illusion.'
The
highest poetry of our time
that
in
which the
most
serious
select spirits find their food
depends chiefly
well called
'
for its interest
on what has been

life
'
the application of ideas to
but
these ideas are welcomed
by the multitude of
the educated, not because they are regarded as
demonstrable, but because they are presented

in the rapt unreasoned
form of poetic utterance,

do more than represent
^
'
and do not profess

a
to
mood
I
it
of the individual poet.
admit the justice of the objection, so

implies that poetry
is
far
as
not meant to be
spirit.
demonstrative, either in form or

theless poetry
Never-
may convmce, and do

It
so, for
it
some
minds,
all
the more eftectively because
makes
no
logical pretensions.
'
may
organize truth,
Introduction.
See Green's Prolegomena
to Ethics,

even though
filaments
it
201
does not expose the rational

colligate
its
which
elements.
And
life,
when
this
it
deals with the graver issues of

it
as
the highest poetry does,

synthetic
may
both exercise
to
^^^^^
ca^vvai
power and be
it
faithful
the'^'^-e
ccn^-revveb
fi-'^s
medium within which

fingers
'truth,'
works.
When'iFancy's us
>-.
i^
^
touch the strings we^^jdxT not look
for^^^^^'^'J^-^
but for pure aesthetic pleasure; but for%-^'7
the larger music

realities are
we
look to Imagination, and

'
its
never shows.
Poetry,' says
Words'
worth,
object
'
is
the image of
truth
;
Man and
Nature.'
local,
is
Its
is
not individual and

:
but
general and operative
truth which
confidence
it
its
own
com-
testimony,
which
gives
and
petence to the tribunal to which

receives
appeals,
and
them from the same
tribunal.'
Without
in the least confusing the
methods of the poet
with those of the philosopher, seeking merely

to be sensitive
and responsive to the charm of
his highest imaginative powers,
we may
still feel
that his ideas apply to
life,
and come to him,
as
indeed we do, asking grave questions.
We
shall
even miss his poetic siguificance

in a lighter
if
we approach him
mood
for
much
202

lies
of the power of conceptions
in the
way
in
which they are entertained.
No man, whether
*
he be poet or philosopher, has ever helped the world with what

'
is
to himself a
.
. .
may-be
'
or
perhaps.'
'
Every great poet
before he can
forth
be thoroughly enjoyed has to
call
and
his
commuîicate jpower^ says Wordsworth.
But
message has power only when

.with his
it
is
freighted
is
own
personality.
Nay, there
more
at stake in his mission than his

^j^tlev
own
personality,
He must
appear as the emissary of a higher
tttcKc-
..^-authority, be carried along
by thoughts he can
sails are filled
not control, like a ship whose
with
the winds of the open ocean.
Every prophet,
whatever his garb, speaks in the name of the

nature of things, and, being sent on a
mission, he
royal
'
prefaces
his
words with a
Thus
saith the Lord.'
'Be mine to follow with no timid step
Where Knowledge
is
leads
me
Wordsworth's inauguratory prayer.

'It shall be mj^ pride
That I have dared to tread this holy ground Speaking no dreams, but things oracular.'
There
is
indomitable firmness in this poet's tread,

as of one
203
who
walks, not in the realm of fancy,
but among objects that endure, and in the light

of open day.
And, beyond doubt,
this is
one of
the secrets of his power.
We
do well
;
in
demanding
aesthetic
enjoyment
of the poets
but we do neither them nor our-
selves justice unless
we demand much more.
They
are
not merely sublime confectioners.

a
They have
higher calling.
the
We
attitude
owê
them
deeper reverence than
of
mind
which neither believes nor doubts

'The easy acquiescence of mankind In matters no-wise worth dispute.'
Great truths, however presented, can find no
lodgement
eye
is
in a frivolous mind.
Not
to every
given the vision of the Holy Grail.

all
'Unto
the pure
things are pure
but unto them that

nothing pure.'
'
are defiled
and unbelieving
spirit, or
is
To
the worldly
mind confused with the

pass,'
busy dance of things that
the doctrine
of a universal love which redeems the actions of
men from
weary,
sordidity,
and engenders a charity
that never
fails
is
and a beneficence which growls

but
the
not
sound
of
tinkling
204

BrowniDg may
find
cymbal.
the doctrine
fill
the universe with light, but they neither need
nor trust
it.
The
light shineth in
darkness,
not.'
I
and
the
darkness
comprehendeth
it
venture to say that the main obstacle to the

serious acceptance of the
higher Idealism
may
be in ourselves.
In any case, when
doctrines,
we demand
is
proof of his
to
the
Idealist
entitled
make
counter-demand upon ourselves.

for
He
can not ask

for the
a credulous mind, but he
must ask
earnestly enquirin.a; spirit.
Philosophy has no
its
meaning
for
men
at ease
synthesis has no
is
vitality except
where experience
baffled
by
its
own
discrepancies.
fails to
And
there
is
one character
of Idealism,
that never
mark every form
whether
it
be that of religion or poetry or philoit
sophy, and which distinguishes
from every
form of 'Naturalism.'
its
It does
not appeal, and
doctrines have no cogency to
any one,
until
other helps have failed.
Religion has been called

it
a sense of infinite dependence, and
always
is
refuge from the consciousness of guilt and weakness.
Philosop hical Idealism, i n like manner,
is.

a recoil from the endless negation of the
205
finite.
They
are both, in different ways, the
awakened
soul's last resort.
Man
first first
does not begin with them
for it
is
a law of his sensuous-rational nature

desires are finite.
feels
that the ends he
The
wants which he
are
animal wants,
and he seeks
not endure.
his
good among things which do

he
first finds
When
is
himself he has
everything to acquire, even his

nature.
own
spiritual
He
in a far country,
and has joined

he would
at last, the
himself to the citizens thereof, and

fain satisfy himself with
husks
till,
hunger of
his soul
awakens, and he remembers
his Father's house,
where even 'the hired servants

spare.'
have bread enough and to
In thus maintaining that spiritual things must
be spiritually discerned, and that the natural
man
receiveth
them
not,
far
'
for
they are foolish-
ness unto him,' I
am
:
from wishing to suggest

matters of unique
or
the existence
in
these
esoteric conditions
in ethical
or to assert a difi"erent law
and
religious experience
I
from that of
ordinary
experience.
is
wish, rather, to
If
show
that the law
the same.
you cannot prove
206

truth of the things of the
spirit
the
to
the
natural man, no more can you prove or disprove

a complex physical truth to an uneducated mind.
little child
can
make nothing
In
all
of an advanced
mathematical
theoretical
formula.
practical,
matters,
both
that
and
we must know
there
its
is
a problem, and understand something of

if
terms,
we
are to be either satisfied or disis
satisfied
with the solution that
offered.
In
în,QAi any answer given to problems, whether they
be intellectual, or moral, or religious, or even

aesthetic,
must
;
lie
in the terms of the
problems
themselves
the
for the
answer consists in making
congruence or incongruence of the terms
clear.
/
Hence the
first
condition in
all
education
is
to stimulate
is,
the sense of difficulties to

to arouse enquiry
;
be
is
solved, that
and there
no way of stimulating enquiry so

of bringing apparent
efficient as that
contradictions into light.
Then the mind's most imperious need makes

itself felt,
namely that of maintaining the unity

its sanity.
it
of
its
experience, or, in other words,

therefore,
When,
we
find Socrates
making
his
mission to convict the Athenians of ignorance in

the world of sin and calling
it
207
moral matters, or the Christian teacher convicting

to repentance,
they are making use of a deep psychological law
everywhere applicable.
There
is
;
no meaning in
unity except among^st differences

of proof e xcep t where there
is
no possibility
;
a problem
and
no sense of a problem except where discrepancies

are
felt.
The deep slumber of sense has

if
to
be
broken,
the
wants of
to
man's rational
satisfied.
and
need
go.'
spiritual nature are
be
sit
We
'the sting that bids nor

'
nor stand but
He
hath
filled
the hungry with good things
and the
This,
rich
he hath sent empty away.'

is
then,
the
contribution
which they
of
must bring
to the Idealist
who demand
him
some proof of the truth and value of

tions.
his concep-
They must come
to him, if not with a
problem formulated, yet with the sense of an

experience which
is
inconsistent with itself and
demanding reconcilement.
But
art,
philosophy and religion
are,
as
we
have already seen, paramount witnesses to the
harmony
is
of their object.
Their unique function
to reveal unity in
diff'erence,
whether that
208

life,
unity be a law of thought, or a principle of
or that of the less definable but not less real
sense of beauty.
in all ages of the
And
'
it is
on
this account tha:L
w orld we
;
find
men approach
my,
to be
them, saying
life is
My
purposes h a ve failed
I
broken and discrepant
come
made
whole.'
Now,
being
it is
precisely because this condition
is
fulfilled in
our
its
own day
that Idealism, in
to
one or other of
forms, promises
in times to come,
its
be of
supreme importance
and the
question of the validity of

seriously asked.
deliverances to be
I
In whatever direction
it
look
abroad, whether
or religious
is
be upon the moral, or
social,
life, I
find that its self-contentment

in
broken.
The hedonism
in
politics,
morals, and
satisfied
the
individualism
which
the
world from Bentham to Mill, inspiring much
most beneficent
legislation,
have become utterly
inadequate to our times.
The deism
to
which
the natural world was so secular and the things

of spirit so simple and compassable
credited.
is
quite dis-
We
know
that
religious
theory
finite
which places God beyond the realm of

being
is
209
without any defence against the assaults

If
of the Agnostic and Sceptic.
man
is
to find
God he must
what
find
Him
in the worhi he
knows,
as its very substance
and
essential being.
for the
But
substitutes have
we
dapper creeds
of the past?
What, besides the consciousness

is
that man's ethical nature
deep, and that duty

;
means
more
than
pleasure
that
society
is
complex, and that so far from being an external

concatenation of independent individualities,
filaments are organic and
its
its
roots penetrate to
;
the inner soul of
all its
members
that
God
is
immanent
stand
in the world,
and that His immanence

is
in a world so stricken with evil

?
hard to under-
The
early stars have set,

;
and the dawn
has not appeared
and we
sit in
deep darkness.
'The ignoble confidence, Cowardly hardihood, that dulls and damps,'

rules
no more.
The torpor of assurance has

creeds.'
been shaken from our
We
are driven
onwards towards
more
;
vital intercourse
with
spiritual conceptions
and the Idealism of the

is
poets and philosophers

I
finding
its
opportunity.
shall
not apologize for dwelling at some
210

it
length on this characteristic of our times, for concerns

us.
I
must
try
to
show how our
problem has grown under our hands, and how

the familiar formulae
First,
fail.
then, as to the
domain of
in
ethics
and
sociology,
and the manner
which the changed
conditions of our outer
life
demand
a different
response both of the
mind and
would
its
heart.
fain be solitary,
The
egoistic life that
being narrowly bent

good,
its
is
upon
own
exclusive
being gradually constrained to enlarge
outlook.
Even
if its
ends remain unchanged
and the
it is
it is
selfishness of its motives are untouched,
being compelled to employ other means, for

being driven to recognize that men's lives
are
entangled
egoistic
together.
There
are
is
no sphere
where
or
are
conditions
more dominant,
and
competition
where mutual
resistance
more obviously the law, than the sphere

For
it is
of economics..
the nature of material
as distinîshed
from spiritual goods that they
canpot be distributed without lessening every

,x0he's share.
Nevertheless, even in this sphere,

is
co-ope ration
being revealed as the deeper law,

and the good of each
to be the
is
211
all.
good of
The
isolated
endeavour
being convicted of
desire
it,
feebleness.
However much they may
^ô^
-^
no individual and no nation can

alone.
is
live for itself c^v-^^"'^
Reluctantly, but surely, the whole world
becomino; one mart.
The ebb and flow of

prosperity
travel
commercial
and
industrial
round the world, and they creep into the most

quiet creek and remote inlet.
All the civilized,
or productive, peoples of the world
have one
economic destiny.
There
is less
chance than at
any other time
for the nation
whose aims are

narrow.
exclusive and whose
means
is
are
The
nation which achieves most

to the world are greatest,
that whose services

for true prosperity
takes a wide compass round.^

do not want to meddle with the conditions under which There may be fit to trade with your neighbours. reasons applicable to a young country for fostering its enterPresent economic loss may prises under an artificial regime.
1
you think
have to be sustained for the sake of future economic gain. But a policy of exclusion has in the last resort to iêckon with the nature of things, which is apt to win and nations which adopt
;
have to learn, perhaps through much suff"ering, that those who desire to sell must buy, and those who would be rewarded of the world must be willing to be of service to the
it
will
world.
212
That these deep economic changes must bring

others in their train
is
obvious.
Interchange of
commodities and identity of economic destiny

bring interchanges of another kind and a sense
of mutual responsibility in other matters.
Social
and
political
impulses travel from state to state,

inspire one another to
and the nations and

can
to bad.
good ends
What more
convincing evidence
we have
more
of this than the tragic emulation
of powerful states in military equipment?
Or
what
last
is
is
certain than that

itself?
it
must
the
in the
resort
stultify
Surely,
time
coming when the over-burdened and long-
suffering peoples shall inaugurate a
more massive
diplomacy than that of the diplomats, and make

possible another
violence.
way
of arbitrament than that of
Li short,
changed outward circum-
stances compel reflexion; the
new world demands

must be enlarged
the
new
response.
Our
ideas
and our motives become more human.

There
is
the same
movement towards
same demand
for
soli-
darity within the
members of the same

the
society,
bringing with
it
new
interpreting conceptions and
new
ideals.
Men

whose
interests are in the
2i:i
same
objects,
and who
stand in a direct competitive relation with one

another,
worker
with
worker,
salesman with
salesman,
together
capitalist
in
with
capitalist,
combine
in-
these
days
fact
which an
dividualistic theory could never
have predicted
and cannot explain

no combination
is
for
from that point of view

But, by the
spite
more unnatural.
slow growth of circumstance and in

theory,
it
is
of
seen that there
is
practically
no
purpose which a
tion.
man
can
now
achieve in isola-
Whether he
desires to hold his
own
in
the struggle for economic justice, or to further
any form of
social
good,
he must unite with
others whose purposes are similar.

social inter ests are organized,
The various
whet her they be

educational,
to
industrial,
or
commercial,
or
or
is
charitable
striated
and society from top

stratified
bottom
and
into
classes.
The con-
ditions of the individual's activities have thus
been changed, and even

the same he
if his
purposes remain
must seek
to attain
them
in another
it
is
way.
He
is
now one
that he
of a class, and
fails
in
union with
it
or prospers
his fate
214
is
IDEALISM AS A BHACTICAL CREED

\,
united with that of othete in similar circum-
stances to his own.
You may
say
that
the
change
has
only
enlarged the scope of selfishness, and placed in

the hands of a more remorseless egoism weapons
which are more powerful.

<-*'^
And
it
is
true that
all
things which multiply a man's strength by
r^*l
''"
<v'-"',
uniting
him with
his fellows increases his
power
\^
^
^^
for evil as well as good.
New
for
conditions always
bring
new
opportunities
both
right
and
wrong, and the higher we climb the deeper the

fall.
All the
same the movement
is
onwards
and upwards.
the individual
fined to one's
The sphere of
is
responsibility for
widened, and even fidelity conclass is so far better
own
than
loyalty to one's self alone.
But these
classes
and
interests collide
somethe
times with such

industries
momentum
as
to arrest
and imperil the
stability of the State.
True
but in this case also new risks imply new
opportunities, and services, not required before,

are called
forth.
Men
of wider outlook,
all
who
the
for
recognize in the State the palladium of

interests, see in these collisions
demand

controlling the colliding forces.
215
As
individuals
who deem themselves wronged,

their
or their rights
denied, are no longer permitted to be judges in
own
cause,
and executors of their own

is
decisions, so the time

shall sit in
versies.
coming when the State
judgment upon these wider controshall give
Methods of violence
;
way
to
mei^hods of peace
/least
he
who
suffers
most or has
endurance will not on that account be held
to be
wrong; and the cause which
is
most just
shall be
deemed the
stronger.
One way
arising in
or another,
under the pressure of
blind forces blindly obeyed, a condition of affairs

is
which the individual's
life is
known
to be
more deeply implicated

and
in the life of his
fellows,
in the well-being of the

is
whole com-
munity of which he
grasps his
life
member.
The State
sides,
more
closely
and on more
if
and he
resort
is
more
variously,
not in the last
more deeply, involved
in its welfare
than
at other periods
for at all times the State is
ultimately
of the
all in all for its citizens.
The duties
its
Modern State being enlarged and

more numerous
functions being
which
is
only
216

way
of saying that
its
another
opportunities of
service to
its
members
are greater
also
the
risks
of bad
government are
greater,
and the
damage which ignorance,

But
or selfishness bring,
ruled.
whether on the part of the rulers or the

if
the risks are greater, so also are the op-
portunities.
There are greater forces in the

to
field,
and they are more beneficent,

comprehend and use them.
people
is
him who can

more
The best mind of the

to
ear-
more imperiously driven
nest dealing with the conditions of social welfare.
Government by ignorance
difference
or party passion, in-
to
the
State,
and a
spirit
of slack
citizenship, seeing that

perils,
they bring such intimate
are being recognized as public wrongs.

will
Our statesmanship
State will
acquire
acquire
gravity
the
'
new^ sacredness
and
be
looked upon with other reverence.'
It will be
citizen has
known
as a partnership in
which the
staked not only his worldly prosperity, but his

personality.
We
science
;
shall
think of
'It
it
is
after
the
great
way
all
of
Edmund
Burke.
a partner;
ship in
a partnership in all art
partnership in every virtue and in
all perfection.

As the ends
obtained
in
217
of such a partnership cannot be
many
generations,
it
becomes a
partnership
living,
not only between those
who
are
but between those who are living, those
who
are dead,
and those who are

are
to be born.'^
To those who
worthy of
it
citizenship in
privilege.
such a state will appear to be no
mean
And
the yoke in so great a service will seem to

;
them easy
for the greatness of a cause lightens

it
the burdens
bilities
imposes.
It
converts responsi-
into
a valued trust,
and gives to the
individual
destinies.
life
a noble content and the best of
Thus
is
the selfishness of
its
humanity
being
rebuked and
stress
folly
exposed.
and
;
strain of circumstance
By the very man is being
moralized
and the world
is
in
one conspiracy
against his meanness.
Who
then can say that
the ancient rubrics hold, or that in the domain

of either economics, or morals, or social
politics,
its
'
life,
or
the negative freedom of the past, with

'
Let things be
and
'
Do
not
interfere,'
can
furnish us with the guidance which

1
we need?
Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.
218
Are we not compelled, seeing that the capacity

of social forces for good and for evil has been
thus expanded, and the

is
life
of every individual
more widely interfused with the general welseek some better

is
fare, to
way
of comprehending
them than
furnished by the abstract indivi?
dualism of the past
And
any
is
the Socialism of the present day any-
thing; except its
complementary erro r
Is there
reflective person
who would
who
virile
for a
moment
social
maintain that
conditions
the
new economic
those
call
and
which
themselves
?
Socialists seek
have any
purposefulness
is
Verily
I
poverty of imagination
deep poverty.
have sometimes wondered who

it,
is
most stricken
advocate, or
with
those
whether
fear,
it
be those
who
who
the impossible schemes of the

Socialism.
more ambitious
Can you conceive a

some of them
people, like ours at home, sitting,

in
hope and some

it
'
in fear, of a levelling socialism
while
is
unable to
'reform the
House of
Lords
or trembling,
some of them with eager-
ness and some with anxiety, lest private pro-
perty should be annulled, while
its
sense of the

rights of private property
is
219
so deep that
twenty
years seem too short a notice for the State to
annul licences which are annual
Nevertheless, impossible and even absurd as

socialistic
schemes generally
are, it is Socialism
in
some form or other alone that evinces any con-
sciousness of the deepened solidarity of

citizenship,
modern
or dreams of a constructive stateswill

fit its
manship that
exigencies.
Its gravest
error of all probably

far
is
that
its
attention has so
been confined to impracticable changes in

;
economic conditions
and that there
is
lit tle
consciousness of the nee d of the ethical change
whi ch would make thes e conditions

It is
t olerable.
not seen that a socialised State brought

a
upon
people morally unprepared would be
the deepest calamity any nation could be called
upon
to meet.
No
so
State requires governors so

unselfish
as
enlightened or
the
State
in
which
all
are governors.
genuine democracy
virtues,
demands the highest
civic
with
the
alternative of the deepest
and most irremedi-
able civic tragedy
for the actions of the citizens
of such a State are scanned only
by themselves,
220

critics their
and the only
deeds can have are
the consequences which follow from them.
Thus, then, the expansion of the range of

ethical responsibility
;
the greater complexity of
the
modern State
the deeper implication of the

;
lives of the individual citizens therein
the inthere-
crease in the variety of its functions,

fore
in its
;
and
capacity either for mischief or for
good
its
it
more
democratic
its
character,
which
subjects
only to
own
caprice
and with
the removal of external restraints makes inner

restraint imperative
;
the irrelevance of the Indiits
vidualism of the past to

character,
more highly organic
and the impractical and un-ethical
character of the Socialism of the present
all
these things taken together constitute a reason,
which
is
also a necessity, for the

life.
more earnest
questioning of our ideals of
Nor
ideals
is
it
difficult
to
believe that the only
which can sustain, and be sustained by,

conditions of greater social solidarity, are
the
new
those which inspire that social solidarity which

leaves its
members
free.
Nothing can save the
highly-organized and many-functioned States of
221
the future from being the most remorseless and
ubiquitous of tyrannies except the consciousness

of
fellowship
and
brotherhood
amongst
its
members and
free devotion to its welfare.
But
this is only to say that the Idealism of
Love, of
which the poets speak, and the consciousness of

unity amidst the deepest differences,
namely,
the differences which separate one rational individual from the other, to which the philosophers
bear witness,
furnish
the only adequate prin-
ciple of conduct.
I
am
aware that their Idealism stands in need

Its conceptions are general,
of articulation.
and
they must be defined and particularized into

detailed
specific
maxims
of personal conduct and into
enactments of the State.
The hedonism
its
of the last period in our history had
Bentham,
ethical
and he deduced from
its
most inadequate
'
content 'principles of legislation whose practical

value in
estimable.
the
hands of statesmen proved

social
in-
The
philosophy which can
make an analogous
merest outline
use of the far deeper Ethics
of Idealism has not as yet appeared, except in

;
statesmen do not strive to
legis-
222
late

in
its
light
as they did
;
in
the light
of
universalistic
hedonism
and no one has formed
even a proximately adequate conception of a

concrete State based upon
since the polity
its
principles.
its ideals
And
has
which
is
latent in
not been devised,

the test of
facts.
its ideals
have not been put to

such a practical test
it
is
But
it is
that hypotheses demand, because
only in
the context of circumstance that objects reveal

their nature.
Nor,
believe,
is
there rational
doubt that they

question
will stand the test.
Can you
unity
of
the economic
strength, the
purpose, the stability, the power in
all
worthy
ways of a nation which, instead of stumbling

blindly along a path unknown, and being driven
hither and thither
by the gusts of private and

be inspired and guided
political passions, shall
by such
ideals,
and
shall set itself resolutely,

realize
by
its
methods well-weighed, to
deeds
?
them
in
Until
we bring
it
to this practical test,
we
shall not
be in vital earnest with our Ideal-
ism,
and
it is
on that account that neither proof

is
nor disproof
as yet possible.
Its conceptions
may
be true
poets and philosophers
who have

lived in their atmosphere have found
fying.
223
satis-
them
But
if,
for us, they are still in the

it
is
realm
of conjectures,
because
we have
left
them
there, instead of bringing

life.
them
to the proof of
turn now, for a moment, to indicate the

in
same movement
there, too,
'
the realm of religion
for
the
torpor of assurance
creeds,'
has been
shaken from the
and new conditions have
brought new demands.
At
'
Home,' beyond
all
doubt, the spirit of enquiry

it
is
more earnest than

is
was
in
the past.
There
less
;
flippancy
amongst both believers and
sceptics
neither the
is
assent to, nor the dissent from, the creeds

shallow.
raised.
so
More fundamental
The
assaults,
issues
have been
but of
not of science,
science which in the middle of last century
was
by an
illegitimate extension
perverted
;
into a
materialistic
view of the world
the application
of the methods of literary and historical criticism

to the sacred books
;
the hypothesis of the con-
tinuity of
man with
nature and of the uniformity
and universality of the deeper laws of the development of the human

race,
and of the unity of
224
its

history
;
the impatience of dogmatism and the
repudiation of any authority that would brow-
beat private judgment; democracy in the domain

of the creeds as well as in that of politics
all
these forces have conspired together to bring the

central tenets of religious faith to a test not for
moment
to be paralleled for
its
severity in any
ejBfective
previous age.
Moreover, weapons once
for their defence are
now
corroding with rust.
Not long ago enquiry could be abashed and

silenced.
It
was only necessary to point Church or to the
either
infalli-
to the authority of a
bility of a
Book
the voice of the private con;
science
was hushed
reason was expelled from
the court as an incompetent witness.

prejudice against reason
is
But the
now
dead, amongst
its
the educated classes.

are limited
They know that
powers
and
its
weakness and inconsequence

great.
and untrustworthiness
But they cannot
afford to forego the use of imperfect faculties,

else
they would use none.

;
For reason
is
not
unique in this respect
nor has the reason which
doubts or denies another source or another structure than the reason which assents and defends

in
225
both cases
it
stands for the whole
man
striving
to
know.
Truths which are above reason to

;
question are above reason to aver

indeed, were the confusion
if
and
great,
the better reason
were not to prevail

for deciding
for there is
no other court
between truth and

profound
bring
its
error.
It
is
ill-service
to
religion
to
refuse
reason.
to
truths
to
the
proof of
It is to carry into
an emancipated age
methods which could be tolerated only when
men had not assumed the responsibility of their own lives. Now, the only result is to create
suspicion of the
consciousness, and
deliverances
to
of the
it
religious
deprive
of the
most
it
powerful of
all
support, namely that which
would derive from evincing before an impartial

tribunal, the soundness of its principles
and the
rational coherence of its contents.

is
Besides,
what
the difference between religion and supersti-
tion, except that the
former invites and the latter
evades enquiry
in
that the former claims to gain
convincing
power
as
its
the
experience
of
humanity grows and
wisdom
ripens, while
the dominion of the latter becomes less secure
226
aud more confined
its
phenomena
being ex
?
hyjyothesi outwith the laws of experience
Such,
I believe, is
the attitude of the better

It
mind
of the day towards religion.
demands
that religion should sustain enquiry.
And
the enquiry can not be postponed.
In
every department of
man's
experience
there
emerges an interregnum between the overthrow

of a dogmatic or external authority and the safe
enthronement of a new and
free authority within.

social, or political
is
In the region of the moral, the

life,
emancipation from outer law

first
apt to be
followed
is
by the chaos
of
of caprice
which
In
is
the freedom
the
rudimentary
will.
the
province of theory dogmatic authority
followed by doubt and disbelief

authority
The
religion of
when
it
is
expelled naturally leaves

first effect
behind
it
a kingless realm, for the

is
of
criticism
to destroy
and the most destructive
criticism of all is that
which a wider and maturer
experience
crude.
logical
passes
upon a narrower and more

survive
;
Creeds
can
the
exposure of
things
men believe many which they know not how to reconcile.

in coherencies
for

But when the experience which they
to define
is
227
are
meant
and express outgrows them, their doom
pronounced.
fall
They become dead hypotheses,

like
and
to
away,
withered ivy, from the
life
which they
even
cling.
Men do
not concern them-
selves
to
refute
them, any more
than
they refute the opinions of the days of their

childhood.
I
am
unable to
resist
the conviction that in
these days the religious and ethical experience
of reflective
creeds.
I
men
has thus outgrown the definite

it
do not say that
has outgrown the
deeper principles which the creeds were meant

to express
:
I believe these are
immortal.
But
the expression of
them which
and
satisfied other ages,
different in their outlook
in their very
tem-
perament, has in our day become inadequate
even to untruth.
life
is
There are
ideas,'
men
'
whose very
in
religious
but they know no
expression of these ideas which does not render
them
suspect, or even
illusory.
'They, there-
fore, dwell, as it were, in a
world of eclipse and
paralysis, neither able to find a faith nor to
do
without one, sitting
228

for the
^
Waiting
'By the poisoned stream of life, morrow that shall free them from the
strife.'
That their despair
is
the product of their

;
own
growth they have not discovered
nor that the
experience which condemns the creeds contains
the elements, were they but comprehended, of a

better faith.
These are the men whose demand for a more

adequate philosophy of
mate.
life
are altogether legiti-
In so far as Idealism professes to furnish
such a philosophy they have a complete right to

ask that
it
shall
prove
its
averments.
Their
demand
is
in all respects the

for
same
as the
demand
prin-
which our times make

ciples in the light of
more adequate
its social
which
phenomena
their
may be mand be
life
interpreted
still
is
unless
It
is
indeed
the
de-
deeper.
richer
demand
of a
which
and more
faith in
free for a
wider
and better articulated

peace.
which to dwell at
And
:
it
can be met only in the
way
of
freedom
not by the methods of dogmatism any

if
more, but by those of proof,

1
'
such a method be
Time
' :
The Problem
of Philosophy at the Present
Caird's
Essays on Literature.
MacLehose, Glasgow.

possible
:
229
if
it
be not, then, at
least,
by the
in this
method
of rational probability.
their life be again
For only
way can
But
made
coherent, and
only the synthesis of reason can reconcile.

is
such proof, or
?
is
is
such rational probathe question which
bility attainable
This
the Idealist has to meet.
His opportunity has

requires
?
come
hand
the conditions he
are
to
his
can he
rise to
the
demand
VII.
THE ANSWER OF IDEALISM.

The
collisions
within modern experience

life
:
Idealism has
theories
deepened the problems of modern
Hybrid
which would avoid ultimate

fail
:
issues,
and why they must

with ultimate
:
Man
:
at his best only
when
in touch
issues
That the opposites

follows
of experience are correlates
What
is it
?
Pessimism and Scepticism, or Opti-
mism and Idealism
How
and
opposition implies unity, and

;
the actual implies the ideal

Scejiticism play fast
and how Pessimism and
loose with their

is
own
premisses
is
The only true

the
real
is
inference
that the ideal

it is
real
and
ideal,
and
that
:
Man and
of
not
this
God
view
which
pleted,
in
the
Making
:
The bearing
is
on man's freedom
Why
life
a process never com:
and whether optimism stultifies morality The one circumstance which would destroy Idealism and Optimism but there is no evidence that it exists The
;
:
hypothesis of Idealism
is
is
the sanest yet discovered, and
well worth subjecting to the strain of
a nation's
practice.
LECTURE VIL
THE ANSWEE OF IDEALISM.
The
spiritual
synthesis of
little
modern poetry and

meaning except
to
philosophy can have
men who
have, at least to
some extent, sounded
the depths of the discrepancies of experience.
But the variety and magnitude of the

of
interests
;
modern
life
and
their violent collisions
the
change in the structure of society which
is
one
of the consequences of the organization of

in
men
the
pursuit of these inconsistent interests
demand which
the
change makes
for
more
adequate intellectual, moral and

if
political response
the
new circumstances
;
are to be
comprehended
and controlled
the emancipation of men's minds
from the bonds of dogmatic authority, whether

sacred or secular, and the obsolescence of the
religious
and
political
creeds,
have co-operated
234

make the
discrepancies of experience
all reflective
together to
undeniably evident to
is,
men.
There
probably, no need of the time so deep or so
imperative as the need of surer guidance amongst

the problems of the social and religious
life.
No doubt
respect
'
the ultimate principles on which

;
man's welfare rests are permanent
and
in this
there are no discoveries in morality.'

is
But although there

principles, principles
no need of a change of
;
change
like living things,
they preserve
^'Î'^-ji^*^''
t heir
permanence through constant

principles
reconstruction.
to
Every application of
elicits
u^
new circumstances
But
some new feature

is
of their meaning.
interpretation.
Their adaptation
this
is
their re-
a difficult process.
is
And
if
the change of circumstance
great, there
ordinarily ensues an interval between the failure
of the ancient and the establishment of the
new
moral and mental habitudes during which

in
fail
all is
flux
and uncertainty.
The ancient
rubrics
;
and there are none to take and continuous

life
their place
the
positive
which moves from

is
the one form to the other
undiscerned, and
men do
not comprehend the tendencies which
THE ANSWER OF IDEALISM

they obey
;
235
or,
in
other words,
'
they do not
periods the
understand their times.'

best which
At such
men
possess wherewith to
meet the
future are vague aspirations for a good whose

features they cannot clearly see.
for
like
They yearn
they know not what, and their thoughts are
homeless winds,
with
moaning
in
their
live
music.
are vast
The
issues
amongst which they

in great darkness.
and hidden
is
Such
a period
ours.
;
Grave questions are being

satisfy.
gravely asked
and the answers do not
The conditions which demand constructive
deallife
ing with the social and moral and religious

are present,
and the opportunity of Idealism
has come.
These were the conclusions at which we arrived

in the last lecture.
We
have now to ascertain

offers is
whether the synthesis which Idealism

trustworthy.
The
first
and most palpable
effect of Idealism
has been to aggravate the

professes to remove,
difficulties
which
it
and which were implacable

attempts at synthesis have
enough already.
Its
shown how
intractable the contradictions of ex-
236

;
perience are
jts
assert ion of the u nity and_gf_

t he
the spiritual nature of
world_haj_accentu^
ated the incoherencies of

spiritual
social
life.
There
is
not one
problem, whether in morality, or in

or in religious faith,
life,
which
it
has not
deepened.
brief contrast
between the present
age and
/
'
its
predecessor will
make
this evident.
little
while ago the realm of nature was
hardly recognized as a coherent whole.
The
physical sciences were feeble, they worked apart,

their provinces did not intersect.
Physical
life
stood, apparently, unrelated to its material substrate

:
it
was taken as a
clear addition to
life itself
it.
Within the domain of physical

were fixed
itself:
there
species, each of
them
describable
by
the problem of their connexion was not
raised.
Man
as a rational
all
and responsible being
stood aloof from
an exception and addenscheme.

:
dum
t
to
the natural
Even
his
own
nature was riven in two
his
b ody was merely

soul..
yytfy-^the
tem porary tenemen t

were
of his
On
all
t^'/-^
sides there
interstices,
and
rifts,
and oppor-
tunities
for
miraculous
interventions
natural
which
and
came.
For,
beyond
the
world

around
it,
237
at
ready to flow in upon

It
it
any
moment, there was another.
was the object
of faith rather than knowledge, of spiritual rather
than natural vision
it
was dogmatically asserted
on the one side and meekly accepted upon the

other,
God dwelt
in
that remote
region
of
moveless mystery, in sovereign majesty inscrutable

'
He made
darkness his secret place
his
pavilion round about were dark waters
and thick
clouds of the
skies.'
But of
intrinsic or rational
continuity between that world and this, there
was none
and experience here gave

:
little
clue
in
to experience there
this
for
was not experience
world merely natural, and spiritual experi?
ence assumed to be mere mystery
The scheme
was
in
one sense simple
its
elements were con-
ceived in terms of the imagination, they were

peacefully ranged side
by
side,
and the problem

There was
of their coherence was not raised.
the superintendence of a sovereign will whose
ways could neither be questioned nor comprehended

:
and
that
sufficed,
for
the
demands
which men made upon their deity were not

deep.
They did not ask
for spiritual intimacy.
238

to
and they were not unwilling

in worship
bow
;
the soul
for
before
power inscrutable
free.
the
spirit of religion
was not
Under
was
these
conditions^ the
life
principles
of
man's spiritual
were easily maintaJtred,^
He
free because his soul
was detached from th e

responsible, because he
natural order.
He was
was subject
for
to a sovereign will.
He worshipped,
he was weak in the presence of Power and with awe in the presence of mysterious
It
filled
majesty.
was not recognized that the

is
free-
dom
___.^
*j;<t^'icm(,
ijp
'
of detachment
;
the freedom of caprice
and helplessness
reltgious'ln
^jj(j
it,
and
'awe,'
which has nothing
was confused with 'reverence.'
go
long as the only function of society

let
\tc.^LH'
Su)
<f\-n.
^.
was to
man
be,
or to
'
interfere
'
only to
C((X.iHf^
.^
^^^
protect his exclusive rights, the laws of social

life
^ co^r.
.
were
intelligible
and the path of the
legis-
|- ;;r^^^.lator
plain.
In
all
of these regions of man's
K
uL-c'^
---
life
there were higher agencies at
work than he
recognized in his theories.
His actual freedom

his
;
,coli-,e'>
was not merely capricious;

duty was not merely
mingled with his awe
;
obedience to
servile
trust
and love
and
social filaments so

bound him
was frustrated and rebuked
Still
239
to his neighbours that his egoism
on
every
hand.
the last theoretic word as to nature

difference
;
was^\
not unity but
as to
freedom was
detachment and caprice; as to society was the

individualistic independence of those
aggregated within
sovereign
will,
it
and as
to
who were God was a
which dealt with nature, and
saved or reprobated
men
according to His
own
is
'good pleasure.'
Now
changed
all is
changed, for the spirit of
man
changed
much more profoundly than

his outer
;
his circumstances
life
and the conditions of

fix
upon which we are prone to
our gaze
for these latter issue
from the former even while

Belief in the unity of
they react upon them.

the
natural
universe,
including
in
civilized
man,
is
now
practically
universal
communities.
;
There are neither interstices nor
rifts
there are
no causes without natural consequences, and no

effects
without natural and necessary antece-
dents
no
mere
is
accidents
anywhere.
The
whole scheme
it.
compact, and
is
man
is
a part of
His psychical nature
inextricably inter-
1/.>^
240

;
twined with' his bodily frame

plus
soul,
he
is
not spirit
plus body
but
spirit, soul
and body
interfused; a sensuous-rational being, continuous
with the world in which he
lives.
All being
is
of
one
tissue.
What, then, of man's moral nature

it
and the freedom which

of detachment
is
implies
The freedom
is
no longer
possible, for there
no detachment.
Where
all
things
fall
into one
scheme, and are by their very nature compacted

together in one indiscerptible whole, the whole
appears to be the only agent, and no action can
be attributed to the parts and elements except

as instruments of that whole.
The plant
and
its
lives
and grows because the whole world with

cling seasons at once conspires to help
to frustrate
it.
its cir-
fails
Of separate
is
action of
own,
of action which
not interaction but isolated

is
and genuinely
in his isolation
originative, there
is
none.
:
And
man anything
better
or does
not he not sink into a mere name for that which

can not for a
moment be ?
The problem of
difficult.
his
is
freedom has become more
Nay,
it
insoluble, except at the cost of reinterpreting
both
man and
his environment.

And
natural
241
once we recognize
universe
the
it
unity
as
of a
the
and regard
closed
system,
what becomes of that world beyond

fixed their better hopes
its
?
upon which men had
By what
apertures can
is
influences flow into a

?
'
system which
all
'
compact
The ranks of
science have closed
and the supernatural has

has become an empty and
dwells therein
been shut outside.
It
impotent region.
can be
No God
who
known
of man.
Nor can he miraculously

The Deism, which
remote, has
intervene to help except by some suspension or
change of the whole scheme.

witnessed to a
God benevolent but
no defence whatsoever against the Agnosticism

which dares not aflirm and the Scepticism which
must deny.
Belief in such a
is
God has
perished
all
?
of inanition, which
refutations.
the most complete of

is
But what other God
possible
Once more the alternatives are those of complete

negation or a
new
interpretation.
When we
religious
contemplate man, not merely as a
part of a natural scheme but as a moral and

being, the difliculties deepen further.
There
is
a sense in which man's destiny as a
242

agent has always
spiritual
seemed hard and
incongruous.
He
is
a victim of time inflicted,
and yet
glorified,
with aspirations which are
more than temporal.

and
His ends are beyond his
achievements, his purposes exceed his means,

failure
is
written
on every page of his
history to the last line.
Such
is
his record at
'
the best
he cannot count that he has

his life is
attained.'
At the worst
mean, and
sinful,
and
wretched and very brief
his
better
purposes
light
situa-
abandoned, his aspirations
stifled
and the
of his soul well-nigh gone out.

tion
But the
the
was not intolerable
under
ancient
scheme.
God might
interfere
and obtrude upon
man's sin and misery the sovereign hand of

mercy, and by a miraculous
gift
of grace,
all
undeserved and without leverage in

self, lift
him above
it all.
man himThe thoughts of men

will
were
satisfied
all.
even though that grace was not
given to
For was not the sovereign

it
benevolent in that
justice deal with
gave to many, and did not

?
what remained
The
artificial
scheme was
stances.
fit
to cope with the artificial circum-

Now
meet.
it is
243
all
obsolete
we
reject both
it
the
scheme and the situation which

Man's view of
his
was meant to
own nature has changed.

and the
ideals
He
tion
is
not vile by constitution, but by the violait;
and distortion of
which he
never fully attains are nevertheless the operative
powers of his
life
and
his
most
essential being.
His sense of brotherhood has been widened, and

his consciousness of the solidarity of his kind
and
his
yearning
now
is
for the race.
Moralized
himself, he moralizes the object of his adoration.
The sovereign
will
which knows no law save
its
own
and
caprice
justice
'
is
not divine.
its
Love
is
paramount,
'
is
instrument.
'
The
Moral
Governor
destiny
is
has become
Our
Father,'
and His
one with our own.

failure.
Our
final failure
were His
Miraculous interference has

;
been transmuted into a constant law

dwells in
for
God
fails,
man, a Presence which never
a free Ideal always operative.
But
if
we thus
identify the destiny of

'
man
not
with God's and make

the converse also true
our salvation
sure,' is
The
evils of the
world
and the sinfulness of man are
real
does God,
244

?
then, manifest Himself in these
If
He
is
at the
right,
heart of man's volition

is
when man does the

sins
?
He
absent
when man
The doctrine of
and more
difficul-
the
immanence of God and
of the universality of
his all-loving will has shed a broader
generous light upon man's fate

ties
but the
which
it
brings are
all
too obvious.
The
evils of the
world thrown
upon such a back-
ground cast a deeper shadow

cipates
therein.
We
find
God partithoughtful men in

:
for
these days, resolved to face facts rather than

to obscure their vision with pious insincerities,
refuse to admit that the Being
who
manifests
in
Himself
in
this
misery- stricken world and

life
the sin -stained
of
too.
man
can be all-powerful
limit
and all-benevolent
is
They
tainted with the finitude in which
Him He He dwells.
:
'The Moral Governor,' the 'Sovereign Will' that

out of
its
own good
pleasure called the universe

it
into being and then let
go, sat aloof

'
and was
Presence
not contaminated
but we speak of a
are, as it
deeply interfused'; and
seems to many,
constrained to choose between the testimony of
the
moral consciousness to the reality of the

difference
245
testi-
between good and
evil,
and the
mony
of the rehgious consciousness to the per-
fection of the
God
in
whom
it
would
find rest.
The conceptions
of the Idealist have served to
make
the contradictions of man's experience hold

intractable front.
cause,
up a more
The same
bringing similar results,
is
seen to be operative
attitude
little
when we consider our present
towards the history of mankind.
while ago, good

of
men
men of learning and

and
sincere
reflexion,
deep
piety
human
recoil
sympathy, entertained without dissent or
the conception of the partial rule of a beneficent
providence in
human
history.
They could
toler-
ate the notion that there

elect, living
was one small people
on the shores of the Mediterranean
Sea,
whose history alone was sacred, and who

love.
were the object of divine care and
All
the other nations of the world were beyond His
ken
or worse, they were objects of His undying

The
belief
is
wrath.
obsolete.
It serves
now but
to illustrate the tyrannic
power of theological
slowly
schemes, and to show
how
a universal love of their kind,
men arrive at and how surely
246

own
defects reflected in the
are their
God they
worship.
By
selves
a process unmarked, like the circling of the
wintry earth towards the spring, we find ourin
more genial
spiritual
atmosphere.
to
We
know now,
that
or at least
we ought
of
know
are
decisively,
such
conceptions
of ourselves.
God
unworthy of
is
Him and
All history
sacred, the object of a love that is not limited

is
nor partial and of a care which

mittent
not interis
or
none of
it is
sacred.
God
every-
where, sustaining by His Holy will and unfailing

loving-kindness the
tottering
footsteps
of
all
mankind
in its toilsome ascent
towards
its
native
spiritual altitude,
is
or He
is
no-where, and there

ask,
no God.
But how, we
with deeper
and much more

everywhere ?
tragic doubt, can
we
find
Him
What kind
of faith can sustain the
appallingly pathetic scene which history presents
of men
yet at
strife
all
on their way to the long
silence
and
strife,
strenuously urgent on idle ends

for their little
without limit except
means,
without break except for the

their lives,
brittle brevity of
;
and often without mercy
strife for

is
247
that which does not satisfy and whose attainment
not seldom mere loss

It
is
not possible to survey these phenomena

ask whether doubt has deepened
:
and
is it
still
nor
The.
possible to be oblivious of the cause.

is
deepened doubt
the natural consequence of our

It
is
spiritual growth.
a law in man's affairs
that
new triumphs
shall bring
new
tasks.
Every
advance
in intellectual
development reveals new

to
and greater
difficulties
solve
greater
;
pro-
blems for wider minds.

larger
responsibilities
Moral progress means
and harder duties
and
every step in the broadening of sympathy brings
new
to
all
suffering.
all
By
uniting nature to man,
man
in
man, and
with
God
Idealism has involved
that exists, or that
man
There
can conceive,
is
one doubtful destiny.

footsteps
no picking of
any more, nor wary walking amidst the

:
distinctions of artificial schemes
the whole
web
has been torn.

tial issues;
There
is
no salvation now by par-
the question of the rectitude and sanity
of the whole order of reality has been raised, and
there remai n but two alternatives
hope which
cannot despair, or despair which cannot hope.
248
I
IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED am aware

that there are
hybrid schemes
which attempt to justify the avoidance of these

ultimate issues, and
of
I I
must say a word
or
two
them
in passing.
have referred already to

:
their
characteristic
method
they compromise
it
the order of nature saying that

parts, or at least that
holds only in
for
we have no evidence
order.
more than a
partial
They compromise
;
the infinitude of
God on
similar grounds
for
we
have evidence neither of His omnipotence nor of

His absolute goodness, but only of His striving
against the evil which
He
has lacked the effective
will to overcome, or to
all.
prevent from existing at
These theories appeal to
'
common
sense
'
and
they
make
ciple,
it
their
prime merit to take
facts as
stand, viewing
them through no
distorting prin-
whether optimistic or pessimistic.

pleasing
'
on the whole they are

sense
;
to
And common
of
It
for
'
common
its
sense
is
suspicious
rigorous methods and avoids extremes.

prides itself
sities,
even
upon
superiority to logical necesit
as if
it
were a merit of experience that
should be not merely varied in content, but
in-

consequent.
249
And common
is it
sense,
making no
pretension to coherence
pardonable enough,
even though
defect.
plumes
itself
upon
its
chief
;
But a philosophy has no such defence
a theory cannot take refuge behind its own. incoherencies.

Its appeal is to
awakened reason,
is
which assumes that where there

there
is
incongruence
restore the
falsehood, and which
must
order of experience.
satisfy reason.
But these
theories fail to
Their compromise amounts to

diffi-
nothing more than the restatement of the

culties
demanding
to be solved.
For they
will
prove to be sceptical or the reverse according as

the accent
is
allowed to
fall
upon the
defects of
it
the object with which they deal

or
be
nature
to
God
or
upon the
criterion
by reference
which the defects are exposed.
These Pluralists
and
that
Pessimists
is
have in themselves something
superior to
what they condemn

is
stan-
dard by which the world
found to lack order,

/
and God
perfection.
:
But, further
it
ought to be evident to philo"\^
sophers that an objective order which holds only
here and there implies principles which are true
250

now and
then.
only
But such
principles are as
impossible in ethics or physics as they are in
mathematics.
There are facts whose law we

;
have not been able to discover
but to say that

is
there are facts to which no law applies
to say
that there are

their
facts
which have no nature of

thing
is
own
for the nature of a
its
law.
is
To deny
always
or to doubt the universality
ofjaw
therefore to
is
deny
or to doubt whether a thing
itself;
and
to
deny or to doubt the

is
order of reality as a whole
to dissolve the
objects of which the order consists,
and to leave
nothing the same with
itself.
Not
infinite
less
evident
is it is
that a
a
God who
is
is
not
but limited
God who
neither
self-subsistent nor self-determined.

it
is
If
he acts
only under conditions which he has not
called for,
and he operates upon an environment
over which he has not complete control.
He
and
owes
his being to the causation of a prior
presumably a higher power.
Manifestly, thereis
name what we deem

fore,
the
'
God,' which
just our
all,
name
for
to be in itself all in
must be
transferred
to that
higher
power, or to some

whole which
mined.
necessity.
is
251
self-sustained
and
self-deter-
And
these
is
theories
succumb to
this
There
an absolute above their God

is
or a companionship of spirits which
greater
than himself, and of which he
is
an important
member, and nothing more.

Such methods of compromise, which apply
principles only
up
to a certain point
and then
stop
short,
are
not able to stand the strain

Science demands
of man's
awakened thought.
categorically that a law shall apply universally

to the matter to
course,
which
it
is
relevant
and,
it
of
is is
that
it
should hold of other matter
absurd.
Philosophy has no function, nay,
aware that the mind of
man
can not act, except
on the supposition that the nature of things
must be constant
or in flux,
whether that nature be

transfer
static
and that they cannot be other than

Theories to which the order of the^''^^^
tentative,
themselves.
universe
is
the
defects of
man's knowledge to
its object,
destroying both.
is
Those which maintain that the order

the making
only in
God and man striving with limited
though unequal powers to bring that order about
252

for
look
there
an issue
for
which they deny a cause
for the order is said to

is
be in the making, while

nor in
neither in
it.
God
man aught
ade-
quate to make
Theories which isolate objects
from one another and set up a pluralism, must

either
deny the need of connexions, or admit
that they are at once necessary for knowledge
and
fictitious
fabrications of the mind,
which
mind knows
But
'
to be fabrications
and
still
1 '
employs.
*
Falsehood, be thou
my
Truth
like
Evil,
be thou
ruler
'
my Good
!
'
is
maxim
for the
phantom
of the
phantom realm
of chaos.
'
And
are
in
conceptions which are valid but not true
amongst the oddest inventions of philosophers

distress.
Not by such
in
halting
means
spirit
as these can the
problems of the modern
be solved.
Men
earnest
alter-
earnest with thought, like

life,
men
in
with
are
thrown back upon absolute
natives.
Their instances are crucial.
They
test
their colligating hypotheses

failure of these
by them, and the

the dissolution of
hypotheses
is
their world, the loosening of the
bonds of
its
rational order,
and the destruction of
all its parts.

Nor
is it
253
in the province of theory only
that^
men
try the very fibre of reality
by individual
instances.
We
see the test applied sometimes to

to
by very humble minds which make pretence

no philosophy.
Let tragedy come
in its
power
an y man, and he will ask ultimate questions.
Bereaved
by
death
of
the
object
of
their
supremest love, foiled of the purpose that gave

value to their
lives, or
conscious of the deep stain
of some ill-deed repented of but

recall,
its fell
now beyond
and working out
in the
lives of others
consequences, and finding no healing for
their woe,
men
in
despair of
more than themselves.

;
They despair
disbelieve
of the whole extent of being
they
God.
The ultimate
and they say
final
' :
alternatives
arise in their souls,

evil does
Either this
not stand
and irremediable, but
will
yet be over-taken and over-come, or the

is evil
'
whole scheme of things His heaven,' or there

is
either
'
God's in
only Destiny, which has

:
neither a heart to pity nor eyes to see

'
either
the world
is
no blot nor blunder, but means
intensely and
means
good,'
or
it
is
'
Void of
:
Life, of Purpose, of Volition,
even of Hostility
254

huge,
dead,
one
immeasurable
Steam-Engine,
rolling on, in its dead indifference to grind
me
limb from limb.'^

'
A
;
hasty generalization,' the

'
man
at ease will
say
the shadow of a disappointed ego cast

the
across
broad
universe
it
the
whole world
condemned because
'
will
not butter our bread.'

the same,'
I
valid generalization
all
would
answer.
is
Under the conditions

The nature
its
stated no other
is
possible.
of things
evinced in
every one of
elements, and the fate of the
whole
is
is
at stake in all its particulars.
There
only one proviso, namely, that the instances
shall be genuinely crucial.
What, then, makes

it is
is
an instance crucial
Simply that
relevant
to the o;eneral law or that its nature
known.
And
it
is
just the feature of these superlatives
of thought and emotion that their instances are
postulated
as crucial.
When man
is
tried
to
the
uttermost
the
ultimate
hypotheses
upon
are
which
his life rests are in question.
They
his ideals,
without which
his
life
would have
the validity
No.'
neither
meaning nor
^
value.
And
Sartw
Resurius,
'The Everlasting

of his ideals implicate his world.
of man,
255
For the soul

foiled,
is
however buffeted aud
beut
upon
perfection,
and he can tolerate nothing

which express that perfection.
his ideals the worst has
less in his ideals
So long as he retains
not
come
but
when
they
fail
his
powers
collapse, for
he has neither standing place nor
fulcrum.
less
His
whole
universe
is
is
a
safe
bottomfooting
quagmire
and
there
no
anywhere.
Man
is
never at his best or highest except

in touch
when he
is
with ultimate^
issues.
The
scope of earnest doubt and of earnest faith are

coextensive.
And
there
is
perhaps no surer
evidence of the value of the Idealism of these
days
whether we consider the implied Idealism

which religion brings
of the sciences, the imaginative Idealism of the

poets, the Idealism of faith
or of assured
knowledge which philosophy seeks

it
than
our
life
that
has contributed to bring us to
confront these issues.

are
The very
their trial
:
postulates of
of knowledge,
now upon
because the alternatives are the order and the

rationality, or the disorder
and
irrationality of
256

world,
the
which
is
its
object
of morality,
because they are the possibility or the impossibility of
human freedom
of religion,
because
they are the existence and the immanence, or

the non-existence of God.
of Carlyle to our age,
Adapting the words

that
all
'
we may say
The
the
Everlasting
No
has
pealed
through
recesses of its spirit.'
The compromises
of the
ancient creeds avail no more.
But
it is
often assumed that in these ultimate
matters of universal denial or universal affirmation in knowledge, of freedom or necessity in
the sphere of morals, and of faith or unbelief in

that of religion, the choice
is
a matter of tem-
perament and not of reason.

opposite poles, the
is
Set between these
mind
of man,
lie
we
are told,
helpless
because both alike
beyond our
experience, and, indeed, are nothing

fictions of abstract
more than
experience
thought.
all
What
is
yields always
and to
men
neither absolute
law nor the utter absence of
it;
neither unlimited
;
freedom nor universal necessity

plete
neither com;
knowledge nor utter ignorance
and
in
religion, at the best,

'
257
We
And
stretch lame hands of faith,
and grope,
and
all,
And
gather dust and

feel is
chaff,
call
To what we
Lord of
faintly trust the larger hope.'
It
is
true that
we may
cull either the
white
or the black in this grey world of ours.
We
may
insist
on the discontinuity of things, the
contingency of events and their apparent lawlessness

;
upon the
;
errors
and
the
limitations
of
our intelligence
suffering of the
and
upon
wrongs and
are all real.
world for they

fix
Then Scepticism and Pessimism

other hand
ensue.
On
the
we may
our attention on the
evidences of order and law, on the triumphs

of the intelligence, on the joys of
life
and on
our wider outlook.

faith ensue
Then
religious
and moral
and the Optimism which they imply.
But we
qualities
actually experience none of these pure

;
and
all
of
them
alike are incompatible

is
with our real
life,
in
which knowledge
con-
tending with ignorance, freedom with necessity,
good with
evil,
and
faith
with doubt.
And man
the realm
in all his thinking
must sustain himself upon

is
experience
of the
for
beyond experience
where
all
imaginary,
affirmations
and
258
negations have equal value, and therefore none

at
all.
Besides, these opposites are correlative,
and
they exist only in and through their mutual

'reference.
Knowledge
concord with
implies
reality
ignorance,
for
truth
implies
is
and
therefore
their
difference.
'
Morality implies
is
'
distinction
to be
'
between
what
and
'
what ought
former
for it is a process of raising the

latter,
into
harmony with the
of
making the
If they coin-
actual ideal, or the ideal actual.
cided morality would have no place or function.
Hence good implies

from
finite
its
evil,
and cannot
a
similar
exist apart
possibility.
In
way
the
and
and
dependent
is
and
necessitated
infinite,
both
the
implies
implied
by the
free.
self-determined and the

Spirit are correlates
;
And Nature and

is still
for the sphere of Nature,
however imperfectly known,
the object
with which knowledge strives, and Spirit without

its
object
would be
inert.
Both of these objections are held

Idealism, and every other form of
to paralyse
Monism
that
would make
all
things of one tissue.
You must

pardon
259
I
me
if in
dealing with these objections

for a little
;
must try your patience
for
they are
/
evidently vital and they are

I
much
in vogue.
wish to admit the objections so far as to give

full
our opponents the
benefit of them.
their objections,
But
I
'
would hold them

doing
so,
I
to
and by
believe,
show that the despairing

they draw
conclusions
erroneous.
which
from them are
First, then, as to the contention that
we have
Uvsr*u*l
no experience of absolute knowledge, or absolute

ignorance;
of absolute good or absolute
evilj,,.-'':
but that
all
we know and
I
all
we do
is
in^peffect
l^^^
-uob
^
never the pure beam, but
a^^jrii^rture
yy^'^^ of shine f^-'-^

'^^'^^
and shade.
of them.
I
grant that
also,
we have no
I insist,
experience
^"^
grant
nay
that where^ -^
is
experience gives no guidance reason

Indeed, reason
is
helpless. ^^^
^^/^
.'>
nothing but organized experi- <-
cv^/V
>_-
ence seeking truth.

experience,
Not being
objects of our^^"^"^
we must conclude
abstracts,
that these pure
contrasts are fictions, products of an imagination
which
first
and then gives a
false
reality to its abstractions.
It follows that
we
must simply
set
them
aside,
and refuse to deal
260
with them: just as a mathematician would refuse

to deal with an imaginary region
where twice
the triangles
this our
two makes ninety-one, or where

are circles.
critics
all
But
it
follows further
and
have not observed
that
it is
no defect of
reason not to be able to deal with such recognized

fictions
;
and that
its failure to
give a rational
preference--to-on ficLioir-over another can not

^^..--'ibe^
'-f-
made
a charge against reason.
AVe should
not applaud the reason of the mathematician

i2.-v
"^ ^
"^
<^
^Y^Q preferred a
geometry
in
which
all
circles
we^-el>
l^
are squares to a geometry in which all circles are triangles.

rational choice.
i^^li!^
Between
fictions there
is
can be no
Idealism
concerned vitally in
error,
showing that we learn through

/ô*.^
*-
and
it is
find
tv/,v
'through
concerned
evil that
good
is
best'; but
not
with what would take place in an
imaginary realm where knowledge and goodness
have no possible opposites.

ence,
choice.
It abides
by
experi-
and demands from reason no
irrational
Secondly as to the vital correlation of the

opposites that
fall
within experience.
We
are
told that they cannot be except in their contrast,

for each
I
261
it
term implies
its
opposite.
I
Be
so
accept the objection, but,
insist
once more
Ijy
it.
that they
who make
it
shall abide
As
these opposites
cannot exist except in mutual
reference, seeing that

fictitious unrealities
when severed they become
and that they are presented
to us in all our experience only in their correla-
tion
then
let
us
deal
with
them
in
their
correlation.
But
this
means that we
shall deal
neither with the one nor with the other, but
with their unity
We
deal, in other words,

;
with
'^-
what transcends
their opposition
nay, with that
'ô^^'^^cJ:^"
which in our own experience transcends their

opposition
for,
we
are
told,
we
experience
naught
ejse.
But, what becomes, then, of that
ultimate failure which obstructs God, and that

irremediable evil which limits His infinitude, and
.
condemns the universe to

never end?
a vain struggle that
*^'''*''6an
Manifestly
we cannot
treat the
a^t^tpain
and wrong of the world and man's misery

sin
and
as final,
and at the same time make
them
relative to the good.v

fast
The
critics of Ideal-
ism play
and loose with their own premisses,

to the exigencies of the
Wft.
W-v.
and according
moment
262

deny the absolute opposition of good
and of
all
assert or
and
evil
the other opposites.
Still, it
may
be said, the crucial difficulty of
Idealism remains.
IfJêssimism and Scepticism
arerefuted.,,thr0ugli the reference of evil to
good
afidîgnorance to knowledge, and necessity to
freedom, and finitude to the

affirmative
refuted.
.~2)
infinite,
the opposite
is
of Idealism
and Optimism
also
This objection also seems vital, and

it
we
cannot pass
by.
It
seems to destroy the very
postulates of Idealism,
and by another route to
negate the order of the world and the perfection
V /w
of God.
In order to deal with
it
let us
it
return to the
presupposition upon which
rests,
namely the
essential correlation of the opposites of experience,

or,
in
other words,
their existence only
within a unity which includes them both.

1A-V-I^tuj
That
\i
unity must evidently be either some third thing
'(nvst^<ac4->^^în
-J
vL
which the opposites are transcended: someis
^ ^y-^
\r<x-vxj;
thing which
beyond the contrast of science and
v^ nescience, good and evil, freedom and necessity,
fr^!_
finite "Jtryttc-uôvs^xtri.^^^^
and
infinite
being
or,
on the other hand,
it
be one of these opposites themselves, which

Uy &w^ (
f.
O
-ikcUr
C.e-e)uVL
u-
le_
Uc^
/Oe-cvw
iTê.
A-cvi
its^-v^
"-
c'c^/^t-r

includes the other amongst
or
its essential
263
elements,
or
manifestations,
or
it
stages,
or
functions,
which presupposes
are Idealists
in
some other way.
There
first
who have sought
escape in the
of
of these alternatives.
as
'
They have spoken
God
is
the unity beyond the difference of subject

;
and object'
intuitive
of an absolute whose knowledge

is
and whose thought

last
;
creative
and
in
which the
disappears
contrast
of truth
and
reality
of a being to
whom
'
the opposition
is
'
of good and evil does not apply, for there

contrast between
his
activities,
'
no
in
what
is
and
ought to be
and who has therefore no moral
attributes.
All the predicates of finite experi;
ence
fall
away
attributes of finitude
meet
in
but are also transcended in the absolute,

therefore
all in all
:
whom
is
we cannot
conceive.
The absolute
all
God
is
the
sum
of
perfections
and
in
Him
It
all difierences
are reconciled, but after

conceive.^
manner which man can not

would take us too
this view.
far afield to
is it
endeavour
It is
to
examine
Nor
necessary.
a manifest failure.
^
unity which in transcend-
See Bradley's Appearance and Reality.
264

is
ing the differences obliterates tliem

unity.
'^
not their
unity which becomes
itself
unknow-
;^
able, or lies
beyond the r each
of_all predication,
itself
'^^^^,"^'''^0-^^
holds no difference s together, but sinks

into an
empty -tCmrmation
Nay,
this
first
of the all-in-allness of
everything.
to failure
attempt was foredoomed

:
from the
for
no third thing can

in
ever unite.
That which comes
as third
is
but one difference more, demanding to be

reconciled with the other terms.
itself
What
unites
must be an element
united, and
it
of
community
in the things
must express
itself in both.
And,
finally, in professing to
explain the antagonisms
of experience, this theory carries us beyond the
boundaries of
all
possible experience.
We
its
are
led into the realm of the void, where only the
unbridled imagination
mission.
may roam on
empty
Thus there remains the second
alternative: that
the unity in which the opposites of experience
meet
view,
is
one of these opposites themselves.

believe,
is
This
j
true.
I
That
it
brings grave
:
difficulties of its
if it is valid, it
own
am
well aware
and even
has to be verified,
little
by
little,

by application
and
spiritual
265
to the
fticts
of man's intellectual
just
like
experience,
any other
principle.
But
if
certain assumptions are allowed to go

it
unchallenged
will at once
is
appear to be
false.
The
first
of these
the assumption that correla-
tives
which imply each other so essentially that
they cannot exist except in mutual relation must be in

all
respects
upon
a par.
If
cannot exist
they are
\'
without B, nor
equipollent.
without A,
is
then
But
this
not true, except in the
domain of simpler existence and simpler thought.
When we
ascend to more complex objects, essenis
tial correlation
found to be compatible with

Environ-
the dominance of one of the correlates.
ment and organism,

are not
error
object and subject,
means
and purpose, are mutually implicative, but they
upon
a par.
evil
And
it
is
possible
th^t^,e,'v^jr,,j.>v
and
truth,
and good, necessity and
freedonT;~<iture\iid spirit, the finite
and
infinite
>v.v.:.(*ê;
are in like 5asS^>-<zL^ ^.^^"^"^"^^

1-1.
ttte
uy a-^ e.
^fâ
In the second
pla,ce
there are assumptions as
regards the nature of knowledge and of morality
which would
destroy
our
hypothesis.
It
is
266

it
assumed as to knowledge that

.-^''^y
is
a process
of J^ringing differences into unity, of colligating
phenonienajnthemselyes. separate into coherent

systems,
or, as
we
say, of
applying universals to
facts.
particulars,
or
laws to
No
Idealism
is
possible
on such terms.
The speculations
of
Kant have shown

from the
that such a view cannot escape
toils ofjiualism.
But having accepted

differ-
the olêetion of the critics that unity and

V^^r^"" ence,
V
laws and
facts,
thought and
its
object
cannot exist apart, and in themselves are mere

abstractions,
the
problem
arise.
of
bringing
them
a
together cannot
To assume that such

condemned.
problem can
tions
arise is to resuscitate the abstrac-
which
have
been
As
to
morality, it-k assumed, in a similar way, that

it is
a process of bringing
'
that which
is
'
into
s^
(rvcvv^
c'vi.^
accord
with
'
that
which ought to
be,'
or
of
Iccfe-i^t
irw/;
raising the actual to the level of the ideal.
And
actual,
is
>^&>vtj-t< aX2^
these are taken to be mere opposites and exclusives.

It is the contrast
of
what
is
and condemned
as imperfect, with that

is
which
only a conception, and which
called
good.
That
is
to say,
what
is
actual
is evil,
and what

is
is
267
good
is
unreal.
But morality on such terms

futile.
evidently both impossible and
There
into
can be no value in converting what

a
is real
mere
idea,
for a
mere
idea,
however noble,
is
has less worth than the crudest thing that

actual.
But
this
view
also
resuscitates
the
real
exclusive
alternatives
already
evil,
it
rejected
and
have
ideal,
good and
existence
has been
agreed,
no
apart,
and
are
mere
abstractions.
Further, the view represents both knowledge
and morality
as
radical
modifications
of
is
the
order of the existing world.
Knowledge
made
into a process of inventing relations between facts
given as isolated
that
it
is,
it
stultifies itself, for
by
a
its
very success
in
would represent the
real in
way
which
it
does not exist.
Successful
;
knowledge
facts it is
results in a coherent system
but the
meant
to image, or to reproduce faith-
fully in thought, are
assumed not
is
to be
members
of any system.
Morality
made
into a process
of projecting forth an ideal, and of in some
way
making the
change
actual agree with
it.
It
demands a
under the
in the nature of
what
is
real
268

is
operation of that which
altogether alien
change which
is
possible only
by a
miracle.
Evidently, then,
terms in
we must define our contrasted The real which can exanother way.
must
itself
press itself in systematic knowledge
be a system, and not a collection of discrete

entities.
The moral agent who can

must contain the
raise himself
and
'
his
world to the condition in which they

be,'
ought to
possibilities of
that change wdthin himself and find

his
them
also in
world.
Thus the opposition between the

:
actual and the ideal falls within the real
or in
other words, the actual which was condemned as
not in accord with what
'
ought to
be,'
its
and
therefore evil, contains the possibility of
own
better state.^
Hence, knowledge and morality
do not seek to bring a new order of existence

into
being.
The former
does
not
introduce
system into a chaotic agglomerate of phenomena,

nor does morality substitute a good universe for
a bad.
1
Knowledge,
'
in so far as it is valid, dis'
This implies that

is
evil
is
dependent on
:
'
good,' in a
that,
way
in
which good
gives
it its
not dependent on evil
and
in all
the
opposites, the positive has deeper reality than the negative,

significance.
and

and a moral agent,
269
covers the order already existent in the world

in so far as his actions are
good, reveals the ideality of the world, recognizing and obeying

its
laws and making himself
their willing instrument.
In both these activities

:
man's function
is
repetitive
his thoughts
and
his
volitions, in so far as the
former are valid and
the latter good, acquiesce in and reproduce the

objective order.
his personality,
its
He
his
appropriates that order in

his
making
will
mind the mirror

instrument of
only
of
its
truth
and
the
purpose.
And, moreover,
it is
m this
it,
pro-
cess that the
world appears as real and as good.

himself by
Man
I
it
realizes
means of
upon
and
it
reveals its nature
by means of man.
this matter, for
must dwell
for a little
contains the essential message of Idealism.

It
means
that, both
in his cognitive
and
in
his
moral
activities,
man
finds his ideals in the
world.
is
That
this
is
true as regards knowledge

it
easily
seen.
The universe as
stands
is
manifestly the criterion of man's cognitive attain-
ments.
No
one ever sought other knowledge

is.
than the knowledge of that wdiich
To seek
270
false

knowledge, that
is,
knowledge which did

is
not accord with, or express that which
real,
were absurd.
interpretation
Hence every
effort after a rational

is,
of reality, which knowledge
proceeds on the assumption that the reality to
be interpreted
to deal with
is itself
rational.
;
Reason refuses
for instance,
what
is
irrational
no
mathematician
will try to
prove that the three
angles of a triangle are together equal to three

right angles, nor will a physicist seek to invent
perpetually
moving
is
machine.
It
is
only
because the world

that
believed to have meaning
we seek
to spell out its
cryptogram
were
we persuaded
that
it
has no meaning our

itself
intelli-
gence could not occupy
with
it
in
any way.
The scepticism which denies the

or
objective order,
the
rationality
of the
:
world, destroys the

is,
occasion for knowledge

sistent with itself
and
of course, incon-
But even
to the sceptic the

:
world
is
the standard of truth
for
he assumes
its dis-
that he has grounds for his assertion of
continuity and irrationality, and these grounds

are in that world
to
itself.
is
Thus, whether we seek
know
that which
real or despair of
knowing

it,
271
it
remains the criterion of our intellectual

it
attainment or failure: the world as

ideal
is is
the
of knowledge, whether
we deem
it
that
we
can attain the ideal or not.
But
to say that the world as
stands fur-
nishes the ideal and the criterion of the

life
moral
may
well seem to be nothing better than

:
wanton paradox
nisus of that
are
so obvious
is
is
it
that the very
life
the conviction that things
not
as
they ought to be
I
and must be
it
changed.
Nevertheless,
believe
can
is
be
the
shown that upon no other assumption

moral
moral
life.
life
is
possible
strictly
and that
in this respect our
parallel with
our intellectual
As we do not
it,
create the objective world

create the moral
in
knowing
so
we do not
world by our moral action.

morality
ence,
is
The process of
a process of interpretation, of obediis,
and of the appropriation of that which

is
and which
deemed
right or
good.
it
As we
wrong the world by assuming that

to escape from
awaits the
systematizing activity of our intelligence in order

a
condition of chaotic discon-
nectedness;
so
also
we wrong
the
world of
272
IDEAIJSM AS A PRACTICAL CREED

by assuming that
it it
morality
waits upon our
activity to introduce into
a law of righteous-
ness to which
it is itself
foreign/
As
in
know-
ledge
we
strive to interpret
and simply to accept

it
the rational order without disturbing

prejudices of our own, and as
all
by any
measure
of the
our activity
consists in widening our capacities to the
of
its
;
being
so
throwing open the windows

in morality.
soul
is it
Its aspiration is also
after concord with everlasting law,

is
'
and
its
prayer
Thy
will be done.'
it
is
Thus, in both cases

ideal
is
presumed that the

;
real,
and the
real ideal
and that our

to
one mission as spiritual beings

presupposition
experience.
is
make
this
good within ourselves
in actual
We may
:
think meanly enough of
our
own acquirements
our knowledge
may
fail
'
on every hand and our righteousness be

filthy rags
set,
'
as
but the goal on which our souls are

is
however hopelessly,
nothing
less
is
than
perfection.
Indeed, our very despair
but an
indication of our belief in the Truth

^
and Good'
who
This was the error exjDOsed by Hegel in the theory of Kant, represented the moral world merely as what ought to be,'
as a
and therefore
mere conception projected into the empty
sky.

ness,
273
in their
which we
fail
to attain
and
it
is
presence that
we
discover our littleness.
At the
very heart of our spiritual activities there thus
remains an indomitable Optimism,
which the
religious consciousness calls 'trust in God.'
The
universe,
which
is
the
object of our
rational
justified.
intelligence
and
will,
stands
forth
their
'
Knowledge and morality imply

no
less
absolute,'
than
religion.
It is
the ignorant and the capricious spirit

universe
unsatisfactory.
it
that finds the
It
is
the
first
view which represents
as shallow in
meaning, poor in content, given over to accident,

a mysterious object of dread and superstition,
and limited
science
in its use
and beneficence.
When
us
and philosophy come, superseding the

the
sane
for
savage
reveal
outlook,
they teach
of
its its
better.
They
the order
events,
the inexhaustible significance of

the
facts,
and
unlimited
laws.
serviceableness
of
its
compre-
hended
And
the education and emanci-
pation of the will brings about the same change

in our
view of what
;
is real.
Thp world
frustrates
;
caprice
it
is
obdurate against selfishness
it

ence and stagnation by
its
275
surprises
it
rewards
our attainments such as they are, and punishes our

follies
and wrongs.
for spirit
?
What more
It
can the environ-
ment do
cannot break into the
sanctum of
it
:
its free activities
without destroying
for
knowledge given and not acquired, or a

good
compelled,
is
moral
terms.
contradiction
to
in
The world must wait
be compre-
hended and obeyed

flowing beneficence
littleness of his
it.
'
;
in order to yield its over-
and man must die
to the
own egoism
in order to receive
Then
are the mind's eyes unsealed,

'
and
its
hands ungyved
and the scheme of things,

is
'
natural and spiritual,
found to be God's own

Nature, art not thou
witness of Himself
the " Living
Garment
of
God "
Is it in
:
very
that
in
deed
lives
He
that ever speaks through thee

in thee, that lives
and loves
'
and loves
me.'^
Thy
voice
I
is
on the rolling
air
hear thee where the waters run;

standest in the rising sun,
Thou
And
Verily,
in the setting
it is
^
thou art
is
fair.'
raan who
in the
making, and
Ibid.
'The Everlasting Yea,'
276

Philosophy,
self-
not the great Universe, nor his God.

in the excess of its subjectivity
and diseased
consciousness, has been attributing the imperfections of
man
to
the
ideals
which are the
objects he
serve.
It
would know, and the laws he would

has denied the order of the universe,
its facts
or reduced
into
mere phenomena, saying
that they are relative to
man
it
forgets that
they are relative to

relative to them,
man
only because
man
is
and subjects their permanence
to his flux,
errors
and
their truth
and goodness to
his
and wrong-doing.
In recent days, by the

or rather ordinary
same confusion, philosophy,
opinion pretending to philosophize, has in like
manner been depriving God of His beneficence

and power, stultifying the very name
process.
its
in
the
It
has overlooked the contradiction of

is
tenets which
discoverable in every soul
that seeks the truth or pursues the good,^ and
which seeks them only because

And what man ever sought aught known any one seek knowledge which
1
it
deems that they

?
else
is
Have you
;
ever
false
or desire an
it is not good, in some poor sense or other of good ? Can such be the motive of any action ? Or does not even the soul that is in revolt and seeks death rather than life, deem revolt and death its good ?
object because
the word
'
'

are there, eternally real in their
277
own
right,
and
the very
life
of
all its
endeavours.
The true and
the good shine, like the sun in the high heavens,

everlastingly, says Plato.
Man
dwelling in the
in the chains
cave of his
of his
own
ignorance,
bound
own
sensuousness, taking
the
shadows
artificial
thrown upon the furthest walls by the

light of his
own
passions as realities,
knows not
that they are there and rule the seasons, be-
getting light and
life, till
unwillingly, and with

difficult
many
I
stripes,
he
is
led
up the
ascent
into the upper
and open world.

end here, with the
justification
would
fain
of the Idealism which even our
common know:
ledge and ordinary moral
life
thus furnish
for
no testimony can be stronger than that which

all
experience
proffers,
or
which, being
impossible
false,
would render experience
itself
even
the failure of experience, no less than
its success.
But
must
illustrate this truth

life,
on the side
of our moral
and then indicate and deal
with some of the
many
difficulties
which
critics
find in the doctrine.

If knowledge, instead of
presuming the
reality
278

and
its
of its object
its
rational meaning,
changed
object in the act of
knowing
it
it,
as pheno-
menalists
have
maintained,
itself
is
plain
that
knowledge would defeat

cess.
by
its
very pro-
If it
falsify
must turn
all
things into appearances

it
and
them by
its
touch,
had better not

dissents against
touch.
The moral consciousness

subjectivity.
the
same
So
far
from
deeming
the moral world to be a thing to be
made
or
unmade, and
its
laws to be instituted or abro-
gated at his pleasure, the moral agent regards
them
as standing above
him
in eternal majesty,
issuing imperatives of duty which are categorical
and claiming unconditional obedience.

and
'
'
Duty
moral
good
'
have
no
other
meaning.
is
When man
when he
'
employs these conceptions, that
discusses
moral
facts,
he
is
investing
;
the moral world with absolute authority
for
The Good
;
'
carries within it its
own
it
justifica-
tion
it
exists in its
own
right
and
solely
on
its
is
own
account.^
The recognition of
its
as
good
the acknowledgment of
1
complete autonomy
;
and
See the opening of Aristotle's Ethics Critique of Practical Reason.
or Kant's Orundlegung,

and
self-sufficiency.
is
279
In obeying
its
behests the
moral agent
aware that he
is
is
bowing to a
necessity which
supreme, and whose claims

capable
of
upon
him
are
absolute,
no com-
promise, and abating nothing of their

for his weakness.
demands
Heaven and
tittle of
earth
may
pass,
It
is
but not one jot or one

binding, as
for it is the
the law.
Kant
be,
says,
on
all rational beings
law of reason.
Man's conception of
inadequate
:
the good
may
and
is,
its
con-
tents appear only with the gradual evolution of

his
it
own
ethical capacities.
But
at every stage
its
stands before him as absolute in
worth and
authority, a necessity he dare not question and,

in the degree to
which he
is
moralized, does
not desire to question, but to obey.

But, on the other hand, his obedience to this
necessity which
for
is
absolute
is
free obedience
calls
he
is
obeying what he himself
good,
what he himself approves.

its
Hence he
re-enacts
behests, he reissues its laws from his
own own own
conscience,
and
is
in submitting his
life
to their
guidance he
spirit
;
bowing
is
to the dictates of his
nay he
rising to the height of his
280

desires.
most sacred
freedom
is is
And
this is freedom.
It is
:
in
every highest and fullest sense

'
it
freedom from inner constraint because

recognized
as
duty
as
good,
and
'
obligation
'
privilege
as
its
and opportunity, and the service

great reward
;
itself
own
it
is
freedom from
outer constraint, because the outer law and the
inner desire concur.

frustrate his will, for
'
There
is
nothing
now
is
to
the Good,' which

right
that
be,
which
is
exists in its
side.
'
own
will
and alone must
on his
'I will
'
walk at
liberty, for I seek
thy precepts.
delight
I
myself in thy
loved.'
commandments
pilgrimage.'
which
have
'Thy
statutes have been

'
my
songs in the house of

is
my
In thy service
perfect freedom.'
Thus, therefore, does the moral consciousness

rise
above the abstract opposition of law and
liberty, of necessity
life is
and freedom
for the
moral
both.
;
It is at
once obedience and auto-
nomy
obedience
that
is
never
at
questions
nor
demurs,
and which
the
same time the

desire.
joyous expression of the heart's own

the same
In
way
the opposition between the actual
and the
ideal,
and even the divine and the

human
is
281
sublated.
is
The
ideal,
the divine, the
perfect good,
that which works in the moral

its
process and incites
activities.
It
is,
in the
language of religion, the operative indwelling of

the Most
High
necessity appearing as liberty,
the divine behest as free and jojôus aspiration.

It is the best that the
mind
of
man
can imagine
or his heart desire, and that which gives worth

to all else.
The good that
is
eternal becomes
;
the growing motive of his
life
the immortal
flesh,
puts on mortality;
brings
God
appears in the
and
man back
'
to Himself, freely,
by
perfect
in
acquiescence
ends.
and joyous participation
His
My
meat and drink,

to
is
to
do the
his
will of
him that sent me, and

deprived of
finish
work.'
Deprived of the opportunity of obedience, man

is
all.
His
ideals are his

so
life.
is
But why
asked
?
is
obedience
is
?
hard,
it
often
Why
the ascent to truth and good-
ness so diflicult
Why
must man war with
his
ignorance, and his passions, suffering defeat so

often and gaining, at best, such poor victories
?
Why
so
are his ideals so high

?
and
his
achievements
mean
Why
the suffering, and the sin and
282

?
the failure
Why
is
there process at
all
Why-
did not the good
God send man
forth from his
hand endowed with an

not
err,
is
intelligence
which could
and a
his
will
that could not transgress?
Why
and
whole nature
his intelligence, will
desires not firmly set,
and
his
eyes alto?
gether open, to the good and the true

I
cannot answer these questions.

I
Philosophy
see.
can furnish no answer, so far as

I
can
But
and
believe I can
show that
to be able to provide
its
no answer implies no defect on

that
it
part
has a complete right to remain
silent.
There are questions which ought to be neither

asked
amples.
If I
nor answered
of which
these
are
ex-
Why' which has no meaning. may illustrate I may be able to persuade

There
is
'
you that
difficulty.
am
not seeking merely to evade a
The mathematician does not ask 'Why

'
one plus one makes two

never meet.
'
nor
'
Why
parallels
'
The
physicist does not ask
Why
Why
bodies attract inversely as the square of their

distance'; or
'Why
the planets move'; or
'
there
is
energy or
space.'
Nor does the Botanist

'
ask
'
Why
there are plants
or
'
Why
plants

grow and
die.'
283
They ask 'How,' not 'Why.'

is
;
They seek
to understand that which

'
not to
is
know
'
why
that which
is exists.
Their task
not to go behind experience but to comprehend
what experience provides.
And, dealing with
man's nature, intellectual or moral, the law of

procedure
is
is
the same.
We
take his nature as
it
presented to us, and

is
we observe
its activities.
For knowledge
exists,
the comprehension
of what
be,
and not of that which possibly might

not.
but
is
In the next place, such questions as these are

in
themselves irrational and self-contradictory.

ask
When we
happens,
why
a thing
is,
or
why an
event
we can
reasonably desire only
one
answer
namely, the knowledge of that
ivitliin
experience
which has produced the thing or
brought the event about.
We
seek in experi-
ence for the grounds of that which we desire to

explain.
We
endeavour to find a place
for the
it.
object in the system of reality as
we know
But these questions
as to a
we know does not

find
exist
human nature which demand that we should

that
experience reasons for
which, ex
284

is
hypothesi,
not
part
of
experience.
In
short, they deal with objects
which belong to the
realm of mere imagination, within which, as we
have already seen,
all
affirmations
and negations
have the same value, and therefore have no

value at
all.
Hence, such demands can furnish no grounds

for bewailing the limitations of
human
reason
is
or for
bowing the
spirit in that
awe which
not
reverence, before the mysterious
ways of an unnot the refusal,
recognizable providence.
It
is
but the attempt to answer such questions as

these,
which would prove the

;
limitations
of
reason
for
reason cannot be required to find
within experience the grounds of those things
which are not within experience.
What
is
real
is
must contain the conditions of that which

possible
and of that which

which exists
;
is
necessary, as well
their limits.
as of that
and
it fixes
We
its
cannot pass judgment upon the ivhole of

its
;
things except in
own
is
light.
The whole
it
is
own
criterion
and to appraise
by reference
it
to the possible which
impossible, because
is
has no ground or root in that which
actual, is

an absurd procedure.
285
for
There
is
no criterion
is
knowledge save
none.
all.
in the real,
it
and there
need of
To comprehend
Hence we can
set
were to comprehend
:
these questions aside
they arise from confusion of mind.

'
Still/ it
may
be legitimately answered,
failure of
'
the
;
errors
and sufferings and
man remain
and you postulate the immanence

of a divine will, perfect
in
?
in all things
every might and
goodness.
How
of
can this be
AVe admit that
the
life
attempts to
right,
man expresses his nature as he know the truth and to do the

real truth
and that he always seeks

in
and
per-
goodness, and
fection
;
that sense
is
set
upon
hut he does not achieve.
At the best
his life is only a process
towards the true and

the last word of his
the good
history.
and process
Is
is
not the permanent infected by the

;
incompleted process
fect
;
perfection
by the imper-
the eternal good by the persistent evil the unhappiness and sinfulness of the
God by
world
?
Hence,
your
Idealism
cannot
hold.
Nay,
it is
inconsistent with the spiritual achieveit
ment which
prizes as the best.
For
if
"
God
286
is

His heaven and
all's
in
right with the world,"
why need we
struggle
is
strive or cry.
is
We may go
is
to sleep.
The moral process

absurd.
unnecessary, and the moral
There
nothing to struggle
against except the shadows of our
own
errors,
and the delusions of our own minds, which,

refusing
or
ignoring
the
optimistic
faith
you
urge, falsely
is
deem
that the evils are
real.
There
no worse enemy to morality than Optimism

If
for it stultifies all effort.
what ought
to be
" already
duties,
is," it is
evident that there can be no
and no
aspirations,
and nothing
in
need
of change.
Surely such a doctrine as this
is
nothing better
spirit,
than a foul opiate which drugs man's

filling his
mind during
'sin's
drunken slumber'
with foolish dreams, and making him insensitive

to the
woes of the world
in
which he
lives,
and
to the whole tragedy that never ceases to display

its
horrors around him.
The poisoned cup ought

in vogue,
it.
to be struck
from his
is
lips.
This argument
looks good.
First,
much
as
and
its logic
But
let us test
reasonable
the
consequences
attri-
287
buted to moral and religious optimism seem to

be, experience does not support the deduction.
I
have never known any
man whose
faith in the
ultimate victory of right over wrong, or whose

trust in
God was
great, lose ardour in the
moral
struggle on their account, or become indifferent

to the suffering
and
sin of
mankind.
A Pantheism
which, in raising
all
things to the level of the
highest, degrades all things to the level of the
lowest, or which represents finite being as false
appearance and temporary show

effect.
may have
its
that
But such a Pantheism

it is
is
pessimistic at
the heart:
Nihilism, for even
God
is
without meaning.
effects.
Christian faith has no such
You
will find St.
Paul issue a challenge
'to tribulation
and
distress,
and persecution, and
famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword' and

death, and pronounce that
'
in all these things
he was more than conqueror through him that

loved him'; and his ardour in the moral struggle
was not lowered thereby, nor
his
deep yearning
for the salvation of the sinful world. latest
And
the
the
of our great
prophets shows
it be.
same
he
inconsequence
if
inconsequence
When
288

'
arrives at the
Everlasting Yea,'
and
'
not
befo^ê,
we
find
him turn
Love.'
to his kind with

'
infinite Pity,
infinite
Poor,
wandering,
wayward
stripes,
man
Art thou
I
tried,
and beaten with
even as
am ?
Ever, whether thou bear the
royal mantle or the beggar's gabardine, art thou
not so weary, so heavy-laden
and thy Bed of
Rest
is
but a Grave.
I
Why
wipe
cannot
all
shelter
my Brother, my Brother thee in my bosom, and

?
'
tears
from thy eyes
'
The greatest
optimist the world ever saw was

Sorrows.'
The Man
of
And what
true follower of his was

grief,'
'
not
'
acquainted with
'
or stood not long

?
in the
Sanctuary of Sorrow
These are they
who
their
identify the fate of their erring fellows with
own, and strive

life
:
for their
good as
for their
own
and
in
this consists their
goodness.
Verily,
it is
not upon them that the evil of the
world
sits lightly.
They
are
'
wounded
for our
transgressions,
bruised
for
is
our
iniquities,
the
chastisement of our peace

recognize
the splendour
upon them.'
They
of man's
nature, and
ill-doing.
how
it
is
marred by ignorance and

'
Sartor Resartus,
'
Everlasting Yea.'

The shadows
are deep because they are
faith
289
thrown
:
upon the background of a great

in
faith
man's nature, faith in the Universe which
encompasses
man round
about, faith in the
God
who
manifests Himself in both.
What
idle tale is
this that
moral and religious Optimism brings
callousness towards evil
and indifference to
all
good
There
is,
indeed, an optimism,
if it
deserves
;
the name, which brings that consequence

that
is
but
the unspiritual optimism of the satisfied

Tliat
animal.
optimism,
however,
is
is
not
in
question
plane.
sin,
here
our discussion
on another
is
For to the animal nature there

its
no
nor suffering save

possibilities.
own, nor pity for
marred
ness,
It nestles in unconscious-
and knows nothing of the tragedy that
storms over-head in the world of moral right
and wrong into which
it
has no outlook.
But
the critics of Idealism have overlooked the distinction,
and employ the categories of natural
upon
spiritual things.
Do
the windows of their

?
souls stand in need of being cleaned
Moral and religious optimism, nay even pesT
290

level.
simism, begins on another

in
Religious faith
God, moral trust and joy
in the
good imply a
life,
negation and a devotion, even a death unto
which
cess,
is
the struggle and the victory.
The
pro-
which from the merely natural point of

is
view
unnecessary and from

is
the
hedonistic
point of view
bad because
it
brings sympathy
is
and pain
in the suffering of others,
from the
moral point of view the Supreme Good.

ever the tragedy
process, slow,
lies, it
Wher-
does not
lie in
the moral
as it
is,
and painful and costly
even the bearing of the cross on the way to the

death of the
all to
self,
which
is
is
the hardest death of
meet.
The process
even better than any

;
having attained, which we can experience
for to
is
him who thinks that he has attained there

further
no
knowing the
true, or
doing of the good.

desire to be out of
But the good man does not

does not pray that
to give
the service and to stand with idle hands.

evil
He
may
be forever, in order
for
him an opportunity
'
moral heroism;
but he does look to

before,'
a growing splendour ever on
which converts every attainment into the

self,
stepping stone of a dead
and which becomes

evil
291
ODly
if
not
made
into a stepping stone.
For
Jixed categories where ideals of a knowledge that

is
true and of a goodness that
is
good, and in
that sense absolute, and are yet being gradually

realized, are as
much
out of place as
'
natural
categories.
spiritual
Speaking of morality or of things

forget
their
qualities.
we must not
such
Setting aside
non-moral presuppositions,
we shall not deem it necessary to pity those who are on this pilgrimage, even though the way is long, and they are often footsore and
heavy-laden.
There
is
an alchemy in moral
goodness which turns even the sufferings of those
who
suffer for its sake into a great joy.
And
if
there be any
who would have

I
the joy without
the suffering, the sympathy and pity, and love
without the woes,

learnt neither the
their use
;
can only say that they have
meaning of these things nor
and are once more forgetting the conlife
ditions of the moral
and wandering into the
realm of the unreal.
But there
are men,
you urge, who are not on

are not
'
this pilgrimage.
evil
They
is
'
learning through
that good
best
but hardening unto
t2
292

and descendiDg even deeper into aged
AVell
!
crime,
vice.
are there
Are you veritably able

better,
to judge, or had
we not
both sides
alike,
is
abide the issue

yet.
I
For, possibly, the end
not
am
not persuaded that we are competent
to pass final
this
judgment upon our
fellows,
even
in
world
or have a right to say even of the

'
worst that
the lamp of his soul

this life there
is
'
is
going out.
And beyond
haps.'
The Grand Per-
Browning, who had
his
own
title to
con-
jecture and was not without his insight in these
matters, dreams otherwise of the chief of his
array
'
of sin-stained,
'
unrepentant
souls.
The
the
Pope
is
condemning Guido
his
to death on
:
morrow, and these are

'
musings
For the main criminal I have no hope Except in such a suddenness of fate.
I I
stood in Naples once, a night so dark
could have scarce conjectured there was earth Anywhere, sky or sea or world at all But the night's black was burst through by a blaze Thunder struck blow on blow, earth groaned and bore Through her whole length of mountain visible There lay the city thick and plain with spires, And, like a ghost disshrouded, white the sea. So may the truth be flashed out by one blow

And Guido
Else I avert
see,
293
one instant, and be saved.

face,
my
nor follow him

soul
Into that sad obscure sequestered state
Where God unmakes but to remake the He else made first in vain which must
;
not
be.'
Mere guesswork and

surely not
conjecture,
admit
but
more guess-work or conjecture than

all here,
the opposite view which ends
and makes
God
fail.
There
leave
is
one circumstance, indeed,

;
w^hicli
would
I
me
with nothing to say
and, so far as
can
see,
destroy the hypothesis of
my
life.
If
anywhere a man can be found who seeks no good

through his act or who seeks a
of
its falsity,
false
good because
then the Idealist, from Plato down

:
to this day,
must hold out empty hands

'
An An
infant crying in the night

infant crying for the light
cry.'
And
with no language but a
But the whole experience of mankind furnishes

no such sample.
preferring
service,
all
Deeply
as
man
has sinned,
manner of meanness
to the glorious
that kind of preference he has
never
made.
Evil as
1
evil, loss
as
loss, a
:
worse because
The Ring avd
the
Book
'The Pope.'
294
it
is

worse,
is
not a possible motive for
human
action.
In every act, however low, or cruel, or
passionate, in every monstrous
and defiant crime
that has raised
its
head against the high heavens,

is, if
the motive,
the
if
the act was conscious, that

it,
man
did
was some
foolish,
confused,
tragical
dream of something
to be gained
by
it.^
In
speaking of
man we must
;
not forget the
qualities of
man
and such a man were not a

'A
monster,
man.
... a dream,
in their slime.
discord.
Dragons of the prime

him.'^
That tare each other
Were mellow music match'd with
Speaking of such a being, we are once more in

the region of conjecture, beyond the bounds of
experience
and neither the instance nor the
criticism counts in rational argument.
But
dream
1
if it
be true, as
it
seems
it
must, that
even in the drunken sleep of sin

of
it is
some
foolish
an impossible and misnamed good

finds Miranda's suicidal leap the best thing that
'
Browning
remains for him.
Mad
No
sane, I say.
Such being the conditions of his life, Such end of life was not irrational.'
2
Tennyson
In Memoriam.

which serves
as motive, then there
is is
295
hope.
In
that case there
that in
man which
if
circum-
stance can foster, and feed into clearer flame

there
is
the love of the good
he only could
recognize the good, which love can seize and use.
He may
'
be enlightened yet
for the conditions
are present.
Beneath the veriest ash there hides a spark
Which, quickened by
the whole
O'
love's breath,
may
;
yet pervade
of worth the
the grey,
and,
free
again,
be
fire
same,
Howe'er produced,
for,
great or
little,
flame
is flame.'
What between
leave
the marvel of man's soul within,
the rational nature which cannot be put out and
him man, and the spinning wheel
of cir-
cumstance without; what between the undying
need of good, the thirst that can not be slaked
by
evil,
and the
great,
rich,
it
:
wondrous world
think that the
without to respond to
Idealist can hold to his hypothesis.
There are
indeed innumerable cases in which his attempts

to apply his hypothesis
may
fail.
But
in this
respect his philosophy stands in like case with

all
the sciences
for in all of
them there
are
206
IDEALISIM AS
A PRACTICAL CREED
But
;
circumstances in which the surest hypotheses can
not be applied
is
as yet.
their application
proceeding
little
by
little
and the hypotheses,
which are the surest knowledge that the sciences

have, become surer
still
as they bring fact after
fact within their sweep,
and lodge them within
the system that stands through the equilibration

of
to
its
own
is
elements.
Such a hypothesis
it
seems
me
that of the unity and the spiritual pur-
pose of the world
why indeed may

And
it
not
call
it,
the hypothesis of the Nazarene teacher as to the
nature of
God
believe
it is
the sanest
hypothesis that the mind of

as yet.^
tests
man
has discovered
Tried, as
ought to be
tried,
by
all
the
which reason knows, without any longer

it
so disastrously seeking to shelter
behind the
it
bulwarks of authority or to defend
by any
try the
possible
method
of casuistry, tried even as
we
hypotheses of the natural sciences,

that
it
it is
may
be found to stand.
Idealism seems
to do better justice to the
meaning of the world
^ If, as I have hinted, it is the condition of the possibility of any experience, it is more than a hypothesis it is an absolute
:
postulate.

than Materialism
ism.
;
297
Plural-
Spiritual
*
Monism than
works
'
The idea of Order

;
better than
;
Disorder
of
Law
than Accident and Caprice

Fate.
of
God than Chance and

which distorts reality
It is a hypothesis
less;
which finds reasonable

;
room
for
more of
its
;
facts
which leaves over

is
fewer incoherencies
which
less
;
capable
of
being convicted
of inconsistency
and which
omnipresent
going
does not forget Spirit, which alone
is
where truth
is
in question.
And
shall I be
beyond the
facts,
think you,
if I
is
venture to say
that the experience of

corroboration of
his
its
mankind
?
but a gradual
is
truth
Man
discovering
own
nature,
and where
his true
good
;
lies,
through much failure and at a great cost
he
is
coming to himself through

his fellows
his intercourse with
and the world, and interpreting them

;
also in the process
and the one discovery which

is
he
is
making,
it
seems to me,
that
he
is
spirit,
mind
set
on knowing, and a
it,
will fixed
will,
on Good and finding
seek
it
where he
;
nowhere except
the world
spirit,
is
in the things of the spirit
that
means
set there for the uses of his
the possible content of his knowledge and
298

will
law of his
it
and welfare
and that
in
him and
there
is
an ever-benevolent Presence inciting
him
is
into Freedom,
whom
to
know and
is
to serve
indeed happiness.
I
believe the hypothesis
worthy of being
tried.
Looking at the confused and tumultuous

its
and errant history of mankind, reading

ing where I can, and seeking within
I
it
mean-
for
what
would most desire
to possess, or to be, or to
do, I can find nothing so noble, nothing I
would
so willingly or gratefully
for ever as the
its
make my
inheritance
example of those who have made
light the guide of their faltering footsteps.

It is easy for
me
in closing to
wish you
well.
cannot forget the greatness, and the
difiiculties
of your enterprise
new people amidst the

continent.
I
lonely
silence
of a
vast
Material
;
prosperity you will attain,

it
is
have no doubt
and
worth attaining.
Perhaps power amongst

is
the nations of the world awaits you, which

also
worth attaining.
But a kingdom founded

life
upon righteousness, a
sanctified in all its
in the
amongst yourselves
this faith in
ways by
is
man,
all
world and in God,
greater far than
THE AxNSWER OF IDEALISM

these things.
I
it
299
can form no higher wish for
you than that
may
be your destiny to try

far this faith of the
by actual experiment how

Idealists
practice.
will
stand
the strain
of a
nation's
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IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED

JAMKS MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW,

London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Sydney,

Angus and Robertson.

TO THE MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED MASTER

not to take too great

book to the Australian

not fade, and

them know that

The book must

fore the University of

But the written

from the spoken word, and

recast the lectures

and added to them.

Freedom: First the Blade

Then the Ear

After that the full Corn

Wordsworth and Browning

The Answer of Idealism

THE TOOLS AND THE TASK.

Philosophy not always in

Man's Life complex because

comprises his World

Connexion of Philosophy and Life illustrated

Hegel and them means most now

Ideas the only agents in man's

at work, before Darwin, in poetry

THE TOOLS AND THE TASK.

to his students in Heidelberg.

The Napoleonic wars had

just closed with the battle of Waterloo.

triumphant from those

on which her sons were taught a base

saved her Nationality,'

and essence of the

and she could now turn her mind to

the arts of peace, and labour to

the attention and the good-will of men.

up her voice grown so

IDEALISM AS A PRACTICAL CREED

might again be willing to

the time immersed in matters temporal,

a fearful strife for the out-

might now turn

and take possession of the

The Church might now

head side by side with the secular State,

which hitherto had swallowed up

towards which had streamed the thoughts and

men, the Kingdom of God might

become once more an object of contemplation

and along with the

science, the free rational life of

might again break out into blossom.

students that their youth had fallen at a time

when they could devote

deserve and win your

save that, before

you put your trust

THE TOOLS AND THE TASK