REMARKS OF MR. SCHURZ.
Mr. Carl Schurz responded to the toast, “The progress
of science tends to international harmony.” He
said:
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Two things which
fell from the lips of the first two speakers struck me as
remarkably pertinent to our present situation. One was
the proverb of the Amazulus, quoted by our worthy
chairman, that “a stuffed body sees not secret things”;
and, great orator that he is, he did not fail to accompany
the saying with the illustration of example. (Laughter.)
The other was the remark which formed the text of the
eloquent address of our honored guest, Mr. Spencer, that
too great continuity and intensity of work, as observed
in this country, will be apt to break down the best
physical constitution; and I am exceedingly sorry to see that,
in this respect, he himself appears more like an
American than like an Englishman. (Great applause.)
I sincerely hope that, when he returns to his country, he
will permit his incessant labors for the benefit of
humanity to be sometimes interrupted by due relaxation.
(Applause.) Profiting from the wisdom we have listened
to, I shall turn round the Amazulu proverb, and follow
Mr. Spencer's impressive advice in saying that, in my
opinion, and according to general experience, any serious
effort at profound philosophical thought or scientific
inquiry,
immediately after a good dinner, must be injurious
to a man's health. (Applause.) Considering that I have
a family to support, and various other duties to perform,
which make a vigorous physical condition desirable, I
shall, whatever others may do, in this respect try to take
care of myself. (Laughter.) Do not understand me,
however, as meaning to discourage any one of you,
gentlemen. Everybody must be left to be the judge of
his own conduct, upon his own responsibility. Herbert
Spencer never spoke a wiser word than when he said,
“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of
their folly is fill the world with” — he bluntly said —
“fools,” but I will only say, “with dyspeptic
philosophers.” (Laughter and applause.) Leaving, therefore,
the discussion of deep philosophical and scientific problems
to others more reckless of their physical well-being,
I shall prefer to call up some pleasant memories which
this interesting occasion brings to my mind. Nineteen
years ago, shortly after the battle of Missionary Ridge, and an
expedition to Knoxville for the relief of Burnside, I was
with my command in a winter camp near Chattanooga,
where, for some time, our horses suffered so much from
want of food that many of them died, and where we had,
at times, not salt enough to make our meat and crackers
palatable. But I had Herbert Spencer's “Social Statics,”
with me, which, in the long winter nights in my tent, I
read by the light of a tallow-candle, and in which I found
at least an abundance of mental salt to make up for the
painful absence of the material article. (Applause.) For
the delightful luxury of thus enjoying quiet philosophical
meditation at the hand of such a guide, in the midst of
the scenes of war, I have been grateful to Mr. Spencer
ever since. (Applause.) Moreover, it became perfectly
clear to my mind that, if the Southern people had well
studied and thoroughly digested that book, there would
never have been any war for the preservation of slavery
(applause) — and that, since they had not read and
digested it, it was our bounden duty to hammer the first
principles of the “Social Statics” — namely, that “every
man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he
infringes not the equal freedom of any other man” —
(applause) — into the slaveholders' heads to the best of our
ability. This was done, and the effect was good.
(Applause.) That first principle is now more and more
generally understood in this country, and the more generally
it is appreciated the less occasion there will be for
ourselves and our descendants to study the “Social Statics”
in a camp of war again. (Applause.)
As I am supposed to respond to a sentiment touching
the influence of the progress of science on the intercourse
of nations, I may say that it strikes me as a common-sense
view of the matter — and, as you know, Mr. Chairman,
common-sense is often the most deceptive disguise of
ignorance (laughter) — that the effect of that progress
upon the relations of different peoples is very much the
same that it is upon the relations of different portions of
one people, or of different individuals. I shall not disregard
my own warning as to the overstraining of our mental
faculties immediately after dinner when I lay down
the proposition that — given a certain number of subjects
of discussion between different nations, or different
individuals — if the progress of science, or of philosophical
enlightenment, increases the number of things upon which
they agree, it reduces, in the same measure, the number
of things upon which they disagree (laughter); and thus
it carries them forward in the direction of general good
understanding and harmony. (Laughter and applause.)
And if that progress, as is likely to be the case, increases
the number of subjects of discussion, and teaches us, at
the same time, how to dispose of them by peaceful and
amicable reasoning, it will, to that extent, prevent us
from coming to blows. (Applause.) These propositions,
although simple, seem to me conclusive, and I feel very
much like claiming for them the right of original
discovery. (Laughter.)
I take it, also, that the end of science and of philosophy
is not merely to enlighten the minds, but also
ultimately to influence the conduct, of men, and not only the
conduct of a few, but the conduct of the many. And to
that end it should make itself understood by the many.
The direct effect upon mankind will grow in strength
and extent as science and philosophy are popularized in
the best sense of the term, and thereby become more
cosmopolitan. (Applause.)
There was a time when the investigations of science
and their results were kept in the possession of
privileged orders or circles, and treated as profound mysteries
which could not be exposed to the gaze and the
understanding of the multitude without profanation and
without endangering the fixed order of society. That time
lies, fortunately, far behind us. But some of us can remember
the day when philosophy and science were, by many
at least, studiously clothed in the darkness of formidable
terminologies and obscure forms of speech, which seemed
to warn off all the uninitiated. It was here and there
considered unprofessional, and it exposed the man of
science and the philosopher to the charge superficiality,
if he discussed scientific and philosophical subjects in a
language easily intelligible to the rest of mankind. I
know of works of that sort professedly written in German,
but requiring translation into German almost as
much as if they had been written in Sanskrit. (Laughter.)
And of some works written in other languages the
same might be said. They tell an anecdote of a great
philosopher who, on his death-bed, complained that of all
his pupils only one had understood him, and that one had
decidedly misunderstood him. (Laughter.) How great
the misfortune was has probably never been ascertained.
Perhaps the loss caused by the misunderstanding was not
without compensation, as I have been told of a philosophical
book of the obscure kind which was translated from
one language into another, and some of the original
thoughts of which were rather improved by the mistakes
of the intelligent translator. (Laughter.)
We may certainly congratulate ourselves upon the
fact that in our days, among men of science and philosophers,
a tendency has grown up to take the generality of
intelligent mankind into their confidence by speaking to
them in a human language; and also a tendency vastly
to enlarge the range of their immediate usefulness by
applying the truths discovered by them directly and
practically to all the relations and problems of actual life.
(Applause.) And surely it can not be said that, by thus
being made popular and cosmopolitan, science and
philosophy have lost in depth and become superficial. On
the contrary, it is an unquestionable fact that the same
period which is marked by the popularization of science
and philosophy is equally remarkable for its wonderful
fertility in scientific discovery, mechanical invention, and
philosophical generalization of the highest value.
(Applause.) We have gained in depth and surface at the
same time. (Applause.) Nor is this at all surprising.
For, the greater the number of minds that are reached by
new ideas, the greater will be the quantity and variety
of new intellectual forces that will be inspired and
stimulated into creative activity. (Applause.)
I am confident, gentlemen, I express your sentiments
as well as my own when I say that, in the man who
tonight honors and delights us with his presence, we greet
one of the greatest representatives of that democratic
tendency (applause); one of the boldest leaders of that
philosophy that bursts the bonds of the closet (applause);
one of the foremost builders up of science in the largest
sense by establishing the relations of facts (applause);
the apostle of the principle of evolution, which Darwin
showed in the diversity of organic life, but which Spencer
unfolded as a universal law governing all physiological,
mental, and social phenomena (applause); a hero of
thought (great applause), devoting his powers and his
life to the vindication of the divine right of science against
the intolerant authority of traditional belief (applause);
an indefatigable diver into the profoundest depths of
ideas and things, who has also known how to bring the
discovered treasures within the reach of every intelligent
mind (applause), and who has thus become one of the
great teachers, not merely of a school, but of civilized
humanity. (Applause.)
Among us he has come in search of rest and recreation,
and I trust it will be to him a cheering satisfaction to
know that, far from being a stranger with us, he has even
among this youngest and busiest and most nervous of
peoples, multitudes of devoted pupils and admirers, of
whom the friends here present are a respectful but only
a feeble representation. (Applause.)
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1931.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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Facsimile of Youmans book at archive.org
Uncharted Knowledge
Wisdom From Previous Realities
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