,,the ,,unity ,,series ,,recent ,,developments ,,in ,,european ,,thought ,,essays ,,arranged ,,and ,,edited ,,by ,f4,s4 ,,marvin ,,author ,,of ',,the ,,living ,,past'1 ,,etc4 ',to hope till ,hope creates ,from its own wreck the thing it contemplates4' ,prometheus ,unbound4 ,,humphrey ,,milford ,,oxford ,,university ,,press ,,london ,,edinburgh ,,glasgow ,,new ,,york ,,toronto ,,melbourne ,,cape ,,town ,,bombay #aibj ,,printed ,,in ,,england ,,at ,,the ,,oxford ,,university ,,press ,,preface ,this volume1 like its two predecessors1 arises from a course of lectures delivered at a ,summer ,school at ,woodbrooke1 near ,birmingham1 in ,august1 #aiai4 ,the first1 in #aiae1 dealt with ',the ,unity of ,western ,civilization' generally1 the second1 in #aiaf1 with ',progress'4 ,in this book an attempt has been made to trace the same ideas in the last period of ,european history1 broadly speaking since #ahgj4 ,it was felt at the conclusion of the course that the point of view was so enlightening and offered so many opportunities of useful further study that it should1 if possible1 be resumed in future years4 ,a large number of subjects were suggested--',the ,relations of ,east and ,west1' ',the ,duty of ,advanced to ,backward ,peoples1' ',the ,rle of ,science in ,civilization1' c4--all containing the same elements of 'progress in unity' which have inspired the previous volumes4 ,it was thought that possibly for the next session ',world ,reconstructions ,past and ,present' might be most appropriate4 ,if any reader feels moved by interest or sympathy with the general idea to send suggestions1 either as to possible places of meeting1 or topics for treatment or any other kindred matter1 they would be welcomed either by the ,editor or by ,edwin ,gilbert1 ,woodbrooke1 ,selly ,oak1 ,birmingham4 ,f4,s4,m4 ,,berkhamsted1 ,december1 #aiai4 9999 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,this text contains a single instance of a character with a diacritical mark4 ,the character is a lower-case 'r' with a caron 7v-shaped symbol7 above it4 ,in the text1 that character is depicted thusly3 vr 9999 ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,general ,,survey #g ,by ,f4,s4 ,,marvin4 ,,ii4 ,,philosophy #be ,by ,professor ,a4,e4 ,,taylor1 ,st4 ,andrews4 ,,iii4 ,,religion #fe ,by ,dr4 ,f4,b4 ,,jevons1 ,hatfield ,hall1 ,durham4 ,,iv4 ,,poetry #ia ,by ,professor ,c4,h4 ,,herford1 ,manchester4 ,v4 ,,history #adj ,by ,g4,p4 ,,gooch4 ,,vi4 ,,political ,,theory #afd ,by ,a4,d4 ,,lindsay1 ,balliol ,college1 ,oxford4 ,,vii4 ,,economic ,,development #aha #a4 ,,the ,,industrial ,,scene1 #ahdb #aha #b4 ,,mining ,,operations #aie #c4 ,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,association #bji ,by ,c4,r4 ,,fay1 ,christ's ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,,viii4 ,,atomic ,,theories #baf ,by ,professor ,w4,h4 ,,bragg1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,ix4 ,,biology ,,since ,,darwin #bbi ,by ,professor ,,leonard ,,doncaster1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,x4 ,,art #bdg ,by ,a4 ,,clutton ,,brock4 ,,xi4 ,a ,,generation ,,of ,,music #bfb ,by ,dr4 ,,ernest ,,walker1 ,balliol ,college1 ,oxford4 ,,xii4 ,,the ,,modern ,,renascence #bic ,by ,f4 ,,melian ,,stawell4 ,i ,,general ,,survey ,f4,s4 ,,marvin ,we are trying in this book to give some impression of the principal changes and developments of ,western thought in what might roughly be called 'the last generation'1 though this limit of time has been1 as it must be1 treated liberally4 ,from the political point of view the two most impressive milestones1 events which will always mark for the consciousness of the ,west the beginning and the end of a period1 are no doubt the war of #ahgj and the ,great ,war which has just ended4 ,from #ahgj to #aiad would therefore be the most obvious delimitation of our study2 and it is a striking illustration of human paradox1 that a great stage in the growth of unity should be marked by two international tragedies and crowned by the most terrible of all4 ,nearly coincident with the political divisions there are important landmarks in the history of thought4 ,during the 'sixties1 while the power of ,prussia was rising to its culmination in the ,franco-,prussian ,war1 the ,darwinian theory of development was gaining command in biology4 ,to many thinkers there has appeared a clear connexion between that biological doctrine and the 'imperialism'1 ,teutonic and other1 which was so marked a feature of the time4 ,in any case 'post-,darwinian' might well describe the scientific thought of the age we have in view4 ,industrially the epoch is as clearly defined as it is in politics and science4 ,for in #ahga1 the year of the ,treaty of ,frankfort1 an act was passed after a long working-class agitation1 assisted by certain eminent members of the middle class1 legalizing strikes and ,trade ,unions4 ,and now at the end of the war1 all over the world1 society is faced by the problem of reconciling the full rights1 and in some cases the extreme demands1 of 'labour'1 with democratic government and the prosperity and social union of the whole community4 ,this is the situation discussed in our seventh and eighth chapters4 ,in philosophy and literature a similar dividing line appears4 ,in the 'sixties ,herbert ,spencer was publishing the capital works of his system4 ,the ,principles of ,psychology was published in #ahgb4 ,this ',synthetic ,philosophy' has proved up to the present the last attempt of its kind1 and with the vast increase of knowledge since ,spencer's day it might well prove the last of all such syntheses carried out by a single mind4 ,specialism and criticism have gained the upper hand1 and the fresh turn to harmony1 which we shall notice later on1 is rather a harmony of spirit than an encyclopaedic unity such as the great masters of system from ,descartes to ,comte and ,spencer had attempted before4 ,in literature also the dates agree4 ,dickens1 most typical of all early ,victorians1 died in #ahgj4 ,george ,eliot's last great novel1 ,daniel ,deronda1 was published in #ahgf4 ,victor ,hugo's greatest poem1 ,la ,lgende des ,sicles1 the imaginative synthesis of all the ages1 appeared in the 'seventies4 ,there have been many writers since1 with ,tolstoi perhaps at their head1 in whom the fire of moral enthusiasm has burnt as keenly1 nor have the borders of human sympathy been narrowed4 ,yet one cannot fail to note a less pervading and ready confidence in human nature1 a less fervent belief that the good must prevail if good men will only follow their better leading4 ,here then is our period1 marked in public affairs by a progress from one conflict1 desperate and tragic1 between two of the leading nations of the ,west1 to another and still more terrible which swept the whole world into the maelstrom2 and marked in thought by a certain dispersion and depression of mind1 a falling in the barometer of temperament and imagination1 but also by a grappling with realities at closer quarters4 ,no wonder that some have seen here a 'tragedy of hope' and the 'bankruptcy of science'4 ,but it must be noted at once that these obvious landmarks1 though striking1 are in themselves superficial4 ,they require explanation rather than give it1 and in some cases an explanation1 much less tragic than the symptom1 is suggested by the symptom itself4 ,we may at least fairly treat them at starting simply as beacon-hills to mark out the country we are traversing4 ,we have to go deeper to find out the nature of the soil1 and travel to the end to study the vista beyond4 ,in making this fuller analysis of man's recent achievement1 especially in the ,west1 the first1 and perhaps ultimately the weightiest1 element we have to note is the continued and unexampled growth of science4 ,was there ever a more fertile period than the generation which succeeded ,darwin's achievement in biology and ,bunsen's and ,kirchhoff's with the spectroscope8 ,both have created revolutions1 one in our view of living things1 the other in our view of matter4 ,in physics the whole realm of radio-activity has come into our ken within these years1 and during the same time chemistry1 both organic and inorganic1 has been equally enlarged4 ,all branches of science in fact show a similar expansion1 and a new school of mathematicians claim that they have recast the foundations of the fundamental science and assimilated it to the simplest laws of all thinking4 ,some discussion of this will be found in the chapter on philosophy4 ,it may serve as tonic--an antidote to that depression of spirits of which we have spoken--to consider that such an output of mental energy1 rewarded by such a harvest of truth1 is without precedent in man's evolution4 ,no single generation before ever learnt so much not only of the world around it but also of the doings of previous generations4 ,for since #ahgj we have been living in an age as much distinguished for historical research as for natural science4 ,if mankind is now to go down in a wrack of war1 starvation1 bankruptcy1 and ruin1 the sunset sky at least is glorious4 ,and there is tonic in another thought which rises from the very nature of this recent blossoming of knowledge4 ,it marks the growing co-operative activity of mankind4 ,the fact that science and research of every kind have advanced so rapidly is not only1 or even primarily1 a proof of the continued vigour of the human intellect1 but of the stability of society1 the coherence of social classes and nations1 the readiness of the bulk of men to allow their more immediately productive work to be used for the support of those whose labours are in a more remote and ideal sphere4 ,science did not begin until the ancient priesthoods were enabled to pursue disinterested inquiries without the need of earning their daily bread4 ,civilization1 we may be assured1 is not threatened in its most vital part so long as the general will permits the application of the general resources to the promotion of learning and research without a claim for immediate marketable results4 ,our last generation has not only permitted but has encouraged this in all ,western countries1 and in other countries1 such as ,china and ,japan1 influenced by the ,west4 ,the money thus spent is vastly greater than in any equal period before1 and the ,united ,states1 the land of the fullest democratic claims1 is also the land of the amplest generosity for scientific and educational purposes4 ,the growth of knowledge is a symptom not only of the collective capacity of living man but also of the continuity of the present age with those which had laid the earlier foundations4 ,one school of vigorous action1 and still more vigorous talk1 advises our generation to be done with the past and make a fresh start on more ideal lines4 ,this is not the voice of science1 which1 just in proportion to its growth1 has shown more and more care for its origins and its past3 and this is true at every stage in the history of thought4 ,the ,greeks1 fighting for freedom and establishing in the city-state a new form of political organization for the world1 were yet in their scientific evolution true and grateful successors of the priests who first compiled the observations necessary for the scientific study of the heavens and founded the art of medicine4 ,the men of the ,renascence1 who were burnt and imprisoned for doubting the verbal inspiration of ,aristotle and the ,bible1 were in fact going back to an earlier impulse than that of the scholastic philosophy4 ,the mathematics of ,pappus and the mechanics of ,archimedes had to be carried further before the new sciences of which ,aristotle had given the first sketch could be securely founded4 ,the pioneers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries built therefore on the past1 although accused of impiety and revolution2 and it must be so with any intellectual construction which is to hold its own and form the future4 ,so far from there being any opposition in nature between history and science1 the two are but different aspects of one continuous enlargement of the human spirit1 which sees and lives more fully at each great moment of its progress1 and1 so far as it is alive1 is always informed by the real achievements of the past4 ,we illustrate this advance in the marvellous record of our fifth chapter1 and its spirit is summed up in the great saying of ,benedetto ,croce that 'all history is contemporary history'4 ,but the reader may here begin not unnaturally to feel some impatience with the argument1 and to think that he is being carried into a region of ideal imaginings quite out of touch with the realities of blood and hatred and starvation with which we have been actually surrounded at the end of our period4 ,it is well to be thus sharply reminded of the contrariety of facts1 when we are sailing smoothly along on the current of any theory1 whether of education or politics1 religion or art4 ,to get right with our objector1 to set our sail so that the rocks in the stream may not completely wreck us1 we will go back to the point where we were insisting on the obvious truth that the collective resources and capacity of mankind have of late enormously increased4 ,the material fruits of science are among our most familiar wonders--the motor-car1 the aeroplane1 wireless telegraphy4 ,but it is not sufficiently realized how all these things and the like are dependent upon the co-operation of a multitude of minds1 the collective rather than the individual capacity of man4 ,men had dreamt for ages of flying1 but it was not until the invention of the internal combustion engine that bird-like wings and the mechanical skill of man could be brought together and made effective4 ,it is ,humanity that flies1 and not the individual man alone4 ,the ,german ,daimler1 the ,french ,levassor1 are the two names which stand out most prominently in this later development of engineering as our own ,watt and ,stephenson stand in the history of the steam-engine4 ,wireless telegraphy offers a similar story4 ,faraday1 ,maxwell1 ,hertz1 ,lodge1 ,marconi2 the names are international4 ,in #aiac1 before ever the ,league of ,nations had been planned1 ,lord ,bryce was telling an ,international ,congress in ,london that 'the world is becoming one in an altogether new sense4444 ,more than four centuries ago the discovery of ,america marked the first step in the process by which the ,european races have gained dominion over nearly the whole earth4 ,as the earth has been narrowed through the new forces science has placed at our disposal1 the movements of politics1 of economics1 and of thought1 in each of its regions1 become more closely interwoven4 ,whatever happens in any part of the globe has now a significance for every other part4 ,world ,history is tending to become one ,history4' ,the war1 tragically as it has shaken this growing oneness of mankind1 has not destroyed it4 ,in some ways it has even stimulated growth4 ,against a background of blood and fire the ,league of ,nations has been forced into actual being1 and the long isolation alike of the ancient ,east and the youthful ,west has been broken down at last4 ,within the ,state1 again1 even allowing for all setbacks1 the efforts at social solidarity have on the whole been strengthened1 not weakened4 ,this war his been an accelerator of1 not1 as the ,napoleonic1 a brake upon1 reform4 ,many reforms1 especially in ,england1 which had been long discussed and partly attempted before the war1 were carried out with dispatch at its close4 ,this was the case with education1 with the franchise and with measures affecting the health1 the housing1 and the industrial conditions of the people4 ,and there is now a greater and stronger demand among us for a further advance1 above all for making every citizen not merely or even primarily a voting unit1 but a consciously active1 consciously co-operative1 member of the community4 ,comte1 who died in #aheg just before our period1 was perhaps the clearest voice in ,europe to herald both movements3 the advance to international unity1 and social reform within the ,state4 ,it was he who1 under the title of ,western ,republic1 proclaimed the existence of a real unity of nations1 whose business it was to strengthen themselves as a moral force1 to act as trustees for the weaker people and lead the world4 ,it was he who1 in the phrase 'incorporation of the proletariate'1 summed up all those social reforms in which we are immersed1 which aim at making every citizen a full member of his nation4 ,like all ideals it was far easier to conceive and to respect than to foresee or to secure the necessary means to put it into effect4 ,perhaps the perfect symmetry of the plan1 the over-sanguine hopes of the man who framed it1 have even proved some hindrance to its rapid spread4 ,it has seemed1 like ,dante's polity in the ,de ,monarchia1 to take its place rather among the utopias than the practical schemes of reform1 and when men saw the infinite complexity of the problems and met the living lions in the path1 they suffered the comparative depression which we have noticed as a feature of the age4 ,here indeed it would appear that we have reached one of the most serious cross-currents in recent ,european thought4 ,in science1 in philosophy1 in politics1 and in social economics1 though we see the goal at least in outline1 we are in some danger of being overwhelmed by the difficulties of the pursuit4 ,our vision is somewhat clouded and our steps hampered by the entangling details of the country between4 ,it is substantially the same problem which faces us both in the philosophical and the practical sphere1 and the analogy between the two is instructive4 ,spencer's synthesis1 which we instanced as the last encyclopaedic attempt to present all knowledge--at least all scientific knowledge--in one system1 has been riddled fore and aft by hostile shot1 though in the end more of it may be found to have survived than is seen at present above water4 ,the philosopher who in our generation has acquired the ,european vogue most comparable to that of ,spencer is ,bergson4 ,now ,bergson has dealt some of the shrewdest blows at ,spencer's system1 but he does not set out to construct a rival system of his own4 ,he is most careful to say that he is not doing this1 that any such work must be done by later workers1 that he is only making suggestions for a new point of view4 ,it is interesting to note in general terms what that point of view is1 as we shall have occasion later on to revert to it4 ,it rests on a new interpretation of the nature and growth of conscious life4 ,he is in short a semeur d'ides-force rather than an encyclopaedist or a system-maker4 ,the difference is characteristic of the age and might be traced in the other contemporary schools1 the pragmatists1 the new realists1 and the rest4 ,the new ,descartes is looked for but not announced4 ,perhaps when he arrives he will prove to be a whole army and not a single man4 ,but if an army1 it will need a better co-ordination1 a more clearly defined common spirit1 than is at present apparent in the philosophic hosts4 ,a similar perplexity in the practical sphere has a similar cause but a graver urgency4 ,the multiplicity and contrariety of the facts are upon us as we face in practice the ideals which we have accepted from the earlier thinkers1 from the century of hope4 ,in science and philosophy we feel that the cause of unity may with some safety be left to look after itself4 ,if the new ,descartes does not appear in person1 we may have confidence that plenty of inferior substitutes will be found1 who1 if they work together1 will keep alive the great task of unifying thought4 ,for in this region the nature of things assists our efforts and will sooner or later get the work done4 ,the stars in their courses are fighting for us and for unity4 ,but in the world of wills the task is tenfold more difficult and the dangers imminent4 ,the poor and labouring millions1 the oppressed and dissatisfied nations1 are forcing the door1 and though there is fair agreement in theory as to how they should live and work together in peace1 yet the realization is by no means automatic1 and the difficulties thicken as we come nearer to them4 ,but even here1 perhaps most of all here1 it is the first word of wisdom to take stock of the favourable symptoms1 to see clearly the forces on which we can rely in our forward march4 ,and they are not far to seek in all classes and in every ,western land4 ,read any account of an ,english community in the early nineteenth century1 say ,george ,eliot's ',milby' in the ,scenes of ,clerical ,life4 ,how far more humane1 more enlightened1 and happier is the state of the succeeding community1 the ,nuneaton or ,coventry of the present day6 ,no question but the novelist would have welcomed as a convincing proof of her 'meliorist' doctrine the progress made in her own homeland in the century since her birth4 ,we know by personal experience the general kindliness and cheerfulness of our fellow citizens1 their tolerance1 their readiness to hope1 their prevalent orderliness and self-restraint4 ,we are thinking perhaps of a certain tendency to slackness1 a dangerous falling-off in the output of work4 ,if that be so1 we need only look at the activities of any playground1 or of a class-room in a well-ordered school1 to be sure of the future4 ,the natural man1 at least in our temperate climates1 and as exhibited in the behaviour of his natural progenitor1 the child1 is all for vigour and experiment4 ,it is we1 the adult community1 the trustees of the child1 who are to blame if his maturity fails of the eager questioning and the untiring labours of his unspoilt youth4 ,but we are dealing in this volume rather with changes of thought than with the actual life of the times4 ,theories affecting the organization of work1 the distribution of the product1 and the government of society have had much to do with our present difficulties4 ,they have arisen from the conditions of the industrial revolution and the doctrines of the political revolution which began about the same time1 and they have reacted ever since on the work and wages1 the life and government of the mass of ,western men4 ,they are discussed in our eighth chapter4 ,it may be said broadly that in this sphere1 as in philosophy1 the old and simpliste doctrines have been criticized almost to the point of extinction1 but that no new all-embracing practical synthesis has taken their place4 ,the ,marxian theory that social evolution has been due mainly to economic causes1 that these have produced inevitably the present--or recent--capitalist system1 which inevitably must be turned upside down in the interests of manual labour--this is no longer dominant in any ,western community1 though it is fighting a desperate battle in ,eastern ,europe4 ,but it is equally true that the capitalist system1 presented in an ideal and moralized form in the ,utopias of ,st4 ,simon and ,comte1 is not generally accepted now as an ideal for industry4 ,the spirit which ,comte desired and believed would animate the moralized employer1 acting as the providence of his workpeople1 we look to find rather in a reconstituted and moralized ,state4 ,we all share this hope in our degree1 ,the ,times as well as the ,daily ,news1 and we do not expect the new spirit to operate simply through the free-will and private capacity and initiative of individuals4 ,the joint stock company has settled that4 ,what we are waiting and hoping for is the time when1 under the aegis of a benevolent ,state1 capital and labour may live together in many mansions and1 like the monks of old1 follow many rules of life4 ,in this region our ideal of unity is more diversified than in the realm of thought1 and there is no demand for a ,descartes4 ,and here it is interesting to note that one of the most telling books on social reconstruction published since the war is by an international writer4 ,this is ,dr4 ,walther ,rathenau1 a ,german of ,jewish descent1 whose ideas have just been popularized by a ,frenchman1 ,m4 ,gaston ,raphael#a4 ,he fits in well with our general argument by virtue of his double attitude1 holding1 on the one hand1 that under the general supervision of the ,state1 industry should be organized in various self-governing groups1 ',social ,guilds' or 'professional syndicates' in which both employers and workmen would be included with representatives of the ,government2 while1 on the other hand1 he is emphatic that progress must proceed from a changed and widening mentality1 and aim in turn at increasing the depth and capacity of the individual soul4 ,our book has no special chapter on the ,league of ,nations itself4 ,the idea pervades the whole1 and the subject was treated in detail in the first volume of this series 7,the ,unity of ,western ,civilization1 #aiae74 ,the history behind the ,league offers a striking analogy to the other struggles for unity of which we have spoken4 ,there is the same advance from the idea of a unity dictated and controlled by one mind to a unity of spirit arising from the free co-operation of many diverse elements all aiming at the same general good4 ,down even to yesterday it seemed to many minds a necessary condition that one man1 gathering in his hands the resources of one great ,state1 should from that centre dominate the world4 ,and in the dawn of human history it was no doubt often true1 the only way in which the world could then advance4 ,this was true for ,alexander1 the prototype of all the ,roman conquerors1 and true1 conspicuously1 for the ,roman empire at its best4 ,but1 after the break-up of the empire1 unity of this type became a delusive mirage1 misleading all who1 like the ,holy ,roman emperors1 sought to enjoy it again4 ,by the time of ,napoleon it had become an anachronism of the most dangerous and reactionary kind4 ,the world was then too vast1 the freedom of men and nations too various and deeply rooted4 ,meanwhile a real unity1 stronger than before1 had been forming beneath the surface and needed fresh institutions to body it forth4 ,this movement for unity has been1 as we have seen1 precipitated by the war into visible and decisive action4 ,it had been simmering for three hundred years in ',great ,designs'1 ',projects of ,peace'1 ,treaties of ,arbitration1 and ,hague ,conventions4 ,among much that is doubtful in the future of the ,league1 one thing stands out as a capital certainty4 ,without losing the very spirit of its being it can never become a satellite system1 revolving round one dominant ,power or even a dominant clique4 ,it was formed to contradict and destroy an oppressive imperialism3 it can only thrive by the free co-operation of the partners1 finding their proper end in a prosperity shared by all4 ,such is a short summary of some of the leading topics treated here1 those perhaps in which public interest has been most keenly aroused4 ,but nothing has been said in this introduction of ,art or ,music1 and of ,religion only a little by implication4 ,it may be well in conclusion to attempt a still more summary impression of the main drift of the period on the spiritual side4 ,we may in such a wider view see some common tendency in all these activities1 some inspiration of religion1 some link with art1 some impulse to live strongly and to hope4 ,the present writer would find this leading thread in the increasing stress laid by recent ,european thought on the spiritual1 or psychological1 side of every problem1 in the growing desire to understand the character of man's own nature and to develop all the powers of his soul4 ,one of the latest authorities#b on anthropology has told us that 'to develop soul is progress'1 and he has followed the clue through the meagre relics of ,palaeolithic and ,neolithic man4 ,so does the last science of the nineteenth century throw light on the dim recesses of the past4 ,for unquestionably psychology is the characteristic science added to the hierarchy in our period2 it has crowned biology and is exercising a profound influence on philosophy1 literature1 and even politics4 ,if ,aristotle was its founder1 if it was ,descartes who first showed its profound connexion with philosophy1 it is to workers in our own day that we must look for those methods of accurate observation1 comparison1 and the study of causes without which it could not advance farther4 ,and modern psychology has advanced far enough to see that we must include in its purview the 'soul' of a minnow as well as of a man4 ,descartes had stopped too short1 for to him animal life1 as distinct from human1 showed only the movements of automata4 ,but now1 just as the biologist conceives man as part of one infinite order of living things1 so the psychologist believes that the facts of his consciousness1 the crown of life1 must find their place somewhere related to the simplest movements of the amoeba4 ,hence the whole of animate evolution1 and not only that part of which ,dr4 ,marett spoke1 may be thought of as the growth of soul4 ,but1 the objector will inquire1 does this imply the enlargement of every individual or even of the average or the typical personality8 ,and if not1 what becomes of a 'growth of the soul'8 ,to this we must admit the impossibility of any complete1 or even approximate1 answer with our present knowledge4 ,we can only note one or two points of certainty or of confident belief4 ,the first1 that there have been individual men1 an ,aristotle or a ,shakespeare1 in the past1 with whom later ages never have1 and perhaps never may1 compare4 ,the second1 that there are good grounds for thinking that the average man has improved in goodness and in knowledge since we first knew him dimly in the dawn of history4 ,but more important and more certain is the fact that the collective soul of man has grown1 and all the extensions of knowledge and of power of which our volume speaks bear witness to it4 ,they are essentially social in origin and outlook1 and rest on a foundation of common thought immeasurably wider than any in the more distant past4 ,the man of science1 the statesman1 even the poet1 now speaks for a multitude1 and out of a multitudinous consciousness1 which had not gathered to support1 to inspire1 or to weigh down1 an ,aristotle1 a ,pericles1 a ,cromwell4 ,this is a dominating fact from which it is well to take our start4 ,assuredly the soul of mankind has been collectively enlarged and enriched4 ,how far the individual can share in this enlargement is still one of the problems of the future4 ,the ,west has committed itself to a general policy of education which aims at making every citizen a full partaker in the advance of the race4 ,but it cannot be said that this policy has yet been really tried4 ,it is the acknowledged ideal to which in all ,western countries partial steps have been taken1 and the democracy1 through their most enlightened leaders1 will continue to press for its fulfilment4 ,as this approaches1 the individual may become more and more in his degree the microcosm which philosophers have proclaimed him1 and the enlargement of the soul1 which we know to be a fact for humanity1 will become a fact for every man4 ,need we doubt that with the general raising in the level new eminences will appear8 ,do not great mountains sometimes rise from the sea and sometimes from the high plateau8 ,we are now in the very midst of a struggle for settlement and incorporation1 which1 as it is accomplished1 should prepare the way for new excellences of every kind4 ,what may not be hoped of men if once they learn to live with their fellows8 ,and they can only so learn by studying them4 ,this is felt by all contemporary writers from ,bergson in philosophy to ,graham ,wallas in politics4 ,poets and novelists1 above all1 have turned more and more to problems of the inner life4 ,the novelists who ushered in our age are significant of this1 and none more so than ,george ,eliot1 whose work1 though somewhat out of fashion for the moment1 is yet marked by the transition from ,victorian complacency to modern unrest and modern hopes4 ,full of love and appreciation for the old order in ,england--the contentment and humours of the country-side1 the difference of classes1 the respect for religion--she was carried by the evolutionary philosophy of her time into thoughts of an eternal and world-wide order1 the growth of humanity1 the kinship of man with the universe1 the social nature of duty4 ,her contribution was essentially psychological2 she enlarged our knowledge of the soul4 ,she showed us1 not certainly more living types than ,scott or ,dickens1 but more play of motives1 more varied interests in life1 more mental crises4 ,the soul1 above all the woman's soul1 had widened its horizon between ,flora ,macdonald and ,dorothea ,brooke4 ,every reader will think of famous novelists who have followed the same broadening path1 and their work is often really great as well as famous4 ,the history of thought has in fact throughout the last century been a commentary on those words of ,keats to which many of us have turned of late for comfort and inspiration3 ',the world is not a vale of tears1 but a vale of soul-making4' ,tears there are in abundance1 as the tears of children4 ,but sorrow is not the leading note of children1 nor should it be of humanity in growth4 ,soul-making--the practice and the theory--has become more and more clearly and consciously the object of human thought and endeavour4 ,we need the greater mind to see the links in the overwhelming mass of science1 in the mazes of human action and history4 ,we need it still more to grasp and to preserve the unity of our social life4 ,most of all for the healing of the world is the greater soul needed1 with a world-consciousness1 some knowledge1 some sympathy1 some hope for all mankind4 ,without this1 a league of nations would be dead before its birth4 ,the recent development of psychology1 social as well as individual1 its pursuit on scientific lines1 and its alliance with biology1 suggest one thought which applies generally to an age of science and may be found to throw some illumination even on the future4 ,which of all types of modern men is the most habitually hopeful1 the man of letters1 the politician1 the business man1 or the man of science8 ,there can be no question of the answer4 ,the typical man of science is sure of the greatness and solidity of the work he shares1 and confident that the future will extend and make still more beneficial its results4 ,his forward glance is more assured because the backward reveals a course of growing strength and continuous ascent4 ,the physicist foresees unmeasured sources of energy1 still untapped4 ,he warns us of our dangers1 but has no doubt that1 with due foresight1 we may overcome them1 and make the reign of man upon the planet wider and firmer than before4 ,the doctor knows no disease which may not in time yield to scientific treatment4 ,the agricultural expert foresees1 and can produce1 new types of grain and fruit which will surpass the best yet known4 ,and the trainer of youth1 the man to whom the new science of psychology stands most in stead1 is the most hopeful of them all4 ,dealing with human nature in its growth he puts no limits to its powers of goodness and activity4 ,he deplores the want of wise methods in the past1 and if he errs at all it is in an excess of optimism1 in believing that with new methods we may make a new man4 ,on this enlargement of the soul1 enlightened by science1 we build the future4 ,it is the crowning vision of the modern world1 first sketched by ,descartes1 filled out and strengthened by the life and thought of three hundred years4 ,in the interval we have lived much and learnt much1 both of our own nature and of the world in which we live4 ,in our own age a powerful stimulus has been given by a transformed biology and a new science which shows the soul itself in growth from an immemorial past1 moulding the future by its own action1 surmounting1 while assimilating1 the mechanism which surrounds it4 ,but for this building two things are needed4 ,one1 that our souls1 as builders1 shall act as one with all our fellows and strive for unity as well as power4 ,the other1 that in the building the laws of growth shall be followed1 which science has already revealed in part and will reveal more fully4 ,for the spirit of science is the spirit of hope4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #a3 ,walther ,rathenau4 ,ses ,ides et ses ,projets d',organisation conomique4 ,by ,gaston ,raphael 7,paris3 ,payot1 #d;f4 #ej c74 ,footnote #b3 ,r4,r4 ,marett in ,progress and ,history 7,oxford ,university ,press74 ,,ii ,,philosophy ,,professor ,a4,e4 ,,taylor ,between forty and fifty years ago a great ,european man of science1 ,emil du ,bois-,reymond1 delivered before an audience of the leading scientific men of ,germany a famous discourse on ,the ,limits of our ,knowledge of ,nature1 which he followed up some years later with a second discourse on the ,seven ,riddles of the ,universe4 ,his object was to convince the materialists of the 'seventies that there were at least seven such unsound places in their story of everything4 ,some of the 'riddles'1 he admitted1 might prove to be soluble as science advances1 but the most important of them will always remain unanswered4 ,our position as regards them will always be ignoramus et ignorabimus--we do not know the solutions and we never shall know them4 ,i do not ask now whether du ,bois-,reymond was right in his judgement or not4 ,if he was right1 that means1 of course1 that the one tale of everything will never be told by human lips to human ears4 ,there will no more ever be a finally true ,philosophy than there will ever be a finally perfect poem or picture or symphony4 ,but there is no reason why we should not1 at any rate1 try to make our story as nearly perfect as we can1 to reduce the number of the places where we have to break off with 'that is another story'1 and perhaps even to hazard a 'wide solution' in matters where absolute certainty is beyond our reach4 ,this is the work of human ,philosophy as ,i conceive it1 and every man who is disinterestedly trying1 without one eye on wealth or fame or domination over the minds of others1 to make any contribution1 however humble1 to the telling of this one story or the removal of loose threads from it1 is inspired by the true spirit of ,philosophy4 ,whoever is doing anything else1 no matter under what name or with what profit or renown to himself1 is no true philosopher4 ,this point of view implies1 it will be seen1 no sharp dividing line between ,philosophy and ,science4 ,the avoidance of this commonly made distinction may offend two different sets of students--students of metaphysics who wish to exalt their own pursuit at the expense of the 'special' sciences1 and students of natural science who are accustomed to pride themselves on the contrast between the finality and definiteness of their own results and the vagueness and dubiousness of the conclusion of the metaphysicians4 ,but ,i must avow my own conviction that the only distinction we can make is one of convenience1 and it may help to make my peace with both parties if ,i explain where ,i take this distinction of convenience to come in4 ,if we are ever to construct an approximation to the one story of everything1 clearly one result will consist of a relatively few first principles and a great mass of conclusions which can be inferred from them4 ,and clearly again1 since men differ so widely in their mental aptitudes1 some men will be most successful in the detection of the principles which underlie all our knowledge1 and others most successful in the accumulation of facts and the detailed working out of the application of the principles to the facts4 ,for convenience' sake it will be well that some of us shall be engaged on the discovery of principles which are so very ultimate that most men take them for granted without reflecting on them at all1 and others on the work of detail4 ,further1 it will be convenient that1 within this second group1 various students shall give their attention to more special masses of detail1 according to their several tastes and aptitudes1 some to the behaviour of moving particles1 some to the behaviour of living organisms1 some again to the structure and institutions of human societies1 and so on4 ,for convenience we may agree to call preoccupation with the great ultimate principles ,philosophy and preoccupation with the application of the principles to masses of special facts ,science4 ,if we make the distinction in this way1 we shall be following pretty closely the lines of historical development along which 'special' sciences have gradually been constituted4 ,when we go back far enough in the history of human thought1 we find that originally1 among the great ,greeks who have taught the world to think1 there was no distinction at all between ,science and ,philosophy4 ,men like ,plato and ,aristotle were busied at once with the discovery of the first principles on which all our knowledge depends and with the construction of a satisfactory theory of the planetary motions or of the facts of growth and reproduction4 ,as the study of special questions was pursued further1 it became advisable to hand over the treatment of first one and then another group of closely interconnected questions to students who would pursue them independently of research into ultimate presuppositions4 ,this is how ,geometry1 ,astronomy1 ,biology came1 in ancient times1 to be successively detached from general ,philosophy4 ,the separation of ,psychology--the detailed study of the processes of mental life--from ,philosophy hardly goes back beyond the days of our fathers1 and the separation of such studies as 'sociology' from general ,philosophy may be said to belong quite definitely to our own time4 ,if our children have leisure for study at all1 no doubt they will see the process carried much further4 ,but it is important to bear in mind that neither ,philosophy in the narrower sense nor ,science in the narrower sense will be fruitfully prosecuted unless the men who are working at each understand that their own labours are only part of a single undivided work4 ,without a genuine grasp of some department of detailed facts no man is likely to achieve much in the search for principles1 for it is by analysis of facts that principles are to be found1 and without real insight into broad general principles the worker in detail is likely to achieve nothing but confusion4 ,the antagonism between 'philosophers' and 'men of science' so characteristic of the last half of the nineteenth century has been productive of nothing but evil4 ,it has given us 'philosophers' whose knowledge about the facts with which serious thinking has to deal has been hopelessly inaccurate2 it has also given us 'men of science' who have been 'ageometretes' and have1 by consequence1 when forced to offer some account of first principles1 taken refuge in the wildest and weirdest improvisation4 ,for really fruitful work we need the union in one person of the 'man of science' and the 'philosopher'1 or at least the most intimate co-operation between the two4 ,our theories of first principles require to be constantly revised1 purified1 and quickened by contact with knowledge of detailed fact2 and our representations of fact call for constant restatement in terms of a system of more and more thoroughly thought-out postulates or first principles4 ,this is perhaps why the department of human knowledge in which the last half-century has seen the most remarkable advances is just that in which unremitting scrutiny of principles has gone most closely hand-in-hand with the mastery of fresh masses of detail1 pure mathematics1 and again why the present state of what is loosely called 'evolutionary' science is so unsatisfactory to any one who has a high ideal of what a science ought to be4 ,it exhibits at once an enormous mass of detailed information and an apparently hopeless vagueness about the meaning of the 'laws' by which all this detail is to be co-ordinated1 the reasons for thinking these laws true1 and the precise range of their significance4 ,the work of men like ,cantor1 ,dedekind1 ,frege1 ,whitehead1 ,russell1 is providing us with an almost unexceptional theory of the first principles required for pure mathematics4 ,we are already in a position to say with almost complete freedom from uncertainty what undefined simple notions and undemonstrated postulates we have to employ in the science and to express these ultimates without ambiguity4 ',evolutionary science1' rich as is its information about the details of the processes going on in the organic world1 seems still to await its ,frege or ,russell4 ,it talks1 for example1 much of 'hereditary' and non-hereditary peculiarities1 and some of us can remember a time when our friends among the biologists seemed almost ready to put each other to the sword for differences of opinion about the inheritability of certain characteristics2 but no one seems to trouble himself much with the question a philosopher would think most important of all--precisely what is meant by the metaphor of 'inheritance' when it is applied to the facts of biology4 7,indeed1 it is still quite fashionable to talk not merely as if a 'character' were1 like a house or an orchard1 a thing which can be transferred bodily from the possession of a parent to the possession of the offspring1 but even as though an 'heir' could 'inherit' himself47 ,this last remark leads me to a further consideration4 ,science and ,philosophy are alike created by the simple determination to be thorough in our thinking about the problems which all things and events present to us1 to use no terms whose meaning is ambiguous1 to assert no propositions as true until we are satisfied that they are either directly apprehended as true1 or strictly deducible from other propositions which are thus apprehended4 ,but now that the area of facts open to our exploration has become far too vast for a modern ,francis ,bacon to 'take all knowledge for his province'1 and convenience has led to the distinction between the philosopher and the man of science1 a practical distinction between the two makes its appearance4 ,it is convenient that our knowledge of detail should be steadily extended by considering the consequences which follow from a given set of postulates without waiting for the solution of the more strictly philosophical questions whether our postulates have been reduced to the simplest and most unambiguous expression1 whether the list might not be curtailed by showing that some of its members which have been accepted on their own merits can be deduced from the rest1 or again enlarged by the express addition of principles which we have all along been using without any actual formulation of them4 ,the point may be illustrated by considering the set of 'postulates' explicitly made in the geometry of ,euclid4 ,we cannot be said to have made geometry thoroughly scientific until we know whether the traditional list of postulates is complete1 whether some of the traditional postulates might not be capable of demonstration1 and whether geometry as a science would be destroyed by the denial of one or more of the postulates4 ,but it would be very undesirable to suspend examination of the consequences which follow from the ,euclidean postulates until we have answered all these questions4 ,even in pure mathematics one has1 in the first instance1 to proceed tentatively1 to venture on the work of drawing inferences from what seem to be plausible postulates before one can pass a verdict on the merits of the postulates themselves4 ,the consequence of this tentative character of our inquiries is that1 so far as there is a difference between ,philosophy and ,science at all1 it is a difference in thoroughness4 ,the more philosophic a man's mind is1 the less ready will he be to let an assertion pass without examination as obviously true4 ,thus ,euclid makes a famous assumption--the 'parallel-postulate'--which amounts to the assertion that if three of the angles of a rectilinear quadrilateral are right angles1 the fourth will be a right angle4 ,the mathematicians of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries1 again1 generally assumed that if a function is continuous it can always be differentiated4 ,a comparatively unphilosophical mind may let such plausible assertions pass unexamined1 but a more philosophical mind will say to itself1 when it comes across them1 ',you great duffer1 aren't you going to ask ,why8' ,suppose that1 by way of experiment1 ,i assume that the fourth angle of my quadrilateral will be acute1 or again obtuse1 will the body of conclusions ,i can now deduce from my set of postulates be free from contradictions or not8 ,if ,i really give my mind to the task1 cannot ,i define a continuous function which is not differentiable8 ,the raising of the first question led in fact to the discovery of what is called 'non-,euclidean' geometry1 the raising of the second has banished from the text-books of the ,calculus the masses of bad reasoning which long made that branch of mathematics a scandal to logic and led distinguished philosophers--,kant among them--to suspect that there are hopeless contradictions in the very foundations of mathematical science4 ,now1 the effect of such careful scrutiny of first principles is not1 of course1 to upset any conclusions which have been correctly drawn from a set of premisses4 ,all that happens is that the conclusion is no longer asserted by itself as a truth2 what is asserted is that the conclusion is true if the premisses are true4 ,thus we no longer assert the 'theorem of ,pythagoras' as a categorical proposition2 what we assert is that the theorem follows as a consequence from the assertion of some half-dozen ultimate postulates which will be found on analysis to be the premisses of ,euclid's proof of his forty-seventh proposition4 ,to come back to the point ,i wish to illustrate4 ,the peculiarity of the philosopher is simply that he still goes on to 'wonder' and ask ,why when other persons are ready to leave off4 ,he is less contented than other men to take things for granted4 ,of course1 he knows that1 in the end1 you cannot get away from the necessity of taking something for granted1 but he is anxious to take for granted as few things as possible1 and when he has to take something for granted1 he is exceptionally anxious to know exactly what that something is4 ,de ,morgan tells a story of a very pertinacious controversialist who1 being asked whether he would not at least admit that 'the whole is greater than the part'1 retorted1 ',not ,i1 until ,i see what use you mean to make of the admission4' ,i am not sure whether ,de ,morgan quotes this as an ensample for our following or as a warning for our avoidance1 but to my own mind it is an excellent specimen of the philosophic temper4 ,until you know what use is going to be made of your admission1 you do not really know what it is you have admitted4 ,it is this superior thoroughness of ,philosophy which ,plato has in mind when he says of his supreme science ',dialectic' that its business is to examine and even to 'destroy' 7,greek3 anairein7 the assumptions of all the other sciences4 ,it does not let propositions which they have been content to take for granted pass without challenge1 and it may actually 'destroy' them by showing that there is no justification for asserting them4 ,thus ,euclid's assumption about parallels ceased to be included among the indispensable premisses of geometry1 and was 'destroyed' in ,plato's sense when ,lobatchevsky1 ,bolyai1 and ,riemann showed that complete bodies of self-consistent geometrical theory can be deduced from sets of postulates in which ,euclid's assumption is explicitly denied4 ,there are two further points ,i should like to put before you in this connexion4 ,one of them has been forcibly argued by ,mr4 ,bertrand ,russell in his admirable little work ,the ,problems of ,philosophy2 the other has not4 ,indeed1 it is just in his unwillingness to allow the second of these points to be raised at all that ,mr4 ,russell seems to me to fall conspicuously and unaccountably short of being what1 by his own showing1 a great philosopher ought to be4 ,to take first the point with which ,mr4 ,russell has dealt4 ,there is one very important branch of inquiry1 if we ought not rather to say that there are two1 which appear to belong wholly to general ,philosophy and not to any of the 'sciences'4 ,we cannot so much as ask the simplest question without making the implication that there is an ultimate distinction between true assertions and false ones1 and certain definite principles by which we can infer true conclusions from true premisses4 ,it is thus a very important part of the true 'story of everything' to state the principles upon which valid reasoning depends1 and to enunciate the ultimate postulates which have to be taken for granted whenever we try to reason validly about anything4 ,this is the inquiry known by the name of logic4 ,we cannot expect men whose time is fully taken up with the task of reaching true conclusions about some special class of facts1 those which concern the history of living organisms1 or the production and distribution of 'wealth'1 or the stability of various forms of government1 to burden themselves with this inquiry in addition to their other tasks4 ,they may fairly be allowed to leave the construction of logic to others4 ,but the man who makes it the business of his life to get back to ultimate first principles must plainly be a logician1 though he need not be a specialist in biology or economics or 'sociology'4 ,one great advantage which our children should have over their parents as students of ,philosophy is that the last half-century has been one of unprecedented advance in the study of logic4 ,in the 'logic of relations'1 founded by ,de ,morgan1 carried out further in the third volume of ,ernst ,schrder's ,algebra der ,logik1 and made still more precise in the earliest sections of the ,principia ,mathematica of ,whitehead and ,russell1 we now possess the most potent weapon of intellectual analysis ever yet devised by man4 ,we must further remark that the serious pursuit of any kind of science implies not only that there are truths1 but that some of them1 at least1 can be known by man4 ,hence there arises a problem which is not quite the same as that of logic4 ,what is the relation we mean to speak of when we talk of 'knowing' something1 and what conditions must be fulfilled in order that a proposition may not only be true but be known by us to be true8 ,the very generality of this problem marks it out as one which belongs to what ,i have been all along calling ,philosophy4 7,we must be careful to note that the problem does not belong to the 'special science' of psychology4 ,psychology aims at telling us how particular thoughts and trains of thought arise in an individual mind1 but it has nothing to say on the question which of our thoughts give us 'knowledge' and which do not4 ,the 'possibility of knowledge' has to be presupposed by the psychologist as a pre-condition of his particular investigations exactly as it is presupposed by the physicist1 the botanist1 or the economist47 ,the study of the problem 'what are the conditions which must be satisfied whenever anything at all is known' is precisely what ,kant meant by ,criticism1 though the raising of the problem in this definite form is not due to ,kant but goes back to ,plato1 who made it the subject of one of his greatest dialogues1 the ,theaetetus4 ,the simplest way to make the nature and importance of the problem clear is perhaps the way ,mr4 ,russell adopts in the ,problems of ,philosophy--to give a very rough statement of ,kant's famous solution4 ,kant held that careful analysis shows us that any piece of knowledge has two constituents of very diverse origin4 ,it has a matter or material constituent consisting1 as ,kant held1 of certain crude data supplied by sensation1 colours1 tones of varying pitch and loudness1 odours1 savours1 and the like4 ,it has also a form or formal constituent4 ,our data1 when we know anything at all1 are arranged on some definite principle of order4 ,when we recognize an object by the eye or a tune by the ear1 we do not apprehend simply so much colour or sound1 but colours spread out and forming a pattern or notes following one another in a fixed order4 7,if you reverse the movement of a gramophone1 you get the same notes as before1 but you do not get the same tune47 ,further1 ,kant thought it could be shown that the data of our knowledge are a disorderly medley and come to us from without1 being supplied by things which exist and are what they are equally whether any one perceives them or not1 but the element of form1 pattern1 or order is put into them by our own minds in the act of knowing them4 ,our minds are so constructed that we can only perceive things or think of them as connected by certain definite principles of orderly arrangement4 ,this1 he thought1 explains the indubitable fact that we can sometimes know universal propositions to be true without needing to examine all the individual instances4 ,i can know for certain that in every triangle the greater angle is subtended by the greater side1 or that every event has a definite cause among earlier events1 though ,i cannot examine all triangles or all events one by one4 ,this is because the postulates of geometry and the law of causality are types of order which my mind puts into the data of its knowledge in the very act of attending to them1 and it is therefore certain that ,i shall never perceive or think anything which does not conform to these types4 ,i give ,kant's answer to the problem of ,criticism not because ,i believe it to be the correct one1 but to show what important consequences follow from our acceptance of a solution of this problem4 ,if it is true that one of the constituent elements of every piece of knowledge is a lump of crude sensation1 it follows that we can have no knowledge about our own minds or souls1 and still less about ,god1 since1 if there are such beings as my soul and ,god1 at any rate neither furnishes me with sense-data4 ,hence a great part of ,kant's famous ,critique of ,pure ,reason is taken up by an elaborate attempt to show that psychology and theology contain no real knowledge4 ,we cannot even know whether there is any probability for or against the existence of the soul or of ,god1 though ,kant was very anxious to show that it is our duty on moral grounds to believe very firmly in both4 ,now if ,kant is right about this1 his result is tremendously important4 ,if psychology and theology are wholly devoid of scientific value1 it is most desirable that we should know this1 not only that we may not waste time in studying them1 but because it may reasonably make a very great difference to the practical ordering of our lives4 ,if ,kant can be proved wrong1 it is equally important to be convinced that he is wrong4 ,we may have been led by belief in his teaching to neglect the acquisition of a great deal of knowledge of high intrinsic interest1 and may even have been betrayed into basing the conduct of life on wrong principles4 ,if1 for example1 we can really know something about the soul1 it may be possible to know whether it is immortal or not1 and it is not unreasonable to hold that certain knowledge1 or even probable belief1 on such a point ought to make a great difference to our choice between rival aims in life4 ,there is clearly much less to be said for the recommendation to 'eat and drink for to-morrow we die' if we have reason to believe our souls immortal than if we have not1 and some of us do not share ,mr4 ,russell's view that ,philosophy is called upon to abdicate what the ,greeks thought her sovereign function1 the regulation of life4 ,it is true that ,kant convinced himself that it is a moral duty to act as if we knew the truth of doctrines for or against which we cannot detect the slightest balance of probability4 ,but the logically sound inference from ,kant's premisses would be that1 to use ,pascal's famous metaphor1 a prudent man will do well to bet neither for nor against immortality4 ,unfortunately1 as ,pascal said1 you can't help betting2 il faut parier4 ,if it makes any difference to the relative values of different goods whether the soul dies with the body or not1 one must take sides in the matter4 ,in making one's choices one must prefer either the things it is reasonable to regard as good for a creature whose days are threescore years and ten or those which it is reasonable to regard as best for a being who is to live for ever4 ,the only way to escape having to bet is not to be born4 ,i come to the second problem1 the one which1 as ,i think1 ,mr4 ,russell arbitrarily ignores4 ,a human being is not a mere knowledge-machine4 ,the relation of knower to known is not the only relation in which he stands to himself and to other things4 ,the 'world' is not merely something at which he can look on1 it is also an instrument for achieving what he regards as good and for creating what he judges to be beautiful4 ,to do good and to make beautiful things are just as much man's business as to discover truth4 ,a knowledge of the world would be very incomplete if it did not include knowledge of what ought to be1 whether because it is morally best or because it is beautiful1 as well as knowledge of what is actually there4 ,and it is not immediately evident how the two1 knowledge of what ought to be and knowledge of what merely is1 are connected4 ,there is1 to be sure1 one way in which it is pretty plain that they are not related4 ,you cannot learn what ought to be--what is beautiful or morally good--merely by first finding out what has been or what is likely to be4 ,this simple consideration of itself deprives many of the big volumes which have been written about the 'evolution' of art and morals of most of their value4 ,they may have interest if they are treated only as contributions to the history of opinion about art and morals4 ,but unhappily their authors often assume that we can find out what really is right or beautiful by merely discovering what men have thought right and beautiful in the remote past or guessing what they will think right or beautiful in the distant future4 ,the fallacy underlying this procedure has been happily exposed by ,mr4 ,russell himself in an occasional essay where he remarks that it is antecedently just as likely that evolution is going from bad to worse as that it is going from good to better4 ,unless it is going from bad to worse it is obviously absurd to suppose that you can find out what is good by discovering what our distant ancestors thought good4 ,and if 7as may be the case7 it is going from bad to worse1 no amount of knowledge about what our posterity will think good can throw any light on the question what is good4 ,there is1 in fact1 no ground whatever for believing that 'evolution' need be the same thing as progress1 and this is enough to knock the bottom out of 'evolutionary ethics'4 ,on the other hand1 it is quite certain that when we call an act right or a picture beautiful we do not mean to be expressing a mere personal liking of our own1 any more than when we make a statement about the composition of sulphuric acid or the product of #i and #g4 ,as ,dr4 ,rashdall has put it1 when we say that a given act is right1 we do not pretend to be infallible4 ,we know that we may fall into mistakes about right and wrong just as we may make mistakes in working a multiplication sum4 ,but we do mean to say that if our own verdict 'that act is right' is a true one1 then the verdict of any one who retorts 'that act is wrong' is false1 just as when we state the result of our multiplication we mean to assert that if we have done the sum correctly any one else who brings out a different answer has worked it wrongly4 ,indeed1 we might convince ourselves that these verdicts are not meant to be expressions of private and personal liking in a still simpler way4 ,all of us must be aware that the line of action we pronounce 'right' is not always what we like nor the conduct we call 'wrong' what we dislike4 ,we often like doing what we fully believe to be wrong and dislike doing what we believe right1 without being in the least confused in our moral verdicts by this collision of liking and conviction4 ,so again it is a common thing to like one poem or picture better than another1 and yet to be fully persuaded that the work we like the less is the better work of art4 ,indeed1 the whole process of moral and aesthetic education may be said to exist just in learning to like most what is really best4 ,all this1 put into so many words1 may seem too simple to call for statement1 but it makes nonsense of a great deal that has been written about ethics of late years4 ,it disposes once for all of the theory that moral and aesthetic verdicts are 'subjective'1 that is1 that they mean no more than that the persons who make them have certain personal likes and dislikes of which these verdicts are a record4 ,of course1 it might be urged that all of us do indeed mean to express truths which are independent of our personal likings when we make moral and aesthetic judgements1 but that we never succeed in doing so4 ,a man might conceivably hold that there is no real distinction between right and wrong or between beautiful and ugly1 but that it is a universal illusion of mankind to suppose that there are such distinctions4 ,or he might hold that the distinctions are real1 but that we do not know where to draw them4 ,he might suggest that some ways of acting are really right and others really wrong1 but that we do not know which are the right acts and so regularly confuse what we like doing with what is 'really' right4 ,mr4 ,russell1 in some of his later writings1 seems to incline to views of this sort4 ,but the suggestion is really unmotived4 ,it would be just as reasonable to suggest that all geometrical or astronomical propositions are only expressions of the personal and private feelings of geometers and astronomers1 and that either there is no distinction between truths and falsehoods in geometry and astronomy1 or that1 at any rate1 we do not know which the true propositions are4 ,that there is a real distinction between true and false propositions and that1 with pains and care1 we can discover some truths are assumptions we must make if we are to recognize the possibility of pursuing knowledge at all1 and there is no reason to suppose that these assumptions do not hold as good in matters of art and morals as elsewhere4 ,no doubt1 in practice men are prone to mistake what they like for what is right or beautiful1 but this danger1 such as it is1 is not confined to art and morals4 ,men do often call acts right merely because they like doing them or pictures beautiful merely because they get pleasure from them4 ,but it is also notorious that many men are prone to believe that a thing is likely to happen merely because they wish it to happen1 or that it is unlikely to happen merely because they wish it not to happen4 ,yet no one seriously makes the reality of these tendencies a ground for denying the possibility of 'inferring the future from the past'4 ,we must then1 ,i hold1 regard it as an integral part of the whole story of everything to find an answer to the questions ,what is good8 and ,what is beautiful8 as well as to the question ,what is fact8 ,by the side of the so-called 'positive sciences'1 which deal with the third question1 we must recognize as having an equal right to exist the so-called 'sciences of value'1 which deal with the first and the second4 ,i want now to take a further step in which disciples of ,mr4 ,russell would perhaps decline to follow me4 ,we have already seen what is meant by the co-ordination of the sciences into a single body of deductions from definite ultimate postulates1 though in what we have said about the task we were content to speak provisionally as if the sciences of 'what is' were all the sciences to be co-ordinated4 ,we talked1 in fact1 as if the work of ,philosophy were merely to work into a coherent story all that can be known of 'objects that present themselves to the contemplation' of a knower4 ,but1 of course1 if ,philosophy is ever to attack its final problem1 we must take into account two things which we have so far ignored4 ,the 'whole story of everything' includes the knowing intelligence itself as well as the 'objects' which present themselves to its gaze4 ,indeed1 it is not even accurate to speak as if 'objects' 'presented themselves' to a merely passive intelligence2 to be apprehended1 they have to be actively attended to4 ,if we would see them1 we have to be on the look-out for them4 ,and the knowing intelligence is not aware merely of these objects4 ,it is also aware of itself1 though it is certainly never a 'presented object'4 ,also1 it is not only a knower but a doer and a maker4 ,intelligence is shown as much in the ordering of life by a rule based on a right valuation of goods and in the making of things of beauty as in the discovery of propositions about what is4 ,hence1 we can hardly be content to leave the 'positive' sciences and the 'sciences of values' simply standing over against one another4 ,there is that which 'is'1 and there is that which 'ought to be'1 and1 at first sight at any rate1 the two seem very different4 ,much that is--ignorance1 sin1 misery1 ugliness--ought not to be1 and much that ought to be is very far from being fact4 ,we are accustomed to regard this as a matter of course1 but1 closely considered1 it is perhaps the supreme wonder of all the wonders4 ,we creatures of circumstance1 as we call ourselves1 can take stock of the sum of things to which we belong1 and judge it4 ,it is not simply that we can1 and often do1 wish that it were different in various ways2 we can judge that it ought to be different1 and you may find a man of science like ,huxley1 after a life spent in trying to understand the laws which prevail in the world1 deliberately making it his last word to his fellows that their duty is to set themselves to reverse the 'cosmic process'1 to select for preservation just the human types which1 if the much-abused metaphor may be tolerated1 ,nature1 left to herself1 selects for destruction4 ,we might1 of course1 regard this apparently unreconcilable conflict between the arrangements which do prevail2 as is commonly supposed1 in the world1 and those which ought to prevail1 as a mystery which we must despair of ever understanding4 ,but1 to say the least of it1 it is hardly consistent with the philosophic temper to treat any question as an insoluble riddle until one has tried all ways of solution and found them culs-de-sac4 ,if we are to be thoroughly loyal to the spirit which prompts all intelligent inquiry1 we are bound at least to ask whether it is1 after all1 beyond the power of human intelligence to think of the world as a system in which somehow1 in the end1 what ought to be prescribes what is4 ,it is true that1 for reasons already mentioned1 we cannot1 like ,spinoza or the ,sufis1 reconcile facts and values by the simple assumption that what is is shown1 by the fact that it is1 to be what ought to be1 and that our common conviction that sin and ugliness are painfully real is only an illusion due to spiritual short sight4 ,we have just as much reason to believe that some pleasures are good1 that pain which is not a means to good is evil1 that justice and purity are good1 lewdness and cruelty bad1 that some colours are lovely and others odious1 as we have to believe that between any two points there is always a third1 or that1 if ,b and ,c are two points there is always a point ,d on the straight line ,,bc such that ,c is between ,b and ,d1 and a point ,a on ,,cb such that ,b is between ,c and ,a4 ,indeed1 the most fanatical champion of what ,mr4 ,russell in his anti-ethical mood calls 'ethical neutrality' cannot well avoid recognizing the truth of at least one proposition in ethics1 the proposition that knowledge of scientific truth is better than ignorance of it4 ,the admission of this single truth of value is enough to raise all the time-honoured problems of ethics and theodicy4 ,if knowledge of truth is better than ignorance of it1 the actual present state of the world1 in which so much truth is yet to seek1 is by no means wholly good1 and there really is at least one way in which it is our duty to make it more like what it ought to be4 ,if then we cannot get rid of the apparent conflict between ,is and ,ought by saying that ,ought is an illusion1 can we get rid of it1 in the only other possible way1 by holding that what ought to be is the lasting and primary reality and that the 'facts' which are so far from being what they ought to be are by comparison only half-real1 much what shadows are to the solid things which throw them8 ,this was the doctrine of ,plato1 who makes ,socrates say in the ,phaedo that it is the ',good' which holds the ,universe together1 and that in the end the true reason for each particular arrangement in the world1 whether we can see it or not1 is that it is 'best' that this arrangement1 and no other1 should exist4 ,it is also the foundation of ,kant's well-known contention that1 however barren speculative theology and psychology may be1 the reality of the moral order and the unconditionality of moral obligation compel us to make the existence of ,god1 the immortality of our souls1 and the moral government of the world postulates of practical philosophy4 ,more generally1 it is just this conviction that 'what is' has its source and explanation in what 'ought to be'1 which is the central thought of all philosophical ,theism4 ,if we can accept such a faith1 we shall not1 of course1 be enabled to eliminate mystery from things4 ,we shall1 for instance1 be still quite in the dark about the way in which evil comes to be in a world of ,god's making4 ,we shall neither be able to say how any particular thing comes to be other than it ought to be1 nor how in the end good is 'brought out of evil'4 ,but if we are to have a right to hold a view of the ,platonic or ,theistic type1 we must be able1 not indeed to say how evil comes about or how it is to be finally got rid of1 but to say1 in a general way1 what it is 'good for'4 ,thus1 if there are certain goods of the highest value which could not exist at all except on the condition of the existence of less important evils1 this consideration will remove1 so far as those goods and evils are concerned1 the time-honoured puzzle how evil can exist at all if ,god is4 ,to take a specific example4 ,to many of us it appears directly certain that such qualities of character as fortitude1 patience1 superiority to carnal lusts1 magnanimity1 are goods of the highest value4 ,we think also that we see that these qualities are not primitive psychological endowments but require for their development the experience of struggle and discipline in a world where there is real suffering1 real disappointment1 real temptation4 ,to us1 therefore1 there seems to be no contradiction between the existence of ,god and the presence in a world made by ,god of the evils needed for the development of these virtues4 ,and this will include some of the worst of all the evils we know of4 ,few things are more ghastly than some of the cruelties which have been practised in the late ,war and are still being practised in the distracted country of ,russia4 ,yet we know how revulsion from these horrors has made many a man who seemed to be sunk in sloth or greed or carnality into a ,bayard or a ,galahad4 ,it may well be that this moral re-birth would never have been effected if the evils which provoked it had been less monstrous4 ,here1 then1 we seem to discern a principle which may be adequate to explain what all the ills of human life are 'good for'4 ,i must not deny that all such explanation1 in my judgement1 involves the postulate that the ennoblement of character and deepening of insight brought about by suffering are permanent--in fact1 that it requires the postulates of the existence of ,god and the reality of everlasting life4 ,mr4 ,russell1 ,i imagine1 would regard this as a confession that ,i am sunk in what he airily dismisses as 'theological superstitions'4 ,i should reply that the 'superstition' is on his side2 to dismiss ,god and the eternal soul1 without serious inquiry1 as 'superstitions' is just the most superficial of all the superstitions4 ,it is1 of course1 incumbent on anyone who holds the ,platonic view to show that its postulates are not inconsistent with any known truth1 and ,i would add that he ought also to show that there are at any rate known facts which seem to demand just this kind of explanation4 ,both these points1 as ,i hold1 can be established1 but ,i do not in the least wish to suggest that any philosopher will ever find it an easy task to 'justify the ways of ,god to man'4 ,as ,timaeus says in ,plato1 'to find the father and fashioner of the ,universe is not easy'1 and ,i want rather to lay stress on the magnitude of the task than to extenuate it4 ,but ,i am concerned to urge that the doctrine which accounts for what is by what ought to be is the only philosophical theory on which it ceases to be an unintelligible mystery that we should have--as ,i maintain we certainly have--the same kind of assurance about values that we have about facts4 ,the chief complaint ,i have to make about the mental attitude of ,mr4 ,russell and some of his friends is that1 in their zeal for the unification of science1 they seem inclined to assume that the larger problem of the co-ordination of ,science with ,life does not exist1 or1 at any rate1 need not occupy our minds4 ,this is what ,i should call mere atheistic superstition4 ,on this point they might1 ,i believe1 learn much which it imports them to know from the works of some of the notable living philosophers of ,italy1 in particular from ,professor ,varisco of ,rome and ,professor ,aliotta of ,padua1 whose labours have been specially directed to the co-ordination in a consistent system of the principles of the sciences of fact with those of the sciences of value4 ,though1 after all1 those who have refused to learn the lesson from the noble philosophical work of ,professor ,james ,ward1 the illustrious champion of sober thought in their own ,university of ,cambridge1 are perhaps unlikely to master it in the schools of ,rome or ,padua4 ,you will readily see that ,i am suggesting in effect that if ,philosophy is ever to execute her supreme task1 she will need to take into much more serious account than it has been the fashion to do1 not only the work of the exact sciences but the teachings of the great masters of life who have founded the religions of the world1 and the theologies which give reasoned expression to what in the great masters is immediate intuition4 ,for us this means more particularly that it is high time philosophers ceased to treat the great ,christian theologians as credulous persons whose convictions need not be taken seriously and the ,gospel history as a fable to which the 'enlightened' can no longer pay any respect4 ,they must be prepared to reckon with the possibility that the facts recorded in the ,gospel happened and that ,catholic theology is1 in substance1 true4 ,if we are to be philosophers in earnest we cannot afford to have any path which may lead to the heart of life's mystery blocked for us by placards bearing the labels 'reactionary'1 'unmodern1' and their likes4 ,that what is most modern must be best is a superstition which it is strange to find in a really educated man--especially after the events of the last five years4 ,a philosopher1 at any rate1 should be able to endure the charge of being 'unmodern' with fortitude4 ,it is at least a tenable thesis that many of the qualities which we ,western men have been losing in our craze for industrialism and commercialistic ',imperialism' are just those which are most necessary to the seeker after speculative truth4 ,abelard and ,st4 ,thomas would very likely have failed as advertising agents1 company promoters1 or editors of sensational daily papers4 ,but it may well be that both of them were much better fitted than ,lord ,northcliffe1 ,mr4 ,bottomley1 or ,mr4 ,a4,g4 ,gardiner to tell us whether ,god is and what ,god is4 ,in fact1 one would hardly suppose habitual and successful composition of effective 'posters' or alluring prospectuses to be wholly compatible with that candour and scrupulous veracity which are required of the philosopher4 ,as for 'reaction'1 no one but a writer in a 'revolutionary' journal would be fool enough to use the word as1 in itself1 an epithet of reproach4 ,most persons who have a bowing acquaintance with ,mechanics know that you cannot have an engine in which there is all action and no reaction1 and most sane men can see that before you pronounce a given 'reaction' good or bad you need to know what it is reacting against4 ,if a man who wants to go east discovers that he is walking west1 he is usually reactionary enough to go back on his steps4 ,in short1 if we mean to be philosophical1 our main concern will be that our beliefs should be true2 we shall care very little whether they happen to be popular or unpopular with the intellectual 'proletarians' of the moment1 and if we can get at a truth1 we shall not mind having to go back a long way for it4 ,indeed1 when one wants to get on the track of the most ultimate and important truths of all1 there is usually a great positive advantage in going back a very long way for them4 ,the questions which deal with first principles1 being the simplest--though the hardest--of all1 are mostly raised very simply and directly by ,plato and ,aristotle1 who were the very first writers to raise them4 ,in the discussions of later times1 the great simple questions about principles have so often been overlaid by mainly irrelevant accretions of secondary details that it is usually very hard indeed 'to see the wood for the trees'4 ,this is the chief reason why one who1 like myself1 finds it his main business in life to introduce younger men and women to the study of ,philosophy must think indifference to ,greek literature about the worst misfortune which could happen to our intellectual civilization4 ,i have tried in what ,i have said so far to explain what ,i understand by the philosophical spirit and what ,i regard as the primary problems with which ,philosophy has to wrestle4 ,if what ,i have said is not wholly wide of the mark1 it should be clear what is the deadliest enemy of the true spirit of ,philosophy4 ,it is the temper which is too indolent to think out a question for itself and consequently prefers to accept traditional ready-made answers to the problems of ,science and ,life4 ,traditionalism1 wherever it is found1 is the enemy1 because ,traditionalism is only another name for indolence4 ,observe that ,i say ,traditionalism1 not ,tradition4 ,nowhere in life1 and least of all in ,philosophy1 is the solitary likely to work to much purpose unless he has behind him that body of organized sound sense which we call ,tradition4 ,and ,i do not mean that true philosophers are necessarily 'heretics'1 or that 'orthodoxy' is less philosophical than 'heterodoxy'4 ,i mean that however true an 'orthodox' proposition may be1 it is no living truth for me unless ,i have made it my own1 as its first discoverer did1 by personal labour of the spirit4 ,the truth is something which each generation must rediscover for itself4 ,true traditions may be quite as injurious1 if they have become mere traditions1 as false ones4 ,it was not so much because the ,aristotelian doctrines were false that the unquestioning acceptance of ,aristotelian formulae all but strangled human thought in the later days of ,scholasticism4 ,some of these doctrines were false1 but many of them were much truer than anything the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had to put in their place1 and the rediscovery of their real meaning is perhaps the chief service of the ,hegelian school to ,philosophy4 ,the trouble was that mechanical repetition of ,aristotle's formulae as matters of course inevitably led to loss of real insight into the meaning the formulae had borne for ,aristotle4 ,we may say1 generally1 that because ,traditionalism is the death of sound thinking1 the ages in which the prospects of advance in ,philosophy are brightest are just those in which a powerful historical tradition has broken down and men feel themselves compelled to go back on their steps and raise once more the fundamental questions which their fathers had supposed to be disposed of once for all by a formula4 ,this has happened twice since the downfall of the degenerate ,scholasticism1 ,protestant and ,roman1 of the sixteenth century4 ,in the seventeenth century the result was the great movement in ,philosophy1 ,mathematics1 and ,physics1 of which ,descartes and ,galileo are the principal figures4 ,towards the end of the eighteenth century1 when the doctrines of ,descartes had themselves been traditionalized1 the same thing happened again1 the leading actors in the drama being ,david ,hume and ,immanuel ,kant2 the result was first the revival of the 'critical' problem by ,kant1 and then the great1 if over-hasty1 attempt at a positive interpretation of the ,universe which culminated in the philosophical system of ,hegel4 ,in our own age1 it is mainly ,kant and ,hegel who have been traditionalized1 and we seem to be living through the last stages of the discrediting of this third tradition with every prospect of a great advance if our own time can only find its ,descartes4 ,in what ,i am going on to say ,i must naturally speak of the disintegrating influences chiefly as we have seen them at work in our own country2 but ,i should like1 before ,i do so1 to remark that on the ,continent splendid work has been done in the requickening of genuine philosophical thought by an influence which has1 so far1 not made itself widely felt among ourselves4 ,i mean the revival of ,thomism so earnestly promoted in the academies of the ,roman ,church by ,pope ,leo ,,xiii4 ,neo-,thomism1 ,i am convinced1 if its representatives will only maintain it at the high level characteristic1 for example1 of the ,italian ,rivista ,neo-,scolastica1 has a very great contribution to make to the ,philosophy of the future1 and is much more deserving of the serious attention of students in our own country than the much-advertised 'impressionism' of ,pragmatists and ,bergsonians4 ,indeed1 ,i hardly know how much we may not hope from the movement if it should please ,providence to send into the world a ,neo-,thomist who is also a really qualified mathematician4 ,of the state of thought in our own country we may fairly say that a generation ago opinion on the ultimate questions was1 in the main1 fairly divided into two camps4 ,there were the professional metaphysicians1 mainly living on a tradition derived from ,kant and ,hegel1 and there were the men of science whose 'philosophy'1 such as it was1 is perhaps best represented by two well-known and most instructive books1 ,mach's ,science of ,mechanics and ,karl ,pearson's ,grammar of ,science4 ,the men of the ,kant-,hegel tradition1 whatever their family dissensions1 were generally united by the common view that--as ,william ,james accused them of teaching--the function of sensation in contributing to knowledge1 whatever it is1 is something 'contemptible'4 ,kant himself1 as we have seen1 had thought very differently1 but he was supposed to have been 'corrected' on this1 as on so many points1 by ,hegel4 ,the most distinguished of my own ,oxford teachers seemed agreed to believe that our thought builds up the fabric of knowledge entirely from within by what ,hegel called an 'immanent dialectic'4 ,a rough idea of what this means may be given in the following way4 ,you take any experience you please and try to put what you experience into a proposition4 ,the proposition may1 to begin with1 be as vague as1 e4g4 ',i am now feeling something1' ',i am now aware of something4' ,on reflection you find that the statement does not do justice to the experience4 ,you feel the need to say more precisely what you are feeling or are aware of1 how it is related to what you experience on other occasions1 and what the ',i' is which is said to 'have' the experience4 ,until you have done this your thought is a miserable reproduction of your experience1 and if you could ever do it completely1 it would turn out that a really adequate account of the most trivial experience would involve complete knowledge of the structure and working of everything4 ,thus1 if you once begin to think about your experience at all1 you are irresistibly driven on to endless further reflection4 ,if you try to stop short anywhere in the process1 the results of your reflection are found to contain unexplained contradictions1 just because you have not yet fitted on the fact on which you are reflecting to everything else there is to know4 ,all the assumptions of every-day 'common sense' and all the more recondite assumptions of the sciences are saturated with these contradictions1 because both 'common sense' and the sciences leave so much of the whole 'story of everything' untouched4 ,if the whole story were told1 all things would be found to be just one thing1 which these philosophers call the ',absolute'1 and the only perfectly true statement we can make would be a statement about this ,absolute in which we asserted of it all that it is4 ,since no science ever attempts to say anything at all about this one sole thing1 far less to get all there might be to be said about it into a single statement1 no scientific proposition can be more than 'partially' true1 and unhappily we do not know what alterations would be required to make our 'partial' truths quite true4 ,naturally enough ,kant's allegation that mathematical first principles are so self-contradictory that you can rigidly demonstrate mathematical propositions which contradict each other was grist to the ,hegelian mill4 ,that our notions of space1 time1 the infinitely great1 the infinitely little1 are all a jumble of contradictions was steadily repeated by the ,hegelian philosophers1 and indeed the mathematicians were accustomed to state their own principles so loosely and confusedly that there was a great deal of excuse for the suspicion that the fault lay with ,mathematics and not with the mathematicians4 ,it is clear that such a philosophy ought to end in unqualified ,agnosticism4 ,the ,hegelians1 to be sure1 made merry over the ,unknowable of ,mr4 ,spencer1 but their own ,absolute is really just the ,unknowable in its ',sunday best'4 ,nothing that we can say about anything which is not the ,absolute is really true1 because there really is nothing but the ,absolute to speak about1 and nothing that we can say about the ,absolute is quite true either1 because we can never succeed in saying itself of it4 ,mr4 ,bradley1 far the most eminent of the philosophers of the ,absolute1 has made persistent and brilliant attempts to show that1 in spite of this1 we do know enough to be sure that our own mind is more like the ,absolute than a cray-fish1 and a cray-fish more like it than a crystal4 ,but when all is said1 though ,i owe more to ,mr4 ,bradley than ,i can ever acknowledge adequately1 ,i cannot help feeling that there are two men in ,mr4 ,bradley1 a great constructive thinker and a subtle destructive critic1 and that the destructive ,hyde is perpetually pulling to pieces all that the constructive ,jekyll has built up4 ,of course it is obvious that the truth of mathematics1 if mathematics are true1 is a fatal stone of stumbling for this type of philosophy4 ,mathematics never attempts to say anything about the ',absolute'--the only ',absolute' of which it knows is only a 'degraded conic'--yet it claims that its statements1 if once they have been correctly expressed1 are not 'partial' but complete4 ,over against the ,hegelianizing philosophers1 we had1 of course1 the men of science4 ,no one could wish to speak of the scientific men of the days of ,huxley without deep respect for their success in adding to our positive knowledge of facts4 ,but it may perhaps be said at this distance of time that it was not precisely the greatest among them who were most prominent as mystagogues of ,science with the big ,s1 and it may certainly be said that when the mystagogues1 the ,cliffords1 ,huxleys1 and the rest1 undertook to improvise a theory of first principles1 their achievement was little better than infantile4 ,they took it on trust from ,hume that the whole of knowledge is built up of sensations1 actual or 'revived'1 and quite missed ,kant's point that their empiricism left the formal constituent in knowledge1 the type of order by which data are organized into an intelligible pattern1 wholly out of account4 ,even when they deigned to read ,kant1 they read him without any inkling of the character of the 'critical' problem4 ,hence they taught dogmatically as true a theory of scientific method which ,hume himself had elaborately proved impossible4 ,it was just because ,hume had seen so clearly that no universal scientific truths can be derived from premisses which merely record particular facts that he professed himself a follower of the 'academic' or 'sceptical' philosophy4 ,he recognized the impossibility of constructing scientific knowledge out of its material constituent alone1 but did not see where the formal constituent could come from1 and so resigned himself to regarding the actual successes of science as a kind of standing miracle4 ,the men of the 'seventies were1 after all1 in many cases more anxious to damage theology than to build up ,philosophy4 ,they read ,hume without any delicate sense for his urbane ironies1 and believed in good faith that he and ,john ,stuart ,mill between them had shown that by a mysterious process called 'induction' it is possible to prove rigorously universal conclusions in science without universal premisses4 ,a scientific law1 according to them1 is only a convenient short-hand notation in which to register the 'routine of our perceptions'4 ,thus we have known of a great many men who have died1 and have never known of any man who lived to much over a hundred without dying4 ,the universal proposition 'all men are mortal' is a short expression for this information1 and it is nothing more4 ,it ought to have been obvious that1 if this is a true account of science1 all scientific 'generalizations' are infinitely improbable4 ,the number of men of whom we know that they have died is insignificant by comparison with the multitude of those who have lived1 are living1 or will live1 and we have no guarantee that this insignificant number is a fair average sample4 ,so again1 unless there are true universal propositions which are not 'short-hand' for any plurality of observed facts whatever1 we cannot with any confidence1 however faint1 infer that a 'regular sequence' or 'routine' which has been observed from the dawn of recorded time up to1 say1 midnight1 ,august #d1 #aiai1 will continue to be observed on ,august #e1 #aiai4 ,how1 except by relying on the truth of some principle which does not depend itself on the validity of 'generalization'1 can we tell that it is even slightly probable that the nature of things will not change suddenly at the moment of midnight between ,august #d and ,august #e1 #aiai8 ,what is called 'inductive' science certainly has 'pulled off' remarkable successes in the past1 but we can have no confidence that these successes will be repeated unless there are much better reasons for believing in its methods and initial assumptions than any which the scientific man who is an amateur 'empiricist' in his philosophy can offer us4 ,we may note1 in particular1 that this empiricism1 which has been expounded most carefully by ,pearson and ,mach1 coincides with ,hegelian ,absolutism in leading to the denial of the truth of mathematics4 ,it would be a superfluous task to argue at length that1 e4g41 ,de ,moivre's theorem or ,taylor's theorem is not a short-hand formula for recording the 'routine of our perceptions'4 ,the general state of things at the time of which ,i am speaking was thus that relations were decidedly strained between a body of philosophers and a body of scientific men who ought at least to have met on the common ground of a complete ,agnosticism4 ,the philosophers were1 in general1 shy of ,science1 mainly1 no doubt1 because they were modest men who knew their own limitations1 but they had a way of being condescending to ,science1 which naturally annoyed the scientific men4 ,these latter professed a theory of the structure of knowledge which the philosophers could easily show to be grotesque1 but the retort was always ready to hand that at any rate ,science seemed somehow to be getting somewhere while ,philosophy appeared to lead nowhere in particular4 ,the conditions for mutual understanding have now greatly improved1 thanks mainly to the labour of mathematicians with philosophical minds on the principles of their own science4 ,if we admit that mathematics is true--and it seems quite impossible to avoid the admission--we can now see that neither the traditional ,kant-,hegel doctrine nor the traditional sensationalistic empiricism can be sound4 ,not to speak of inquiries which have been actually created within our own life-time1 it may fairly be said that the whole of pure mathematics has been shown1 or is on the verge of being shown1 to form a body of conclusions rigidly deduced from a few unproved postulates which are of a purely logical character4 ,descartes has proved to be right in his view that the exceptional certainty men have always ascribed to mathematical knowledge is not due to the supposed restriction of the science to relation of number and magnitude--there is a good deal of pure mathematics which deals with neither--but to the simplicity of its undefined notions and the high plausibility of its unproved postulates4 ,bit by bit the bad logic has been purged out of the ,calculus and the ,theory of ,functions and these branches of study have been made into patterns of accurate reasoning on exactly stated premisses4 ,it has appeared in the process that the alleged contradictions in mathematics upon which the followers of ,kant and ,hegel laid stress do not really exist at all1 and only seemed to exist because mathematicians in the past expressed their meaning so awkwardly4 ,further1 it has been established that the most fundamental idea of all in mathematics is not that of number or magnitude but that of order in a series and that the whole doctrine of series is only a branch of the logic of ,relations4 ,from the logical doctrine of serial order we seem to be able to deduce the whole arithmetic of integers1 and from this it is easy to deduce further the arithmetic of fractions and the arithmetic or algebra of the 'real' and 'complex' numbers4 ,as the logical principles of serial order enable us to deal with infinite as well as with finite series1 it further follows that the ,calculus and the ,theory of ,functions can now be built up without a single contradiction or breach of logic4 ,the puzzles about the infinitely great and infinitely small1 which used to throw a cloud of mystery over the 'higher' branches of ,mathematics1 have been finally dissipated by the discovery that the 'infinite' is readily definable in purely ordinal terms and that the 'infinitesimal' does not really enter into the misnamed ',infinitesimal ,calculus' at all4 ,arithmetic and the theory of serial order have been shown to be the sufficient basis of the whole science which1 as ,plato long ago remarked1 is 'very inappropriately called geometry'4 ,a rsum of the work which has been thus done may be found in the stately volumes of the ,principia ,mathematica of ,whitehead and ,russell1 or--to a large extent--in the ,formulario ,matematico of ,professor ,peano4 ,of other works dealing with the subject1 the finest from the strictly philosophical point of view is probably that of ,professor ,g4 ,frege on ,the ,fundamental ,laws of ,arithmetic4 ,the general result of the whole development is that we are now at last definitely freed from the haunting fear that there is some hidden contradiction in the principles of the exact sciences which would vitiate all our knowledge of universal truths4 ,this removes the chief1 if not the only ground for the view that all the truths of ,science are only 'partial'4 ,at the same time1 the proof that pure mathematics is a strictly logical development and that all its conclusions are of the hypothetical form1 'if a b c 4441 then x' definitely disproves the popular ,kantian doctrine that sense-data are a necessary constituent of scientific knowledge4 ,and with this dogma falls the main ground for the denial that knowledge about the soul and ,god is attainable4 ,the recovery of a sounder philosophical method has1 as ,mr4 ,russell himself says1 disposed of what was yesterday the accepted view that the function of ,philosophy is to narrow down the range of possible interpretations of facts until only one is left4 ,philosophy rather opens doors than shuts them4 ,it multiplies the number of logically possible sets of premisses from which consequences agreeing with empirical facts may be inferred4 ,mr4 ,russell's unreasoned anti-theism seems to me to make him curiously blind to an obvious application of this principle4 ,on the other side1 the revived attention to the logical methods of the sciences is killing the crude sensationalism of the days which saw the first publication of ,mach's ,science of ,mechanics and ,pearson's ,grammar of ,science4 ,the claims of 'induction' to be a method of establishing truths may be fairly said to have been completely exposed4 ,it is clearer now than it was when ,kant made the observation that each of the 'sciences' contains just so much science as it contains mathematics1 and that the ,critical ,philosophy was fully justified in insisting that all science implies universal priori postulates1 though it went wrong in thinking that these postulates are laws of the working of the human mind or are 'put into' things by the human mind4 ,how far ,science has moved away from crude sensationalistic empiricism may be estimated by a comparison of the successive editions of the ,grammar of ,science4 ,it must always have been apparent to an attentive reader that the chapters of that fascinating book which deal directly with the leading principles of ,physics and ,biology are of very different quality from the earlier chapters which expound1 with many self-contradictions and much wrath against metaphysicians and theologians whom the writer seems never to have tried to understand1 the fantastic 'metaphysics of the telephone-exchange'4 ,but the difference of quality is more marked in the second edition than in the first1 and in the 7alas67 unfinished third edition than in the second4 ,so far1 then1 as the problem of the unification of the sciences is concerned1 the old prejudices which divided the rationalist philosopher from the sensationalist scientific man seem to have been1 in the main1 dissipated4 ,we can see now that what used to be called ,philosophy and what used to be called ,science are both parts of one task1 that they have a common method and presuppose a common body of principles4 ,so far it may be said with truth that ,philosophy is becoming more faithful than ,kant was himself to the leading ideas of ',criticism'1 and again that it is reverting once more1 as it reverted in the days of ,galileo1 to the positions of ,plato4 ,i do not mean that the whole programme has been completely executed and that there is nothing for a successor of ,frege or ,russell to do4 ,it is instructive to observe that at the very end of the great work on arithmetic to which ,i have referred ,frege found himself compelled by difficulties which had been overlooked until ,russell called attention to them to add an appendix confessing that there was a single important flaw in his elaborate logical construction of the principles of arithmetic4 ,he had shown that if there are certain things called 'integers'1 defined as he had defined them1 the whole of arithmetic follows4 ,but he had not shown that there is any object answering to his definition of an integer1 and the logical researches of ,russell had thrown some doubt on the point4 ,this proved that some restatement of the initial assumptions of the theory was needed4 ,since the date of ,frege's appendix 7#aijc71 ,mr4 ,russell and others have done something towards the necessary rectification1 and the resulting ',theory of ,types' is pretty certainly one of the most important contributions ever made to logical doctrine1 but it may still be reasonably doubted whether the ',theory of ,types'1 as expounded by ,whitehead and ,russell in their ,principia ,mathematica1 is the last word required4 ,at any rate1 it seems clear that it is a great step on the right road to the solution of a most difficult problem4 ,there still remains the greatest problem of all1 the harmonization of ,science and ,life4 ,i cannot believe that this problem is an illegitimate one1 or that we must sit down content to accept the severance of 'fact' and 'value' as final for our thought4 ,even the unification of the sciences itself remains imperfect so long as we treat it as merely something which 'happens to be the case' that there are many things and many kinds of things in the universe and also a number of relations in which they 'happen' to stand4 ,it is significant that in his later writings ,mr4 ,russell has been driven to abandon the concept of personal identity1 which is so fundamental for practical life1 and to assert that each of us is not one man but an infinite series of men of whom each only exists for a mathematical instant4 ,i am sure that such a theory requires the abandonment of the whole notion of value as an illusion1 and even more sure that it is ruinous to any practical rule of living1 and ,i cannot believe in the 'philosophy' of any man who is satisfied to base his practice on what he regards as detected illusion4 ,hence ,i find myself strongly in sympathy with my eminent ,italian colleague ,professor ,varisco1 who has devoted his two chief works 7,i ,massimi ,problemi and ,conosci ,te ,stesso7 to an exceedingly subtle attempt to show that 'what ought to be'1 in ,platonic phrase 'the ,good'1 is in the end the single principle from which all things derive their existence as well as their value4 ,mr4 ,russell's philosophy saves us half ,plato1 and that is much1 but ,i am convinced that it is whole and entire ,plato whom a profounder philosophy would preserve for us4 ,i believe personally that such a philosophy will be led1 as ,plato was in the end led1 to a theistic interpretation of life1 that it is in the living ,god ,who is over all1 blessed for ever1 that it will find the common source of fact and value4 ,and again ,i believe that it will be led to its result very largely by what is1 after all1 perhaps the profoundest thought of ,kant1 the conviction that the most illuminating fact of all is the fact of the absolute and unconditional obligatoriness of the law of right4 ,it is precisely here that fact and value most obviously meet4 ,for when we ask ourselves what in fact we are1 we shall assuredly find no true answer to this question about what is if we forget that we are first and foremost beings who ought to follow a certain way of life1 and to follow it for no other reason than that it is good4 ,but ,i cannot1 of course1 offer reasons here for this conviction1 though ,i am sure that adequate reasons can be given4 ,here ,i must be content to state this ultimate conviction as a 'theological superstition'1 or1 as ,i should prefer to put it with a little more certainty1 as a matter of faith4 ,the alternative is to treat the world as a stupid1 and possibly malicious1 bad joke4 ,note4--,it may be thought that something should have been said about the revolt against authority and tradition which has styled itself variously ',pragmatism' and ',humanism'1 and also about the recent vogue of ,bergsonianism4 ,i may in part excuse my silence by the plea that both movements are1 in my judgement1 already spent forces4 ,if ,i must say more than this1 ,i would only remark about ,pragmatism that ,i could speak of it with more confidence if its representatives themselves were more agreed as to its precise principles4 ,at present ,i can discern little agreement among them about anything except that they all show a great impatience with the business of thinking things quietly and steadily out1 and that none of them seems to appreciate the importance of the 'critical' problem4 ',pragmatism' thus seems to me less a definite way of thinking than a collective name for a series of 'guesses at truth'4 ,some of the guesses may be very lucky ones1 but ,i1 at least1 can hardly take the claims of unmethodic guessing to be a philosophy very seriously4 ,to 'give and receive argument' appears to me to be of the very essence of ,philosophy4 ,as for ,m4 ,bergson1 ,i yield to no one in admiration for his brilliancy as a stylist and the happiness of many of his illustrations4 ,but ,i have always found it difficult to grasp his central idea--if he really has one--because his whole doctrine has always seemed to me to be based upon a couple of elementary blunders which will be found in the opening chapter of his ,donnes ,immdiates de la ,conscience4 ,we are there called on to reject the intellect in ,philosophy on the grounds 7#a7 that1 being originally developed in the services of practical needs1 it can at best tell us how to find our way about among the bodies around us1 and is thus debarred from knowing more than the outsides of things2 7#b7 that its typical achievement is therefore geometry1 and geometry1 because it can measure only straight lines1 necessarily misconceives the true character of 'real duration'4 ,now1 as to the first point1 ,i should have thought it obvious that the establishment of a modus vivendi with one's fellows has always been as much of a practical need as the avoidance of stones and pit-falls1 and the alleged conclusion about the defects of the intellect does not therefore seem to me to follow from ,m4 ,bergson's premisses1 even if we had any reason1 as ,i do not see that we have1 to accept the premisses4 ,and as to the second point1 ,i would ask whether ,m4 ,bergson possesses a clock or a watch1 and if he has1 how he supposes time is measured on them8 ,he seems to me to have forgotten the elementary fact that angles can be measured as well as straight lines4 7,i might add that he makes the further curious assumption that all geometry is metrical47 ,it may be that something would be left of the ,bergsonian philosophy if one eliminated the consequences of these initial blunders1 but ,i do not know what the remainder would be4 ,at any rate1 the anti-intellectualism which ,m4 ,bergson and his disciple1 ,professor ,carr1 seem to regard as fundamental will have to go1 unless different and better grounds can be found for it4 ,i must leave it to others to judge of the adequacy of this apology4 ,,for ,,reference ,varisco1 ,the ,great ,problem 7,macmillan74 ,varisco1 ,know ,thyself 7,macmillan74 ,aliotta1 ,the ,idealistic ,reaction against ,science 7,macmillan74 ,bertrand ,russell1 ,our ,knowledge of the ,external ,world 7,open ,court ,publishing ,co474 ,bertrand ,russell1 ,the ,problems of ,philosophy 7,home ,university ,library74 ,a4,n4 ,whitehead1 ,the ,principles of ,natural ,knowledge 7,cambridge ,press74 ,g4,e4 ,moore1 ,ethics 7,h4,u4,l474 ,w4 ,mc,dougall1 ,philosophy 7,h4,u4,l474 ,a4,n4 ,whitehead1 ,introduction to ,mathematics 7,h4,u4,l474 ,,iii ,,recent ,,developments ,,in ,,european ,,thought ,,on ,,the ,,evolution ,,of ,,religion ,f4,b4 ,,jevons ,the living beings that exist or have existed upon the earth are of kinds innumerable2 and1 in the opinion of man1 the chief of them all is mankind4 ,man1 for the simple reason that he is man1 is anthropomorphic in all his judgements and not merely in his religious conceptions2 he holds himself to be the standard and measure in all things4 ,if his right so to regard himself were challenged1 if he were called upon to justify himself for having taken his foot as a unit of measurement1 or his fingers as the basis of his system of numbers1 he might reply that anything will serve as a standard for weights and measures1 provided that it never varies1 but is always the same whenever referred to4 ,but the reply1 valid though it is1 does not do full justice to man3 it leaves room for the suspicion that a standard is something chosen by man in a purely arbitrary manner and without reference to the facts of nature4 ,if that were really the case1 then man's conception of himself as superior to the other animals on earth might be but a prejudice of an arbitrary kind4 ,when1 however1 we consider1 from the point of view of evolution1 the place of man among the other animals that occupy or have occupied the earth1 it is indubitable that the human organism is in point of time the latest evolved and the human brain is in point of complexity and efficiency the most highly developed4 ,further1 the evidence of embryology goes to show that the organism which has eventually become human became so only by passing through successive stages1 each of which has its analogue in some of the existing forms of animal life4 ,those forms of animal life exist side by side2 and if we conceive them to be represented diagrammatically by vertical lines1 differing in height according to their degree of evolution1 the line representing the human organism will be the tallest1 and may be considered to have become the tallest by successive increments or stages corresponding to the height of the various other parallel vertical lines4 ,when the conception of evolution1 which had been employed to explain the origin of species and the descent of man1 and which had been gained by a consideration of material organisms1 came to be applied to the world of man's thoughts1 to the non-material and spiritual domain1 and to be used for the purpose of explaining the growth and the development of religion1 it was natural that the conception which had proved so valuable in the one case should be applied without modification to the other--as natural as that the first railway coach should be built on the model of the stagecoach4 ,the possibility that the theory of evolution might itself evolve1 and in evolving change1 was one that was not1 and at that time could hardly be1 present to the minds of those who were extending the theory and in the process of extending it were developing it4 ,yet the possibility was there1 implicit in the very conception of evolution1 which involves continuous change--change in continuity and continuity in change4 ,any and every attempt to trace the evolution of religion seems at first necessarily to involve the assumption that from the beginning religion was there to be evolved4 ,that was the position assumed by ,robertson ,smith in ,the ,religion of the ,semites1 which appeared in #ahhi4 ,at that date the aborigines of ,australia were supposed to represent the human race in its lowest and its earliest stage of development4 ,in them1 therefore1 if anywhere1 we might expect to find what would be religion in its lowest and earliest stage indeed but still religion4 ,reduced to its lowest terms1 religion1 it was felt at first1 must imply at least belief in a god and communion with him4 ,if1 therefore1 religion was to be found amongst the representatives of the lowest and earliest stage in the evolution of humanity1 belief in a god and communion with him must there be found4 ,he who seeks finds4 ,robertson ,smith found amongst the ,australians totem-gods and sacramental rites4 ,indeed1 it was at that time the belief universally held by students of the science of religion that in ,australia a totem was a god and a god might be a totem4 ,it was conjectured by ,robertson ,smith that in ,australia the totem animal or plant was eaten sacramentally4 ,since1 then1 the totem in ,australia was held to be both the god and the animal or plant in which the god manifested himself1 it followed that in ,australia we had1 preserved to this day1 the earliest form of sacrifice--that in which the totem animal was itself the totem god to whom it was offered as a sacrifice1 and was itself--or rather himself--the sacramental meal furnished to his worshippers4 ,the totem was eaten1 it was conjectured1 with the object of acquiring the qualities of the divine creature1 or of absorbing them into the person of the worshipper4 ,that the totem was eaten sacramentally rested1 as has just been said1 on the conjecture made by ,robertson ,smith in #ahhi2 but in #ahii ,dr4 7now ,sir ,james7 ,frazer declared that1 thanks to the investigations of ,messrs4 ,spencer and ,gillen1 'here1 in the heart of ,australia1 among the most primitive savages known to us1 we find the actual observance of that totem sacrament which ,robertson ,smith1 with the intuition of genius1 divined years ago1 but of which positive examples have hitherto been wanting4' ,on the foundation thus laid by the intuition of ,robertson ,smith and approved in #ahii by ,sir ,james ,frazer1 a simple and complete theory of the evolution of religion was possible4 ,in any one tribe there were several totem-kins4 ,the totem of each kin was divine1 but the personality of a totem was so undeveloped in conception that1 though it might1 and on the theory did1 develop into a deity1 it was originally more of the nature of a spirit than a god1 and totemism proper might easily pass into polydaemonism1 that is a system in which the beings worshipped were conceived to possess a personality more clearly defined than that attributed to totems but less developed than that assigned to deities4 ,from the beginning each tribe had worshipped a plurality of totems2 it was1 therefore1 readily intelligible that1 as these totems came to be credited with more and more definite and developed personality1 the plurality of totems became not only a polydaemonism1 but afterwards a plurality of deities1 and a system of polytheism came to be established4 ,from polytheism then1 amongst the ,israelites1 monotheism was conceived to have been gradually developed4 ,on this theory the evolution of religion was1 if we may so describe it1 linear or rectilinear3 the process consisted in a series of successive stages4 ,in some cases1 as for instance among the aborigines of ,australia1 it never rose higher than its starting-point1 totemism2 in others1 as for instance in ,samoa1 it became polytheism without ceasing to be totemism2 in others again1 as for instance amongst the ,aryan peoples1 it became so completely polytheistic that even conjecture can discover but few indications or 'survivals' of the totemism from which it is supposed to have developed2 and the polytheism of the ,israelites was so completely superseded by monotheism that the very existence of an earlier stage of polytheism could be as strenuously denied in their case as the pre-existence of totemism could be denied amongst the polytheistic ,aryans4 ,nevertheless the theory was that if we represent the growth of the various religions of the world diagrammatically by vertical lines parallel to one another but of various lengths1 one line standing for totemism1 a longer line for polydaemonism1 a still longer one for polytheism1 and the longest of all for monotheism1 we should see that the line of growth has been the same in all cases1 and that it is in their length1 or 7shall we say87 in their height alone that the various lines differ1 and that the longest line culminates in monotheism only because it has been1 so to speak1 pulled out in the same way that a telescope when closed1 may be extended4 ,the evolution of religion on this view has been a process literally of 'evolution' or unfolding3 the idea of a god and of communion with him has been present from the beginning2 and1 much though religion may have changed1 it remains to the end essentially the same thing4 ,this view of the process of religious evolution we may fairly term 'the pre-formation theory'2 for on this theory each stage is pre-formed in the stage immediately preceding it1 and in the earliest stage of all were all succeeding stages contained pre-formed1 though it depended on circumstances whether the seed should spring up1 and how many stages of its growth it should accomplish4 ,robertson ,smith's theory of the evolution of religion is in effect a form of the pre-formation theory1 and is liable to the same difficulties as dog the theory of pre-formation in all its applications4 ,on the theory1 if we cut open a seed we should find within it the plant pre-formed2 if we analyse totemism1 the seed from which1 in ,robertson ,smith's view1 all other forms of religion have grown in orderly succession one after the other1 we find in it religion in all its stages pre-formed4 ,in fact1 however1 if we cut open an acorn we do not find a miniature oak-tree inside4 ,the presumption1 therefore1 is that neither in totemism1 if we dissect it1 shall we find religion pre-formed4 ,indeed1 there is the possibility that totemism1 on dissection1 will be found to have no such content--that the hope or expectation of finding anything in it is as vain1 is as much doomed to disappointment1 as is the expectation of the child who cuts open his drum1 thinking to find inside it something which produces the sound4 ,it was1 however1 not on a priori grounds like these that ,sir ,james ,frazer was led eventually to combat and deny the existence1 'in the heart of ,australia1 amongst the most primitive savages known to us' of 'that totem sacrament which'1 in #ahii he declared1 ',robertson ,smith1 with the intuition of genius' had divined years before it was actually observed4 ,it was by the evidence of new facts1 discovered by ,messrs4 ,spencer and ,gillen1 that ,sir ,james ,frazer was compelled to abandon ,robertson ,smith's theory of the evolution of religion4 ,robertson ,smith had seen1 or had thought he saw1 amongst the ,australians sacramental rites and the worship of totem gods4 ,sir ,james ,frazer is now compelled by the evidence of the facts to hold that in what he calls 'pure totemism'1 i4e41 in totemism as we find it in ,australia1 'there is nothing that can properly be described as worship of the totems4 ,sacrifices are not presented to them1 nor prayers offered1 nor temples built1 nor priests appointed to minister to them4 ,in a word1 totems pure and simple are never gods1 but merely species of natural objects1 united by certain intimate and mystic ties to groups of men4' ,it seems1 therefore1 according to ,frazer1 that in totemism1 when dissected1 there is no religion1 just as in the child's drum1 when cut open1 there is--nothing4 ,yet1 we may reflect1 on the battle-field from a drum proceeds a great and glorious sound1 inspiring men to noble deeds4 ,whereas ex nihilo nil fit3 from nothing naturally nothing comes4 ,if1 however1 something does come1 it is not from nothing that it comes4 ,amongst the most primitive savages known to us1 men are united to their totems1 as ,frazer admits1 by 'certain intimate and mystic ties'4 ,what then is it in totemism from which1 on ,sir ,james ,frazer's view1 something comes8 ,we might1 perhaps1 have expected that it was from the 'mystic' bond uniting man with the world which is not only around him but of which he is part1 and in which he lives and moves and has his being4 ,to say so1 however1 would be to admit that in totemism there was something not only 'mystic' but potentially religious4 ,and ,sir ,james ,frazer does not follow that line of thought1 so dangerous in his view4 ,on the contrary1 he maintains that 'the aspect of the totemic system1 which we have hitherto been accustomed to describe as religious1 deserves rather to be called magical'4 ,the totem rites which ,robertson ,smith had interpreted as being sacramental and as being intended as a means of communion with the totem-gods ,sir ,james ,frazer regards as merely magical3 'totemism1' he says1 'is merely an organized system of magic intended to secure a supply of food4' ,we may remark1 in passing1 that if totemism is 'mere' magic1 there is indeed 7as ,sir ,james holds7 no worship in totemism1 but in that case in totemism there can be no such 'intimate and mystic ties' between the totem and the totem-kin as ,sir ,james at first maintained there was4 ,but be that as it may1 according to ,sir ,james ,frazer1 'in the heart of ,australia1 amongst the most primitive savages known to us1' we find totemism2 and totemism on examination proves to be 'merely an organized system of magic'4 ,if now we start by assuming these premisses1 or by granting these postulates for the sake of argument1 we can1 indeed1 erect on them a theory of the evolution of religion4 ,but if we so start1 we must do as ,sir ,james ,frazer did in the first edition of ,the ,golden ,bough3 we must hold that religion is but a developed form of magic4 ,en route it may have changed considerably in appearance1 but in fact and fundamentally it remains the same thing4 ,in all the lower forms of religion1 and in most of the higher1 there are practices which are by common consent and beyond doubt magical4 ,this indisputable fact lends colour to the view that religion was in its origin nothing but magic1 and that religion is1 to those who can see the facts as they are1 nothing but magic to this day3 the magician was but a priest1 and the priest1 claiming superhuman power1 is but a magician still4 ,prayers were at first but spells1 and even now are supposed1 by simple repetition1 to produce their effects4 ,if against this view it be objected that one of the most constant facts in the history of all religions1 from the lowest to the highest1 is that religion has at all times carried on war against sorcery1 witchcraft1 and magic1 that in the lowest stages of man's evolution witches have been 'smelt out' by the witch-finder1 and that in the higher stages of civilization witches have been persecuted1 tortured1 and burnt1 the reply made to the objection is that the war against witchcraft and magic is due simply to the jealousy and resentment which regular practitioners of any art1 e4g41 medicine1 have ever displayed and do still display towards irregular1 unprofessional practitioners4 ,this reply1 however1 is now generally admitted to be one which it is impossible to accept in the case of religion for the simple reason that it does not account for the facts4 ,the plain fact which wrecks this attempted explanation is that magic is punished and witches are burnt not because witch-finders or priests are jealous of them1 but because the community dreads them and feels their very existence to be a danger4 ,it is the community which feels the world of difference there is between magic and religion4 ,the attraction of the view that religion is but magic under another name1 that prayers are to the end but spells1 that 'priest' is but 'magician' written differently1 is that it is a simplicist theory4 ,it simplifies things4 ,it exhibits religion as evolved out of magic and as containing at the end nothing more or other than was present at the beginning in magic4 ,it is but a variant of the pre-formation theory of the evolution of religion4 ,in fine1 the notion that in magic we have religion pre-formed is the counterpart of the idea that we can find religion pre-formed in totemism4 ,in both cases we secure continuity in the process of evolution apparently1 but the continuity secured is appearance merely and is gained only at the price of ignoring the facts4 ,it is not surprising1 therefore1 that in the later1 enlarged editions of ,the ,golden ,bough1 ,sir ,james ,frazer has given up the view that religion evolved out of magic1 being moved thereto by the fact1 as he says1 that there is 'a fundamental distinction and even opposition of principle between magic and religion'4 ,there is1 in ,frazer's present view1 no continuity between the magic which came first and the religion which came ages later3 between them is an absolute breach of continuity1 a fundamental distinction1 an opposition of principle4 ',the principles of thought on which magic is based1' ,frazer says1 'resolve themselves into two3 first1 that like produces like2 and1 second1 that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other4' ,these beliefs are due to the association of ideas3 if two things are more or less like one another1 or if two things have gone together in our experience of the past1 the sight of the one will make us think of the other and expect to find it4 ,so strong is the expectation which is thus created that in the savage it amounts to absolute belief2 and magic consists in acting on that belief1 in setting like to produce like1 with the firm conviction that thus 7by magic7 man can obtain all that he desires4 ,for long ages1 according to ,frazer1 man acted on that belief1 and only eventually did he discover that magic did not always act4 ,this discovery set him thinking and led him to the inference that at work in the world there must be supernatural powers or beings1 that the course of nature and of human life is controlled by personal beings superior to man4 ,and that inference1 according to ,sir ,james ,frazer's definition1 constitutes religion4 ,the fundamental distinction1 then1 and even opposition of principle between magic and religion1 is that in the one case man thinks that he can gain all that he desires by means of magic1 and that in the other he turns with offerings and supplication to the personal beings superior to man whom he imagines to control the course of nature and of human life4 ,whether the distinction which ,sir ,james ,frazer draws between magic and religion will hold depends partly on whether his definitions of magic and religion are acceptable4 ,in his account of magic there at least appears to be some confusion of thought4 ,on the one hand1 he says1 'it must always be remembered that every single profession and claim put forward by the magician1 as such1 is false2 not one of them can be maintained without deception1 conscious or unconscious4' ,this pronouncement makes it easy for us to understand that even the savage would eventually find magic an unsatisfactory method of gratifying his desires1 a deception in fact4 ,on the other hand1 ,sir ,james apparently contradicts himself1 that is to say1 he denies that every single profession or claim put forward by the magician is false1 and says1 'however justly we may reject the extravagant pretensions of magicians and condemn the deceptions which they have practised on mankind1 the original institution of this class of man has1 take it all in all1 been productive of incalculable good to humanity4' ,the ground for this second pronouncement1 so contradictory of the first1 is that magicians1 ,sir ,james tells us1 'were the direct predecessors1 not merely of our physicians and surgeons but of our investigators and discoverers in every branch of natural science4' ,thus1 though he no longer regards priests as transmogrified magicians1 he does regard magicians as the earliest men of science1 and does regard science1 therefore1 as a highly developed stage of magic4 ,this view logically follows from the premisses from which it starts2 and if it is felt to be unacceptable1 we shall naturally be inclined to scrutinize the premisses once more and more carefully4 ,when we do so scrutinize them1 we see that the principles of thought on which ,sir ,james ,frazer assumes magic to be based are in effect the principles from which science started3 they are the beliefs that like produces like--the basis of the law of causation--and that things which our experience shows to have gone together in the past tend always to go together--which is one way of stating our belief in the uniformity of nature4 ,if then these principles of thought are the principles on which magic as well as science is based1 then science and magic are the same thing1 and we have only to choose whether we will say that magic is not magic but undeveloped science1 or that science is not science but merely magic transmogrified4 ,thus1 the pre-formation theory once more reasserts itself3 magic is the seed in which science is prefigured or pre-formed4 ,if we wish to escape from this conclusion1 if we wish to maintain the validity of science and yet always to remember 'that every single profession and claim put forward by the magician1 as such1 is false--not one of them can be maintained without deception1 conscious or unconscious'1 we must consider whether ,sir ,james ,frazer's account of magic1 according to which the principles of magic are identical with those of science1 is the only account that can be given of magic2 and for that purpose we may contrast it with the view of ,wilhelm ,wundt4 ,but before doing so1 since ,sir ,james ,frazer holds that there is 'a fundamental distinction and even opposition of principle between magic and religion'1 it will be well to try to see not only what he means by magic1 but also whether his description or definition of religion is acceptable4 ,whereas ,robertson ,smith held that religion1 reduced to its very lowest terms1 must imply at least belief in a god and communion with him1 ,frazer considers religion to be the belief that the course of nature and of human life is controlled by personal beings superior to man4 ,by the one view stress is laid on the mystic side of religion1 on the communion which is effected through sacrifice2 by the other view stress is laid on the power which the gods may be induced by prayer and supplication to exercise for the benefit of man4 ,our first reflection1 therefore1 is that any view of religion1 to be comprehensive1 cannot confine itself to either of these aspects singly1 but must find room for both--for both prayer and sacrifice4 ,they cannot be mutually exclusive1 nor can they be simply juxtaposed1 as though they were atoms unrelated to one another1 accidental neighbours in the same district4 ,there must be a higher unity1 not created by or subsequent to the coalescence of elements originally independent of each other1 but a higher unity of which both prayer and sacrifice are manifestations4 ,this higher unity1 ,i venture to suggest1 is the first principle of religion2 and1 if it is not explicitly recognized as the first principle of religion either by ,robertson ,smith or by ,frazer1 that may well be because their attention is concentrated on the earlier stages in the evolution of religion1 when as yet it is not conspicuous and is1 therefore1 though in fact operative1 liable to be overlooked4 ,as ,ferrier has said1 'first principles of every kind have their influence1 and indeed operate largely and powerfully long before they come to the surface of human thought and are articulately expounded4' ,what then is the first principle of religion which only after long ages of evolution rose to the surface of human thought1 and which1 though it had been operative largely and powerfully1 came only in the slow course of human evolution to be articulately expounded8 ,the first principle of religion is love--love of one's neighbour and one's ,god4 ,in the light of that first principle it is manifest that prayer and sacrifice are not fundamentally unrelated and accidentally juxtaposed3 a sacrifice accompanied not even by unspoken prayer1 prompted by no desire1 no wish for anything whatever1 is a meaningless concept4 ,equally unmeaning and unintelligible is the idea of a prayer which involves no sacrifice--whether by sacrifice we understand the offering of gifts or the sacrifice of self4 ,but perhaps it may be said that1 even though love alone can lead to sacrifice of self1 still it is undeniable that prayers may be put up and sacrifices be offered by a man for the sake of what he is going to get by doing so2 and that that is what ,sir ,james ,frazer means when he sees in religion the belief that beings superior to man may be induced by prayer so to order things that man may get his heart's desire4 ,then1 indeed1 we get a continuity of evolution1 a continuity between magic and religion1 which ,frazer perhaps did not intend wholly to deny3 that is to say the continuous thread running through both magic and religion and uniting them is desire4 ,desire is continuous1 though the means of gratifying it change4 ,in one stage of evolution magic is the means2 in another1 religion4 ,but throughout we find the process of evolution to be continuous--change in continuity and continuity in change4 ,now it is indeed undeniable that prayer and sacrifice may be made by a man for the sake of what he is going to get1 and may from the beginning have been made1 partly at least1 from that motive4 ,but if evolution in one of its aspects is change1 then one of the changes brought about by evolution in religion is precisely that prayer and sacrifice come to be regarded as no longer a means whereby a man can get his desires accomplished--his will done--but as the indispensable condition for doing ,god's will4 ,prayer then becomes communion with ,god1 and the sacrifice of self the living exhibition of love--the first principle of religion1 the principle which manifests itself now in prayer and now in sacrifice4 ,from this point of view1 then1 ,sir ,james ,frazer's account of religion will be considered unacceptable3 it makes religion and magic alike but means whereby man has--vainly--sought to satisfy desire4 ,and the implication is that the day of both alike is over4 ,but if ,frazer's account of religion is unacceptable1 his account of magic also is open to criticism4 ,he wavers between two opinions about magic3 at one time he regards it as all falsehood and deception1 at another as the source from which science springs1 just as at one time he considered magic fundamentally the same as religion and then again as fundamentally different from religion4 ,when ,frazer is bent upon identifying magic and science1 he attributes to primitive man a theory of causation 7that like produces like73 magic is based1 he says1 upon 'the views of natural causation embraced by the savage magician'4 ,on the other hand1 according to ,wilhelm ,wundt in his ,vlkerpsychologie1 primitive man has no notion whatever of natural causation3 primitive man1 ,wundt says1 has only one way of accounting for events--if something happens1 somebody did it4 ,if any one mysteriously falls ill and dies1 the question at once presents itself to the savage mind1 who did it8 ,how any one could contrive to make the man fall ill and die is1 to the man's relations1 thoroughly and disquietingly mysterious4 ,the one thing clear to them is that somebody possesses and has exercised this mysterious and horrible power4 ,the person who1 in the opinion not only of the relatives but also of all or most of the community1 naturally would do this sort of thing differs in some way--in his appearance or habits--from the average member of the community1 and accordingly is credited1 or discredited1 with this mysterious and dreadful power4 ,such a person1 according to ,wundt1 is a magician4 ,such an event is a marvel3 so long as it is supposed to be brought about by a man1 it is a piece of magic2 when it is ascribed 7as1 according to ,wundt1 it comes in later1 though not in primitive times1 to be ascribed7 to a god1 it is a miracle4 ,if science then does not work magic1 there must be a fundamental distinction between science and magic1 an absolute opposition of principles4 ,the principles of thought on which magic is based cannot be1 as ,frazer maintains1 the same as those which give to science its validity4 ,in fine1 the belief in magic seems to be based not on any principle of thought1 but upon the assumption that1 if something happens1 somebody must have done it1 and therefore must have had the power to do it4 ,wundt1 whilst differing from ,frazer in his description of magic1 is at one with him in believing that before religion existed there was an age of magic4 ,but ,wundt's view that marvels are magic when supposed to have been done by man1 but miracles when supposed to have been done by a god or his priests1 suggests the possibility that1 as the belief in magic is found usually1 if not always1 to exist side by side with the belief in miracles1 the two beliefs may from the beginning have co-existed1 that the age of magic is not prior in the course of evolution to the age of religion4 ,this possibility1 it will be admitted1 derives some colour at least from the way in which the theory of evolution is employed to account for the origin of species3 different though reptiles are from birds1 the serpent from the dove1 both are descended from a common ancestor1 the archaeopteryx4 ,if this instance be taken as typical of the process of evolution in general1 then the course of evolution is not1 so to speak1 linear or rectilinear1 but--to use ,m4 ,bergson's word--'dispersive'4 ,to suppose that religion is descended from magic would then be as erroneous as to suppose that birds are descended from reptiles or man from the monkey4 ,the true view will be that the course of evolution is not linear1 is not a line produced for ever in the same direction1 not a succession of stages1 but is 'dispersive'1 that from a common starting point many lines of evolution radiate in different directions4 ,the course of evolution is not unilinear but multilinear2 it runs on many lines which diverge1 but all the diverging lines start from the same point4 ,if we apply this conception of evolution in general to the evolution of religion in particular--and ,bergson1 ,i should say1 does not--then the centre of dispersion1 common to all religions1 is the heart of man4 ,the forms of religion evolving1 emanating and radiating from that common centre are1 let us say1 fetishism1 polytheism1 and monotheism4 ,if we wish to avoid1 in the theory of religious evolution1 an error analogous to that of supposing birds to be descended from reptiles1 we must decline to suppose that monotheism is simply polytheism evolved1 or that polytheism is descended from fetishism4 ,we must consider that each of these three forms of religion is terminal1 in the sense that no one of them leads on to1 or passes into1 either of the other two4 ,all three forms of religious life may1 and indeed do1 exist side by side with one another1 just as the countless forms of physical life may be found existing side by side4 ,the foraminifera exist now1 as they existed millions of years ago2 but the fact that they co-exist with higher forms of physical life does not show that the higher forms of life are but foraminifera in a more highly evolved form4 ,similarly1 the fact that fetishism exists side by side with polytheism1 or polytheism with monotheism1 does not show that one is but a higher form of another3 we must consider each to be a terminal form1 as incapable of producing another1 as it is impossible to conceive that the serpent develops into the dove4 ,the common centre and starting-point of fetishism1 polytheism1 and monotheism on this view 7the 'dispersive' view7 of the evolution of religion lies in the heart of man1 in a consciousness1 originally vague in the extreme1 of the personality and superiority to man of the being or object worshipped4 ,in all these three forms of religion there is worship1 and in all three forms the being worshipped is personal4 ,further1 a special tie is felt to exist between the worshipper and the personality worshipped3 religion is the bond of union between them1 and it is also a bond which unites the worshippers to one another4 ,it is by its very nature a bond of union1 a means of communion between persons1 human and divine4 ,that is the mystic aspect of religion which finds expression in the rite of sacrifice and in the sacramental meals which are felt somehow to bind together1 or rather to reunite and keep together1 the worshippers and their god4 ,this communion however is not merely mystic3 it has its practical effects inasmuch as it affects the conduct of the worshipper and enables him to do what without it he would not have had strength to do4 ,if fetishism1 polytheism1 and monotheism radiate from a common centre1 the heart of man1 then the heart of man must also be regarded as the starting-point of magic4 ,if they spring straight from the heart1 though in different directions1 dispersively1 then magic must also start from the common centre2 and1 though its divergence from religion tends to become total1 at first1 and indeed it may be for long1 the discrepancy between them is rather felt uneasily than recognized clearly4 ,categories1 such as those of cause and effect1 identity and difference1 which are the common property of civilized thought1 and which among us1 ,mr4 ,l4,t4 ,hobhouse says1 'every child soon comes to distinguish in practice1 are for primitive thought interwoven in wild confusion4' ,two categories1 which in primitive thought are thus interwoven in wild confusion1 are1 it may be suggested1 religion and magic2 and only in the dispersive process of evolution do they tend to become discriminated4 ,in ancient ,egypt1 in ,babylon1 in ,brahminism1 religion fails to disentangle itself from magic2 and not even has ,christianity always succeeded in throwing it off4 ,different as we may conceive magic and religion to be1 the fact remains that at first they grow up intertwined together4 ,in the lower forms of religion magic is worked not only by magicians but by priests as well2 spells and prayers are hardly to be distinguished from one another4 ,the idea that 'priest' is but 'magician' writ differently1 that prayers are but spells under another name1 is now obsolete4 ,the truth may be that religion neither follows on1 nor is evolved from magic1 but that both radiate from a common centre1 the heart of man2 and that at first both are attempts made by man to secure the fulfilment of his desires1 to do his will1 though eventually he finds that the way to control nature is to obey her1 not to try to command her by working magic2 and that it is in endeavouring to do ,god's will1 not his own1 that man finds peace at the last4 ,in the three forms of religion which thus far we have taken into account1 fetishism1 polytheism1 monotheism1 religion is felt to be a personal relation--a relation between the human personality and some personality more than human2 and the human heart is reaching out and groping after some divine personality1 if peradventure it may find ,him4 ,but there is yet another form of religion proceeding from the human heart in which this does not seem to be the case--and that is ,buddhism4 ,the ,buddha definitely renounced the search after ,god and would not allow his disciples to engage in the pursuit4 ,practically the pursuit was useless1 according to the ,buddha3 escape from suffering is all that man can want or strive or hope for4 ,escape from suffering is possible only by cessation from existence2 and that cessation from existence1 here and hereafter1 can be attained by man himself1 who can reach ,nirvana without the aid of gods1 if gods there be4 ,from the point of view of metaphysics the idea that there is any relation between the human personality and the divine falls to the ground1 according to the ,buddha1 because1 whether there be gods or not1 at any rate there is no human personality4 ,as in a conflagration--and according to the ,buddha the whole world1 burning with desire1 is in a state of conflagration--the flames leap from one house that is burning to the next1 so in its transmigrations the self1 or rather the character1 ,karman1 like a flame1 leaps from one form of existence to another4 ,the flame indeed appears to be there all the time the fire is burning2 but the flame has no permanence1 it is changing all the time the process of combustion is going on2 and ',i' have no more permanence than the flame4 ',i' only appear to be there as long as the process of life goes on4 ,and as the flame only continues so long as there is something for it to feed on1 so the process of transmigration or re-birth continues only so long as the thirst for being continues3 the escape from re-birth is conditional on the extinction of that thirst or desire2 and the disciple who has succeeded in putting off lust and desire has attained to deliverance from death and re-birth1 has attained to rest1 to ,nirvana4 ,thus1 on the 'dispersive' view of the evolution of religion1 ,buddhism is a radiation from the common centre1 from the heart of man1 though it radiates in a direction very different from that followed by any other religion4 ,the direction is indeed one which1 as the history of religion shows1 it has been impossible for man long to follow1 for1 wherever ,buddhism has been established1 it has relapsed2 and the ,buddha1 who strove to divert man from prayer and from the worship of gods1 has himself become a god to whom prayer and worship are addressed4 ,whether in the future the direction may be pursued more permanently than it has been by ,buddhism up to now lies with the future to show4 ,buddhism1 however1 on the 'dispersive' view of the evolution of religion1 is not the only radiation from the common centre1 of which we have to take account1 in addition to fetishism1 polytheism1 and monotheism4 ,from the human heart also proceeds 'the religion of humanity'1 the ,positivist ,church4 ,here1 as originally in ,buddhism1 the conception of a divine personality plays no part2 but here the human personality1 the very existence of which is denied by the ,buddha1 is raised to a high1 indeed to the highest1 level4 ,there is no such thing as an individual1 if by 'individual' is meant a man existing solely by himself1 for a man can neither come into existence nor continue in existence by himself alone4 ,it is an essential part of the conception of personality that it includes fellowship3 a person to be a person must stand in some relation to other persons4 ,they are presented to him1 the subject1 as objects of his awareness2 and he1 the subject1 is also an object of their awareness4 ,humanity is thus a complex1 in which alone persons are found and apart from which they have in fact no existence4 ,humanity thus plays in ,positivism1 as a religion1 the part of 'the great ,being'1 le grand tre1 which in other religions is fulfilled by ,god1 but with this difference1 that humanity is human always and never divine4 ,the ruler of a country steers the ship of state1 but he is a pilot only metaphorically4 ,whether the terms worship and prayer are used more than metaphorically by the ,positivist seems hard to decide4 ,on the one hand1 if it is felt that worship and prayer are indispensable to religion1 it may be argued that in religions other than ,positivism they prove not only on analysis1 but in the course of history1 to be1 as by ,positivism they are recognized to be1 of purely subjective import4 ,on the other hard1 it may be that they provide merely a means of transition from the religions of the past to the religion of the future4 ,another matter of interest is the place of morality in ,positivism as a religion4 ,according to ,m4 ,alfred ,loisy in his book ,la ,religion1 morality and religion are bound up together4 ,they cannot exist apart from one another3 they might1 he says1 'be dissociated in fact and thought1 were it not that they are inseparable in the life of humanity4' ,and in his view morality is summed up in the idea of duty4 ,he says1 'in the beginning was duty1 and duty was in humanity1 and duty was humanity4 ,duty was at the beginning in humanity4 ,by it all things were made1 and without it nothing was made4' ,thus1 where duty is1 there also is religion4 ,not only1 according to ,loisy1 has that always been so in every stage through which the evolution of religion has passed1 but it will also be the case with the religion of the future4 ,thus the conception of evolution which ,loisy holds is the same as that entertained by ,robertson ,smith1 the difference being that1 whereas on the one view the idea of ,god and of communion with ,him has been present from the beginning1 and1 much though it may have changed1 it remains to the end the same thing2 on the other view it is the idea of duty--the duty which is humanity--that was in the beginning and will continue to the end4 ,both views are applications of the 'pre-formation' theory of evolution4 ,but ,positivism perhaps is not necessarily tied to the 'pre-formation' theory4 ,it seems equally capable of being fitted in to the 'dispersive' theory1 and of being regarded as an emanation or radiation proceeding direct from the human heart4 ,it may be so regarded1 if we consider the essence of it to be found not in the concept of duty1 which seems to imply the existence of some superior who imposes duties on man1 but in that love of one's fellow-man which1 to be love1 must be given freely1 and simply because one loves4 ,the sense of obligation1 the feeling of duty1 obedience to the commandments of authority and to the prohibitions which the community both enforces and obeys1 are1 all of them1 various expressions of the primitive feeling of taboo--a feeling of alarm and fear4 ,if we confine our attention to this set of facts1 we may say1 with ,m4 ,loisy1 'in the beginning was duty1 and duty was in humanity'4 ,we may however hesitate to follow him when he goes on to say1 'by duty all things were made1 and without it nothing was made'4 ,we may hesitate and the ,positivist may hesitate1 because1 primitive though the feeling of fear may be1 the feeling of love is equally original3 on it and in it the family and society have their base and their origin2 and to it they owe not only their origin but their continuance4 ,love however is not a matter of duty and obedience2 it is not subject to commandment or prohibition2 nor does it strive by commands or authority to enforce itself4 ,in the process by which duty--legal and moral obligation--evolves out of the primitive feeling of taboo1 love is not implicated3 love springs from its own source1 the human heart1 and runs its own course4 ,taboo may have existed from the beginning2 but to the end1 whatever its form--duty1 obligation1 obedience to authority--it remains in character what it was at first1 prohibitive1 negative4 ,love alone is creative3 without it 'was not anything made that was made'4 ,there seems1 therefore1 no necessity to regard the 'pre-formation' theory of evolution1 rather than the 'dispersive theory1 as essential to ,positivism4 ,common to all the views about the evolution of religion that have been mentioned in this paper is the belief that1 the more religion changes1 the more it remains the same thing4 ,if identified with duty1 then duty it was in the beginning1 and duty it will remain to the end4 ,for those who conceive it to be merely magic1 magic it was and magic it remains4 ,those who define it as belief in a god and communion with him find that belief in the earliest as well as the latest stages4 ,all would agree in rejecting ,bergson's view of evolution--that in evolution there is change1 but nothing which changes4 ,all would agree that in the evolution of religion there is something which1 change though it may1 remains the same thing1 and that is religion itself4 ,but on the question what religion is1 there is no agreement3 no definition of religion as yet--and there have been many attempts to define it--has gained general acceptance4 ,we may even surmise1 and admit1 that no attempt ever will be successful4 ,such admission1 indeed1 may at first to some seem equivalent to admitting that religion is a nullity1 and the admission may accordingly be welcomed or rejected4 ,but a moment's reflection will show that the admission has no such consequence4 ,none of our simple feelings can be defined3 pleasure and pain can neither be defined2 nor1 when experienced1 doubted4 ,and some of our general terms1 those at any rate which are ultimate1 are beyond our power either to define or doubt3 no one imagines that 'life' can be defined1 but no one doubts its existence4 ,and religion both as a term and as a fact of experience is ultimate1 and1 because ultimate1 incapable of definition4 ,it is not to be defined but only to be felt4 ,it is an affair not merely of the intellect1 but still more of the heart4 ,in what sense1 then1 can we speak of the evolution of religion8 ,evolution implies change2 and no one doubts that there have been changes in religion4 ,no one can imagine that it has from the beginning till now remained identically the same4 ,what seems conceivable is that throughout there has been1 not identity but continuity--change indeed in continuity but also continuity in change4 ,the child 'learns to speak the words and think the ideas1 to reproduce the mode of thought1 as he does the form of speech' of the community into which he is born4 ,in the speech1 thought1 and feelings--even in the religious feelings--of the community1 from generation to generation1 there is continuity1 but not identity4 ,from generation to generation they are not identical but are continuously changing2 and they change because each child who takes them over reproduces them2 and1 in reproducing them1 changes them1 not much in most cases1 but very considerably in the case of men of genius and the great religious reformers4 ,the heart is the treasure-house in which not only old things are stored1 but from which also new things are brought forth4 ,the process of evolution implies indeed that the old things1 though not everlasting1 persist for a time2 but it also implies the manifestation of that which1 though continuous with the old1 is at the same time new4 ,it is from the heart of man1 of some one man1 that what is new proceeds3 the community it is which is conservative of the old4 ,the heart of man1 or man himself1 exhibits both change in continuity and continuity in change4 ,the acorn1 the sapling1 and the oak are different stages of one continuous process4 ,but it is the same tree throughout the whole process4 ,so1 too1 perhaps it may be said1 religion is a term which includes or is applicable to all stages in the one process1 and not to the stage of monotheism alone1 or of polytheism alone1 or even to those stages alone in which there is a reference to personal beings4 ,each of these stages is a stage in the process of religion but no stage is by itself the whole process4 ,but this view of the evolution of religion regards religion as though it were an organism1 self-subsistent1 existing and evolving as independently of man as the oak-tree does2 whereas in truth religion has no such independent existence or evolution4 ,it is not from polytheism that monotheism proceeds2 nor does polytheism proceed from fetishism3 it is from the heart of man that they and all other forms of religion emanate and radiate4 ,to conceive fetishism1 polytheism1 and monotheism as three successive stages in one process1 to represent the evolution of religion by a straight line marked off into three parts1 or any other number of parts1 is to forget that they do not produce one another but that each emanates from the heart of man4 ,the fact that they emanate in temporal succession does not prove that one springs from the other4 ,nor can we say that values--religious or aesthetic--are to be determined on the simple principle that the latest edition is the best4 ,to say that an editio princeps has value only for the bibliophile is to admit that all values are personal1 as are all thoughts and all feelings1 all goodness and all love4 ,,for ,,reference ,robertson ,smith1 ,the ,religion of the ,semites 7,a4 ,c4 ,black1 #ahhi74 ,j4,g4 ,frazer1 ,the ,golden ,bough 7,macmillan ,co41 #ahij-aiae74 ,grant ,allen1 ,the ,evolution of the ,idea of ,god 7,grant ,richards1 #ahig74 ,h4 ,bergson1 ,l'volution cratrice 7,f4 ,alcan1 #aijh74 ,f4,b4 ,jevons1 ,the ,idea of ,god in ,early ,religions 7#aiaj71 and ,comparative ,religion 7#aiac7 7,cambridge ,university ,press74 ,g4,f4 ,moore1 ,history of ,religions 7,t4 ,t4 ,clark1 #aiad74 ,a4 ,loisy1 ,la ,religion 7,e4 ,nourry1 #aiag74 ,,iv ,,recent ,,tendencies ,,in ,,european ,,poetry ,,with ,,occasional ,,references ,,to ,,the ,,novel1 ,,drama1 ,,and ,,criticism ,,professor ,c4,h4 ,,herford ,when ,matthew ,arnold declared that every age receives its best interpretation in its poetry1 he was making a remark hardly conceivable before the century in which it was made4 ,poetry in the nineteenth century was1 on the whole1 more charged with meaning1 more rooted in the stuff of humanity and the heart of nature1 less a mere province of belles-lettres than ever before4 ,consciously or unconsciously it reflected the main currents in the mentality of ,european man1 and the reflection was often most clear where it was least conscious4 ,two of these main currents are3 7#a7 ,the vast and steady enlargement of our knowledge of the compass1 the history1 the potencies1 of ,man1 ,nature1 the ,world4 7#b7 ,the growth in our sense of the worth of every part of existence4 ,certain aspects of these two processes are popularly known as 'the advance of science'1 and 'the growth of democracy'4 ,but how far 'science' reaches beyond the laboratory and the philosopher's study1 and 'democracy' beyond political freedom and the ballot-box1 is precisely what poetry compels us to understand2 and not least the poetry of the last sixty years with which we are to-day concerned4 ,how then does the history of poetry in ,europe during these sixty years stand in relation to these underlying processes8 ,on the surface1 at least1 it hardly resembles growth at all4 ,in ,france above all--the literary focus of ,europe1 and its sensitive thermometer--the movement of poetry has been1 on the surface1 a succession of pronounced and even fanatical schools1 each born in reaction from its precursor1 and succumbing to the triumph of its successor4 ,yet a deeper scrutiny will perceive that these warring artists were1 in fact1 groups of successive discoverers1 who each added something to the resources and the scope of poetry1 and also retained and silently adopted the discoveries of the past2 while the general line of advance is in the direction marked by the two main currents ,i have described4 ,nowhere else is the succession of phases so sharp and clear as in ,france4 ,but since ,france does reflect more sensitively than any other country the movement of the mind of ,europe1 and since her own mind has1 more than that of any other country1 radiated ideas and fashions out over the rest of ,europe1 these phases are in fact traceable also1 with all kinds of local and national variations1 in ,italy and ,spain1 ,germany and ,england1 and ,i propose to take this fact as the basis of our present very summary and diagrammatic view4 ,the three phases of the sixty years are roughly divided by the years #ahhj and #aijj4 ,the first1 most clearly seen in the ,french ,parnassians1 is in close1 if unconscious1 sympathy with the temper of science4 ,poetry1 brought to the limit of expressive power1 is used to express1 with the utmost veracity1 precision1 and impersonal self-suppression1 the beauty and the tragedy of the world4 ,it sought ,hellenic lucidity and ,hellenic calm--in the example most familiar to us1 the ,stoic calm and 'sad lucidity' of ,matthew ,arnold4 ,the second1 best seen in the ,french ,symbolists1 was directly hostile to science4 ,but they repelled its confident analysis of material reality in the name of a part of reality which it ignored or denied1 an immaterial world which they mystically apprehended1 which eluded direct description1 frustrated rhetoric1 and was only to be come at by the magical suggestion of colour1 music1 and symbol4 ,it is most familiar to us in the ',celtic' verse of ,mr4 ,yeats and ',a4,e4'4 ,the third1 still about us1 and too various and incomplete for final definition1 is in closer sympathy with science1 but1 in great part1 only because science has itself found accommodation between nature and spirit1 a new ideality born of1 and growing out of1 the real4 ,if the first found ,beauty1 the end of art1 in the plastic repose of sculpture1 and the second in the mysterious cadences of music1 the poetry of the twentieth century finds its ideal in life1 in the creative evolution of being1 even in the mere things1 the 'prosaic' pariahs of previous poetry1 on which our shaping wills are wreaked4 ,we know it in poets unlike one another but yet more unlike their predecessors1 from ,d',annunzio and ,dehmel and ,claudel to our ,georgian experimenters in the poetry of paradox and adventure4 ,i4 ,,poetic ,,naturalism ,the third quarter of the nineteenth century opened1 in western ,europe1 with a decided set-back for those who lived on dreams1 and a corresponding complacency among those who throve on facts4 ,the political and social revolution which swept the continent in #ahdh and #ahdi1 and found ominous echoes here1 was everywhere1 for the time1 defeated4 ,the discoveries of science in the third and fourth decades1 resting on calculation and experiment1 were investing it with the formidable prestige which it has never since lost2 and both metaphysics and theology reeled perceptibly under the blows delivered in its name4 ,the world exhibition of #ahea seemed to announce an age of settled prosperity1 peace1 and progress4 ,in literature the counterpart of these phenomena was the revolt from ,romanticism1 a movement1 in its origins1 of poetic liberation and discovery1 which had rejuvenated poetry in ,germany and ,italy1 and yet more signally in ,england and in ,france1 but was now petering out in emotional incoherence1 deified impulse1 and irresponsible caprice4 ,the revolt accordingly everywhere sought to bring literature into closer conformity with reality2 with reality as interpreted by science2 and to make art severe and precise4 ,in the novel1 ,flaubert founded modern naturalism with his enthralling picture of dull provincials1 ,mme ,bovary 7#aheg72 two years later ,george ,eliot tilted openly in ,adam ,bede against the romancers who put you off with marvellous pictures of dragons1 but could not draw the real horses and cattle before their eyes4#c ,realism1 at once more unflinching and more profoundly poetic1 and yet penetrated1 especially in ,tolstoy and ,dostoievsky1 with an intensity of moral conviction beside which the ethical fervour of ,george ,eliot seems an ineffectual fire1 was one of the roots of the ,russian ,novel2 which also reached its climax in the third quarter of the century4 ,but though it concurred with analogous movements in the ,west1 it drew little of moment from them2 even ,turgenjev1 a greater ,maupassant in artistry1 drew his inner inspiration from wholly alien springs of ,slavonic passion and thought4 ,and it was chiefly through them that the ,russian novel later helped to nourish the radically alien movement of ,symbolism in ,france4 ,in drama1 ,ibsen broke away from the ,romantic tradition of his country with the iconoclastic energy of one who had spent his own unripe youth in offering it a half-reluctant homage4 ,the man of actuality in him denounced the drama built upon the legends of the ,scandinavian past--the mark for him of a people of dreamers oblivious of the calls of the hour4 ,on the morrow of the disastrous 7and for ,norway in his view ignominious7 ,danish war of #ahfd1 his scorn rang out with prophetic intensity in the fierce tirade of ,brand4 ,happily for his art1 revolt against romance in him was united1 more signally than in more than two or three of his contemporaries1 with the power of seizing and presenting contemporary life4 ',realism' certainly expresses inadequately enough the genius of an art like his1 enormously alive rather than fundamentally like life1 and no less charged with purpose and idea than the work of the great ,russians1 though under cover of reticences and irony little known to them4 ,the great series of prose dramas--from #ahfg 7,the ,league of ,youth7 onwards--with their experimental prelude ,love's ,comedy 7#ahfc7--were to be for all ,europe the most considerable literary event of the fourth quarter of the century1 and they generated affiliated schools throughout the ,west4 ,they did not indeed themselves remain untouched by the general intellectual currents of the time1 and it will be noticed below that the later plays 7from ,the ,lady of the ,sea onward7 betray affinities1 like the ,russian novel1 with what is here called the second phase of the ,european movement4 ,in ,criticism1 the showy generalizations of ,villemain gave place to ,sainte-,beuve's series of essays towards a 'natural history of minds'#d and ,taine's more sweeping attempt to explain literature by environment4#e ,among ourselves1 ,meredith's ,essay on ,comedy 7#ahgb7 brilliantly restated ,molire's dictum that the comic is founded on the real1 and not on a fantastic distortion of it1 while ,matthew ,arnold applied alike to literature and to theology a critical insight fertilized by his master ,sainte-,beuve's delicate faculty for disengaging the native quality of minds from the incrustations of tradition and dogma4 ,in poetry the ,french ,parnassians created the most brilliant poetry that has1 since ,milton1 been built upon erudition and impeccable art4 ,their leader1 ,leconte de ,lisle1 in the preface of his ,pomes antiques 7#ahec71 scornfully dismissed ,romanticism as a second-hand1 incoherent1 and hybrid art1 compounded of ,german mysticism1 reverie1 and ,byron's stormy egoism4 ,sully ,prudhomme addressed a sterner criticism to the shade of ,alfred de ,musset--the ,oscar ,wilde of the later ,romantics#f--who had never known the stress of thought1 and had filled his poetry with light love and laughter and voluptuous despairs2 the new poets were to be no such gay triflers1 but workers at a forge1 beating the glowing metal into shape1 and singing as they toiled4#g ,carducci1 too1 derisively contrasts the 'moonlight' of ,romanticism--cold and infructuous beams1 proper for ,gothic ruins and graveyards--with the benignant and fertilizing sunshine he sought to restore2 for him1 too1 the poet is no indolent caroller1 and no gardener to grow fragrant flowers for ladies1 but a forge-worker with muscles of steel4#h ,among us1 as usual1 the divergence is less sharply marked2 but when ,browning calls ,byron a 'flat fish'1 and ,arnold sees the poet of ,prometheus appropriately pinnacled in the 'intense inane'1 they are expressing a kindred repugnance to a poetry wanting in intellectual substance and in clear-cut form4 ,if we turn from the negations of the anti-romantic revolt to consider what it actually sought and achieved in poetry1 we find that its positive ideals1 too1 without being derived from science1 reflect the temper of a scientific time4 ,thus the supreme gift of all the greater poets of this group was a superb vision of beauty1 and of beauty--pace ,hogarth--there is no science4 ,but their view of beauty was partly limited1 partly fertilized and enriched1 by the sources they discovered and the conditions they imposed1 and both the discoveries and the limitations added something to the traditions and resources of poetry4 ,thus3 7#a7 ,they exploited the aesthetic values to be had by knowledge4 ,they pursued erudition and built their poetry upon erudition1 not in the didactic way of the ,augustans1 but as a mine of poetic material and suggestion4 ,far more truly than ,wordsworth's this poetry could claim to be the impassioned expression which is in the face of science2 for ,wordsworth's knowledge is a mystic insight wholly estranged from erudition2 his celandine1 his ,white ,doe1 belong to no fauna or flora4 ,when ,leconte de ,lisle1 on the other hand1 paints the albatross of the southern sea or the condor of the ,andes1 the eye of a passionate explorer and observer has gone to the making of their exotic sublimity4 ,the strange regions of humanity1 too1 newly disclosed by comparative religion and mythology1 he explores with cosmopolitan impartiality and imaginative penetration2 carving1 as in marble1 the tragedy of ,hjalmar's heart and ,angentyr's sword1 of ,cain's doom1 and ,erinnyes never1 like those of ,aeschylus1 appeased4 ,the ,romantics had loved to play with exotic suggestions2 but the ,east of ,hugo's ,orientales or ,moore's ,lalla ,rookh is merely a veneer2 the poet of ,qain has heard the wild asses cry and seen the ,syrian sun descend into the golden foam4 ,in the three commanding poets of our ,english mid-century1 learning becomes no less evidently poetry's honoured and indispensable ally4 ,tennyson studies nature like a naturalist1 not like a mystic1 and finds felicities of phrase poised1 as it were1 upon delicate observation4 ,man1 too1 in ,browning1 loses the vague aureole of ,shelleyan humanity1 and becomes the ,italian of the ,renascence or the ,arab doctor or the ,german musician1 all alive but in their habits as they lived1 and fashioned in a brain fed1 like no other1 on the ,book of the histories of ,souls4 ,matthew ,arnold more distinctively than either1 and both for better and for worse1 was the scholar-poet2 among other things he was1 with ,heredia and ,carducci1 a master of the poetry of critical portraiture1 which focusses in a few lines 7,sophocles1 ,rahel1 ,heine1 ,obermann ,once ,more7 the meaning of a great career or of a complex age4 7#b7 ,in the elaboration of their vision of beauty from these enlarged sources1 ,leconte de ,lisle and his followers demanded an impeccable artistry4 ',a great poet'1 he said1 'and a flawless artist are convertible terms4' ,the ,parnassian precision rested on the postulate that1 with sufficient resources of vocabulary and phrase1 everything can be adequately expressed1 the analogue of the contemporary scientific conviction that1 with sufficient resources of experiment and calculation1 everything can be exhaustively explained4 ,the pursuit of an objective calm1 the repudiation of missionary ardour1 of personal emotion1 of the cri du coeur1 of individual originality1 involved the surrender of some of the glories of spontaneous song1 but opened the way1 for consummate artists such as these1 to a profusion of undiscovered beauty1 and to a peculiar grandeur not to be attained by the egoist4 ,leconte's temperament leads him to subjects which are already instinct with tragedy and thus in his hands assume this grandeur without effort4 ,the power of sheer style to ennoble is better seen in ,sully ,prudhomme's tours de force of philosophic poetry--when he unfolds his ideas upon ',justice' or ',happiness'1 for instance1 under the form of a debate where masterly resources of phrase and image are compelled to the service of a rigorous logic2 or in the brief cameo-like pieces on ',memory'1 ',habit'1 ',forms'1 and similar unpromising abstractions1 most nearly paralleled in ,english by the quatrains of ,mr4 ,william ,watson4 ,but the cameo comparison is still more aptly applied to the marvellously-chiselled sonnets of ,heredia--monuments of a moment1 as sculpture habitually is1 but reaching out1 as the finest sculpture does1 to invisible horizons1 and to the before and after--the old wooden guardian-god recalling his former career as a scarlet figure-head laughing at the laughter or fury of the waves2 ,antony seeing the flying ships of ,actium mirrored in the traitorous azure of ,cleopatra's eyes4 ,in ,italy the ideal of an austere simplicity and reserve1 resting as it did on the immense prestige of ,leopardi1 asserted itself even in the naturally exuberant and impetuous genius of ,carducci4 ,without it we should not have had those reticences of an abounding nature1 those economies of a spendthrift1 which make him one of the first poets of the sonnet in the land of its origin1 and one of the greatest writers of ,odes among the 'barbarians'4 ,with reason he declared in #ahia1 when most of his poetry had been written1 that 'all the apparent contradictions in my work are resolved by the triple formula3 in politics ,italy before all1 in aesthetics classical poetry before all1 in practice1 frankness and force before all'4 ,his two chief disciples1 ,d',annunzio and ,pascoli1 antithetical in almost all points1 may be said to have divided his inheritance in this2 ,pascoli's ,vergilian economy contrasting with the exuberance of ,d',annunzio somewhat as with us the classicism of the present poet-laureate with that of ,swinburne4 ,in ,germany the ,parnassian reserve1 concentration1 and aristocratic exclusiveness was to reappear in the lyrical group of ,stefan ,georg4 7#c7 ,finally1 the ,parnassian poetry1 like most contemporary science1 was in varying degrees detached from and hostile to religion1 and found some of its most vibrating notes in contemplating its empty universe4 ,leconte de ,lisle offers the ,stoic the last mournful joy of 'a heart seven-times steeped in the divine nothingness'1#i or calls him to 'that city of silence1 the sepulchre of the vanished gods1 the human heart1 seat of dreams1 where eternally ferments and perishes the illusory universe'4#aj ,here1 too1 ,leopardi had anticipated him4 ,in the ebullient genius of ,carducci and ,swinburne this lofty disdain for theological illusions passes into the fierce derision of the ,ode to ,satan and the militant paganism of the ,sonnet to ,luther1 and the ,hymn to ,man4 ,in ,matthew ,arnold it became a half-wistful resignation1 the pensive retrospect of the ,greek 'thinking of his own gods beside a fallen runic stone'1 or listening to the 'melancholy long withdrawing roar' of the tide of faith 'down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world'2 while in ,james ,thomson resignation passed into the unrelieved pessimism of the ,city of ,dreadful ,night4 ,in all these poets1 what was of moment for poetry was not1 of course1 the anti-theological or anti-clerical sentiment which marks them all1 but the notes of sombre and terrible beauty which the contemplation of the passing of the gods1 and of man's faith in them1 elicits from their art4 ,yet the supreme figure1 not only among those who share in the anti-,romantic reaction but among all the ,european poets of his time1 was one who had in the heyday of youth led the ,romantic vanguard--,victor ,hugo4 ,leconte de ,lisle never ceased to own him his master1 and ,hugo's genius had since his exile1 in #ahea1 entered upon a phase in which a poetry such as the ,parnassian sought--objective1 reticent1 impersonal1 technically consummate--was at least one of the strings of his many-chorded lyre4 ,three magnificent works--the very crown and flower of ,hugo's production--belong to this decade1 #ahej-fj1--the ,chtiments1 ,contemplations1 and ,lgende des ,sicles4 ,i said advisedly1 one string in his lyre4 ,objective reticence is certainly not the virtue of the terrible indictment of ',napoleon the ,little'4 ,on the other hand1 the greatest qualities of ,parnassian poetry were exemplified in many splendid pieces of the other two works1 together with a large benignity which their austere ,stoicism rarely permits1 and ,i shall take as illustration of the finest achievement of poetry in this whole first phase the closing stanzas of his famous ,boaz ,endormi in the ,lgende1 whose beauty even translation cannot wholly disguise4 ,our decasyllable is substituted for the ,alexandrine4#aa ',while thus he slumbered1 ,ruth1 a ,moabite1 ,lay at the feet of ,boaz1 her breast bare1 ,waiting1 she knew not when1 she knew not where1 ,the sudden mystery of wakening light4 ,boaz knew not that there a woman lay1 ,nor ,ruth what ,god desired of her could tell2 ,fresh rose the perfume of the asphodel1 ,and tender breathed the dusk on ,galgala4 ,nuptial1 august1 and solemn was the night1 ,angels no doubt were passing on the wing1 ,for now and then there floated glimmering ,as it might be an azure plume in flight4 ,the low breathing of ,boaz mingled there ,with the soft murmur of the mossy rills4 ,it was the month when earth is debonnaire2 ,the lilies were in flower upon the hills4 ,night compassed ,boaz' slumber and ,ruth's dreams1 ,the sheep-bells vaguely tinkled far and near2 ,infinite love breathed from the starry sphere2 ',twas the still hour when lions seek the streams4 ,ur and ,jerimedeth were all at rest2 ,the stars enamelled the blue vault of sky2 ,amid those flowers of darkness in the west ,the crescent shone2 and with half open eye ,ruth wondered1 moveless1 in her veils concealed1 ,what heavenly reaper1 when the day was done ,and harvest gathered in1 had idly thrown ,that golden sickle on the starry field4' ,,ii4 ,,dream ,,and ,,symbol ,the rise of ,french symbolism towards the end of the 'seventies was a symptom of a changed temper of thought and feeling traceable in some degree throughout civilized ,europe4 ,roughly1 it marked the passing of the confident and rather superficial security of the 'fifties into a vague unrest1 a kind of troubled awe4 ,as if existence altogether was a bigger1 more mysterious1 and intractable thing than was assumed1 not so easily to be captured in the formulas of triumphant science1 or mirrored and analysed by the most consummate literary art4 ,political and social conditions contributed to the change4 ,france stood on the morrow of a shattering catastrophe4 ,the complacency of mid-,victorian ,england began to be disturbed by menaces from the workshops of industry4 ,and it was precisely in triumphant ,germany herself that revolutionary ,socialism found1 in ,karl ,marx1 its first organizing mind and authoritative exponent4 ,the millennium was not so near as it had seemed2 the problems of society1 instead of having been solved once for all1 were only1 it appeared1 just coming into view4 ,in the secluded workshops of ,thought1 subtler changes were silently going on4 ,the dazzling triumphs of physical science1 which had led poetry itself to emulate the marble impassivity of the scientific temper1 were undiminished2 but they were seen in a new perspective1 their authority ceased to be exclusive1 the focus of interest was slowly shifting from the physical to the psychical world4 ,lange1 writing the history of ,materialism in #ahgd1 virtually performed its obsequies2 and ,tyndall's brilliant effort1 in #ahga1 to equip primordial ,matter with the 'promise and the potency' of mind1 unconsciously confessed that its cause was lost4 ,psychology1 after ,fechner1 steadily advanced in prestige and importance from the outlying circumference of the sciences to their very centre and core4 ,but it was not merely particular doctrines that lost ground2 the scope and validity of scientific method itself began to be questioned4 ,in the most varied fields of thought there set in that 'idealistic reaction against science' which has been described in one of the most penetrating books of our time4 ,most significant of all1 science itself1 in the person of ,mach1 and ,pearson1 has abandoned the claim to do more than provide descriptive formulas for phenomena the real nature of which is utterly beyond its power to discover4 ,of this changed outlook the growth of ,symbolism is the most significant literary expression4 ,it was not confined to ,france1 or to poetry4 ,we know how the drama of ,ibsen became charged with ulterior meanings as the fiery iconoclast passed into the poet of insoluble and ineluctable doubt4 ,but by the ,french symbolists it was pursued as a creed1 as a religion4 ,if the dominant poetry of the third quarter of the century reflected the prestige of science1 the dominant poetry of the fourth reflected the idealistic reactions against it1 and ,villiers de l',ile ,adam1 its founder1 came forward proclaiming that ',science was bankrupt'4 ,and so it might well seem to him1 the visionary mystic inhabiting1 as he did1 a world of strange beauty and invisible mystery which science could not unlock4 ,the symbolists had not all an explicit philosophy2 but they were all aware of potencies in the world or in themselves which language cannot articulately express1 and which are yet more vitally real than the 'facts' which we can grasp and handle1 and the 'respectable' people whom we can measure and reckon with4 ,sometimes these potencies are vaguely mysterious1 an impalpable spirit speaking only by hints and tokens2 sometimes they are felt as the pulsations of an intoxicating beauty1 breaking forth in every flower1 but which can only be possessed1 not described2 sometimes they are moods of the soul1 beyond analysis1 and yet full of wonder and beauty1 visions half created1 half perceived4 ,experiences like these might have been described1 as far as description would go1 by brilliant artificers like the ,parnassians4 ,verlaine and ,mallarm did not discover1 but they applied with new daring1 the fact that an experience may be communicated by words which1 instead of representing it1 suggest it by their colour1 their cadences1 their rhythm1 their verbal echoes and inchoate phrases4 ,all the traditional artistry of ,french poetic speech was condemned as both inadequate and insincere4 ',take eloquence and wring her neck6 ,nothing but music and the nuance--all the rest is ,literature1 mere writing--futile verbosity6' that was the famous watchword of ,verlaine's creed4#ab ,the strength of symbolism lay in this demand for a complete sincerity of utterance4 ,its revolt against science was at the same time a vindication of truth1 an effort to get nearer to reality both by shedding off the incrustations of habitual phrase and by calling into play the obscure affinities by which it can be magically evoked4 ,in the subtleties of suggestion latent in sensations the symbolists were real discoverers4 ,but the way had already been pointed in famous verses by ,baudelaire3 ',earth is a ,temple1 from whose pillared mazes ,murmurs confused of living utterance rise2 ,therein ,man thro' a forest of symbols paces1 ,that contemplate him with familiar eyes4 ,as prolonged echoes1 wandering on and on1 ,at last in one far tenebrous depth unite1 ,impalpable as darkness1 and as light1 ,scents1 sounds1 and colours meet in unison4' ,there ,baudelaire had touched a chord that was to sound loud and long2 for what else than this thought of all the senses meeting in union inspired the music drama of ,wagner8--only one of his points of kinship1 as we shall see1 with symbolism4 ,thus the symbolists1 in quest of reality1 touched it only through the inner life4 ,there they are1 in their fashion1 realists4 ',a landscape'1 said ,albert ,samain1 'is a state of soul4' ,the landscape may be false1 but the state of soul is veracious4 ,what interests them in life is the image of life1 not lucidly reflected but exquisitely transformed4 ,yet the vision of the world caught in that transforming mirror was not without strange revealing glimpses1 invisible1 like stars mirrored in a well1 to the plain observer4 ,they could hear the music of the spheres2 or in the language of ,samain's sonnet ',feel flowing through them1 like a pouring wave1 ,the music-tide of universal ,soul2 ,hear in their heart the beating pulse of heaven4'#ac ,in the earlier poetry of ,maurice ,maeterlinck1 the inner life imposes a more jealous sway4 ,the poet sits not before a transforming mirror1 where the outer world is disguised1 but in a closed chamber1 where it is only dreamed of1 and it fades into the incoherence and the irrelevance of a dream4 ,but the chamber is of rare beauty1 and in its hushed and perfumed twilight1 dramas of the spirit are being silently and almost imperceptibly enacted1 more tragic than the loud passion and violence of the stage4 ,he has written an essay on ,silence1--silence that1 like humility1 holds for him a 'treasure' beyond the reach of eloquence or of pride2 for it is the dwelling of our true self1 the spiritual core of us1 'more profound and more boundless than the self of the passions or of pure reason4' ,and so there is less matter for drama in 'a captain who conquers in battle or a husband who avenges his honour than in an old man1 seated in his arm-chair waiting patiently with his lamp beside him1 giving unconscious ear to all the eternal laws that reign about his house1 interpreting without comprehending1 the silence of door and window1 and the quivering voice of the light2 submitting with bent head to the presence of his soul and his destiny4' ,it is on this side that symbolism discloses its kinship with the ,russian novel1--with the mystic quietism of ,tolstoy and the religion of self-sacrifice in ,dostoievsky2 and its sharp antagonism to the ,nietzschean gospel of daemonic will and ruthless self-assertion1 just then being preached in ,germany4 ,the two faiths were both alive and both responded to deep though diverse needs of the time2 but the immediate future1 as we shall see1 belonged to the second4 ,they had their first resounding encounter when ,nietzsche held up his once venerated master ,wagner to scorn as the chief of 'decadents' because he had turned from the superhuman heroism of ,siegfried and the boundless passion of ,tristram to glorify the mystic ,catholicism of the ,grail and the loveliness of the 'pure fool' ,parzifal4 ,outside ,france symbolism found eager response among young poets1 but rather as a literary than as an ethical doctrine4 ,in ,germany ,dehmel1 the most powerful personality among her recent poets1 began as a disciple of ,verlaine2 in ,italy1 ,d',annunzio wove esoteric symbols into the texture of the more than ,nietzschean supermanliness of his supermen and superwomen4 ,more significant than these1 however1 was the symbolism of what we call the ,celtic school of poets in ,ireland4 ,for here both their artistic impressionism and their mystic spirituality found a congenial soil4 ,the principal mediating force was ,mr4 ,arthur ,symons1 friend of ,verlaine and of ,yeats1 and himself the most penetrating interpreter of ,symbolism1 both as critic and as poet4#ad ,and to the ,french influence was added that of ,blake1 a poet too great to be included in any school1 but allied to symbolism by his scorn for 'intellect' and for rhetoric1 and by his audacities of figured speech4 ,but ,mr4 ,yeats and ',a4,e4'1 the leaders of the ',celtic' group1 are in no sense derivation voices4 ,they had the great advantage over the ,french of a living native folklore and faery lore4 ,hence their symbolism1 no less subtle1 and no less steeped in poetic imagining1 has not the same air of literary artifice1 of studio fabrication1 of cultured ,bohemianism2 it breathes of the old ,irish hills1 holy with old-world rites1 and the haunted woods1 and the magical twilight and dewy dawns4 ,and beneath all the folklore1 and animating it1 is the passion for ,ireland herself1 the mother1 deathless and ever young1 whom neither the desolation of the time nor the decay of hope can touch3 ',out-worn heart in a time out-worn ,come clear of the nets of wrong and right2 ,laugh1 heart1 again in the grey twilight2 ,sigh1 heart1 again in the dew of the morn4 ,your mother ,eire is always young1 ,dew ever shining and twilight grey2 ,tho' hope fall from you and love decay ,burning in fires of a slanderous tongue4 ,come1 heart1 where hill is heaped upon hill2 ,for there the mystical brotherhood ,of sun and moon and hollow and wood ,and river and stream work out their will4' ,for that1 the ,french had only the ,fauns of a literary neo-classicism4 ,the passion for ,france was yet indeed to find a voice in poetry4 ,but this was reserved for the more trumpet-tongued tones of the contemporary phase to which ,i now turn4 ,,iii4 ',,creative ,,evolution' #a4 ,philosophic ,analogies ,nothing is more symptomatic of the incipient twentieth century than the drawing together of currents of thought and action before remote or hostile4 ,the ,parnassians were an exclusive sect1 the symbolists an eccentric and often disreputable coterie2 ,claudel1 ,d',annunzio1 ,rudyard ,kipling1 speak home to throngs of everyday readers1 are even national idols1 and our ,georgians contrive to be bought and read without the least surrender of what is most poetic in their poetry4 ,and the analogies between philosophic thinking and poetic creation become peculiarly striking4 ,merely to name ,friedrich ,nietzsche1 ,henri ,bergson1 and ,benedetto ,croce is to become vividly aware of these analogies and of the common bent from which they spring4 ,all three--whether with brilliant rhetoric1 or iron logic1 or a blend of both--use their thinking power to deride the theorizing intelligence in comparison with the creative intuition which culminates in poetry4 ,to define the scope and province of this intuition is the purport of ,croce's epoch-making ,aesthetics1 the basis and starting-point of his illumining work1 in ,critica1 as a literary critic4 ,bergson is the dominant figure in a line of ,french thinkers possessed with the conviction that life1 a perpetual streaming forth of creative energy1 cannot be caught in the mechanism of law1 adapted to merely physical phenomena1 which at best merely gives us generalizations and lets the all-important particulars--the individual living thing--slip through the meshes2 whereas intuition--the eye fixed on the object--penetrates to the very heart of this individual living thing1 and only drops out the skeleton framework of abstract laws4 ,philosophy1 in these thinkers1 was deeply imbued with the analogies of artistic creation4 ',beauty1' said ,ravaisson1 'and especially beauty in the most divine and perfect form1 contains the secret of the world4'#ae ,and ,bergson's ,creative ,evolution embodied a conception of life and of the world profoundly congenial to the artistic and poetic temper of his time4 ,for he restated1 it has been well said1 the two great surviving formulas of the nineteenth century1 evolution and the will to live1 in terms precisely suited to the temper of the age just dawning4 ,the will to live became a formula of hope and progress2 evolution became a formula of vital impulse1 of creative purpose1 not of mechanical 'struggle for existence'4 ,the idea that aesthetic experience gives a profounder clue than logical thought to the inner meaning of things was as old as ,plato4 ,it was one of the crowning thoughts of ,kant2 it deeply coloured the metaphysics of ,schelling4 ,and ,nietzsche developed it with brilliant audacity when in his ,birth of ,tragedy 7#ahgb7 he contrasted scornfully with the laboured and ineffectual constructions of the theoretic man1 even of ,socrates the founder of philosophy1 the radiant vision of the artist1 the lucid clarity of ,apollo4 ',his book gave the lie to a thousand years of orderly development'1 wrote the great ,hellenist ,wilamowitz1 ,nietzsche's old schoolfellow1 indignant at his rejection of the labours of scholastic reason4 ,but it affirmed energetically the passion of his own time for immediate and first-hand experience4 ,and it did more4 ,beside and above ,apollo1 ,nietzsche put ,dionysus2 beside vision and above it1 rage4 ,of the union of these two ,tragedy was born4 ,and ,nietzsche's glorification of this elemental creative force also responded to a wider movement in philosophy1 here chiefly ,german4 ,his ,dionysiac rage is directly derived from that will in which ,schopenhauer saw the master faculty of man and the hidden secret of the universe2 and the beginning of ,schopenhauer's fame1 about #ahej1 coincides with a general rehabilitation of will as the dominant faculty in the soul and in the world1 at the cost of the methodic orderly processes of understanding2 a movement exhibited in the psychological innovations of ,wundt and ,mnsterberg1 in the growth of the doctrine that what a thing is is determined by what it can2 that value is in fact the measure1 and even the meaning1 of existence2 that will can arm impotence1 create faith1 and master disease2 and in the call of the colossal will-power which created the ,german empire and launched her on the career of industrial greatness4 ,nietzsche's ,superman is1 above all1 a being of colossal and masterful will1 and ,zarathustra1 the prophet of superhumanity1 is only an incarnation of the will that for ,schopenhauer moved the world4 ,the moment at which the prestige of will began definitely to overcome that of reasoning is marked1 as ,aliotta has pointed out1 by the appearance of ,james's ,will to ,believe1 just when agnosticism seemed triumphant4 ,nietzsche and ,bergson thus1 with all their obvious and immense divergences1 concurred in this respect1 important from our present point of view1 that their influence tended to transfer authority from the philosophic reason to those 'irrational' elements of mind which reach their highest intensity in the vision and 'rage' of the poet4 ,james's vindication of drunken exaltation as a source of religious insight was not the least symptomatic passage of his great book4 ,and both concurred1 however remote their methods or their speech1 in conceiving reality as creation1 creation in which we take part--a conception which again1 in the hands of the constructive religious thinker1 led directly to the type of faith announced in that last--the ,jamesian--',variety' of religious experience1 which represents us as indispensable fellow-workers and allies of a growing and striving ,god4 #b4 ,the ,new ,freedom ,no reader of the poetry of our time can mistake the kinship of its prevailing temper with that which lies at the root of these philosophies4 ,without trying to fit its infinite variety to any finite formula1 we may yet venture to find in it1 as ,mr4 ,mc,dowall has found in our ,georgian poetry in particular1 a characteristic union of grip and detachment2 of intense and eager grasp upon actuality as it breaks upon us in the successive moments of the stream of time1 and yet an inner independence of it1 a refusal to be obsessed by its sanctions and authorities1 a tacit assumption that everything1 by whatever length of tradition consecrated1 must come before the bar of the new century to be judged by its new mind4 ',youth is knocking at the door1' as it is said of ,hilda in the symbolical ,master ,builder1 and doubtless in every generation the philistines or ,victorians in possession have had occasion to make that remark4 ,the difference in our time is rather that youth comes in without knocking1 and that instead of having to work slowly up to final dominance against the inertia of an established literary household1 it has spontaneously1 like ,hilda ,wrangel1 taken possession of the home1 rinding criticism boundlessly eulogistic1 the public inexhaustibly responsive1 and philosophy interpreting the universe1 as we have seen1 precisely in sympathy with its own nave intuitions4 ,no wonder that youth at twenty is writing its autobiography or having its biography written1 and that at twenty-five it makes a show of laying down the pen1 like ,max ,beerbaum1 with the gesture of one rising sated from the feast of life3 ',i shall write no more4' ,the fact that youth finds itself thus at home in the world explains the difference in temper between the new poets of freedom and the old4 ,the wild or wistful cry of ,shelley for an ideal state emancipated from pain and death is as remote from their poetry as his spiritual anarchy from their politics2 they can dream and see visions1 in ,scott's phrase1 'like any one going'1 but their feet are on the solid ground of actuality and citizenship1 and the actuality comes into and colours their poetry no less than their vision4 ,when ,mr4 ,drinkwater looks out of his 'town window' he dreams of the crocus flaming gold in far-off ,warwick woods2 but he does not repudiate the drab inglorious street nor the tramway ringing and moaning over the cobbles1 and they come into his verse4 ,and ,i find it significant of the whole temper of the new poetry to ordinary life no less than that of ordinary men and women to the new poetry1 that he has won a singularly intimate relationship with a great industrial community4 ,he has not fared like his carver in stone4 ,but then the eagles of his carving1 though capable of rising1 like ,shelley's1 to the sun1 are the ,cromwells and ,lincolns who themselves brought the eagle's valour and undimmed eye into the stress and turmoil of affairs4 ,no doubt a fiercer note of revolt may be heard at times in the poetry of contemporary ,france1 and that precisely where devotion to some parts of the heritage of the past is most impassioned4 ,the iconoclastic scorn of youth's idealism for the effeteness of the 'old hunkers'1 as ,whitman called them1 has rarely rung out more sharply than in the closing stanzas of ,claudel's great ,palm ,sunday ode4 ,all the pomp and splendour of bishops and cardinals is idle while victory yet is in suspense3 that must be won by youth in arms4 ',to-morrow the candles and the dais and the bishop with his clergy coped and gold embossed1 ,but to-day the shout like thunder of an equal1 unofficered host ,who1 led and kindled by the flag alone1 ,with one sole spirit swollen1 and on one sole thought intent1 ,are become one cry like the crash of walls shattered and gates rent3 ',hosanna unto ,david's son6' ,needless the haughty steeds marble-sculptured1 or triumphal arches1 or chariots and four1 ,needless the flags and the caparisons1 the moving pyramids and towers1 and cars that thunder and roar1-- ',tis but an ass whereon sits ,christ2 ,for to make an end of the nightmare built by the pedants and the pharisees1 ,to get home to reality across the gulf of mendacities1 ,the first she-ass he saw sufficed6 ,eternal youth is master1 the hideous gang of old men is done with1 we ,stand here like children1 fanned by the breath of the things to be1 ,but victory we will have to-day6 ,afterwards the corn that like gold gives return1 afterwards the gold that like corn is faithful and will bear1 ,the fruit we have henceforth only to gather1 the land we have henceforth only to share1 ,but victory we will have to-day6' ,in the same spirit ,charles ,pguy--like ,claudel1 be it noted1 a student of ,bergson at the cole ,normale--found his ideal in the great story of the young girl of ,domremy who saved ,france when all the pomp and wisdom of generals had broken down4 ,and in our own poetry has not ,mr4 ,bottomley rewritten the ,lear story1 with the focus of power and interest transferred from the old king--left with not an inch of king in him--to a glorious young ,artemis-,goneril8 ,but among our ,english ,georgians this tense iconoclastic note is rare4 ,their detachment from what they repudiate is not fanatical or ascetic2 it is conveyed less in invective than in paradox and irony2 their temper is not that which flies to the wilderness and dresses in camel hair1 but of mariners putting out to the unknown and bidding a not unfriendly good-bye at the shore4 ,the temper of adventure is deeply ingrained in the new romance as in the old2 the very word adventure is saturated with a sentiment very congenial to us both for better and worse2 it quickens the hero in us and flatters the devil-may-care4 ,in its simplest form the temper of adventure has given us the profusion of pleasant verses which we know as the poetry of 'vagabondage' and 'the open road'4 ,the point is too familiar to be dwelt on1 and has been admirably illustrated and discussed by ,mr4 ,mc,dowall4 ,george ,borrow1 prince of vagabonds1 ,stevenson1 the ',ariel'1 with his ',vagabond-song'-- ',all ,i seek the heaven above1 ,and the road below me'1 and a few less vocal swallows1 anticipated the more sustained flights and melodies of to-day1 while ,borrow's wonderful company of vagabond heroes and heroines is similarly premonitory of the alluring gipsies and circus-clowns of our ,georgian poetry4 ,sometimes a traditional motive is creatively transformed2 as when ,father ,time1 the solemn shadow with admonitory hour-glass1 appears in ,mr4 ,hodgson's poem as an old gipsy pitching his caravan 'only a moment and off once again'4 ,elsewhere a deeper note is sounded4 ,it is not for nothing that ,jeanne d',arc is the saint of ,french ,catholic democracy1 or that ,pguy1 her poet1 calls the ,incarnation the 'sublime adventure of ,god's ,son'4 ,that last adventure of the ,dantesque ,ulysses beyond the sunset thrills us to-day more than the ,odyssean tale of his triumphant home-return1 and ,d',annunzio1 greatly daring1 takes it as the symbol of his own adventurous life4 ,francis ,thompson's most famous poem1 too1 represents the divine effort to save the erring soul under the image of the hound's eager chase of a quarry which may escape2 while ,yeats hears ,god 'blowing his lonely horn' along the moonlit faery glades of ,erin4 ,and ,meredith1 who so often profoundly voiced the spirit of the time in which only his ripe old age was passed1 struck this note in his sublime verses on revolutionary ,france-- 'soaring ,france ,that divinely shook the dead ,from living man2 that stretched ahead ,her resolute forefinger straight ,and marched toward the gloomy gate ,of ,earth's ,untried4' ,it is needless to dwell upon the affinity between this temper of adventure in poetry and the teaching of ,bergson4 ,that the link is not wholly fortuitous is shown by the interesting ,art ,potique 7#aijc7 of his quondam pupil1 ,claudel1 a little treatise pervaded by the idea of ,creative-evolution4 ,it was natural in such a time to assume that any living art of poetry must itself be new1 and in fact the years immediately before and after the turn of the century are crowded with announcements of 'new' movements in art of every kind4 ,beside ,claudel's ,art ,potique we have in ,england the ,new ,aestheticism of ,grant ,allen2 in ,germany the 'new principle' in verse of ,arno ,holz4 ,and here again the ,english innovators are distinguished by a good-humoured gaiety1 if also by a slighter build of thought1 from the ,french or ,nietzschean 'revaluers'4 ,rupert ,brooke delightfully parodies the exquisite hesitances and faltering half-tones of ,pater's cloistral prose2 and ,mr4 ,chesterton pleasantly mocks at the set melancholy of the aggressive ,decadence in which he himself grew up3 ',science announced nonentity1 and art adored decay1 ,the world was old and ended1 but you and ,i were gay4' ,like their predecessors in the earlier ,romantic school1 the new adventurers have notoriously experimented with poetic form4 ,france1 the home of the most rigid and meticulous metrical tradition1 had already led the way in substituting for the strictly measured verse the more loosely organized harmonies of rhythmical prose1 bound together1 and indeed made recognizable as verse1 in any sense1 solely by the rhyme4 ,with the ,symbolists 'free verse' was an attempt to capture finer modulations of music than the rigid frame of metre allowed4 ,with their successors it had rather the value of a plastic medium in which every variety of matter and of mood could be faithfully expressed4 ,but whether called verse or not1 the vast rushing modulations of rhythmic music in the great pieces of ,claudel and others have a magnificence not to be denied4 ,and the less explicitly poetic form permits matter which would jar on the poetic instinct if conveyed through a metrical form to be taken up as it were in this larger and looser stride4 ,in ,germany1 on the other hand1 the rhythmic emancipation of ,whitman was carried out1 in the school of ,arno ,holz1 with a revolutionary audacity beyond the example even of ,claudel4 ,holz states with great clearness and trenchancy what he calls his 'new principle of lyric'2 one which 'abandons all verbal music as an aim1 and is borne solely by a rhythm made vital by the thought struggling through it to expression'4 ,rhyme and strophe are given up1 only rhythm remains4 ,of our ,georgian poetry1 it must suffice to note that here1 too1 the temper of adventure in form is rife4 ,but it shows itself1 characteristically1 less in revolutionary innovation than in attempts to elicit new and strange effects from traditional measures by deploying to the utmost1 and in bold and extreme combinations1 their traditional resources and variations1 as in the blank verse of ,mr4 ,abercrombie and ,mr4 ,bottomley4 ,this1 and much beside in ,georgian verse1 has moods and moments of rare beauty4 ,but1 on the whole1 verse-form is the region of poetic art in which ,georgian poetry as a whole is least secure4 #c4 ,the ,new ,realism ,we see then how deeply rooted this new freedom is in the passion for actuality2 not the dream but the waking and alert experience throbs and pulses in it4 ,we have now to look more closely into this other aspect of it4 ,realism is a hard-worked term1 but it may be taken to imply that the overflowing vitality of which poetry is one expression fastens with peculiar eagerness upon the visible and tangible world about us and seeks to convey that zest in words4 ,our poets not only do not scorn the earth to lose themselves in the sky2 they are positive friends of the matter-of-fact1 and that not in spite of poetry1 but for poetry's sake2 and ,pegasus flies more freely because 'things' are 'in the saddle' along with the poet4 ,that this matter-of-factness is loved by poets1 for poetry's sake1 marks it off once for all from the photographic or 'plain' realism of ,crabbe4 ,but it is also clearly distinct from the no less poetic realism of ,wordsworth4 ,wordsworth's mind is conservative and traditional2 his inspiration is static2 he glorifies the primrose on the river brink by seeing its transience in the light of something far more deeply interfused which does not change nor pass away4 ,romance1 in a high sense1 lies about his greatest poetry4 ,but it is a romance rooted in memory1 not in hope--the 'glory of the grass and splendour of the flower' which he had seen in childhood and imaginatively re-created in maturity2 a romance which change1 and especially the intrusions of industrial man1 dispelled and destroyed4 ,whereas the romance of our new realism rests1 in good part1 precisely in the sense that the thing so vividly gripped is not or need not be permanent1 may turn into something else1 has only a tenancy1 not a freehold1 in its conditions of space and time1 a 'toss-up' hold upon existence1 as it were1 full of the zest of adventurous insecurity4 ,a pessimistic philosophy would dissipate this romance1 or strip it of all but the mournful poetry of doom4 ,mr4 ,chesterton glorifies the dust which may become a flower or a face1 against the ,reverend ,peter ,bell for whom dust is dust and no more1 and ,hamlet who only remembers that it once was ,caesar4 ,if our realism is buoyant1 if it had at once the absorbed and the open mind1 this is1 in large part1 in virtue of the temper which finds reality a perpetual creation4 ,every moment is precious and significant1 for it comes with the burden and meaning of something that has never completely been before2 and goes by only to give place to another moment equally curious and new4 ,this is the deeper ground of our present fashion of paradox2 what ,mr4 ,chesterton1 its apostle1 means when he says that 'the great romance is reality'2 for paradox1 the unexpected1 is1 in a reality so framed1 the bare and sober truth4 ,hence the frequency1 in our new poetry1 of pieces founded deliberately upon1 as ,mr4 ,mc,dowall points out1 paradox3 the breaking in of some utter surprise upon a humdrum society1 as in ,mr4 de la ,mare's ,three ,jolly ,farmers1 or ,mr4 ,abercrombie's ,end of the ,world1 or ,mr4 ,munro's ,strange ,meetings4 ,moreover1 in this incessantly created reality we are ourselves incessantly creative4 ,that may seem to follow as a matter of course2 but it corresponds with the most radical of the distinctions between our realism and that of ,wordsworth4 ,when ,mr4 ,wells tells us that his most comprehensive belief about the universe is that every part of it is ultimately important1 he is not expressing a mystic pantheism which feels every part to be divine1 but a generous pragmatism which holds that every part works4 ,the idea of shaping and adapting will1 of energy in industry1 of mere routine practicality in office or household1 is no longer tabooed1 or shyly evaded2 not because of any theoretic exaltation of labour or consecration of the commonplace1 but because merely to use things1 to make them fulfil our purposes1 to bring them into touch with our activities1 itself throws a kind of halo over even very humble and homely members of the 'divine democracy of things'4 ,rupert ,brooke draws up a famous catalogue of the things of which he was a 'great lover'4 ,he loved them1 he says1 simply as being4 ,and no doubt1 the simple sensations of colour1 touch1 or smell counted for much4 ,but compare them with the things that ,keats1 a yet greater lover of sensations1 loved4 ,you feel in ,brooke's list that he liked doing things as well as feasting his passive senses2 these 'plates'1 'holes in the ground1' 'washen stones1' the cold graveness of iron1 and so forth4 ,one detects in the list the ,brooke who1 as a boy1 went about with a book of poems in one hand and a cricket-ball in the other1 and whose left hand well knew what his right hand did4#af ,that takes us far from the dream of eternal beauty1 which a ,greek urn or a nightingale's song brought to ,keats1 and the fatal word 'forlorn'1 bringing back the light of common day1 dispelled4 ,the old ethical and aesthetic canons are submerged in a passion for life which finds a good beyond good and evil1 and a beauty born of ugliness more vital than beauty's self4 ',the worth of a drama is measured'1 said ,d',annunzio1 'by its fullness of life'1 and the formula explains1 if it does not justify1 those tropical gardens1 rank with the gross blooms of 'superhuman' eroticism and ferocity1 to which he latterly gave that name4 ,and we know how ,maeterlinck has emerged from the mystic dreams and silences of his recluse chamber to unfold the dramatic pugnacities of ,birds and ,bees4 ,even the downright foulness and ugliness which some people find so puzzling in poets with an acute delight in beauty1 like ,mr4 ,masefield1 come into it not from any aesthetic obtuseness1 but because these uglinesses are full of the zest of drama1 of things being done or made1 of life being lived4 ,when ,masefield sounded his challenge to the old aesthetics3 ',others may sing of the wine and the wealth and the mirth1 ,mine be the dirt and the dross1 the dust and scum of the earth'1 he knew well1 as ,the ,everlasting ,mercy and ,the ,widow of ,bye ,street showed1 that dirt and dross1 if wrought into tragedy1 can win a higher beauty than the harmonies of idyll4 ,even the hideous elder women in ,mr4 ,bottomley's ,lear's ,wife1 or his ,regan--an ill-conditioned girl1 sidling among the 'sweaty1 half-clad cook-maids' after pig-killing1 'smeary and hot as they'1 participate in this beauty and energy of doing4 ,poetry1 in these cases1 wins perhaps at most a ,pyrrhic victory over reluctant matter4 ,it is otherwise with the second of the great ,belgian poets4 ,in the work of ,verhaeren1 the modern industrial city1 with its spreading tentacles of devouring grime and squalor1 its clanging factories1 its teeming bazaars and warehouses1 and all its thronging human population1 is taken up triumphantly into poetry4 ,verhaeren is the poet of 'tumultuous forces'1 whether they appear in the roar and clash of 'that furnace we call existence'1 or in the heroic struggles of the ,flemish nation for freedom4 ,and he exhibits these surging forces in a style itself full of tumultuous power1 ,germanic rather than ,french in its violent and stormy splendour1 and using the chartered licence of the ,french 'free verse' itself with more emphasis than subtlety4 #d4 ,the ,cult of ,force ,in ,verhaeren1 indeed1 we are conscious of passing into the presence of power more elemental and unrestrained than the civil refinement of our ,georgians1 at their wildest1 allows us to suspect4 ,the tragic and heroic history of his people1 and their robust art1 the art of ,rembrandt1 and of ,teniers1 vibrates in the ,flemish poet4 ,he has much of the temperament of ,nietzsche1 and if not evidently swayed by his ideas1 or even aware of them1 and with a generous faith in humanity which ,nietzsche never knew1 he thinks and imagines with a kindred joy in violence3 ',i love man and the world1 and ,i adore the force ,which my force gives and takes from man and the universe4' ,and it is no considerable step from him to the poets who in this third phase of our period have unequivocally exulted in power and burnt incense or offered sacrifice before the altar of the strong man4 ,the joy in creation which1 we saw1 gives its romance to so much of the realism of our time1 now appears accentuated in the fiercer romance of conflict and overthrow4 ,thanks largely to ,nietzsche1 this romance acquired the status of an authoritative philosophy--even1 in his own country1 that of an ethical orthodoxy4 ,the ,german people was doubtless less deeply and universally imbued with this faith than our war-prejudice assumes4 ,but phenomena such as the enormous success of a cheap exposition of it1 ,rembrandt als ,erzieher 7#ahij7 by a fervent ,bismarckian1 and of the comic journal ,simplicissimus 7founded #ahie7 devoted to systematic ridicule of the old-fashioned ,german virtues of tenderness and sympathy1 indicated a current of formidable power and compass1 which was soon to master all the other affluents of the national stream4 ,but older1 and in part foreign1 influences concurred to colour and qualify1 while they sustained1 the ,nietzschean influence1--the daemonic power of ,carlyle1 the iron intensity and masterful reticence of ,ibsen4 ,this was the case especially1 as is well known1 in the drama4 ,gerhardt ,hauptmann1 who painted the tragedy of the self-emancipated superman1--as ,mr4 ,shaw about the same time showed us his self-achieved apotheosis1--was no doubt the most commanding 7as ,mr4 ,shaw was the most original7 figure in the ,european drama of the early century4 ,in poetry1 the contributory forces were still more subtly mingled1 and the ,nietzschean spirit1 which blows where it listeth1 often touched men wholly alien from ,nietzsche in cast of genius and sometimes stoutly hostile to him4 ,several of the most illustrious were not ,germans at all4 ,among the younger men who resist1 while they betray1 his spell1 is the most considerable lyric poet of the present generation in ,germany4 ,richard ,dehmel's vehement inspiration from the outset provoked comparison with ,nietzsche1 which he warmly resented4 ,he began1 in fact1 as a disciple of ,verlaine1 and we may detect in the unrestraint of his early erotics the example of the ,french poet's fureur d'aimer4 ,but ,dehmel's more strongly-built nature1 and perhaps the downright vigour of the ,german language1 broke through the tenuities of la nuance4 ,it was not the subtle artistry of the ,symbolists1 but the ethical and intellectual force of the ,german character1 which finally drew into a less anarchic channel the vehement energy of ,dehmel4 ,nietzsche had imagined an ethic of superhuman will 'beyond good and evil'4 ,the poet1 replied ,dehmel1 had indeed to know the passion which transcends good and evil1 but he had to know no less the good and evil themselves of the world in and by which common men live4 ,and if he can cry with the egoism of lawless passion1 in the ,erlsungen1 ',i will fathom all pleasure to the deepest depths of thirst1 444 ,resign not pleasure1 it waters power'1--he can add1 in the true spirit of ,goethe and of the higher mind of ,germany1 ',yet since it also makes slack1 turn it into the stuff of duty6' ,if ,nietzsche provoked into antagonism the sounder elements in ,dehmel1 he was largely responsible for destroying such sanity as the amazing genius of ,gabriele ,d',annunzio had ever possessed4 ,in ,d',annunzio the sensuality of a ,sybarite and the eroticism of a ,faun go along with a ,roman tenacity and hardness of nerve4 ,the author of novels which1 with all their luxurious splendour1 can only be called hothouses of morbid sentiment1 has become the apostle of ,italian imperialism1 and more than any other single man provoked ,italy to throw herself into the great adventure of the ,war4 ,unapproached in popularity by any other ,italian man of letters1 ,d',annunzio discovered ,nietzsche1 and hailed him--a great concession--as an equal4 ,when ,nietzsche died1 in #aijj1 ,d',annunzio indicted a lofty memorial ode to the ,titanic ,barbarian who set up once more the serene gods of ,hellas over the vast portals of the ,future4 ,nietzsche indeed let loose all the ,titan1 and all consequently that was least ,hellenic1 in the fertile genius of the ,italian2 his wonderful instinct for beauty1 his inexhaustible resources of style are employed in creating orgies of superhuman valour1 lust1 and cruelty like some of his later dramas1 and hymns intoxicated with the passion for ,power1 like the splendid ,ode in which the ,city of the ,seven ,hills is prophetically seen once more the mistress of the world1 loosing the knot of all the problems of humanity4 ,his poetic autobiography1 the first ,laude 7#aija7--;counterpart of ,wordsworth's ,prelude and its very antipodes--culminates in a prayer #ijj lines long to ,hermes1 god of the energy which precipitates itself on life and makes it pregnant with invention and discovery1 of the iron will 'which chews care as a laurel leaf'--the god of the ,superman4 ,and so he discovers the muse of the ,superman1 the ,muse of ,energy1 a tenth ,muse whose first poet he modestly disclaims to be1 if he may only be1 as he would have us interpret his name1 her ,announcer4 ,if ,d',annunzio emulates ,nietzsche1 the two great militant poets of ,catholic ,france would have scorned the comparison4 ,charles ,pguy's brief career was shaped from his first entrance1 poor and of peasant birth1 at a ,paris ,lyce1 to his heroic death in the field1 ,september #aiad1 by a daemonic force of character4 ,his heroine1 glorified in his first book1 was ,jeanne d',arc1 who attempted the impossible1 and achieved it4 ,in writing1 his principle--shocking to ,french literary tradition--was to speak the brutal truth brutalement4 ,as a poet he stood in the direct lineage of ,corneille1 whose ,polyeucte he thought the greatest of the world's tragedies4 ,as a man1 he embodied with nave intensity the unsurpassed inborn heroism of the ,french race4 ,claudel1 even more remote as a thinker from ,nietzsche than ,pguy1 exhibits a kindred temper in the ingrained violence of his art4 ,his stroke is vehement and peremptory2 he is an absolutist in style as in creed4 ,it is the style of one who apprehends the visible world with an intensity as of passionate embrace1 such as the young ,browning expresses in ,pauline4 ',i would fain have seen everything1' he cries1 'possessed and made it my own1 not with eyes and senses only1 but with mind and spirit4' ,and after he was converted he saw and painted supernatural things with the same carnal and robust incisiveness4 ,the half-lights of ,symbolist mysticism are remote from his hard glare4 ,as a dramatist he drew upon and exaggerated that which in ,aeschylus and ,shakespeare seems to the countrymen of ,racine nearest to the limit of the terrible and the brutal permissible in art3 a princess nailed by the hands like a sparrow-hawk to a pine by a brutal peasant2 the daughter of a noble house submitting to a loathed marriage with a foul-mouthed plebeian in order to save the pope4 ,and if we look1 finally1 for corresponding phenomena at home1 we find them surely in the masculine1 militant1 and in the ,french sense brutal poetry of ,w4,e4 ,henley and ,rudyard ,kipling4 ,if any modern poets have conceived life in terms of will1 and penetrated their verse with that faith1 it is the author of ',i am the ,captain of my ,soul'1 the ',book of the ,sword'1 and ',london ,voluntaries'1 friend and subject of the great kindred-minded sculptor ,rodin1 the poet over whose grave in ,st4 ,paul's ,george ,wyndham found the right word when he said--marking him off from the great contemplative1 listening poets of the past--',his music was not the still sad music of humanity2 it was never still1 rarely sad1 always intrepid4' ,and we know how ,kipling1 after sanctioning the mischievous superstition that ',east and ,west can never meet'1 refuted it by producing his own 'two strong men'4 #e4 ,the ,new ,idealism 7#a7 ,nationality ,we have now seen something of that power1 at once of grip and of detachment with which the dominant poetry of this century faces what it thinks of as the adventure of experience1 its plunge into the ever-moving and ever-changing stream of life4 ,how then1 it remains to ask1 has it dealt with those ideal aspirations and beliefs which one may live intensely and ignore1 which in one sense stand 'above the battle'1 but for which men have lived and died4 ,with a generation which holds so lightly by tradition1 which revises and revalues all accepted values1 these aspirations and beliefs might well drop out of its poetry4 ,on the other hand1 these same aspirations and beliefs might overcome the indifference to tradition by ceasing to be merely traditional1 by being immersed and steeped in that moving stream of life1 and interwoven with the creative energies of men4 ,the inherited faiths were put to this dilemma1 either to become intimately alive and creative in poetry or to be of no concern for it4 ,some of them failed in the test4 ,england has still devotees of ,protestantism1 but ,protestant religion has hardly inspired noble poetry since ,milton4 ,nationality1 on the other hand1 has during the last century inspired finer poetry than at any time since the sixteenth1 and that because it has been brought down from the region of political abstractions and ideologies into intimate union with heart and brain1 imagination and sense4 ,this is true also of ,catholicism and of ,socialism1 and1 if fitfully and uncertainly yet1 of the ideal of international fraternity1 of humanity4 ,and to all these ideals1 to all ideals1 came finally the terrific1 the overwhelming test of the ,war1--a searching1 annihilating1 purifying flame1 in which some shrivelled away1 some were stripped of the illusive glitter that concealed their mass of alloy1 and some1 purged of their baser constituents1 shone out with a lustre unapproached before4 ,what is the distinctive note of this new poetry of nationality8 ,and for the moment ,i speak of the years before the ,war4 ,may we not say that in it the ideal of country is saturated with that imaginative grip of reality in all its concrete energy and vivacity which ,i have called the new realism8 ,the nation is no abstraction1 whether it be called ,britannia1 or ,deutschland ber ,alles4 ,it is seen1 and felt2 seen in its cities as well as in its mountains1 in the workers who have made it1 as well as in the heroes who have defended it2 in its roaring forges as well as in its idyllic woodlands and its tales of battles long ago2 and all these not as separate strands in a woven pattern1 but as waters of different origin and hue pouring along together in the same great stream4 mile ,verhaeren1 six years before the invasion1 had seen and felt his country1 living body and living soul1 with an intensity which made it seem unimaginable that she should be permanently subdued4 ,he well called his book ,toute la ,flandre1 for all ,flanders is there4 ,old ,flanders1--,artevelde and ,charles ,tmraire--whose soul was a forest of huge trees and dark thickets1 ',a wilderness of crossing ways below1 ,but eagles1 over1 soaring to the sun1'-- ,van ,eyck and ,rubens--'a thunder of colossal memories'2 then the great cities1 with their belfries and their foundries1 and their warehouses and laboratories1 their antique customs and modern ambitions2 and the rivers1 the homely familiar ,lys1 where the women wash the whitest of linen1 and the mighty ,scheldt1 the ,escaut1 the 'hero sombre1 violent and magnificent'1 'savage and beautiful ,escaut'1 whose companionship had moulded and made the poet1 whose rhythms had begotten his music and his best ideas#ag4 ,none of our ,english poets have rendered ,england in poetry with the same lyric intensity in its whole compass of time and space1 calling up into light and music all her teeming centuries and peopled provinces4 ,yet the present generation has in some respects made a nearer approach to such achievement than its predecessors4 ,a century of growing historic consciousness has not passed over us in vain2 and if any generic distinction is to be found between our recent1 often penetrating and beautiful1 poetry of the ,english countryside and the ,nature description of ,wordsworth or of ,ruskin1 it is in the ground-tone of passion and memory that pervades it for ,england herself4 ,wordsworth wrote magnificently of ,england threatened with invasion1 and magnificently of the ,lake ,country1 ,nature's beloved haunt4 ,but the ,war sonnets and the ,lake and mountain poetry come from distinct strains in his genius1 which our criticism may bring into relation1 but our feeling insists on keeping apart4 ,his ,grasmere is a province of ,nature--her favoured province--rather than of ,england2 it is in the eye of ,nature that the old ,cumberland beggar lives and dies2 ,england only provides the obnoxious workhouses to which these destitute vagrants were henceforth to be consigned4 ,is it not this that divides our modern local poetry from his8 ,mr4 ,belloc's ,sussex is tenderly loved for itself2 yet behind its great hills and its old-world harbours lies the half-mystic presence of historic ,england4 ,and in ,edward ,thomas's wonderful old ,wiltshireman1 ,lob1 worthy ,i think to be named with the ,cumberland ,beggar1 ',an old man's face1 by life and weather cut ,and coloured1--rough1 brown1 sweet as any nut1-- ,a land face1 sea-blue eyed1'-- you read the whole lineage of sterling ,english yeomen and woodlanders from whom ,lob springs4 ,this note is indeed relatively absent from the work of the venerable master who has made ',wessex' the most vividly realized of all ,english provinces to-day1 and whose prose ,egdon ,heath may well be put at the head of all the descriptive poetry of our time4 ,but ,mr4 ,hardy1 in this respect1 belongs to an earlier generation than that into which he happily survives4 ,sometimes this feeling is given in a single intense concentrated touch4 ,when ,rupert ,brooke tells us of ',some corner of a foreign field ,that is for ever ,england4 ,there shall be ,in that rich earth a richer dust concealed2 ,a dust whom ,england bore1 shaped1 made aware1 ,gave1 once1 her flowers to love1 her ways to roam1' do we not feel that the solidarity of ,england with the ,english folk and of the ,english folk with the ,english soil1 is burnt into our imaginations in a new and distinctive way8 ,but the poetry of shires and provinces reacts too upon the poetry of nationality4 ,it infuses something of the more instinctive and rudimentary attachments from which it springs into a passion peculiarly exposed to the contagion of rhetoric and interest4 ,some of the most strident voices among living nationalist poets have found an unexpected note of tenderness when they sang their home province4 ,mr4 ,kipling charms us when he tells1 in his close-knit verse1 of the 'wooded1 dim1 ,blue goodness of the ,weald'4 ,and the more strident notes of ,d',annunzio's patriotism are also assuaged by the tenderness and depth of his home feeling4 ,we read with some apprehension his dedication of ,la ,nave to the god of seas3 ',o ,lord1 who bringest forth and dost efface ,the ocean-ruling ,nations1 race by race1 ,it is this living ,people1 by ,thy grace ,who on the sea ,shall magnify ,thy name1 who on the sea ,shall glorify ,thy name1 who on the sea ,with myrrh and blood shall sacrifice to ,thee ,at the altar-prow1 ,of all earth's oceans make our sea1 ,o ,thou6 ,amen6 ,but he dedicated a noble drama1 the ,figlia d',iorio1 in a different tone1 ',to the land of the ,abruzzi1 to my ,mother1 to my ,sisters1 to my brother in exile1 to my father in his grave1 to all my dead and all my race in the mountains and by the sea1 ,i dedicate this song of the ancient blood4' 7#b7 ,democracy ,the growth of democratic as of national feeling during the later century naturally produced a plentiful harvest of eloquent utterance in verse4 ,with this1 merely as such1 ,i am not here concerned1 even though it be as fine as the ,socialist songs of ,william ,morris or ,edward ,carpenter4 ,but the ,catholic ,socialism of ,charles ,pguy1--itself an original and1 for most of his contemporaries1 a bewildering combination--struck out a no less original poetry1--a poetry of solidarity4 ,pguy's ,socialism1 like his ,catholicism1 was single-souled2 he ignored that behind the one was a ,party1 and behind the other a ,church4 ,it was his bitterest regret that a vast part of humanity was removed beyond the pale of fellowship by eternal damnation4 ,it was his sublimest thought that the solidarity of man includes the damned4 ,in his first version of the ,jeanne d',arc mystery1 already referred to1 he tells how ,jesus1 crucified1 ,saw not his ,mother in tears at the cross-foot ,below him1 saw not ,magdalen nor ,john1 ,but wept1 dying1 only for ,judas' death4 ,the ,saviour loved this ,judas1 and though utterly ,he gave himself1 he knew he could not save him4 ,it was the dogma of damnation which for long kept ,pguy out of its fold1 that barbarous mixture of life and death1 he called it1 which no man will accept who has won the spirit of collective humanity4 ,but he revolted not because he was tolerant of evil2 on the contrary to damn sins was for him a weak and unsocial solution2 evil had not to be damned but to be fought down4 ,whether this vision of ,christ weeping because he could not save ,judas was un-,christian1 or more ,christian than ,christianity itself1 we need not discuss here2 but ,i am sure that the spirit of a ,catholic democracy as transfigured in the mind of a great poet could not be more nobly rendered4 7#c7 ,catholicism ,but ,pguy's powerful personality set its own stamp upon whatever he believed1 and though a close friend of ,jaurs1 he was a ,socialist who rejected almost all the ideas of the ,socialist school4 ,as little was his ,catholicism to the mind of the ,catholic authorities4 ,and his ,catholic poetry is sharply marked off from most of the poetry that burgeoned under the stimulus of the remarkable revival of ,catholic ideas in twentieth-century ,france4 ,i say of ,catholic ideas1 for sceptical poets like ,rmy de ,gourmont played delicately with the symbols of ,catholic worship1 made ',litanies' of roses1 and offered prayers to ,jeanne d',arc1 walking dreamily in the procession of ',women ,saints of ,paradise'1 to 'fill our hearts with anger'4#ah ,the ,catholic adoration of women-saints is one of the springs of modern poetry4 ,at the close of the century of ,wordsworth and ,shelley1 the tender ,nature-worship of ,francis of ,assisi contributed not less to the recovered power of ,catholic ideas in poetry1 and this chiefly in the person of two poets1 in ,france and in ,england1 both of whom played half-mystically with the symbolism of their names1 ,francis ,thompson and ,francis ,jammes4 ,the child-like navete of ,s4 ,francis is more delicately reflected in ,jammes1 a ,catholic ,w4,h4 ,davies1 who casts the idyllic light of ,biblical pastoral over modern farm life1 and prays to 'his friends1 the ,asses' to go with him to ,paradise1 ',for there is no hell in the land of the ,bon ,dieu4' ,but the most powerful creative imagination to-day in the service of ,catholic ideas is certainly ,paul ,claudel4 ,i pass by here the series of dramas1 where a ,catholic inspiration as fervent as ,calderon's is enforced with ,elizabethan technique and ,elizabethan violence of terror1 cruelty1 and pity4#ai ,from the ferocious beauty of ,l'tage turn rather to the intense spiritual hush before the altar of some great ,french church at noon1 where the poet1 not long after the first decisive check of the invaders on the ,marne1 finds himself alone1 before the shrine of ,marie4 ,here too1 his devotion finds a speech not borrowed from the devout or from their poetry3 ',it is noon4 ,i see the ,church is open4 ,i must enter4 ,mother of ,jesus ,christ1 ,i do not come to pray4 ,i have nothing to offer and nothing to ask4 ,i come only1 ,mother1 to gaze at you4 ,to gaze at you1 to weep for happiness1 to know ,that ,i am your son and that you are there4 ,nothing at all but for a moment when all is still1 ,noon6 to be with you1 ,marie1 in this place where you are4 ,to say nothing1 to gaze upon your face1 ,to let the heart sing in its own speech4' ,there the nationalist passion of ,claudel animates his ,catholic religion1 yet does not break through its confines4 ,but sometimes the strain of suffering and ruin is too intense for ,christian submission1 and he takes his ,god to task truculently for not doing his part in the contract2 we are his partner in running the world1 and see1 he is asleep6 ',there is a great alliance1 willy-nilly1 between us henceforth1 there is this bread that with no trembling hand ,we have offered you1 this wine that we have poured anew1 ,our tears that you have gathered1 our brothers that you share with us1 leaving the seed in the earth1 ,there is this living sacrifice of which we satisfy each day's demand1 ,this chalice we have drunk with you6' ,yet the devout passion emerges again1 with notes of piercing pathos3 ',lord1 who hast promised us for one glass of water a boundless sea1 ,who knows if ,thou art not thirsty too8 ,and that this blood1 which is all we have1 will quench that thirst in ,thee1 ,we know1 for ,thou hast told us so4 ,if indeed there is a spring in us1 well1 that is what is to be shown1 ,if this wine of ours is red1 ,if our blood has virtue1 as ,thou sayest1 how can it be known ,otherwise than by being shed8' 7#d7 ,effects of the ,war upon ,poetry ,thus could the great ,catholic poet sing under pressure of the supreme national crisis of his country4 ,poetry at such times may become a great national instrument--a trumpet whence ,milton or ,wordsworth1 ,arndt or ,whitman1 blow soul-animating strains4 ,the war of #aiad was for all the belligerent peoples far more than a stupendous military event4 ,it shattered the patterns of our established mentality1 and compelled us to seek new adjustments and support in the chaotically disorganized world4 ,the psychical upheaval was most violent in the ,english-speaking peoples1 where the military shock was least direct2 for here a nation of civilians embraced suddenly the new and amazing experience of battle4 ,here too1 the imaginatively sensitive minds who interpret life through poetry1 and most of all the youngest and freshest among them1 themselves shared in the glories and the throes of the fight as hardly one of the signers of our most stirring battle poetry had ever done before4 ,how did this new and amazing experience react upon their poetry8 ,this1 our final question1 is perhaps the crucial one in considering the tendencies of recent ,european poetry4 ,in the first place it enormously stimulated and quickened what was deepest and strongest in the energies and qualities which had been apparent in our latter day poetry before4 ,they had sought to clasp life1 to live1 not merely to contemplate1 experience2 and here indeed was life1 and death1 and both to be embraced4 ,here was adventure indeed1 but one whose grimness made romance cheap1 so that in this war-poetry1 for the first time in history1 the romance and glamour of war1 the pomp and circumstance of military convention1 fall entirely away1 and the bitterest scorn of these soldier-poets is bestowed not on the enemy1 but on those contemplators who disguised its realities with the camouflage of the pulpit and the editorial arm-chair4 ,turn1 ,i will not say from ,campbell or from ,tennyson1 but from ,rudyard ,kipling or ,sir ,h4 ,newbolt1 to ,siegfried ,sassoon1 and you feel that you have got away from a literary convention1 whether conveyed in the manners of the barrack-room or of the public-school1 to something intolerably true1 and which holds the poet in so fierce a grip that his song is a cry4 ,but if the war has brought our poets face to face with intense kinds of real experience1 which they have fearlessly grasped and rendered1 its grim obsession has not made them cynical1 or clogged the wings of their faith and their hope4 ,i will not ask how the war has affected the idealism of others1 whether it has left the nationalism of our press or the religion of our pulpits purer or more gross than it found them4 ,but of our poetry at least the latter cannot be said4 ,in ,rupert ,brooke the inspiration of the call obliterated the last trace of dilettante youth's pretensions1 and he encountered darkness like a bride1 and greeted the unseen death not with a cheer as a peril to be boldly faced1 but as a great consummation1 the supreme safety4 ,how his poetry would have reacted to the actual experience of war we can only guess4 ,but in others1 his friends and comrades1 the fierce immersion in the welter of ruin and pain and filth and horror and death brought only a more superb faith in the power of man's soul to rise above the hideous obsession of his own devilries1 to retain the vision of beauty through the riot of foul things1 of love through the tumult of hatreds1 of life through the infinity of death4 ,true this was not a new power3 poetry to be poetry must always in some measure possess it4 ,what was individual to the poets was that this power of mastering actuality went along in them with the fierce and eager immersion in it2 the thrill of breathing the 'calm and serene air ,above the smoke and stir of this dim spot ,which men call earth1' with the thrill of seeing and painting in all its lurid colouring the volcanic chaos of this 'stir and smoke' itself4 ,thus the same ,siegfried ,sassoon who renders with so much close analytic psychology the moods that cross and fluctuate in the dying hospital patient1 or the haunted fugitive1 as he flounders among snags and stumps1 to feel at last the strangling clasp of death1 can as little as the visionary ,shelley overcome the insurgent sense that these dead are for us yet alive1 made one with ,nature4 ,he visits the deserted home of his dead friend-- ',ah1 but there was no need to call his name1 ,he was beside me now1 as swift as light 444 ,for now1 he said1 my spirit has more eyes ,than heaven has stars1 and they are lit by love4 ,my body is the magic of the world1 ,and dark and sunset flame with my spilt blood4' ,and so the undying dead ',wander in the dusk with chanting streams1 ,and they are dawn-lit trees1 with arms upflung1 ,to hail the burning heaven they left unsung4' ,further1 this war poetry1 while reflecting military things with a veracity hardly known before1 is yet rarely militant4 ,we must not look for explicit pacifist or international ideas2 but as little do we find jingo patriotism or hymns of hate4 ,the author of the ,german hymn of hate was a much better poet than anyone who tried an ,english hymn in the same key1 and the ,english poets who could have equalled its form were above its spirit4 ,edith ,cavell's dying words ',patriotism is not enough' cannot perhaps be paralleled in these poets1 but they are continually suggested4 ,they do not say1 in the phrase of the old cavalier poet1 that we should love ,england less if we loved not something else more1 or that something is wanting in our love for our country if we wrong humanity in its name4 ,but the spirit which is embodied in these phrases breathes through them2 heroism matters more to them than victory1 and they know that death and sorrow and the love of kindred have no fatherland4 ,they 'stand above the battle' as well as share in it1 and they share in it without ceasing to stand above it4 ,the ,german is the enemy1 they never falter in that2 and even death does not convert him into a friend4 ,but for this enemy there is chivalry1 and pity1 and a gleam1 now and then1 of reconciling comradeship4 ',he stood alone in some queer sunless place ,where ,armageddon ends1'-- the ,englishman whom the ,germans had killed in fight1 to be themselves slain by his friend1 the speaker4 ,their ghosts throng around him1-- ',he stared at them1 half wondering1 and then ,they told him how ,i'd killed them for his sake1 ,those patient1 stupid1 sullen ghosts of men3 ,at last he turned and smiled2 smiled--all was well ,because his face would lead them out of hell4' ,finally1 the poet himself glories in his act2 he knows that he can beat into music even the crashing discords that fill his ears2 he knows too that he has a music of his own which they cannot subdue or debase3 ',i keep such music in my brain ,no din this side of death can quell1 ,glory exulting over pain1 ,and beauty garlanded in hell4' ,to have found and kept and interwoven these two musics--a language of unflinching veracity and one of equally unflinching hope and faith--is the achievement of our war-poetry4 ,may we not say that the possession together of these two musics1 of these two moods1 springing as they do from the blended grip and idealism of the ,english character1 warrants hope for the future of ,english poetry8 ,for it is rooted in the greatest1 and the most ,english1 of the ways of poetic experience which have gone to the making of our poetic literature--the way1 ultimately1 of ,shakespeare1 and of ,wordsworth4 ,but that temper of catholic fraternity which finds the stuff of poetry everywhere does not easily attain the consummate technique in expression of a rarer ,english tradition1 that of ,milton1 and ,gray1 and ,keats4 ,beauty abounds in our later poets1 but it is a beauty that flashes in broken lights1 not the full-orbed radiance of a masterpiece4 ,to enlarge the grasp of poetry over the field of reality1 to apprehend it over a larger range1 is not at once to find consummate expression for what is apprehended4 ,the flawless perfection of the ,parnassians--of ,heredia's sonnets--is nowhere approached in the less aristocratically exclusive poetry of to-day4 ,but the future1 in poetry also1 is with the spirit which found the aristocracy of noble art not upon exclusions1 negations1 and routine1 but upon imagination1 penetration1 discovery1 and catholic openness of mind4 ,,some ,,books ,,for ,,consultation ,pellissier1 ,le ,mouvement ,littraire au ,x,i,xme ,sicle4 ,brunetire1 ,la ,posie ,lyrique au ,x,i,xme ,sicle4 ,eccles1 ,f4,y41 ,a ,century of ,french ,poets4 ,vigi-,lecocq1 ,la ,posie ,contemporaine4 ,phelps1 ,advance of ,english ,poetry in the ,twentieth ,century4 ,muret1 ,la ,littrature ,italienne d'aujourd'hui4 ,ladenarde1 ,g4 ,carducci4 ,symons1 ,the ,symbolist ,movement in ,literature4 ,jackson1 ,the ,eighteen ,nineties4 ,mc,dowall1 ,realism4 ,aliotta1 ,the ,idealist ,reaction against ,science4 ,soergel1 ,die deutsche ,litteratur unserer ,zeit4 ,bithell1 ,contemporary ,german ,poetry 7,translated74 ,halvy1 ,charles ,pguy4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #c3 ,the temper of the two realists was no doubt widely different4 ',c'est en haine du ralisme'1 wrote ,flaubert1 'que j'ai entrepris ce roman4 ,mais je n'en dteste pas moins la fausse idalit1 dont nous sommes bercs par le temps qui court' 7,corresp4 #c1 #fg74 ,footnote #d3 ,causeries du ,lundi1 #ahej f4 ,footnote #e3 ,histoire de la littrature anglaise1 #ahfc4 ,footnote #f3 ,but a ,wilde who wrote no ,de ,profundis and no ,ballad of ,reading ,gaol4 ,footnote #g3 ,la ,forge3 dedicated to ,gaston ,paris1 the greatest forgeron of his generation in the love of ,old ,french4 ,footnote #h3 ,rime ,nuove3 ,classicismo e ,romantismo4 ,footnote #i3 ,midi4 ,footnote #aj3 ,la ,paix des ,dieux4 ,footnote #aa3 ,for this and the other verse-translations the writer is responsible4 ,footnote #ab3 ,even the 'music' was far removed from the simplicity of pure song4 ,the song of these poets was an incantation4 ,nay1 painting itself witnessed a corresponding revolt against the 'eloquence' of the pseudo-realists--the 'far away dirty reasonableness'1 as ,manet dubbed it1 which missed the essential vision by using the worn-down accepted phrases of the public4 ,footnote #ac3 ,au jardin de l',infante3 ,veille4 ,footnote #ad3 ,to some types of ,irish imagination ,french ,naturalism1 it is true1 was no less congenial2 hence the rift between the realist and the spiritual ,irishmen delightfully played on in ,max ,beerbaum's cartoon of ,yeats presenting the ,faery ,queene to ,george ,moore4 ,footnote #ae3 ,aliotta1 ,the ,idealistic ,revolt1 p4 #aaf4 ,cf4 the account of the analogous views of ,boutroux and ,renouvier in the same chapter4 ,footnote #af3 ,keats1 no doubt1 also aspired to the life of action4 ,but in him the two moods were disparate1 even in conflict2 in ,brooke they were seemingly fused4 ,footnote #ag3 ,eighteenth-century observation1 in the person of ,goldsmith1 had found no worthier epithet for the great ,flemish river than 'lazy'1 and the modern tourist is likely to find this by far the more 'characteristic'4 ,but which had the best chance of seeing truly1 the life-long companion and lover1 or the stranger1 sad1 lonely1 and longing for home8 ,footnote #ah3 ,les ,saintes du ,paradis4 ,footnote #ai3 ,cf4 for instance the situation of ,signe1 in the grip of the brutal prfet1 with that of ,beatrice1 in ,the ,changeling1 in the hands of ,de ,flores4 ,v ,,historical ,,research ,g4,p4 ,,gooch ,the scientific study of history began a hundred years ago in the ,university of ,berlin4 ,preparatory work of the highest importance had been accomplished by laborious collectors like ,baronius and ,muratori1 keen-sighted critics such as ,mabillon and ,wolf1 and brilliant narrators like ,gibbon and ,voltaire4 ,but it was not till ,niebuhr1 ,bckh1 and above all ,ranke preached and practised the critical use of authorities and documentary material that historical scholarship entered on the path which it has pursued with ever-increasing success for the last three generations4 ,it is my task to-day to direct your attention to some of its main achievements during the last half-century4 ,the outstanding feature of our time has been the immense increase in the material available for the knowledge and interpretation of every stage and chapter in the life of humanity4 ,primitive civilization has been definitely brought within the circle of historical study4 ,the discoveries of ,boucher des ,perthes1 ,pitt-,rivers1 and their successors have thrown back the opening of the human drama tens if not hundreds of thousands of years1 and we recreate prehistoric man from skull and weapon1 language and legend4 ,anthropology has become a science1 and the habits and beliefs of our savage ancestors have been rendered intelligible by the piercing insight of ,tylor and ,sir ,james ,frazer4 ,in its boundless erudition1 its constructive imagination1 and its wealth of suggestion1 the ,golden ,bough stands forth as perhaps the most notable contribution of the age to our knowledge of the evolution of the human race4 ,among the most sensational events of the nineteenth century was the resurrection of the ,ancient ,east4 ,we now know that ,greece and ,rome1 far from standing near the beginning of recorded history1 were the heirs of a long series of civilizations4 ,our whole perspective has been changed or should be changed by the discovery4 ,the ancient world thus revealed by the partnership of philology and archaeology ceases to be merely the vestibule to ,christian ,europe1 and becomes in point of duration the larger part of human history4 ,the story opens with ,champollion's decipherment of the bilingual tablet discovered more than a century ago at the ,rosetta mouth of the ,nile4 ,the key once fitted to the lock1 the whole civilization of ancient ,egypt lay open to the explorer4 ,a secure chronological basis was supplied by ,lepsius1 and systematic excavation was commenced by ,mariette1 who was named by the ,khedive ,director of ,antiquities and established the ,cairo ,museum4 ,the work of the three great founders of ,egyptology has been carried forward during the last half-century by an international army of scholars4 ,the interpretation of the ancient scripts has reached a technical mastery unknown to the pioneers1 and the genius of ,brugsch unlocked the door to demotic1 which ,champollion had never thoroughly mastered4 ,but the triumphs of philology have been surpassed by the conquests of the spade4 ,the closest friend of ,mariette's later years was ,maspero1 who succeeded him as ,director of ,antiquities1 and whose most sensational find was the tombs of the ,kings near ,thebes4 ,equally eminent as excavator1 philologist1 and historian1 ,maspero was the first to popularize ,egyptology in ,france1 as ,flinders ,petrie1 the greatest excavator since ,mariette1 has popularized it in ,england4 ,until twenty years ago the curtain rose on the pyramid-builders of the ,fourth dynasty4 ,we have now not only recovered the earlier dynasties1 but neolithic and palaeolithic ,egypt emerges from the primitive cemeteries4 ,the immense accession of new material has enabled ,eduard ,meyer to construct something like a definite chronology2 but though marvellous progress has been made in our knowledge of the ,early1 ,middle1 and ,new ,empires1 a great gap remains between the sixth and the eleventh dynasties1 and the period of the ,hyksos is still tantalizingly obscure4 ,egyptian history in the light of the latest discoveries may be best studied in the judicial pages of ,breasted1 the foremost of ,american ,egyptologists4 ,the revelation of ,assyrian civilization through ,rawlinson's decipherment of cuneiform and the excavations of ,botta and ,layard in the middle of the nineteenth century was followed by a concerted attack on ,babylonia4 ,it was clear from the ,nineveh tablets that most of the literary treasures of ,assyria were merely copies of ,babylonian originals2 and when in #ahgg de ,sarzec1 ,french ,vice-,consul at ,basra1 bored into the mounds at ,tello1 the ancient ,lagash1 in ,southern ,babylonia1 the most eager anticipations were surpassed4 ,texts had been found which ,rawlinson pronounced to be pre-,semitic2 but for the purpose of history the ,sumerians were discovered at ,tello4 ,when de ,sarzec died in #aija he had opened a new chapter of history4 ,the palaces of ,sargon and ,sennacherib1 at which the world had marvelled in the 'forties1 appeared relatively modern beside the vast antiquity of the ,chaldean city4 ,the chain of human experience lengthened before our eyes when it was realized that as ,assyrian culture derived from ,babylonia1 so a large part of ,babylonian culture1 including the art of writing1 was inherited by the ,semites from the ,sumerians4 ,while de ,sarzec was busy at ,tello1 an ,american expedition was sent to ,nippur under the lead of ,peters and ,hilprecht2 and the long array of magnificent volumes which embody the results of the mission1 including the thousands of tablets found in the temple library1 constitutes the most important source of our knowledge of ,northern ,babylonia4 ,still more recently a ,german mission under ,koldewey commenced the systematic excavation of ,babylon itself2 but its operations were interrupted by the outbreak of the ,great ,war4 ,though no monuments have been brought to light in ,babylonia comparable in magnificence to those of ,khorsabad and ,nineveh1 ,babylonian culture towers above its neighbour4 ,since the discovery in the royal library of ,nineveh of a cylinder containing the story of the ,flood1 no find has aroused such world-wide interest as that of the ,code of ,hammurabi1 unearthed by de ,morgan at ,susa in #aija4 ,the massive block of diorite1 eight feet high1 containing #bhb paragraphs of laws1 revealed in a flash a complex1 refined1 and orderly civilization4 ,after expelling the ,elamites about #bbej ,b4,c4 ,hammurabi united ,north and ,south ,babylonia into a single ,state1 and1 desiring that uniform laws should prevail1 issued the code which bears his name4 ,during the last decade the exploration of ,assyria has been resumed after a long interval1 and the city of ,assur1 the first capital1 has been unearthed by the ,german ,oriental ,society4 ,we thus learn of ,assyria before the days of its greatness1 when it was still a subject province under ,babylonian ,viceroys4 ,the history of the lands watered by the ,tigris and the ,euphrates1 which was almost a blank half a century ago1 may now be tentatively reconstructed4 ,the vast mass of official correspondence1 judicial decisions1 and legal documents1 taken in conjunction with the evidences of religion1 science1 and art1 reveal a startlingly modern society a thousand years before ,rameses and two thousand years before ,pericles4 ,babylonia proves to have been to the ancient ,east what ,rome was one day to be to ,europe4 ,the ,tel-el-,amarna letters prove the unchallenged supremacy of its culture over vast areas1 and the revelation of the religious debt of the ,jews sets the ,old ,testament in a new frame4 ,so rapid is the pace of excavation and interpretation that all but the most recent narratives of the ,ancient ,east are out of date4 ,if we master ,leonard ,king's sumptuous volumes on ,babylonia and the latest edition of the first volume of ,eduard ,meyer's incomparable ,history of ,antiquity1 we need go no farther afield4 ,scarcely if at all less remarkable has been the discovery of an advanced civilization in ,crete in the second and third millenniums before ,christ4 ,while in ,egypt and ,mesopotamia the frontiers of knowledge were pushed back1 in ,crete an unknown world was brought to light4 ,its romantic interest was intensified by the establishment of an historic foundation for one of the most celebrated legends of the ancient world4 ,how the ,minotaur devoured the tribute of youths and maidens in the labyrinth1 how ,ariadne1 daughter of ,minos1 fell in love with ,theseus and gave him a sword to slay the ,minotaur and a thread to retrace his steps1 was known to every ,greek child and has thrilled the imagination of the centuries4 ,the exploration of the city called by ,homer ',great ,knossus' was among the ambitions of ,schliemann2 but it was carried out by ,sir ,arthur ,evans1 whose labours have outlined a series of chapters in ,cretan history extending two thousand years before the destruction of the palace about the year #adjj4 ,though the ,minoan language still defies attack1 the frescoes1 sculptures1 and objects of art tell their tale of a luxurious and peace-loving community1 closely connected with ,egypt and forming one of the main sources of the ,greek culture of a later age4 ,most of us are old enough to remember the thrill of excitement when ,susa and ,knossus1 if not ,tello or ,thebes1 yielded up their romantic secrets2 but the generation now growing to manhood may experience similar emotions as it watches the ghost of the ,hittite ,empire materialize before its eyes4 ,the meagre references in the ,old ,testament have been supplemented by ,assyrian and ,egyptian inscriptions1 revealing an important ,power in ,northern ,syria and ,asia ,minor for a thousand years before it was swallowed up by ,assyria4 ,during the last twenty years ,hittite remains1 marked by crude vigour rather than by a sense of beauty1 have been discovered all over ,asia ,minor and in the northern reaches of the great ,mesopotamian plain4 ,in #aiaa the ,british ,museum undertook the excavation of ,carchemish on the ,euphrates1 the capital of the ,north ,syrian sector of the ,empire2 but the most precious results have been achieved by ,winckler at ,boghaz ,keui1 the capital of the ,cappadocian portion of the ,hittite dominions1 which yielded a library of #bj1jjj tablets of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries1 now stored in the museum at ,constantinople4 ,a few bilingual inscriptions have furnished valuable clues2 but the world still eagerly awaits the coming of a new ,champollion to unlock the doors of the treasure-house4 ,winckler himself died in #aiac2 but in #aiae the ,austrian ,professor ,hrozny startled the world by proclaiming his conviction that ,hittite was an ,indo-,european language4 ,whether or no his contention is confirmed1 orientalists of both hemispheres are hot in pursuit1 and it is no rash prophecy that within a decade scholars will read ,hittite as they now read cuneiform and hieroglyphics1 and new chapters of incalculable importance will be added to the story of the ,ancient ,east4 ,the recovery of the political and religious history of the empires surrounding ,palestine has run parallel with the application of critical methods to the ,jewish scriptures4 ,to read ,ewald's ,history of the ,people of ,israel1 which was regarded as dangerous by pious folk in the middle of last century1 is to realize the progress of ,semitic studies4 ,the great revolution in our conception of the ,old ,testament which rendered ,ewald out of date was accomplished by ,wellhausen's ,prolegomena to the ,history of ,israel4 ,that the arrangement of the ,canon was utterly misleading1 that the ,prophets were earlier than the priestly code and that the ,psalms for the most part were later than both1 was proclaimed in the writings and lectures of ,vatke and ,graf1 ,kuenen and ,reuss2 but it was not till their discoveries were confirmed and elaborated by ,wellhausen that they won their way1 and it was generally recognized that their reconstruction alone rendered the religious development of the ,jews intelligible4 ,this outline was shortly after filled in by ,stade in the first critical history of ,israel2 but his emphasis on the falsity of tradition was overdone1 and subsequent critics1 while accepting the late redaction of the law1 have argued that parts of it are far older1 in substance if not in form1 than ,wellhausen and his disciple were prepared to allow4 ,the history of the ,jews owes much less to archaeological research on the arena of their historic life than ,egypt or ,mesopotamia4 ,no splendid buildings or sculptures have been brought to light1 and the inscriptions are few4 ,but ,british1 ,american1 and ,german excavators have flashed light far back into the third millennium1 and a partial excavation of ,jerusalem has revealed a network of prehistoric tunnels and aqueducts4 ,the historic life of ,gezer has been minutely revealed by ,macalister1 with the strata of seven cities reaching back to the neolithic age4 ,the most piquant result of his excavations has been to rehabilitate the ,philistines1 the makers of the most artistic objects found in the debris of two thousand years4 ,far more light1 however1 has been thrown on the religious customs and beliefs of the ,jews by discoveries beyond their borders4 ,the notion firmly held by our fathers that ,israel was one of the oldest of civilizations and formed a world by itself has vanished into thin air2 for an older and vaster civilization has been discovered to which she owed not only her science but the larger part of her religion4 ,the dimension of the debt to ,babylonia has been and continues to be fiercely argued by conservative and radical critics2 but its recognition has sufficed to revolutionize the study of early ,israel and to provide a new background for the religious history of the world4 ,the relation of the beliefs and practices of the ,jews to those of other branches of the ,semitic family was boldly explored by ,robertson ,smith1 and has lately been illuminated by the epoch-making volumes of ,sir ,james ,frazer on the ,folklore of the ,old ,testament4 ,the history of ,greece1 like the history of the ,jews1 presents a very different aspect to that which was offered to the readers of ,grote1 ,thirlwall1 and even ,curtius4 ,schliemann's discoveries at ,troy1 ,tiryns1 and ,mycenae unearthed ,mycenaean civilization and gave an incalculable impetus to archaeological research2 but the brilliant amateur was almost pathetically incompetent to interpret the treasures he had brought to light1 and much of his work has had to be done again by ,drpfeld4 ,despite the achievements of archaeology1 however1 the period before ,solon remains very dark4 ,barely second in importance to the discoveries of ,schliemann was the ,aristotelian treatise on the ,constitution of ,athens1 which was given to the world in #ahia by ,sir ,frederick ,kenyon and has been most authoritatively interpreted by ,wilamowitz1 the greatest of living ,hellenists4 ,with the growing mass of new literary material1 inscriptions1 coins1 and papyri1 the exploration of sites1 the recovery of innumerable objects of art and fresh light streaming from ,asia ,minor and ,crete1 new attempts to write the history of ,greece have been made4 ,professor ,bury's narrative1 at once scientific and popular1 has summarized for ,english readers the assured results of research2 but the most authoritative survey is that contained in the ,greek volumes of ,eduard ,meyer's vast survey of antiquity4 ',for the great tasks of history'1 he writes1 'salvation is only to be found when it becomes conscious of its universal character1 in ancient as well as in modern times4 ,only by treating ,greece in connection with the ,mediterranean peoples can its real nature be seized4' ,this colossal task1 which proved beyond the strength of ,duncker1 has been performed by the ,berlin ,professor1 the only scholar of our time who could have accomplished it single-handed4 ,the dazzling picture of ,athenian democracy painted by ,grote has faded away2 and ,beloch1 following in the footsteps of ,droysen1 dwells with greater satisfaction on the diffusion of ,greek influence through the conquests of ,alexander4 ,greek culture has received no less attention than ,greek politics4 ,the ,homeric problem continues to exert an irresistible attraction4 ,every expert from ,wilamowitz to ,gilbert ,murray and ,walter ,leaf adds to our comprehension of the epic2 but no positive results have been established1 and ,holm uttered the gloomy prophecy that we shall never know whether ,homer existed1 who he was1 or what he wrote4 ,on the other hand we have gained a deeper insight into the early mind and soul of ,greece1 thanks in large measure to a group of ,english scholars with ,jane ,harrison at their head4 ,rohde's ,psyche1 the most illuminating treatise on any branch of ,greek religion1 has traced the conception of immortality through the ages4 ,the later editions of ,zeller's ,philosophy of the ,greeks1 first published in #ahea1 kept pace with the progress of scholarship1 and remains one of the glories of ,german scholarship4 ,the more recent work of the ,austrian ,gomperz has won almost equal popularity1 without placing its predecessor on the shelf4 ,in the realm of literature the most interesting event has been the recovery of the poems of ,bacchylides and ,herondas1 fragments of ,sappho and ,pindar1 ,euripides and ,sophocles and ,menander2 and the ,oxyrhynchus ,papyri1 which have already produced undreamed-of treasures1 may well have in store for us further glad surprises4 ,the attempt to assess the influence of economic factors1 courageously undertaken by ,bckh and somewhat neglected after his death1 has in recent years been renewed1 with the fruitful results familiar to us in ,zimmern's realistic picture of ,athens in the fifth century4 ,the history of ,roman studies since ,niebuhr is largely the record of the activity of a single man4 ,the most personal and popular of ,mommsen's works1 the ,roman ,history till the death of ,caesar1 the greatest effort of his genius though not of his scholarship1 was published as far back as #ahed1 and carried his name all over the world4 ,he next turned to special departments of research1 pouring forth in rapid succession his treatises on ,chronology1 ,coinage1 the ,digest1 and above all the ,staatsrecht1 the largest and in his opinion the most important of his works1 and perhaps the greatest constitutional treatise in historical literature4 ,meanwhile the ,corpus ,inscriptionum ,latinarum1 which he edited for the ,berlin ,academy1 was the main occupation and the most enduring monument of his life4 ,he had devoted himself to ,latin epigraphy and had edited the ,sammite and ,neapolitan inscriptions before the publication of the ,roman ,history4 ,the first instalment of the ,corpus appeared in #ahfc1 and the great scholar lived to hail the appearance of nearly twenty volumes1 half of them edited by himself4 ,the ,inscriptions rendered possible a history of the ,empire1 and the whole world hoped that the master would write it2 but he contented himself with a survey of the provinces4 ,the closing years of his life were devoted to a gigantic treatise on ,roman ,criminal ,law1 and to editions of ,jordanes1 ,cassiodorus1 the ,theodosian ,code and the ,liber ,pontificalis1 thus enlarging the sphere of his operations till ,rome was swallowed up in the ,middle ,ages4 ,his publications extended over sixty years4 ,there is no immaturity in his early works and no decline in the later4 ,the imaginative and critical faculties met and balanced1 large vision mating with a genius for detail4 ,the complete assimilation and reproduction of a classical civilization of which scholars have dreamed ever since ,scaliger has been achieved by ,mommsen alone4 ,rome before ,mommsen was like modern ,europe before ,ranke4 ,we may truly say of him1 as was said of ,augustus1 that he found it of brick and left it of marble4 ,mommsen1 like ,ranke1 was the founder of a school2 and his inspiration has been felt by every worker in the field of ,roman studies4 ,his successors naturally confine themselves to some special province or period4 ,gaetano de ,sanctis is far advanced in the most ambitious history of the ,republic that has been attempted in the last half-century4 ,ferrero's ,greatness and ,decline of ,rome1 though frowned on by scholars1 aroused world-wide interest by interpreting the fall of the ,republic in terms of economics and psychology4 ,the political and social crises which fill the century from ,sulla to ,augustus1 he argues1 were due to the change of customs caused by the augmentation of wealth1 expenditure1 and needs4 ,of greater value are the attempts to fill in different sections of the vast canvas of ,imperial ,rome1 such as ,gardthausen's monumental survey of the reign of ,augustus1 ,camille ,jullian's volumes on ,gaul1 and ,professor ,haverfield's slender monographs on ,britain4 ,roman life and culture have been diligently explored2 but the extreme paucity of materials makes the recovery of the atmosphere of the early ,republic almost impossible4 ,the most daring attempt was made by ,fustel de ,coulanges in ,la ,cit ,antique1 which offered a complete interpretation of early society in terms of religion4 ,less harmonious but more convincing pictures of religious life have been painted by ,warde ,fowler1 while the civilization of the ,empire has been successively analysed in the fascinating and authoritative works of ,friedlnder1 ,boissier1 and ,dill4 ,meanwhile archaeology contributes a steady stream of new material4 ,boni's excavations in the ,forum and on the ,palatine have produced sensational results4 ,the unveiling of ,pompeii moves slowly forward1 and that of ,ostia1 the port of ,rome1 has begun4 ,the resurrection of ,herculaneum should be witnessed by the next generation if not by our own4 ,a more difficult because a more controversial problem than the ,roman ,empire is its contemporary1 the early ,christian ,church4 ,in the middle decades of last century ,baur treated the rise of ,christianity as an historical phenomenon1 leaving his hearers to determine for themselves whether it was human or divine2 but his influence proved more enduring than his writings4 ,weiszcker1 his successor at ,tbingen1 in his ,apostolic ,age1 described with consummate scholarship and passionless serenity the life and organization of the early ,christian communities4 ,the necessity of a careful study of the soil out of which ,christianity has grown is now generally recognized1 and great scholars such as ,schrer and ,pfleiderer have re-created the religious atmosphere into which ,christ was born4 ,the constitution of the primitive ,church1 too long hotly discussed by the champions of rival sects1 has been studied with welcome impartiality by ,lightfoot and ,hatch4 ,but no man1 alive or dead1 can boast of such achievements as ,harnack4 ,his ,history of ,dogma1 his vast survey of ,christian ,literature till ,eusebius1 his narrative of the ,expansion of ,christianity before the conversion of ,constantine1 are inseparable companions of the student who means business4 ,the treasures of the catacombs have been revealed by ,de ,rossi1 to whom we also owe the publication of the ,christian ,inscriptions of ,rome4 ,the history of the early ,christian communities in the outlying provinces of the ,empire has been enriched by ,ramsay's explorations in ,asia ,minor4 ,while the best work naturally goes into monographs1 comprehensive narratives are occasionally attempted by scholars of the first class4 ,renan's sparkling volumes have enjoyed immense popularity1 and some of them may still be read with profit2 but1 like his ,history of the ,jews1 they belong rather to literature than to science4 ,if we desire a readable summary of the scholarship of the last half-century we may turn to the ,volumes of the ,catholic ,duchesne or1 better still1 to those of the late ,professor ,gwatkin4 ,imperial ,rome and the ,christian ,church meet and blend in the ,byzantine ,empire1 the later history of which appeared to ,gibbon 'a tedious and uniform tale of weakness and misery'4 ,its services to civilization and the greatness of many of its rulers were revealed to the world by ,finlay1 whose narrative was acclaimed by ,freeman as the most considerable work of ,english historical literature since the ,decline and ,fall4 ,in the half-century that has elapsed since its completion1 the exploration of a thousand years has gone busily forward4 ,the lead was taken in ,france by ,rambaud1 ,schlumberger1 and ,diehl1 the latter of whom was rewarded for his efforts by his appointment as first occupant of the ,chair created in ,paris in #ahii4 ,greater than any of the three was ,krumbacher1 the prince of ,german ,byzantinists1 for whom a ,chair was founded at ,munich in #ahib1 and whose encyclopaedic survey of ,byzantine literature is beyond comparison the most important single work in this field of historical study4 ,england is worthily represented by ,professor ,bury1 whose narrative of the ,empire has already reached the ninth century4 ,byzantium has emerged from the scholarship of two generations no longer decadent and inert but the mother of great statesmen and soldiers1 the home of culture while ,central and ,western ,europe was plunged in darkness1 the rampart of ,christian ,europe for a thousand years against the ,arab and ,turk1 the educator of the ,slavonic races4 ,freeman truly remarked that ,constantinople was for ages the seat of the only regular and systematic ,government in the world4 ,its administrative machine was the most elaborate yet invented by man1 and the ,court was to mediaeval ,europe what ,versailles was to the rulers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries4 ,it was indeed a bureaucratic despotism in which liberty was unknown1 and1 except in art1 its spirit was imitative2 but to preserve ,greek culture during the barbarism of the ,middle ,ages and to defend it against the repeated assaults of ,islam was to deserve well of civilization4 ,while the ,byzantine ,empire carried over important elements from the classical world1 ,western and ,central ,europe passed under the dominion of ideas which were as foreign to those of ,greece and ,rome as they are to the conceptions of to-day4 ,we have outgrown the blind contempt of the eighteenth century and the gushing enthusiasm of the ,romantic ,movement2 but it is still a difficult task to form a just estimate of the character of the thousand years that began with ,augustine and ended with ,macchiavelli4 ,it is true that our materials grow from year to year2 that the criticism of original authorities as taught in the cole des ,chartes has become something like an exact science2 that thanks to ,lord ,bryce the ,holy ,roman ,empire has become intelligible2 that the structure and function of institutions have been patiently analysed by ,waitz and ,stubbs1 ,fustel de ,coulanges and ,vinogradoff1 ,maitland and ,gierke2 that literature and art1 scholasticism and the ,universities1 have found their chroniclers and interpreters2 that every ruler and every ,state1 every treaty and every council1 may be studied in monographs innumerable4 ,but the ,middle ,ages were above all the reign of the ,catholic ,church2 and we are still far from agreement as to the merits and influence of that venerable institution which1 be it human or divine1 occupies a unique place in the story of civilization4 ,in the middle decades of last century the history of the mediaeval ,church was related from very different standpoints in the widely-read works of ,neander and ,milman2 but it was only with the opening of the ,vatican archives by ,pope ,leo ,,xiii in #ahha that it became possible to set forth the whole story of the ,papacy and to understand the working of the machinery of ,catholicism4 ,so vast is the accumulation of official acts and documents1 and such technical training is required for the task1 that we shall have to wait many years till the material is surveyed in its entirety and its results made available for the use of the historian4 ,some idea of the value of the ,registers may be gained from the ,master of ,balliol's pregnant lectures on ,church and ,state in the ,middle ,ages1 based on the #h1jjj documents of the eleven years of the rule of ,innocent ,,iv in the middle of the thirteenth century4 ,the study of these documents1 he tells us1 stirred him to admiration of the organization of the ,papacy1 and convinced him of its enormous superiority over its secular contemporaries as a centre not merely of religion but of law and government2 but he adds that he derived an equally profound impression of the abuses which ate into the heart of the system1 of the growing bitterness which it inspired1 and of the devastating effects of the passion to erect a powerful principality in the heart of ,italy4 ,no ,protestant historian is tempted to glorify the record of the ,papacy in the last two centuries before the ,reformation2 but it is generally agreed that in the earlier half of the ,middle ,ages the example and influence of the ,church were a bright light shining in a dark world4 ,this notion has been recently challenged by ,mr4 ,coulton1 who1 angered by the special pleading of ,cardinal ,gasquet and other professional apologists1 hotly denounces the exaltation of the ,ages of ,faith4 ,the ,middle ,ages1 he complains1 are the one domain of history into which1 in ,england at any rate1 the scientific spirit has not yet penetrated4 ,taking as his text the autobiography of the ,franciscan ,fra ,salimbene1 the most precious authority for the ordinary life of ,catholic folk at the high-water mark of the ,middle ,ages1 he draws a sombre picture of manners and morals and maintains that hideous vices existed in all the ,orders long before the thirteenth century4 ',imagination'1 he cries1 'staggers at the moral gulf that yawns between that age and ours4' ,his condemnation of the life and influence of the ,church re-echoes in somewhat shrill tones the verdict of ,henry ,charles ,lea1 whose massive treatise on the ,inquisition was rightly described by ,lord ,acton as the most important contribution of the ,new ,world to the religious history of the old1 and whose volumes on ,sacerdotal ,celibacy constitute a formidable indictment of mediaeval ,catholicism4 ,next to the origins of ,christianity the most controversial of the larger problems of history is the ,reformation2 and here ,protestants of all schools are ranged in a solid phalanx against ,catholics4 ,that the ,church was in need of reform is agreed by both sides2 but the ,catholic contends that the evils to be remedied have been fantastically exaggerated1 that there was no need for a revolt1 and that the revolution inaugurated by ,luther left ,germany far worse than it found her4 ,realizing that the ,protestant view most authoritatively presented in ,ranke's classical work on the ,reformation held the field1 ,janssen compiled a cultural history of the ,german people from the end of the ,middle ,ages to the outbreak of the ,thirty ,years ,war4 ,based throughout on original sources1 and illustrating his thesis from every angle1 his eight massive volumes were hailed with gratitude and enthusiasm by ,catholics all over the world4 ,no ,catholic historical work of the nineteenth century1 and certainly no attack on the ,reformation since ,bossuet's ,variations of ,protestantism1 obtained such resounding success or led to so much controversy4 ,janssen's object was to show that the fifteenth century was not a period of moral or intellectual decrepitude1 with a few ',reformers before the ,reformation' crying like voices in the wilderness1 but an era of healthy activity and abounding promise4 ,he describes the flourishing state of religious and secular education1 the vitality of art1 the comfort of the peasantry1 and the prosperity of the towns4 ,on reaching the sixteenth century1 he denounces the paganism of the ,humanists and paints a terrible picture of the material and moral chaos into which ,germany was plunged by the ,lutheran revolt4 ,the later volumes are devoted to the era of the ,counter-,revolution and present a canvas of unrelieved gloom1 immorality and drunkenness1 ignorance1 superstition and violence4 ,thus the story which opened with the bright colours of the fifteenth century closes in deep shadows1 and the moral is drawn that ,germany was ruined not by the ,thirty ,years ,war but by the ,reformation4 ,protestant historians fell upon the audacious iconoclast with fierce cries of anger1 and had no difficulty in exposing his uncritical use of authorities1 his habit of generalizing from isolated particulars1 and his suppression of facts damaging to his own side4 ,but though it was a dexterous polemic1 not a work of disinterested science1 ,janssen's book has made it impossible for any self-respecting ,protestant to write on the ,reformation without knowing and weighing the ,catholic side4 ,of similar tendency though of far higher value is the monumental work in which ,pastor is narrating the story of the ,renaissance and sixteenth-century ,popes from the ,vatican archives1 which neither ,ranke nor ,creighton had been able to employ4 ,no really objective picture of the ,reformation can be painted by ,catholic or ,protestant2 but a good deal of firm ground has been won1 and the writings of ,kawerau1 the greatest of ,lutheran scholars1 inspire us with a confidence that no writings of the last generation deserved4 ,though ,ranke's chief works had been published before the period to which this lecture is confined1 his influence can be traced in almost every writer on modern history during the last half-century4 ,his greatest service to scholarship was to divorce the study of the past from the passions of the present1 and1 to quote the watchword of his first book1 to relate what actually occurred4 ,a second was to establish the necessity of founding historical construction on strictly contemporary authorities4 ,when he began to write in #ahbd historians of high repute believed memoirs and chronicles to be trustworthy guides4 ,when he laid down his pen in #ahhf every scholar with a reputation to make had learned to content himself with nothing less than the papers and correspondence of the actors themselves and those in immediate contact with the events they describe4 ,a third service was to found the science of evidence by the analysis of authorities1 contemporary or otherwise1 in the light of the author's temperament1 affiliations1 and opportunity of knowledge1 and by comparison with the testimony of other writers4 ,there can be no better preparation for the perils and responsibilities of authorship than to study the critical analyses of ,guicciardini and ,sarpi1 ,clarendon1 ,saint-,simon1 and many another1 scattered through the sixty volumes of the master4 ,and finally he taught by precept and practice the necessity of exploring the relations of ,states to one another and of measuring the interaction of foreign and domestic policy4 ,these sound principles have been applied by the scholars of all countries who have jointly built up the history of the last four centuries4 ,we may study the ,tudors under the guidance of ,pollard1 the ,stuarts under ,gardiner and ,firth1 the ,hanoverians under ,lecky1 without fear that we are being misled or that essential facts are being withheld from our notice4 ,we continue to admire the literary brilliance of ,macaulay and ,carlyle1 ,motley and ,froude2 but we are instinctively aware that their partisanship is out of date4 ,the same cooling process has taken place in ,france1 where the passions and tempers of ,thiers and ,michelet have tended to yield place to the calm lucidity of which ,mignet and ,guizot were the earliest masters4 ,there is1 it must be confessed1 a good deal of the old ,adam in ,taine's elaborate study of ,jacobinism1 in ,masson's innumerable volumes on ,napoleon1 and even in ,aulard's priceless contributions to our knowledge of the ,french ,revolution2 but such works as ,lavisse's full-length portrait of ,louis ,,xiv1 ,sgur's volumes on ,turgot and ,necker1 ,sorel's massive treatise on ,europe and the ,revolution1 and ,vandal's incomparable presentation of the ,consulate rank as high in scholarship as in literature4 ,the unification of ,germany after fierce struggles within and without naturally deflected historical scholarship from the path marked out by ,ranke1 who had grown to manhood in the era of political stagnation following the downfall of ,napoleon4 ,the master's ,olympian serenity was deplored by the group of hot-blooded scholars who are collectively known as the ,prussian ,school1 and who were firmly convinced that the principal duty of historians was to supply guidance and encouragement to their fellow-countrymen in the national and international problems of the time4 ,in his gigantic work on the ,history of ,prussian ,foreign ,policy1 ,droysen1 the eldest of the ,triumvirate1 calls four centuries to witness that the ,hohenzollerns alone1 from their unswerving fidelity to ,german interests as a whole1 were fitted to restore the ,empire4 ,he worked exclusively from ,prussian archives1 and history seen exclusively through ,prussian spectacles was bound to be one-sided4 ,no student of ,european history would contest the value of his researches2 but his interpretation of ,prussian policy in terms of ,german nationalism was at once recognized as a fundamental error1 and has long been abandoned4 ,the second member of the group1 ,sybel1 himself one of the three favourite pupils of ,ranke1 revolted in middle life1 and in his two great treatises on the era of the ,french ,revolution and the foundation of the ,german ,empire championed the policy of the ,hohenzollerns and delivered slashing attacks on ,france and ,austria1 their rivals and antagonists4 ,the last and greatest of the triumvirate1 ,treitschke1 the ,bismarck of the ,chair1 devoted his life to a history of ,germany in the nineteenth century which occupies the same unique place in the affections of ,german readers as ,macaulay's unfinished masterpiece enjoys throughout the ,english-speaking world4 ,unlike the works of ,droysen and ,sybel1 the ,german ,history was far more than a political narrative1 and presented an encyclopaedic picture of national development4 ,his theme was the conflict of the forces which were promoting and opposing the transformation of his country into a powerful ,empire1 and he judges men and states by the measure in which they promoted or obstructed that purpose4 ,on the one side stands ,prussia1 feeling her way to the realization of her historic task1 on the other the middle and smaller states1 aided and abetted by the arch-enemy ,austria and deeply infected with the doctrinaire liberalism of ,france4 ,treitschke's stage is a battlefield1 with the historian looking down and encouraging his friends with loud cries of applause4 ,such methods could not survive the realization of the aim which they had done so much to assist1 and with ,treitschke's death in #ahif the ,prussian ,school disappeared4 ,its members were the political schoolmasters of ,germany at a time of uncertainty and discouragement1 and they braced their countrymen to the efforts which culminated in the creation of a mighty ,empire4 ,if the purpose of history is to stir a nation to action1 ,droysen1 ,sybel1 and ,treitschke are among the greatest masters of the craft4 ,if its supreme aim is to discover truth and to interpret the movement of humanity1 they have no claim to a place in the first class4 ,the stream1 temporarily deflected by their powerful influence1 began to return to the channel which ,ranke had marked out for it4 ,such works as ,moriz ,ritter's narrative of the ,counter-,reformation and the ,thirty ,years ,war1 ,koser's biography of ,frederick the ,great1 ,max ,lehmann's biographies of ,scharnhorst and ,stein1 and ,erich ,marcks' studies of ,bismarck and his master are as notable for their judgement as for their erudition4 ,the cooling process noted in the ,old ,world has also occurred in the ,new1 and ,america of the twentieth century smiles at ,bancroft's complacent idealization of the ,puritan colonies4 ,even the slavery struggle1 the ashes of which are scarcely yet cold1 has found in ,james ,ford ,rhodes a historian who can do justice to ,jefferson ,davis and ,lee no less than to ,lincoln and ,grant4 ,but no ,american scholar compares in world-wide influence with ,mahan1 whose study of ,sea-,power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries1 published in #ahhi1 not only founded a school of naval history but was inwardly digested by distinguished pupils in both hemispheres1 among them the ,emperor ,william ,,ii and ,theodore ,roosevelt4 ,the ,admiral's writings owe their importance not to research1 for few new facts are brought to light1 but to the new angle from which familiar events are envisaged4 ,occasionally1 perhaps1 the element of sea-power in the determination of a particular result is over-emphasized at the expense of other factors2 but he was the first to seize the wider bearings of naval history and to make the general reader aware of its momentous significance4 ,the scope of history has gradually widened till it has come to include every aspect of the life of humanity4 ,no one would now dare to maintain with my old master ,seeley that history was the biography of ,states or with ,freeman that it was merely past politics4 ,the growth of nations1 the achievements of men of action1 the rise and fall of parties remain among the most engrossing themes of the historian2 but he now casts his net wider and embraces the whole opulent record of civilization4 ,the influence of nature1 the pressure of economic factors1 the origin and transformation of ideas1 the contribution of science and art1 religion and philosophy1 literature and law1 the material conditions of life1 the fortunes of the masses--such problems now claim his attention in no less degree4 ,he must see life steadily and see it whole4 ,we must master such revealing works as ,lecky's histories of ,rationalism and ,morals1 ,burckhardt's and ,symonds' interpretations of the ,italian ,renaissance1 ,sainte-,beuve's full-length portrait of the ,jansenists1 ,morley's studies of ,voltaire1 ,rousseau and the ,encyclopaedists1 ,dean ,church's sketch of the ,oxford ,movement1 and ,merz's survey of ,european ,thought in the nineteenth century1 if we are to understand the throbbing life of the human spirit4 ,we must measure the operation of economic factors and forces and profit by the faithful labours of ,schmoller and ,thorold ,rogers1 ,cunningham and ,kovalevsky1 the ,webbs and the ,hammonds1 if we are to visualize the life of the unnumbered and the unknown who have done the routine work of the world4 ,the fifty years roughly sketched in this lecture witnessed an immense and almost immeasurable advance in historical studies4 ,the technique needed to turn raw materials into the finished article kept pace with the supply1 and men learned to write the history of their own country1 their own party1 and their own beliefs1 as impartially as that of other lands and other creeds4 ,but the ,great ,war has ravaged the placid pastures of scholarship no less than the fields of ,france and ,belgium4 ,too many historians in every belligerent country have lost their heads and degenerated into shrieking partisans4 ,international co-operation in the pursuit of truth1 which is the condition of progress in history no less than in science1 has been rudely shattered by the clash of arms4 ,with all but the calmest minds1 national self-consciousness and national self-righteousness have rendered frankness in dealing with the record of our late allies and fairness in dealing with our late enemies difficult if not impossible4 ,many years will elapse before the ,european atmosphere regains the tranquillity in which alone the disinterested pursuit of truth can nourish4 ,meanwhile it is a source of legitimate satisfaction that while the world was rocking to its foundations two ,english historians1 ,sir ,adolphus ,ward and ,mr4 ,william ,harbutt ,dawson1 were narrating the development of ,germany in the nineteenth century with a steadiness of pulse unsurpassed in the piping times of peace4 ,the historian is a man of flesh and blood and may love his country as ardently as other men2 but1 if he is to be worthy of his high calling1 he must trample passion and prejudice under his feet and walk humbly and reverently in the temple of the ,goddess of ,truth4 ,,for ,,reference ,gooch1 ,history and ,historians in the ,nineteenth ,century 7,longmans74 ,,vi ,,political ,,theory ,a4,d4 ,,lindsay ,political ,philosophy or the philosophical theory of the ,state has closer relations with history than any other branch of philosophical inquiry4 ,it is indeed distinguished from history in that it can disregard the success or failure1 the historical development of this or that state4 ,for it is concerned not with historical happenings but with ideals1 not with the varying extent to which different states have approximated or fallen short of their purpose1 but with that purpose itself1 not1 in short1 with states but with the ,state4 ,yet this need not involve that the ideal1 the ,state1 is always and everywhere the same4 ,ideals are born of historical circumstances and fashioned to meet historical problems1 and the would-be timeless ideals which political philosophers have put before us have always borne clear marks of the country and time of their origin4 ,the ideal which men have set themselves in political organization has varied from time to time4 ,that such variation is inevitable will be clear if we ask ourselves what we can possibly mean by an ideal state4 ,that states fall short of their ideal because of the imperfections of their citizens is clear enough4 ,all political life demands a certain standard of moral behaviour1 of capacity to work for a common good1 and an understanding of the results of our own and other people's actions4 ,were human selfishness completely overcome1 the state would still be necessary to correct individual shortsightedness4 ,the policeman1 exempt from the cares of apprehending criminals1 would still be needed to control traffic4 ,but imagine1 not that all citizens attained a certain standard of moral and intellectual behaviour1 as the ideal demands1 but that they were all perfectly good and perfectly wise1 should we need any kind of government at all8 ,is not the supposition of perfection so far removed from any state of affairs we can really think of or plan for1 that it cannot enter into our reckoning1 ideal or practical8 ,every ideal takes certain facts of human life for granted whilst it tries to improve others4 ,all ideal states1 ,plato's as well as others1 assume certain facts about human nature and human society4 ,these facts may and do vary4 ,the ,greek city state assumed that a state must be small1 if it was to have the intensive life they demanded4 ,the ,roman ,empire was a denial of the anarchy to which the ,greek ideal had led1 but it lost in intensity what it gained in extent4 ,all political ideals assume a certain sociological background on which the state is based and from which spring the problems which the state is intended to solve4 ,as this sociological background varies from time to time1 the ,state1 the purpose which men set before themselves in political organization1 will vary also4 ,the ,greek city state and the mediaeval state were not different approximations to the same ideal4 ,they were the expressions of different ideals4 ,they rested on different assumptions1 e4g4 as to the place of authority in society4 ,with the disappearance at the ,reformation of one of the great assumptions on which the mediaeval state had been based1 a new theory of the state was inevitable4 ,the national state of the seventeenth century was something new in history1 and ,hobbes differs from ,aristotle1 not because ,hobbes is perverse and ,aristotle right1 though ,hobbes often is perverse1 but because the political problems which ,hobbes and ,aristotle had to face were not the same4 ,two great historical facts at the end of the eighteenth century1 the ,french ,revolution and the ,industrial ,revolution1 profoundly modified the basis of political organization4 ,the modern state in consequence differs in many important respects from any that have preceded it4 ,it does not rest on the common acceptance of authority1 either religious1 as did the mediaeval state1 or personal1 as did the seventeenth-century state4 ,unlike the ,greek city state1 it is large4 ,its administration is concerned with millions who cannot be in personal relations to one another1 or share the same intensive life4 ,with the nineteenth century1 then1 a new chapter in the development of political theory begins as the peculiar problems of the modern state develop4 ,professor ,dicey1 in his ,law and ,opinion in ,england1 has divided the century into two periods of political thought--,individualism and ,collectivism--one marking the decrease1 the other the increase of the power and authority of the state4 ,when our period begins1 the day of individualism was passing4 ,ever since the ,reformation it had1 in spite of ,burke1 dominated political theory4 ,two forces had given it strength--one idealistic1 one scientific4 ,it represented the revolt of the individual conscience against the claims of authority1 and as such was a theory which attempted to limit the power of government over the individual1 whether by an appeal to natural rights in ,locke and ,tom ,paine1 or to the greatest happiness of the greatest number in the ,utilitarians1 or to the super-eminent value of individual liberty as set forth in ,john ,stuart ,mill's noble panegyric4 ,the ,french ,revolution gave a notable impetus to this side of individualism1 with its passionate assertion of the principle that political institutions exist for man1 not man for political institutions1 and that all government must be tested by the life which it enables each and every one of its citizens to live4 ,individualism in this sense is concerned with the discovery of principles by which the power of government over the lives of its members may be limited4 ,it is not necessarily a theory of the nature of society4 ,hobbes1 however1 was an individualist as well as ,locke1 and for ,hobbes the individual was the scientific unit from which societies and states were built up--the starting-point for a scientific treatment of society4 ,as the ,french ,revolution gave a fresh impulse to idealistic individualism1 the ,industrial ,revolution reanimated the scientific1 for it displayed the economic man1 ,hobbes's hero1 come to life and a respectable member of society4 ,with him came the growth of political economy1 apparently the first really scientific study of man4 ,from ,political ,economy ,darwin borrowed the conception of the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest1 and from the new biology the doctrine of ,evolution through individual competition returned to reinforce with the prestige of the new science the economists' conception of society4 ,for the first half of the nineteenth century all the forces inspiring individualism seemed to work together1 for economics and biology breathed a benevolent optimism which promised that if the scientific forces of individualism were left to work unchecked by state restriction1 they would of themselves produce that individual liberty and free development which idealistic individualism desired4 ,the development of the industrial revolution1 however1 soon made economic optimism impossible1 and with its decay idealistic and scientific individualism parted company4 ,the former retained its concern for individual liberty but came to see that its ideal was as much threatened by economic dependence as by state control1 that the choice for most members of society was not one between state interference and no interference at all1 but between the state controlling or not controlling the power of interference possessed by the economically superior members of society4 ,on such principles ,henry ,sidgwick justified an extensive system of state control of industry1 and for such reason the strongest supporters of the rights of the individual have been found among ,socialists4 ,scientific individualism1 which found its unit in the economic man and sought to absorb in economics both ethics and politics1 was not in essence affected by the discrediting of economic optimism4 ,it painted the struggle between individuals in gloomy instead of in attractive colours1 its 'scientific' prepossessions inclined it to a determinism which led easily to the economic theory of history and even1 by a curious conversion of opposites1 to the 'scientific socialism' of ,karl ,marx4 ,in its essence it is a denial of the real existence of politics4 ,for it is a theory of society which denies the possibility of a will for the common good and therefore the possibility of political ideals4 ,it was this powerful and malignant theory which was attacked and answered by the modern idealist school represented by ,green1 ,wallace1 and ,ritchie1 and1 in the present day1 by ,dr4 ,bosanquet4 ,these writers gave us a theory of the state based on the importance and reality of social purpose4 ,they went back to the theory of the ,greek city state expounded by ,plato and ,aristotle1 finding modern reinforcement in the teaching of ,rousseau and more especially of ,hegel4 ,their destructive criticism of 'scientific' individualism was reinforced by the teaching of anthropology and of historical jurisprudence1 which emphasized the part played in early forms of society by social solidarity and showed the inability of individualism to account for the development of society4 ,their destructive criticism was1 however1 the least part of their achievement4 ,they exhibited convincingly the state as the product of will and purpose1 based on man's moral nature and being in turn the form in which that moral nature expresses itself4 ,in a notable phrase of ,dr4 ,bosanquet's1 a phrase to which he has given constant detailed amplification1 'institutions are ethical ideas'2 moral purpose may seem to shine dimly enough in many actual institutions1 but it is the only light which shines in them at all1 and only in that light can their meaning and reality be understood4 ,the main principles of this idealistic school may be safely said to have by this time established themselves against criticism4 ,of recent years ,social ,psychology has done much to explain the gap between the contemplated purpose and the actual working of institutions1 and has given precision and definiteness to those elements in human nature which strengthen or weaken social solidarity4 ,economists have come to see that economic relations are possible only within the framework of a society which has its root in moral and political purpose1 although within that framework they may be theoretically isolated and studied by themselves4 ,sociology1 after many false starts1 inspired by the mistaken belief that a scientific treatment of society should interpret higher forms in the light of lower1 has now found it possible to study the manifold variety of institutional and social life on the basis provided by idealistic philosophy4 ,as a theory of society1 in short1 this philosophy holds the field4 ,it has been criticized of late years as a theory of the state1 and as these criticisms show both where the idealistic theory was in some respects defective and also where the chief problems for political philosophy in the future are to be found1 ,i shall devote the greater part of my lecture to these considerations4 ,the idealistic school drew their inspiration from the theory of the ,greek city state1 and in their conception of the function of the state they assumed an essential identity between the ,greek city state and the modern nation state4 ,in so far as these two types of state have been the most self-conscious types of society that have existed1 and have therefore displayed explicitly the purpose that is implicit in all society1 the identification has been sound and fruitful2 in so far1 however1 as the identity is pressed to imply that in the modern state the definite political or governmental organization should play the same function as it did in the ,greek city state1 the identification has been mistaken4 ,the ,greek city state failed conspicuously to solve the problem of inter-state relations1 and its philosophers1 instead of recognizing the failure and trying to remedy it1 made their ideal state even more self-centred and autonomous than the existing states around them4 ,modern ,idealism1 just because it glorifies the state as the necessary upholder of moral relations1 has often found it hard to regard the state as in its turn a member of a moral world4 ,again1 the ,greek city state1 just because it was small1 could take up into itself all the various social activities of its members4 ,the state1 in the sense of the ,community in its political organization1 directed and inspired ,society1 and the distinction between society and the state was not of great importance4 ,in the modern world the boundaries of political organization are not nearly as definite boundaries in society as are the boundaries of the ,greek city state4 ,there are all manner of associations whose members are of different states and whose purposes are but to a small degree inspired or controlled by political organizations4 ,modern states are not all or completely nation states1 and the nation is not as pervading and dominating an entity as was the ,greek polis4 ,this is not to say that the non-political associations could do without the state1 as some recent writers have contended4 ,churches1 e4g41 could not exist were there not law and government4 ,yet it is impossible to maintain that in any real sense they are upheld by the state4 ,they clearly get their inspiration from other sources4 ,the difficulty is not evaded if we go behind both political and non-political organization to the community in which both exist and which upholds them both4 ,for what in this reference is 'the community'8 ,in regard to the political association it is the special solidarity of people living in a certain area2 in regard to the non-political organization it is the solidarity of a section of the world-wide society1 marked off from the rest on a non-territorial basis4 ,the community in the two cases is not the same4 ,hence there arises in the modern state1 as there arose in the mediaeval1 a conflict of loyalties between the state and non-political associations4 ,if we divide the world into states whose lines of division follow the divisions of the organization of force1 we are faced with a host of problems concerning the proper place in society of these force-bearing organizations1 and their relation to other associations4 ,in considering both sets of problems1 international and internal1 we may either begin with the division of the world into states1 each of which will be an approximation of the ,state which we are studying1 or we may regard the whole world as in some sort one society1 covered with a network of overlapping associations of all kinds4 ,on the former view the world is thought of as consisting of a number of independent communities1 each shaping and controlling the various forms of social life within its own borders1 upholding their moral world1 and each being as a whole single entity a member of the community of states4 ,on the latter we start with the solidarity and will to co-operate which pervades in all manner of degrees the whole world society1 and regard the organization of force which marks the state as being the mark of a settled and determined form of that will to co-operate which is characteristic of all forms of human association4 ,how dominant and determinant over other forms of association is that special form which controls organized force--that is the problem before us4 ,we are concerned in technical language with the problem of sovereignty4 ,let us consider first the problem of international relations4 ,the doctrine of sovereignty1 formulated in the seventeenth century and crystallized by ,austin at the beginning of the nineteenth1 made sovereignty the hallmark of the state4 ,the person or persons1 to whom the bulk of a given society render habitual obedience1 either do or do not render habitual obedience in turn to some other person or persons4 ,if they do not1 the society constitutes a sovereign state2 if they do1 it is only part of a sovereign state4 ,the world therefore was regarded as containing a number of sovereign independent states4 ,as sovereignty and law necessarily went hand in hand1 there could be no law between sovereign states4 ,there could only be world-wide law if there were one world-wide state4 ,so long as there are more states than one1 there are communities between whom there is no law4 ,the doctrine of sovereignty was in its inception individualist1 but in so far as concerns the implications1 though not the basis of sovereignty1 it was taken over by ,hegel and by the ,english idealist school with the exception of ,t4,h4 ,green4 ,idealism1 indeed1 always insisted that will1 not force1 was the basis of the state1 but whereas in ,green the state is constituted by the moral willing of individuals for a general good1 in ,hegel and in ,bosanquet the conflicting willings of individuals are reconciled by their being taken up into the supra-personal will of the state4 ,with the former therefore the morality of individuals is the primary fact1 the existence of the state the secondary2 with the latter on the whole the existence of the state is the primary moral fact1 the moral willing of individuals secondary4 ,just because the wills of individuals are reconciled1 not by each recognizing certain abstract principles of duty1 but by being taken up into the supra-personal will of the state1 where there is no such supra-personal will there is no reconciliation of conflicting wills and no morality beyond and outside the boundaries of communities4 ,hence arises a conception of the state which fits into the absolutist doctrine of sovereignty which we have described4 ,the first thing to be said about this doctrine of the independent sovereign state is that political facts have obviously outrun it4 ,it was derived from a study of the unitary state and will hardly fit any federal state4 ,it is manifestly absurd when applied to the ,british ,empire4 ,if we disregard1 as we must1 the superficial legal facts and look at the real nature of the ,british ,empire1 we must admit that the ,dominions are neither separate sovereign states nor parts of one sovereign state1 and that the unity of the ,empire is a unity of will--a willingness to co-operate which has not yet clothed itself in legal forms1 and which is not1 for geographical and other reasons1 as intense as that will to co-operate which must be at the basis of a unitary sovereign state4 ,this must suggest to us that the willingness to co-operate admits of degrees1 and the relations of communities to one another to have stability must reflect these degrees4 ,the importance of these considerations is obvious if we think of the problems with which we are confronted at the present moment1 when we are attempting to form an international organization4 ,the problems which have confronted the ,peace ,conference have brought two things clearly to light4 ,the first1 that the nation state is far too simple a solution of modern difficulties4 ,self-determination will not carry us very far4 ,there are many cases where the boundaries dictated by nationality on the one hand and by the need for common organization on the other do not coincide1 and where the only solution is one which impairs sovereignty in the old sense4 ,the second is that the ,league of ,nations1 if it is to mean anything at all1 will have to impair the sovereignty of the states which join it without thereby constituting in itself a world state4 ,much of the opposition to the ,league of ,nations is concerned with this implied impairment of sovereignty4 ,whether this opposition will weigh with us will depend on whether we regard the independent sovereign state as the be-all and end-all of political theory1 or see that the fundamental fact to be taken into account is man's readiness to co-operate for common purposes4 ,if we take the latter view1 we shall still be holding to what was the fundamental contribution of the idealist school1 the teaching that the basis of all political questions is moral4 ,the essence of the matter is how we are prepared to treat other people1 for what purposes we are prepared to act with them1 how far we are prepared to recognize and give settled organized recognition to our mutual obligations4 ,the political organization is the vehicle and not the creator of these moral facts4 ,as the facts vary1 so will its forces4 ,we may learn from the ,hegelian school to recognize the enormous importance of the state1 the great achievement of the human spirit which its organization represents1 and the folly of light-heartedly endangering its existence1 without making one form which it has taken in the nation state sacrosanct and absolute4 ,let us turn now to the second of our problems1 the relation of the state to associations1 such as churches and trade unions1 within its borders4 ,here again we find a principle1 originating in earlier individualist theory1 taken up into idealism4 ,in the beginnings of modern political theory in the seventeenth century1 the absolutist doctrine of the state was the outcome of the need of the times for strong government4 ,a state that was not master in its own house was felt to be incapable of the hard task these troublous times set before it4 ,the ,french ,revolution made no change in the attitude of the state to associations4 ,new-born democracy was not inclined to look favourably on the independence of religious non-democratic associations1 and the fact that ,leviathan had become democratic was thought to have transformed him into a monster within whose capacious maw any number of ,jonahs might live at ease or liberty4 ,association against a tyrant might be a sacred duty2 against the people it could only be a suspicious superfluity4 ,in a very different way the ,prussian state1 centralized1 efficient1 and ,erastian1 organizing the whole resources of the community under the guidance of the state1 enforced the same principle4 ,the state is a moral institution1 it cannot surrender the inculcation and upholding of morality to an alien or independent body4 ,from all the sources of modern idealistic political theory1 ,plato1 ,rousseau1 ,hegel1 comes the same principle of state absolutism over associations within the state4 ,the principle was put in idealistic form in the doctrine that the state is a supra-personal will1 absorbing in itself the activities of its members4 ,of late years dissatisfaction with this doctrine has been making itself more and more loudly expressed4 ,along with an increasing belief in the extension of the state's administrative capacities has gone an increasing disinclination to leave men's moral and cultural activities to the political organization4 ,the ideal of the ,kulturstaat is now sufficiently discredited4 ,men are coming more and more to recognize the part played in life by non-political organizations and to insist on the importance of preserving the independence and freedom from state control of such associations as churches4 ,the loyalty of individuals to their associations1 churches or trade unions1 has been conflicting with their loyalty to the state1 and men are not prepared to admit that in all such cases of conflict loyalty to the state ought to be paramount4 ,curiously enough1 the central doctrine of the later idealistic school1 the personality of the state1 lent a force to the criticism of the doctrine of state absolutism4 ,if the state can be described as a person1 may not also a church and a trade union8 ,we have begun to learn from ,gierke1 interpreted and reinforced to us by ,maitland1 that what is sauce for the state goose is also sauce for the corporation gander1 and that associations within the state may claim from the state a greater independence and a recognition of their intrinsic worth because they1 as it1 embody in some sense a real will over and above the wills of their members4 ,this doctrine of corporate personality is of great interest and complexity1 and has not yet been satisfactorily worked out4 ,but ,i shall not discuss it now because it will not help us far towards a solution of the problem of what are the proper relations between associations and the state1 be they personalities or not4 ,recent writers have mainly attempted to solve the problem by the principle of differentiation of function4 ,this will certainly help us in considering the relation of church and state4 ,for we can say that the task of the political organization is to maintain the conditions of the good life1 leaving the work of developing the meaning of the good life1 the fostering and inculcation of ideals1 to voluntary associations4 ,the state will then maintain a certain minimum of moral behaviour1 while the more delicate and freer work of inspiration is left to individuals and voluntary associations4 ,this will not always provide a clean-cut and sufficient differentiation4 ,the state must make up its own mind what is essential to the maintenance of the good life1 the voluntary associations may hold that what the state ordains is flatly evil1 as the state may hold that what a voluntary association teaches is subversive of all that makes a common ordered life possible1 and both must be true to the facts as they see them4 ,when such conflict arises1 as it has arisen lately1 if the only answer we can give at present is the old answer given by ,dr4 ,johnson1 ',the state had a right to martyr the ,early ,christians1 and they had a right to be martyred1' yet at least we are farther on if each side honestly recognizes the importance of the work that the other has to do4 ,when we come to the problem raised by the present position and claims of ,trade ,unions1 differentiation of functions is less satisfactory4 ,let us first look at the problem as it confronts us to-day4 ,there was a time when the state was doubtful whether it should allow trade unions to exist4 ,the ,political ,economy prevalent in the earlier part of the nineteenth century taught that trade unions were either unnecessary or useless--unnecessary in so far as economic relations1 if unhindered by regulations from the state or from combinations1 were regarded by economic optimism as themselves producing satisfactory social conditions2 useless where ,political ,economy had substituted for optimism a belief in 'iron laws' whose results no combination or government regulation could affect4 ,we now see that economic relations1 just because they are possible between men who have no common purpose1 need regulation inspired by a common purpose1 and can be affected by such regulation4 ,the growth of governmental interference with industry and of trade unionism are part of the same movement to control the working of economic relations with a view to maintaining the conditions of the good life4 ,trade unions have grown and are still steadily growing in size and importance4 ,for a large portion of the nation loyalty to a trade union has become the most obvious form of collective loyalty or general will4 ,this has been accompanied by an inevitable decrease in what we may call territorial loyalty4 ,the result of the increase in means of communication and the growth of large towns has been that men's common interests as members of the same trade or as employees in the same workshop are coming to mean more and to constitute a greater common bond between men than their common interests as dwellers in the same locality4 ,the trade union has often a more live and real general will than the ,parliamentary constituency4 ,men's aspirations and ideals for their common life are being expressed more truly through trade union organizations than through ,parliament4 ,the growth in the prestige of organized labour is therefore coincident with a decay in the prestige of ,parliament4 ,parliament1 however1 based on a local sub-division of the nation1 is at present the only political organization of the nation4 ,trade union organization1 as a political organization1 has no constitutional authority1 and all the general will which it represents can find no regular national expression4 ,the result is that it either uses the territorial organization by getting men who really represent their ,trade ,union elected as members for ,parliamentary local constituencies1 to the detriment of both the territorial and the trade union organization1 or acts as an imperium in imperio by making demands on and issuing ultimata to ,parliament4 ,we seem to be approaching a crisis where the trade unions are asking whether they will allow the state to exist4 ,this is obviously an unsatisfactory state of affairs4 ,what is the cure for it8 ,differentiation of functions1 as ,i have said1 will not help us here4 ,some writers have maintained that vocational organization should concern itself with industrial or economic matters1 the state1 as we know it1 with political matters4 ,but can we possibly distinguish between industrial and political matters8 ,if the aim of politics is to regulate men's actions in the light of men's common interests1 the action of a trade union is in its essence political4 ,its differentiation from government is that it is concerned with the common interests of a few rather than the common interests of all4 ,the difference between a trade union and a parliamentary constituency is that the sub-division of the general common interest which each represents rests on a different basis of division4 ,the whole community might as well be organized by vocations as it now is by localities4 ,there would seem to be certain advantages in both principles of differentiation1 and one obvious practical solution of our present difficulties is that the supreme organ of government should in its two chambers represent the nation as organized on both principles1 vocational and territorial4 ,we seem to have come now to the discussion of political machinery1 but1 as in our discussion of the ,league of ,nations1 we can see that our attitude to such questions of machinery will vary as we regard the force-bearing organization with its national and territorial basis as the primary fact in the community1 to be distinguished sharply from all other organizations1 or regard the possession of organized force as the expression of men's settled and permanent will to maintain their common interests and safeguard the conditions of the good life4 ,if we consistently follow out ,green's dictum that will1 not force1 is the basis of the state1 we shall be anxious that the political organization to which we render obedience shall follow the actual ramifications of common interests and of men's willingness to co-operate1 and shall recognize that the national state with its territorial basis represents only one form of such ramification4 ,the view that political action is not confined to constitutional and governmental channels will not imply that we must give up the distinction between society and the state4 ,for1 on the one hand1 trade unions have only arisen because of the special need for a common safeguarding of common interests produced by economic relations4 ,economic relations need to be controlled by1 but cannot be superseded by1 politics4 ,on the other hand1 as we have seen1 the work of such associations as churches is different in kind from the work done by political organizations4 ,the inculcation and development of moral ideals and the safeguarding of the conditions of the good life are complementary functions4 ,each is impossible without the other4 ,but that does not make them identical1 however closely interfused they may be4 ,if1 then1 we accept the political theory of idealism as a theory of society1 we must recognize in social life the distinction between ethical1 economic1 and political relations1 and the task before ,political ,theory is to define the relations between politics and economic activities on the one side and ethical activities on the other1 and that in a society which is not confined within the bounds of a single nation state4 ,the intricate ramifications of vast economic undertakings and the common aspirations and ideals of humanity are but signs of a solidarity of mankind that political philosophy must recognize in all the problems it has to face4 ,,for ,,reference ,green1 ,principles of ,political ,obligation4 ,bosanquet1 ,philosophical ,theory of the ,state4 ,barker1 ,political ,thought in ,england from ,spencer to to-day4 ,hobhouse1 ,the ,metaphysical ,theory of the ,state4 ,figgis1 ,churches in the ,modern ,state4 ,cole1 ,labour in the ,commonwealth4 ,cole1 ,self ,government in ,industry4 ,delisle ,burns1 ,the ,morality of ,nations4 ,,vii ,,economic ,,development#bj ,c4,r4 ,,fay ,i4 ,,the ,,industrial ,,scene1 #ahdb #a4 ,let us hover in fancy over the industrial scene in #ahdb1 and photograph a stage of the economic conflict which the people of ,england were waging then with the forces which held them in thrall4 ,our photograph shows us great white lines1 continuous or destined to become continuous2 they are numerous in ,durham and ,lancashire1 and the newest lead up to and away from ,london4 ,these white lines are the new railroads of ,england1 and the myriad ant-heaps along them are the navvies4 ,in the year #ahdh their numbers had risen to #ahh1jjj4ba ,what is a navvy and how does he live8 ,the navvy is an inland navigator who used to dig dykes and canals and now constructs railroads4 ,in the forties the navvies are getting #es4 a day1 and for tunnelling and blasting even more1 but they are a rowdy crowd1 and many of them are ,irish4 ,said the ,sheriff substitute of ,renfrewshire in #ahbg3 ',if an extensive drain1 or canal1 or road were to make that could be done by piecework1 ,i should not feel in the least surprised to find that of #ajj men employed at it1 #ij were ,irish4'#bb ,in #ahdb they are building railroads1 and when they and the ,highlanders are on the same job1 it is necessary to segregate them in order to avoid a breach of the peace4 ,the ,irish sleep in huts and get higher pay than the natives who are lodged in the neighbouring cottages4 ,the ,english navvy too keeps out the ,irishman if he can4 ,on a track in ,northamptonshire1 ',there is only one ,irishman on the work1 for they would not allow any other ,irishman4'#bc ,in the ,south of ,england wages are lower and the navvies are less expert4 ,in ,south ,devon 'very few ,north countrymen2 they are men who have worked down the line of the ,great ,western2 that have followed it from one portion to another'4#bd ,the riff-raff from the villages cannot work stroke for stroke with the navvy4 ',in tilting the waggons they could1 but in the barrow runs it requires practice and experience4'#be ,the high wages of the navvy are offset by the disadvantages of his employment4 ,he is lucky if he gets the whole of his earnings in cash4 ,in the ,trent ,valley they are paid once a month1 'but every fortnight they receive what is called sub that is subsistence money1 and between the times of subsistence money and times of the monthly payment1 they may have tickets by applying to the time-keeper1 or whoever is the person to give them out1 for goods2 and those tickets are directed to a certain person2 they cannot go to any other shop4'#bf ,the huts in which they live are little better than pigsties1 and especially bad for regular navvies1 who take their families about with them4 ,in ,south ,devon1 'man1 woman1 and child all sleep exposed to one another4'#bg ,on a section of the ,london and ,birmingham ,railway fever and small-pox broke out4 ',i have seen'1 says an eye-witness1 'the men walking about with the small-pox upon them as thick as possible and no hospitals to go to4'#bh ,the country people1 the witness continues1 make money by letting rooms double4 ,when one lot came out1 another lot went in4 ,such is the navvy's life at work and at rest4 #b4 ,if we can suppose that our camera is capable of distinguishing centres of industrial activity1 then our picture will give us 'vital' patches1 which stand out against a background of deadness4 ,this deadness is rural ,england4 ,what is the condition of the rural counties of ,wessex8 ',everywhere the cottages are old1 and frequently in a state of decay4' ',ignorance of the commonest things1 needle-work1 cooking1 and other matters of domestic economy1 is 444 nearly universally prevalent4'#bi ,to make both ends meet the wife has abandoned her now useless spinning-wheel and hired herself out to hoe turnips or pick stones4 ,on the little farms inside the factory districts of ,lancashire and ,yorkshire1 on which the country hand-loom weavers eke out a miserable livelihood by cultivating patches of grass land1 there is distress more acute than ever was known in a ,dorset village4 ,but in ,northumberland1 by exception1 there is a decent country life4 ',what ,i saw of the northern peasantry impressed me very strongly in their favour2 they are very intelligent1 sober1 and courteous in their manners4444 ,the education in ,northumberland is very good2 the people are intelligent and cute1 alive to the advantages of knowledge1 and eager to acquire it2 it is a rare thing to find a grown-up labourer who cannot read and write and who is not capable of keeping his own accounts4'#cj ,the same sort of thing was said of ,northumberland in #ahfi3 ',if all ,england had been like ,northumberland1 this commission ought never to have been issued4' ,the ,commissioner found that though the labourers worked harder and longer than in the ,south they were not working against starvation4 ,they were enjoying a rough plenty1 which included fresh milk4 ,the rest of the family earned sufficient to leave the married woman in her home and no children under twelve were employed in field labour4#ca ,here then in ,northumberland there is a decent country life1 but elsewhere there is an atmosphere of deadness2 and it is this deadness of the countryside which explains the horror that new comers to industrial regions frequently expressed at the prospect of a forcible return to the parish of their origin4 ',i was told1' says a visitor to ,lancashire in #ahdb1 'that there had been several instances of death by sheer starvation4 ,on asking why application had not been made to the commissioner of the parish for relief1 ,i was informed that they were persons from agricultural districts who1 having committed an act of vagrancy1 would be sent to their parishes1 and that they had rather endure anything in the hope of some manufacturing revival1 than return to the condition of farm labourers from which they had emerged4 ,this was a fact perfectly new to me1 and at the first blush1 truly incredible1 but ,i asked the neighbours in two of the instances quoted 444 and they not only confirmed the story1 but seemed to consider any appearance of scepticism a mark of prejudice or ignorance4'#cb #c4 ,though there is little peasant life in ,england1 there is life of a feverish desperate order for many who live in country places4 ,these people are not farm workers nor yet are they craftsmen who supply the industrial needs of the village4 ,they are feeders to the towns1 engaged in what is misnamed 'domestic industry'4 ,the life they lead is a sordid replica of an all too sordid original4 ,cobbett in a tirade against the ,lords of the ,loom#cc idealized the old-time union of agriculture and manufacture4 ,the men should work in the fields1 while the women and children stayed at home at their spinning wheels1 making homespun for the family garments4 ,but the picture was a vanishing one even in his day4 ,domestic industry does not mean this4 ,the rural distress revealed in the ,hand-loom ,weavers ,commission is the distress of specialized hand-workers1 male and female1 who are clinging desperately to the worst-paid branch of a dying trade4 ,the worsted industry of ,east ,anglia is perishing1 defeated by the resources of ,yorkshire1 of which the power-loom is only one4 ,the cloth trade in the ,valley of ,stroud 7,gloucester7 is a shadow of its former self4 ,it has lost the power of recovering from a depression4 ,the next period of slackness that comes along may bankrupt the business and rob a village of specialized hand-workers of their main employment4 ,in ,devonshire1 the serge trade1 which used to give employment to looms in almost every town and village1 has become so unremunerative that it has passed into the hands of the wives and daughters of mechanics and agricultural labourers4 ,in ,oxfordshire in #ahcd1 we are told by the ,poor ,law ,commissions of that year1 glove and lace making were vanishing occupations4 ,in the neighbourhood of ,banbury 'some make lace and gloves in the villages4 ,formerly spinning was the work for women in the villages1 now there is scarcely any done4'#cd ,since #ahcd the process of disintegration had proceeded apace4 ,we must not1 however1 convey the impression that domestic industry in #ahdb had all but vanished from the countryside4 ,in its ancient strongholds it still endures1 but it is in an unhealthy condition1 and the towns are sucking its life-blood away4 ,to illustrate this1 let us describe the course of a boom in domestic industry and study how the trade boom of #ahcc-g reached through to the country silk weavers in ,essex and other places all around ,london4 ,the terms which we usually apply to the cultivation of land are apposite4 ,the town workers represent the intensive margin of cultivation1 the country workers the extensive margin4 ,first of all the ,spitalfield weavers1 who have been short of work1 have more work given to them4 ,the weavers' wives also get work1 and their boys and girls who never were on a loom before are now put to the trade4 ,fresh hands are introduced4 ,from the ,metropolis the demand for labour pushes outwards over the country4 ,recourse is had to 'inferior soils'4 ,old weavers in the villages get work1 together with their wives and families4 ,even farm labourers are impressed4 ,blemishes for which at other times deductions would be claimed are now over-looked4 ,carts are sent round to the villages and hamlets with work for the weavers1 so that time may not be lost in going to the warehouses to take back or carry home work4 ,then comes the ebb3 'the immediate effect is that all the less skilful workmen1 the dissolute and disorderly1 are denied work2 the third and fourth looms1 those worked by the sons and daughters of the weavers1 are all thrown out of use'4 ,the intensiveness of cultivation has been reduced in the towns1 the least remunerative no longer pays4 ,the ebb of the tide1 which reduces the quantity of employment in the towns1 leaves the country districts high and dry4 ',at such times the country towns and villages to which work is liberally sent1 when there is a demand for goods1 suffer still more4 ,a staff or skeleton only is kept in pay1 and that chiefly with a view to operations when a demand returns4'#ce ,a skeleton--well said4 ,occasional cultivation is bad for land1 and worse for human beings4 ,the ribbon-weaving villages north of ,coventry are a disorderly eruption from the town4 ,coventry itself has the better-paid 'engine weaving'2 the rural districts have the 'single hand trade'4 ,the country workers1 say the ,commissioners1 'retain most of their original barbarism with an accession of vice'4 ,the yokels who went out to the ,french wars innocent boys returned confirmed rogues4 ,bastardy is greater than ever1 despite the new ,poor ,law4 ',it may surprise the denouncers of the factory system to find all the vices and miseries which they attribute to it1 flourishing so rankly in the midst of a population not only without the walls of a factory1 but also beyond the contamination of a large town4'#cf ,it may have surprised such people1 but it does not surprise us who are surveying the industrial scene and beginning to apprehend the rottenness of that worm-eaten structure which under the misnomer of domestic industry marks the half-way house to full capitalism4 #d4 ,let us now journey to the factory districts of ,lancashire and the ,west ,riding of ,yorkshire where town lies close upon town1 and the tall chimneys envelop in smoke the cottages in which hand-loom weavers work and the children of hand-loom weavers sleep4 ,let us suppose that we have found our position by ,leeds4 ,we should like to follow the track of the new railroads1 for we have in our pocket a small green book3 ',bradshaw's ,railway ,time ,tables and ,assistant to ,railway ,travelling'4 '#ajth ,mo4 #aith1 #ahci4 ,price ,sixpence4' ,bradshaw tells us that we can get from ,littleborough to ,manchester in #aa hours--via ,rochdale1 ,heywood1 and ,millshill--but it is not clear how we are to get to ,littleborough4 ,so we follow an alternative route1 the canal4 ,it is a fashionable method of transit for mineral traffic and paupers4 ,mr4 ,muggeridge1 the emigration agent1 tells us how he transported the southern paupers in #ahcf4 ',the journey from ,london to ,manchester was made by boat or waggon1 the agents assisting the emigrants on their journey4'#cg ,when we got up our geography for the tour out of ,thomas ,dugdale's ',england and ,wales' this is what we read at every turn3 ',keighley3 in the deep valley of the ,aire1 its prosperity had been much increased by the ,leeds and ,liverpool ,canal which passes within two miles4' ',skipton3 in a rough mountainous district4 ,the trade has been greatly facilitated by the proximity of the town to the ,leeds and ,liverpool ,canal4' ,so the ,leeds and ,liverpool canal shall be our guide4 ,we leave ,bradford1 ,halifax1 and the worsted districts to the left of us1 and passing by ,shipley1 approach the cotton district near the ,lancashire border4 ',the township of ,shipley is the western-most locality of the ,leeds clothing districts2 it runs like a tongue into the worsted district4 ,in like manner the worsted district blends with the cotton district at ,steeton1 ,silsden1 and ,addingham4' ,we are passing1 the ,commissioner tells us1 from high wages to low4 ',the cloth weavers of ,shipley work for wages little1 if any1 higher than those of the worsted weavers2 while the worsted weavers north-west of ,keighley are reduced down to the cotton standard4'#ch ,at ,keighley we bend sharply south and soon reach ,colne in ,lancashire4 ,dr4 ,cook ,taylor describes the conditions there in the early part of #ahdb3 ',i visited eighty-eight dwellings1 selected at hazard4 ,they were destitute of furniture save old boxes for tables or stalls1 or even large stones for chairs2 the beds are composed of straw and shavings4 ,the food was oatmeal and water for breakfast1 flour and water1 with a little skimmed milk for dinner1 oatmeal and water again for a second supply4' ,he actually saw children in the markets grubbing for the rubbish of roots4 ,and yet1 'all the places and persons ,i visited were scrupulously clean4 ,children were in rags1 but they were not in filth4 ,in no single instance was ,i asked for relief4444 ,i never before saw poverty which inspired respect1 and misery which demanded involuntary homage4' ,from ,colne we journey to ,accrington4 ,of its #i1jjj inhabitants not more than #ajj were fully employed4 ,numbers kept themselves alive by collecting nettles and boiling them4 ,some were entirely without food every alternate day1 and many had but one meal in the day and that a poor one4#ci ,our last stage is ,burnley1 where the weavers--to quote again from ,dr4 ,cook ,taylor--'were haggard with famine1 their eyes rolling with that fierce and uneasy expression common to maniacs4 ,we do not want charity1 they said1 but employment4 ,i found them all ,chartists1 but with this difference1 that the block-printers and hand-loom weavers united to their ,chartism a hatred of machinery which was far from being shared by the factory operatives4' ,what a comment on ,england's industrial supremacy--,england with her virtual monopoly of large-scale manufacture in ,europe6 ,it must have been a puzzle1 too1 for the ,poor ,law ,commissioners1 who were then building workhouses in these parts for the purpose of depauperizing hand-loom weavers on the less eligibility principle4 ,but how was it1 with such a ,poor ,law1 that the hand-loom weavers did not die of starvation by the thousand8 ,if we enter a cotton mill we shall see why4 ,within these gaunt walls1 which are illumined at night by sputtering gas-light1 the factory children work1 earning twice as much as their parents1 who were too old and too respectable to become factory hands4 ,by this time1 perhaps1 it is evening1 but this matters nothing to the 'melancholy mad engines'1 which feed on water or burning coals4 ,the young people will still be there1 with eight hours work to their credit and more to do--'kept to work by being spoken to or by a little chastisement'4#dj ',i have seen them fall asleep1' said an over-looker in #ahcc1 'and they have been performing their work with their hands while they were asleep1 after the ,billy had stopped4 ,put to bed with supper in their hands1 they were clasping it next morning1 when their parents dragged them out of bed4 ,half asleep they stumbled or were carried to the mill1 to begin again the ceaseless round4' ',it keeps them out of mischief'1 said the opponents of shorter hours4 ,besides1 the conditions were no worse than any other industries6 ,factory work1 however1 as the doctors show1 was different from work in the mines4 ,the heat and confinement of the mill caused precocious sexual development1 whilst in the mines the result of exaggerated muscular development was to delay maturity4 ,in #ahdb conditions are better than they were in #ahcc--thanks to the factory inspectors4 ,there is little positive cruelty1 and the sight of deformity--enlarged ankle bones1 bow legs1 and knock knees1 caused by excessive standing as a child--is rare4 ,the problem now is one of industrial fatigue4 ,the children are 'sick-tired'4 #e4 ,the ,midlands of ,leicestershire1 ,notts1 and ,derbyshire are a region of red bricks and pantiles1 dotted over valleys of exquisite green4 ,so let us leave the smoke of ,lancashire and hover here for a while4 ,here dwell the stocking workers or frame-work knitters--the people who knit on frames stockings1 gloves1 and other articles of hosiery4 ,it does not look like a region of industry4 ,there are only a few towns1 such as ,nottingham1 ,leicester1 and ,loughborough2 and except for a few lace factories in ,nottingham1 large buildings are rare4 ,the town knitters either work in their own homes or in shops with standings for perhaps as many as fifty frames4 ,in the villages the knitting is nearly all done in the cottages1 opposite long low windows1 or in a small out-house which might well be a fowl-house4 ,but in the streets of ,leicester we can see 'life' of a sort4 ,we can watch the procession to the pawnbrokers4 ,some of the knitters pawn their blankets for the day1 and most lodge their ,sunday clothing during the week4 ,says a ,leicester pawnbroker3 ',we regularly pay away from #dj to #ej 7to some #cjj persons7 every ,monday morning or on the ,tuesday4 ,they will1 perhaps1 wash on the ,monday and get their linen clean preparatory to the next ,sunday1 and in the course of the week they bring all the linen things they can spare4 ,friday is the worst2 they will then bring their small trifling articles1 such as are scarcely worth a penny1 and we lend on them1 to enable them to buy a bit of meat or a few trifles for dinner4'#da ,they are too poor to indulge in church-going or alcohol4 ,they have no clothes to go to church in4 ,their publican is the druggist1 where they buy opium for themselves and ,godfrey's cordial1 a preparation from laudanum1 for their children4 ,in the whole of ,leicester1 with its population of #ej1jjj1 there are but nine gin-houses4 ,and only on ,sundays do they get a bit of schooling4 ',we have only one bit of a cover lid to cover the five of us in winter 444 we are all obliged to sleep in one bed4'#db ,a frame smith1 making his usual inspection of hosiers' frames at workmen's dwellings in ,nottingham1 after thus spending a fortnight1 found his health had begun to suffer from the squalid wretchedness of their abodes4 ,thinking to improve it1 he went on the same errand into the country1 but found the frame-work knitters there in a still more deplorable state4 ,from the bad air and other distressing influences in their condition and that of their dwellings1 in another fortnight he returned1 too ill to attend to his business for some weeks afterwards4 ,this occurred in #ahdc4dc ,nottingham1 however1 with its up-to-date lace trade was usually better off than this4 ,the lace factories1 like the cotton mills in ,lancashire1 eased the position of the hand-workers4 ,in ,leicestershire the knitters had no such alternative4 ,the more their earnings were reduced1 the more helplessly they were bound to their only trade4 #f4 #ahdb is a long while ago6 ,let us go to sleep for thirty years and wake up in #ahga1 when the ,truck ,commissioners are publishing their report4 ,west of ,birmingham lies the black country1 an area of some twenty square miles4 ,here1 if we have read the evidence of the ,truck ,commissioners1 we can interpret a dumb-show in ,dudley1 where the nail-makers dwell4 ,on ,monday mornings the nail-maker emerges from a small hovel containing a smithy and walks into ,dudley to call on a gentleman known as a fogger1 a petty-fogger if he is a middleman1 a market-fogger if he is a master4 ,the nailer comes out with a bundle of metal which he takes to a second house and changes for a second bundle of metal1 and with this he walks away4 7,the next nailer1 not so lucky1 hangs about till ,wednesday morning1 waiting for his metal47 ,on ,saturday the nailer comes back with his nails1 enters the fogger's shop1 and emerges with #abs4 in his hand4 ,but he does not go home4 ,he slips into a shop close by and parts company with the shillings4 ,in return he gets a parcel1 the contents of which are obviously displeasing to him4 ,what has happened8 ,the nailer is a ,government servant4 ,but the ,government only employs him indirectly4 ,it puts out contracts for rivets and nails to contractors who sublet their contract1 so that the work reaches the nailer at third or fourth hand4 ,the ,government1 in the interest of public economy 7,victorian ,england is famous for retrenchment71 gives its contract to the lowest tenderer2 and the policy of the lowest tender is responsible for the dumb-show we have watched4 ,to begin with1 the nailer gets metal which does not suit him1 so he has to change it1 and this he does at the price of #b;d4 per #aj;d4 bundle1 at a metal changers1 a relative of the fogger4 7,his friend who has to wait till ,wednesday for his bundle is kept idling about in order that he may drink what is left of last week's earnings at a 'wobble shop' which is owned by yet another branch of the family of fogger47 ,when the nailer and his family have worked fourteen hours a day throughout the week1 the nailer returns on ,saturday with the nails1 and receives #abs4 for them4 ,these shillings he takes to the fogger's store and exchanges for tea and other articles4 ,the shillings are 'nimble'2 we commend the rapidity of their circulation to ,mr4 ,irving ,fisher4 ,a fogger who pays out the shillings from his warehouse receives them back again in a few minutes over the counter of his store4 ',he will perhaps reckon with seven or eight at one time1 and when he has reckoned with them1 and perhaps paid them six1 seven1 or eight pounds1 he will wait until they have gone to the shop and taken the money there as they leave the warehouse4 ,then he goes into the shop himself for it1 as he cannot go on paying without it4'#dd ,but surely this is truck6 ,certainly not4 ,there may be 'fearful cheating' with tea1 but the nailer is not bound to go there4 ,he is perfectly free4 ,the only trouble is this3 it is a case of tea or no work the week following4 ,this is why1 despite the ,truck ,act of #ahca and despite the known existence of the abuse1 these practices are rife among the nailers as late as #ahga1 the year in which the ,truck ,commissioners issued the ,report from which this scene is compiled4 ,the plight of the nailers is not the plight of factory operatives or miners2 it is the plight of the frame-work knitters1 of men who are bound by the intangible fetters of economic need to the uncontrollable devil of 'semi-capitalism'4 #b4 ,,mining ,,operations #a4 ,coal was king of the nineteenth century4 ,the first steam-engine was built to pump water out of coal mines1 the first canal was cut to carry the ,duke of ,bridgwater's coal from ,worsley to ,manchester4 ,the first railroads were laid around ,newcastle to convey the coals from the pit mouth to the river4 ,george ,stephenson1 the inventor of the locomotive1 began life as a trapper on a ,tyneside colliery4 ,where would ,english industry have been without its king8 ,in #aghj 7in round figures7 #e1jjj1jjj tons of coal were raised in the ,united ,kingdom3 in #ahjj1 #aj1jjj1jjj2 in #ahfe1 #ajj1jjj1jjj2 and in #ahig1 #bjj1jjj1jjj4 ,coal enticed the cotton factories from the dales of the ,pennines to the moist lowlands of ,west ,lancashire4 ,at every stage of their work the iron-makers depended on coal2 and the great inventions in the iron and steel industry are land-marks in the expansion of the demand for coal--,cort's puddling process #aghc1 ,watt's steam-engine #aghe1 ,neilson's hot blast #ahbd1 ,naysmith's steam-hammer #ahce1 ,bessemer's steel-converter #ahee1 ,siemen's open hearth #ahgj1 ,thomas' basic process for the treatment of highly phosphoric ores #ahgh4 ,the steamship1 a novelty in #ahbj1 ruled the seas in #ahgj2 and ironclads followed steamships4 ,the smokeless steam-coal of ,south ,wales guarded the heritage of ,trafalgar4 ,by the end of the nineteenth century1 coaling stations were an important item in international politics4 ,meanwhile1 the people of ,england1 heedless of ,malthusian forebodings1 multiplied exceedingly4 ,they lighted their streets and buildings with coal-gas1 and burnt coal in their grates4 ,with coal they paid for the food and raw materials from other lands4 ,imports of food and raw materials were offset by exports of coal and of textiles and hardware produced by coal4 ,the spirit of invention has pushed on to electricity and oil1 but coal is still the pivot of ,english industry and commerce4 ,and therefore1 seeing that coal has meant all this to ,england1 let us look at the men who raised the coal4 ,how did they live1 what did they think about1 what did they count for then1 what do they count for now8 #b4 ,in #ahjj the miners stood for nothing in the nation's life4 ,in ,scotland they had just been emancipated from the status of villeinage4 ,in ,northumberland and ,durham they were tied by yearly bonds4 ,elsewhere they were weak and isolated4 ,in #ahbe a ',voice from the coal mines of the ,tyne and ,wear' cried3 ',while working men in general are making #bjs4 to #cjs4 per week 7sic7 the pitmen here are only making #acs4 #f;d4 and from this miserable pittance deductions are made4'#de ,in #ahci1 during the ,chartist disturbances1 a ,welsh ,m4,p4 wrote to the ,home ,secretary begging for barracks and troops3 ',a more lawless set of men than the colliers and miners do not exist 444 it requires some courage to live among such a set of savages4'#df ,when the miners came out in #ahdd1 there were thousands of cottages tenantless in ,northumberland and ,durham4 ,for the colliery proprietors owned the cottages1 and when the miners struck evicted them4 ,so the miners set up house in the streets4 ',in one lane 444 a complete new village was built1 chests-of-drawers1 deck beds1 etc41 formed the walls of the new dwelling2 and the top covered with canvas or bedclothes as the case might be4'#dg ,yet1 for all their griminess1 they had human hearts and voices4 ,during the strike they obtained permission to hold a meeting at ,newcastle2 and the wealthy citizens who made their fortunes out of the coal trade trembled before the invasion of black barbarians4 ,but the meeting passed off in rain and peace4 ,thirty thousand miners marched in procession1 'for near a mile flags in breeze1 men walking in perfect order'2 and as they marched1 they sang1 as only miners sing1 songs and hymns and topical ditties3 ',stand fast to your ,union ,brave sons of the mine1 ,and we'll conquer the tyrants ,of ,tees1 ,wear1 and ,tyne6' ,up and down the ,durham coalfields tramped a misguided agitator 7in after life the veteran servant of the ,durham ,miners' ,association71 by name ,tommy ,ramsey4 ,with bills under his arm and crake in hand1 he went from house-row to house-row calling the miners out4 ,he had only one message3 ',lads1 unite and better your condition4 ,when eggs are scarce1 eggs are dear2 ,when men are scarce1 men are dear4'#dh ,such blasphemy appalled the ,government's ,commissioners4 ,but the miners had a zest for religion as well as for strikes4 ,during the strike of #ahdd1 'frequent meetings were held in their chapels 7in general those of the ,primitive ,methodists or ,ranters as they are commonly called in that part of the country71 where prayers were publicly offered up for the successful result of the strike4' ,they attended their prayer meeting 'to get their faith strengthened'4#di ,such ignorance could only be cured by education4 ,some worthy members of society had already recognized the fact4 ,in #ahcj a ,cardiff ',society for the improvement of the working population in the county of ,glamorgan' issued improving pamphlets3 ,no4 #i4 ,population1 or ,patty's ,marriage4 ,no4 #aj4 ,the ,poor's ,rate1 or the ,treacherous ,friend4 ,no4 #aa4 ,foreign ,trade1 or the ,wedding ,gown4#ej ,but the northern miners were perverse people4 ,in ,scotland1 according to one ,wesleyan minister1#ea the miners read ,adam ,smith4 ,in ,northumberland1 with still greater perversity1 they preferred ,plato4 ',a translation of ,plato's ,ideal ,republic is much read among those classes1 principally for the socialism and unionism it contains2 in pure ignorance1 of course1 that ,plato himself subsequently modified his principles and that ,aristotle showed their fallacy4'#eb #c4 ,the ,royal ,commission of #ahdb on the ,employment and ,condition of ,children and ,young ,persons in ,mines disclosed facts which made ,cobdenite ,england gasp4 ,the worst evidence came from ,lancashire1 ,cheshire1 the ,west ,riding of ,yorkshire1 ,east ,scotland1 and ,south ,wales4 ,in these districts juvenile labour was cheap and plentiful2 and this was an irresistible argument for its employment1 though the miners themselves disliked it4 ,the meddlesome restrictions on the factories were a contributory cause4 ,parents1 it was said in ,lancashire1 were pushing their children into colliery employment at an earlier age because of the legal restrictions upon sending them to the neighbouring factories4 ,a ,lancashire woman said in evidence3 ',i have a belt round my waist and a chain passing between my legs1 and ,i go on my hands and feet4444 ,the pit is very wet where ,i work and the water comes over our clog tops always1 and ,i have seen it up to my thighs4444 ,i have drawn till ,i have had the skin off me2 the belt and chain is worse when we are in the family way4'#ec ,the children's office was a lonesome one4 ,children hate the dark1 but being little they fitted into a niche1 and so they were used to open and close the trap-doors4 ,a trapper lad from the county of ,monmouth1 ,william ,richards1 aged seven-and-a-half1 said in evidence3 ',i been down about three years4 ,when ,i first went down1 ,i could not keep my eyes open2 ,i don't fall asleep now2 ,i smokes my pipe1 smokes half a quartern a week4'#ed ,except in the northern mining districts1 where there were good day and ,sunday schools and ,methodism was powerful1 a pagan darkness prevailed4 ,as a ,derbyshire witness put it3 ',when the boys have been beaten1 knocked about1 and covered with sludge all the week1 they want to be in bed all day to rest on ,sunday4'#ee ,in the hope of startling a religiously-minded ,england1 the ,commissioners reproduced examples of working-class ignorance4 ,james ,taylor1 aged eleven1 ',has heard of hell in the pit1 when the men swore2 has never heard of ,jesus ,christ2 has never heard of ,god2 he has heard the men in the pit say1 ,god damn thee 4' ,a ,yorkshire girl1 aged eighteen1 said3 ',i do not know who ,jesus ,christ was2 ,i never saw him1 but ,i have seen ,foster1 who prays about him4'#ef #d4 ,just as in the ,east ,midlands the frame-work knitters worked for middlemen or master middlemen1 and just as the ,dudley nailers worked for petty-foggers and market-foggers1 so too the ,staffordshire miners worked for 'butties'4 ,here again the workers were exposed to the petty tyrannies of semi-capitalism2 and here again the middlemen1 in this case the butties1 incurred the odium of a system for which their superiors1 the coal-owners and coal-masters1 were responsible4 ,why the butty system prevailed in the ,midlands--and in a modified form it prevails to-day--is not clear4 ,in some places it seems to be connected with the smallness of the mining concerns or of the metal trades which they supplied4 ,in ,south ,staffordshire a contributing factor was the ancient and allied industry of nail-making4 ,the conditions in ,south ,staffordshire in #ahdc are fully described in the ,midland ,mining ,commission of that year4 ,the butty was a contractor who engaged with the proprietor or lessee of the mine to deliver the coal or iron-stone at so much per ton1 himself hiring the labourers1 using his own horses1 and supplying the tools requisite for the working of the mine4 ,the contract price was known as the 'charter price' or 'charter'4 ,thus by a freak of language the ,staffordshire miner knew by the same word the 'butty's charter' which was the symbol of his oppression1 and the 'people's charter' which was the goal of his desire4 ',the butties'1 said the miners and their wives1 'are the devil3 they are negro drivers3 they play the vengeance ,with the men4'#eg ,the men kicked when1 after working a couple of hours1 they were fetched up1 without pay1 on the excuse that there were no waggons to take away the coal4 ,but the butty comforted them with a bottle of pit drink1 and all was smooth again4 ,a collier related a case where 'a pike man had worked only one half-day in the week and got #bs4 for it1 and because he did not spend #f;d4 of this at the butty's shop1 the latter told the doggy 7the under man7 to let the man play for it4'#eh ,the miners recognized that often the butty was not to blame4 ,in the district north and east of ,dudley1 the butties got their 'charter price' from the coal-owners in the form of tickets on the coal-owners' truck-shop4 ,what else could they do but hand them on to the men8 ',he used to be a very good butty1' said one miner's wife1 'till they haggled him and dropped his charter1 so that he cannot pay his men4'#ei ,west and south of ,dudley the butties1 though they did not truck their men1 kept public-houses2 and being employer and publican in one1 they had a tight hold on the men4 ,was the compulsion to drink an oppression8 ,to our minds1 yes2 as also to the minds of the teetotal ,chartists whom the ,government imprisoned1 and of the strike leaders whom the ,government's ,commissioners denounced4 ,but to the majority of the miners the abundance of beer was a delight4 ,they objected to the butty's bullying1 but they loved his beer1 especially the feckless ones1 for when wives were importunate the drunkards pleaded necessity4 ,however1 all the beer-drinking could not be charged to the butties4 ,the miners themselves1 in their own fellowships1 were devoted to it2 and the compulsion of friends was as severe as the compulsion of butties4 ,every approach to recreation1 every act of mutual providence against accident or disease1 began and ended in beer4 ,the day a man entered the pit's company1 he paid #as4 for footing-ale1 and the doggy saw that no churl escaped4 ,when a lad was old enough to have a sweetheart he was toasted with the 'nasty' shilling4 ,the sins of the married men were washed away in half-a-crown's worth of ale4 ,the beer-shop was the head-quarters of the ,burial and ,savings ,clubs4 ,the first charge on a ,burial ,club was a good oak coffin1 the second charge drinks for the pall-bearers1 and then a glass or two for the rest of the company4 ,they had lotteries to which each man contributed #bj fortnightly shillings4 ,each week a name was drawn1 and the lucky man stood a feast2 while every member1 in addition to a shilling for the box1 produced #f;d4 for drinks4 ,in all these festivities the butty was in the offing4 ,when they would have him he presided2 and so at his worst an obnoxious bully1 at his best he was an accommodating landlord4 ,direct employment1 such as prevailed in the north of ,england1 would have averted much of this evil4 ,there were no structural difficulties in the way of change4 ,direct employment would not have meant a change to another class of work 7this is what direct employment meant for knitters and hand-loom weavers74 ,the butty system existed and persisted through slackness and irresponsibility4 ,the owners paid compensation for accidents1 when they might have diminished the number of accidents4 ,they paid commissions to middlemen with whom they might have dispensed4 ,the system made temperance impossible for the individual2 and the masters1 with the full approval of the ,government1 did their best to destroy the 'pernicious combinations' by which alone a standard of sober decency could be promoted4 #e4 ,the ,report of the ,truck ,commissioners 7#ahga-b7 enables us to complete the picture4 ,it also enables us to understand why1 at this late day1 truck was still rife in certain districts4 ,truck and ,tommy1 truck-shop and ,tommy-shop1 are convertible terms4 ,truck is from the ,french 'troc' barter4 ,cobbett tells us how the word ',tommy' was used4 ,in his soldiering days the rations of brown bread1 'for what reason ,god knows'1 went by the name of ,tommy4 ',when the soldiers came to have bread served out to them in the several towns in ,england1 the name of ,tommy went down by tradition1 and1 doubtless1 it was taken up and adapted to the truck-system in ,staffordshire and elsewhere4'#fj ,from the textile districts it had all but disappeared in #ahga4 ,when the cotton manufactures went to outlying dales for water power1 they were almost compelled to open stores for their workpeople4 ,owen's store at ,new ,lanark was1 in effect1 a well-managed truck-shop2 and the ,truck ,commissioners of #ahga reported that the ,new ,lanark ,company of that day was breaking the law4 ,but when the cotton industry was gathered in the towns1 the need for company stores ceased4 ,consequently1 after the passing of the ,act of #ahca1 which prohibited truck altogether1 the masters very generally abolished the stores of their own accord2 and survivals were jealously watched4 ,a collection of ,factory ,scraps1 preserved at the ,goldsmiths' ,library in ,london1 contains a copy of the ,factory ,bill of #ahcc1 with some pencil notes in ,ostler's handwriting which run3 ,cragg ,dale ,facts ,truck ,system3 ,little altered3 men knew they were imposed4 ,they pay in money now--but compel them to buy at their own shops4444 ,wholesale warehouses at ,rochdale say1 ',oh6 put it sideways3 it will do for ,cragg ,dale masters to sell among their people4' ,song3 ',lousy butter and burnt bread4' ,about #ahdb a curious perversion of truck was prevalent in parts of ,yorkshire4 ,the trade depression in the ,bradford district tempted disreputable woollen manufacturers to force on their operatives the products of the factory as part payment of wages4 ,combers were given pieces of cloth1 workers in shoddy mills bundles of rags4 ,but this utterly inexcusable fraud1 no less than its more specious complement1 the employer's store1 was rooted out by inspectors and factory reformers4 ,therefore in #ahed the ,government's ,commissioner was able to say that in a factory district like ,lancashire truck was not only non-existent but 'impossible'4#fa ,he was right as to the factory districts1 but not quite right as to ,lancashire4 ,in ,prescot1 a small ,lancashire town on the fringe of the factory district1 the watchmakers in #ahga were being paid in watches4 ,the masters alleged that they only gave watches to the workers when the latter had orders for them1 but the evidence showed that these orders only came to hand when the men were asking for fresh work4 ,the pawnbrokers explained what happened4 ',watches'1 said a pawnbroker's clerk1 'pass from hand to hand as a circulating medium until they get very low in the market and are pawned4'#fb ,the pawnshop in question had #gjj watches on pledge1 most of them belonging to workmen in the town4 ,in railway contracting truck was prevalent in the forties4 ,in roving employment of this type it is difficult to see how some form of contractor's shop could have been avoided4 ,the navvy needed canteens or ,y4,m4,c4,a4 huts1 but such things had not been thought of then4 ,however1 when the big period of railway construction came to an end1 the question lost its importance4 ,south ,staffordshire and the ,black ,country were the ancient strongholds of truck4 ,the campaigns against truck originated here4 ,the nailers1 the cash-paying masters1 and the respectable ratepayers joined together to promote the ,truck ,act of #ahbj4 ,lord ,hatherton1 a ,staffordshire nobleman1 after three years hammering at the ,house of ,commons1 obtained the ,truck ,act of #ahca4 ,but in #ahdc1 the year of the ,midland ,mining ,commission1 truck was still rife in the coalfields4 ,the well-known ,tommy-shop scene in ,disraeli's novel ,sybil1 which was published in #ahde1 is taken direct from the ,commissioners' ,report4 ,diggs1 the butty of the novel1 is ,banks1 the coal proprietor of the ,report4 ,in the novel the people say of ,master ,joseph ,diggs1 the son3 ',he do swear at the women1 when they rush in for the first turn1 most fearful2 they do say he's a shocking little dog4' ,in the ,report1 page #ic1 the miner's wife says3 ',he swears at the women when the women are trying to crush in4 ,he is a shocking little dog4' ,one touch is ,disraeli's own4 ,he makes the miners keen to purchase 'the young ,queen's picture'4 ',if the ,queen would do something for us poor men1 it would be a blessed job4' ,in the ,report there is nothing about this1 but there is a section dealing with ,chartism4 ,however1 the truck-shop was gradually disappearing4 ,every year it became easier to expose evasions1 and in good times the workers used their prosperity to slip away from the ,company store4 ,in #ahej a final campaign was initiated by five local ,anti-,truck ,associations1 backed by the ,national ,miners' ,association under ,alexander ,mac,donald4 ,truck-masters were prosecuted and truck was steadily dislodged from the coalfields and adjacent ironworks4 ,only in the nail trade did it survive1 for the reason that the complete subjection of the nailers made it possible to practise the essentials of truck without a formal violation of the law4 ,in the remaining colliery districts in #ahga truck was prevalent only in ,west ,scotland and ,south ,wales4 ,in ,west ,scotland it was yielding ground before the pressure of the unions4 ,the companies only maintained it by active coercion4 ,if a miner held out for money1 they had to yield2 and if they were malicious1 they marked him as a sloper and dismissed him the first when a depression came4 ',black lists'1 said the ,truck ,commissioners1 'are often kept of slopers2 threats of dismissal were repeatedly proved2 and cases of actual dismissal for not dealing at the store are not rare4'#fc ,however1 the masters themselves were getting tired of it1 since it led so frequently to strikes4 ,truck in ,south ,staffordshire was bound up with the butty system2 in railway construction with the system of contracting and sub-contracting1 and similarly in ,south ,wales1 as also in the west of ,scotland1 it was bound up with and dependent on the system of long pays4 ,in order to carry on from one pay day to the next1 the men got advances on the company's store4 ,in this way many lived permanently ahead of their wages4 ,the thriftless and drunkards were always 'advance men1 but the provident miners hated it and only dealt there on compulsion'4 ,the ,commissioners drew a vivid picture of ,turn ,book morning in ,south ,wales at the close of the pay month4 ,at #a or #b a4m4 the women and children begin to arrive with their ,advance ,books4 ,perhaps one hundred would be there1 wet or fine1 sleeping on the doorsteps or singing ballads until morning4 ,at #e4cj a4m4 the doors opened1 and the waiters made a rush for the counter4 ,advance ,books were produced1 and goods handed over up to the amount of wages which would shortly fall due4 ,women took their pick of the articles1 groceries1 tobacco1 occasionally a few shillings4 ',it is quite usual'1 say the ,commissioners1 'for shoemakers and other small tradesmen in the neighbourhood of ,abersychan to be paid by the workmen in goods4444 ,tobacco in several districts of ,south ,wales has become nothing less than a circulating medium4 ,it is bought by the men and resold by them for drink1 and finds its way back again to some of the ,company's shops4 ,packets of tobacco pass unopened from hand to hand4 ,an ,ebbw ,vale grocer who took the ,company's tobacco at a discount declared3 ,for years1 when they were selling it for #as4 #d;d4 a lb4 ,i used to give #as42 but ,i was so much over-flooded with it that ,i was obliged to reduce the price to #aa;d4 ,that would not do still1 and ,i had to reduce it to #aj;d4 ,i told the men to take it to some other shop if they could get #aa;d4 or #as4 for it4 ,i was obliged to do that many a time1 in order to get rid of the large stocks ,i held in hand4 ,tobacco will not keep for many months without getting worse4' ,weekly pays1 therefore1 were the constant demand of the miners' unions4 ,in ,northumberland and ,durham1 whence truck had disappeared long ago1 pays were fortnightly1 and the only objection advanced by the owners against weekly pays was the practical inconvenience of the pressure on the pay staff4 ,in the ,north of ,england ,iron ,trade1 weekly pays1 the ,commissioners found1 had just been introduced4 ,in ,west ,scotland some of the coal-owners were trying to recoup themselves for the loss of their truck-shop by charging poundage on the men's wages4 ,but this dodge1 like the bigger grievance of truck1 was stoutly resisted by the local union4 ,indeed1 in one coalfield after another the disappearance of truck and kindred evils coincides with the appearance of strong ,county ,unions4 #f4 ,we are given to understand that the miners of ,south ,wales insist on economics written by sound labour men4 ,we therefore offer them a few suggestions for a history of the currency in the nineteenth century from the worker's point of view4 i4 ,in #ahjj ,london relied for small coin on private enterprise4 ,every week the ,jews' boys collected from the shopkeepers their bad shillings1 buying them at a heavy discount1 with serviceable copper coin forged in ,birmingham 7vide ,patrick ,colquhoun1 ,a ,treatise on the ,police of the ,metropolis1 #ahjj1 ,chapter ,,vii74 ,the resumption of cash payments in #ahai was injurious2 for owing to the shortage of small coin1 the wage-earners were paid in bulk with large notes1 which they had to split at the nearest public-house4 ,the ,truck ,act of #ahca prohibited wage-payments in notes on ,banks more than #ae miles distant1 but said nothing about cheques--an oversight which the capitalists repeated in their ,bank ,act of #ahdd4 ii4 ,the general dissatisfaction with the state of the currency led to attempts to dispense with coin4 ,about #ahcj ,labour ,exchanges were opened in ,london for the exchange of goods against time notes1 representing one or more hours of labour4 ,the originator was ,robert ,owen1 and the failure of the ,exchanges was probably due to the fact that ,owen was at heart a capitalist4 ,the ,national ,equitable ,labour ,exchange at one time was doing a business of over #bj1jjj hours per week1 but very shortly after this1 the ,president 7,owen7 had to report a serious deficiency of hours1 many thousands having been mislaid or stolen4 ,the ,exchange in consequence had to close its doors4 iii4 ,in the 'forties the centre of interest is the ,midlands1 and the period may be termed the ,staffordshire or beer period4 ,the currency was very popular and highly liquid1 but it was issued to excess and difficult to store4 ,more solid surrogates were therefore tried4 ,a ,bilston pawnbroker#fd said that he had in pawn numerous batches of flour1 which the men's wives had brought from the ,truck ,shops and turned into money1 in order to pay their house-rents4 ,flour1 however1 was not so hard as a ,prescot watch4 iv4 ,we come next to the ,welsh or ,tobacco period1 when the currency was easily transferable1 but liable to deterioration4 v4 ,finally1 in the last quarter of the nineteenth century1 the world of labour attained to a cash basis1 and there was no ,cobbett to denounce the resumption4 ,we shall not be guilty of serious exaggeration if we preface our history with the motto3 ',in the nineteenth century the ,trade ,unions and the ,trade ,unions alone made the nominal earnings of the working man a cash reality4' #c4 ,,the ,,spirit ,,of ,,association #a4 ,the student of ,dicey's ,law and ,opinion in ,england is invited to distinguish three periods3 i4 ,the period of old ,toryism or legislative quiescence 7#ahjj-ch74 ii4 ,the period of ,benthamism or individualism 7#ahbe-gj74 iii4 ,the period of collectivism 7#ahfe-aijj74 ,bentham lived during the first period and his name is rightly given to the second period4 ,the student1 therefore1 comes to wonder if there is anything which is not ,benthamism4 ,benthamism1 he says to himself1 stands for individualism4 ,how then can the period of ,benthamism include the humanitarian legislation which begins with the first ,factory ,act of #ahjb and broadens out during the middle of the century into the elaborate code regulating from then onwards the conditions of employment in workshops1 factories1 and mines8 ,how can a monster beget an angel8 ,we may perhaps throw light on this difficulty by suggesting that the social trend from #ahbe-gj cannot be compressed into a single word4 ,individualism may suffice to define the dominant legal trend1 but it conceals the influence exerted on the legislature from without and from below by the action of voluntary associations4 ,the period of voluntary association coincides with and overlaps the period of individualism4 #b4 ,what ,bentham was to individualism1 ,robert ,owen was to voluntary association4 ,bentham himself was an admirer of ,owen and supported his philanthropy1 but1 as expressions of a social attitude1 ,benthamism and ,owenism were poles asunder4 ,the contrast between the two is admirably displayed in the evidence given before the ,factory ,committee of #ahaf by two representatives of the employing class1 ,josiah ,wedgwood of pottery fame and ,robert ,owen himself4 ',in the state of society1' said ,wedgwood1 'in which there is evidently a progressive movement1 it is much better to leave things as they are than to attempt to amend the general state of things in detail4 ,the only safe way of securing the comfort of any people is to leave them at liberty to make the best use of their time1 and to allow them to appropriate their earnings in such way as they think fit4'#fe ,robert ,owen thought otherwise4 ,in a couple of answers he exposed the fallacy of enlightened self-interest4 ,they seem obvious enough to-day1 but in #ahaf they were the voice of one crying in the wilderness4 ,he was asked whether he believed that 'there is that want of affection and feeling on the part of parents1 that would induce them to exact from their children more labour than they could perform without injury to their health2' and he replied3 ',i do not imagine that there is the smallest difference between the general affection of the lower order of the people1 except with regard to that which may be produced by the different circumstances in which they are placed4'#ff ,another question was3 ',do you conceive that it is not injurious to the manufacturer to hazard1 by overwork1 the health of the people so employed8' ,he replied3 ',if those persons were purchased by the manufacturers ,i should say decisively1 yes2 but as they are not purchased by the manufacturer and the country must bear all the loss of their strength and their energy2 it does not appear1 at first sight1 to be the interest of the manufacturer to do so4'#fg ,owen had grasped the meaning of social responsibility1 and he devoted his life to social service4 ,but he was too wayward to observe the conventions of society1 and passed beyond the social pale4 ,the factory reformer became the ,socialist4 ,whether his disciples comprehended his philosophy we may doubt1 but he understood better than any one else their instinct for association1 and he gratified it4 ,it is not contended that ,owen was responsible for all the associative effort of his generation2 for with political and religious associations he had no sympathy4 ,but the spirit which infected him infected others after him1 rousing them to associate now for this1 and now for that social or religious or political purpose4 #c4 ,we may divide associations for social purposes into two classes4 ,to the first class belong associations formed to secure the abolition of some abuse4 ,these naturally disappear when their object is attained4 ,for example1 there was the ,anti-slavery ,campaign in which ,joseph ,sturge and other ,quakers played so prominent a part4 ,by an organized crusade of political education the ,abolitionists induced an originally hostile ,parliament to emancipate the ,west ,indian negroes in #ahcc1 and to shorten the period of semi-servile apprenticeship in #ahch4 ,yorkshire was the home of the ,short ,time ,committees1 which organized the campaign against ,white ,slavery at home4 ,the ,ten ,hours ,movement caused the ,ten ,hours ,bill to become the law of the land4 ,from ,lancashire came the ,anti-,corn ,law ,league1 whose story is told in another chapter4 ,the second class of association was the association for economic betterment--the ,friendly ,society1 the ,co-operative ,society1 the ,trade ,union4 ,conceived in enthusiasm and self-inspired1 these associations asked only of the ,state a legal framework in which to develop1 but they did not win it without struggle and delay4 ,the ,government was anxious to encourage thrift1 but the development of the ,friendly ,societies was impeded for a time by legislation aimed at political conspiracy4 ,the ,corresponding ,societies ,act of #agii prevented the ,friendly ,societies from forming a central organization with branches1 and the ,dorchester ,labourers of #ahcd discovered the peril into which the ritual of oaths might lead innocent men4 ,these deterrents were removed by enabling legislation4 ,in #ahbi a central authority1 the ,registrar of ,friendly ,societies1 was appointed to supervise ,friendly ,societies1 and between #ahbi and #ahge further privileges and safeguards were conferred4 ,but the ,friendly ,society ,movement throughout the nineteenth century was wholly voluntary4 ,in #aiaa the situation was suddenly reversed by the passing of the ,national ,insurance ,act4 ,the ,co-operative ,societies were more suspect4 ,they crept into legal recognition as the children of the ,friendly ,society1 under the 'frugal investments' clause of the ,act of #ahdf1 being compelled by the legal prejudice against association in restraint of trade to adopt this unnatural mother4 ,their real nature was recognized in #aheb1 when they were brought under the ,industrial and ,provident ,societies ,act1 and in #ahfb1 when they were granted the boon of limited liability4 ,but the accident of their legal origin still survives2 for they are regulated to-day by the ,industrial and ,provident ,societies ,act of #ahic4 ,the ,co-operative ,movement is now drawing closer to politics1 following the lead of most of the continental countries1 notably ,belgium and ,germany4 ,though we cannot say that there is any indication of the ,state taking over the movement1 we may note that the growth of municipal trading in the 'nineties was1 in principle1 an application of the consumers' association to monopolies of distribution such as tramways1 water1 electricity1 and gas4 ,the ,state was altogether hostile to the growth of the ,trade ,union4 ,the ,charter of ,emancipation1 won by the guile of ,francis ,place in #ahbd1 was severely curtailed in #ahbe4 ,huskisson#fh depicted in lurid terms the tyranny of a military trades unionism1 'representing a systematic union of the workers of many different trades'4 ,it was a 'kind of federal republic'1 whose mischievous operations1 if not checked1 would keep the commercial classes 'in constant anxiety and fear about their interests and property'4 ,arnold1 of ,rugby1 a decade later wrote of them in the same strain3 'you have heard1 ,i doubt not1 of the trades unions2 a fearful engine of mischief1 ready to riot or assassinate2 and ,i see no counteracting power4'#fi ,the counteracting power was their own weakness4 ,the early militancy burnt itself out1 and was succeeded at the turn of the century by a ',new ,spirit and a ,new ,model'4 ,the new spirit was anti-militant1 and the new model was a trade union representing the lite of the skilled trades4 ,the ,amalgamated ,society of ,engineers was founded in #ahej and served as a model to the ,carpenters1 ,tailors1 ,compositors1 ,iron-founders1 ,brick-layers1 and others4 ,the ,trades ,unions were now respectable1 and in #ahfg the ,state recognized the fact4 ,the period of collectivism is denoted by the growth of the ,labour ,party in ,parliament1 and the increasing part played by the ,state in industrial disputes and the regulation of wages4 ,the nationalization of railways and the nationalization of mines are burning questions4 #d4 ,in all the movements we have described1 the spiritual stimulus1 the initial drive1 and the solid successes have been provided by voluntary association4 ,the ,state has not been the pioneer of social reform4 ,such a notion is the mirage of politicians4 ,it has merely registered the insistent demands of organized voluntary effort or given legal recognition to accomplished facts4 ,this is the distinctive note of ,english social development in the nineteenth century4 ,,for ,,reference ,dicey1 ,law and ,opinion4 ,robinson1 ,the ,spirit of ,association4 ,hovell1 ,the ,chartist ,movement4 ,sombart 7tr4 ,epstein71 ,socialism and the ,socialist ,movement4 ,cd4 #ibcf1 ,report of ,committee on ,trusts4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #bj3 ,from the writer's forthcoming book ,life and ,labour in the ,nineteenth ,century1 to be published by the ,cambridge ,university ,press4 ,footnote #ba3 ,tooke and ,newmarch1 ,history of ,prices1 v4 #cef4 ,footnote #bb3 ,commons ,committee on ,emigration1 #ahbg1 ,q4 #agfa4 ,footnote #bc3 ,commons ,committee on the ,condition of ,labourers employed in the ,construction of ,railways1 #ahdf1 ,q4 #hff4 ,footnote #bd3 ,ibid41 ,q4 #bag4 ,footnote #be3 ,ibid41 ,q4 #hig4 ,footnote #bf3 ,ibid41 ,q4 #gcc4 ,footnote #bg3 ,ibid41 ,q4 #aic4 ,footnote #bh3 ,ibid41 ,qs4 #hfi-gh4 ,footnote #bi3 ,report of ,poor ,law ,commissioners on the ,employment of ,women and ,children in ,agriculture 7#ahdc71 pp4 #bj1 #be4 ,footnote #cj3 ,ibid41 pp4 #bii-cjj4 ,footnote #ca3 ,report of ,commissioners on the ,employment of ,young ,persons in ,agriculture1 p4 #fd4 ,footnote #cb3 ,dr4 ,cook ,taylor1 ,letter to the ,morning ,chronicle1 dated from ,rossendale ,forest 7,lancashire71 ,june #bj1 #ahdb4 ,footnote #cc3 ,rural ,rides1 i4 #bai4 ,footnote #cd3 ,poor ,law ,commission of #ahcd1 ,appendix4 ,footnote #ce3 ,hand-loom ,weavers' ,commission1 ,final ,report1 #ahda1 p4 #ah4 ,footnote #cf3 ,hand-loom ,weavers' ,commission1 ,assistant-,commissioner's ,report1 #ahdj1 ,part ,,iv1 pp4 #gf-ha4 ,footnote #cg3 ,second ,annual ,report of the ,poor ,law ,commissioners1 #ahcf4 ,footnote #ch3 ,hand-loom ,weavers' ,commission1 ,assistant-,commissioner's ,report1 ,part ,,iii1 p4 #eea4 ,footnote #ci3 ,anti-bread ,tax ,circular1 ,no4 #ia1 ,june #af1 #ahdb4 ,footnote #dj3 ,first ,report of the ,factory ,commissioners1 #ahcc1 p4 #bg4 ,footnote #da3 ,report of ,commissioner on the ,condition of the ,framework ,knitters 7#ahde71 p4 #aji4 ,footnote #db3 ,ibid41 p4 #aae4 ,footnote #dc3 ,william ,felkin1 ,history of the ,machine-wrought ,hosiery and ,lace ,manufactures 7#ahfg71 p4 #deh4 ,footnote #dd3 ,evidence before the ,truck ,commissioners 7#ahga71 ,q4 #cg1ejj4 ,footnote #de3 ,pamphlet of #ahbe1 p4 #ad4 ,footnote #df3 ,home ,office ,papers1 #dj1 ,letter from ,r4,j4 ,blewitt1 ,esq41 ,m4,p41 ,november #f1 #ahci4 ,footnote #dg3 ,richard ,fynes1 ,miners of ,northumberland and ,durham1 p4 #gb4 ,footnote #dh3 ,john ,wilson1 ,history of the ,durham ,miners' ,association 7#ahgj-aijd71 p4 #dj4 ,footnote #di3 ,report of ,commissioner on the ,state of the ,mining ,population 7#ahdf74 ,footnote #ej3 ,these pamphlets are in the ,british ,museum4 ,footnote #ea3 ,report of ,commissioner on the ,state of the ,mining ,population 7#ahej74 ,footnote #eb3 ,ibid4 7#aheb74 ,footnote #ec3 ,royal ,commission1 ,first ,report 7,mines71 p4 #bg4 ,footnote #ed3 ,ibid41 p4 #ba4 ,footnote #ee3 ,royal ,commission1 ,second ,report 7,trades and ,manufactures71 p4 #adg4 ,footnote #ef3 ,ibid41 pp4 #aee-f4 ,footnote #eg3 ,midland ,mining ,commission1 ,first ,report1 p4 #cd4 ,footnote #eh3 ,ibid41 p4 #ia4 ,footnote #ei3 ,ibid41 p4 #dd4 ,footnote #fj3 ,rural ,rides1 ii4 #cec4 ,footnote #fa3 ,commons ,committee1 ,stoppage of ,wages 7,hosiery1 #ahed74 ,evidence of ,mr4 ,tremenheere4 ,footnote #fb3 ,evidence before the ,truck ,commissioners1 ,q4 #cc1fgj4 ,footnote #fc3 ,truck ,commission1 #ahga4 ,report1 p4 #af4 ,footnote #fd3 ,commons ,committee1 ,stoppage of ,wages in the ,hosiery ,manufacture 7#ahed71 ,q4 #hj4 ,footnote #fe3 ,commons ,committee of #ahaf1 pp4 #fd and #gc4 ,footnote #ff3 ,ibid41 p4 #ch4 ,footnote #fg3 ,ibid41 p4 #bh4 ,footnote #fh3 ,speech1 ,march #bi1 #ahbe4 ,footnote #fi3 ,letter to the ,chevalier ,bunsen1 #ahcd1 quoted in ,strachey1 ,eminent ,victorians1 p4 #aig4 ,,viii ,,atomic ,,theories ,,professor ,w4,h4 ,,bragg1 ,c4,b4,e41 ,d4,,sc41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,when a lecture on the progress of ,science is given before a conference concerned largely with historical subjects1 it is not inappropriate to point out that ,science has a history of its own and that its progress makes a connected story4 ,the discovery of new facts is not made in an isolated fashion1 nor is it a matter of pure chance1 unaffected by what has gone before4 ,on the contrary1 scientific progress is made step by step1 each new point that is reached forming a basis for further advances4 ,even the direction of discovery is not entirely in the explorer's control2 there is always a next step to be taken and a limited number of possible steps forward from which a choice can be made4 ,the scientific discoverer has to go in the direction in which his discoveries lead him4 ,when discoveries have been made it is possible to think of uses to which they may be put1 but in the first instance all discoveries are made without any knowledge whatever of what use may afterwards be made of them4 ,consequently scientific progress is a quite orderly advance1 not a spasmodic collection of facts1 and in the truest sense of the word it has a history4 ,in order that opportunities for this steady progress may be provided it is very important that this point should be fully appreciated4 ,every one1 for example1 is vaguely conscious that science played a great part in the ,war4 ,as a consequence the number of students of science has greatly increased2 manufacturing firms are awakening to the fact that they must pay more attention to scientific development and are founding research laboratories4 ,it is very important that this awakened attention should be well informed1 and for that reason it cannot be pointed out too often that the scientific work which has been the basis of all material progress can only be turned to definite material ends in the last stages of its development4 ,fundamentally everything rests on the pure attempt to gain knowledge without any idea of the use to which it may subsequently be put4 ,without pure science there is no applied science at all4 ,it is quite right in my opinion that the researcher in pure science should have with him the hope that what he does may one day be of direct benefit to others4 ,but it is probable that he does not in his own mind confine the idea of possible uses to such material matters as ,i have mentioned above and as are so prominent at present4 ,he believes that his work has a less material side whose value need not be explained to the present audience4 ,in the general line of progress it is natural to find that there are certain broad roads along which the main advance has been directed4 ,students of physics and chemistry and the subjects which are allied to them find that they are in general considering either matter1 or electricity1 or energy4 ,i make this classification1 not from any philosophical point of view1 but simply for present convenience4 ,the first important principle to which ,i would like to draw your attention is that each of these things can be measured quantitatively4 ,if we accept the weight of a substance as an indirect measure of the amount of matter present1 then we all know we can express the amount of matter in any given body in terms of a fundamental unit1 like a pound or a gramme2 and the idea has been put to immemorial use4 ,in later years we have learnt that electricity itself is also a quantity and that the amount of electricity which stands on an electrified body1 or flows past a given point in an electric conductor1 as for example the wire connected to an electric light1 can be expressed arithmetically in terms of some unit4 ,instruments are made for the purpose of measuring quantities of electricity in terms of the legal standard4 ,it is one of the functions of a ,government ,institution1 like the ,national ,physical ,laboratory1 to test such instruments and report on their accuracy4 ,international conferences have been held for the purpose of reducing these units to as small a number as possible so that people may be able to trade less wastefully and more conveniently1 so that also the barriers between peoples may be broken down and the interchange of ideas as well as of materials may be made more easily4 ,without an arrangement of this kind it would be impossible to carry on industrial life in which use is made of electricity4 ,it would be as difficult as to hold a market without the use of weights and scales1 more difficult1 in fact1 since anyone can estimate the size of a piece of cloth or the amount of corn in a sack1 but no one has a natural sense by which he can estimate an amount of electricity4 ,in just the same way energy can be measured as a quantity in terms of a fundamental unit4 ,the discovery that this was so was made by ,joule and others towards the middle of the nineteenth century1 and lit the road for further advance as a dark street is lit by the sudden turning-up of the lamps4 ,all modern industry rests on this principle4 ,we are now so accustomed to the idea that energy is a quantity that we can hardly realize a time when it was merely a vague term4 ,if we want an illustration of how thoroughly we have grasped this idea let us remember that when we pay our electric-light bill we pay so much money for so many units of energy supplied2 for so much energy1 let us note1 not for so much electricity1 since we take into account not only the actual amount of electricity driven through our house wires1 but also the magnitude of the force which is there to drive it4 ,energy exists in many forms3 energy of motion1 heat1 gravitational energy1 chemical energy1 radiation1 and so on4 ,in the transformations of energy which are continually occurring in all natural processes1 there is never any change in the total amount of energy4 ,this is the famous principle of the ,conservation of ,energy4 ,sometimes it is stated in the form ',perpetual motion is impossible'4 ,one of the most important forms of energy is radiation4 ,the constant outpouring by the sun of energy in this form is vital to us4 ,the fact was obvious long ago and that is one of the reasons why light and heat have interested students of science in all ages4 ,there exist then three main subjects of study--matter1 electricity1 and energy4 ,these themselves and their mutual relations have been1 and are1 the principal objects of interest to the scientific student1 and from our strivings to understand them we have learnt most of what we know4 ,all three are quantities and all are expressible in terms of units4 ,now there is one point which ,i have thought would especially interest you4 ,a very remarkable tendency of modern discovery shows more and more clearly that not only are these things quantities which we can express in units of our own choosing1 but that ,nature herself has already chosen units for them4 ,the natural unit does not1 of course1 bear any exact connexion with our own4 ,this being so1 it must be of the utmost importance that we should know what these natural units are and so be able to understand what ,nature is ready to tell us4 ,nature has chosen to speak in a certain language2 we must get to know that language4 ,in the first place we know surely that there are natural units of matter4 ,this was the great discovery made by ,dalton in the beginning of the nineteenth century4 ,when he found that each of the known elements1 such as copper or oxygen or carbon1 consisted ultimately of atoms1 all the atoms of any one element being alike1 he laid the foundation on which the huge structure of modern chemistry has been raised4 ,the chemist takes one or more atoms of one element1 one or more of another1 and may be of a third or fourth1 and he puts them together into a compound which we call a molecule4 ,the molecule for example of ordinary salt contains always one atom of chlorine and one of sodium4 ,chlorine and sodium are elements1 salt is a compound4 ,six atoms of carbon and six of hydrogen put together in a certain way make benzene4 ,in the same way every substance that we meet is capable of analysis1 showing ultimately the molecules as made up1 according to a definite plan1 of so many atoms of the various elements4 ,in analytical chemistry molecules are dissected in order to discover the mode of their building2 in synthetic chemistry the atoms are put together to make a molecule which is already known to have1 or even may be anticipated to have1 certain properties4 ,this is the work of the chemist4 ,sometimes enormous forces are concerned in this pulling apart and putting together1 witness the terrific power of modern explosives4 ,but the same kind of handling by the chemist may be devoted to the delicate construction of a molecule which gives a certain colour to the dyer's vat and so pleases the eye that the great cloth industries feel the consequence1 and nations themselves are affected by the flow of trade4 ,after all1 since the processes of the physical world operate ultimately through the power and properties of molecules1 it is not surprising that the chemist's work in these and numberless other ways has such tremendous influence in the world4 ,here then by the recognition of the units of matter which ,nature has chosen for herself it has been possible to do great things4 ,it should be observed that the atom1 in spite of its name1 is not something which is incapable of all further division2 it is only incapable of retaining its properties on division4 ,when an atom of radium breaks down in the unique operation during which its singular properties are manifested1 it dies as radium and becomes two atoms1 one of helium1 the other of a different and rare substance4 ,it will interest you to know that the airships of the future are expected to be filled with this non-inflammable helium4 ,the discovery of the atomic nature of electricity came later4 ,faraday established the fact that in certain processes there was more than a hint that electricity was always present in multiples of a definite unit4 ,in the process called electrolysis the electric current is driven across a cell full of liquid containing molecules of some substance4 ,when the electricity passes there is a loosening of the bonds that bind together the atoms of the molecule1 and a separation2 atoms of one kind travel with the electricity across the cell and are deposited where the current leaves the cell2 the other kind travel the opposite way4 ,in this way for example we deposit silver on metal objects in electro-plating processes1 or separate out the purest copper for certain electrical purposes4 ,the striking thing which ,faraday discovered was that the number of atoms deposited always bore a very simple relation to the quantity of electricity that passes4 ,the same current passing in succession through cells containing different kinds of molecules broke up the same number of molecules in each cell4 ,it was as if in each electrolytic cell atoms of matter and atoms of electricity travelled together4 ,the movement of an atom meant the simultaneous movement of a definite quantity of electricity4 ,electricity was1 so to speak1 done up in little equal parcels1 and an atom of matter on the move1 which was termed an ion1 or wanderer1 carried1 not a vaguely defined amount of electricity1 but one of these definite parcels4 ,it was not1 however1 until the later years of the nineteenth century that the natural unit of electricity was manifested by itself and without a carrier4 ,at a famous address to the ,british ,association at ,york in #ahha ,sir ,william ,crookes described the first marvellous experiments in which this feat had been accomplished1 though there was still to come a long controversy before the interpretation was clearly accepted4 ,it is now definitely established that there is a fundamental atom of electricity which we now call the electron4 ,as we all know electrification is of two kinds--a positive and a negative4 ,the electron is of the negative kind4 ,there does not appear to be a corresponding positive atom of electricity1 or at least not one that is so singular in its properties as the electron4 ,electrons go to the making of all atoms1 just as atoms go to the making of molecules4 ,the atom which is neutral1 that is1 shows neither positive nor negative electrification1 must contain positive electricity in some form to balance the electrons which we know it contains4 ,when we strip an atom1 as we know how to do1 of one or more of these electrons1 the remainder is positively charged4 ,the positive ion is any sort of an atom or molecule which has become positively electrified in this way4 ,an atom which has become positive by the loss of one or more of its electrons exercises a force on any spare electrons in its neighbourhood or on any atom carrying a spare electron4 ,when there are large numbers of atoms seeking in this way to become neutral once more1 as occurs often in ,nature1 the forces generated may be tremendous4 ,they are shown1 for example1 in the lightning-stroke4 ,but indeed it would seem that all the chemical forces of which we have already spoken depend ultimately upon the electric state of the atom concerned4 ,it is because the force which a positively-charged atom exerts on an electron is so great and because the electron is so light and easily moved compared to an atom that the electron has not been isolated at will until recent years4 ,the isolation in fact depends upon the electron being endowed with a sufficient speed to carry it through or past the action of an atom which is seeking to absorb it into its system4 ,a lump of matter flying in space might enter our solar system with such speed as to be able to pass through and go on its way almost undeflected4 ,or again1 it might have a much lower speed and go so much nearer the sun that it was seriously deflected in its course1 as we see in the case of comet visitors4 ,but if for some reason or other the lump of matter found itself inside the solar system without the endowment of high velocity it would certainly be absorbed4 ,just so an electron can pass through an atom with or without serious deviation from its line of motion1 provided that motion is rapid enough4 ,only recently have we been able to exert electric forces of sufficient strength to set an electron in motion with the speed it must have if it is to maintain an individual existence ,now we can gather electrons at will1 dragging them from the interior of solid bodies1 and hurl them with tremendous speed like a stream of projectiles4 ,since in the open air the speed is soon lost by innumerable collisions with the air-molecules1 the effect can only be studied satisfactorily in a glass bulb from which the air has been evacuated4 ,crookes made great improvements in air-pumps during an investigation on thallium1 and consequently was able to obtain the high vacuum required for the experiment with the electron streams4 ,it was afterwards found by ,rntgen that when an electron stream in an evacuated bulb was directed upon a target placed within the bulb1 a remarkable radiation issued from the target4 ,thus arose the so-called ,x or ,rntgen rays4 ,as you all know they have for many years played a most important part in surgery and medicine4 ,you may have heard that during the war they were also used to examine the interior of aeroplane constructions and to look for flaws invisible from without4 ,although ,x-,rays are of the same nature as light rays they can penetrate where light rays cannot1 passing in greater or less degree through materials which are opaque to visible light and allowing us to examine the interior which is hidden from the eye4 ,every electric discharge is essentially a hurried rush of electrons4 ,when we rub two bodies together and they become electrified we have in some way or other torn electrons from one of the bodies and piled them on the other4 ,the former becomes the positively charged body and the latter the negative4 ,a film of moisture stops this action4 ,when wool is spun in factories it tends to become in certain stages of the process too dry and too free from grease2 the yarn then becomes electrified as it passes over the leather rollers1 and when the machine tries to spin the threads together they fly apart and refuse to join up the minute hooks with which the wool fibres are furnished4 ,the spinning operation would come to an end were there not means provided by which the air can be so filled with moisture that the fibres become damp and the action ceases4 ,so in some cases a stream of air filled with positive and negative ions is made to play upon the fibres2 the fibres select what ions they want1 and so neutralizing themselves1 spinning can proceed again4 ,when a current of electricity runs along a wire there is in fact nothing more than a procession of electrons4 ,the stream of electrons that runs through the filaments in the lamps that light this room1 raising the filaments to a white heat1 are set in motion by the dynamos in the city4 ,there is a complete wire circuit1 including the dynamo1 the conductors1 and the lamps4 ,when the dynamos are not working the electrons do not as a whole move either way1 though they are always there4 ,when the dynamo begins to turn1 the electrons set out on their continuous journey4 ,electrons are involved in the emission of wireless signals1 and in their receipt4 ,the so-called 'valve'1 which multiplies minute electric signals and was so greatly improved during the war1 depends entirely on the action of electrons1 and the brilliant experimental work was based on the newly-acquired knowledge of their properties4 ,i have told you that under certain circumstances a stream of electrons may generate ,x-,rays1 in reality a form of light rays4 ,this action is a very common one1 and it is curious that the faster the electron goes the shorter is the wave-length of the radiation4 ,a very fast electron generates an ,x-,ray of so short a wave-length that the penetrating power of the ray1 which goes with the shortness of the wave1 is excessive1 and in this way we may have rays which go right through the human body or even through inches of steel4 ,as the speed of the exciting electron becomes less1 the ,x-,rays are less penetrating4 ,with still slower electrons we may generate ordinary light1 and it will take a slower electron to generate red than to generate blue4 ,the slowest electrons we use in this way have a speed of many hundred miles per second2 the fastest have a speed which nearly approaches that of light1 or #ahf1jjj miles a second4 ,and conversely radiation can set electrons in motion4 ,when ,x-,rays are driven into a patient's body electrons are set in motion within1 and moving over certain minute distances1 initiate chemical actions which are necessary to some cure4 ,or they may go right through the body and fall on a photographic plate1 setting in operation chemical action which forms a picture on the plate4 ,there is another occasion of an entirely different kind when the electron is greatly in evidence and displays effects which are most astonishing and significant4 ,every atom of radium or other radio-active substances sooner or later meets with the catastrophe in which its life as radium ends and atoms of other substances are formed4 ,at that moment occurs the emission which is the characteristic property of the substance4 ,one of the radiations emitted consists of high-velocity electrons1 moving1 some of them1 nearly as fast as light4 ,now it is found that when the speed approaches that of light1 #ahf1jjj miles or #c x #ajaj centimetres per second1 the energy is higher than it should be if it followed the usual rule1 viz4 energy is equal to half the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity4 ,it would seem that an electron moving with the velocity of light would have infinite energy2 or1 to put the matter in another way1 the experimenter in his laboratory can never hope to observe an electron moving so fast2 it would be the end of his laboratory and of himself if ever it turned up4 ,linked up with this result is the very strange fact that no one has ever been able to find any direct evidence of the existence of the ether1 which is postulated in order to carry light-waves4 ,it has been pictured as a medium through which the heavenly bodies move1 and to which their motions may be referred4 ,but when light is launched into the ether1 its apparent velocity must depend on whether it travels with or against the drift of the ether through the laboratory where the measurement is made4 ,the experiment has been performed without the discovery of any such difference1 although the method was amply accurate enough to detect the effect that might be expected4 ,it was afterwards shown that the negative result might be explained by supposing that a measure of length varied in length according to whether it was travelling with or against the ether4 ,but the continual failure of all such experiments has led to a remarkable hypothetical development with which the name of ,einstein is firmly connected4 ,it is supposed that some flaw must exist in our fundamental hypotheses1 and that if this were corrected we should then find that we ought to get the same value for the velocity of light however and whenever we measured it1 and at the same time we should find that no measurement of the velocity of a body moving relative to the observer would ever equal the velocity of light4 ,the hypothesis denies the existence of an absolute standard to which motions can be referred1 and insists that they must all be considered relatively to the observer4 ,it is called the principle of relativity4 ,calculations of its consequences begin with the necessary changes in the fundamentals1 such as ,einstein has introduced4#gj ,time does not allow me to say more of the innumerable ways in which electrons play an essential part in all the processes in the world4 ,we have long believed that this is so1 but the picture has never been so clear to us as it is now2 and with our understanding our power is increased4 ,yet once more the illumination of our understanding comes from our recognition that ,nature has preferred the discrete to the continuous and that electricity is not infinitely divisible but is1 like matter1 and even more simply than matter1 of an atomic structure4 ,and we have found the unit and learnt how to handle it4 ,it is even more strange that it may now be said of energy that there are signs of atomicity4 ,it may seem absurd to think that the energy which is transformed in any operation is transformed in multiples of a universal unit or units1 so that the operation cannot be arrested at any desired stage but only at definite intervals4 ,indeed we have no right to assert that this is always true4 ,but undoubtedly there are cases in which the atomicity of energy is clear enough1 as for example in the interchange of energy between electrons in motion and radiation4 ,it is remarkable that when radiation sets an electron in motion1 the electron acquires a perfectly definite speed depending only on the wave-length of the radiation and not on its intensity1 and has apparently absorbed from the radiation a definite unit of energy4 ,radiation of a particular wave-length cannot spend its energy in this way except in multiples of a certain unit1 because each of the electrons which it sets in motion has the same initial energy1 which it must have got from the radiation4 ,in other words1 energy of radiation of the particular wave-length can only be transformed into energy of movement of electrons in multiples of a certain 'quantum' peculiar to that wave-length4 ,the intensity of the radiation1 that is to say1 the amount of energy moving along the beam1 can only affect the number of electrons set in motion and not the speed of any one of them4 ,during the last few years a very extraordinary theory has been developed on the basis of these and similar facts4 ,i doubt if it would be more profitable to give further instances at present1 but ,i have mentioned it because it seems to show looming on the horizon of our knowledge another tendency of ,nature to make use of the atomic principle4 ,i will only add that the whole position of physics is indeed at this time of extraordinary interest1 and at any moment there may be some great discovery or illuminating thought which will explain the present startling difficulties and open up new worlds of thought4 ,,for ,,reference ,bragg1 ,rays and ,crystals 7,ball ,sons74 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #gj3 ,since this address was given1 the results of the ,eclipse ,expedition to ,brazil are considered to have confirmed in a satisfactory manner one of the most remarkable deductions made by ,einstein from the principles which he maintains4 ,the matter has roused so much interest that some of the leading exponents of the relativity principle have published careful accounts intended for students not familiar with it3 it would therefore be superfluous to discuss the matter here4 ,,ix ,,progress ,,in ,,biology ,,during ,,the ,,last ,,sixty ,,years ,,professor ,,leonard ,,doncaster1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,on ,november #bd1 #ahei1 ,the ,origin of ,species was published1 and this date marks the beginning of an epoch in every branch of biology4 ,before it1 ,biology had been almost entirely a descriptive science1 but within a few years after the publication of the ,origin its effects began to colour all aspects of biological research4 ,a co-ordinating and unifying principle had been found1 and the leading idea of biologists ceased to be to describe living things as they are1 and became transformed into the attempt to discover how they are related to one another4 ,the first effect of this change of attitude was chiefly to turn biologists towards the task of tracing phylogenetic or evolutionary relationships between different groups of animals--the drawing up of probable or possible genealogical trees and the explanation of natural classification on an evolutionary basis4 ,when once1 however1 the notion of cause and effect1 or more correctly of relationship1 between the phenomena seen in living beings had become familiar to biologists1 it spread far beyond the limits of tracing genealogical connexions between different animals and plants4 ,it made possible the conception of a true ,science of ,life1 in which every phenomenon seen in a living organism should fall into its true place in relation to the rest1 and in which also the phenomena of life should be correlated with those discovered in the inorganic sciences of ,chemistry and ,physics4 ,the history of the various branches of biological science in the past sixty years reflects the general course of these tendencies4 ,until shortly after #ahei1 the study of morphology1 or the comparative structure of animals 7and of plants7 was intimately related with that of physiology1 that is1 with the study of function4 ,in the years following the appearance of the ,origin1 however1 anatomists and morphologists were seized with a new interest4 ,for the time at least1 the chief aim in studying structure was no longer to explain function1 but rather to explain how that structure had come into being in the course of evolution1 and how it was related with homologous but different structures in other forms4 ,the result was a tendency to a divorce between morphology and physiology1 or at least between morphologists and physiologists1 which led to the division into two more or less distinct sciences of what had hitherto been regarded as closely inter-related branches of one4 ,the greater men of the early part of the period1 such as ,huxley1 remained both morphologists and physiologists1 but most of their followers fell inevitably into one or the other group1 and in discussing the later phases of biological progress it will be necessary to keep them separate4 ,apart from its effect on the systematic and anatomical side of ,biology1 the idea of ,evolution1 and especially of ,darwin's theory of ,natural ,selection1 had important consequences on that side of the science which may be described as ,natural ,history4 ,before the appearance of ,darwin's work1 ,natural ,history consisted chiefly in the observation and collection of facts about the habits and life-history of animals and plants1 which as a rule had no unifying principle unless they were used1 as in the ,bridgewater ,treatises1 to illustrate 'the power1 wisdom1 and goodness of ,god'4 ,now1 however1 a new motive was provided--that of discovering the uses to the organism of its various colours1 structures1 and habits1 and the application of the principle of natural selection to show how these characters conduced to the preservation and further evolution of the species4 ,and out of this interest in the theory of natural selection grew in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century the greatly increased attention to the facts and theories of heredity1 which was stimulated by ,darwin's hypothesis of ,pangenesis and especially by ,weismann's speculations about the nature and behaviour of the 'germ-plasm'4 ,before the appearance of ,weismann's work1 the germ-cells1 which bear somehow or other the hereditary characters that appear in the offspring1 were supposed to be produced directly from the body of the parent4 ,darwin provisionally suggested that every cell of every organism gives off minute particles which become congregated in the germ-cells1 and that these cells thus contain representative portions of all parts of the parent's body4 ,weismann1 on the basis of his work on the origin of the germ-cells in ,medusae and ,insects1 maintained that these cells are not derived from the body1 but only from pre-existing germ-cells stored within it--that1 in fact1 although an egg gives rise to a hen1 a hen does not give rise to an egg1 but only keeps inside her a store of embryonic eggs which mature and are laid as the time comes round4 ,the theory had to be modified to suit the facts of regeneration and vegetative reproduction1 but in essence it was accepted by the biological world and is the orthodox opinion 7if such a word may be used in ,science7 at the present day4 ,the difference between the two views is not only of theoretical interest1 for it involves the whole question of whether characteristics acquired by an individual during its life in response to external conditions can or cannot be transmitted to offspring4 ,if the germ-cells contain representatives of all parts of the body1 modifications impressed on the body during its life may at least possibly be transmitted to offspring born after the modifications have taken place4 ,if1 however1 the germ-cells are independent of the rest of the body1 and only stored within it for safe-keeping like a deed-box in the vaults of a bank1 it would seem impossible for any environmental influence1 whether for good or ill1 to take effect on the offspring4 ,this controversy on the heritability of 'acquired characters' was one of the most important towards the end of last century1 and although the majority of biologists now follow ,weismann in so far as they deny that 'acquired' characters are transmissible1 the question is not yet completely settled2 all that can be said is that1 in spite of many attempts to prove the contrary1 there is no satisfactory evidence of the transmission to offspring of effects impressed on the body of the parent1 unless the germ-cells themselves have been affected by the same cause--as for example in some cases of long-continued poisoning by alcohol or similar drugs4 ,while the problem of the transmission of acquired characters1 and of the cause of variation and its relation to evolution1 was occupying much of the attention of biologists1 the whole problem entered upon a new phase in the year #aijj with the re-discovery of ,mendel's work on heredity4 ,mendel worked with plants1 and published his results in #ahfe1 but at that time the biological world was too much occupied with the fierce controversy which raged over ,the ,origin of ,species to take much notice of a paper the bearing of which upon it was not appreciated4 ,mendel's discovery never came to the notice of ,darwin1 was buried in an obscure periodical1 and remained unknown until many years after the death of its author4 ,in #aijj it was unearthed1 and1 largely owing to the work of ,bateson1 it rapidly became known as one of the most important contributions to ,biology made during the period under review4 ,this is not the place to describe in detail the nature of ,mendel's theory4 ,its essence is1 firstly1 that the various characteristics of an organism are in general inherited quite independently of one another2 and1 secondly1 that the germ-cells of a hybrid are pure in respect of any one character1 that is to say1 that any one germ-cell can only transmit any unit character as it was received from one parent or the other1 and not a combination of the two4 ,this leads to a conception of the organism as something like a mosaic1 in which each piece of the pattern is transmitted in inheritance independently of the rest1 and in which any piece cannot be modified by association with a different but corresponding piece derived from another ancestor4 ,it is impossible to say as yet whether this conception at all completely represents the nature of the living organism1 but it is one which is exercising considerable influence in biological thought1 and if established it will mark a revolution in ,biology hardly inferior to that brought about in ,physics and ,chemistry by the discovery of radio-activity4 ,an important consequence of the advance in our knowledge of heredity associated with the work of ,mendel and his successors is a tendency to doubt whether natural selection is of such fundamental importance in shaping the course of evolution as was supposed in the years of the first enthusiasm which followed the publication of the ,origin4 ,darwin based his theory of ,natural ,selection on the belief which he derived from breeders of plants and animals1 that the kind of variation used by them to produce new breeds was the small and apparently unimportant differences which distinguish a 'fine' from a 'poor' specimen4 ,he supposed that the skilled breeder picked out as parents of his stock those individuals which were slightly superior in one feature or another1 and that by the accumulative effect of these successive selections not only was the breed steadily improved1 but also1 by divergent selection1 new breeds were produced4 ,experience shows1 however1 that although this method is used to keep breeds up to the required standard1 it is rarely1 if ever1 the means by which new breeds arise4 ,new breeds commonly come into existence either by a 'sport' or mutation1 or by crossing two already distinct races1 and by selecting from among the heterogeneous descendants of the cross those individuals which show the required combination of characters4 ,and it is further found that most of the distinguishing features of various breeds of domestic animals and plants are inherited according to ,mendel's ,law1 suggesting that each of these characters is a unit1 like one piece of a mosaic1 independent of the rest4 ,now it is easy to see how the selection of small1 continuously varying characters could take place in ,nature by the destruction of all those individuals which failed to reach a certain standard1 but it is much more difficult to understand how natural selection could act on comparatively large1 sporadic1 unco-ordinated 'sports'4 ,there is thus a distinct tendency at present to regard natural selection as less omnipotent in directing the course of evolution than was formerly supposed1 but it must be admitted that no very satisfactory alternative hypothesis has been suggested4 ,some have supposed that there is a kind of organic momentum which causes evolution to continue in those directions in which it has already proceeded1 while others have postulated1 like ,bergson1 an lan vital as a kind of directive agency4 ,others again have reverted towards the older belief in the inherited effects of environment--a belief which1 in spite of the arguments of ,weismann and his followers1 has never been without its supporters4 ,the present condition of this part of biology1 as of many others1 is one of open-mindedness approaching agnosticism4 ,there is dissatisfaction with the beliefs which satisfied the preceding generation1 and which were held up almost as dogmas1 but there is no clear vision of the direction in which a truer view may be sought4 ,before leaving this side of the subject1 reference must be made to one important aspect of modern work on heredity--that of the inheritance of 'mental and moral' characteristics4 ,as a result of the work of the biometric school founded by ,galton and ,pearson1 it has been shown that the so-called mental and moral characteristics of man are inherited in the same manner and to the same extent as his physical features4 ,of the theoretical importance of this demonstration this is not the place to speak2 its practical value is unquestionable1 and may in the future have important effects on sociological problems4 ,another notable line of advance1 entirely belonging to the period under review1 and chiefly the product of the present century1 is seen in the science of ,cytology--the investigation of the microscopic structure of the cells of which the body is composed4 ,the marvellous phenomena of cell and nuclear division have revealed much of the formerly unsuspected complexity of living things1 while the universality of the processes shows how fundamentally alike is life in all its forms4 ,in recent years great progress has been made in correlating the phenomena of heredity and of the determination of sex with the visible structural features of the germ-cells4 ,weismann attempted a beginning of this over thirty years ago1 but the detailed knowledge of the facts was then insufficient4 ,since the discovery of ,mendel's ,law1 a great amount of work has been done1 chiefly in ,america1 by ,e4,b4 ,wilson and ,t4,h4 ,morgan and their pupils1 on tracing the actual physical basis of hereditary transmission4 ,although the matter is far from being completely known1 the results obtained make it almost indubitable that inherited characters are in some way borne by the chromosomes in the nuclei of the germ-cells4 ,the work of ,morgan and his school has shown that the actual order in which these inherited 'factors' are arranged in the chromosomes can almost certainly be demonstrated1 and his results go far to support the conception of the organism1 referred to above1 as a combination or mosaic of independently inherited features4 ,it was said at the beginning of this sketch that most of the more notable lines of advance in ,biology could be traced back to the impetus given by the acceptance of the theory of ,evolution1 and the desire to test and prove that theory in every biological field4 ,it is most convenient1 therefore1 to take this root-idea as a starting-point1 and to see how the various branches of study have diverged from it and have themselves branched out in various ways1 and how these branches have often again become intertwined and united in the later development of the science4 ,perhaps the most obvious method of testing the theory of evolution is by the study of fossil forms1 and our knowledge of these has progressed enormously during the period under review4 ,not only have a number of new and strange types of ancient life come to light1 but in some cases1 e4g4 in that of the horse and elephant1 a very complete series of evolutionary stages has been discovered4 ,in this branch1 however1 as in almost all others1 the results have not exactly fulfilled the expectations of the early enthusiasts4 ,on the one hand1 evolution has been shown to be a much more complex thing than at first seemed probable2 and on the other1 many of the gaps which it was most hoped to fill still remain4 ,a number of most remarkable 'missing links' have been discovered1 such as1 for example1 ,archaeopteryx1 the stepping-stone between the ,reptiles and the ,birds1 and the faith of the palaeontologist in the truth of evolution is everywhere confirmed4 ,but the hope of finding all the stages1 especially in the ancestry of ,man1 has not been realized1 and it has been found that what at one time were regarded as direct ancestors are collaterals1 and that the problem of human evolution is much less simple than was once supposed4 ,a second important piece of evidence in favour of evolution is provided by the study of the geographical distribution of animals1 on which much work was done in the earlier part of the period under review4 ,and in this connexion mention must be made of the science of ,oceanography1 for our whole knowledge of life in the abysses of the ocean1 and almost all that we know of the conditions of life in the sea in general1 has been gained in the last fifty years4 ,another of the chief lines of evidence for the truth of the evolution theory is based on the study of embryology1 and this also was followed with great vigour by the zoologists of the last thirty years of the nineteenth century4 ,it is found that in many instances animals recapitulate in their early development the stages through which their ancestors passed in the course of evolution4 ,land ,vertebrates1 including man1 have in their early embryonic life gill-clefts1 heart and circulation1 and in some respects skeleton and other organs of the type found in fishes1 and this can only be explained on the assumption that they are descended from aquatic fish-like ancestors4 ,on the basis of such facts as these1 the theory was formulated that every animal recapitulates in ontogeny 7development7 the stages passed through in its phylogeny 7evolution71 and great hopes were founded upon this principle of discovering the systematic position and evolutionary history of isolated and aberrant forms4 ,in many cases the search has led to brilliant results1 but1 as in the case of palaeontology1 in many others the light that was hoped for has not been forthcoming4 ,for it soon became evident that the majority of animals show adaptation to their environment not only in their adult stages but also in their larval or embryonic period1 and these adaptations have led to modifications of the course of development which are often so great as to mask1 or obscure altogether1 the ancestral structure which may once have existed4 ,although1 therefore1 the results of embryological research have provided most convincing proof of the truth of the theory of evolution in general1 they have not completely justified the hopes of the early embryologists that by this method all the outstanding phylogenetic problems might be solved4 ,the detailed study of embryology1 however1 has led to most important results apart from the particular purpose for which most of the earlier investigations in this field were originally undertaken4 ,for the study of embryology1 at first purely descriptive and comparative1 was soon found to involve fundamental problems concerning the factors which control development4 ,an egg consists of a single cell1 and it develops by the division of this cell into two1 then into four1 eight1 and so forth1 until a mass of cells is produced4 ,in some cases all these cells are to all appearance alike1 or nearly alike2 in others the included yolk is from the first segregated more or less completely into some cells1 leaving the other cells without it4 ,but in any case1 after this process of cell-division has proceeded for a certain time1 differentiation begins to set in--some cells become modified in one way1 others in another1 and from what was a relatively homogeneous mass an organized embryo1 with highly differentiated parts1 appears4 ,the problem immediately propounds itself--what are the factors which control this differentiation8 ,this problem is essentially a physiological one1 and yet1 since it arises most conspicuously in a field which has been worked by professed zoologists rather than physiologists1 it has been studied more by those trained in zoology and botany than by those who have specialized in physiology4 ,in this way1 as in many other directions1 such as in the study of heredity1 of sex1 and of the effects of the environment on the colours and structure of animals1 the trend of zoology in recent years has returned towards the physiological side1 and the old division which separated the sciences 7but which has never so seriously affected students of plant life7 is being obliterated4 ,hence we are led back to consider the progress of ,physiology as a whole--a subject with which the present writer hesitates to deal except in a very superficial manner4 ,physiology as an organized science has inevitably been deeply influenced by its close relation with medicine1 with the result that through a large portion of the period under review it has concerned itself chiefly with the functions of the human body in particular1 or at least chiefly with ,vertebrates from which1 by analogy1 the human functions may be inferred4 ,in this field it has made enormous progress1 and a vast amount of knowledge has been gained with regard to the function and mechanism of all the parts and organs of the body4 ,it may perhaps be suggested1 however1 that in the pursuit of this detailed 7and in practice absolutely necessary7 knowledge1 physiologists have to some extent lost sight of the wood in their preoccupation with the trees4 ,that is to say1 while they have advanced an immense distance in their knowledge of organs1 they have not yet got as far as might be hoped in the understanding of the organism--which is to say no more than that the great and fundamental problem of ,biology1 the nature and meaning of ,life1 is apparently almost as far from solution as ever4 ,to this further reference will be made below4 ,the progress of ,physiology has been so great in all its branches that it is difficult to decide which most deserve mention2 perhaps the most important advances are those connected with the nervous system and with internal secretions4 ,little or nothing was known fifty years ago of the minute structure of the nervous system1 nor of the special functions of its different parts4 ,now the main functions of the various parts of the brain1 and the relation of these parts to the activities of the other organs of the body1 are well known1 although much remains to be discovered with regard to the more detailed localization of function4 ,the study of the microscopic structure of brain and nerve1 and experiment on the conduction of nervous impulse1 have given us some insight into the mechanism of the nervous system1 but the fundamental nature of nervous action still remains unsolved4 ,the nervous system is the chief co-ordinating link between the various organs of the body1 but in recent years it has been discovered that the relations of the different parts to one another are greatly influenced by substances known as internal secretions or 'hormones'4 ,these substances are produced by ductless glands 7the thyroid1 suprarenals1 c471 from which they diffuse into the blood-stream and exercise a remarkable influence either on particular organs or systems1 or on the body as a whole4 ,some of these secretions act specifically on the involuntary muscles of the body1 others control growth1 others the development of the secondary sexual characters1 such as the distinctive plumage of male birds1 and also greatly influence the sexual instinct4 ,much still remains to be discovered with regard to them1 but it seems clear that they are of immense importance in the economy of the body4 ,it has been suggested1 without much experimental support1 however1 that if a part of the body becomes modified by use or environment1 it may produce a modified hormone1 and that so1 by the action of this on the germ-cells1 the modification may be transmitted to subsequent generations4 ,before leaving the subject of physiology in the more special or technical application of the term1 reference must be made to another science the growth of which has been largely under the influence of medicine4 ,this is bacteriology1 one of the newest branches of biology1 and yet one which both from its practical importance and from the theoretical interest of its discoveries is rapidly taking a foremost place4 ,of its practical achievements in connexion with disease1 and with the part played by bacteria and other minute organisms in the life and affairs of man1 it is not necessary to speak4 ,every one knows the great advances that have been made in recent years in identifying 7and to a less extent in controlling7 disease-producing organisms1 whether bacteria1 protozoa 7such as the organisms causing malaria1 dysentery1 etc471 or more highly organized parasites4 ,the attempt1 however1 to combat these pathogenic bacteria has led to discoveries of the highest importance with regard to the production of immunity1 not only against specific germs1 but against many organic poisons such as snake venom and various vegetable toxins4 ,that an attack of certain diseases leaves the patient immune to that disease for a longer or shorter time has of course been known for centuries1 but it is a modern discovery that a specific poison induces the body to produce a specific antidote which neutralizes it1 and the detailed working out of this principle and the study of the means by which the immunity is brought about promise to lead us a long way towards the central problem of the nature and activities of life itself4 ,we have seen how zoology has been led back into physiological channels of research1 and how the study of bacteria is opening up some of the deepest problems of the reaction of living things to environmental stimuli1 and just as the various branches of these sciences interlace and influence one another1 so all of them1 in recent years1 have been coming into contact with the inorganic sciences of chemistry and physics4 ,one of the noteworthy features of science in all its branches in recent years has been the tendency of subjects which were at one time regarded as distinct to come together again and to find that the problems of each can only be successfully attacked by the co-operation of the others4 ,in their earlier days the biological sciences were in most respects far removed from chemistry and physics2 it was recognized1 of course1 that organisms were in one sense at least physico-chemical mechanisms1 consisting of chemical elements and subject to the fundamental laws of matter and energy4 ,with the advent of the theory of evolution this conception of the organism as a mechanism took more definite shape1 and among many biologists the belief was held that in no very long time all the phenomena of life would be explicable by known physico-chemical laws4 ,hence arose the scientific materialism which was so widespread in the years following the general acceptance of ,darwin's theory4 ,it was recognized1 of course1 that our knowledge of organic chemistry was at the time entirely inadequate to place this belief upon a proved scientific basis1 but the expectation of proving it gave a great impetus to the study of the physical and chemical phenomena of life4 ,this attempt was still further stimulated by the investigation of the factors controlling development referred to in a preceding paragraph1 for it is evident that to a great extent at least these factors are chemical and physical in nature4 ,and concurrently1 the great advances in organic chemistry1 resulting in the analysis and in many cases in the artificial synthesis of substances previously regarded as capable of production only in the tissues of living organisms1 made possible a much more thorough investigation of the chemical and physical basis of vital phenomena4 ,the result of this has been that to a quite considerable extent the factors1 hitherto mysterious1 which control the fertilization1 division1 and differentiation of the egg1 the digestion and absorption of food1 the conduction of nervous impulses1 and many of the changes undergone in the normal or pathological functioning of the organs and tissues1 can be ascribed to chemical and physical causes which are well known in the inorganic world4 ,as in other instances1 however1 some of which have been mentioned above1 the elucidation of the organism from this point of view has turned out to be a much less simple process than the more sanguine of the early investigators supposed4 ,the more knowledge has progressed1 the more complex and intricate has even the simplest organism shown itself to be1 and although the mechanism of the parts is gradually becoming understood1 the fundamental mystery of life remains as elusive as ever4 ,the chief reason for this failure to penetrate appreciably nearer to the central mystery of life appears to be the fact that an organism is something more than the sum of its various parts and functions4 ,in tracing the behaviour of any one part or function1 whether it be the conduction of a nervous impulse1 the supply of oxygen to the tissues by the blood1 or the transmission of inherited characters by the germ-cells1 we may be able to give a more or less complete physico-chemical or mechanical account of the process4 ,but we seem to get little or no nearer to an explanation of the fact that although every one of these processes may be explicable by laws familiar in the non-living1 in the living organism they are co-ordinated in such a way that none of them is complete in itself2 they are parts of a whole1 but the whole is not simply a sum of its parts1 but is in itself a unity1 in which all the parts are subject to the controlling influence of the whole4 ,an organism1 alone among the material bodies which we know1 is constantly and necessarily in a state of unstable equilibrium1 and yet has a condition of normality which is maintained by the harmonious interaction of all its parts4 ,every function of the body1 if not thus co-ordinated with the rest1 would very quickly destroy this condition of normality1 but in consequence of the co-ordination each is subject to the needs of the whole1 and normality is maintained4 ,when the normality is artificially disturbed1 all the functions of the body adapt themselves to the change1 and1 if the disturbance be not too great1 co-operate in the restoration of the normal condition4 ,it is in these phenomena of adaptation and organic unity and co-ordination that up to the present time the efforts to reduce the phenomena of living things to the operation of physico-chemical laws have most conspicuously failed4 ,from what has been said it will be evident that1 fundamentally1 all biological research1 whether its authors are conscious of it or not1 is directed towards the solution of one central problem--the problem of the real and ultimate nature of life4 ,and the main outcome of the work of sixty years has been that this problem has begun clearly to emerge as the central aim of the science4 ,the theory of evolution made the problem a reality1 for without evolution the mystery of life must for ever be insoluble1 but whatever direction biological investigation has taken1 it has led1 often by devious paths1 to the borderland between the living and the inorganic1 and in that borderland the central problem inevitably faces us4 ,many suggestions for its solution have been made4 ,on the one hand there is still1 as there always has been1 a considerable body of opinion that the solution will be a mechanical one--using the word mechanical in the widest sense--and that the living differs from the non-living not in kind1 but only in degree of complexity4 ,the upholders of the mechanistic or materialist theory1 however1 are perhaps less confident than their predecessors of the last century1 for the solution in this direction has to face not only the problem of organic co-ordination already referred to1 but also that of consciousness and mind4 ,for although the study of psychology on physiological lines has made similar progress to that of other branches of physiology1 it seems to approach little nearer to a discovery of the nature of the relation between consciousness in its various aspects and the material body with which it is associated4 ,so long as this gulf remains unbridged1 the possibility of a satisfactory mechanistic explanation of life seems far away4 ,on the other hand1 there has been a revival of the ancient tendency towards what is called a vitalistic solution4 ,a certain number of biologists1 impressed by the apparent similarity between the control and co-ordination exercised by the organism over its functions and the conscious control of voluntary activity with which we are familiar in ourselves1 have supposed that these things are not merely superficially similar but have a real and fundamental affinity4 ,this does not mean that organic control is always conscious1 but that there is a controlling entity1 non-material in nature1 which is similar in kind to the 'ego' of a self-conscious human being4 ,they suppose that the organism is not simply material1 but is a material mechanism controlled by a non-material entity the nature of which is more akin to what we mean by the word spirit than anything else of which we are accustomed to think4 ,they are in fact dualists1 and divide reality into the material and spatial on the one hand1 and non-material principle or entity which may fairly be called spiritual on the other4 ,and1 in the third place1 there are those who seek a solution which denies the truth of both the preceding1 and which is metaphysically idealist or monist in character4 ,to them1 if the present writer understands their attitude1 matter and spirit are different aspects of one reality4 ,in the inorganic and non-living1 phenomena appear which are generalized under the laws of physics and chemistry1 but the phenomena of life fall into a different category which includes the conception of co-ordination or individuality1 while a still higher category is required to include the phenomena of consciousness and mind4 ,it is evident from this brief review that ,biology in the period considered has passed through three main stages4 ,the first of these was the acceptance of a new illuminating and unifying idea1 which led to enthusiastic research in many directions for the purpose of proving and amplifying it4 ,very rapidly new facts1 or new interpretations of facts already known1 were shown to fall into line1 and the evolution theory became converted from a hypothesis into something approaching a dogma4 ,not only the idea of organic evolution itself1 but all the current beliefs about the method of evolution1 and the larger speculations to which it gave rise1 were widely regarded as almost indisputable1 and where difficulties and inconsistencies appeared1 these were supposed to be due solely to the insufficiency of our knowledge1 which would soon be remedied4 ,then1 however1 as detailed knowledge increased1 the voice of criticism and doubt was more frequently heard4 ,the various branches of ,biology began once more to overlap1 and to join hands with chemistry and physics1 and it became clear that the interpretation of life was very far from being a simple problem4 ,and so1 as with the ,atomic ,theory in chemistry1 the present position is one of dissolution of the older ideas and of hesitation to express a fixed belief1 for while ,biology has a clearer vision of the problem before it than ever it had1 its wider knowledge reveals the fact that the problem is far from being solved4 ,perhaps one of the chief results of the great increase of knowledge during the past sixty years has been to show us the immensity of the field still remaining to be explored4 ,,for ,,reference ,centenary volume on ,darwin 7,cambridge ,university ,press74 ,x ,,art ,a4 ,,clutton-,,brock ,my subject is art and thought about art4 ,i deal with aesthetics only so far as they concern art1 that is to say ,i shall not attempt any purely philosophic speculations about the nature of art and ,i shall speak of the speculations of others1 such as ,croce and ,tolstoy1 only so far as they seem to me likely to have a practical effect upon art4 ,my subject is the art of to-day and our ideas about it4 ,we are beginning at last to connect aesthetics with our own experience of art and to see that our beliefs about the nature and value of art will affect the art we produce4 ,hence a new aesthetic is very slowly appearing2 but ,i have to confess it has not yet appeared4 ,indeed there are at present two conflicting theories of art1 one or other of which is held consciously or unconsciously by most people who are interested in art at all1 and both of which ,i think are not only imperfect but to some extent false4 ,they are theories about the relation of the artist to the public1 and because of the conflict between them and the falsity of each1 we are confused in our ideas about art1 and the artists are often confused in their practice of it4 ,the first theory has been expressed1 not philosophically but with great liveliness1 by ,whistler in his ,ten ,o'clock1 and has had great influence both upon the thought of many people who care about art and upon the practice of artists4 ,it is1 put shortly1 that the artist has no concern with the public whatever1 nor the public with the artist4 ,there is no kind of necessary relation between them1 but only an accidental one2 and the less of that the better for the artist and his art4 ,whistler states it in the form of a ,new ,testament of his own4 ',listen1' he says4 ',there never was an artistic period4 ',there never was an art-loving nation4 ',in the beginning man went forth each day--some to do battle1 some to the chase2 others again to dig and to delve in the field--all that they might gain and live or lose and die4 ,until there was found among them one differing from the rest1 whose pursuits attracted him not1 and so he stayed by the tents with the women1 and traced strange devices with a burnt stick upon a gourd4 ',this man1 who took no joy in the ways of his brethren--who cared not for conquest and fretted in the field--this designer of quaint patterns--this deviser of the beautiful--who perceived in nature about him curious curvings--as faces are seen in the fire--this dreamer apart1 was the first artist4' ',and when from the field and from afar1 there came back the people1 they took the gourd--and drank from it4' ,whistler means that they did not notice the patterns the artist had traced on it4 ',they drank at the cup1' he says1 'not from choice1 not from a consciousness that it was beautiful1 but because forsooth there was none other4' ,so gradually there came the great ages of art4 ',then'1 he says1 'the people lived in marvels of art--and ate and drank out of masterpieces for there was nothing else to eat and drink out of1 and no bad building to live in4' ,and1 he says1 the people questioned not1 and had nothing to do or say in the matter4 ,but then a strange thing happened4 ,there arose a new class 'who discovered the cheap1 and foresaw fortune in the facture of the sham4 ,then sprang into existence the tawdry1 the common1 the gewgaw1 and what was born of the million went back to them and charmed them1 for it was after their own heart4444 ,and ,birmingham and ,manchester arose in their might--and ,art was relegated to the curiosity shop4' ,i do not think this can be a true account of the matter2 for1 if the people were not aware of the existence of art and did not value it at all1 how came they to imitate it8 ,one imitates only that which one values4 ,imitation1 as we know1 is the sincerest form of flattery2 and you cannot flatter that which you do not know to exist4 ,but ,whistler's account of the primitive artist is also wrong1 so far as we can check it4 ,we may be sure that1 if the other primitive men had seen no value in his pursuits1 they would have killed him or let him starve4 ,and the artist1 as he exists at present among primitive peoples1 is not a dreamer apart4 ,the separation between the artist and other men is modern and a result of modern specialization4 ,in many primitive societies most men practise some art in their leisure1 and for that reason are interested in each other's art4 ,in fact they notice the cups they drink out of much more than we do4 ,if we did notice the cups we drink out of1 we should not be able to endure them4 ,in primitive societies there are not star pianists or singers or dancers2 they all dance and make music4 ,homer himself was a popular entertainer2 he would have been very much surprised to hear that he was a dreamer apart4 ,in fact ,whistler made up this pretty story about the primitive artist because he assumed that all artists must be like himself4 ,he read himself back into the past and saw himself painting primitive nocturnes in a primitive ,chelsea1 happily undisturbed by primitive critics4 ,he is wrong in his facts1 and ,i believe he is wrong in his theory4 ,there is a relation1 and a necessary relation1 between the artist and his public2 but what is the nature of it8 ,that is a difficult question for us to answer because the relation now between the artist and the public is1 in fact1 usually wrong2 and ,tolstoy in his ,what is ,art8 tried to put it right4 ,what is ,art8 is a most interesting book1 full of incidental truth2 but ,i believe that the main contention in it is false4 ,i will give this contention as shortly as ,i can in his own words4 ',art'1 he says1 'is a human activity1 consisting in this--that one man consciously1 by means of certain external signs1 hands on to others feelings he has lived through1 and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them4' ,now this is well enough as far as it goes1 but it is not enough1 and just because it is not enough it leads ,tolstoy into error4 ,clearly1 if art is nothing but the infection of the public with the feelings of the artist1 it follows that a work of art is to be judged by the number of people who are infected4 ,and ,tolstoy with his usual sincerity accepts these conclusions2 indeed1 he wrote his book to insist upon them4 ,he judges art entirely as a thing of use1 moral use1 and he says it can be of no use unless a large audience is infected by it4 ,a work of art that few can enjoy fails as art1 just as a railway from nowhere to nowhere fails as a railway4 ,a railway exists to be travelled by and a work of art exists to be experienced by as many people as possible4 ,here are the actual words of ,tolstoy3 ',for a work to be esteemed good and to be approved of and diffused1 it will have to satisfy the demands1 not of a few people living in identical and often unnatural conditions1 but it will have to satisfy the demands of all those great masses of people who are situated in the natural conditions of laborious life4' ,now this sounds plausible2 but consider the effect of it upon yourself4 ,you listen to a symphony by ,beethoven2 and before you esteem it good1 you must ask yourself1 not whether it is good to you1 but whether it will satisfy the demands of those great masses of people who are situated in the natural conditions of laborious life4 ,tolstoy does proceed to ask himself this question about ,beethoven's ,choral symphony and about ,king ,lear1 and condemns them both because1 he says1 a ,russian peasant would not understand them4 ,but if we all obeyed him and asked this question about all works of art1 we should none of us ever experience any work of art at all2 for1 while we listened to a piece of music1 we should be wondering whether other people understood it2 that is to say we should not listen to it at all4 ,and what is this ,jury of people situated in the natural conditions of laborious life who are to decide not individually but as a ,jury8 ,who can say whether he himself belongs to them8 ,who is to choose them8 ,tolstoy chose them as consisting of ,russian peasants2 he1 like ,whistler1 believed in the primitive1 but for him it was the primitive man1 not the primitive artist1 who was blessed4 ,in his view there would be no ,jury in all western ,europe worthy of deciding upon a work of art1 because we none of us are situated in the natural conditions of laborious life4 ,so we must change all our way of life or despair of art altogether4 ,not one of the great ages of art would satisfy his conditions4 ,certainly not the ,greeks of the age of ,pericles1 or the ,chinese of the ,sung dynasty1 or the thirteenth century in ,france1 or the ,renaissance in ,italy2 and as a matter of fact he condemns most of the great art of the world1 including his own4 ,we can escape from the tyranny of ,tolstoy's doctrine1 as from the tyranny of ,whistler's1 only by considering the facts of our own experience of art4 ,the fact that we can enjoy and experience a work of art frees us from ,whistler's doctrine1 because1 if we can enjoy and experience it1 we are concerned with it4 ,because of our enjoyment1 art is for us a social activity and not a game played by the artist for his own amusement4 ,we know also that the artist likes us to enjoy his art1 in fact complains loudly if we do not2 and we do not believe that the primitive artist or man was different in this respect4 ,there is now1 and always has been1 some kind of relation between the artist and the public1 but not the relation which ,tolstoy affirms4 ,according to him the proper aim of art is to do good4 ',the assertion that art may be good art and at the same time unintelligible to a great number of people is extremely unjust1 and its consequences are ruinous to art itself4' ,the word unjust implies that the aim of art is to do good4 ,the artist sins if he does not try to do good to as many people as possible1 and ,i sin if ,i am ready to enjoy and encourage a work of art which most people do not enjoy4 ,but as a matter of fact a work of art is good to me1 not morally good but good as a work of art1 if ,i enjoy it4 ,in my estimate of the work of art ,i can ask only if it is a work of art to me1 not if it is one to other people4 ,i may wish and try to make them enjoy it1 but if ,i do that is as a result of my own enjoyment of it4 ,i can't begin by asking whether other people enjoy it2 ,i must begin with my own experience of it1 for ,i have nothing else to go by4 ,and so it is with the artist2 he cannot begin by asking himself whether the mass of men will understand what he proposes to produce2 he must produce it1 and then trust in man1 and ,god1 for its effect4 ,art is produced by the individual artist and experienced by the individual man4 ,tolstoy holds that it is to be experienced by mankind in the mass1 not by individuals2 his audience is an abstraction4 ,whistler holds that it is produced by the individual1 but for himself1 and not experienced by mankind either in the mass or as individuals4 ,both are heretics4 ,what is the truth8 ,i will now turn for a moment to the high aesthetic doctrine of ,benedetto ,croce4 ,he in his ,aesthetic tells us that all art is expression4 ,true enough1 as far as it goes2 but what do we mean by expression8 ,croce's doctrine of expression is incomplete1 he does not explain clearly what he means by expression1 because he also avoids the question of the necessary relation between the artist and his audience2 and this is the question which our thought about art has to deal with1 just as we have to solve it in our practice of art and in our actual relation with the artist4 ,croce does not see that the question--,what is expression8 depends upon the question--,what is the relation between the artist and his audience8 ,he does see that the audience exists1 which ,whistler denies2 he insists that the audience have the same faculties as the artist1 though to a less degree--that the artist is not a dreamer apart4 ,he says indeed that to experience a work of art we also must exercise our aesthetic faculty2 our very experience of it is itself expression2 and this is a most important point4 ,but for ,croce1 as for ,whistler1 the artist1 when he expresses himself1 is concerned only with what he expresses1 not with the people to whom he expresses himself4 ,croce does not see this obvious fact1 that a work of art is a work of art because it is addressed to some one and is not a private activity of the artist4 ,that is why he fails to give a satisfying account of the nature of expression4 ,croce cannot distinguish between expression1 or art1 and day-dreaming2 but the distinction is this1 that as soon as ,i pass from day-dreaming to expression1 ,i am speaking no longer to myself but to others4 ,so the form of every work of art is conditioned by the fact that it is addressed to others4 ,a story1 for instance1 is a story1 it has a plot1 because it is told4 ,a play is a play1 and also has a plot1 because it is made to be acted before an audience4 ,a piece of music has musical form1 with its repetitions and developments1 because it is made to be heard4 ,a picture has composition1 emphasis1 because it is painted to be seen4 ,the very process of pictorial art is a process of pointing out4 ,when a man draws he makes a gesture of emphasis2 he says--,this is what ,i have seen and what ,i want you to see4 ,and in each case the work of art is a work of art1 expression is expression1 because it implies an audience or spectators4 ,without that implication1 without the effort of address1 there could be no art1 no expression1 at all4 ,in fact1 art in its nature is a social activity1 because man in his nature is a social being4 ,art does not exist in isolation because man does not exist in isolation4 ,his very faculties are in their nature social always and whether for good or for evil4 ,the individual in isolation is a figment of man's mind1 and so is art in isolation4 ,but although art is a social activity1 it is not1 as ,tolstoy thinks1 a moral activity4 ,the artist does not address mankind with the object of doing them good4 ,it is useless to say that he ought to have that object2 if he had he would not be an artist4 ,the aim of doing good is itself incompatible with the artistic aim4 ,but that is not to say that art does not do good4 ,it may do good all the more because the artist is not trying to do good4 ,but what is it that really happens when the artist addresses us1 and why does he wish to address us8 ,to answer this1 we must consider our own experience1 not merely as an audience but also as artists1 for we are1 as ,croce insists1 all of us to some extent artists4 ,you have all no doubt been aware of some failure and dissatisfaction in those of your experiences which seem to you the highest4 ,suppose1 for instance1 you see some extreme beauty1 as of a sunset4 ,it leaves you sad with a feeling of your own inadequacy4 ,you have not been equal to it1 and why8 ,you will say in speaking of it to others--,i wish ,i could tell you what ,i felt or what ,i saw1 but ,i can't4 ,that wish is itself natural and instantly stirred in you by the experience of extreme beauty4 ,the experience seems incomplete1 because you cannot tell anyone else what you felt and saw2 and you are hurt by your effort and failure to do so4 ,it is a fact of human nature that the experience of any beauty does arouse in us the desire to communicate our experience2 and this desire is instinctive4 ,it is not that we wish to do good to others by communicating it4 ,it is simply that we wish to communicate it4 ,the experience itself is incomplete for us until we communicate it4 ,the happiness which it gives us is frustrated by our failure to communicate it4 ,we should be utterly happy if we could make others see what we see and feel what we feel1 but we fail of happiness because we cannot4 ,why8 ,one can only conjecture and express conjectures in dull language4 ,this beauty is itself a universal quality or virtue which makes particular things more real when they have it4 ,it speaks to the universal in us1 to the everyman in us1 and1 speaking so1 it makes us aware of the universal in all men4 ,we too wish to speak to that universal1 we wish to find it and the more intense reality which is to be seen only where it is seen1 we wish ourselves to be a part of it2 and we can do that only when all other men also are a part of it4 ,beauty seems to speak not merely to us but to the whole listening earth1 and we would be assured that all the earth is listening to it1 not to us4 ,but we ourselves have to play our part in the realizing of this universal2 the sense of it comes and goes2 for the most part we ourselves are not aware of it4 ,we are merely particulars1 like other men1 and separated from them by the fact that we are all particulars4 ,only1 when for a moment we are aware of it1 then we are filled with a passion to make it real and permanent2 and it is this passion which causes art and the blind instinctive effort at art1 at communication1 at expression1 which we have all experienced4 ,but it follows from this that the audience to which the artist addresses himself is not any particular men and women3 it is mankind4 ,the moment he addresses himself to any particular men and women and considers their particular wants and desires1 he is giving up that very sense of the universal that impelled him to expression2 he is ceasing to be an artist and becoming something else1 a tradesman1 a philanthropist1 a politician4 ,the artist as artist speaks to mankind1 not to any particular set of men2 and he speaks not of himself but of that universal which he has experienced4 ,his effort is to establish that universal relation which he has seen1 a universal relation of feeling4 ,and to him1 in his effort1 there is neither time nor space4 ,mankind are not here or there or of this moment or of that2 they are everywhere and for ever4 ,the voice in ,mozart's music is itself a universal voice speaking to the universe of universal things4 ,and all art is an acting of the beauty that has been experienced1 a perpetuation of it so that all men may share it for ever4 ,the artist's effort is to be the sunset he has seen1 to eternalize it in his art1 but always so that he and all men may be part of this universal by their common experience of it4 ,so1 as ,i say1 the artist must not speak to any particular audience with the aim of pleasing them--there is that amount of truth in ,whistler's doctrine2 and he does fail if he does not communicate1 since his aim is communication--there is that amount of truth in ,tolstoy's doctrine4 ,but the next question that arises is the attitude of ourselves to the artist4 ,we have to remember that he is speaking not to us in particular1 but to all mankind1 and that he speaks1 not to please us or to satisfy any particular demand of ours1 but to communicate to us that universal he has experienced so that we with him may become part of it4 ,it follows then that we must not make any particular demands upon him4 ,we must not come with our own ideas of what he ought to give us4 ,if we do1 we shall be an obstruction between him and that ideal universal audience to which he would address himself4 ,we shall be tempting him1 with our egotistical demands1 to comply with them4 ,but these demands we are always making2 and that is why the relation between the artist and any actual public is usually nowadays wrong4 ,i was once looking at ,tintoret's ',crucifixion' in the ,scuola di ,san ,rocco with a lady1 and she said to me--',that isn't my idea of a horse4' ',no'--,i answered--'it's ,tintoret's4 ,if it were your idea of a horse1 why should you look at it8 ,you look at a picture to get the artist's idea4' ,but that isn't the truth about art either4 ,the artist doesn't try to substitute his own particular for yours4 ,he tries to communicate to you that universal which he has experienced1 because it is to him a universal1 not his own1 but all men's1 and he wishes to realize it by sharing it with all men4 ,his faith1 though he may never have consciously expressed it to himself1 is in this universal which1 because it is a universal1 can be communicated to all men4 ,his effort is based on that faith4 ,he speaks because he believes all men can hear1 if they will4 ,so the effort of the audience must be to hear and not to distract him with their particular demands4 ,they must not1 for instance1 demand that he shall remind them of what they have found pleasant in actual life4 ,they must not complain of him that he does not paint pretty women for them1 or compose bright cheerful tunes4 ,they are not to him particular persons to be tickled according to their particular tastes1 but mankind to whom he wishes to communicate the universal he has experienced4 ,so1 if there is an actual audience listening for that universal and clearing their minds of their own egotistical demands1 then art will flourish and the artist will be encouraged to communicate that universal which he has experienced4 ,but if particular audiences demand this or that and are not happy until they get it1 if they say to him--,tickle my senses--,persuade me that all is for the best in the world as ,i like it2 that prosperous people like myself have a right to be prosperous2 that ,i am a fine fellow because ,i once fell in love2 that all who disagree with me are wicked and absurd--then you will have the kind of art you have now1 in the theatre1 in the picture gallery1 in the cinema1 in the novel2 yes1 and in your buildings1 your cups and saucers1 your pots and pans even4 ,for in the very arts of use you demand that the craftsman shall provide you with what you demand1 and as cheap as possible2 because you do not understand that he should express himself1 you do not understand also that his expression is worth having and that he ought to be paid for it4 ,in the very pattern on a tea-cup1 if it is worth having at all1 there is the communication of that universal which the artist has experienced4 ,it is there to remind you of itself whenever you drink tea1 to bring the sacrament of the universal into everything as if it were music accompanying and heightening all our common actions2 but if you want a fashionable tea-cup cheap1 you will get that1 and you will not get anything expressed or communicated with it4 ,you will be shut up in yourself and your own particularity and ugliness4 ,if we want art we must know how we should think and feel and act so as to encourage the artist to produce it4 ,but why should we want art at all8 ,i hope ,i have answered that question incidentally4 ,it is so that we may have life more abundantly2 for we can have life more abundantly only when we are in communication with each other1 mind flowing into mind1 the universal expressing itself in and through all of us4 ,we all more or less blindly desire this communication1 but we seldom know why we desire it or even what exactly it is we desire4 ,we make the strangest1 clumsiest efforts to communicate with each other--,i am making one now--and we are constantly inhibited by false shame from real communication4 ,we are afraid to be serious with each other1 afraid of beauty1 of the universal1 when we see it4 ,on this point ,i will tell a little story from ,mr4 ,kirk's ,study of ,silent ,minds4 ,at a concert behind the front1 an audience of soldiers had listened to the ordinary items1 a performance1 as ,mr4 ,kirk says1 'clean1 bright1 and amusing'1 which means of course silly and ugly4 ,then the orchestra played the introduction to the ,keys of ,heaven1 and a gunner remarked--',sounds like a bloody hymn4' ,that was his fear of beauty1 his false shame4 ,but when the ,keys of ,heaven was ended1 the whole audience1 including the gunner1 gave a sigh of content2 and after that they went to hear it time after time4 ,well1 the beauty of that song1 and of all art1 is the ',key of ,heaven' itself4 ,for ,heaven is a state of being of which we all dream1 however dully1 in which all have the power of communication with each other2 in which all are aware of the universal1 possessed by it and a part of it1 all members of one body1 all notes in one tune1 and therefore all the more intensely themselves1 for a note is itself1 finds itself1 only in a tune2 otherwise it is mere nonsense4 ,of course if you are to believe this1 you must believe in the existence of a universal1 independent of yourself1 yet also in you and in all men4 ,you must believe that beauty exists as a virtue1 a quality1 a relation of things1 and that it is possible for you also to produce that virtue1 to live in that relation4 ,but no one can prove that to you4 ,the only way to believe it is to see beauty with intensity and to make the effort of communication in some form or other4 ,tolstoy believes that the very word beauty is a useless one because1 he says1 all efforts to define beauty are vain4 ,but that is true of the word life1 yet we have to use the word because life exists4 ,and all explanations of art which refuse to believe in beauty as a reality independent of us1 yet one of which we may become a part1 do fall into incredible nonsense4 ,we are told that art is play2 the only answer to which is that it isn't4 ,others say that it is an expression of the sexual instinct1 which has forgotten itself4 ,they discover that in some savage tribe the male beats a tom-tom to attract the female2 and they conclude that ,beethoven's ,choral ,symphony is only a more elaborate tom-tom beaten to attract a more sophisticated female4 ,but again the only answer is that it isn't2 and that if all our ancestors were1 not ,whistler's dreamers apart1 but beaters of tom-toms to attract females1 then there was something in the sound of the tom-tom that made them forget the female4 ,the reality of art is to be found not in its origins but in what it is trying to be2 and what it is trying to be is always a communication between mind and mind2 what we aim at in art is a fellowship not for purposes of use but for its own sake1 the fellowship we feel when we are all together singing a great tune4 ,but now1 since we have a hundred foolish ideas about art1 its nature and value1 it is of the greatest importance that we should attain to a right idea of it1 not only as a matter of theory to be discussed1 but as a religion to be practised4 ,and1 if we can grasp this right idea of it1 we shall not think of art as consisting merely of the fine arts1 painting1 poetry1 music1 sculpture4 ,we shall see that it is possible for men to be artists1 to exercise this great activity of communication1 in the work by which they earn their living1 and that a happy society is one in which all men do so exercise it4 ,we are very far from that happiness now1 and that is why ,ruskin and ,morris became almost desperate rebels against our present society4 ,what they said about art and its nature is still the best that has been said about it1 far nearer to philosophic truth than all that the professed philosophers have said1 and of the utmost moment to us now4 ,for if we could believe them we should change most of our values2 we should see that the ordinary man1 now being deprived of all the joy of art in his work1 is living a mutilated life2 we should place art among the rights of man4 ,whereas ,rousseau said--,all men are born free and everywhere they are in chains--we should say--,all men are born artists and everywhere they are drudges4 ,with our curious ,english originality1 which hits on so many momentous truths and then makes no use of them1 it is we who have found the greatest truth about art1 but neither we nor any other people is at present making much use of it4 ,because we lack art1 lack the power of communication1 we lack fellowship2 and as ,morris said--,fellowship is life and the lack of it is death4 ,,for ,,reference ,w4 ,morris1 ,hopes and ,fears for ,art4 ,,xi ,a ,,generation ,,of ,,music ,,dr4 ,,ernest ,,walker ,the general subject of this course is ,european ,thought2 and1 to some1 music may perhaps seem in this connexion rather like an intruder4 ,indeed1 if the musician is1 in ,william ,morris's phrase1 'the idle singer of an empty day'1 if his business is to administer alternate stimulants and soporifics to the nerves or1 at best1 the surface emotions1 or to serve in ,cinderella-like fashion any passing1 shallow needs of either the individual or the crowd1 then1 obviously1 he has no place worth self-respecting mention in the world as it exists for philosophy4 ,but widespread as some such conception of the function of music is1 ,i hope you will agree with me in throwing it aside as1 at any rate for our present purpose1 no more worth the trouble of even approximately patient argument than that other less general but more objurgated conception of musical composition as something like a mechanically calculated spinning of bloodless formulae4 ,by the conditions of its being1 music has to express itself through non-intellectual channels1 but may we not say that its essence is intellectual1 that it is1 in ,combarieu's phrase1 the art of thinking in sound--thinking in as precise a sense as the word can bear8 ,it does not express itself verbally3 it is self-dependent1 with a language available only for the expression of its own ideas and not even indirectly translatable by nature into a verbal medium4 ,yet it is thought none the less2 perhaps all the more4 ,words1 we have often been told1 serve for the concealment of thought2 but the language of music is more subtle1 more comprehensive4 ,it has been said that where words end1 music begins2 and anyhow1 for musicians1 there stands on record the serenely proud claim of one of themselves4 ',only art and knowledge'1 said ,beethoven1 'raise man to the divine2 and music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and all philosophy4' ,but ,i must not allow this little preliminary apology to stray into the field of abstract aesthetics4 ,the subject proposed to me1 the correlation of the progress of specifically musical thought during the last generation with the progress of ,european thought in general1 is so extensive that ,i cannot within the necessary limits attempt to deal with more than some of the most salient features1 and even those ,i shall have to treat in very broad outlines1 with a certain disregard of detail and nicely balancing qualifications4 ,i shall only attempt to put before you what seem to me the most prominent considerations1 and to throw out suggestions which ,i hope you may perhaps1 if sufficiently interested1 develop at leisure for yourselves4 ,in several ways the correlation of the musician with the non-musical world is now more intimate and conscious than ever before4 ,forty or fifty years ago--in spite of brilliant individual exceptions--musicians were1 in the main1 self-centred craftsmen2 they were inclined to drift into a backwater1 away from the chief currents of the intellectual1 or often indeed of the general artistic life of their day1 and they seem on the whole to have been content to have it so4 ,in ,england we were somewhat behindhand1 no doubt1 in our participation in the gradual but steady change4 ,but men like ,parry and ,stanford brought their profession into close touch with the general culture of their contemporaries1 and made the universities and music understand each other2 ,grove1 the first director of the ,royal ,college1 himself a man whose professional career 7not to mention his amateur interests7 had ended in music after ranging through civil engineering1 business organization1 biblical archaeology1 and the editorship of a great literary magazine1 preached with infectious enthusiasm the new doctrine of the larger outlook2 and for the last thirty years1 even if our practice may have occasionally seemed somewhat to lag behind1 at any rate our theory has not looked back4 ,musicians have been granted their claim to be judged by the same intellectual and moral standards as other reasonable people2 it is a modest claim1 but1 especially in ,england1 it has had to be fought for4 ,and the entry on this wider heritage1 which ,english musicians1 apart from an exception or two such as ,pierson and ,bennett1 won for the first time a generation ago1 has had in every country a definite influence on composition1 especially 7as is only natural7 on the composer's attitude towards the musical setting of literature4 ,i should be far from saying that any modern is a greater song-writer than ,schubert2 but it is obvious that the followers of ,wolf and ,duparc and ,moussorgsky are aiming at something different4 ,they may not express the general mood of the poem more faithfully1 but they certainly attach more importance to its lyrical structure and to flexibly expressive diction3 they accept the poet as an equal colleague4 ,the serious song-writer can hardly any longer1 like ,schumann in his setting of ,heine's ',das ist ein ,flten und ,geigen'1 afford to stultify great poetry by quoting from memory and getting the adjectives deplorably wrong4 ,nor can he1 like ,beethoven in ',adelaide' and the ',entfernte ,geliebte' cycle1 let himself weave musical structures many sizes too large for the proper structure of the words1 which have consequently to be repeated over and over again with very little regard for poetical or even common sense4 ,schumann and ,beethoven1 especially the former1 were culturally very far from narrow-minded men2 but there was not in their days any general cultural pressure sufficiently strong to influence them as composers4 ,now1 the pressure is so strong that few can resist4 ,most composers have now fully learned their lesson of a fitting politeness towards their poet-colleagues--learned it in the main1 so far as not intuitively1 from the high examples set by ,wolf and the modern ,french school--and have1 moreover1 come to recognize the duty of setting such words as may be fit not only to be sung but to be read1 a duty shockingly neglected by many of the greatest geniuses in musical history4 ,and the cultural pressure has gone farther than this4 ,not only has the increasing complexity of life broadened the musician's personal outlook1 professional or unprofessional3 it has also modified1 whether for better or for worse1 the outlook of the music itself4 ,we may conveniently divide all music into two great classes3 'absolute' music1 in which the composer appeals to the listener through the direct medium of the pure sound and that alone2 and 'applied' music1 in which the appeal is more or less conditioned by words1 either explicit or implicit by association1 or by bodily movement of some kind1 dramatic or not1 or by any other non-musical factor that affects the nature of the composer's thought and the method of its presentation4 ,up to the present generation1 instrumental music1 unconnected with the stage1 has been virtually identifiable with absolute music2 there are a handful of exceptions--sporadic pieces1 usually though not invariably thrown off in composers' relatively easy-going moods1 and an isolated figure or two of serious revolt1 like ,berlioz and ,liszt--but they only serve to prove the rule4 ,now1 this identification is far from holding good4 ,more consciously than ever before1 instrumental music is straining beyond its own special domain and asking for external spurs to creative activity4 ,and it asks in various quarters4 ,it may ask merely the hint of particular emotional moods conditioned by special circumstances2 or it may vie with the poet and the novelist in analysis of character4 ,the psychology1 again1 may pass into the illustration of incident1 whether partially realistic or purely imaginative1 or into the illustration of philosophical tenets1 as in ,strauss's version of ,nietzsche's doctrines in his ,also sprach ,zarathustra or ,scriabin's of theosophy in his ,prometheus4 ,or the composer may go directly to painting1 whether actual as in ,rachmaninoff's symphonic poem on ,bcklin's picture of ',the island of the dead'1 or visionary as in ,debussy's ',la cathdrale engloutie'4 ,there is indeed no end to such instances4 ,all this development of instrumental music into territories more or less adjacent makes a very imposing show2 and it is so markedly a product of the last generation that we easily over-estimate the novelty of its essential results4 ,as ,i have said1 instrumental music is more and more asking for external spurs to creative activity2 but this does not mean that music as a whole is1 so to speak1 breaking loose from its moorings and adventurously voyaging on to uncharted seas4 ,what it means is1 simply1 that1 under the stress of modern culture1 the barriers between vocal and instrumental1 dramatic and non-dramatic1 music have been to a great extent abolished4 ,we may consider music as normally involving three persons3 the composer1 the performer1 and the listener4 ,until the present generation1 the role of the listener was normally quite passive4 ,all that he had to do was to keep his ears open to the music1 and further1 when required1 his ears open to words and his eyes to dramatic presentation4 ,the composer and the performers did everything for him4 ,but now they do not4 ,the modern composer urges that1 just as vocal music demands from the listener a separate knowledge of the words1 so instrumental music may demand1 as a condition of full understanding1 a separate knowledge of some verbally expressible signification4 ,the parallel no doubt holds well enough even if we answer1 as we certainly may1 that in much vocal music the words are so unimportant that it really does not musically matter if they are unintelligible or inaudible4 ,but this latter-day demand on the listener is considerable4 ,the listener to ,strauss's ,don ,quixote1 for example1 must1 in order to appreciate in full measure any section of this long work1 have a fairly close acquaintance with ,cervantes' book--whether derived from an analytical programme or from personal reading3 there are neither words nor acting to give a clue1 nor does the printed music itself give the slightest assistance1 except in so far that a couple of themes are labelled with the names of the ',knight of the sorrowful countenance' himself and ,sancho ,panza4 ,sometimes1 no doubt1 a composer helps at any rate the purchaser of his music more2 but to the listener he gives nothing1 and leaves his thought1 as embodied in the mere title1 to be reached as best it may4 ,the modern composer makes these demands on the listener continually2 and he does so simply because the sphere of the music-lover's imaginativeness and general culture has become so greatly enlarged that he thinks he can fairly afford to take the risk4 ,but we may well ask whether the music of suggestion has not1 in its restless anxiety to correlate itself with non-musical culture1 reached or perhaps even overstepped the limits of musical possibility4 ,it is no question of a composer's rights3 he has a right to do anything he can1 provided that he preserves a due proportion between essentials and unessentials4 ,and judicious criticism will turn1 if not a blind1 at any rate a short-sighted eye towards a great composer's occasional realistic escapades1 which1 however irritating they may perhaps be to others1 are to him only a part of the general background of his texture2 after all1 in their different media1 ,bach and most of the other giants have occasionally allowed themselves similar little flings4 ,it is a question not of rights1 but of powers4 ,the poet and the painter and the novelist1 not to mention all the non-human agents in the universe1 are bound to do a good many things much better than the composer can2 and even if he may personally aspire to be a kind of spectator of all time and existence1 he has no means of making his listeners see eye to eye with himself4 ,the risk he runs may be too great4 ,realizing as we must that all this ferment of suggestion-seeking has undoubtedly vivified and enriched musical development in not a few aspects1 we may nevertheless feel1 and feel profoundly1 that there is a cardinal weakness inherent in it4 ,a composer may so easily be tempted to forget that it is after all by his music1 and by his music alone1 that he stands or falls4 ,if he asks too much extra-musical sympathy from the listener1 he defeats his own end4 ,the listener will inevitably concentrate on the unessentials1 and will as likely as not get them quite wrong2 he may indeed indulge the habit of realistic suspicion to such an extent as to make him become thoughtlessly unfair and credit the composer with sins of taste1 whether babyish or pathological1 of which the objurgated culprit may be altogether innocent4 ,if a composer plays with fire1 he is fairly sure to burn some one's fingers1 even if he successfully avoids burning his own4 ,and anyhow it is waste of time1 and worse1 for us to cudgel our brains to fits of entirely unnecessary inventiveness when the composer has left his music unlabelled4 ,we sometimes hear of children being encouraged to give verbal or dramatic expression of their own to instrumental music2 that is not education--very much the reverse4 ,it is merely the expense of spirit in a waste of fancifulness1 the wilful murder of all feeling for music as such4 ,the feeling for music as such1 that is still the one thing needful4 ,and by this canon1 so it seems to me1 we must judge all these alarums and excursions of modern composers4 ,if we hold firmly by it1 we shall not be unduly worried when we learn that the music which seems so perfectly to realize the composer's expressed meaning has been originally designed by him quite otherwise--as has happened oftener than is generally known2 though this fact does not excuse wilful contradictions of a composer's definite intentions1 as in the vulgar perversion of ,rimsky-,korsakoff's ,scheherezade popularized by the latest fashionable toy1 the ,russian ,ballet1 which would do more musically unexceptionable service were it to confine itself to works specially designed for it1 such as the fascinating and finely-wrought scores of ,stravinsky1 or concert works like ,balakireff's ,thamar1 based on programmes that can be mimetically reproduced without unfaithfulness4 ,and anyhow1 in the midst of all these appeals to the eye or the literary memory or what not1 we may call to mind the simple truth that music is something to be heard with either the inward or the outward ear1 and if we are too much distracted otherwise1 our hearing sense suffers4 ,we shall pay too high a price for our latter-day correlation of music with literature and the other arts if the music itself has to play the part of ,cinderella4 ',we do it wrong1 being so majestical4' ,again1 we may endeavour to correlate recent musical development with the development of the conceptions of nationality and race4 ,with nationality in the strictly political sense music has1 indeed1 nothing to do3 there is no inborn musical expression common to all the inhabitants of ,switzerland1 or the ,united ,states1 or the ,british ,empire 7or indeed the ,british ,islands74 ,and if we abandon political nationality entirely and think of national music solely in terms of race1 we still have to make very large deductions4 ,heredity counts1 it would seem1 for far less than environment in musical development--especially so in these days of free intercourse4 ,nevertheless1 we may to some extent isolate the racial element2 and within the last generation increasingly vigorous efforts have been made to do so--though they have perhaps neglected sufficiently to observe that racial ancestry is often an extremely mixed quantity4 ,to the musician1 this insistence on race is in the main a quite modern thing4 ,it is true that1 as the successive waves of ,italian influence flowed northward in the sixteenth1 seventeenth1 and eighteenth centuries1 they met in ,england1 ,france1 and ,germany1 and1 at the end1 in ,russia1 native cross-currents2 and there was plenty of controversy between the opposing parties4 ,but this controversy was mainly concerned with matters of technique2 whereas the whole force of the modern movement consists in its reliance on the simple folk-music which is supposed to be characteristic of the race as a whole1 and about which hardly any composers of the past consciously troubled themselves at all4 ,haydn and ,beethoven1 no doubt1 used folk-tunes in their own works to some extent1 but the former's adaptations from the uncultivated tunes of his own ,croatian people are polished nearly out of recognition1 and when the latter commandeers from ,ireland or ,russia or elsewhere1 nothing but pure ,beethovenishness remains after his masterful hand has done its will4 ,we may say1 indeed1 that nationality1 as such1 was never in their time a conscious factor in musical composition4 ,the modern movement seems to owe its origin to several non-musical causes4 ,for example1 the spread of political democracy had no little influence in arousing interest in the music specifically characteristic of at any rate the non-urban sections of the newly enfranchised classes4 ,but1 in the main1 it was caused by the modern rise into something like political prominence of the smaller nations1 smaller either in size or in historical importance4 ,the events of #ahdh1 for example1 brought ,hungarian folk-music before the world2 ,bohemian claims against ,austria produced the work of ,smetana and ,dvovrk1 largely based on the general style of their own native melodies2 the ,irish ,question made us know the ,irish songs2 and the dominating races followed those leads1 at any rate in so far as to take interest in their own traditional music1 and try to evaluate its differentiating factors4 ,conscious connexion between artistic composition and folk-music has varied very much3 very strong in ,russia and other ,slavonic countries1 it has been very weak in ,italy and ,france2 in ,germany we find all stages between the work of ,brahms1 where the folk-element is very notable1 and of ,wolf1 where it is non-existent2 in our own islands it has been very weak1 but is now becoming very strong4 ,but1 whether this connexion has been conscious or not1 still1 sooner or later1 all the insisters on the importance of the element of nationality have joined hands with the enthusiasts for the folk-music of the people4 ,in the work of preserving the knowledge of this folk-music ,england has been one of the last of all countries3 even the last edition of ,grove's ,dictionary1 our standard authority1 gives many pages to ,scotland and ,ireland and ,wales1 and smuggles ,english folk-music into an appendix4 ,only indeed in the twentieth century has anything like an adequate study of the varied treasures of ,english folk-music become possible1 and we have learned enough to realize that great folk-music is no monopoly of the races that have been either politically or socially decentralized4 ,this advance of the conception of racialism has widened and intensified music in not a few ways4 ,it has brought to our knowledge many splendid melodies1 infinitely varied in design and emotional range1 and1 at their best1 inspirations that the greatest composers would have been proud to sign4 ,and1 mixed as are the feelings with which we must contemplate the general course of our own musical history1 we can anyhow boast of some of the finest folk-tunes in existence in these relics of the old world on its last western fringes1 in ,ireland and the ,hebrides4 ,we have come to see that this great mass of traditional music--only in part1 of course1 the outpouring of sheer genius1 but at its worst sincere--is1 with its appeal alike to the child and the adult1 either in years or in musical culture1 the most perfect educational weapon yet devised with which to combat all the forces that make for musical degradation4 ,and1 apart from all this half-unconsciously wrought music1 we have been shown the value of the bypaths in art1 of the work of the great men of the younger races like the ,scandinavians and the ,czechs and most of all the ,russians1 who do not speak the older classical tongues but have1 all the same1 abundance to say that is well worth the whole world's hearing4 ,it is to our immense gain that we have now come1 far more than ever before1 to realize that in the house of music there are many mansions4 ,and1 once again1 we have been taught the duty of being fair to the men of our own blood1 past and present4 ,particularly in our own artistic history there has been visible a strongly marked tendency1 such as no other nation has shown in equal measure1 to neglect and depreciate native work in comparison with foreign1 even when the latter might perhaps be worse4 ,but ,i think we may say1 without self-laudation1 that ,british composition is now worth some considerable attention from ourselves and others2 it was1 not unnaturally1 wellnigh forgotten during its sleep from the death of ,purcell till the rise of ,parry--a fairly sound sleep1 during which it occasionally half-opened its eyes for a moment or two--but it is wide awake now4 ,we are still slow to learn the lesson2 but we have come to realize1 at any rate theoretically1 the duty of doing what we can1 in the spirit not of favouritism but of justice and knowledge1 to disprove the proverb that a prophet 7and an artist also7 has no honour in his own country and in his father's house4 ,so much to the good4 ,but to-day1 more than ever before1 many voices are urging us to go farther--and1 ,i think1 to fare worse4 ,artistic racialism has always been spontaneous1 so far as the art is great4 ,no composer who is worth anything can be dragooned into being patriotic3 he will go his own way4 ,some are attracted more than others by the general types of phrase or the general emotional moods exemplified in the folk-music of their own race2 but that is a matter for neither credit nor discredit4 ,individuality includes race as the greater includes the less4 ,the only vital consideration is the value of the output in the general terms of all races2 and indeed all great folk-music1 like any other kind1 speaks1 for those who have ears to hear1 a world-language and not a dialect4 ,and there is still more at stake in this issue4 ,those who1 as ,i do1 hold that the best chance for the political future of the world lies in the weakening of national and racial as well as class consciousness1 must needs regard very suspiciously any of these modern attempts to force music into channels which are deliberately designed for it by non-musical considerations3 the fettering1 by set purpose1 of art is a very considerable step towards the fettering of life itself4 ,england may sometimes have failed in kindness to her own artistic children1 living and dead2 but at any rate we have been free from the curse of a narrow jealousy and have steadfastly held to the proud faith of the open door and the open mind4 ,the ideal--so violently dinned into our ears nowadays--of a national school of composers may very easily mean a wilful narrowing of our artistic heritage4 ,if an ,english composer with nothing to say for himself imitates ,brahms or ,debussy1 it is obviously regrettable2 but he will not mend matters by imitating ,purcell4 ,and1 after all1 the musician who 7save occasionally when seeking texts for his own individual discourses7 borrows his material from his native folk-music stamps himself1 just as much as if he borrowed from any other quarter1 as a common plagiarist incapable of inventing material of his own4 ,if we may adapt for the purpose ,johnson's famous aphorism about patriotism and scoundrels1 we may say that racial parochialism is the last refuge of composers who cannot compose4 ,let us assert once more the supreme beauty of folk-music at its best2 but it is often childish1 and1 anyhow1 childish or not1 it is after all the work of children4 ,and any of the world's activities would come to a strange pass if children--or any races or classes which1 through lost opportunities or the oppression of others1 are still virtually children--were to dictate principles of intolerance to those who1 by no merit of their own but as a plain matter of fact1 can possess the wider vision4 ,let a composer steep himself as much as he can in his native folk-music1 as in all other great music1 and then write in sincerity whatever is in his own marrow2 but anything approximately like a chauvinistic attitude towards music1 as towards any other of the things of the spirit1 means either insensibility to spiritual ideals or unfaithfulness to them4 ,let me take an analogy4 ,i have always felt that a philosophical and historical study of the idea of honour would throw more light than anything else on many great problems1 notably the problem of war1 and that in this investigation the conception of the duel would have a very prominent place4 ,may we not say that1 just as the individual honour of each of us1 unless we are members of the self-styled upper classes of a few countries1 is now supposed to be able to take care of itself1 so the blood in a composer's veins will1 if his music is worth anything1 be able to take care of itself also8 ,neither honour nor artistic personality is affectable by external considerations which are on a different plane of value4 ,and music indeed is the most specifically international1 or supernational1 of all the arts2 it has not1 like literature1 any barriers of language1 nor1 like painting or sculpture or architecture1 any local habitation4 ,musical separatism is not a natural quality2 it needs careful and continuous fostering4 ,and ,i know from personal experience that1 all through the war1 there was no difficulty at all in carrying on concerts in the programmes of which works by living ,german composers1 and songs in the ,german language1 were included in their due proportions just as before4 ,another great factor in modern ,european thought with which ,i would attempt to correlate music is the factor of religion4 ,no one will deny that the last generation has seen profoundly important changes in religious thought3 whatever may have been the eddies and backwaters1 the main stream has run1 and still runs1 like a cataract4 ,these changes may be very differently judged by different types of men1 all of them equally firm believers in the supremacy of spiritual ideals3 some may definitely regret1 some may1 with the help of such conceptions as that of progressive revelation1 steer a middle course1 some 7among whom ,i would number myself7 may definitely welcome4 ,but in whatever light we may regard these radical refusals of the old allegiances1 we shall naturally expect to find their influence in music1 which has had in many ways so intimate a connexion with religion4 ,indeed1 the conception of music as in some special way the handmaid of religion dies very hard4 ,it is still possible1 in ,april #aiai1 for distinguished musicians1 when appealing for funds for the foundation of a professorship of ecclesiastical music1 to put their names to the statement that 'the church will always be the chief home and school of music for the people'#ga3 and this when the facts about attendances at places of worship have long been familiar4 ,we must rate the influence of church music more modestly2 it has a great influence in its own sphere1 but its sphere is only one among many4 ,we may1 ,i think1 envisage this religious development on its practical side as a process of differentiation by which the sincere standers in the old and the middle and the new paths have little by little drawn apart intellectually--but not1 in societies that are happily able to take broad views of human nature1 otherwise than intellectually--not only from each other but still more from those who1 whatever their ostensible labels1 are in reality followers of ,gallio and routine4 ,and something like the same process is observable in the religious music of the past generation4 ,many of its old conventions have silently dropped away1 unregarded and unregretted3 whatever the outlooks1 and they are many and various1 they are more clear-sighted1 more sincere4 ,here in ,england we have somewhat lagged behind3 we have had1 not perhaps altogether fairly but indubitably1 a reputation for national hypocrisy to sustain1 and our religious music has only with difficulty shaken itself loose4 ,not very long ago1 ,saint-,sans's ,samson and ,delilah1 now one of the most popular of operas1 could only be performed as an oratorio3 it dealt with biblical incidents and characters1 therefore it was religious music1 therefore it could not be given stage presentation4 ,of course this kind of attitude is never logical3 for a long time we closed ,covent ,garden to ,strauss's ,salome for the same reason1 but no one1 so far as ,i know1 ever proposed to endow it with a religious halo4 ,now1 when ,sunday secular music is everywhere1 its origins seem lost in antiquity2 but the chamber-music concerts at ,south ,place in ,london and ,balliol ,college in ,oxford1 which are1 ,i think ,i am right in saying1 the twin pioneers1 are both little over thirty years old4 ,in most other countries1 however1 music has suffered far fewer checks of this kind2 and it is of more importance to correlate musical and religious development on more general lines4 ,particularly interesting1 ,i think1 is the history of the decline of the oratorio1 which ,i should myself be inclined to date from the production of the ,german ,requiem of ,brahms about half a century ago1 though the real impetus has become apparent only during the last generation4 ,brahms's ,requiem was indeed something of a portent3 it was a definite herald of revolt4 ,the mere title1 ',a ,german ,requiem'1 involving the commandeering of the name hitherto associated exclusively with the ritual of the ,roman ,church and the practice of prayers for the dead1 and its adaptation to entirely different words1 was in itself of the utmost significance2 and the significance was enhanced by the character of the words themselves4 ,in the first place1 they were self-selected on purely personal lines2 in the second place1 they were1 theologically1 hardly so much as ,unitarian4 ,brahms claimed the right to express his own individual view of the problem1 and at a length which involved the corollary that the problem was regarded in its completeness4 ,the ',german ,requiem' cannot be considered1 as an anthem might be1 as an expression of a mere portion of a complete conception of the particular religious problem3 in an organic work of this length1 what it does not assert it implicitly denies or at any rate disregards4 ,and this was at once recognized1 both by ,brahms's opponents and by himself3 he categorically refused to add any dogmatically ,christian element to his scheme4 ,similarly with his ,ernste ,gesnge1 written some thirty years later1 at the end of his life3 he balances the reflections on death taken from ,ecclesiastes and similar sources with the ,pauline chapter on faith1 hope1 and charity--not with any more definite consolation4 ,and again1 with the choral works1 the settings of ,hlderlin's ,schicksalslied1 ,schiller's ,nnie1 ,goethe's ,gesang der ,parzen 7the first-fruits of the essentially modern spirit which has impelled so many composers to choral settings of great poetry7--they deal with the ultimate things1 but the expression is never1 so to speak1 orthodox3 it is imaginative1 sometimes perhaps ironical1 but never anything but intensely non-ecclesiastical4 ,brahms's ,requiem represents1 as ,i have said1 the beginning of the change in the conception of concert-room religious music1 of the abandonment of the old type of oratorio in favour of something much more conscious and individual2 and in refusing to take things for granted1 religious music has been altogether in line with general religious development4 ,the change can perhaps be observed in ,english music more markedly than elsewhere4 ,oratorio1 in the sense in which we ordinarily use the term1 is to all intents and purposes an invention of the genius of ,handel reacting on his ,english environment3 the form was of course older1 but he gave it a specific shape that set the fashion for future times4 ,it had its birth in a business speculation2 it was a novelty designed to occupy the ,lenten season when the theatres were not available for opera4 ,like the opera1 it supplied narrative and incident and characterization though without scenery or action1 and it dealt with biblical history4 ,the history of the oratorio is the history of this loose compromise2 it has afforded an attractive flavour of the theatre even to those to whom drama may in itself have seemed disreputable1 and it has had the advantage of possessing subjects which combined unquestioningly accepted literal truth with unlimited possibilities for wholesale edification1 and at the same time made no intimately personal claims4 ,the libretto of ,mendelssohn's ,elijah is perhaps at once the most familiar and the most skilfully compiled example of the type2 but it is now1 so far as great music is concerned1 extinct4 ,here in ,england--where1 for something like a century and a half1 the demand was so large that composers1 when tired of writing oratorios themselves1 still went on producing them out of the mangled fragments of other music--,parry's ,judith of #ahhh is the last of the old type from the pen of a great composer2 and his subsequent works show1 in striking fashion1 the direction of the newer paths4 ,there is no longer the assumption that everything in the ,bible or the ,apocrypha is at one and the same time literally true and somehow or other edifying4 ,job and ,king ,saul are great literature and vivid drama2 they stand on their own merits4 ,and the long succession of smaller choral works1 in which ,parry mingled in curious but intensely personal fusion his own earnest but somewhat pedestrian poetry with fragments of the ,old ,testament prophets1 represent a still further abandonment of the old routine2 they form a connected exposition of his philosophy of life1 on the whole theistic rather than specifically ,christian1 and always transparently individual4 ,individual--that is the real issue4 ,according to their differing temperaments1 different composers may swing towards either the right or the left wing of thought in these non-ecclesiastical expressions of ultimate things3 ,stanford may join with ,whitman or ,robert ,bridges1 ,vaughan-,williams with ,whitman or ,george ,herbert1 ,frank ,bridge with ,thomas ,kempis1 ,walford ,davies with a mediaeval morality-play1 ,gustav ,hoist with the ,rig-,veda1 ,bantock with ,omar ,khayyam4 ,but the essentials1 for any composer worth the name1 are that his theme shall have its birth in personal vision and shall appeal to personal intelligence4 ,the routine oratorio fulfilled neither of these conditions2 and it is dead beyond recall4 ,it was a curious illustration of foreign ignorance of ,british musical life that ,saint-,sans1 when asked to write a choral work for the ,gloucester ,festival of #aiac1 should have imagined that he was meeting our national tastes with an oratorio on the most prehistoric lines4 ,however1 the unanimous chilliness with which ,the ,promised ,land was received must have effectually disillusioned him4 ,but the liberalisers1 though the more numerous force1 have no monopoly of sincerity3 among the genuine conservatives also we can find1 ,i think1 signs of the correlation of musical with religious development4 ,we have had1 during the last generation1 many works that are in the legitimate line of descent from the great classical settings of ritual words or 7as with the ,passions and ,cantatas of ,bach7 words that are intended anyhow to appeal not as literature but as dogma4 ,when ,elgar prints on the title-pages of his oratorios the letters ,a4,m4,d4,g4--ad majorem ,dei gloriam--the personal note is1 in these days1 obvious4 ,his own libretti to ,the ,apostles and its sequel ,the ,kingdom 7and to the further sequels which had been sketched out twelve years ago1 though none has as yet seen the light7 resemble those of the older type of oratorio in so far as they include narrative and dramatic incident and religious moralizing2 but there is not a trace of the old lethargic taking things for granted1 it is all a ringing sacramental challenge to the individual soul4 ,elgar's work is indeed the typical musical expression of recent ,roman ,catholic developments2 but there are others also4 ,there was ,perosi1 the ,benedictine priest1 whose oratorios1 tentative1 childishly sincere mixtures of ,palestrina and ,wagner1 were forced upon ,europe in the late 'nineties with the full driving power of his ,church1 and who1 when his musical insufficiency became palpable1 was dropped in favour of ,elgar himself1 whose sudden rise into deserved fame coincides in time4 ,there was again the allocution of ,pius ,x1 known as the ,motu proprio1 which sought to reform ecclesiastical music and has1 however fruitless it may have been elsewhere1 made the services in ,westminster ,cathedral1 under ,dr4 ,terry's direction1 a ,mecca for musicians of all faiths who are interested in the great sixteenth-century masterpieces4 ,there are also the aristocratically ,catholic composers of latter-day ,france1 centring round ,vincent d',indy and the ,schola ,cantorum and looking back for inspiration to ,csar ,franck4 ,and again1 in the ,english communion1 there is the marked ,high-,church movement for the encouragement of dignified music1 a movement that has had great influence in the purification of popular taste4 ,and the pivot round which all this turns is the dogmatic faith that definitely ,christian expression in music is the property1 the exclusive property1 of those who by temperament and conviction are ,christians4 ,the attitude1 like the conditions which have brought it about1 is1 ,i think1 new3 but some of its adherents go surely too far when they urge that those whose minds work otherwise cannot really appreciate this music at its due worth4 ,csar ,franck1 that simple-minded childlike genius1 once pronounced ,kant's ,kritik der reinen ,vernunft 'very amusing'--a surely unique criticism--simply1 it would seem1 because it was eccentric enough not to take ,catholicism as a primary postulate3 ,i do not myself happen to have any information about ,kant's musicianship--perhaps1 like too many great thinkers1 he knew little about music and cared less--but ,i think we may venture to say1 in the abstract1 that his philosophy would have made him fairer to ,franck than ,franck was to him4 ,and thus perhaps we may conclude that recent musical development has kept pace with religious development in concentrating more and more on individual sincerity1 whether on the one side or the other1 and abandoning the old easy-going haphazard routine4 ,but1 in reaction from the extreme right and the extreme left of the movement1 we have also the sincere dislikers of stark thinking1 whom their opponents call by dignified names of abuse1 such as pragmatists or undenominationalists3 and here again music keeps pace with religion4 ,it is not the old routine again 7though perhaps in practice it may at times come rather perilously near it72 it is the more or less conscious adoption of a compromise4 ,we can see its musical working best of all in the recent history of church music in ,england2 it is true that the great mass of the younger musicians1 here as in all other countries1 stand outside these developments1 and look both for ideals and practice elsewhere1 but the developments have none the less been very significant4 ,there have been three stages4 ,a couple of generations ago there was no conflict and no call for compromise4 ,the ecclesiastical musician of the time was expected1 whether as composer1 as organist1 or as administrator1 to do his best according to his lights3 it was his accepted business1 as presumably knowing more about the matter than the artistic laity1 to lead their taste1 not to follow4 ,then came the reign of men like ,dykes and ,stainer and ,gounod1 whose normal attitude involved the sacrifice by the musician of some of his musicianship in the supposed interests of religion4 ,the supposed interests1 ,i say2 for the whole point of the third stage of development1 the conflict in which ,english church music is now involved1 is the denial by one of the opposing parties that the interests of religion are in any way served by such a sacrifice4 ,it is a very keen conflict1 in which the sympathies of the musician qua musician naturally lean towards those who uphold the inalienable dignity of his art3 and even if he feels that ecclesiastical music1 qua ecclesiastical1 is outside his personal concern1 influences from it are bound to radiate into the secular departments4 ,but what ,i would more especially point out is that the religious and the musical developments proceed side by side4 ,just as the stricter purists in the one field are1 in the other1 generally inclined1 even if themselves unmusical1 to uphold plain-song and the ,elizabethans and only such modern work as is inspired by something like a similar spirit1 aloof and strong1 so those whose religious mentality is of a more pliable type are1 if musically indifferent1 generally inclined to uphold the practical accommodation afforded by the inclusion of at any rate a certain quantity of music that is consciously adapted to the more immediately obvious emotions of the average worshipper4 ,and1 even if there is no question of a lowered artistic standard1 we see1 ,i think1 the same spirit of compromise1 of ready acceptance of the more immediately obvious as the average and proper norm for all people1 elsewhere on the boundaries of musical and religious life4 ,it is so easy to turn a blind eye to logic and minorities1 or even to majorities if they have little pressure1 social or other1 to back them up4 ,to illustrate from one or two ,english examples1 the transformations of cathedrals into secular concert-rooms are as open to blame from the one side as are1 from the other1 such assumptions as that of the ',union of ,graduates in ,music' to take rank as a definitely ecclesiastical1 indeed an ,anglican society4 ,again1 it so happens that a somewhat exceptional proportion of ,english musicians hold1 or have held1 as conditions of livelihood1 posts to which not all of them would have aspired had other channels1 open to their foreign fellow-artists1 been open to them also2 and1 as a necessary consequence1 there is more probability here than elsewhere of the musical profession presenting practical problems for the intellectual conscience to solve4 ,so far as the musician is a personal non-conformer and also a teacher 7even if not a church organist71 he is often compelled into a tacit agreement with the ,cowper-,temple clause1 at the least3 and so far as he is a convinced conformer1 he is often compelled to strain1 far beyond the meaning of the parable1 the principle of letting the wheat and the tares grow together4 ,this is called a practical age3 and the compromisers1 in religion and in religious music1 are a powerful force4 ,but ,i would venture to think that the future lies1 in the long run1 in other hands than theirs4 ,to the mediaeval musician1 religion and science were the twin foundations of his art4 ,but while the influence of religious development can without difficulty be traced in musical history1 the influence of scientific development is much more contestable4 ,it may indeed1 ,i think1 be said that post-mediaeval music has gone its own way without considering science at all4 ,theorists of course there have been1 and still are1 who try to discover scientific foundations for the art of music as we moderns know it3 they do their best to correlate mathematical physics with practical composition4 ,but during the past generation these attempts1 never very hopeful1 have become much less so4 ,it is only too easy to play scientific havoc with the foundations of modern music3 but1 arbitrary and scientifically indefensible though they may be1 they are our inheritance4 ,music has come to be what it is by methods that will not bear accurate investigation3 our tonal systems are mere makeshifts1 and no composer can completely express his thoughts in our clumsy notation4 ,i doubt if1 throughout all this last generation that has seen such overwhelming scientific advance1 music has really been scientifically affected 7in the strict sense of the word7 in the slightest degree1 if we exclude some interesting experiments in sympathetic resonances1 primary and secondary1 at which some recent composers for the piano have1 at present rather tentatively1 tried their hands4 ,and whole-tone and duodecuple scales and modern harmony in general are taking us farther and farther away from those natural laws of the vibrating string upon which arm-chair theorists have sought to build a very top-heavy edifice4 ,of course1 the vibrating string ultimately gives--mostly out of tune--all the notes of the chromatic scale1 but composers employ them on principles the reverse of mathematical4 ,the growth of music has not been scientific2 but growth of some kind is evident enough1 though it is none too easy to define it at all adequately4 ,some might say1 with ,romain ,rolland in his ,musiciens d'autrefois1 that 'the efforts of the centuries have not advanced us a step nearer beauty since the days of ,st4 ,gregory and ,palestrina'2 but this is surely a narrow outlook4 ,beauty combines the many with the one3 and plain-song and the ,missa ,papae ,marcelli show us only a few1 a very few1 of its manifestations4 ,but artistic progress is1 anyhow1 very subtle and evasive2 and musical progress1 in particular1 is hardly correctable with any other4 ,above all1 we must recollect that1 to us ,europeans1 music--which1 in the only sense worth our present consideration1 is an exclusively ,european product--is incalculably the youngest of the great arts2 if we exclude some monophonic conceptions that have still their value for us1 it is barely five hundred years old at the most4 ,during the last generation an advance in material complexity is obvious1 even though the complexity may often enough be one of accidentals rather than essentials4 ,an orchestral score of ,wagner is relatively simple in comparison with one of ,delius or ,ravel or ,scriabin or ,stravinsky or ,schnberg2 and the demands on performers' technique and also on their intelligence have steadily increased to heights altogether unknown before4 ,the composer has at his present disposal a vastly enlarged medium2 the possibilities of sound have developed incalculably more than those of paint or stone or marble4 ,pheidias could1 we may imagine1 have appreciated ,rodin across a gulf of over two thousand years2 but it is difficult to see the points of contact1 after little over three hundred years1 between ,palestrina and any twentieth-century work that would claim to be 'in the movement'4 ,and it is not only in complexity that we have advanced4 ,we have extended the limits of musical style4 ,we have adopted in sober earnest methods forecasted at rare intervals in the past by adventurous explorers1 and employ musical notes not as elements in any harmonic scheme but purely as points of colour1 exactly as if the definite notes were mere clangs of indefinite instruments like cymbals or triangles4 ,wordless vocal tone1 moreover1 of several different types1 is pressed into the same service4 ,varied tonal and harmonic colour1 and structural freedom3 those are the two battle-cries of the young generation4 ,little by little the old tonalities1 based as they were on fixed centres1 are slipping away2 all the notes of the chromatic scale are acquiring even status2 the principles of structure are newborn with every new work4 ,and advance of this kind has been extraordinarily accelerated during the last twenty years4 ,at no time in musical history have there been such express-speed modifications of manner as those which divide1 let us say1 the latest piano pieces of ,brahms 7#ahic7 and the latest of ,scriabin 7#aiad74 ,it is possible1 indeed1 that our standard system of keyboard tuning may require modification in the not very distant future4 ,once again1 as three hundred years ago1 music seems to be in the throes of a new birth4 ,on the former occasion1 the process of convalescence lasted rather more than a century1 from ,monteverde through ,carissimi and ,schtz and ,purcell to ,bach2 and it may perhaps take as long now4 ,but it is plain enough that mere novelty does not involve progress2 if it were so1 the music of the casually strumming baby would demand high recognition4 ,nor is progress to be found in merely quantitative1 ,brobdingnagian expansion4 ,and when we have taken our stand on what seems a sufficiently sound definition of musical progress in its material aspect--the combination of novelty with expansion1 the new thought with its appropriately enlarged medium--we have yet to remember that many very fine composers still can1 and do1 express their natural and full selves in older idioms1 and that progress of this kind1 however widespread it may become1 is not necessarily advance in the scale of values4 ,there is1 somewhere or other1 a limit to the cubic capacity of things3 they cannot increase indefinitely in depth and breadth at once4 ,we may confidently hope that we have not yet musically come within hailing distance of the limit3 but nevertheless it is becoming more and more difficult to see music steadily and see it whole1 and it is useful to take stock of our position4 ,our musical minds are very much broader than they were3 in that sense we can well1 like the heroes of ,homer1 boast that we are much better than our fathers4 ,but are they also deeper8 ,we have gained access to many new rooms in the house of art1 rooms full of strange and beautiful things1 for the knowledge of which we must needs be profoundly and lastingly grateful2 but some of the rooms seem rather small and their windows do not seem to have been opened very often1 while others seem liable to be swept by hurricanes which upset the furniture right and left4 ,veterans there are1 musicians not to be named except with high honour1 who fall back for nutriment on the great classics and pessimism2 but our notions of beauty cannot stand still1 and in all ages of music one of the most vital tasks of criticism has been to distinguish between the relatively non-beautiful which has character and truth and its superficial imitation which has neither4 ,all musicians very well recollect their first bewilderment at what has afterwards become as clear as daylight4 ,but we must retain our standards of judgement4 ,we have no right to criticize without familiarity1 but we must remember that over-familiarity1 mere dulled habitual acceptance1 means equal incapacity for criticism4 ,if1 after trying our utmost1 we still cannot see any sense in some of these modernist pages1 there is no reason why we should not say so2 it is quite possible that there really is no sense in them1 and that the composer is perfectly aware of the fact4 ,odd stories float about the artistic world4 ,and if the anarchists call us philistines and the philistines call us anarchists1 it is fairly likely that we are seeing things pretty much as they are4 ,moreover1 it is worth remembering that a good deal of what is loosely called modernism is in reality very much the reverse4 ,there is nothing progressive in the confusion of processes with principles1 in the breathless disregard of the larger issues4 ,take the ideal of 'direct expression of emotion'1 the attempt to give1 as ,pater said half a century ago1 'the highest quality to our moments as they pass and simply for those moments' sake'4 ,musically1 it is a return to the childhood of our race1 to the natural savage4 ,if a musical composition is to consist of anything more than one isolated noise1 it must inevitably have a form of some kind1 its component parts must look backward and forward4 ,the latter-day composers who speak of ,form as a kind of bogey that they have at last exorcized remind us of those latter-day thinkers who boast that they have abolished metaphysics4 ,we cannot leap off our shadows2 if we try1 we shall only find that we are left with a residuum of bad metaphysics or bad musical form--as thoroughly bad as the metaphysics and the musical form that have resulted from the confusion of the one with empty word-spinning and of the other with hide-bound pedantry4 ,again1 much of the modern rhythmical complexity strongly resembles1 in essence1 the machine-made experiments of mediaeval times2 and the peculiarly fashionable trick of shifting identical chords up and down the scale--the clothes'-peg conception of harmony1 so to speak--is a mere throw-back still farther1 to ,hucbald and the diaphony of a thousand years ago4 ,and the insistence1 now so common1 on the decorative side of music1 the conscious preference of the sensuous to the intellectual or emotional elements1 brings us back to our own infancy1 with its unreflecting delight in things that sparkle prettily or are soft to the touch or sweet to the taste4 ,it is a reaction from sentimentality1 no doubt1 but is a reaction to an equal extreme1 a perversion of the truth that great art never wholly gives itself away4 ,as ,vincent d',indy has justly pointed out1 the 'sensualist formula'--'all for and by harmony'--is as much an aberration of good sense as the parallel formula of the ultra-melodic schools of ,rossini and ,donizetti3 in either case it means the sacrifice of spaciousness to immediate effect1 the supremacy of sensation over the equilibrium of the heart and the intelligence4 ,not of course that any music lacks the sensuous element2 but it is a matter of proportion4 ,and very distinguished as are many of the modern exponents of this side of things1 history tells us1 ,i think1 that they are working in a blind alley4 ,they have their supporters1 no doubt4 ,m4 ,jean-,aubry1 in his very suggestive and valuable book on modern ,french musicians1 has used a phrase that seems to me worth remembering2 he speaks of the 'obsession of intellectual chastity' which1 to his mind1 disfigures the work of ,csar ,franck and other great composers whom he therefore rejects from his latter-day ,pantheon4 ,i am glad to think that ,franck would have gloried in this shame4 ,he1 and a very goodly company with him1 knew that music was1 at its highest1 something better than an entertainment1 however thrilling or however refined4 ,but1 whatever critics and composers may feel about musical progress1 it is1 as ,wagner said1 in the home of the amateur that music is really kept alive1 and the amateur's music depends very largely on the schools4 ,a generation ago music was certainly sociologically selfish4 ,musicians had not realized that all classes of the community were open to the influences of fine music1 if only they had the opportunities for knowing it4 ,but since then there have been very great advances1 both quantitative and qualitative1 in musical education4 ,we have spread it broadcast1 in the increasing faith that appreciation depends1 not on technical knowledge or executive skill1 but on the responsive temperament and the will to understand4 ,familiarity1 familiarity at home if possible1 is the key to this understanding2 and in this connexion there is1 ,i believe1 an enormous educational future before pianolas and gramophones1 if only the preparation of their records can be taken in hand on artistic rather than narrowly commercial lines4 ,and our standards of judgement have risen3 we do not worship quite so blindly mere names1 whether of the past or of the present1 nor exalt the performer quite so dizzily above what is performed4 ,nor do we quite so glibly disguise our indifference to vital distinctions by talking about differences of taste3 we know that1 however catholic we may rightly be within the limits of the good1 whether grave or gay1 there comes sooner or later1 in our judgement of musical as of all other spiritual values1 a point where we must put our foot down4 ,we are going on1 and our theories are sound enough3 but the path of a democratically widened1 and rightly so widened1 art is by no means easy4 ,the principle of levelling up slides so readily into the practice of levelling down3 and the book of music is closed once for all if we are to accept the plenary inspiration of majorities4 ,but here in ,england the greatest danger to musical progress is1 ,i venture to think1 the self-styled practical ,englishman--fortified as he is by the consciousness that1 for at any rate a couple of centuries or more1 we have as a nation taken a low view of the arts and have been rather proud of it than otherwise4 ,it is so obvious that no profession is economically more unsound than that of the serious composer3 it is not so obvious that we owe all the great things of the spirit by which we chiefly live to those whom the world calls dreamers1 among whom the great musicians have had1 and1 ,i hope and believe1 will always have1 no mean place4 ,against the 'practical ,englishman'1 and all that his attitude to music involves1 we can all of us fight in our respective spheres3 and ,i would commend to you for useful weapons three very different books by very different men--,sir ,hubert ,parry's great book on ,style in ,musical ,art1 ,mr4 ,c4,t4 ,smith's account of his artistic work in an elementary school in the ,east ,end of ,london which he calls ,the ,music of ,life1 and a pamphlet ,starved ,arts mean ,low ,pleasures recently written by ,mr4 ,bernard ,shaw for the ,british ,music ,society4 ,and one particular line of indirect attack1 easily open to all of us1 is1 ,i am inclined to think1 specially promising4 ,in the third and fourth verses of the thirty-fifth chapter of the book of ,ecclesiasticus we shall find these injunctions1 which ,i translate as literally as ,greek epigrams can be translated3 ',do not hinder music3 do not pour out chatter during any artistic performance3 and do not argue unseasonably4' ,in other words1 conversation1 however valuable1 prevents complete listening to music2 and music that is not meant to be listened to in its completeness is not worth calling music1 and had much better not be there at all4 ,musical progress will be spiritually well on its way when we all realize this axiomatic truth as firmly as this ,hebrew sage of two thousand years and more ago4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ga3 ,the ,times1 ,april #ag1 #aiai4 ,,xii ,,the ,,modern ,,renascence ,f4 ,,melian ,,stawell ,to understand in any degree the modern outlook on life it seems necessary to go back to the time of the ,french ,revolution4 ,for at that stirring epoch there flamed up in the minds of enthusiasts an ideal of man's life larger than had ever yet been known1 and one that has dominated us all ever since4 ,if we give1 as ,i think we should give1 a wide sense to the word ',liberty' and make it mean all that stands for self-development1 then one may say that this ideal was fairly well summed-up in the famous ,revolutionary watchword1 ',liberty1 ,equality1 ,fraternity'4 ,it is impossible at any rate to read the idealists of that time and its sequel--say from #agic to #ahdh--whether in ,france1 ,germany1 ,england1 or ,italy1 whether inside or outside the ,revolutionary ranks1 without feeling their buoyant hope that a fresh era was opening in which man1 casting aside old shackles and prejudices1 could advance at once towards knowledge1 joy1 splendour1 both for himself and all his fellows4 ,shelley1 perhaps1 is most typical of what ,i mean4 ,hogg laughed at him for his belief in the 'perfectibility' of the race1 but ,hogg knew the belief was vital to the poet4 ,to ,shelley it was a damnable doctrine that the many should ever be sacrificed to the few3 yet neither was the ultimate vision that inspired him the vision of the few being sacrificed for the many4 ,he was anything but an ascetic seeking martyrdom4 ,the martyrdom of his ,prometheus is a prelude to the ,unbinding when happiness shall flood the world3-- ',the joy1 the triumph1 the delight1 the madness6 ,the boundless1 overflowing1 bursting gladness1 ,the vaporous exultation not to be confined6' ,and not only happiness and love1 but knowledge also3 the ,earth calls to the ,sky3 ',heaven1 hast thou secrets8 ,man unveils me2 ,i have none4' ,soberer spirits shared this poet's ecstasy4 ,wordsworth sang ',bliss was it in that dawn to be alive1 ,but to be young was very heaven4' ,and that heaven was exactly this foretaste of the ,spirit of ,man entering undisturbed into his full inheritance at last3 ,science welcomed as a dear and honoured guest1 ,poetry known as 'the breath and finer spirit that is in the countenance of all knowledge'4 ,it is scarcely necessary even to mention the high hopes of the ,french themselves1 the confident anticipation of an ,age of ,reason when all men should be brothers and the earth bring forth all her treasures1 but it is well worth noting the attitude of ,goethe1 an attitude the more significant because1 in a sense1 ,goethe always stood outside the ,french ,revolution4 ,but he1 like the best of its votaries--and this is less known than it should be--desired the development of all men every whit as much as he desired the high culture of a few4 ,it was for the double goal that he worked4 ',only through all men1' he writes in a notable passage1 'only through all men1 can mankind be made4'#gb ,all good lies in ,man1 he tells us again1 and must be developed1 'only not in one man1 but in many'4 ,goethe1 the so-called aristocrat1 has given us here as true a formula for the democratic faith as could well be found4 ,and to him1 as to ,shelley and to ,wordsworth1 ,poetry and ,science were not enemies but friends dearer than sisters4 ,those three1 ,shelley1 ,wordsworth1 and ,goethe1 foreshadowed a new poetry of science that has never yet been achieved1 though fine work has been done by ,tennyson1 ,whitman1 ,sully ,prudhomme1 and ,meredith4 ,goethe1 moreover1 again like ,shelley and the ,french1 broke with all ideals of mere self-abnegation4 ,in his poem1 ',general ,confession'1 he makes his disciples repent of ever having missed an opportunity for enjoyment and resolve never so to offend again4 ,here1 as often1 ,goethe comes into the closest touch with our modern feeling4 ,we1 too1 can never return to the ,franciscan ideal of poverty1 celibacy1 and obedience as the highest life for man on earth4 ,we have done with self-denial except as the means to a human end4 ,we are still in the tide of what ,i would call the ,modern ,renascence2 we claim the whole garden of the world for our own1 the tree with the knowledge of good and evil included1 reacting even from ,christian ideals if they can make no room for that4 ,but1 after all1 the characteristic of the belief dominant a century ago was exactly that such room could be made1 that ,hellenism could be combined with ,christianity1 and self-development with self-denial4 ,and this belief is1 ,i think1 reflected in the music of the time4 ,schubert1 that sweetest soul of tears and laughter1 understands every shade of wistfulness1 and yet again and again in his music it seems as though the universe had become1 to quote a lover of his1 one immense and glorious blackbird4 ,mozart1 in ',the ,magic ,flute'1 as ,goethe seems to have recognized1 sings the very song of union between the unreflecting joy of the natural man and the strenuous self-devotion of the awakened spirit4 ,beethoven1 greatest of them all1 plumbs the lowest depths of suffering and then astounds and comforts us by ineffable vistas of happiness4 ,after years of personal misery he crowns the glorious series of his symphonies by the one that ends in a hymn of joy1 freedom1 and faith1 embracing the whole world--',diese ,kuss der ganzen ,welt'--that majestic open melody1 clear as the morning1 fresh as though it came from far oversea1 greater even than any of the great harmonies that have gone before1 larger than the tortured human heart1 steadier than the sudden ecstasy of the spirits set free1 stronger than the swansong of the dying1 a melody content with earth because it is conscious of heaven4 ,i offer no apology for weaving my own fairy-tales round such music3 ,i see no harm in the practice1 but only good1 so long as we understand what we are about4 ,music1 it is true1 is something other than1 in a sense more than1 either thought or feeling or even poetry1 and cannot be reduced to any of them 7nor any of them to it74 ,the universe would be poor indeed if it could be so4 ,but none the less the truth may be1 as ,spinoza thought1 that the universe is at once a unity and a unity with many facets1 so that any one facet1 while for ever unique1 can bring to our minds all the mysteries of the rest4 ,in any case1 the high confidence that breathes in the music of a hundred years ago meets us again in the philosophers4 ,hegel1 born in the same year as ,beethoven and ,wordsworth 7#aggj71 is sure that nothing can resist the onslaught of man's spirit4 ',stronger than the gates of ,hell are the gates of ,thought4' ,fichte is convinced that there waits in man1 only to be developed1 a power that will unite him with all other men and at the same time develop his own personality to the full4 ,in a sense1 the deepest1 each man is his fellow-men1 and they are he4 ,how much this conception has affected modern thought can be seen in a recent and very remarkable book1 ,the ,new ,state1#gc where the very basis of democracy is shown to be the faith in this essential unity1 a unity to be worked out1 not yet realized1 but capable of realization1 a faith stirring all through the modern world1 in ways expected and unexpected1 from ,syndicalism to the ,league of ,nations4 ,later than ,hegel and ,fichte1 the great ,positivist conception of life preached by ,comte is instinct with this belief that man united with his fellows1 and only as so united1 can attain heights undreamt-of and unlimited4 ,the flood-tide of this faith flowed far into the nineteenth century4 ,the ,italian ,mazzini1 leader of revolt in #ahdh1 was filled with it4 ,prophet of the most generous political gospel ever preached1 he lived on the hope that1 if freedom were given to the nations and duty set before them1 they would prove worthy of their double mission1 and peace would come to pass between all peoples4 ,but even ,mazzini had his moments of agonizing doubt4 ,and others beside him1 men of lesser intellect as well as greater1 were soon to raise1 or had already raised1 voices1 stern or fretful1 of protest and criticism4 ,it became clear at last that this joyous confidence rested on a very definite view of life and one that might easily be challenged1 the view1 namely1 that at bottom the universe meant well to man1 that his greatest aspirations were compatible with each other and nowise beyond attainment4 ,almost from the first there were men of the modern world who did challenge this4 ,byron and ,schopenhauer are significant figures1 both born in the same year1 only eighteen years later than the great ,three of #aggj1 ,wordsworth1 ,hegel1 and ,beethoven4 ,byron is full of moody questionings1 ,schopenhauer of much more than questionings4 ,against the dauntless optimism of ,hegel1 he flatly denies that the universe is good1 or happiness possible for man4 ,on the contrary1 at the heart of it and of him there lies an infinite unrest1 never to be quieted until man himself gives up the ,will to ,live and sinks back into the ,unconscious from which he came4 ,now after ,schopenhauer came ,nietzsche1 and though ,nietzsche's influence may have been exaggerated1 yet undeniably it has been of immense importance both for ,germany and ,europe4 ,he is typical of the change that begins to appear about the middle of the century4 ,reacting from the optimism of the idealists 7which seemed to him both smug and false71 ,nietzsche welcomed ,schopenhauer's more ,spartan view with a kind of fierce delight4 ,but his criticism of ,schopenhauer was fierce too1 and he gave a strangely different turn to such parts of the doctrine as he did accept4 ,to ,schopenhauer1 since it was folly to hope for real happiness in this life or any other1 the wise course would be to kill outright1 so far as possible1 the ,will to ,live itself4 ,to ,nietzsche the wise course was to assert life1 to claim it more and more abundantly1 to face this tragic show with a courage so high that it could be gay1 a courage that could do without happiness1 and yet that turned aside from none of life's joys simply because they were fleeting1 that was more than content to 'live dangerously'1 picking flowers1 as it were1 clear-eyed1 on the edge of the precipice4 ,and this not merely in the temper of ',let us eat and drink1 for to-morrow we die4' ,for him the motto would have run1 ',let us be up and doing1 for to-morrow we die'1 sustained by the belief that the heroic struggle now would lead inevitably to the production of a nobler type of man1 a man who would be something more than man--the ,super-man1 to give him the name that every reader knows1 if he knows nothing else about ,nietzsche4 ,even this short statement shows how ,nietzsche shared the admiration for life and power characteristic of what ,i have called the ,modern ,renascence1 and how deeply he was influenced by the doctrine of ,evolution1 and that in a not unhopeful form1 the hope for an advance in the race at least1 if not in the individuals now living4 ,and it shows too how mistaken those are who see in him nothing but a preacher of brutal egotism4 ,if he had been only that1 he would never have won the influence he possessed and possesses4 ,yet there is important truth in the cursory popular judgement4 ,if his teaching has its heroic side1 a side that has enabled him to give succour to many when other and sweeter gospels are spurned as flattering unctions1 he has also a most ruthless element4 ,and this partly because of his very sincerity4 ,accept the doctrine that men and women perish like candles blown out in the night1 accept it really and fully1 with intellect1 imagination1 and feeling1 and then see how much light-heartedness can be got out of life1 if we still allow ourselves to pity men4 ,nietzsche had intellect1 imagination1 and feeling1 and he saw plainly enough that1 while even in such a universe there could be a grim happiness for the lives of heroes1 there could be nothing but infinite sadness for the countless failures who have never been either happy or heroic4 ,there was no immortality2 these wretched beings would never have another chance4 ,if joy was to be kept 7and ,nietzsche was avid for joy71 if the universe was to be accepted 7and ,nietzsche desired above all to say ,yes6 to the universe71 then he must root out pity from his heart as an unmanly weakness4 ,in this way was sharpened the ruthlessness and savage arrogance latent in the man1 a ruthlessness and an arrogance that have done so much harm both to his country and the world4 ,in fairness1 we must add that ,nietzsche could not succeed in his own attempt2 the struggle tore him to pieces and he died in madness4 ,but it is above all instructive to contrast him here with several of his contemporaries and successors4 ,browning in ,england1 ,walt ,whitman in ,america1 facing the same problems of joy and struggle1 of life and death1 of the few great and the many commonplace1 of ,man himself and the ,nature that seems at once his mother and his enemy1 refused to give up the hope of a solution1 nay1 they were sure they had found a solution1 and for them it was bound up with the hope of immortality4 ,they go even beyond the earlier men in their insistence on the double ideal of ,paganism and ,christianity1 but they have an insistence of their own on the belief in unending life as alone giving man elbow-room1 so to speak1 for working out his destiny4 ,browning claims eternity as the due of every man1 however mean2 and if ,whitman feels his foothold 'tenon'd and mortised in granite'1 it is because he can 'laugh at dissolution' and knows 'the amplitude of time'4 ,but in such insistence and such conviction they have not been followed1 speaking broadly1 by our leading writers since4 ,on the other hand1 they have been so followed1 again speaking broadly1 in their loyalty to the twofold ideal4 ,here and there1 no doubt1 as ,i have said1 writers like ,nietzsche1 on the one hand1 have tried to be satisfied with the splendid development of a ,few1 or1 on the other hand1 like ,tolstoy1 have flung back in a kind of despair to the old ideal of abnegation1 of sheer brotherly love and nothing else1 turning their backs on all splendours of art1 knowledge1 or delight1 that do not directly minister to the one thing they hold needful4 ,but the earlier and wider ideal1 the ideal of our ,renascence1 once envisaged by man1 that has not been lost1 and ,i believe never can be lost4 ,its own greatness will keep the foremost men true to it4 ,meredith is one of the men ,i mean4 ,he is full of pity1 but he does not only pity men and women--he wants them to grow1 and to grow for themselves4 ,his whole attitude towards ,woman shows this3 for the women's movement is nothing more and nothing less1 as ,ibsen also felt1 than one big stream of the general movement towards liberty and self-determination4 ,so far ,meredith marches with ,browning and ,whitman4 ,but he will never commit himself about immortality4 ,it seems enough for him to take part in the struggle for a finer life1 at once heroic and tender1 not caring overmuch whether we reach it or no4 ',spirit raves not for a goal' is one of his hard and characteristic sayings1 and here he seems to me typical both of modern thought in general and especially of ,english thought1 and that both for good and ill4 ,we see in him the want of precision1 the lack of logical coherence1 that have prevented us from ever producing a philosopher of the first rank4 ,at the same time there is something true and profound in his instinct that the moment has not yet come in which to formulate our faith4 ,we all feel that we are on the brink of tremendous1 perhaps terrifying1 discoveries2 we resent any cut-and-dried solution1 however pleasant1 perhaps all the more if it is pleasant1 and we resent it because we feel that at bottom our hopes would be travestied by any conception we1 with our little intellect and minute knowledge1 could at present frame4 ,it was once said to me by a far-seeing friend#gd that the modern dislike of church-going1 the modern incapacity to write a long coherent poem1 the modern passion for music and for realism1 even for sordid realism1 all sprang from the same roots1 from the thirst for an infinite harmony1 the belief that everything was somehow involved in that harmony1 and the conviction that all systems1 as yet made or makeable1 were entirely inadequate4 ,and to the list we may add1 ,i think1 the modern passion for history and for science4 ,we study history not merely to be warned by failures or inspired by shining examples3 at bottom we have a belief that somehow the lives and struggles of those men in the distant past are still quite as important as our own4 ,we follow the discoveries of science not only for their commercial value or because we share the excitement of the chase1 but because1 deeper than all1 we suspect that the universe is a glorious thing4 ,and there is another matter1 perhaps the most important of all1 on which ,i would dwell as ,i draw to a close1 where ,meredith leads directly to the dominant thought of the present day4 ,i mean his feeling that1 if the universe is to be proved acceptable to man's conscience1 it will be through the effort of man himself struggling towards his own ideal4 ,it is as though the world itself had to be redeemed by man4 ,this hope is the real hope of our time4 ,so far as the modern world believes the doctrine of the ,incarnation1 it is in this sense that it believes4 ,and this belief we find everywhere in all hopeful writers1 great or small4 ,it gives dignity to the latest writings of ,h4,g4 ,wells1 this faith in a spirit moving in man greater than man himself1 worthy to fight and fit to overcome all that is wrong in the universe4 ,bernard ,shaw's creed is just the same1 sometimes thinly disguised under respect for 'the ,life-,force'1 sometimes coming boldly forward in audacious1 profound assertions that ,god needs ,man to accomplish ,his own will and is helpless without him4 ',there is something ,i want to do1' ,shaw imagines his ,god as saying1 'and ,i don't know what it is2 ,i must make a brain1 the human brain1 to find it out4' ,rodin modelled a mighty hand1 the ,hand of ,god1 holding within it ,man and ,woman4 ,shaw1 it is reported1 asked the sculptor3 ',i suppose you meant your own hand after all8' ',yes1' said ,rodin1 'as the tool4' ,the same idea is at the base of what is most stimulating in ,bergson1 the idea of what he calls ,creative ,evolution1 an undefined splendour not yet fully existing1 but1 as it were1 crying out to be born1 and only to be born through the struggle of man's spirit with matter4 ,this is one function of matter1 perhaps the supreme function1 to be the material through which alone man's vague ideal can become definite and actual1 just as an artist can only get close to his own conception through the effort to embody it in visible form or audible sound4 ,from this point of view1 the world is conceived as anything but ready-made1 rather it is in the process of making1 and we ourselves are among the makers4 ,or1 to take a metaphor that perhaps appeals more to the modern world1 it is a fight1 and an unfinished fight4 ,to quote ,william ,james1 ',it feels like a real fight--as if there were something really wild in the universe which we1 with all our idealities and faithfulnesses1 are needed to redeem2 and first of all to redeem our own hearts from atheisms and fears4' ,he goes on to confess that he himself does not know1 and certainly cannot prove scientifically1 that the redemption will surely be accomplished4 ,such proof1 he admits1 'may not be clear before the day of judgement 7or some stage of being which that expression may serve to symbolize7'4 ',but the faithful fighters of this hour1 or the beings that then and there will represent them1 may turn to the faint-hearted1 who here decline to go on1 with words like those with which ,henry ,,iv greeted the tardy ,crillon after a great battle had been gained3 ,hang yourself1 brave ,crillon6 ,we fought at ,arques1 and you were not there6'#ge ,thus1 if the idea of the splendour and perfection of the universe has sunk into the background1 if the sense of worship and the feeling of ecstasy have been dimmed 7and ,i think they have71 at least the reverence for heroism and for tenderness has not been impaired1 and there after all lies the root of human majesty4 ,there is deep pathos in the change1 but maybe1 paradoxical as it sounds1 deep hope as well4 ,the world may grow the stronger for having to live now by what ,carlyle called 'desperate hope' as distinct from 'hoping hope'4 ,the triumphant harmony that seemed attained a century ago by certain poets and thinkers may have been1 after all1 too cheap and easy1 if not for their own large spirits1 at least for us1 their lesser readers4 ,mystics have spoken of ',the ,dark ,night of the ,soul' as the stage inevitable before the crowning glory1 and to-day some of those who call to us out of great darkness are among our greatest leaders4 ,of such certainly is a living writer1 now beginning to be acclaimed as he deserves1 the writer ,conrad4 ,in some ways this noble novelist might stand as the special representative of modern feeling4 ,a ,pole by birth and more than half an ,englishman by sympathy1 his view of life is as wide as it is profound and grave4 ,it has all the sternness of temper of which ,i have spoken1 the determination to look facts in the face whatever the consequences4 ,conrad would echo ,sartor's noble cry for ,truth--',truth6 though the ,heavens crush me for following her2--no ,falsehood6 though a whole celestial ,lubberland were the price of ,apostasy6' ,this determination is fierce enough to be taken for cynicism1 but ,conrad is far too tender ever to be a cynic4 ,so also does his pitifulness prevent him from ever falling into the errors of a ,nietzsche1 but none the less he has all ,nietzsche's ardour for heroism4 ,that to him is the core of life3--'to face it4' ',keep on facing it1' so the old skipper tells the young mate in ,typhoon4 ,and facing the mysterious universe1 peering into the ,darkness with steady alert eyes1 ,conrad has at once an endless wistfulness and1 or so it seems to me1 a secret unquenchable hope4 ,doubt certainly he has in plenty4 ,the sea of which he is always dreaming is terrible and cruel in his eyes as well as august and ennobling4 ,but he is sure of one thing3 it is through the struggle with it and such as it that man alone can become ,man4 ,it is through facing the horrors of a dead calm1 with a sick crew on board and no medicine1 that the young master of the sailing-vessel in the ,pacific crosses successfully the ,shadow ,line that divides youth from manhood4 ,and it is through facing the unleashed fury of the tornado that the old captain of the 'full-powered steam-ship' in ,typhoon shows what he has in him1 compassion and kindness as well as shrewd knowledge of men1 expert seamanship1 and indomitable heroism4 ,the whole thing is driven home with a power1 an incisiveness1 and a delicate irradiating humour which ,i should despair of conveying by mere criticism4 ,the book must be read for itself1 and read again and again4 ,it is told1 in one way1 simply as a sailor's yarn1 but it awakes in us the feeling that the struggle is a symbol of man's life4 ,threatened by the advancing cyclone1 ,captain ,mac,whirr1 'the stupid man' of no imagination1 decides1 almost instinctively1 that the only thing to be done is to keep up steam and face the wind4 ,by sheer force of personality he holds the crew together and carries the ship through4 ,and in the desperate struggle1 every nerve on the strain for hours that seem unending1 ,mac,whirr finds time to care for the miserable pack of terrified coolies on board1 who have given way to panic and are fighting madly in the hold4 ,mac,whirr stops this1 brings about order and a chance for the ,chinese1 when the rest of his men1 fine men as most of them are1 can think of nothing but the safety of the ship4 ',had to do what's fair for all1' he mumbles stolidly to his clever grumbling mate1 ,jukes1 during a dead lull in the storm--'they are only ,chinamen4 ,give them the same chance with ourselves' 444 ',couldn't let that go on in my ship1 if ,i knew she hadn't five minutes to live4 ,couldn't bear it1 ,mr4 ,jukes4' ,he does not know whether the ship will be lost or not--7and we do not know whether mankind will be lost or not7--what he does know is how he must act4 ,but also he never loses hope4 ',she may come out of it yet'3 that is the kind of answer the taciturn man gives when driven to speech4 ,the chief mate1 locked in his captain's arms to brace himself against the hurricane1 scarcely able to make the other hear in the terrific gale though he shouts close to his head1 gets back such answers1 and with them the power to endure4 ,he tells him the boats are gone3 the captain yells back sensibly1 ',can't be helped4' ,and so noble is the power with which ,conrad uses our tongue1 the tongue he has made his own by adoption and genius1 that ,i must let him speak for himself1 and can find no better close for my own lame words4 ,jukes has been shouting to his captain again3 ',and again he heard that voice1 forced and ringing feebly1 but with a penetrating effect of quietness in the enormous discord of noises1 as if sent out from some remote spot of peace beyond the black wastes of the gale2 again he heard a man's voice--the frail and indomitable sound that can be made to carry an infinity of thought1 resolution1 and purpose1 that shall be pronouncing confident words on the last day1 when heavens fall and justice is done--again he heard it1 and it was crying to him1 as if from very1 very far--,all right4' ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #gb3 ,wilhelm ,meister's ,lehrjahre1 ,bk4 #h1 c4 #e4 ,footnote #gc3 ,by ,m4,p4 ,follett 7,longmans74 ,footnote #gd3 ,professor ,a4,c4 ,bradley1 to whom also is due the passage about ,schubert and the parallel drawn between ,beethoven1 ,hegel1 and ,wordsworth4 ,footnote #ge3 ,from ,the ,will to ,believe1 quoted in ,bridges' ,the ,spirit of ,man1 ,no4 #dbe4