{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_75631/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_75631","id":"gutenberg_75631","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75631","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Conduct of life","Essays"],"text":"WHITHER?\n\n\n\n\n                               WHITHER?\n\n\n\n\n                          BOSTON AND NEW YORK\n                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\n                     The Riverside Press Cambridge\n                                 1915\n\n\n\n\n           COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY\n\n\n             COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\n\n\n                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED\n\n\n                         _Published May 1915_\n\n\n\n\n                               WHITHER?\n\n\n\n\n                               WHITHER?\n\n\n\n\n                                   I\n\n\nIN a final division of household possessions of my ancestors, a\nquaint gray chest has brought me a heritage of unexpected value in\npackages of letters, written many years ago, and tossed carelessly here\nwith mouse-eaten diplomas and articles of ancient wear. As I read,\ndeciphering oftentimes with difficulty the old-fashioned handwriting on\nthe yellowing paper, I pause to marvel. What fullness of life is here!\nWhat richness! What greatness!\n\nThere are letters from a mother to a little daughter at school in the\ncity; letters from an aged father who has been visiting his clergyman\nson; glad letters, written to bring joy at marriages; solemn, and yet\njoyous letters, written to console in death. Doubtless they are akin to\nhundreds of others still resting in the corners of boxes and old desks,\nand to others innumerable which have perished, recording the experience\nof a generation, two generations ago. Written out of narrower lives, so\nfar as mere worldly circumstances go, than those with which I come in\ncontact to-day, they reveal a far deeper life, a profounder hope and\nfaith, a recognition of wider horizons than most of our contemporary\nworld knows. Here is a knowledge of spirit as the one great reality; of\ndivine meanings everywhere; a sense of the greatness of the issue in\nlife as a warfare waged in the name of the soul; faith in the undying\ncharacter of righteousness, in the endlessness of human hope. Words are\nhere traced which take away one\u2019s breath, in the grandeur of their\ndenial of that which seems, in the splendor of assurance: \u201cMy sister\nMary to-day entered upon eternal life--\u201d\n\nIt is not primarily theology upon which they dwell: dogma plays a\nlesser part here than I should have supposed. It is upon the inner\nsources of hope and consolation, the life-giving power of faith, faith\ndrawn often from hard experience, faced in the light of a great hope.\nHere is a real sense of the swift flitting of things earthly, and the\ngreat promise therein; here is a constant dwelling upon the Master, the\nface of the Master, the vision of perfectness. Those writers repeat\nlovingly his words, thus bringing one another courage in sharp anguish\nof grief and at beds of illness; and the thought of sacrifice is ever\nin their minds, of outer loss that is great inner gain. One is aware of\ncertain immovable tenets of hard theology, but I note that these have\nsmall part in their thought, their feeling, in the way in which faith\nvitalizes their daily lives.\n\nLetters that I am privileged to see to-day are as different as if they\nwere written by a different race; chance articles in newspapers and\njournals, intended to appeal to the contemporary public, reinforce\nthe impression in regard to our present absorptions, our present\nlimitations. These later letters are no less full of human tenderness,\nand possibly they are more outspoken in regard to it, but they bespeak\nan inner poverty, a contrasting narrowness of life. Their largeness, if\nwide horizons are suggested, is external, geographical,--the largeness\nof travel abroad, by land or sea, of motor-trips there or at home. They\nare full of restlessness, desire for change, rushing hither and yon.\nTheir great concern is with material things: diet, dress, details\nof operations, fluctuations in stocks. There is much about reform,\nsuffrage, the fighting of Tammany, measures for the physical betterment\nof factory boys and girls. There are many wrongs to right, for the\nmost part centring in the body; but, in spite of my sympathy with each\ndistinct measure and my strenuous efforts to help forward some of\nthem, I feel great sense of lack. The horizon is near and attainable;\nthe sky comes down like a brass bowl over our heads; I stifle in this\nworld of nostrums, of remedies, of external cures for moral evils.\nThis superficial material optimism which ignores the deepest need, the\ndeepest answer, fails to suffice. One is aware of a lessening life, a\ndrying of the very sources of vitality; the old sense of illimitable\ndestiny, of greatness, of the challenge of eternity, is gone.\n\nA kind of materialistic Epicureanism dominates our modern world; robbed\nof Eternity, we mean to make Time pay to the uttermost,--hence this\nnervous excitement, this feverish activity. Has any question been more\nabsorbing during the last decades than the question how much space\ncould be covered, on earth or in air, in a minute of time? Back of our\nhurry lies something deeper than the mere desire to excel in this or\nthat sport, this or that means of rapid transit, this or that business\nenterprise or philanthropy. It is an unconfessed manifestation of our\nimmense sense of loss; a morbid outpouring of that energy which might\nwork healthily and to great ends if the old hope were there of endless\ndestiny. We have but a few minutes in which to rob the house of life;\nlet us seize all the articles in sight; death, the householder, is even\nnow waiting to take us into custody. We want as much as we can get;\nwe want all, and we foolishly think that hurrying feet and twitching\nmuscles can win it. We will crowd all into the swift, flitting minutes,\nthough Life should break in the process.\n\n\n\n\n                                  II\n\n\nTHE question why we, who are the heirs of all the ages, should be so\nmuch worse off than our ancestors in that which means essential life\nmight well give us pause. In all external matters we seem to have made\ngreat gain. We are carried about more swiftly; our houses have far\nsuperior plumbing; the goods we purchase are delivered more promptly,\nand existence has in every way become far more convenient and easy.\nIs not this the age of progress? Progress--it is a word constantly\non men\u2019s lips; have earlier ages ever heard such a din of talk about\nprogress? It would appear as if our forefathers had little claim to be\ncalled happy, having lived before the time of great modern inventions\nand discoveries; yet, with this sheaf of old records in my hands,\nand many memories at work, I am forced to admit that the comparison\nworks the other way. Here, in these fading papers, is a sense of\nsignificance in living, of illimitable destiny, that makes me ask why\nwe are thus stripped, robbed, disinherited. Why is it that we seem to\nhave inherited all of life except the point? The willful poverty of our\nspiritual lives contrasts strangely with their quiet sense of great\npossessions.\n\nAfter all, are frenzied motion and progress synonymous? Any kitten\nchasing its own tail might, if we were really observant, disprove\nfor us much of our modern claim of great gain. Would any age of\nreal progress talk so much about progress, and so loudly count its\nachievements? Is not much of this done to hide the inner sense of loss\nand lack? Perhaps it is from a far-off country childhood that I derive\na persistent belief, not obscured by all the noise and dust and glamour\nof our time, that real growth is silent. For many and many a day I have\nheard this glowing talk of progress, of widening intellectual horizons,\nand for many a day have watched the growing wistfulness of human\nfaces. The more thoughtful become increasingly sad, while the number\nof the merely stolid increases apace, as do the restless ones, with\ntheir apparent longing for distraction and change. Unfinished faces,\nunsatisfied faces, are familiar to us all. They lack the high record of\nexperience greatly taken; expression that denotes profound inner life.\nTo-day we are so comfortable, so enlightened, and, with our widening\nphilanthropy, so estimable, that we surely ought to be happy! Yet we\nsee few satisfied faces, such as we can remember from long ago, full of\ninner content,--faces \u201con which the dove of peace sat brooding,\u201d--and\nwe pause to ask what our boasted progress has to offer by way of\ncompensation for the great loss that has come through the seeming gain\nof these later years?\n\nThe whole emphasis of life has changed since those days; its focus\nhas shifted. The meanings of existence were to our ancestors inner\nmeanings; now, passionate clutching at externals betrays a different\naim. They show themselves capable of fault and error in these recorded\nexperiences of old days, yet they are lightened and lifted by a great\npower; they touch ever the divine. Their contrasted reading of the\nsignificance of life shows most emphatically in this: they thought\nand felt in terms of the spirit. The modern world thinks and lives\nand speaks in terms of the body, not of mind and soul. The soul, that\nsecret of personality, conceived as a part of one not wholly caught in\nthe mechanical chain of things and capable of choice, was their great\nconcern. To them a little child was something sacred, immortal, whose\nendless destiny commanded of those to whom it was entrusted, alertness,\nwatchfulness, lest its feet should go astray from the narrow path that\nled to the heavenly hills. Words spoken near the cradle where the\nnew-born baby lay, turned the spot to holy ground.\n\nTo those of us who are most advanced to-day, a little child is a little\nanimal; few are left who, in its presence, think of sacredness any more\nthan in the presence of a little pig. There is the utmost alertness in\nmeeting its physical needs; there is, if possible, a trained nurse to\nbring scientific knowledge to its requirements, to keep loving fingers\naway; but the ideas that encircle it concern for the most part its\nbody. Meanwhile, the most progressive thought of the age is busy with\nthe question whether its standard cannot be raised to that of choice\nanimal stock; whether the infant human being may not be bred, as colt\nor calf of approved ancestry is bred, by choice of the physically fit.\nThis represents the furthest vision of the future; this is the goal\nagainst which the imagination of the present dreams.\n\n\n\n\n                                  III\n\n\nIT is an era of the flesh and its needs, its possibilities,--of\nunawareness, for the most part, of any aspects deeper than the\nphysical. Many of us can remember the day when we were taught that we\nhad immortal souls, to whose safeguarding thought and care and profound\nendeavor must go. The chief question was, \u201cIs it right or wrong?\u201d\nThe chief question to-day is, \u201cIs it sterilized?\u201d Life, which used\nto be a brave flight between heaven and hell, has come to be a long\nand anxious tip-toeing between the microbe and the antiseptic. It is\nnot that I object to antiseptics, but that I object to the amount of\ngood brain-space they have come to occupy, to the exclusion of more\nimportant matters.\n\nThe modern world has a new and elaborate dogma of the body, but\nconviction (if it exist) in regard to the soul is tentative and wary.\nFor many a past year the faith has been taught, the belief has been\ngrowing, that physically fit of necessity means mentally fit, that\nphysical power is the measure of a man\u2019s efficiency. The one glory\nof our college life lies in its sports, and education of mind is\nmore and more giving way to education of muscle. The only ideal of\nperfection now in evidence is an ideal of physical perfection; for\nthis no sacrifice is too great, no case too onerous. Images of perfect\nbodily development are kept before the young,--the Apollo, with beauty\nof sinew and muscle; but the face of the Christ is growing ever more\nand more dim before their eyes, and is more and more apologetically\npresented, if presented at all.\n\nYet this worship of the body, with its elaborate ritual of observances,\nits priests, its solemn rites; its great festivals wherein spellbound\nspectators, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand strong, in huge\namphitheatres witness contests of physical strength; this monotheistic\ndevotion, made up of fears for the flesh, and hope for the flesh, lacks\nmuch of a true religion.\n\nI have often of late wished that some one wise enough in knowledge\nof things Latin would write the history and the inner development\nof a young Roman Progressive in the early stages of the Roman\ndecadence. What feeling of growth and gain would be there to record!\nWhat assurance of outdistancing his crude forefathers! What sense\nof widening horizons, and of sudden freedom in laying aside old\nscruples! The point of time chosen should be that at which the word\n_Salus_, salvation, began to be interpreted as physical salvation,\nand the persistent concern with bodily life marked the beginnings of\ndecay.\n\nThe one saving grace of our time perhaps lies in its generous\nphilanthropic and social effort. We are more sensitive to our\nneighbor\u2019s needs than we used to be, but we have a most limited\nconception of our neighbor\u2019s needs, and, with all our quickened\nsympathy, we do our neighbor injustice in failing to recognize his\ndeepest necessity. Grown so pitiful of hunger, why do we fail to\nrealize the spiritual starvation of these years? We devise all sorts\nof machinery for ameliorating his physical condition, for getting him\nmore pay, securing him better dramatic spectacles; we teach him that\nhis house should be plumbed, his children\u2019s food sterilized; but for\nhim and for his benefactors wider vision would mean great gain. We are\nfeeding the lesser hunger; that is well, but it is not enough; we are\narming him to meet the lesser foe. Does he, too, feel a sense of inner\nloss and lack in it all? All that America has to offer may be a poor\nexchange for the mystic faith brought with him from the fatherland.\nAt least we should beware lest harm come to our neighbor through\nour manifold preoccupations with the needs of the body, through the\ncontagion of an ideal of material comfort as the greatest earthly good;\nfor even perfect physical well-being has its limitations as a solution\nof the problem of existence. The destiny of man--once terror and\nsplendor attended the word; it was once a spiritual mystery, connoting\nendless endeavor, endless opportunity. Now the highest dream of high\ndestiny is the porcelain bathtub, or some safe shelter behind a wire\nscreen, beyond the attack of germs.\n\nOne wonders, moreover, why so much applied Christianity to-day fails\nto recognize itself as Christianity, and is disassociated from the\nfaith in spiritual verities which brought it into being. Now and then\none hears a philanthropic scientist claim that the new efforts to aid\nhumanity originated with beneficent science, or an economist that the\nmove toward betterment is the result of economic thought, both ignoring\nthe great force which has kept alive through ages the impulse toward\nlove of one\u2019s brother; both mistaking new methods for ancient motive\npower and unaware of their own relation to it. Yet back of this recent\neffort is the impetus of long years of definite religious teaching,\nwith its potency in quickening the will,--to be reinforced perhaps,\nbut never replaced, by the teaching of practical efficiency. Will this\neffort to succor continue, as that diviner pity, that healing done in\nthe name of the Father, slips more and more from men\u2019s minds? Will this\npresent sense that one\u2019s neighbor should have similar clothing and\nsimilar \u201cmodern conveniences\u201d to one\u2019s own prove a lasting basis of\nhuman brotherhood? The love of one\u2019s fellow man must be fed from deeper\nsprings.\n\nWe have need of profounder faith, and of more poignant fear than this\nage knows. I am not sure that all the physical benefits that could be\nimagined or enumerated for ourselves or for others could make up for\nthe supreme loss in this shifting the attention, altering the whole\nemphasis of life in the innumerable ways in which the physical now\nobtains over the mental and spiritual. We look longingly back to our\nforefathers, who lived primarily in the spirit, with constant sense\nof spirit-values, not in the flesh and that hoped-for immortality of\nthe flesh,--or the nearest approximation to it,--that haunts our world\nto-day. In our great outer prosperity and inner poverty, our immense\nacquisition of external knowledge, and incalculable loss of deeper\nrealities, our morality shifting its great concern from the welfare\nof the soul to that of the body, we find no symbol so fitting as the\nold fable of the dog and his shadow in the brook. Dropping his bone to\ngrasp the shadow of the bone, he went hungry away.\n\nWhy this swift renunciation of that which has made for profounder life\nin our ancestors, and the loud cry of Progress as the treasure slips\naway? There is no age which has known in theory so much regarding\norderly development in human affairs, the growth of the present from\nthe past, and no age which has shown so little sense of the deeper\nmeaning of these laws. The human race has never talked so much of\ncontinuity, and never, perhaps, has it made so sharp a turn. Modern\nscience has taught us much concerning organic growth, cause, and effect\nas dominating the physical world; evolutionary theory is the basis\nof our study of language, of literature, of all human institutions.\nClearly and unmistakably comes the teaching of our time that, in all\naspects of life, the present is rooted in the past, indissolubly united\nin unbroken chain; but, curiously enough, whereas the law has been\ngrasped in connection with matters material, matters intellectual,\nmatters \u00e6sthetic, in matters spiritual there is a sudden halt or break.\nWe prattle learnedly of evolution, but we have little conception of it\nin that which should be the deepest concern of life, the development\nof the soul. Nature, we are told, admits no gaps, yet it would seem\nthat the great modern majority turns abruptly from the faith which has\nsustained human life from generation to generation, ignoring, as no\nage before has done, the best in the past. In so doing, does it not\nrepudiate the law upon which our understanding of everything else is\nbased? Distrusting in the study of physical life any theory not based\nupon ideas of growth, sequence, old custom, in matters spiritual we\ndemand the fresh, the untried; not for reverence of that which has been\nattained, but because we find an idea startling and original, do we\nwelcome it.\n\nWhen Bergson assures us that an element of will is to be reckoned with\nin all growth, is it because we have drifted so near enslavement to a\npurely mechanical system of thought that we hail this as new doctrine\nand therefore acceptable? If it were whispered abroad that the idea\nis of unimaginable antiquity, that it has been at the basis of every\nethical system ever founded, would his large audiences dwindle? If the\nidea of God, of immortality, could be advertised among the novelties,\ninstead of among the long inheritances, who would refuse to believe?\nBelief in the universe as essentially spiritual, God-created; belief in\nthe deathlessness of the human soul, belief in right-doing in the light\nof these great faiths, have been associated with the age-long growth of\nthe race; can we ignore, or lightly cast aside, that which has been at\nthe very heart of the spiritual evolution of our forefathers?\n\nIt is not merely in matters of religious faith that we find this sudden\nbreak with the past; the ignorance shown by many modern leaders of the\nglory of our literature; their pride in this disregard of \u201cthe best\nthat has been thought and said in the world\u201d; their assumption that\nwhich antedates contemporary discovery is worthless, is full of menace.\nA great thinker of a hundred years ago, I was recently told, is \u201ca back\nnumber,\u201d and therefore valueless. Again comes that puzzling thought of\ncontinuity, the necessity of recognizing all the stages of growth. Why\nthe enormous importance of every step in the physical past, this slight\nregard for the mental development? The race-experience, or the best of\nit, is recorded in our literature; here again are the foundations upon\nwhich we must build, if we are to build truly. Here is treasure too\ngreat to throw away so lightly.\n\n\n\n\n                                  IV\n\n\nBACK of all this absorption in physical and material welfare lies,\nof course, the preponderating intellectual influence of the century\njust past, with its passionate pursuit of truth through matter. No\none wishes to decry the services of science to our knowledge of the\nphysical world; the great discoveries in the theoretical field, the\ngreat inventions in the applied. It is one of the profoundest ironies\nof human existence that our blessings and our curses come subtly\nintertwined; we mortals forget that one seldom comes without the other,\nand are prone to take as pure blessing that which is new. The measure\nof curse in our latest great achievements may be greater than we\ndream, although it is difficult for people to believe, in the sweep\nof a great movement, that it can mean anything but pure progress in\na straight line. Yet we move ever by zigzags, this extreme and that.\nWhen will the race ever learn the art of mental equilibrium, of steady\nadvance, employing all the human faculties, instead of exploiting a few?\n\nThe many subtle wrongs done the human spirit by this complete surrender\nto the world of matter, it would be difficult to enumerate. I recall\nthe emphatic assertion of one of the new thinkers, arguing with one\nwho held in all sincerity the old, simple faith: \u201cThe only subject\nworth study is man, man considered from a biological point of view.\u201d\nThe initial genesis, the growth, the inevitable end, the physical\nactions and reactions,--that is man from the biological point of\nview. In the presence of people who hold this belief I feel as if\nan extinguisher were coming down, slowly smothering my very flame of\nlife. You doubtless recall that iron chamber of Spanish Inquisition\ntimes, so fashioned that it closed in, day by day, a few inches upon\nthe unfortunate inmate? So life to-day, for unnumbered people, grows\nnarrower, threatening extinction. That earlier victim had no choice;\none can but marvel at the modern folk, who themselves turn the key that\nshuts them in, and are content with their lessening world.\n\nThe voices of those who claim that mind is a secretion of matter,\nof those who find the way to truth through matter only, though not\nrepresenting the wisest in our intellectual vanguard, have been heard\nabove the others, and humanity is prone to follow where the loud\nvoices call. Whether it is the fault of the leaders, or of the forlorn\ncamp-followers who trail after the victorious army, picking up and\nmisusing scraps of information; whether it is the fault of passive\non-lookers, ready to believe anything that is told by anybody,--be it\nprofessional utterance or popular inferences therefrom, in many cases\nunwarranted,--certain it is that we have spent the greater part of\nour lives in the shadow of the crass materialism which is one of the\nby-products of the machinery, intellectual and other, of the period\njust drawing to a close. It is a doctrine which fits absolutely the\ngreat and sudden influx of wealth during the last decades, pandering\nto the same tendencies, the same blindnesses, a twofold materialism of\ntheory and practice.\n\nIt is a materialism stupid, unfounded, turning its back upon the\nearlier idealisms of poet, philosopher, religious believer, not so\nmuch because of reasoning processes as because of a sudden shifting\nof attention. Wonderful things may be observed under the microscope,\nwonderful things through the telescope; wonderful things are day by\nday invented. Is it likely that there is anything beyond all this? To\nrecent generations, as to that progressive dog, the reflection in the\nwater seemed for the moment, as is often the case, more real than the\nreflected object; hence this tragedy of loss.\n\nThe human mind has been suddenly diverted by a loud noise outside; a\nsudden change of tension results. Where one looks quickly, all heads\nare turned. It is a noise of motor-boats, aeroplanes, engines of all\nkinds; a sight of airships, flying like birds; of submarines, diving\nlike fish; of moving pictures with their endless panorama. Mankind\nis childishly diverted; the hearing of the ears, the seeing of the\neyes,--it is enough. The skepticisms of the seventeenth and eighteenth\ncenturies tried to reason out their origins, to explain upon what\nthey were based; not so here. This is the most unthinking of systems,\nnot troubling to give a rational account of itself. Thought is out of\nfashion: nowadays we observe! Through this preponderance of observation\nover thought in this great period, the human mind has greatly suffered\nin surety of process, in logic, in differentiation of mental processes.\nThe exercise of pure reason has become almost obsolete; the idea that\nthought can be exercised apart from sense, from study of phenomena,\nis all but forgotten. Whether or not we assume that matter is the\norigin and the end of all things, the world of to-day thinks in terms\nof matter; is content to live and breathe and have its being in matter;\nhopes, aspires, and prays, if it hope, aspire, and pray at all, in\nterms of matter.\n\nOur very vocabulary is degraded; the most far-reaching symbols of our\nlanguage come seldom into use, or appear with diminished meaning.\nFollow, for instance, the course of the word \u201cinfinite\u201d through the\nantics of contemporary literature. Our phraseology has become carnal;\nour vital terms are terms of physical life. Nowhere is the limitation\nof contemporary thought more apparent than in these instruments of\nspeech. One must read again Wordsworth, Shelley, Carlyle, Ruskin,\nArnold, Meredith, to meet great words, now little employed, that make\nyou realize the utmost reach of life; in so doing, one pauses in\ndismay, realizing how full contemporary speech is of lesser terms, how\nfew employ the greater words that tell the inner life of the soul.\n\nAll forms of idealism have suffered during the past century of\nprogress, more through being ignored than through being refuted; there\nstill are thinkers who consider Kant, with his demonstration of the\nuniverse mind-made, a wiser teacher than any who have followed him,\nyet these have few disciples. Of the two old hypotheses, that this is\na world of spirit, that it is a world of matter, the latter has been\nthe predominant choice of our time. That choice has been reinforced\nby the impact of a wonderful physical and material development, while\nthere has been no corresponding gain in the spiritual and the purely\nintellectual; for many years the best of the fine young energy of\nthe race has busied itself, either in investigation or in invention,\nwith the world of matter. We hear endlessly of the great advance of\nour time, of the surety of its knowledge, the doing away with baseless\nold idealisms. What, after all, has been achieved? The origin of human\nthought, the destination of the human thinker, are as profound a secret\nas before this unparalleled progress. Science, which has been the great\nintellectual adventure of the last century,--to what has it led us?\nOnly again to that edge of the unknown, where we confront the infinite.\nIt has not gained by one hair\u2019s breadth upon the encompassing mystery\nof our lives.\n\n\n\n\n                                   V\n\n\nTHE special form of idealism held by our forefathers, the Christian\nfaith, with its great central tenets of God, immortality, the\nnecessity of right-doing in the light of these faiths, has suffered\nwith the other forms of idealism during the last decades. Those who,\nintentionally or unintentionally, have attacked, many of those who have\ndefended, have alike done it injury. Of our intellectual vanguard,\nsome have denied, some have ignored, some have been wisely patient\nand silent, awaiting the adjustment of new wisdom to old. As for the\nfirst,--surely those who hold sense-observation to be the basis of all\nknowledge should take no such vast leap into the dark as that involved\nin denial of these old beliefs. It is when certain of these new\nthinkers slip beyond their own self-defined province, and philosophize\nin ways contradicting their own premises, that one fails to follow\nthem; when, grown bold with their conquest of physical nature, they\nmake a vast leap from observation of phenomena into metaphysical\nstatement, without consciousness of what they are doing, that one\nlistens with profound distrust. Doubtless we have all known one or two,\nready to make assertions dogmatic beyond the dogmatism of old theology,\nfounded upon nothing but the assumption that they, who can truly\nobserve facts in the physical world, could assert nothing but fact. I\nrespect them when they observe; I tremble when they begin to generalize.\n\nIt is indeed a crowning irony when one is called upon to believe, in\nthe name of discoveries in the world of phenomena, that faith in God\nand in immortality is untenable. Because it is possible to see with the\naided eye organisms unsuspected before our day,--this does not prove\nthat the immemorial spiritual instincts of humanity have no foundation.\nThe assumption that the great hopes of mankind cannot be true because\nthey cannot be detected under microscope or through telescope, has\nfloated in the air, darkening wise counsel, has assumed an authority\nnever won; the present is full of unnecessary renunciations and\nunproved denials. In the intoxication of new discovery regarding the\nlaws of organic growth, the leap from belief in unseen realities to\ndoubt or to denial has been too swift and too absolute. Probably, in\na great majority of cases, thought, intellectual process, has had\nlittle to do with the change. Humanity has lost hope without knowing\nwhy; the air has been thick with doubt and fear. Hearing a great noise\nin the dark, aware of attack, many have rushed away, leaving great\ntreasure, while the enemy was still far from taking the stronghold.\nThis new poverty of life which we call Progress is thus, in many cases,\nthe misfortune, but not the fault, of those who, unable to think for\nthemselves, take for granted that the most insistent voice must be the\nright voice.\n\nHow greatly the defenders of the faith, in much of the warfare, have\nmissed the issue! The time that has been lost, the good territory\nyielded in contesting the literal interpretation of Genesis, may well\nfill us with shame. If the story of the serpent of Eden must slip from\ndogma to myth, must faith in the unseen realities therefore go? If our\nforefathers were wrong in linking the large faith of their spiritual\nlives indissolubly with the story of Adam and that of Jonah, we must\ndiscriminate where they failed to discriminate, remembering in all\nhumility that with their smaller knowledge of external things went a\nfar profounder knowledge than ours of things spiritual. We must keep\nthe greater; the less is not to us the sacrifice it was to them; let it\ngo!\n\nIf we ask, why this close linking with myth, who can answer? We\nknow only that the human soul develops slowly; shade by shade the\ntruth grows clear. We, who have learned something of the incredible\nslowness of physical development, can afford to have patience with the\nspiritual, but we cannot afford to let slip back anything that the soul\nhas achieved, proved, made its own. In the long quarrels over the husk,\nthe kernel has too often slipped out of sight; essentials have gone\nwith unessentials. We can no longer in good faith teach the young that\nthe misfortune of our present predicament may be traced to eating an\napple; but those of us who are unable to step to the marching music of\nour time may, in impassioned good faith, until modern thinkers make a\nbetter case against us than they have yet made, teach the young that\nthe great realities of life are of mind and soul, not body; that growth\nand change are necessary, fundamental, vital, the very condition of\nlife; that it is for them to remove reverently whatever outer veil may\nhave obscured their forefathers\u2019 great light of faith; but that doom is\nupon them if they lose the light.\n\nDoubtless the greatest wrong done the Christian faith by its defenders\nwas the attempt to reduce it to a mere matter of reasoning. The\npity of it is that, at a time when the whole fabric of Christianity\nwas shaken and the whole spiritual life was at stake, theologians\nshould so have emphasized fact, clinging to a dead literalness of\ninterpretation! Through the long decades of the nineteenth century,\ntrying to meet the geologists upon their own ground, they were very\nproperly worsted. Why borrow, and use weakly, weapons which belong\nto a different warfare, knowledge? Sense-perception, playing a large\npart, and rightly, in science, is neither starting-point nor goal here,\nnor is historical fact. Proofs of a real religion are not limited\nto repetition of fact. When they imitated the scientists, in their\ndemand for external evidence, and imitated them badly, the inevitable\nhappened. More and more their own great world of spiritual aspiration\nand endeavor was ignored by those whose high privilege it was to make\nknown the vitalizing power of the faith they held, its subtle answer\nto the soul\u2019s deepest need. The doom of a faith is its loss of inner\nsources of vitality, its \u201cmaterialization in fact,\u201d and perhaps the\nChurch has been rightly punished for forgetting that its weapons should\nbe primarily weapons of the spirit, its world the world of divine\nendeavor. This is no time to haggle over theology; the object is not to\nsave the church, but to save alive the souls of men.\n\nMyth could go; dogma itself could go; Christianity would still be.\nMilestones in the path of the human spirit, dogmas have done great\nservice, but none have been great enough to express the potential\ngreatness of the spiritual life of the human race. Greatly have they\nhelped; at times they have greatly hindered. Seemingly necessary\nbulwarks in time of stress and siege, the human soul has lived on\nafter their demolishing; the human spirit is greater than they. Modern\nwarfare has demonstrated that great forts and intrenchments are\nuseless; that does not mean that there is to be no fighting. Faiths,\nbeliefs, patriotisms are still there, but the fighting is to be in the\nopen, a matter of life and death, the issue an issue of vitality.\n\n\n\n\n                                  VI\n\n\nWE have our choice; both propositions have been made: we are all body,\nwholly involved in a mechanical scheme of things, or we are partly\nfree, recognizing within us faculties not wholly subordinated to the\nrigid physical law of necessity, free to choose, to struggle toward\nhigh aims, to succeed in part, in part, perhaps, fail. Pending proof\nto the contrary, let us assume that our wills have a certain freedom.\nIt is at least better \u201cstrategy and tactics\u201d in the battle of life\nthan the reverse. In the absence of a microscopic test to determine\nthe matter, it may be well to demonstrate the existence of the power\nby using it, making decisive choice of the finer hypothesis, and\nasserting our right to do so. Perhaps the trouble has come not wholly\nfrom the activity of the materialists, but partly from the failure of\nthe idealists to stand by their guns. The folly of perpetual defensive\non the part of the idealist has been abundantly demonstrated in late\nyears; it is for him to take the offensive, to claim and hold his\nown, ceasing to be shame-faced, explanatory, apologetic! Whatever\nspecial form our denial of the supremacy of matter may take, whether\nphilosophic or religious, of Plato and Kant, or of Christ, we should\nband together against this tyranny that threatens the inner life of the\nrace, and affirm the supremacy of spirit.\n\nConsider our forefathers\u2019 faith in the light of a working hypothesis,\nif you will. It is an age of hypotheses; science is ceaselessly busy\nwith them. Its finest achievements have followed great imaginative\nconceptions, some of which have been verified by observed fact, some of\nwhich have been disproved, some of which, neither proved nor disproved,\nare still looked upon as a firm basis of knowledge.\n\nThe odd thing is that, in science, a whole fundamental assumption may\ngo without interfering with the validity of the information based\nthereon; disproving one hypothesis, science goes serenely on. They\ntaught me in my college days the indivisible atom quite as dogmatically\nas, earlier, I had been taught the literal reality of the story of Eve\nand the serpent. The fact that the atomic theory is now questioned, if\nnot overthrown, in no way invalidates the truths of chemistry, while\nthe passing of the serpent has, in some strange fashion, meant for many\npeople the passing of the Christian faith. It has, in reality, nothing\nto do with the central tenets of the Christian faith, which are: that\nthe universe is a universe of spirit, controlled by a great spiritual\nforce, for great ends; that, for the guidance of stumbling humanity,\nthe great spiritual force took human form; that mere human beings,\nkeeping mind and soul intent upon that great example, may work out\nthrough love and sacrifice immortal meanings in their lives. Has any\nbetter working hypothesis ever been suggested to humankind?\n\nScience says, \u201cHere are certain phenomena which we can explain in no\nother way\u201d; and gives its splendid guess. Why deny to our spiritual\nlife a method freely used in science, the assumption of an hypothesis\nthat most nearly explains observed facts, with the hope of proving it\ntrue as knowledge grows more profound? Why may we not say, \u201cHere are\ncertain persistent hopes, inner needs, longings, which we can explain\nonly on the assumption that the universe is a universe of spirit\u201d?\nThese beliefs have been associated with the age-long growth of the\nrace, and are perhaps the very condition of its mental and spiritual\ndevelopment. These facts of the inner life are as truly facts as are\nthose of the outer world, though scientific absorption in matter has\nmade mankind forget this. It is strange that a generation so fond of\nemphasizing fact should have ignored or even denied the most important\nfacts of all, and so have brought about a crushing limitation to our\nendeavor. Not only in the external world are facts to be found: the\nhope, the faith, the long aspiration of the race, those persistent\nconvictions of enlarging destiny which have played so great a part\nin human growth,--shall these be of no account? When such immense\nimportance is attached to every phase of physical growth in the past,\nhow can we deny the wealth of spiritual experience without being false\nto the very laws of thought?\n\nSo we ask, not what happened to our remotest forbears in the Garden\nof Eden, but what has happened to our nearer forefathers, whose needs\nwere akin to our own, that will help our human existence. To what have\nthey gallantly held? To what have they come back? To what did they\ninevitably turn in cruel times of suffering? What are the hopes they\ncould not forget, slow century by century of trial, disappointment,\naspiration, agony? Persistent faith in unending life, in which should\ncome the crowning of the spiritual endeavor of this; indomitable\nbelief in righteousness, in distinction between right and wrong; God,\na divine wisdom working through all the show of things,--such was their\nfaith. Our forefathers tried and proved it and found it good, living\ndifficult lives and dying hard deaths full of a sense of conquest, of\ntriumph. Their working hypothesis has yet to be surpassed.\n\nThe old teaching--whether or not we share the exact shade of\nintellectual interpretation of ultimate mystery--brought a better\nsense of relative values than we have now, and a far greater chance of\nprogress. Faith in soul is a better working programme than faith in\nbody. Working forward, however eugenically, toward the Perfect Brute\nis a poor hope at best. There can be no growth without the boundless,\nthe illimitable, ahead, and the great hopes, undisproved, still shine\nbefore us. Life must be made great in its scope, its demand, if it\nis to achieve greatly. It is a sorry thing to have the guiding forces\nmere shallow intellectual forces,--mere intellectualism is always\nshallow,--to reduce the whole of the hope and the wonder and the\nterror of life to the seeing of the eye, the hearing of the ear, the\nmere logical deduction, while the larger nature sleeps abashed. A\nsound hypothesis must cope with all the facts involved; our working\nhypothesis of life must reckon with the deepest striving of our nature,\nits furthest longing, its most imaginative reach. There has been\ngreat waste of unused powers in these later decades of our period of\nprogress. Half only, and the lesser half, of the human being has been\ncalled into activity; the better part of the human faculties have been\namong the \u201cunemployed.\u201d\n\nIs it not time for the sleepers to waken, rub their eyes, and say,\n\u201cThere is a greater in us than you have let us recognize. This attempt\nto solve the problems of human nature while leaving the best of human\nnature out of account has shown its inadequacy. The materialistic\ninterpretation of the universe with its attendant cult of the body\nis a _cul-de-sac_. Life, personality, are full of larger needs\nand larger powers than the present trend of thought permits us to\nrecognize; and life must know the diviner hunger, the deeper thirst,\nif it is to win significance.\u201d This progress, which ignores the higher\naspiration, the profounder stirring of the nature,--shall we be\ntherewith content?\n\n    Through hope, through faith, through love\u2019s\n        transcendant dower\n    We feel that we are greater than we know,\n\nwrote a poet-philosopher who dared trust his soul as leader. In this\nmathematical and scientific age there is a dread of feeling, of\nimpulse; a fear of this greater self that hopes and fears and prays.\nWe recognize the great part that feeling and impulse play in the\nevolution of the world of living creatures; yet man, in trying to\nsolve the riddle of his destiny, is forever searching for some narrow\nrationalistic explanation which will shut these large factors out.\nThere is great distrust of intuition, of the imaginative faculty,\nwhen dealing with the inner life; yet imagination, intuition, hold\nan important place in the study of the outer world; the greatest\ndiscoveries in science are, no less than the great achievements of\ncreative art, the result of imaginative grasp of the unrealized. If\nintuition, daring conjecture, afford such signal service in winning\nknowledge of the world of matter, why should we, who wish to believe\nsomething deeper than that world can ever teach us, be deprived of\nthe use of our larger faculties? Feeling, emotion, play a large part,\nperhaps the best part, in our sum of human wisdom; passion is a fine\ninstrument of discovery,--spiritual passion, of spiritual truth. Of\nthe utmost help these can give us we have utmost need, as we have of\nimagination, the divining power, that seer into the inner realities of\nthings, and of \u201cthe will as vision.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                  VII\n\n\nIT is partly because of the largeness of its scope for activity of the\nentire man, the fullness of its appeal to the whole human being, that\nChristianity surpasses other idealisms as a working basis of life,\nproves itself the flower of them all. Sharing with others a purely\nidealistic theory, faith in the spiritual nature of the universe, it\nbrings home that faith in ways unknown to other systems, makes it\nhuman, a matter of the hearth, of daily life. It is an idealism which\nis within the reach of the humblest intelligence; in its humanness,\nits simplicity, its nearness to the least, it may almost be said to be\nthe only working idealism of all time. The vision of the Perfect Man\nappeals to the larger self; feeling is stirred by it, passion touched,\nand imagination, that power through which alone creative work is done,\nforever shapes fairer and fairer conceptions. No other idealism has\nthe compelling power which brings the whole nature into play; so many\nelements to quicken the will and release hidden stores of energy. In\nall creative work, mere reasoning process lags behind; life, with its\nhigh spiritual possibilities, is creative work. It is for us to fashion\nit in accordance with our clearest vision of perfection; we have need\nof the largest hope that we can muster, the loftiest aim. For shaping\nlife to great ends, for employment of all the faculties in the service\nof a great idealism, impulse, intuition, will, there is nothing that\ncan match the Christian faith in the greatness of its simplicity.\n\nThe old, old needs of life are always with us, the necessity of\nconsolation in grief and loss, of hope enough to keep us trudging along\nour path. Perhaps not even in its swift response to these great needs\nof the human being comes the profoundest proof of its supremacy. From\nthe point of view of potential evolution, from the greatness and depth\nof its challenge, we know its greatness. Christianity, with the sting\nof its challenge for eternity, suggests enough of progress to satisfy\nthe human soul once started on its way. What deeper appeal has ever\ncome than the thought of endless destiny, bringing the awful necessity\nof living in the light of it?\n\nNot long since, I read in some journal an article in which a writer\nspeaks wistfully of our lost hope in immortality, but adds that we do\nnot so greatly mind, and that our children will mind still less. If\nthis faith is indeed gone, what has happened to rob us of so great a\nhope, once entertained? How the demonstration of organic processes in\nthe physical world, which has been the great achievement of our time,\ncan be assumed to reach to that which is beyond sense is hard to say;\nit would need eternity to disprove the belief, as it needs eternity\nto prove it. When you try with finite means to define the infinite\nyou make trouble for yourself, and perhaps rob the young of inherited\nhopes. If our children do not mind, it will show a phase of degeneracy\nin them, of willful shutting off of light and life already attained. We\nshall count them craven if they let go any high ideal once conceived,\nfor that means inevitable retrogression; this should be held as the\nunforgotten and unforgettable hope of the race. What mortal, when the\nsplendor of such a thought had dawned on him, could let it go? The\nendless possibility, the infinite opportunity for growth, the challenge\nfor eternity,--who dare take it, and order his life in accordance with\nit?\n\nAgain, this is the greatest of all idealisms in that it sets for\nthe human being the hardest and the highest of all human tasks,\nself-sacrifice. The wonder of it, that across the old physical law of\nsurvival of the fittest by brute means, supreme, unchecked, unhindered\ntwo thousand years ago, could have crept the gleam of a higher law,\nstrangely contradicting it,--the survival of that which is fittest in\nthe individual, perhaps at the expense of the body. The greatest marvel\nin all the world\u2019s history is that Christ could have been; that the\nvery idea of soul, of human development transcending the physical in\nutter self-sacrifice, could have come into existence is proof enough of\nthe divine. That teaching, so clear, so unmistakable, has been blurred\nand forgotten, as nation and individual have succumbed to the lesser\nlaw, but it still is there. Christianity left behind? It is millions of\nyears ahead, so far ahead that it is still dim before our vision.\n\nMust \u00e6ons pass before the human race will begin to realize how great\nwas that message, how divine, how far it reached into depths which\nnothing else had touched, how high, how all but unattainable its\nservice? Is there no chance for this Christianity, with its stern\nteaching of sacrifice, of eternal endeavor, for this faith, never tried\nwith sufficient freedom from the trammels of dogma, with the deepest\nchallenge, the highest possibility that has come before the race?\n\nSince no life can be worth living without faith in power transcending\nnature\u2019s manifestations of physical force; without some ideal of human\nconduct, of right and wrong, rising above the needs of \u201cbiological\nman\u201d; without a sense of further scope, of wider opportunity than the\nmere span of human existence allows; since our forefathers held these\nhigh beliefs and lived more greatly than we; since no man has disproved\nthem; since the very effort to disprove is a contradiction of the laws\nof thought, carrying processes of reason into depths of life profounder\nthan reason; since we have powers, capabilities of emotion, divination\nof higher meanings; since we know aspiration, hope, love, let us use\nthese greater powers and let them build our greater world. The choice\nis ours; why choose the less, and fling away the greater?\n\nThe only genuine progress for us is progress in the inner life. We\nknow the greater meaning, the higher significance, not in the mere way\nin which the facts of the physical world are known, but in a far higher\nway. By that uncertainty, full of challenge, which is the condition of\nreal growth, rousing the creative will, it is ours to make great our\nlives in accordance with the loftiest hope the race has known.\n\n\n\n\n                                 VIII\n\n\nMUCH of what I have been saying was written before this war began. In\nthe great hush that has fallen upon the nations, is it not well for\nus to stop and ask anew whither our progress has been tending? What\nwords have those who have been taught to live and breathe and think\nin terms of matter, wherewith to voice this awful stirring of the\nsoul? People cry out that the Dark Ages will come again through this\nfearful slaughter, this waste of resources intellectual and material.\nHave not the Dark Ages been with us for decades? For mankind, more\nand more stripped of the deeper faith, the larger hope, more and more\ncut off from the finer part of his own nature, what darker ages can\nthere be than these shadowed by the dreary positivism, undiscussed and\nundefined, but merely assumed, of our day? Many a thinker must see,\nin this present awful crisis, not an isolated phenomenon, not a mere\npolitical event for which a train of political causes had been laid,\nbut also one of the natural results of our ways of thinking, of our\nkind of progress. The growth of material over spiritual conceptions in\nthe last fifty years is appalling; to such an end the Gospel of the\nPerfect Brute legitimately leads. We may believe ourselves through this\nstruggle untouched, apart, and watch with wonder and surprise, but the\nsame forces are at work with us, and potent. This terrible, crashing\nexposure is something to make us, who are not in the thick of the\nbattle, stop and think.\n\nWe are shuddering at a German nation Nietzscheized, brutalized, as\nwe conceive, through a brutal ideal; but are the Germans so far\nremoved? Have they not simply adopted, a little more vigorously, a\nlittle more frankly than we, a doctrine which is becoming the moving\nforce in all countries, replacing Christianity? Are they not simply\nthe most progressive of all nations? Since the theory of evolution\nwas demonstrated, the doctrine of the survival of the fittest, which\nshould be taught as the mere working of a physical law, has come to\nbe taught as ethics, and an odd confusion of thought has come about.\nHow insidiously the idea of the biological necessity is coming to\nbe considered the whole necessity of man, we are only now faintly\nrealizing; the need of spiritual struggle, of spur to that instinct\nwhich may save man from much that had seemed biological necessity, is\nbecoming more and more dim. It is one thing to recognize warfare in the\nphysical world, the strife that attended the evolution of man; it is\nanother thing to exalt this to a code of conduct and deliberately teach\nit. A conscious lowering of nature to the first primitive impulse, a\ndeliberate going backward, is a very different matter from following\nthese impulses in the slow process of growth. If a higher thought\ncomes along your line of vision, woe betide you if you choose the\nlower! Doubtless dragons and prehistoric monsters would have behaved\ndifferently if they had got better ideas into their heads; we shall not\nbe acquitted by posterity if, after a finer ideal has been suggested,\nwe go back to writhing and biting in the slime.\n\nI am a plain American citizen, with no direct connection with this war,\nas innocent of having anything to do with starting it as the Kaiser\nis claimed by his upholders to be; yet I feel a sense of guilt. I am\nashamed to look the young in the face; it seems to me that, in some\nway, we older folk have betrayed them in letting humanity come to such\na pass; in tampering with the ways of thought and of belief which have\nlet this thing be. This deification of biological man has not as yet\ngone with us so far as exalting the gospel of warfare; we cry out, when\nwe see the logical outcome of ideas taught with such fervor through the\nlast decades, against the German evangel of the mailed fist.\n\nYet England too has her theorists teaching the biological necessity of\nwar, that the fundamental laws which govern human conduct are the laws\nof brute force, the survival of the fittest in death struggle. America\nhas been too profoundly influenced by Germany in educational matters,\nhas sat too submissively at her feet, to escape. Accepting so many\nof the minor premises of her teaching, will not the major ultimately\nfollow as a matter of course?\n\nIt is Germany that has carried furthest this materialistic modernism,\nhas perfected it. The word Germany has been a name to conjure with\nin swift denial if one but ventured to suggest the possibility of a\nspiritual interpretation of life. High intellectual achievement has\nbeen that of the Germany of these later years, but not the highest; she\nhas kept the mailed fist upon the spiritual aspirations of mankind,\nand has made a treaty, on her own terms, with the human soul, with\nwhat loss of territory! We have not yet accepted the whole of this\nnew evangel; we have doubts, mental reserves. Neither have we, in our\nperiod of enlightenment, made gain in developing those forces of mind\nand soul that would enable us to refute it.\n\nMan, from a purely biological point of view, indulging in the\nbiological necessity of war in the year of our Lord 1915, is a sorry\nspectacle, but perhaps it is, as Mr. Shandy said, \u201cno year of our\nLord at all,\u201d so progressive are we. Now that we make our swift\nleap backward many thousand years, we pause to wonder whether this\nmeans only a quickened pace in a direction already chosen. Of the\nachievements of the mailed fist the Neanderthaler man, barring a\ndifference of weapons, would have been capable. How shall we escape\nthis progress which is utter retrogression?\n\nThis overwhelming catastrophe has brought the issues squarely before\nus. It is well that the forces we have to fight have come into the\nopen; we know at last the world we live in. We are face to face, with\na distinctness never before presented, with two great principles: the\nlaw of brute force, of the survival of the fittest, made into a code\nof conduct; the law of Christianity, with its possibility of higher\ndevelopment, finer progress than brute force dreamed,--the growth of\nthe greater through sacrifice of the less; soul-achievement at the\nexpense of flesh. In this great hour of need shall we let the shallow\nintellectualism of much recent thought dominate, or shall we boldly\nchoose that faith in which the best of human life, from its first dim\nstirring to triumphant self-sacrifice, is summed up? One way lies\ninevitable slipping backward; the other way lies progress in inner\nlife too great for word or present vision.\n\nThese are crucial moments; how great the crisis none may understand.\nMany an idealist, lost in the more than forty years of materialism of\nour time, is praying that out of the horror of the present may come\nbetter things: a deeper sense of the deepest needs of life; a knowledge\nthat neither material comfort, nor physical health, nor materialistic\nthought can wholly satisfy; a hunger and thirst for which only the\nspiritual can suffice. Suffering bears strange fruit, and the suffering\nof the present days and of the days to come is incalculable. Even the\nmental anguish of mere watchers of the strife may help reveal to the\nmodern world as profound need of faith.\n\nOne thing is evident in all this awful crash: men still are brave;\nnever before, perhaps, have they fought against such great odds. The\nsplendor of their courage dims our eyes. Shall the fighters in the\nworld of spirit, \u201cfighters in the noblest fight,\u201d be less brave in\ndefending in the face of odds, perhaps never so great before, these\ninner truths, deeper than dogma, deeper than theology, deeper than life\nitself, the immemorial heritage of the race,--longing unutterable for\nrighteousness, for faith in the spiritual, for enlarging and unending\nlife?\n\n\n                                THE END\n\n\n\n\n                         =The Riverside Press=\n                       CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS\n                               U . S . A","title":"Whither?","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":9723}