Professional Documents
Culture Documents
THREE POPULAR LECTURES ON THE ENVIRONMENT, THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT
SIR
HENRY
JONES,
LL.D., LITT.D.
FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
GLASGOW
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS
PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY
1913
PUBLISHED BV
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. The Macmillan Co. New York,
Toronto,
The Macmillan Co. of Canada. Simpkin, Hamilton and Co. Bowes and Bowes.
Douglas and Foulis. Angus and Robertson.
MCMXIII.
SOCIAL POWERS
TO
MV FRIEND
273190
PREFACE
THE
address on
"Man
and
his
Environment"
Winter Session
with the Public Libraries of Glasgow, and was the first delivered in the new Mitchell Library.
address on "Journalism and Citizenship" was delivered to the Glasgow District of the
Institute of Journalists,
The
and Religious Beliefs capable of Proof ? was given in Manchester as one of the Deansgate
lectures.
The
it is
to
help plain
invisible
facts,
men
world of moral and social and religious and to induce a by which they live
;
fuller
THE
CONTENTS
PAGE
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
13
45
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
MAN AND
" The
truth
is
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
and
which that knowledge requires or includes are not the great or the frequent business of the human mind.
the sciences
were asked
the
life
called the
is
most happy,
to
should
answer
inner
forth
life,
it
when
mood
conspire
together
send them
It is
enterprise.
a law of
itself it
must
devote
The
currents
of
the
world of
spirit,
that
ofj^eTopen seas
they
return
in
however wide
the
theJ_sweep,
thejmselves.
end upon
'5
And
is
am
tempted
to
man who
:
who makes
his
significant
these ends.
"
Greedy
Bad
It
is
our bargain."
was not the ancient ships which crept along the coasts, but those which spread their wings and sailed out into the open ocean and sought
strange shores which came to port laden with
strange merchandise symbols of life's venture in all but one respect, namely, that while the
ship might
lost
in
seeking a great
all
purpose
is
never
but gains
the
way
for
neighbours
witness
of
their
purposes
personal,
selfish
and when we
clash,
how
these activities
combine and
and recombine
MAN AND
it
HIS
idle
ENVIRONMENT
might seem an
attempt to
direction of a nation's
as a whole.
It is
not
under one leadership that arises before our minds, but that of a vast number of little
vessels, scattered
waves
in
every variety
and distant
stars.
first
Nevertheless the
true.
If
picture
the
life
more
of the
we
nations,
and contemplate
we
nay
if
they are borne along together as carried onward by deep ocean currents, and,
in groups,
it,
without knowing
one
For many successive centuries the nations destined to be civilized, and for that reason to
survive,
were engaged in liberating the individual units which composed them, from the
from the
'7
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
the
the
aggression of his fellows, except the physical strength and craft which could make him
successful in the chase
and
battle.
It
was most
pressed back, and space was cleared for a little personal freedom, and the narrow horizon, as in
the
thickness of a
;
wide
forest,
was a
little
widened
the few.
arise
and
and come
day and
he could, was proclaimed as the and the task of making natural right of man be
free,
if
;
good
that right
is
realized.
Even
There
yet, late as
is
it
very
idea of freedom
is
an aspect of freedom which man is always prone to overlook, and a condition of it which he does not consciously endeavour to
18
MAN AND
secure.
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
mean nothing
in
He
but emancipation.
He
breaking the rivets of the chains which bound him to the will of the powerful. He has not
realized that the greater task
still
remains to
be done.
Having gained
learn
he must
how
to use
Led out
into the
open
air,
a prisoner set at liberty, eyes to the light of day, guess the purposes which he should pursue, and the quarter of the
in order
good of life. And this lesson the wisest of mankind has only begun to learn.
We
are
still
But we have begun to learn this new lesson: and we are trying to spell out the meaning of
the positive aspect of personal freedom. " " recently, I may say Just yesterday
Quite
when
new
19
trend.
We
are no
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
free,
or fortifying
bidding him hold it against the powers of the outer world, natural and social. are beginning to interpret the world in
We
not as a
of his
enemy
may be
when
it
attained.
is
The world
an enemy only
misused.
frustrates
It
misunderstood
and
mind and
;
and
awake and
alive,
made
wise unto goodness, it is a vast, rich inheritance waiting to be entered upon and pos-
sessed.
Man
and
and he
will find
Man
of Sorrows,
who
was the greatest optimist the world ever knew, to be valid for all thought and all practice
"
Seek ye
first
the
MAN AND
natural world
is
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
and the universe a place for the making of souls. If man's environment baffles, hinders, frustrates
and ultimately defeats him, so that his whole career looks an empty thing of less than no
account and ends in darkness,
it is
because that
environment has been misinterpreted and misemployed by him and his fellows.
The
owe
and
we
to reflective thinkers
tion of this
man
his
These benevolent tyrants of modern life, whom neither party in politics and no class rich or poor
in
society
have taught us the significance of the environment for our physical health and well-being. If
we
we do
not dis-
We
know
most poisonous environment comes from man's corruption of it, and that if the earth and air
are not our helpmates unto health,
c
21
it is
because
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
is
We
city to
its
become a place of
But
in this respect"
inhabitants to spend
days
in their recesses.
is
awake and
the public
conscience
is
alive
cities,
our
own
and
Now,
what
have
to say to-night,
have
no other purpose than to widen this view of the relation between man and his surroundings, so
It is
the
as
need not
tell
you,
of man's
Indeed
know
of only
exception holds only within strict limitations. The ill-health of life-long invalids at times
seems
them a
MAN AND
exception
I
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
But
this
instructive.
It
want you
to believe,
is
physical health
an indispensable condition of
it
a nation's welfare,
is
Nay, there is a respect in which it is not ultimate but secondary, not a cause but a consequence.
of medicine,
aided by our wiser governors in the large cities and in the State, set themselves to improve the
conditions of the nation's well-being, they ap-
The way they pealed to the nation's mind. went about their work is a confession that mind
is
if
we know
the truth
and accept its guidance, recognize the laws of life and follow them, the right use of the
environment
will
come
as a matter of course.
in
any
direction,
and no security anywhere except in the right attitude of mind towards the world which is
around
I
us.
it
should find
difficult to indicate
a greater
work, more patiently pursued from year to year, or more persistently striven for, against the
23
MAN AND
terests in
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
many
work of producing the right attitude of the public mind towards its physical environment.
and gentlemen, there is another environment than the physical an environment
But, ladies
:
significance
It is
;
not an
but
is
inaudible,
Nevertheless
for us than
any
other.
wraps us around
It
more
timately.
ligence and
will,
and passes
Indeed,
it is
the closeness of
its
relation to ourus.
in-
presence from
its
so constant, and
we
its
control of us
and
own
it.
activities.
Hence we do not
is
think
about
If the
environment of man
24
men-
MAN AND
tioned, our
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
once to the physical
minds turn
at
cosmos, and the changes therein wrought by man as he tills the earth and builds his cities,
and makes and distributes material goods. If we speak of natural law, or of the scheme of
things as obstructing or favouring our purposes
liberty,
we assume
is
physical
We
think that
we
in"
en-
dream
is
that
what we
call
"the world we
that
live
it
is
draws
its
meaning and
reflexion
will
value.
But a
civilized
little
show us
that
Nature.
man The
is
never
in
bare, rough
hand upon
its
and
soul.
merciful
medium
harshness of
touch.
Even
of civilization,
lives
in
medium
beneficent.
25
Provision
is
MAN AND
made
for
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
will
of his
may have
sought his good, any more than he has sought theirs. Their organized activities, which constitute
and sustain
society,
have baked the beggar's bread, and woven rags, and built the road on which he tramps.
cannot deny and
I
do not desire
to mini-
mize the significance of the natural scheme which we usually regard as our only environment.
What we
call
is
merely the foundation of things that are higher, but the power which manifests itself in them, and man's spiritual
in all probability not
itself,
are
its
outcome.
any of us have in truth ever known such a natural scheme a scheme out
I
But
doubt
if
of relation
medium.
fragment of what
its
real
a thing robbed of
socket," a
and hard.
we
live
MAN AND
in,
is
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
real
world
about,
and
system of inter-related minds and wills, which we call Human Society. It is only
thus take the scheme in
in
its all its
when we
pass,
com-
and bear
mind what
first
it
has become,
and interpret
we know
all all
what
it
really
is.
our our
that
What
is
it
in
the
last
resort
distinguishes between
mand
and the shivering, hunger-haunted nakedness of the lake-dweller; or between the low-browed,
cunning, the crude and cruel passions of the cave man, and the soul which
half-animal
wears righteousness as a robe and intelligence as a diadem, and which is sensitive to the
beauty and meaning of the world, and devoted to its good ? What is it that has intervened,
" Mortal except the continuous, ever- recreated
27
MAN AND
God," which we
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
Society"?
call
"Human
We
who
temporary manifestations and evanescent foci, the minute cells of its vast
are
its
its
life
organism, bearing
whose
language
?
language
What
what
manners,
do we possess,
knees
breasts
we have been nursed, and " whose we have suckled," that has made us
It first
its
human.
soul,
awakened
on
its
way
aspiring and learning the nature of the good it And by a dual process it forms us, and needs.
we form
of the
it
at the
same
time.
We are
itself
makers
us.
social
is
world,
which
makes
a borrowing and lending of life on both sides, and the marvel and miracle never cease.
There
We
of a
to
the result
itself
process
of evolution,
28
maintaining
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
number, and over an expanse of time which we so great has been the task cannot measure
:
of
making ready the dwelling-place of mind. But even more marvellous is the process of the
all
way and
cannot
mind and
will
with
form them so as to bring forth, at first a weak and timid birth, and then to foster into growth
we
call
Civilized Society.
But what
is
Society,
you
men
and women and the children who compose it ? What does it do, over above that which they
do
?
And what
many
?
are
its
deeds of many little creatures, each of them interested for a little while in little
the
little
things
Human
Society
is
by
itself
what the
insect
coral reef
mere name.
I
agree
D
human
it,
society, apart
is
which
compose
MAN AND
generic term.
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
if,
while
apart and
each of them
own
person-
you think of society as the mere aggregate of such beings, you are once more The living using words without meaning.
or, if
body
not
is
made up
and
of atoms the
discrete,
collection
of them.
structure, its
its
and
relation
They
are
through it and it is only through them. We can comprehend neither the one nor the other
not regard them in their living interIt is not otherwise with the units relation.
if
we do
society.
It is
fellows
that
man
meaning or any might. It is in intercommunion that his soul is born, and the relations
in
which
he stands
to
his
fellows
spirit.
are
the
qualities
and powers of
3
his
own
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
in
We
and,
I
recognize
this in
truth
an inadequate
must add,
we
far
how
man
is
dependent upon
his
environment, and
he
own
liberty.
There
is
no
such empty territory, and if there were man would not be free in it, but helpless. The most stiff-necked of the exponents of a will which is
will
admit that
man
He
infants,
grow up
Somehow or another the medium within which a man lives, the social medium, penetrates into him. Nay, we must go further and admit
more.
There
is
is
not
owes everything that he has and is, every shred and fibre, and his jot and tittle of his experience to it
saturated with this medium.
;
He
living experience
is
His exinto
perience
is
his
environment
31
converted
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
body
is
made up
in
every part, through and through, of the natural elements which have been assimilated from the
world without.
We
literally
owe our
it
soul to
are nothing
the
environment,
its
whether natural or
significance
owes
all
spiritual
and worth
to our
own
selves.
For
which
and
it
it
in that
medium
in
environment around
reality for
it
have as
little
meaning and
His
late.
spirit
it
must also
trans-
must transmute.
We
We
must, in
fact,
take
;
except as interacting elements of one whole, which is neither abstract matter nor abstract
32
MAN AND
spirit,
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
and
soul.
It
is
well
into
;
we should
it is
distinguish
and analyse
elements
it
only so that
we can know
but
is
begin
we have
There
sundered.
is
perhaps no deeper intellectual or even moral and religious need of the time than
the need of a
synthesis.
The
to the interpreta-
they existed separately. The functions of Society are, in like manner, divided
and distributed amongst its members so that men tend to become specialized organs of special
social
ends,
all
ministers
of
one-sided
interests
which
too readily
come
one
another.
Art, religion, philosophy,
is
and
the
harmonious
integrity
33
of
its
fundamental
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
Finite ends have
so difficult or so momentous.
and
our
revealed, that
final
we
them
satisfaction,
and
to
But although analysis leads towards truth, it is the richer synthesis which it summons to succeed
it
that
most
Chemistry
sunders the elements of things, but to know what these elements verily are, and can become
and
is
must bring them together again. It when oxygen and hydrogen unite, and when
do,
it
is
them
In
all
is
liberated.
we we
departments of knowledge and practice are prone to convert the elements which
distinguish
opposites,
problem of bringing them together again insoluble. And the most obstinate of all these dualisms is that which we
34
and
MAN AND
set
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
spirit,
or between
his
man
ment.
and
environ-
spirit
has no
meaning, and spirit divorced from nature has no content. The world has neither form nor
beauty unless there
is
elicit
one step towards inventing them. Let me illustrate this matter by a simple example. Physical science tells us that the material conditions of sound are waves, which in themselves
are
invisible
and
inaudible.
Physiolo-
waves excite
But
If the material
phenomena
But
it
silence.
let
us bring in the missing factor, the living soul that can hear and enjoy. What follows ? It
is
making use
known.
The
MAN AND
the
into
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
medium
the
miracle
sounds.
It is in like
manner
born.
and colour
is
It
expressing
artist's soul.
parentage, and
sides.
It is
from both
natural
and
spiritual too.
Now
all its
its
the
same
functions,
compass.
environment
every attainment of the mind. What do we conclude then? Evidently, that the environ-
ment
is
not natural in
to mental, as
the
sense
of
being
:
dead or mechanical
Its
this
truth.
natural character
is it
only one of
its
aspects.
Nor
mind-made,
as the old
used to say; its mental These in nature is also only one of its aspects. themselves are nothing but abstractions, dead
Idealists
36
MAN AND
and
helpless.
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
verily
is,
That which
it
is
greater
is
The
world
is
in
which
man
a world of
which he
in
man, and
is
reveals
which
it
emerges.
only
in
which beyond doubt are natural products, that we discover that what we call Nature is a being which has gone out
activities of
wills,
minds and
upon a
spiritual adventure.
Nor
adventure
minds or merely exclusive personalities. Single minds in their separateness are incapable of
spiritual
attainment
they
can
neither
find
the
pursue the good, nor know the need of them. But nature has provided
truth
nor
that
minds and
wills
shall
intertwine
their
powers, and live and grow by means of one another, like the living leaves of a living tree.
37
MAN AND
it
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
and has endowed
society
with a multitudinous yet single rational life, which beats like a pulse in all its members.
For Society is a real, though as yet an imperfect and inharmonious whole. It has a continuous
history in the past,
in
and a direction and destiny the future which are one and its own, and
its
parts.
And
higher power that man's environment, natural and social, stands forth as
in the .light of this
his
helpmate
this
in the
conception of the continuity of nature and spirit is, I believe, destined to take
Now,
a deep hold of
modern thought. And the consequences which must issue from it are
great.
When
thrown back upon the lower, do you think the universe can be still called crass or material ?
We
shall rather
"
know, as Wordsworth
is
did, that
awake."
And man, on
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
very mind and soul are Nature's child, will go forth on the adventure of knowledge and
rectitude
and
all
hope.
longer will he seem to be required to save his soul in despite of the nature of
things.
No
He
must save
it
of things.
What, indeed,
taking
place
in
in
except
that
Nature, having equipped man with the promise of a rational nature, has helped him to realize
by yielding him more and more of " her own meaning and use ? And " Society is
that promise
also
her invention
in
for
she
has planted so
deeply
their
us,
men
tell
wise
Society
logically,
or by intrinsic neces-
sity,
its
We
cannot find
beginning because Society is always at the beginning. The bond which holds its primitive
parts together are originally light
and loose
there
is
both
little
little
liberty
bers and
loyalty to
whole.
MAN AND
little
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
power, and they are easily dissipated. But, as contrasted with the individual, Society has a
continuous
the
results
life,
and
the
it
can grow.
of
It
of
intercourse
men
garners with
Nature and with one another from age to age, and the inheritance of the later generation is
ever richer than the inheritance of that which
went
before.
;
It
branches
forth
into
new
powers its individuality becomes more intense, and its reach wider. Experience grows apace,
and writes
its
own
and
civic, in industrial
and commercial
to
institutions,
and
in
religious devotion
the
Best,
all.
to
be read,
my
friends,
The meaning
it
of the
experience of mankind as
has gradually built up its own soul through its co-partnery with the natural scheme has to be distilled from
its
history.
It is
MAN AND
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
way
it
long journey.
It
must endeavour
its
to catch the
main direction of
it
movement,
Evolution,"
It
is
and, so far as
is
and the laws which guided it. it has been said, "is always
blind."
perhaps more true that it can only see when it looks backwards. But, by help of what it
sees,
It
can guess at its goal in the future. cannot know, but it can divine the nature
it
of the good
it
it
We
what
will
come next
our
own
career, because
it
we never
is
in
we
fully
this
namely Civilized Society, is not a matter given up to chaos and It is not the blind hand of mere contingency.
immortal
rules.
Law
41
reigns
and purpose
And
to understand
something of that
MAN AND
law,
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
and catch some glimpse of that purpose, is surely the greatest task to which man can set
his hand.
Hitherto
we have been
intent
And
very great.
No man
man
is
gaining control of
them
to his
But,
much
as
we have
learnt from
the
natural sciences,
we are only like children in a Dame's School who have learnt to spell and cannot read. The sciences break up nature's
meanings as children break up sentences We have words, sounds into syllables.
synthesized nature's laws and found
unite their significance
into
not
how
they
and power
in the spirit-
woven realm of the social order, where mind holds by mind and will by will. The might of
master-power in the world has well nigh or, if we have caught escaped our notice
this
;
glimpses of
ing to
spirit
of a
MAN AND
whole people.
life
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
current of a nation's
all
The main
turns,
takes
new
and
foolish,
rich
and poor are swept along in new directions. Policies once wise become first obsolete, and
then obstructive, and finally mischievous.
there
is
But
none
to tell us
why.
We
do not undercontrol
we cannot
them.
We
learnt the
meaning of the
all
unprepared.
What
can
except confusion of mind and conflict of purposes, and good men, unselfishly seeking to serve their
age
in
ways
that nature
must defeat?
Some
of
us resist change in social thought and practice although their uses are already done and others
;
seek the social good in directions in which the good is not to be found. agree in nothing except in our passionate confidence in our own
We
and
in
unwillingness to
insti-
enquiry
if
we
MAN AND
and
is
HIS
ENVIRONMENT
own
opinions,
own
is
social creed.
But the
abroad.
spirit
And my
be compelled to plead with his fellow-citizens, as I have been called to plead, for some
exiguous equipment
in its seat of learning for
to
know-
ledge of the nature of the master-power in this world of ours, and, instead of conflict and its
wasteful ways, bring the peace and the strength
of a social will in
harmony with
itself.
44
45
"
'Journalism
to
was
EVERY age of
new.
the world
is,
in its
own
eyes,
Human
affairs, to those
who
are in the
The midst of them, are always at a crisis. momentous choice has now, at last, to be made.
The
its
nation
is
is
and
destiny
waiting upon
decision.
in
is
Matters
evil,
;
ways of
change
imperative
its
is
such
its
full
flood that
"
' '
must take
it
now, or
classes,
poli:
lose
venture.
Animosity between
in finance,
the
of
these
is
evils
or
perish
and
of
;
moment
is
to rise
now."
"The
spirit
the times
it
awake
is
multitudes, stirred
by
fair
ideals,
resolved on
in the nation
securing to every
secure
life
of soul
mood
of the national
is
mind
that now, at
last,
The times are so bad that going to dawn." we must change them, and change them now." The times now is the
tunity."
"
"
are so good, so
full
of promise, that
Are not these the things that you, gentlemen of the press, are week in, week out, shouting
more or
blood
little
less loudly in
our ears
You echo
stir
the
the nation's
and sometimes, they say, you clothe things with greatness, and deck the comlet
the people
asleep.
And
if
nothing
up
eter-
and we turn
to
rolls.
Now, make so
commend you
for this
if
may
Circumstances verily are always new, for humanity is always moving along an
bold.
untrodden path into new scenery and even if circumstances were not new, the minds that
;
strive to
comprehend and control them have in them an alchemy that makes them new. Cirstale,
is
cumstances are
to the
life
is
old only
that
on the wane.
The
;
season
is
and there
morning
that
The
and
to bear
and
is
still
the primary
are
amongst the
ill-requited
benefactors.
You
of
youth
to
whom
life is full
incident
and
interest,
from day to day. You help to keep us alive and expectant, as you watch for us the gradual
49
the
loom
of
But although every age calls itself an age of transition, and our journalistic press, like a
lively
showman, stands on
"
its
hustings and
cries:
now
"Just begin, just begin, just begin, just the long, slow, revolving year of a
life is
nation's
not unchanging.
It
has
its
winter season,
sleep
when
its
social
forces
seem
to
powers are being nursed so as to be ready to break forth in new adventure. One age ploughs and
and
it is
unconscious of the
way
its
it is
and
all
necessary
but
the same.
Some
tude.
transitions
all
more
in
significant
than
Which moment
call
you
would
greatest depends much on your To some of us the great make of mind. moment is that when a new idea is born to others, when the potent will appears which can
;
Naturally, per-
the discoverer
me means more
seem
to be nothing but
And
yet,
one
is
not
his-
one looks
Its
human
web
is
far too
many who
The new
new
enterprise,
is
thinker
possesses and
possessed by the
new idea, are both alike results. Some change of mood in the people's spirit, which is itself the
result of multitudinous little
thoughts and
It is
little
impos"
will to
cry
Lo
here!" or
"Lo
which mankind builds up its Neither the true nor destiny are very strange.
the good which,
the last resort
I
The ways
believe,
it
for
no man
is
moved
at
any time
We
have
5*
If
we
we
shall find
them
Like plants in mines which never saw the sun, But dream of him, and guess where he may be, And do their best to climb and get to him."
I
Man,
moves.
say,
has to
make
his
ideals as he
And
It is
he can learn only one lesson but one aspect of a great truth
or a great practical
and
all
the ideals
is
History
and of making
of content.
It is
age
is
And
new and
potential
new
and
active effectiveness.
instance,
class,
Your newest
socialisms, for
and every fresh aspiration of every " Votes including even the demand for
52
for
Aspasia
ruled
Pericles
And, on the other hand, the Individualism, which many think, and probably think rightly,
has been on the wane ever since the days of
John Stuart
return again,
Mill,
if
must
the
Socialism
to
issue
in
nation's
life is
is
not a
alternation
and mankind
not the
game
of
impish gods.
Human society,
is
It
assimilates
its
it
goes out to
tasks
meet new
with
its
and
its
wax
strength.
the responsi-
bilities,
of the grown-up
his toys. G
man from
53
of a growing nation's
It
and
fall
into
worse
error.
it
and
all,
forms of good.
After
modern empire, or the decay of a modern nation, means more than the captivity of Israel
into Babylon, or the defeat of
Athens
in
the
Peloponnesian war
human
more many-sided manifestations of the might of the human mind would perish, more sciences, more arts, more state-craft, a
activity,
more multitudinous
life
I
would
die.
Now,
society
reach,
it
is
when
human
the
continuity,
growing
its
complexity,
power of
deepening significance of
the
purposes and of
momentousness of
life
its
of
me
to be
fundamental business,
It is
have
It
said, is to
record.
marks the
it
But
does
It selects,
from day to
amongst the millions of events which take You, gentlemen of the press, sift facts place. and distil meanings you direct the mind of
;
your times to some things, and, what is not less important, you say nothing of others, and these,
as
rule,
sink
into
oblivion,
Now it
is
As
the influence
upon the
others
naturally accentuate
deed, and
let
their ever-watchful
so
is
You might
fill
your
pages from day to day with the records of crime, and feed your readers on the refuse of the police
courts.
You might
ignore good
causes and
and expounding none of them when they are weak, but leaving them to gather force as best
they may.
Instead of guiding you might follow
of men,
the interests
and,
55
in
following,
not
And
if
you did
to
day by day, I do not think it would be easy measure the consequences on the national
But, taking the daily press of this
it
character.
country as a whole,
seems
to
me
that
you
do
much
better.
You
deliberately
exclude
;
what you know your subscribers would read there are appetites which you will not feed and
which you will not pamper. only those who do not consider the
tastes
And
it
is
solicitations
cheap success that you turn aside who believe that they know your duty better than you do
to
yourselves.
The
another
aspects
truth
is
we tend
of duty
in
we
it
are
ignore the
medium
forget
which
sometimes wears.
But a man's value cannot be measured merely by the work which he has finished we must
:
know what
It is
not
a nd completest in the tale of his members, has struck the hardest strokes in battle.
56
who The
home
scarred.
Nor
yours and mine, look peaceful. To appraise a man's services to it we must ask what service
like
he professes to render, and within what material he has been working. The teacher in an
elementary school, dunning the multiplication table into little volatile minds, may be doing his
a greater way than a professor in a great university amidst his apparatus of research and duty
in
;
a carpenter may be a better workman at his bench than a politician in the Cabinet.
As you
life
first
evidence of
to
be
material.
ably with
You may seem to compare unfavourthe historian who depends upon you,
himself, like Thucydides, to
to
work
in marble,
and
"a
But
if
your work
is
If your first sifting of badly done, he suffers. the materials of history is unwise or mean a
57
never ripen into deeds what success can the historian achieve in his more general record of
the world's vaster movements, or the philosopher
as he distils their ultimate
In respect to
this,
work, as selecting and lifting into view the facts of the current life of the world, I have no
criticism to offer,
and no suggestions
is
to
make.
The
standing man-
fully to
difficult
and
little
appreciated task.
it
And most
of the criticisms of
known
to
me
have the grave defect of irrelevance. Your critics forget that you are workers in the rough quarry of the world who release the marble
from the rubbish.
It is for others, if
they can,
You
meet
your readers on the level of their own interests. The fulcrum on which you build your engines is in the ordinary world of ordinary men in their
ordinary moods.
You cannot be
58
prophets with
as
is
there
is
evidence of the
of the literary
artist in
ality
can give full play to neither of these gifts. You are not permitted by the nature of your calling
to elaborate
to evolve
them
crete truth.
and
are
know
not
many
which
called to bear
Taken
as a
whole we, your readers, are such ordinary men at least at times. The most silken gentleman
wears flannels underneath, and they are nearest
his skin
;
priest
is
also a forked
biped once he has laid aside his sacerdotal robes. And you meet us as ordinary men, and in our
ordinary moods.
You know
that
we
like news,
We
are interested in
have
"
ulterior
any more than children do. We open our newspapers in the same spirit as our primitive forefathers welcomed the bearer of
tales
and the
traveller
festive board.
And,
less of
confess, that
I,
for
my
part, think
trait,
no
nor
myself or of
my
we ask
for.
It is
weakness and not a strength, a symptom not of sanity but of neurotic tendencies, to be always
on the
strain.
We
life
on
is
It
even
at the
It is an dominating, but unobtrusive place. error not to value little things, and to convert
everything into means of something else. If life is a journey and has one goal, in nobility
of character,
still
way, little green oases, where our thirst and stretch our limbs
of the palms.
we may
in the
slake
shadow
to
We
mood
us.
the scene
around
those
For
my
men
little
who do
not
know
very
some
things,
and apart from all the context of consequences. These are the men who are always striving, as
"to get on"; who, even if they pursue knowledge, are thinking of her " for the sake of uses, and who love virtue
the phrase goes,
temporal success and eternal happiness." But great souls were never merely prudent, and
calculating.
Nor
are
they either less great or less virtuous because they enjoy "the cakes and ale" that the world
provides,
and
On
all
must
I
upon
H
it.
But, above
all,
it
and
fear that
is
He
knows
his
he were only allowed to follow own taste and consult his own desires, he
he
winged word with the winged If he is meditative and is visited by thought. great thoughts, he would fain weigh his times
in their scales, or follow their
in
is
hidden working If his spirit the recesses of the public mind. that of a prophet and teacher, what would he
for his errant
age as a pillar of fire in the night. But the world demands from him another kind of service
;
set
he may
is
in
him
is
obstructed.
His
life
seems
He
little
is
tied
Lilliputians,
threads,
Others are
or preachers of righteousness.
their
own
let their
sub-
They can
if
all
live
always
in the
lie
And
worship at the
But the shrine seems closed against him, and the light of no Shekinah falls on his labours.
But
friends.
full
this
fatal error,
my
The pressmen
to
title
know
which only comes to those who know it to be worthy of their best. Let us look at it a little
more
closely.
far
if
I
So
citizen-
ship as
Even
so,
your task
is
rooted in
the natural
needs of
men
and having the nature of things at its back, it has that character which all the greatest things have, of never having been designed or
;
purposed.
It
man
and now
it is
Have you
considered
into
what a small
compass the modern world would sink were it deprived of its daily press, and how the environment of the
interests of every individual in
?
That interchange of
would
cease.
We
But
Tke Annals of
imagination breaks down when I try to picture the modern world without its daily press. Would the business man, un-
my
dark
What
kind of statesmanship could survive, or what kind of democracy, if men could know nothing of one another's moods save what they could
learn from
what they saw, or hear from their fellows by word of mouth ? It seems to me that amongst the organic
filaments which
make modern
into
society with
its
multitudinous
life
one whole, we
must
64
the
journalistic
press.
Without
it
society,
except
on
rare
occasions,
would
purposes be disintegrated
once more into petty parochial units, and we should have never felt the throb of the larger
citizenship.
It is
is
one Empire. Nay, you bind nation to nation, and involve the fate of one in the fate of all the
others.
There
war
;
is
no
isolation
scale of every
If there is
is
like
fire in
great city
tion will
no one knows where the conflagraI am not sure but that, were stop.
you unscrupulous, you could kindle it when you And, on the other hand, owing to the pleased. binding power which you possess, you are able
even now
love
to bring together the nations
in
its
which
peace
defence, and
when
the de-
mocracy, of which you are the voice, has come to its own, I believe you will yet make wars to
cease.
you say that you are only lookers-on, mere observers taking note and reporting the world's
If
65
would
reply,
power remain.
The
press
it
sees,
it
discovers
on no enterprise it only looks and But what could the hands do without
;
And how
intrinsic
could modern
of
its
interests
and the
interdependence
of the elements of
press,
its life
anything better than a blind power, moving in the dark, at once helpless and in con?
stant peril
for those
Life
is
citizen,
even
very narrow, far too complex to prosper without the press. / You
station
whose
are as necessary to
modern democracy
its
as
is its
freedom
conditions.
Without you the discoveries of the scientific thinker and all his inventions would be shorn of
the greater part of their use
neither
;
know
its
wants
66
nor
compel
their
fulfilment.
May
modern
social
the rarest of
all
no aspect of any public question whose exponents you do not hear. You report all kinds of opinions, and
rebuking Sectionalism.
There
you improve the speeches of all kinds of men. The mantle of your charity is wide, and you hide the nakedness of many a wind-blown rhetorician.
Personal indebtedness leads one to
this
last
magnify
quality.
all
But when
sides of
all
it
is
considered
that
you hear
public questions,
and occupy the detached position of observing and reporting, I do not say that you take a conspicuous advantage of your privileged attitude.
It is
divide the bread of truth you among you, and the slices are wonderfully thin and you spread them over with your own brand
tical affairs,
of butter.
know, eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard of a newspaper
far
I
So
as
which
in its
is
as
impartial in
its
politics
fall
as
it
is
of stocks and
I
shares.
would be interesting
to
We
have no doubt, in the character of the public mind to which you minister, and which you
interpret with great accuracy.
You know
in
that
your readers
demand
truth
your money
columns, and that you would not hold them if they knew that always and under all circumstances you said the best of
What,
Is
it
then,
do they want
own opinions and the substantiation of their own prejudices ? If it is the victory of their own political party
the corroboration of their
that they desire,
why do
papers of the opposite party so as to ascertain its state of mind and understand its strategy ?
matter for psychical curiosity if not It may be that political for reflexion here.
is
There
truth
is
more
"
like
medicine
than
truth "in
general
said,
more nasty
to take," as
George Eliot
it is
"and
kindness which leads you to give it in In any case I cannot praise you, pathic doses.
68
pure homoeo-
this
matter
and
have
them
of our citizenship
is
tepid.
Not being a
director of
am
tempted to call our attitude in this matter crude, and somewhat stupid, and to be grateful that
the stupidity seems to be
less
harmful than
very readers whose prejudices you feed deduct a heavy discount from your opinions on political matters. One-
might be expected.
The
makes
to
the
opposite side.
Many
him
;
owes
all
his popularity
mainly to those
for
who speak
mankind
is
manner of
evil against
essentially good-natured,
and has
consti-
its
We
if
increase the
call its
size of the
gang of
thief";
robbers
we
leader a
"Welsh
and
am
we
I
blockhead
i
although
acknowledge that a
69
even of hen-roosts.
But there are grave aspects to this matter, as you know well, and weighty responsibilities concerned therewith.
The changing
fortunes of
err,
devote
are
in
themselves sincerely to
service.
They
no benefactors of
whatever
station,
their
themselves of their good name and the public And one to expect mean things from them.
would
fain
more
who
none
men and
I
am
The
political
I
organs."
But
it
recognized
it is
as impartial in
its
political as
in its
attitude.
You
on
all
guardians of the
public well-being.
As organs
to
fulfil,
it
of the social
its
mind
citizenship
especially in these
whose importance
were
difficult
to
exaggerate. You are witnesses to a new aspect of morality, and a new trend in the religious
and whether you play your part ill or well, For morality and you cannot lay it aside.
life
;
religion are
in their
to be essentially social
ceased to be personal
the focus of his
own
life,
however
far
always abroad
he throws
its
rays.
The domestic
duties
and
ever value
is
humanity
at
known
wider interests of the open world. There is hardly an enterprise upon which we can enter,
or an undertaking which
we can make,
but that
we must employ
You
educate your
When
they take up their place in the works, or in the office, following any trade or any profession,
you
others in their
members of
is
almost a necessity
one-sided.
Society
its
is
from top to
those
of a
bottom,
and
elements,
like
machine, are
And
even to grow
his spirit,
less
sphere
of economics,
every
one,
must affirm
72
come except by
the
higgling
of
the
is
possible at
all
only in virtue of a
wider
Economic
interests
human
society.
more or
is
less saturated
with others.
For
there
Whether we consider
it
wages war with wrong, or seeks in the midst of its prosperity and commercial greatness to
defend the aged poor against want, to foster
thrift
amongst the working classes, or to provide for better health of mind and body for
the generations that are to come,
its
we
find
in
not
be justly
called
"economic"
or
com-
And
and
is
73
The
all
which
our
are
mutually
sustained,
conflicts,
and somehow,
held
together,
in spite of strain
and
high in the mind of the press. The press is our witness to the unity of its life and to the value of the
causes which have most worth.
It
stands
throws
its
and
stability
the
unity
and
harmony of the
public
State.
No
on that account,
to
summon
forth
its
opposite
public
and
corrective.
in
Had
there
there been
to
press
it
France,
comparable
that
which
"
is
enjoys to-day,
"
;
Revolution
for
it
is
dumb
that
becomes
the
injustice
We
owe
life
much
preachers
of
forbearance
and
patience and
mutual
are
all
good-will,
even when
your
services
unconscious.
And when
life,
one
reflects
and how impotent these would be without the aid of the press, I do not think you can
avoid thinking well of the cause you serve. Without you the reformer of the world's ways
were well-nigh
could not
helpless,
and
if
when they
are
weak they
But
grow
into strength
and power.
to the efforts of
men who
is,
good There
for
mind
the
new movements
pleas for the
for education, or in
many
many forms
for
of charity.
in
room
their
advocacy
your sheets, and insinuate the records of the desires and efforts of generous men, devoted
to
the
stable
interests
of mankind, amongst
in
your pages.
75
And, on the
common
mind,
it
and give
the strain
for
it
what
it
on
for
better things.
not possible
you to ignore the medium in which you work, and you could do nothing for mankind
if
service.
my
opinion,
your mission. A great trust is laid upon you and you can go forth on your way conscious that those whose judgment you value most
know
you are ranked on the side of the best that is practicable and that, surely, for
that
;
every
man
is
the best of
all.
76
77
King said
to
him,
shall
adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the Lord?" 2 CHRONICLES xvin. 15.
would
that
raise a
I
more unanimous
have ventured
at once,
"
No
"
!
than
which
to raise to-night.
it
and
comes from
quarters.
in
nothing
else,
their denial.
Religion
will
may be
true, or
it
may
be false," they say; "but it is certainly not They would agree with capable of proof."
Heine
that
it
enterprise.
He
moment
its
(which
is
ruin
inevitable.
"
The
moment
that
catechism supported by arguments, the moment that a political absolutism publishes an official
They
to argument,
To
own
authority.
judgment of those
to
whom
they once appeal to reason, they must thereafter reckon with reason.
if
And
Now, so
and
its
far as
at least in
all
principle.
Political absolutism
is
civilized
countries
The
ruler does
unreasoned
authority.
;
Political
freedom
is
incompatible with it and political freedom has been valued so highly by civilized men that
So
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
they have spent centuries in striving for it. They have even risked public order in order to
although without order freedom itself has no value. It is now claimed that the laws
secure
it
;
by
;
They
for
can
under no others
not even
are too
at
all,
if
Laws which
good
less
a people are only a degree, if mischievous than laws which are too
bad
for them.
At
The
sion,
the nation's
in their succes-
mark
the stages of
progress. "
For every such law is the nation will." There can be no authority
is
not an authority
difficult task.
The
The sequence
to
trace,
of causes and
difficult
human
nature.
it
great.
its
claim to self-government.
"
Edmund Burke
for
God and
It
is
nature," he
the statesman's
their
own
highest interests."
spirit
of
we may
may
still
demand
that
for
them and
"
them,
him,
we do
to
God and
Political
nature,"
we
made
the people
of the
same
wisdom may be declared from above, but it must be elicited from all quarters. The legislator
may
mind
know
their
it
own
his
best
in
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
enactments.
convictions
;
He
is
he carries out
volitions
and
to
fails
Now,
it
this, in principle, is
what
is
meant when
Democracy has come." It is the claim of the people, acknowledged and conis
said that
"
the State.
It
is
the assumption on
We
reckon
history
right,
human
have given the ordinary citizen this and to have imposed upon him this duty.
to
For
as
to
possibility
ideal,
we do
not
deny
its
value.
It
is
" too good people sometimes speak of as being to be true." For, in principle, the coming of
democracy
is
The
old
absolutism being dethroned, and the general will being entrusted with its powers, the people
is
guided by
own
And
domain
Or
will
it
seek to extend
to
its
?
right of private
judgment
it
other
matters
authority
in
be docile
in those of
Can dogmatism in theology survive despotism in politics ? Or will the people demand that the elements of their
morals and religion
?
ment and
even as they do
Observing the signs of the times as best I can, I can conceive only one answer to these
questions.
it
The
will
spirit
of democracy,
is
awake,
not be confined.
has placed its lips to the cup of liberty, and it will drink deep. Moreover, it is of the very essence of every spiritual principle that it shall
universalize
itself.
Whether
it
it
will
Men
The
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
truth,
and of goodness
all
goodness
and error
whole
and vice
man.
And, as a matter of fact, there is no better test of truth and goodness, on the one
hand, and of error and evil on the other, than
that the former can,
and the
latter
cannot be
conflict.
and
clash.
Good men
sup-
plement one another, and the wise are sustained by the wisdom of their fellows. But evil leads to
division
I
conflict
that,
for
measure secured,
demand throughout
spiritual interests.
such a demand.
who
is
The moral agent is the man The responsible for his own deeds.
most crude and elementary action, if it is to be called moral or immoral, is an action which the
individual has of himself chosen to perform.
is
It
it
his
L
own
it
expresses his
85
own
desire
is
It
have that has been forced upon the agent by an alien and external power. Indeed, morality
knows no
coercion.
;
It is
pel goodness
it
is
a matter of choice.
The
moral agent approves the laws which he obeys, and obeys the laws which he approves. Any
violation of his right to act according to the
dictates of his
own
conscience, as
we
say,
which
is
own
personality,
deprives him
once
both
of his
responsibility
and
his
sovereignty.
Moral
action
is
essentially
matter of private judgment. But does the same truth hold with regard to What is the meaning of our otiose religion?
mental attitude
in
Can
it
be
that,
light of his
own
when he chooses
between right and wrong, and must take upon himself the whole responsibility of his actions,
he may allow an authority which
86
is
external to
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
him
his
own judgment,
those
religious
beliefs
in
which dwell the ultimate strength and inspiration of his life ? Do his right and duty of private judgment lapse on the threshold of the
sphere where the most sacred and the most
potent of
all
move and
direct
mankind are
The answers we
receive to these
questions
I
regard
seriously asked.
itself
The
itself
of liberty, confident of
everywhere
in the
told,
is
domain of
religion.
Religion,
we
are
It
it
trusts
is
where knowsilent
;
and
it
We are
"
acquainted with
its
language
Behold, we know not anything ; I can but trust that good shall
fall
At
And
87
where
I firmly
trod
And,
falling with
my
weight of cares
Upon
That
I stretch
lame hands of
faith,
and grope
call
And gather dust and chaff, and To what I feel is Lord of all,
And
hope."
? ?
What
Does
can reason,
it
What burden
its
made more
it
light,
assuaged, as
brings forth
arguments on this side and that and balances proof and disproof? The religious spirit, we
are told, has another and better resource than
reason.
" Sorrow
is
is
slow to clear,
Each
woe; But God has a few of us whom He whispers in the ear The rest may reason and welcome ; 'tis we, musicians,
:
know."
Such
is
speak of it with reverence. But let us examine it. Now, I would not for one moment obscure
or qualify, and far less would
88
I
deny, that in
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
this full
trust
and secure
faith lies
the
very
essence of religion. Out of this trust in God grows all the strength and all the spiritual It is always present splendour of His servants.
in
is
in
truth
religious.
It
on a quiet hearth in the soul of the simple, who can give no account of it it
burns like a
;
breaks out like a pure flame amidst the darkest It maintains itself amidst the superstitions.
difficulties
Nay,
this
trust
to
its
in the inconclusive
sophers.
is,
And
all,
;
it
may
even
after
least secure
has, neverthe-
enemy
in the
open
I
matter of
trust in
and
religious
trust.
Faith,
God, is the beginning and the end, the timid bud and the full-blown flower of
89
and
to those
who
regarding it as the supreme human good, there can be only one question of the first imHow can that portance, and that question is
:
faith,
it
that trust in
God, be maintained?
Is
it
Is
against
?
reason?
without
it
regard to
reason
no support ? Is reason, the most unique of man's endowments, the marked and signal gift of what some call
"Nature" and
reason, which
others
"God"
all
is
this gift of
man
best of his
life,
power
of no avail
in
the domain
is
?
of religion
We
is
it
powerful to attack
We
?
admit that
it
can
is
forth doubts to
allay
?
it
helpless
them
Has
its
it
only a
negative function
structive
?
I
Are
all
potencies de-
for
am
persuaded that
religion
fortress,
you yield the opponents of far too much, perhaps even the central if you allow to them, and deny your90
selves,
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
reason.
brium
it
in the present.
Why
for
when turned
can find therein nothing but a series of beliefs that will not bear examination ?
upon
religion,
You
Do
you
is
trust
man
guilty
Ought
it
to convince yourselves
Feeling has its own place in human life, and a very great place and function it is, and I am but it is not not derogating from its value
;
error, to give or to
weigh
hate,
Feelings,
such
as
love or
express the value set upon objects by an individual, but they are not trustworthy witnesses
as
to
their
;
intrinsic
worth.
Love
"
gilds
its
objects
poor thing,"
and
that,
an unusually good exercise of judgment " but " mine own a touch of fondness made all
:
the difference.
truth.
Feeling
is
The
is
truth
that
impels
men
to seek for
it.
We
approve of the enthusiastic man of science as he explains nature, and we approve of the
emotional ardour of the social reformer
loves
who
Yea, we know that nothing great was ever done without passion, and that nothing has performed noble services for man-
mankind.
scientific
man's
we want
on the
mine
his opinions
we
reformer to be led by his feelings, whether in describing the evils of his time, or in prescribing
legislative
remedies.
in
We
demand
dispassionate
research
these
fields.
We
intel-
light of the
it
critical
ligence,
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
the field every instrument which
for testing
it
possesses
and
criticizing.
If
it
is
the sublime
men
to
Now we
admit
this
in
region of secular
We
realm of nature
that
is
the
realm of order,
and
even
the
domain of
own
unfailing laws
can prosper. The principles which sustain both the physical and moral orders are, we believe, rational and,
according to which alone
;
therefore,
the
more the
better
intelligence
it
inquires
into
more
clearly
and gloriously
in
be revealed.
Why,
religion
?
then,
is
it
How
is it
otherwise
be~unbiased, and emotion and feeling must be silent in every other field, the face of reason
when
it
must be flushed
with passion, and feeling must throw its sword into the balance ? Will religion not sustain
93
Can
it
its
When
Nathanael asked,
"
Can
"
there any
Philip's
will
good answer
the Church
own
cause as to rise to
the same
call
"
?
"Come
I
and see
I
all
my
and
live,
heart,
I
and
have
believed
for years,
I
believe
it
more
Church of Christ
ill
who deny
the competence
faith.
They
create
distrust in
would maintain.
The days
numbered
in religion,
potism are past in time that the Church should take a stronger The laws which men will obey, the stand.
;
truths
themselves
spirit
own judgment,
setting 94
for
the
of the times
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
fetters
which
bound
it
in
the
"
past.
The
"
may be
characterized
everything
obliged to submit.
its
Religion, on
the ground of
ground of
its
majesty, not
;
uncommonly attempt
soundness of their foundation, and they lose all their claim to the unfeigned homage which
is
paid by reason
to
that which
has shown
itself
I
am
the
intelligence
misleads.
for truth,
Men
even as they take good for evil and evil for good. But if you had to set aside your faculties because they fail now and then,
how many
in
of
Except
matters of religion, would you not advise mankind to use the powers of reason as best
know
I
or do
am aware
we have
the
not
least fact in
we
of
movement
do we
fully
comprehend.
You
be ultimately puzzled by anything you take in hand. To know the flower in the
crannied wall were to
know
everything.
But
though we know only in part, is not such knowledge as we have a possession beyond Or shall we try to reverse the moveprice ?
ment of
history
admit that the matters of religion are great, and surpass the compass of our mind. But
that
its
is
evanescent
But although it is only a small portion of the spiritual heavens that is visible above our heads, it is better that we should
our horizon.
which we can see may suggest the beyond and give us a clue to its If not at the dawn of our clouded life, nature.
look
;
then perhaps in
the
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
service of the true
is
the
silent
heaven.
is
no doubt that
if it
is
whatever
in
store
for us,
to
have
be such as can
be continuous with our present experience. I would plead most earnestly with those
who
religion to the
mind of the present age that they take towards it the same attitude as towards the
other great interests of
life
;
on the one
and
the
same
place.
I
Such
my
its
of religion that
believe
fundamental
facts
same
kind of proof as that which we employ in the most secure of the natural sciences. Indeed
there
is,
in
the last
resort,
is
proving a
truth, as there
only one
of
of
knowing
differ
objects.
their
nature
The
are solved by
its
successor
research discovers
new
facts,
a change of method. But the problems of religion are not only unanswered but by their very nature
some new
unanswerable
impossible.
and progress
in
this region is
This objection touches deep issues, which cannot be adequately discussed to-night. But I
will
make bold
lie
entitled to
no proask that do
;
and that
religious
this
respect the
differ
domain of our
from that of our
does not
secular
life.
and
secular
life
itself
unjustifiable
for
the
life
religious
devoted to
insoluble
human know-
No
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
ever prove that 2x2 = 15: or will be able to answer such a problem as was once set to me
will
by a group of puzzled old ladies and cork cost ninepence, how much
:
"
If
a bottle
cork
self-
will the
cost
"
?
The
terms of the
first
problems are
contradictory,
and of the
last are
they are
themselves
side.
Now,
called
am
problems of religion are problems of this kind. They are set in such a way that no one
can,
to
be able to answer
absurd
;
them.
They should be
set aside as
for
down
seek
;
we
or they involve
some
contradiction which
can yield only a self-stultifying result. better example of such problems could
No
be
conception of an Unknowable God. And there are other conceptions of God such that the proof of His existence, were it possible, would
be a disaster.
99
recourse have
is
we
in
such cases
Evi-
to
problem, lest some folly or fallacy should lurk within them. But we are always slow to suspect
the truth of our
own
prejudices
and theologians
and philosophers have preferred the easier method of laying the blame, not upon themselves, but
on the very
faculty of reason.
Even
we are only just emerging from a period when the premisses for the proof of God were
yet
Nature was
definitely represented as
secular
during the Middle Ages. The only revelation of God was the record of the religious experiI am not disposed by ences of one nation.
Bible
as
veritable
it
revelation,
but
is
the
it
only revelation.
the only sacred
is
and inspired
God
God which
is
CAPABLE OF FROG]??
order and saturated with beauty
that
;
and
know
when sorrow
it
is
it
beyond
its
all
else,
because
tice to
suggests
itself
its
and
believe
we do
injus-
nature
when we omit
suggestive-
ness.
Beside
order,
of
its
and
time,
is
the con-
and
instrument
In
its
of
man's
to
moral
and
spiritual
life.
relation
man
nature
has a definitely spiritual function. It presents him with the opportunity of forming his character. It is the condition of his moral life it is
;
the partner of
intellectual.
all
his
What
we
;
What
could
believe without
It is
not
It
it is
it
freighted
full
of spiritual
in
another direction.
Extended
back through the wide expanse of time there is the invisible world of man's thought and
volitions,
relation
together
will,
by the
inter-
of personality
and
IOJ
world of man.
There,
if
we
also laws of an
immutable order
laws which
reverence without reward, yea, without gaining the highest of all rewards, namely, the reward
of becoming
Now,
ask,
?
may
Is
it
we may need
not possible
all,
God ?
And God
is it
is,
after
the
stantiated of
all
that
now
for
God was
is is is
which
0^-finite.
God
is
not here,
it
was said
God
He
beyond
region of the unknown in the emptiness beHe does not declare Himself in nature yond.
;
nor in history.
And
having defined
Him
nega-
we
naturally,
nay
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
inevitably,
pronounce
Him
to
be unknown.
is
Of
course,
if
thus conceived,
;
He
unknown and
unknowable
Him
beyond
the
knowable.
Now, however, owing in part poets, who are also our greatest
owing
to
philosophers,
idealists,
we
God
we
way towards
in nature
the conception of
God
man.
as
immanent
and
in the
mind of
We
Book
that
we
The heavens
declare
God and
the firmament
seems
to
me
is
that our
simply rising to the demands that the religious spirit has always made. For,
in
doing
this
is
only to interpret
God
The
is
starry system
fact
astronomy
it.
is
explanation of
Religion
;
theology
the explana-
Now
present
omnievery-
where.
Yea,
it
finds
God
in the
life,
midst of the
even amongst
And when
task
it it
everywhere.
If
does not
not faithful to
to explain.
it is its
problem
next place, before we condemn reason, or exclude reason from the service of
But
in the
religion,
it is
well that
we
should ask
if it is
not
not only been misinterpreting the nature of God but also misunderpossible that
we have
Of course, we standing the nature of proof. know all about that, some of you may say. What is proof? What Well, I am not sure.
is
the
way
in
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
strata their truths
?
"
Oh
"
!
they begin with some sure foundation, they start from some truth that nobody can doubt.
"
That
truth
is
axiomatic.
It is intuitive.
It is
one of the principles of common sense. Proof always has some sound foundation. Having found something firm to stand upon, we then
proceed to
edifice
build
the
of our
knowledge.
it
We
connect our
by means of reasons.
all
And
we can connect
certain
original,
edifice of
is
That
Philosophers themselves have been seeking for such a foundation. They have often deemed
have got it. For instance, Descartes said that he had found it in his Cogito, ergo sum
that they
"
I
think, therefore
that,
am."
And
to think.
It
But the
it
next philosopher
that
con-
tained pre-suppositions
of "self"; the idea of "thought"; the concep" " " " tion of existence there is the because
;
will
And
it
is
always so
is
found
in
else.
When we examine
further,
it, it
must be done
do
Oh we
!
will
do as we always
we
philosophers
we
will
make charges
will follow
against
human
reason,
and mankind
But this condemnation of reason, our example. You if it were not tragic, would be amusing.
really
their
at
all,
own
but
reason
that
it is
God
It is
"
Reason
is
discursive; reason
is
relative;
cannot find a
first
cause
when we
effect of
else,
something
06
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
end.
The
is
mid-air.
Reason
is
whether,
when we
it
thus
condemn
reason,
we
are
doing an impossible thing or for not answering an unanswerable question. For it is possible that knowledge has
not condemning
for not
not got a
foundation.
It
is
possible
that a
exists.
The metaphor
of
the
the
have
The
no foundation.
the
idea that
and
the
The
planetary sys-
we
believe,
is
No
metaphor is inappropriate. And yet the whole is so stable and so compacted together
107
it
down
in ruin.
Now, may
It is
possible that
too, is
a system of mutually
perfect
sustaining elements
is
and
that the
of proof.
all
and the strength of a proof depends upon the coherence and the comprehensiveness of the
elements which
it
contains.
It is essential
is
that
in question
it
to destroy
possibility
For
instance,
if
we deny
is
the physicist
and
Physics, of course,
that action
site,
and re-action are equal and oppohow much of his Physics would remain ?
again, that attraction varies inversely as
Deny
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
exception to any law breaks up the whole of a science. Truth is a system of inter-related
elements
in
other part,
which every part sustains every and proof consists in placing a fact
it
is vital is
to to
The
final
it
proof of a fact
show
experience.
prove the truths of religion, we must follow an analogous method. have to ask
To
We
;
whether, for
we can do
"
God
spirit
answer,
showing."
thesis
?
Well,
is
I
a hypo-
What
?
it
sciences
For
presume that
would be an
proved
in the
open
field in
the
the sciences.
which
You
o
not called into being by its hypothesis. have no science until you gather your facts
is
109
hypothesis which first and provisionally orders the facts, and the whole of a science is at
is
only a hypothesis,
we
all
con-
demn
again.
work
over
man
will
allow
only forecasts of possible truth, whose meaning The is even to himself imperfectly known.
physicist speaks of matter, but he does not
know
it is,
Space
;
time
so
is
man
what
"
at the
is
end of the science trying to explain meant by these things which he has
But he
will also say,
if
assumed
I
at the beginning.
no
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
you will lend to me these conceptions, insecure and imperfectly comprehended as they are at the first, if you will allow me to apply them to
facts, try
them by
is
facts,
will
will build
progressive in its security, and which will in turn issue in inventions and
a science which
bring the powers of nature to the service of man." The same thing is true with regard to the
uniformity of nature.
is
The
It
uniformity of nature
is
only a hypothesis.
only a hypothesis
its
cause,
and
that,
when
the
cause
is
present,
the
effect
must
The
mere con-
but in spite of them we hold by the hypothesis of the uniformity of nature, and we say that accident is only a name for that which
we have not
That
is
explained.
if
the
find
to say,
we
by
little.
The
sense of
its
never complete. It will not be complete until the last cause has been followed to its effect and
the last effect assigned to
its
cause.
It
cannot
be completely proved
is
until the
detail.
whole of nature
is
explained in every
That
to say,
it
will
never be completed
in that sense.
is all
Thus, the principle of the uniformity of nature But it is the surest of only a hypothesis.
physical
proved by all the natural experience that we have, because experience itself would be impossible without it.
hypotheses.
is
It
were not uniform, we could not trust our own thoughts, nor would we dare to act
If nature
:
Why,
in the least
what
is
meant by
"uniformity" or "nature." The little child has a bad fall when he is just beginning to " walk, and the mother will say, we can't induce
him
to try again."
He
acts
on the pre-supposiwill
same antecedents
112
bring the
same consequences.
CAPABLE OF PROOF?
Now,
as the "Uniformity of Nature" though
is
only a hypothesis,
the conception of
all
God
the ultimate
condition of
And when
this is
To
understand them
is,
to regard
them sub
in their refer-
ence to the Absolute Being and if that is the case, then every new advance in knowledge, as
well as every
is
new
new
from
be
in
God and
:
the knowledge
of
God
secure of
knowledge.
it
Thus, then,
of science
religion,
seems
to
me
in
that the
methods
have
are
applicable
the
domain of
to
recourse to the treacherous subterfuge of denySuch is my faith ing the competence of reason.
"3
though tested by
fire,
none of
be consumed except the stubble. Portions of our temporary little creeds may
it
will
have
to disappear
thinkall
believe with
my
;
essence,
I
is
rational through
to
and through
and
take a stronger
stand.
GLASGOW
CO. I.TD.
OCT 23
1947
i-D
1948
m
UD
DEC
-
7 1958
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2 3 '65 -8 AM
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