TIMELY TOPICS THEODORE W. HUNT a K ^ TIMELY TOPICS TIMELY TOPICS BY THEODORE WHITEFIELD HUNT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH. EMERITUS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921 Copyright, 1921, by Princeton University Press Published, 1921 Printed in the United States of America PREFACE In these brief papers it is proposed to present a series of vital discussions on vital topics — topics in part growing out of the World War, but mainly those of a fundamental and permanent interest, in the rapidly developing life of the modern world. To a limited extent educational, they are mainly topics of civic interest — national and international — the object being to assume a desirable and tenable position between radical extremes, and in a sane and sensible manner to investigate and interpret those pressing and practical problems which confront the country and the civilized world at large. T. W. Hunt. Princeton, June I, 1921. TABLE OF CONTENTS I PAGE Democracy and Its Limitations i The Costly Benefits of War 6 The Return of Peace 1 1 The New Era 16 The New Era in Higher Education 20 The International Mind 26 II The Call for Civic Leadership 30 The Call for College Men in the Business World 35 The Problems and Responsibilities of Peace 40 Justifiable Compromise 47 Martial Qualities in Civic Life 52 The Value of Meliorism 58 The Mission of the Middle Classes 63 The Growth of Liberalism 70 III America's Need of Statesmen 77 The American Forum of To-day 83 Constructive Processes 88 National Rights and National Duties 94 Level-Headedness 101 Rational Reform 107 International Leagues 112 vii viii Table of Contents IV PAGE The Puritan Legacy to America 121 Democracy on Trial 129 National Loyalty 139 Great Historic Movements 147 The Recent Revival of Learning 155 The Emphasis of Principles in Liberal Education 162 The Modern Age of Unrest 168 V The Academic Point of View 177 Successful Teaching 183 The Office and The Man 189 Eras of Reaction 197 A Needed Revival of Conscience 205 The Maintenance of Standards 216 TIMELY TOPICS DEMOCRACY AND ITS LIMITATIONS Thirty years ago, Professor Fiske published a volume under the title — "The Critical Period in American History." If, at that date, the conditions were critical what shall be said of the America of to-day, at the close of the World War! It is the world as a whole that has arrived at the most critical era in its history. So momentous have been the evolutions and revolutions of the last decade that they are nothing less than dramatic and that on the side of trag- edy. History has become histrionic. To examine these pending and confusing issues in a judicial and dispassionate temper demands the wisdom of the wisest. The world is at its crisis and the crisis must be met. Two or three fundamental considerations may be cited : THE DEMOCRATIC INSTINCT The word, democratic, is here used in its etymological and generally accepted sense, of the rule of the people. Among the "inalienable rights" with which men as men" are en- dowed, liberty is an indispensable one and never can be i 2 Timely Topics safely surrendered. It is, indeed, more than an endow- ment. It is an instinct in peoples of all eras and races and from the dawn of history has insisted upon its presence and expression. Whatever may be said of the divine right of kings, the divine right of peoples is a prior one to which the assumptions of kings must give way as they are now doing, perforce, the civilized world over. Herein, lies the origin of what by various names we call, Representative Government "of and by and for the people," what Maine, in his suggestive work calls, "Popular Government," what Mr. Bryce calls, "The Commonwealth," where the ultimate ob- ject of government is the common weal. At times it is known as Parliamentary Government. This is what is meant in English History by the Rise of The People, as expressed in the thirteenth century in the Magna Charta of British Rights. It is this ineradicable instinct which from the days of the ancient empires has protested against abso- lute monarchy, and which has been the occasional cause of every Epoch of Reform in church and state. Its voice, if stifled for a time, will reassert' itself with redoubled vigor and will eventually be heard above the loudest din of despotism. It is needless to assert that in the American Nation this instinct for freedom has had, and will ever have, fullest expression. The American "Declaration" is a "Declaration of Inde- pendence." The avowal that "all men are created equal" before the law and stand at the outset upon a common plane of privilege is a fundamental avowal of American political belief. In this belief may be found the spirit and innermost character of democracy as exemplified in the Western Democracy and Its Limitations 3 World, affecting all phases of its life, civic, social, educa- tional, economic and religious. From the revolutionary days of 1776 on through the tragic era of the Civil War (1861-1865) this divine-human instinct has made its pres- ence known and felt- It is this that Draper in his "Civic Polity in America" has emphasized, as ex-President Wilson and Mr. Fiske have done in their varied contributions to our national history. Indeed it is not too much to say that the mission of America to the world is to reveal the potency and primacy of this insatiable craving for civic freedom. It is the primary justification of her existence as a people. If she fails here, she fails completely and must at length give place to other nationalities which can make the mission suc- cessful. 11 THE LIMITATION OF DEMOCRACY Here we reach an essential principle in the exposition and application of Democracy as a method of government, that it be under the constant dominance of conscience and law. Montesquieu in his "Esprit des Lois" was one of the first political authors to state and elucidate this principle. The Democratic Instinct must be safeguarded by the higher rule of reason and right. It is in this way only that the world can be made "safe for democracy" or democracy safe for the world. There is no more dangerous political theory than that of unconditioned freedom in the state, — a freedom of civic polity unhampered by statute and national restriction, from which arise revolutions inside and outside the state. 4 Timely Topics This is the theory that has begotten a direful brood of descendants, such as Populism, and that order of Socialism by which the Golden Age of the Proletariat is to be ushered in. Here we are told that the redemption of the world draweth nigh. It is this divorce between liberty and law, between a true and a false democracy that has produced the tragic condi- tions of the last half decade of European history and which at this moment threatens the very life of nations. Limited democracy is the only possible civic order between despotic rule on the one hand, and rampant anarchy on the other, by which monarchy is so democratized and democracy so regu- lated as to secure a safe and sane governmental regime. What such standard writers as Hallam and Stubbs call, Con- stitutional Government, is of this stable and conservative liberty under control. It is just here that we find the best justification of Limited Monarchy as exemplified in Eng- land, an order of civic rule that may just as appropriately be called Limited Democracy, and which as thus interpreted is regarded by many students of government as the ideal order for a state. Whether America has or has not worthily fulfilled this theory is a question of cardinal and present interest for whose answer the world is waiting. Mr. Bryce, in his "American Commonwealth," devotes no little space to this vital question as to what are the "Sup- posed Faults" and the "True Faults" of Democracy in America, concluding, however, and as we think, wisely, that all defects conceded, Representative Government in the United States is, in the main, a successful political experi- ment, especially confirmed when we contrast it with the Democracy and Its Limitations 5 existing governments of Continental Europe. From the days of the Revolution on through the Civil War and down to the present this vital principle has been steadily growing, permeating every phase and function of national life and be- getting the confident belief that, in due time, existing defects will be substantially remedied and an order of government will emerge as nearly ideal as the essential limitations of human nature will permit. The imperfections cited by Bryce, such as — rapidly shifting public opinion, the tendency to level all distinctions, the overbearing demands of majority rule, — these and similar faults are not beyond correction, so that a political result is possible more satisfactory than as yet has been realized among men. In fine, a conservative liberty and a liberal conservatism will afford the best solution of governmental polity. The democratic instinct will per- sist and when safeguarded by wholesome political restraint, will justify its claims as the best possible order. Here is seen The World Ideal as from the days of the Greek and Roman Republics on through the Reformations and Revolutions of Modern Europe in England and France, in Italy and Holland and other States, it has sought un- ceasingly for an adequate expression and will not be denied. This, after all, is the deeper meaning of the World War just ended — the titanic and desperate and final struggle be- tween the rule of despots and the rule of the people, a strug- gle well worth the stupendous price that has been already paid to secure it. The great World Commonalty demands a hearing in the open forum of public opinion, a demand that will be heard and answered, for it is the voice of God ar- ticulated in human terms. 6 Timely Topics The Parliament of Man is now in session as never before and no motion to adjourn will be entertained until the im- perative business before the House — the free federation of the World, is fully and satisfactorily transacted. [The solemn duty of the hour is to realize this great democratic ideal. The cry for Freedom, a safely guarded and beneficent freedom, is in the air ringing clearly out above the sound of all competing voices. To make "the bounds of freedom wider yet" is the call; to enfranchise all enslaved peoples; to rebuke tyranny and anarchy in high places, and thus to bring in, as speedily as possible, the Kingdom of Man on earth. THE COSTLY BENEFITS OF WAR War in itself is an unmitigated evil — the greatest curse that could befall a nation. Even when justified on the ground of national life and in defense of fundamental truth and justice, its immediate effects are calamitous and viewed in themselves are fraught with untold disaster and distress. The actual loss of men, representing the youth and vigor and promise of the world; the more or less permanent impair- ment of the soldiery through wounds and diseases incident to war; the incalculable waste of the raw materials and the finished products of a nation's activity; the conversion of the industries of a people to purely destructive ends; the limitless legacy of loss and sorrow to succeeding genera- tions; the intensive development of the military temper and all the baser passions of the race ; the incentive to civic dis- order and the reign of riot ; the devastation of homes and the violation of the most cherished ideals of life — these are the The Costly Benefits of War 7 tragic resultants that follow in the wake of war and cast the course of civilization backward toward the darkest ages of history. When such a conflict assumes the proportions of the world-war just closed, the attendant evils are so appall- ing as to stagger the imagination and institute the inquiry as to whether life under such possibilities is worth the price of blood and treasure that is paid for it, and woe to that people who take the field with sword in hand, save as they do so by a manifest mandate from Heaven. That any results of value can ensue from such a regime as this would seem to be an impossibility. It is just here, however, that we note a law of history and, indeed, of Provi- dence that offers an answer and is in the nature of a justifi- cation. It is the law of sacrifice and struggle in order that the highest ends of individual and national life may be se- cured. When the struggle is in a worthy cause, for the highest ends, the results are correspondingly valuable, and even when the cause is an ignoble one, unjustified in its origin and method, Providence intervenes to make the wrath of men praise Him. All the greatest reforms in church and state have been reached through blood and fire. In the great Reformations of England and Continental Eu- rope, in such imposing Revolutions as the French and the American of 1789 and 1776; in the Napoleonic campaigns and the Civil War of our own land, benefits have accrued despite the countless cost involved and the general move- ment of the world has received impetus and progressive force. Some of these costly benefits may be cited. 1. The Spirit of Patriotism is intensified. National loy- alty has never been so signally illustrated as in the late war, 8 Timely Topics the great body of the people recognizing at the outset the rightful claim of their respective governments to their whole-hearted allegiance. This supreme devotion to the nation's interests increased as national peril and need in- creased, so that ample assurance was thus furnished that the rank and file of the body politic could be relied upon to meet all emergencies and ensure the final triumph of the govern- ment over all its foes. Here and there, it is conceded, were heard undoubted notes of disaffection and a readiness and purpose to oppose, as far as possible, the official and military policies of the government, but such a disloyal temper was never sufficient to lessen or impair the patriotic spirit of the people in the main. Indeed, the effect was rather to stimu- the national devotion and arouse an indignant protest against the attitude and action of all disaffected agencies. 2. The Spirit of Sacrifice is intensified. This has been so unprecedented as to excite the admiration of the civilized world, — sacrifice of life and health and home and native land, of exacting business interests and all that pertains to social well being. Whatever the hardships of military life, on the march and in the trenches, behind the lines and at the front, these were willingly endured for the country's good. Nor was this spirit of sacrifice confined to the soldiery who actually participated in the camp life and the conflict of battle, but equally fully exhibited on the part of those who voluntarily surrendered to the nation those whom they most dearly loved and on whom in numberless instances they were dependent for sustenance and fellowship and service. We speak of the supreme sacrifice, as the sacrifice of life, and yet this side that final offering on the altar of country, there The Costly Benefits of War 9 were untold instances of an order of sacrifice well nigh as crucial, and alike expressive of an absolute surrender of self for a noble cause and a high ideal. 3. The spirit of Generosity and Service has been ex- pressed on a scale so conspicuous and colossal as to make quite insignificant all previous records along this line, un- stinted and unceasing contribution to all the multiform ob- jects incident to such a gigantic struggle — the calls for aid being as insistent and urgent as the world-wide character of the war itself. Never has philanthropy assumed such spacious proportions and been applied to such divers in- terests. The superb ministries of the Red Cross organiza- tion on the field and in the wards of the hospital ; the efforts to afford such instruction for the wounded as to enable them to resume, in part at least, the ordinary and essential voca- tions of life; the offering of time and means and per- sonal effort for the restoration of desolated homes; the various activities of a strictly moral and religious nature whereby the army and navy might be maintained at their highest efficiency, and the numberless ways in which a help- ing hand might be given to relieve distress and inspire new hope and cheer, all this has marked an order of genuine philanthropy which is without parallel and which has done much to divest war of its terrors and horrors and evince the possibility of educing good out of evil. 4. The Spirit of Unity in sentiment and service has been one of the rarest benefits of the war — by the influence of which the masses and the classes have met on common ground as never before, by which all unnatural distinctions in the civil and social order have been obliterated or lessened io Timely Topics and what may be called the democratization of the world has ensued. The high and low, the cultured and the illit- erate, the pauper and the prince, the priest and the parish- ioner, have struggled and suffered together. All conven- tional distinctions — civic and ecclesiastical, have disap- peared, as all classes and orders have been mobilized for united service. Never again, it would seem, can the old regime of exclusiveness be effective, but as all men are created equal before the law and have been widely separated by agencies purely artificial and unjust, this original equal- ity must reassert itself with vastly increased efficiency and the blessings and benefits of civilized life be equally open to all sorts and conditions of men. This levelling process in the line of catholicity and unification of interest is in itself well worth the price of blood and treasure already paid and is full of promise for the future of the world. 5. A further secondary result of war, applicable to that just ended, is the Cementing of Friendship between France and America as, also, between America and England. Such a confirmation of Anglo-American and Franco-American unity, it is urged, would be a factor second to no other in securing general international comity and maintaining gen- eral international peace, especially as to America and Eng- land. Such a confirmation of friendship would be singu- larly significant and fraught with untold blessing. Such are some of the Costly Benefits of War, despite the essential curse of war itself, confirmed by all history and gradually evolved by the mysterious and gracious processes of that Providence that rules and overrules the destinies of men. The Return of Peace 1 1 What the nations have now left them as a legacy is — The Priceless Blessings of Peace — The Golden Age of Fruition, for which all antecedent history and all national struggle have been a preparation and to the rational enjoyment and fullest utilization of which the nations of the world are solemnly summoned. How best to enjoy and utilize these blessings is the practical problem of the hour, so as to fall in line with the primary purpose of Providence regarding them and so as to ensure the greatest benefit to the civilized world at large, — a problem for every separate nation and every separate citizen, if so be the errors and evils of the past may be eliminated and the course of the world clearly determined toward an ever higher order of life and service. THE RETURN OF PEACE "The Day" so long and patiently awaited has at length dawned, irrradiating a darkened world, not "The Day" of conflict as some anticipated and welcomed it, nor even "The Day" of Victory for the mere sake of victory over a nation's foes, but a day of disarmament and demobiliza- tion, a day of deliverance from the ravages and bitterness of war and the reinstatement of the pursuits and privileges of peace, when a people may once again come into its own and the normal processes of life be resumed. i. One of the greatest blessings of the Return of Peace is Peace itself, the sheer sense of relief from the devastation and desolations of strife, the mere enjoyment of repose after the harassing disquietude and anxieties of war when 12 Timely Topics the baser elements of human nature are relegated to the background and all the gentler expressions of life reassert themselves. There is a sense of untold satisfaction in the restoration of order and quiet procedure when life can be viewed and enjoyed in its essential realities and recom- penses. The experience is like to that of a storm-tossed mariner reaching at length a harbor of safety, or that of a worn out traveler enjoying refreshing rest after a long and dangerous journey, or that of a stricken sufferer reaching the period of convalescence and complete recovery. It is here that the distinction between the individual and the national is practically eliminated when an entire people in their collective capacity passes from a state of distressing unrest and alarm to the actual realization of rest. So distinctive and deep-seated has been this sense of relief, as the late titanic struggle closed, that one could almost hear the note of joy on the part of the nations thus enfranchised. It is a blessing whose value cannot be ex- pressed in language, too deeply imbedded in the recesses of a people's heart to be reducible to words, a radical restitu- tion of national life — a real renaissance of the national spirit and the national hope, imparting a new lease of cor- porate life, infusing new energy into all the functions of national activity and opening up such an outlook for na- tional endeavor and enterprise as to stimulate every dormant capability and set the nation far ahead on the open highway of national progress. 2. A more positive and objective result of Peace is the awakening of what might be called the Constructive spirit The Return of Peace 1 3 of a people, a making over again of a nation's structure and character, a building, as if anew, of the very foundations of a nation's life and in a manner more durable than ever. War is essentially destructive in its governing purpose, and the methods by which it is conducted. From first to last, its primary aim is the demolition of all that stands in the way of its advance. We speak, and rightly, of the waste of war. This is its ideal, to uproot all existing agencies and mark its track by an indiscriminate ruin. Whatever its ultimate ends may be in the defense of national life and interests and the realization of political, social or economic ends, its immediate aim is desolation and that only. Hence, the first and foremost call of the hour after peace is secured is that of Restoration and Reconstruction, a vig- orous process of Reformation, partly by way of recovering that which has been lost and partly by way of instituting a new and better order. Construction must be carried on concordant with reconstruction. Indeed the more positive process of building anew from the ground up must be em- phasized over any form of merely reparative work. For- mation must co-operate with and surpass mere reforma- tion, and the nation at large and the world at large be thus advanced to ever higher levels of endeavor and achieve- ment. It is one of the most significant and beneficent anomalies of life and strictly within the divine order of the world that when the destructive processes of man or nature have had their dire way and done their worst and at length cease, the restorative and constructive processes at once assert themselves with redoubled vigor and with an intensity often in proportion to the destruction that has been wrought. 14 Timely Topics Were it not for this benign law of Providence and his- tory, whereby these remedial agencies begin to act close upon the wake of devastation,, the world would soon revert to chaos. How graciously and potently in the day of con- valescence the healing agencies of the body begin to act, so as to repair the waste of disease, reinvigorate the depleted system and awaken hope and joy in the sufferer's heart. Even so graciously and potently do a nation's restorative powers assert themselves when the struggle ceases and all the factors and forces of the national life are quickened into fuller function. Herein lie the responsibilties that the dawn of peace brings with it — that any people so delivered shall at once appreciate the meaning of its deliverance, take full advantage of the new opportunities thus offered, and address itself whole-heartedly to the duties and demands of the hour, acknowledging the presence of all the con- structive forces and co-operating with them in all their beneficent ends. It is largely by this principle that the char- acter of a people is tested, whether it utilizes or fails to utilize the privilege of the hour. Hence, The Perils of Peace, induced by the principle of Reaction, distinctive and pronounced in proportion to the intensity of the conflict that has closed. During the time that war prevails the nations engaged are in a state of unwonted tension. Every agency is at the limit of its activity under the ever-increasing stress of events. Normal processes have given place largely to abnormal conditions and entire peoples are the subjects of nervous energies aroused beyond all ordinary limits, in all the spheres of life The Return of Peace 15 — civic, industrial and social. The national pulse is beating at fever heat and the body politic is charged with a vitality that is unnatural and dangerous. From such a condition Reaction necessarily enters, and when it arises from such a world-wide catastrophe as the late war the results are ominous and often tragic, testing the very existence of any nation that is the subject of it. Hence, the variety of forms that such a reactionary movement may take, assuming at one time the form of absolute anarchy or a protest against all established order, and at another expressing itself in a stolid and supine inactivity, blocking all the wheels of progress and suppressing every remnant of national ambi- tion and hope, while between these two extremes of revolu- tion and an abject surrender of all national aspiration divers forms of evil assert themselves, such as national arrogance as a result of victory ; national extravagance as the fruit of the waste of war; a development of an excessive economic rivalry among the nations in order to repair such waste; a legacy of national and international hatred engendered by the habit of war; the infusion into civic life of a distinct militaristic temper; a distaste for the quiet and ordinary avocations of life as contrasted with the exciting activities of war — in a word, the dominance of the lower over the higher instincts of nature. Here lies the supreme obliga- tion in the history of all great struggles, — to utilize their best efforts and neutralize the possible attendant evils, and here is needed the best judgment of a nation's leaders and of the people at large to hold the nation to its highest ideals lest it lose the very ends for which the sacrifice and struggle have been made. Such are the perils even of a peace that is 1 6 Timely Topics victorious, and when a nation as a result of unsuccessful war is compelled to sue for peace, such perils are indefinitely increased and are wont to assume the most revolting and alarming forms, induced by the sheer desperation of defeat. It is thus clear beyond all question that the dominant duty of all peoples at the close of a national conflict is that of Conciliation and Reconciliation, if so be the inevitable evils of war as provocative of all the baser instincts may be reduced to the minimum and the better elements and functions of the human heart be encouraged to express themselves. On the part of the victorious people this should induce the suppression of all national vanity, and on the part of the conquered nation a rational submission to the arbitrament of arms. National arrogance and national resentment should alike be subordinate to an ever-growing desire to heal the spirit of dissension existing among former foes and return again to those conditions of international comity and fellowship which are the only guarantees of the world's progress. Nothing should more clearly mark the return of peace than the restoration of Good Will, — a League of Nations based on fraternity rather than political diplomacy and thus designed to contribute to the general good. THE NEW ERA The era now at hand is indeed new, not only chronologi- cally as subsequent to antecedent eras, but in every phase and function of national and international life, and new not only as to those external changes which impress them- The New Era 17 selves so vividly upon the mind of the most casual observer, but as to the hidden internal changes which affect the foundations and movements of life and of which all that is external is but the manifestation and expression. The very spirit of life has been changed — its motives and governing purpose, its ideals and aspirations, so that nations cannot develop along traditional lines nor subserve simply tra- ditional ends. In this era, more than ever before, it may truthfully be said that nations are born in a day and rise at once into newness of life and action. It is the Renaissance of the world. To the superficial and merely materialistic student of the world's life these changes are apt to be regarded as mainly industrial and commercial, inducing a new economic order by which the wealth of the world is to be increased and what one calls the comforts of civilization more widely diffused. As the origin of the late war, and of most wars, is said to be mainly economic, so their final purpose is regarded and as the struggle ends the victorious nation is busily engaged in summing up its monetary assets. The fact is that changes such as these are the least significant to the eye of the right- minded observer, the dominant inquiry being how the great underlying currents of the world's life are affected, its civic and social order, its educational and intellectual order, its moral and religious order — in a word, the real life of the peoples. Here, as nowhere else, the new era is to be studied and tested, and if failing in these respects to abide the test, it may be said to fail completely, for what the world is seeking is not its material enrichment, but its sound civic, mental and moral regeneration. Tragic and saddening 1 8 Timely Topics beyond all conception as this world-wide conflict has been, it may be said that the price is scarcely too great, if so be such a regeneration is the fruit of it, and it is on this issue that the heart of man is set and the hope of the world based. If this hope is realized the era at hand is only new in the highest conceivable sense, and happy is he who appre- ciating its character and possibilities is privileged to share in its fulfillment. Evidences already are clearly seen that the nations far and near are awakening to their mission and initiating meas- ures to utilize it. The heart of the world is stirred as never before, and despite all existing obstacles that must arise in connection with so radical a revelation, mankind is more hopeful than ever that order, civic and social, will eventually emerge, that the best elements of individual and national life will assert themselves and the dawn of this new day steadily advance to its meridian. As to how these promising results may best be reached without unduly disturbing established order, so that reno- vation may not degenerate into revolution, this is the prac- tical question of the time. Without entering into the details of this onward and upward movement as to just what these new features should be in society and government, in mind and morals, there are two suggestions of movement that may be urged. First of all, these changes should be Gradual and not violent, and this just because they are so radical. The transition from prior conditions to a new and distinctive order must ob- serve the law of any beneficent transition by gradational process. Great transitions are in their nature inclined to The New Era 19 rapid movement because transitional, and easily pass the bounds of reason and take on the form of revolution. Such a tendency is apparent at this hour, as the very foundations of society are shaken and the best judgment of peoples is needed to withstand the tendency to violent revolt and insti- tute a process of slow and sober adjustment. History is replete with signal illustration of the lack of this steadying guidance in the midst of violent disorder and confusion. Never has such an ordered movement been more urgently needed than it is now, and never has there been such a de- mand for the wisdom of the wisest, if so be the very ends that are sought may not be thwarted. Leaders of the people and the people themselves must co-operate with this stabil- izing process and make haste slowly. A further and equally important suggestion is to the effect that whatever the new order of things may bring to the world at large, the essential values of the Older Order must be preserved. Here is a crucial problem — to preserve the best of that which is old and secure the best of that which presents itself as new. This salient principle applies equally fully in all departments of judicial and international life — the principle of a valid conservatism and a valid liberalism, by which the past and the future are vitally linked, by which bigoted traditionalism and an equally bigoted radicalism are alike rebuked and the wholesome unity and continuity of world progress preserved. In the application of this principle to social and philanthropic problems, to the pressing problems of governmental polity, to the vastly important question of educational reform and to all the possible changes in the sphere of the religious and 20 Timely Topics ecclesiastical, care must be taken to engraft the new order on that portion of the old stock which is essential and vital. It is gratifying to note that events are shaping in this direction. Modifications of the social order are studied in the light of what is best in past conditions, changes in the constitutions of states, in curricula of institutions of learn- ing and the creeds and confessions of all churches are contemplated in deference to what has been already proved to be desirable and serviceable. It is by this method and this only that the new era will be beneficent and lasting — a safe and genuine attempt to move the modern world a little further on along the line of an ever advancing progress. It is at this point that the outlook is promising and the interests involved inspiring, summoning every lover of his country and his kind to take his part in the inspiring service, if so be an order of life among the nations may be ushered in for which the world has long been waiting. It is in the light of such an issue that the redemption of the world draweth nigh. THE NEW ERA IN HIGHER EDUCATION Higher education is distinguished here from secondary education, pertaining specifically to the college and the university. Education, in common with all other forms of human activity, has been distinctly affected by the late war, and is also affected, and chiefly so, by all those changing conditions which mark what we call the progress of the race from higher to higher levels, a progress induced by the natural The New Era in Higher Education 21 law of change, by the sheer stress and demands of modern life, and which, as such, is as inevitable as the movement of the tides. The new era is primarily one of modification, a modifica- tion of means and ends, and, in some instances, of what have been regarded as fundamental and abiding principles. By such a modification the relation of the primary and sub- ordinate may at times be reversed, emphasis may be laid on methods and aims hitherto viewed as unimportant; the old and the new may interchange positions — in fine there may be induced a recasting of the existing educational status to meet the issue of the hour. Events are moving more rapidly than ever, the world at large is more alert and restless than ever ; too much so to await the slow processes of the past. The conditions, therefore, that confront those who have most at heart the highest advance of the race and who will be most instrumental in securing it are nothing less than critical and demand the highest order of judgment. The sphere of religious thought and life apart, there is no prov- ince in which such a problem is more pronounced and important than in that of education, especially in its higher forms, and none in which the call of the times is more imperative and urgent. The forms which such a problem may assume have differ- ent phases and values, such as : The true relation of the cultural and vocational; of the general and the special; the liberal and the technical; of the classical and scientific; of the ancient and the modern. Shall the humanities, so called, retain their place of primacy? Shall liberal education mean in the future what it has meant 22 Timely Topics since the Revival of Learning? What is the relative value of the arts and sciences, and in the arts themselves the rela- tive value of the Fine and the Useful Arts, and in the sciences, that of Pure and Applied Science? It is clear that the problem involves the entire content or subject-matter of education, the question of its best methods as a pedagogic training and its ultimate purpose in deference to existing and future needs. The problem is so interesting as to be fasci- nating, and so difficult as to be embarrassing, and in any discussion and resolution will vitally affect the general collegiate and university life of the modern world. A sug- gestion or two may be of service. A. First of all, it is vital to maintain that no essential Antagonism exists or should be allowed to exist between any two of these contrasted methods, such as the Cultural and Vocational, the General and Special. They are to be viewed as co-ordinate and interactive, possessing with all their con- trasts, elements in common, and in the end co-operating to the complete education of the student. Differences may exist, but not antagonisms, an honest effort being made to minimize the differences and emphasize the features in com- mon. Great harm has been done in this discussion in that rival camps have been instituted, bitter opposition engen- dered and a method of controversy adopted which prevents at the outset impartial argument and an ingenuous effort to reach a valid result just to all concerned. Competing inter- ests need not be conflicting interests, and exponents of dif- ferent educational policies may be surprised to find as to how much they can severally agree. The question is one of relative value and proportion, as demanded by those new The New Era in Higher Education 23 and unforeseen conditions which make some modification imperative. B. It may further be suggested : that the Essential Prin- ciples and features of the existing regime should as far as possible be maintained — the cultural, general, liberal, classi- cal and ancient, but not in the exact form and measure in which they have hitherto obtained. It is just here that the valid principle of concession or compromise enters as a feasible factor — a principle clearly illustrated in all the great reforms of history, that concession being granted by reason of the manifestly new developments of the time. To insist here upon the hyper-conservative theory that traditional educational methods should prevail because tra- ditional, is as dangerous and illogical an extreme as to insist upon their complete elimination. Every form and phase of human activity has changed, and he has in hand a difficult problem who contends that in the sphere of education this inevitable law is inoperative. Education, in its very nature and ideal, is a process, a development, and as such involves, in its very conception, the necessity and desirability of modi- fication to adjust it to ever-varying needs. There is such a thing as educational modernism, as im- portant in its place as modernism in the sphere of religious thought and life. Education must not only be held back to date in deference to the past, but brought down to date in deference to the present and the future, and these results are not incompatible. C. The question of primary purport, therefore, that here emerges is: What are the Specific Changes desired and 24 Timely Topics needed, and where are they to begin and end to meet this call for adjustment? Here is an open field for wide and reasonable differences of opinion among those who are seeking a tenable and prac- ticable policy, and there is no doubt that safe and satisfactory conclusions will be reached by the temperate exchange of views and the spirit of mutual surrender of opinion when demanded. It is here that the classical controversy reaches its acute stage, and it is at this moment the dominant ques- tion, a question involving, it is urged, the classical languages only, and not their literatures, and the languages themselves in their original text. Classical authors, it is justly said, may be profitably studied in translation, quite fully enough to obtain a classical outlook and imbibe the classical spirit, and the literature of the ancient languages may be enjoyed quite apart from specific linguistic study of grammar and text. This is a point urgently pressed by the advocates of modification as to classical requirements and would release a large amount of time and space for other studies. More- over, as to the study of the languages themselves, a valid distinction is made by many between the Greek and the Latin in relation to the needs of the average student, the reduction of the Greek being urged as more imperative than that of the Latin. By the time thus released the increasing demands of political, economic, historical, social and scien- tific studies, it is argued, could be safely met, as also the just claims of the Modern Languages of Continental Europe. In a word, herein lies a scheme, not of elimination, but of partial reduction in behalf of what may be called the The New Era in Higher Education 25 modern order; containing nothing radical or revolutionary, omitting nothing which the student may not secure if he desires, at least in modified measure, and thus co-ordinating in a sense the diverse demands of the conservative and the liberal schools. In some way or another, this insistent call of the new era must be heard and heeded. It will not be and cannot be suppressed; and he is a wise exponent of traditional education who appreciates the potency and the urgency of that call, and is willing to concede enough of the old regime to give a larger function to the new, and thus to unify the past and present. Though Mr. Huxley holds an extreme view when he insists that culture can be secured as fully from purely scientific studies as from literary and linguistic, it is also true that a comprehensive and satisfactory type of culture cannot be secured apart from adding to literature and language that particular element of education that comes from a knowledge of the industrial, as well as the liberal arts; of the great facts and truths of history and social in- stitutions; of the study of physical nature and the political development of men and nations. Thus will the New Era in Higher Education interact with the Old Era, the Arts with the Sciences, literature and language with the daily life of the race; thus securing stability and ever increasing progress and best preparing the American undergraduate to take his place and do his part in the inspiring work of the modern world. 26 Timely Topics THE INTERNATIONAL MIND The close of the World-War reopens many old problems either for elimination or revision and originates a wide variety of new problems that must be examined and settled in the light of new conditions. These problems for their solution require an order of mind hitherto uncalled for. No man can properly approach and discuss these questions by any canons of criticism as yet obtaining, nor can he, least of all, discuss them in any other attitude than that of an observer and student of world conditions. This order of mind may be known by various names. As we are treating of conditions largely political, we may call it, The Inter- national Mind. Some of its characteristics may be cited. I. It is a Comprehensive Mind, as distinct from anything partisan, provincial, local, or even national, cosmopolitan in its compass. The field of its operation is the world, so that nothing short of the world at large will answer for its exer- cise. It illustrates what Bacon calls "Universality," on which all progress is based. This age is certainly not one for limited outlook, but only for a breadth of vision that has no assigned boundary, that sweeps the farthest limit of the horizon and takes in all truth and knowledge for its prov- ince. What is wished here is Scope, "ample room and verge enough" to take in the whole situation in its mental range, continental in its area as contrasted with the merely insular and seeking for conclusions that will be acknowledged the world around. II. It is a Catholic Mind, as distinct from anything in the line of narrowness and bigotry, insisting on examining The International Mind 27 truth untrammelled by any preconceived opinion and giving all due weight to those great generalizations that are the result of an unbiassed outlook. It is this catholicity of con- ception for which the large-minded men of every age have contended and which has lain at the root of all the great reformations of the world, and emphasized with imposing significance in this era of agitation and reform. This is the true Liberalism for which the world is waiting more im- patiently than ever, a solemn protest against the tyranny of an extreme conservatism and insisting that in the ultimate issues mere traditionalism must give place to advanced thinking and the bounds of mental freedom be ever widened. It is this catholic tendency that is liberalizing the govern- ments of the world, a form of civil polity which is simply another name for democracy. The democratic temper is eminently catholic and will not brook political bigotry. This is what is meant, moreover, by the Open Mind, open to all light and evidence, friendly to new truth as new and to any new interpretation of established truth, a student at large in the great out-of-door world where life is at its fullest and conditions are ever changing, ready to accept conclusions hitherto rejected and placing itself right at the centre of the strongest currents of thought and life. The catholic mind is thus committed to the principle of free trade as against exclusion in the intellectual commerce of the world, opening its entrance for all ingenuous seekers after truth and claim- ing a similar free entry into every harbour of the world's thought. Nothing is more indicative of mental sanity in men or nations than a willingness to surrender long cher- ished opinions when proved to be untenable. 28 Timely Topics III. It is a Balanced Mind, marked by poise and equi- poise, and as such proof against violent transitions, char- acterized by mental steadiness in the midst of disturbing agencies. It is because events and conditions are seen in their entirety as involving world interests that such a mind is stabilized. Mental balance is as rare as it is desirable, a state of stable equilibrium as essential in thought as in physics, a maintenance of the centre of gravity by which dire disaster is averted and all intellectual processes well ordered. IV. It is a Modern Mind as distinct from being Medi- aeval. Internationalism as a principle in the life of states may be said to have originated at the Reformation of the 1 6th century, when bigotry in church and state received its death-sentence and nations for the first time thought in terms of modern life. From the Elizabethan Era onward the principle advanced by slow and difficult stages until, at the opening of the last century, it may be said to have estab- lished its place, coming into increasing potency in this second decade of the 20th century as the direct result of that tragic upheaval from which the world has just emerged. We are now in the Golden Age of Modernism, and they only are wise who recognize the fact and act in obedience to it. It is from Lord Bacon, the author of the "Novum Organum" — the new method in philosophy that we read — "Antiquity deserveth that reverence that men should make a stand there- upon and discover what is the best way, but when the dis- covery is well taken then to make Progression." It is this political and mental progression that marks the present age as distinctly Modern — a definitely New Era. Such are the Characteristics of the International Mind — The International Mind 29 Comprehensiveness, Catholicity, Balance and Modernism, a type of mind never more needed than now to regulate the world. When so many statesmen, so called, are discussing world problems from the standpoint of the locality which they are supposed to represent, when so many theologians are still living in the fifteenth century, and so many uni- versity men are still interpreting educational problems in the light of the Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, what is surely needed is the International Mind, universality of thought and outlook. Especially in the sphere of the civic and political is this order of mind demanded. One of the most damaging disclosures of the late war is seen in the fact that in the parliaments of the people, and especially in the Con- gress of our own country, there are so few national repre- sentatives who seem to have the least idea of what is meant by Internationalism in statecraft, or what the urgent need is for many-sided, wide-minded men, men of such character and calibre, such largeness of nature and spaciousness of view, as to look out from the confines of their own political environment into the open area of the world's needs, and legislate for human interests at large. We need another Bacon to arise and pen another Novum Organum — a new philosophy of legislation for the Modern World. II THE CALL FOR CIVIC LEADERSHIP One of the most urgent issues of the hour demanding the best thought of the wisest men is how to secure and con- serve the fruits of peace. No problems of a strictly military character that emerged as the late tragic war went on made a more urgent appeal to military men for discussion and settlement than the inevitable problems of peace now make on the civilians of the country, while the difficulties and possible perils in the solution of such problems are no less pronounced than those which confronted the officers of the army. The call is for leadership, and while addressed to the general body of American citizens without distinction, is especially addressed to the young men of the nation as to those best fitted in age, opportunity and necessary equip- ment for the high behests of the hour, a call as insistent in days of peace as the call for volunteers in the days of war. Herein lies one of the tragedies of the situation that con- fronts the nation as thousands of the choicest of these men have made the supreme sacrifice and are beyond the heeding of their country's call. Already they have responded to an earlier call and have fully done their share in the preserva- tion of the nation's honor. These were they on whom the land was relying for future service, and by reason of their sacrifice of life have made the responsibility of their sur- vivors all the more weighty and irresistible. The duties 30 The Call for Civic Leadership 31 thus devolving on what Matthew Arnold called the "Rem- nant," are thus redoubled as the nation solemnly commits the destinies of the people especially to them for guidance and safe-keeping. Nor is there a sphere of citizen service in which such leadership is not needed — in government and society, in the industrial world and in the educational and religious world. It is, however, in the province of what we may term the civic that this demand is most emphatic — a call for specifically legislative leadership by which the highest political interests of the people may be secured and main- tained, and the country advanced steadily onward in the friendly rivalry of nations. In the highest offices of the government and in the least conspicuous — in Congress, as senators and representatives, in the Supreme Court and lower courts, in the governorship of states and the mayor- alties of cities and towns, in the common councils of bor- oughs and municipalities, in fact, wherever men are needed for administrative functions, a supply must be found from the ranks of those young men who will thus be able to assume and fulfill the role of civic leaders and thus sub- serve the highest civic interests. The qualifications needed for such a ministry are worthy of emphasis. First of all, is Civic Knowledge — a compre- hensive and an accurate acquaintance with the nature and forms and obligations of civil government, all that pertains to the constitution and function of the state — its jurisdiction and its limitations, what is involved in citizenship, and what citizens of a free commonwealth have a right to expect of those whose leadership has been acknowledged and who $2 Timely Topics are to be held responsible for the right administration of public interests. Something more is involved here than a possession of general intelligence or average mental equipment; a specific political intelligence, a clear apprehension of what civic polity is and what it involves and demands on the part of those who are called to represent and apply it. It is a hope- ful sign in modern educational programmes that this demand for a broader and clearer knowledge of statecraft, the process and function of government, is being more fully met so as to qualify American youth for the place of civic leadership. The study of history, jurisprudence, economics, social institutions and political science is given an ever larger recognition in common with scientific, philosophic and literary subjects. (2) Closely connected with this primary requisite is that of Organization and Initiative, a distinct and well defined aptitude for executive duty. We are living in days when a civic leader must have something of the same capability that is demanded of a military leader, that of collecting and consolidating the various forces and facil- ities under his control so as to secure the speediest and best results. It is related of one of the ancient tribes of Israel "that they had understanding of their times, to know what Israel ought to do," and it is especially required of a leader in the state to know just what ought to be done under existing conditions and so to reconstruct and manipulate the agencies at his command as to meet the urgent needs of the hour. Organization and Initiative will secure results at such a The Call for Civic Leadership 33 juncture, attainable by no other agency, so that while the incompetent man is dreaming- and debating the real executive will be reaching immediate and effective results. (3) A further qualification is Civic Courage — the cour- age of conviction and of action, a positiveness of character and official procedure that will maintain its ground, let the opposition be what it may, a real vertebrate tenacity. So insistent, aggressive and insolent are the agencies and influences now at work against well-organized and well- ordered government and all well-established social institu- tions, so prone are many of the heads of the industries to encourage disorder and revolt under the guise of economic privilege, and so extreme are many of the so-called theories of socialism, that somewhere there must be found a body of men to resist to the bitter end these encroachments on popular government and civic order. These real servants of the state must be found in the young men of the land who are qualified to lead their fellow-citizens along the lines of civic duty and safety and progress. Civilian leaders must, in fine, have something of that same type of heroic bravery and fortitude that is essential to military leaders, and fight to the finish for the maintenance of law and order. (4) A final requisite is Integrity, which in its very ety- mology means that a man should be every inch a man, unflinching in his avowal and defense of those fundamental principles of character and conduct on which the structure of government and society is based. There is no greater need of the modern state and all modern institutions than that for men who are absolutely trustworthy in any func- 34 Timely Topics tion, official or unofficial, to which they may be called — reliable men, or as a late American scholar was wont to call them — reli-on-able men, men on whom, as the word means, you could fall back, assured that they would be found dependable. Never has the call for this order of leaders been more insistent than it is at this critical juncture in the world's history. Whom can we trust or should we trust, if not those supposed guardians of the people, who subordinating all personal and selfish interests to the public good, should invite and expect the absolute confidence of the people in their character and civic functions, without reproach or without fear and justify unqualified faith in their motives and services! Such are the essential qualifications of leadership and hence it is evident that a special call is issued to the colleges of the country to furnish to the state such a body of men, men of civic intelligence, or independent initiative, of cour- age and of character. The fact that in the late war eighty per cent, of the American college men who entered the service became in due time officers in the army would lead us to look for a similar ratio of leaders in all the depart- ments of civic service, in the subsequent days of peace, when the need of such leadership is even more urgent. When military prowess must give place to mental and moral prowess, and civic and social reconstruction must repair the ravages of war and reinstate the moral forces of the world in fullest function, the Christian college and the Christian church constitute the true hope of the world, while the opportunity thus offered to college men is as inspiring as it is obligatory. That the educational institutions of the The Call for College Men 35 country are realizing this duty and privilege and are address- ing themselves to it with unwonted zeal is one of the most promising signs of the hour. THE CALL FOR COLLEGE MEN IN THE COMMERCIAL WORLD As late as the opening of the present century the college world and the business world were widely separated in spirit as well as in function, nor was it supposed possible that any bond of mutual interest could unite them. College men in politics, especially in the various branches of the diplomatic service, as exemplified in our earlier history in the persons of Irving, Bancroft, Hawthorne and Lowell, were an ac- cepted factor in national and international administration. In the national legislature as well as in those of the several states this educational representation was more or less present, but not until recent years has such a body of men been appealed to as a necessary factor in commercial circles. Hitherto, it was stoutly contended by leaders in the business world that business was one thing and higher education another, that men of affairs by the very nature of their call- ing could have but little affiliation with men of letters and of learning, that the best course open to those who were con- templating commercial life was to pass directly from the common school to business itself in its initial stages and by actual experience secure the training they most needed to ensure advancement and the greatest ultimate success. It was practically the old theory of apprenticeship as seen in the manual arts by which alone an apprentice was to prepare 36 Timely Topics himself for efficient service in his chosen trade or industry. Just here, once again, we are confronted with the lessons of the late war and find one of them to lie precisely along this commercial line, so that existing theories give place to new ideals as presented by new conditions and the real rela- tion of college men to the world of business is prominently present. In the exigencies of the war the government found itself face to face with serious problems, one of them being that of finding suitable men for the unwonted demands of the hour — men in whom the government could confide for the various forms of service needed. On grounds of im- mediate necessity the colleges were summoned to furnish needed men, a call to which there was as enthusiastic a re- sponse as to the demand for soldiers and sailors. It is now an open secret that the government was not a little surprised by the rare aptitude which members of college faculties and undergraduates evinced in all the departmental and adminis- trative functions to which they were assigned, displaying a grade and measure of specific commercial ability for which they had not received credit hitherto and which the govern- ment proposed more and more to utilize. This order of efficiency, when the war ended, was in immediate demand in general business circles and important industrial vocations. Banks and financial corporations were in the market for the services of these men now highly accredited by war service and all the traditional prejudices against the entrance of highly educated men into business disappeared and a new regime of demand and supply was instituted. Professor Erskine, Chairman of the Army Education Commission in France at the close of the war, goes so far The Call for College Men ^y as to predict that in the near future there will be a close connection not only between our universities and com- mercial life, but that their schedules will find a place even for the manual and industrial arts so that, as he insists, "the teaching of trades should be enriched by contact with the spirit of scholarship," this being one of the ways in which the pending problem of the social order could be solved. If it be asked where the special ground or reason for this call for college men in business is found to be, it may be answered, in the scarcity of competent and reliable men, as taken from the rank and file of the non-collegiate classes — men of foresight, initiative and independent judgment, who could rise above the mere material plane of profit and loss, dollars and cents, and look at business as a high vocation demanding a high order of ability for its right discharge. The demand was for men that were not merely business men, slaves to the mechanical duties of the shop and the counter, but men of intellectual outlook and comprehension who could look at commercial interests along the broadest lines and connect them with the highest national progress. Nor should it be concealed that in such a call for high-grade men, reliability has been as much stressed as competence — men not only of mature judgment were demanded, but men possessed of an acute sense of personal moral accountability, to whom the most important business interests could be safely committed. It is interesting to note just here that such men have often been selected with reference to inter- national business, where the province of operation is wider and where something more than a merely local or pro- 38 Timely Topics vincial type of mind is needed. This has been of late a distinctive feature in economic interests that lie beyond the nation itself and call for breadth of vision and an ability to view business as vitally related to all other forms of human activity, at home and abroad. To this call the brightest young men of our colleges are responding and are in special preparation to meet the grow- ing demand. Students who hitherto have had professional life in mind, more especially that of law, are fitting them- selves for commercial pursuits, while it goes without saying that as never before, scientific students, as a class, are in demand in all the departments of the industrial arts, where technical skill is needed and where, as in no other sphere, the mental factors and the mechanical meet and interact to a common end. It is in place to add that in this commercial demand a specific literary feature is apparent, in that young men are sought who have a good command of English, who thus can be of exceptional service in the composition of reports and in commercial correspondence — masters of a clear, vigor- ous and attractive English style so. as to commend them- selves and the firms they represent to the intelligent busi- ness world. This department of commercial composition and correspondence is assuming ever increasing importance. The special Benefits of this somewhat new relation are worthy of note : 1. One of them is found in the fact that it evinces and confirms the true relation of the Cultural and the Vocational so that it is reserved for this modern era to find an approxi- mate solution of this old and vexing problem. Men of The Call for College Men 39 affairs and men of the library and the study are brought into close and confidential contact, whereby the differences that separate them to a large extent disappear as they dis- cover increasing forms of unity. The benefits are seen to be mutual — a more practical and useful element being im- parted to the cultural order and a more distinctively in- tellectual element being imparted to the vocational. Business is emancipated from its purely sordid features and culture is freed from its manifest tendency to exclusiveness and a sense of superiority. It is in reality but another phase of that levelling influence induced by the war by which classes hitherto disjoined are brought together on a common level for common ends. 2. A further benefit of this new relation of cordial co- operation is found in the fact that this sympathetic interest between mental pursuits and the world of commerce and the trades may be one and should be one of the Mediating Agents between Capital and Labor — the most perplexing problem of the day, by which the educated men of the nation may in a sense come in between the capitalist and the daily laborer and induce an increasing spirit of harmony making it clear that no necessary antagonism should exist between the merchant and the miner, but that each order in its way should fill its place and do its work in full recogni- tion of the rights of others. Certainly the scholar in politics and the scholar in business should lift the science of state- craft and the functions of business to an ever higher level and be a distinctively assuaging and harmonizing factor against all discordant tendencies. Whatever individual or organization contributes to such an ameliorating influence 40 Timely Topics will place the modern world of industrial unrest under last- ing indebtedness. Men of books and men of business should alike be students of the Humanities — seeking above all special interests to further the interests of the world at large, while in this increasing fraternization of our colleges and commercial circles, there is seen one of the many agencies now in evidence by which the masses and the classes are to be reconciled and related. Herein lies one of the great re- sponsibilities of the college world and business world of to-day — to lessen all divergent agencies between them and unify their interests and influence to the furtherance of the peace and progress of the world. THE PROBLEMS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PEACE If, as the poet states it, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," then it behooves the conquering nation to secure and ratify these victories so that they may in part compensate for the losses of war and become a determining factor in all that pertains to the nation's highest progress. Winning the peace is a necessary sequel to winning the war and may be as difficult a contest as the war itself. This is especially true when a tragic struggle so unexpectedly closes and, as if in a moment, changes the situation in all its phases and calls for immediate and positive measures to meet it. So radical and sudden is the transformation, that for the time, the wisest minds are bewildered and there is serious difficulty in assuaging the disturbing and conflicting elements The Problems and Responsibilities of Peace 41 and reaching anything like an established order. The world is veritably overturned. All the varied forces of the state are in process of ferment, well nigh chaotic. On all sides open questions emerge for discussion and settlement — some of them modifications of prior problems and many of them altogether new to the most experienced observer of national and international progress — problems religious, political, educational, commercial, industrial and social, affecting in fact every function of corporate life. To thoughtful minds the dominant impression of the hour is one of national and individual responsibility, so as, in a measure, at least, to take in the situation as it confronts the intelligence and con- science of the modern world and meet the new and impos- ing obligations that arise. Nothing less is needed than the most virile elements of character, courage, constancy, patience and fortitude, and a fixed resolve to take full ad- vantage of the rare opportunities offered and interpret the lessons of the war in such wise as to bring unwonted blessing to the generations following. Some of these emerging problems may be cited — the proper place, if any, of a military regime in civic life — what Mr. James calls "The Moral Equivalent of War," the effect of war on a nation's language and literature and general culture, and morale, what is the best guarantee against a recurrence of these ends that issue from a great national struggle and what measures may best serve to consolidate and maintain these possible benefits that accrue from such a conflict. Two or three additional suggestions of special interest and import may engage us: 1. The initial issue of the hour is one of Construction. 42 Timely Topics Just as on the material side, the first essential at the close of a conflict is to repair the waste of war, to clear away all obstructions and lay the basis of a new industrial order, so in the higher sphere of the civic and social, the educational and ethical, a real beginning must be made in the way of reparation. The corporate life of the people in all its func- tions must be laid on new foundations in the light of present and prospective needs. It is nothing less than what the historian Green would call, the making of a state. The process is constructive and reconstructive. Herein lies the need of the organizing faculty of a people, a positive ability in the line of constituting a new order, a formative function calling into play the best abilities of a people eager to take advantage of existing emergencies. In the church, con- structive theology is needed ; in the state, constructive legis- lation; in education, a constructive method of mental dis- cipline, and in the community at large a constructive eco- nomic order, if so be in all these departments the best results may be reached. 2. A further responsibility has to do with the attitude of Stronger and Advanced peoples to those that are Weaker, more or less dependent and but partially advanced toward the highest forms of civic and national life. This attitude must be one of helpfulness — a thoroughly disinterested and philanthropic relation to those in need and who are looking to more highly favored nations for guidance and aid. There are few chapters in the history of states, the world over, more damaging and disheartening than those which trace the relationship of older and stronger powers to the struggling peoples with whom in one way or another they The Problems and Responsibilities of Peace 43 are brought into political contact. Not only in such flagrant examples as the government of the Congo under Leopold, or that of Spain with her West Indian possessions, or that of Germany with her African dependencies, or that of Russia and Turkey, but European nations with scarcely an excep- tion, and such Asiatic Empires as Japan must be arraigned under this indictment. The prevailing policy, the world over, has been one of exploitation and not of just and humane jurisdiction, a persistent purpose backed by military force to despoil dependent peoples to the advantage of the despoiler and thus to frustrate the very ends which such political control was supposed to subserve. In fine, colossal selfishness has been the conspicuous policy in colonial history, a closed door to all national aspi- ration, subjection instead of support; the studied suppres- sion of all those natural ambitions which every smaller nation is supposed to entertain. Guizot and Hallam and Buckle and others who have traced for us what is called the progress of civilization have been obliged to confess that the record has been mainly one of oppression. Accepting the principle in national life of the survival of the fittest, they have often made it impossible for the fittest to survive, inasmuch as from their point of view it is only the strong and self-sustaining who have any claim to survival, all other peoples as dependent being thereby simply contribu- tive to those that are independent. 3. A further obligation issuing from the late war is that of a higher type of International Diplomacy. Our English word, diplomacy, in its original Greek signification, means a document folded double, in which the emphasis has been 44 Timely Topics laid on the word, double, in an ethical sense, so that the science or art of diplomacy has been practically synonymous with double dealing, whereby the word is no sooner sounded than we connect it with intrigue, with some sort of political strategy or subterfuge, with anything but just and honor- able procedure. A recent historian in his study of Greece calls our attention to "the intricacies of modern diplomacy which can seldom go straight to a mark in matters of the clearest right and duty," meaning by "intricacies" any form of political juggling by which the worse is made to appear the better reason, any device by which the opposing party may be misled or manipulated. So, it comes to pass that when a body of diplomats is convened to discuss and settle great questions of state and supposedly on behalf of good government, they at once assume the diplomatic attitude, well understood to be one of shrewdness, equivocation and mental reservation, anything but openness and ingenuous- ness. All parties take the defensive, cloak real intentions under a maze of expressed intentions and insist that lan- guage of a political type is the art of concealing thought. Were all the cards laid on the table in full view, the session would be short indeed. If one would read a history as interesting as a romance, he must sit down to the perusal of the record of European Diplomacy from the days of Machiavelli and Metternich to those of Otto Bismarck and his school. As a typical example the Congress of Berlin might be selected — a truly Bismarckian Council at which the Iron Chancellor held the winning cards well in hand and played the game in full accord with his theory of statecraft, the result being that the initial steps were then taken which The Problems and Responsibilities of Peace 45 led to the late war. To think of Bismarck and Disraeli at the same table vieing with each other to promote the best interests of Europe irrespective of special German and English politics would be to indulge in a serio-comic exer- cise of mind. The indictment to be made against such a council could be framed in the same terms as those made by the Allied Powers against the Ex-Kaiser "a supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties" not to speak of other Counts that might be justly included. We can conceive of no more urgently needed reform as a new world-order is in the process of making than that of international diplomacy — an order of political dealing based on common interests in which the separate nations shall be given their deserved place and privileges. The dream is Utopian, but still it lies within the possibility of partial realization as the common conscience of the world is quickened. Nor has the Christian Church been blameless at this point. In countries especially where church and state were under one jurisdiction ecclesiastical statesmen were in evidence, and it was often a question difficult to determine as to which of these factors, the ecclesiastical or the secular, excelled in political intrigue. From the days of Hildebrand and Loyala on to those of Richelieu this diplo- matic chicanery has been so pronounced as to control the policies of Europe. Popes and cardinals, kings and queens, chancellors and ministers of state were in frequent collu- sion to effect their several interests ; wherein it was assumed that diplomatic dealings as such were not supposed to con- form to the strictest code of biblical ethics. The greatest danger that lay in the line of the recently 46 Timely Topics convened League of Nations as they were aiming to arrive at a just settlement of world-problems was precisely at this point of national self-interest and an unwillingness to com- prehend altruistically the needs of the world and make com- mon concession to meet them. In carrying out from year to year the solemn stipulations of the League this will still be the dominant danger. Toward this end, however, where national and international loyalty is seen not to con- flict every people should aspire, if so be each nation, strong or weak, may be allowed to work out its own salvation only in obedience to the common interests of the family of nations of which it is a part. Such are some of the fundamental issues and responsi- bilities that emerge from the late war and which in their examination and adjustment call for all the wisdom that can be summoned. Political sanity, mental insight and equi- poise, a high degree of moral sobriety and a disinterested endeavor to reach conclusions contributing to the good of the world at large are indispensable requisites to anything like a satisfactory solution. The world from centre to circumference is awake as never before. All classes are moving out of their old positions to higher levels of thought and action. The old slogan of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity has received a new significance. The unification of nations for the common weal of the world is the aspiring ideal and toward that ultimate goal it is the duty and privilege of every people to press. Justifiable Compromise 47 JUSTIFIABLE COMPROMISE In the course of history, national and personal, new prob- lems are ever arising for examination and solution — so numerous and insistent that on the principle that "all the world's a stage," what the dramatist calls "Problem Plays" would seem to constitute the dominant form of human pro- duction. These problems have been enormously multiplied by the recent world struggle, involving the sum total of the world's area, and affecting every local, national, interna- tional and moral province open to human function. It goes without saying that to approach, discuss and determine these varied and conflicting issues will require the wisdom of the wisest. I. The Two-Fold Interpretation of the Term — Compro- mise. i. There is a form of compromise that is based on a sur- render of vital principle — the unqualified denial of the rule of right and the valid obligations of a contract, or such a confounding of conscience as to violate practically every sanction of law — civil or moral. In order to reach a decision in any given case, principle is readily subordinated to policy. This is nothing less than a wilful concession to interest and expediency, a practical collusion between two equally unprincipled parties to secure supposedly desirable ends. This type of compromise is simply outruled by any righteous standard of personal or general action, though the pages of history are replete with signal illustrations of its presence. A candid survey of many of the great Inter- national Treaties among the modern states would afford 48 Timely Topics startling examples of this iniquitous form of political con- cession. Doctor Gibbons in his "New Map of Asia" writes as follows: "The record of European Diplomacy in the Near East from 1815 to 1919 has no redeeming feature. From the Congress of Vienna to the Conference at Paris it did not change. Heartlessness and selfishness were its char- acteristics." In a word, policy and not principle has been too often the ruling motive, and as a necessary consequence the results reached were founded on the method of a com- promise that did not hesitate to ignore all moral considera- tions when interest demanded it. 2. There is, however, another and a commendable type of compromise that we now have in mind when we speak of the need of it and the value of it in the dealings of men and nations in which no surrender of radical principle is in- volved. It is, first and last, a necessary mediating agent between extremes, where possible and actual errors exist on both sides and where no desirable conclusion can be reached save by mutual concessions in the sphere of the secondary and non-essential. It is justified by human liability to error and will invariably result in correct conclusions where there is on both sides an ingenuous desire and effort to agree for the common good. It is just here that the valid method of arbitration is marked as a conciliatory agency between conflicting interests, the primary purpose being to secure from each party to the contract enough of a surrender of subordinate matters to make a right solution possible. To make this just and tenable discrimination between the essen- tial and non-essential constitutes the main responsibility of any agent of arbitration. Justifiable Compromise 49 II. The Sphere of Operation of this valid form of compro- mise is unlimited. 1. In the province of the Civic or Political its illustration is abundant. This is so true that it is questionable whether in the history of states there has been any thoroughly satis- factory Treaty or Civic Contract that has not been reached by partial and justifiable concession. Ex-President Taft in a recent address went so far as to say, "The Anglo-Saxon idea of government is founded on the principle of compromise." As is well-known, the Con- stitution of the United States was finally and fully formu- lated on this principle of wise and just concession, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and other representative statesmen in- sisting on such a justifiable surrender of minor conditions. Even in political councils where some of the conclusions reached were the evident outgrowth of the sacrifice of car- dinal principles, others were the expression of righteous con- cession. The recent International Conference at Paris is a case in evidence, where policy and "even-handed justice" alternately prevailed. 2. In the sphere of Education in all its grades this resort to some legitimate form and measure of concession is ap- parent. As to the exact relation of Higher and Secondary Education, as to the due adjustment in Collegiate centres of Required and Elective Studies, as to the just relation of Graduate to Undergraduate courses, of the Cultural or Classical and the Vocational, of Generalization and Speciali- zation, these and numbers of similar questions have occa- sioned prolonged discussion and a satisfactory result has been secured only by common concession. 50 Timely Topics 3. So in the province of the Industries, where the capi- talist, the laborer, and the general public constitute a triple organization for the discussion and settlement of pending problems where respective interests conflict. In this prov- ince, some exercise of the principle of conciliation is essen- tial, as the history of any nation's industrial order will show. The hours of labor, the amount of wages, the possible divi- sion of profits, the inalienable rights of the parties con- cerned, must be the subject of co-operative interest and viewed from the standpoint of common justice. Such a his- tory in this country as that of the Tariff — partly a civic and partly an industrial question, is an example in point — mutual modifications of demands as to Protection and Free Trade being inevitable. In fine, it may be said that social and industrial conditions are based on this principle of allowable and reasonable assent and adjustment. 4. So in the sphere of Theological Controversy, where the letter and the spirit so often are at variance, where the doctrinal and the experimental conflict. All great Religious Reformations have illustrated this class of conceptions, methods and aims and have been driven perforce to legiti- mate yielding of preconceived theories. The great Historic Creeds and Confessions of Christendom, such as the Thirty- Nine Articles of the Church of England and the Westmin- ster Confession, have taken their final form after prolonged discussion as to where and to what degree the parties to the controversy might make justifiable concession without the surrender of fundamental truth, and this discussion has never been more pronounced and promising than it is now, Thus it appears that in every province of thought and Justifiable Compromise 51 life — personal or general — there is a place and an urgent demand for an order of compromise that is essentially just, and one that has proved itself necessary in the course of history. Some things there are that cannot admit of com- promise, because basic principles of right and justice forbid it. The Ten Commandments are incapable of revision or concession. When Luther at the Diet at Worms said, 'Teh kann nicht anders/' he was stating a fundamental truth which could not be modified by Pope or Council. Lincoln, when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, did so in terms not debatable. When General Grant demanded un- conditional surrender, he meant just that, no more, no less. There are some things finally formulated and are beyond appeal to any higher court. Outside of this sacred enclosure, however, there is a large area of possible repeal and revision, in obedience to the conditions as they arise and are made obligatory for the general good. On this principle of legitimate compromise the progress of civilization is largely based. International comity and fraternity are thus enhanced. War with its attendant evils is thus largely prevented, and all forms of bigotry, ecclesi- astical, civic and social, made impossible, the duty of wise and safe concession being at times as binding on men and nations as the corresponding duty of uncompromising loy- alty to truth and faith, when essential interests are at stake. There is a valid sense in which present day tendencies call for this general principle of compromise as never before. Upon no people or Council will the settlement of such prob- lems more acutely and persistently fall than on that League 52 Timely Topics of Nations as now constituted, which is to convene from year to year to adjust nothing less than the conflicting con- ditions of the modern world. The leading question ever confronting that League, as perplexing problems arise, will be whether to assume in any given case the uncompromising attitude as demanded by inflexible principle or the attitude of safe and salutary compromise as demanded by existing conditions. Herein will international statesmanship be taxed to the limit, and a new order be instituted in the mutual relation of states and people. This is the high vocation to which this Council will be called, and this, indeed, is the personal decision which every man must make as life progresses — when to ignore every temptation to compromise and when to assume the attitude of conciliation and concession. By these decisions will the destinies of nations and of individuals be ultimately deter- mined. MARTIAL QUALITIES IN CIVIC LIFE The immediate and remote effects of the late war, inten- sified by the fact that it was an international war, cannot, at present, at least, be at all correctly estimated. That the effects are and will be as wide and general as the war itself is beyond question, and it will be the part of students of history and government, as the years go on, to study and record these various results as they manifest themselves, and make such deductions therefrom as seem to be logical and tenable. One of the interesting questions thus emerging pertains Martial Qualities in Civic Life 53 to the nature and influence of those qualities of a specifically martial character that express themselves more or less clearly and efficiently in civic life — in the every-day activities of the civilian world. Whatever may be the objectionable features of a military regime as displayed in the active conduct of war, it is clear that from such a radical and strenuous experience there must be some qualities so com- mendable as to make them a desirable factor in periods of peace. It is on this ground that not only leaders of armies but representative leaders in the state insist on the value of universal military training as a civic measure for the nation's best interests; contending that every aspiring people needs an infusion of the martial temper and a schooling in the martial virtues, if so it may be fully equal to the serious responsibilities of citizenship and be enabled to take its place and hold its place in the family of nations. Nor is it meant that thereby a nation should be militaristic, culti- vating a war-like spirit for the sake of aggressive action and vauntingly asserting its readiness for war, but simply that it must cultivate all traits of national character that tend to enrich and strengthen it and fit it fully to meet and discharge all national obligations as they arise, what General Pershing has called "a trained citizen reserve," a citizen reserve as distinct from a specifically soldier reserve, or as it might be called, a citizen soldiery. Whatever may have been true as to our nation's needs decades ago, it is now true that as a world power world conditions must be met and a new regime instituted utterly uncalled for in any earlier era, a nation organized and martially trained in the interests of peace. 54 Timely Topics Some of these martial qualities (studied) may be: i. There is, first of all, Physical Vigor — a symmetrical and thorough training of the body so as to make it the efficient instrument of the mind, imparting endurance, what the Scriptures call "hardness," nervous and muscular energy, suppleness and sinewy strength, elasticity and alertness of movement, ability to suffer and be strong, power to defend against attack and to institute attack — in a word, vitality, the vis vivida of the old pagan warrior, athletic activity such as the wrestler displays in the arena. It is this calis- thenic and gymnastic ordeal through which the soldier must go that has a place in the ordinary functions of life by virtue of which a man may be physically fit for sacrifice and service. One of the startling disclosures of the late war was the lack of good physical condition on the part of a very large percentage of the young men who were examined for the army and navy. Though young men and supposed to be possessed of the virility of youth large numbers of them were found to be totally or partially unfit for the rigorous demands of the service, due in part, perhaps, to inherited defects, but mainly to lamentable carelessness as to the care of the body and observance of the ordinary laws of health. 2. An additional benefit directly derivable from military life and training is that of Discipline, with all which that term means in its fullest function, including, as it does, self- control, temperate habit, confidence in one's self and a deep-seated respect for law and order and rightly constituted authority — the obedient and responsive spirit, recognizing one's place as a subject and cordially meeting all obligations Martial Qualities in Civic Life 55 that issue from such a relation. It need scarcely be stated that just here lies one of the most damaging and unanswer- able indictments against the youth of this and other lands — while many careful observers of the life of different peoples maintain that it is an especially American defect of char- acter as manifested in its earliest forms in the American household — want of due respect for parental authority, and, as a result, for any authority, local or national, and be- getting, if unchecked, all those varied forms of unbridled socialism and radicalism so threatening in the modern world. Hence the need of the strictly martial virtue of Discipline, inculcating and demanding reverence for authority, the sacrifice of personal preferences and interests to the gen- eral good, a distinctive power of restraint under adverse conditions and an immediate and unquestioned response to every call of sacrifice and service. Every soldier and sailor, as such, is under orders, and every civilian is in a very legitimate sense under orders, bound when necessary to defer his own judgment to that of others and subor- dinate his own will to those who are his rightful superiors. Discipline is strictly a moral quality of character and finds its proper place among the cardinal virtues. 3. Closely connected with this characteristic of the soldier is that of Loyalty, which in its very etymology means obedi- ence to law, including all that is meant by devotion to the flag, by what we term patriotism, an absolute surrender of person, property, time and energy to the country's good, a free-will contribution of one's self to the common cause, the nation's preservation and progress, so that when the soldier leaves the camp and returns to the duties of citizen 56 Timely Topics life, this special quality is supposed to express itself in a patriotic devotion to civic interests as intense and unselfish as when displayed in the trenches or on the field of battle. Patriotism is more than a national sentiment thoroughly evoked only in the stress of war. It is a fundamental factor in days of peace and makes the highest national interest a part of its individual concern. 4. A further martial contribution to civic life is seen in what may be termed Catholicity — an elimination of all artificial distinctions of clan and creed by which men are rated for what they are as men, quite irrespective of their mental or social antecedents — placed on a common level, organized for a common purpose, trained along common lines and viewed simply as a unified body in the service of the state. In the late World-War this characteristic was so enlarged in its scope that not only personal and national but international and even racial differences were ignored and men were aggregated under a common standard in defense of human interests. Never has there been such an efface- ment of distinctive features of color or language or custom or locality. In this respect and to this extent the military regime is a school of life — a real Common Council of men for the settlement of common interests, and when this feature properly manifests itself in times of peace all arti- ficial barriers are broken down and men meet as men on common ground. 5. There is a further desirable feature of martial life due primarily to the fact that a nation's soldiery is made up necessarily of young men. We may call it Initiative — the ability and innate tendency to take the path of adventure, Martial Qualities in Civic Life 57 with all its risks and dangers and inspiring possibilities. It is just because it is hazardous that it is attractive, and the line of least resistance is ignored because it fails to afford sufficient scope for the exercise of that "sublime audacity of youth'' which is as fascinating as it is perilous. It is because young men as young are "buoyant, confident and strong in hope" that nothing seems too formidable, nothing too venturesome. In the actual engagements of the battle- field instances abound when not only individual soldiers have taken the initiative and done deeds of daring that immortalized them, but when an army in its totality has assumed the offensive under the most desperate conditions and in their own way and by extraordinary methods wrested an unwonted victory from the enemy. It is simply the irresistible spirit of youth, intensified and incited by the environment of war and made equal to any emergency, and when this bold abandon expresses itself in days of peace we are made to see its vitalizing influence on national character. If at the close of a war such as that now ended this initia- tive energy would express itself only along right lines,. there would ensue such a reformation of the world's life as has never before been seen — a real regeneration of the race. If then these are the qualities which may be transferred from the field of battle to the activities of peace, we can see at once what the opportunity is and what the responsibility is of a returning soldiery to civic status — nothing less than that of reconstructing and vitalizing a nation's life, a respon- sibility which if ignored or misdirected may work irrep- arable ruin to a state. This is the high vocation to which a people's defenders are called at home — to seal and sanctify 58 Timely Topics the science of warfare by a conscientious cultivation of the arts of peace. THE VALUE OF MELIORISM One of the evidences of the aptness of most men to hold extreme positions on any given subject with which they have to do is seen in the attitude so readily assumed of optimism or pessimism, those assuming it passing back and forth by quick and often violent transition, quite unable or unwilling to rest content midway between the opposite poles of thought and action long enough to comprehend the exist- ing conditions and make a rational decision as to what is best. Such extremes are equally untrue to facts and equally fraught with danger to those maintaining them, over- confidence and lack of confidence working naught but harm. As the late war went on from year to year, these extremes were exemplified and emphasized on both sides of the tragic conflict, while there were some, at least, who entertained a saner and a safer view and insisted on a principle of media- tion, discarding the maxim — everything for the best or everything for the worst — contending for the theory that ominous as the conditions may be all things are for the better, working slowly but inevitably toward the possible best — the theory of Meliorism. Though they cannot hold with Browning that "All's right with the world," they can still less hold with the dismal philosophy of Schopenhauer and his school, that All's wrong with the world. Through the cloud they always discern the silver lining, and when all others have lost hope and faith persist in believing in the ultimate triumph of truth and right. The Value of Meliorism 59 Hence, the duty of Meliorism. Despite all adverse con- ditions, all disappointments and reverses, there is the dominant obligation to harbor the thought that there must be and will be a better day, at the dawning of which present faith may be fully justified. The old biblical exhortation must be heard and heeded — "Be of good cheer." The dark ages of earlier centuries, however, in keeping with the history of the time, must be made to give place to a brighter and better order — an age of progress and promise. Especi- ally in an age such as this, resulting from war conditions, when all the graces of character have been tested to the limit and men are seeking, as never before, to find some things that are stable, some basis of faith and hope on which to stand, this commanding injunction is to be accepted as finally operative and men are to reinforce themselves against all fear and doubt and express the melioristic temper as never before. This is a type of heroism as signal in its way as that displayed on the field of battle. Such a principle of life and state of mind is so thoroughly enjoined by biblical authority that it cannot be ignored, it being true beyond question that a genuine and well- grounded meliorism rests after all on religious foundations. "Rejoice in the Lord always," "Rejoice evermore" is the scriptural order. If Browning, as an optimist, was able to say that "All's right with the world" it was because, as he argues, "God's in his heaven." The melioristic mind is not fatalistic but is distinctly theistic, based upon faith in a divine government of the world. Hence, the desirability of this principle. 1. It leads directly to personal Courage. No man, how- 60 Timely Topics ever gifted with a will-power and personal initiative can face the facts of life as they confront him with any degree of confidence in the outcome, save as he is fortified by the thought that despite all reverses and apparent defeat the ultimate issue will be possible. In all misgivings there is an unbroken element of faith and hope which impels him ever forward. There is a military factor in this virtue, so that all opposition is bravely met, and the moral warrior moves out of the trenches at the zero hour and passes over the top to moral victory. 2. Herein lies, also, the secret of personal Happiness, quickened as it is by the dominant thought of the world's betterment. Such a temperament insists on discovering and emphasizing the better side of human nature, relegating the forbidding features to the background and finds increasing satisfaction therein as the better element records its frequent triumph over the baser. Such natures are possessed of what the Scriptures call "the merry heart that doeth good like a medicine," infusing a real mental and moral tonic by which the recipient of it is heartened. They are happy in the thought that the world, bad as it is, might be far worse, that while here and there there are signs of retrogression, the world, taken as a whole, is moving steadily forward toward the inspiring ideal of betterment. 3. Personal Usefulness is absolutely dependent on this hopeful state of mind, by which the spirit is quickened and invigorated and finds itself ready and able to meet emer- gencies which otherwise would be formidable. Despond- ency in any of its stages cuts the nerve of all effort and arouses all forms of opposition. At no stage in the world's The Value of Meliorism 61 history and least of all under present conditions, is there any place for the pessimist or the doubter, who would dissipate all energy and hope and throw the soul back on the creed of the fatalist. The tests of life are too tense and the struggle under favorable conditions quite too severe to allow any place whatever for the misanthrope. It is only to the meliorist that the world instinctively turns in its time of need for words and deeds of good cheer. It is what we believe and not what we question that counts for stimulus. It is by hope that we are saved and not by fear or dismay, and any such thing as usefulness among our fellows is unattainable save as we insist upon emphasizing the primary features of life. Courage, happiness and use- fulness are the natural fruits of meliorism, so that such a temper is as desirable as it is obligatory and places the world in lasting indebtedness to him who possesses and exem- plifies it. In the application of this principle either to individual or national life it must ever be borne in mind that it expresses a tendency or drift rather than a final and completed con- dition fully satisfactory in its influence. It need not and does not guarantee absolute betterment at once or in the near future or at any assignable period of personal or national history, but only the promise that as the years go on conditions reveal improvement, progress in right direc- tions is sufficiently evident to quicken energy and inspire the soul to new endeavor. It is precisely in this modified but steadily increasing betterment that meliorism finds its oppor- tunity as contrasted with that unduly ample measure of satisfaction for which the optimist is looking. In view of 62 Timely Topics the disciplinary element in human experience and the life of the world and the obstinate obstructions that lie in the path of every onward movement it is far wiser and safer to rest content with a reasonable degree of success than to aim at an impossible result and suffer acute disappointment in not being able to realize it. It is enough to regard all earnest endeavor if only comparative progress is made, even though life itself may close far this side of fullest fruition. It is the old motto of the Swiss mountaineer as he ascends step by step under the inspiration of Excelsior, even though the summit may never be attained. In fine, life will be to every man very much what he is pleased to make of it and will depend largely in its issues upon the view that he takes of it. Accepting the cardinal doctrine of a moral order in the universe, the ultimate success for better or for worse will be determined by him- self. For his personal well being and for his satisfaction in observing the ongoings of the world about him, it will be well for him if he is able, despite all impediments, to assume the hopeful attitude and insist that, after all, events are so shaping that the course of the world is ever onward and that, whatever the present conditions may be, better con- ditions lie just ahead and are full of promise to him who apprehends and utilizes them. If then it be asked on what basis Meliorism is founded, the sufficient answer is, faith in God and faith in man, an abiding conviction that the world in all its developments is under the gracious guidance of God and that in human nature there is a substantive element of goodness and good will on which to rely. On these divine and human founda- The Mission of the Middle Classes 63 tions it is as reasonable as it is encouraging to insist that despite all the fluctuations and revolutions of the world a better order will ultimately emerge, however long deferred, and the kingdom of truth and righteousness will finally and fully prevail. More and more clearly is it seen to be true that upon every one there rests the moral obligation to make the world better and brighter, to diffuse the spirit of faith and hope and good cheer wherever one may exert his personal influ- ence, to come to the rescue of every despondent spirit with sympathy and practical aid. The expression of such a melioristic temper should be viewed as a vocation to which every man is solemnly summoned, if so be he may do some- thing to make his life a benediction to himself and to the world. Viewed from any standpoint whatever life is a struggle and a discipline, more or less severe and strenuous and persistent, and no more imperative duty and privilege rests upon any man than to take his place and do his part in the gracious work of meliorating the lives of his fellowmen. THE MISSION OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES The different divisions and subdivisions under which men may be classified may be said to be as varied as are the points of view that may be assumed or the principle of classification that may be adopted. Accepting a three-fold division as the most widely current and the most conven- ient there may be such classifications as — The Learned or Scholarly, The Intelligent or Enlightened and The Ignorant or Illiterate; The Wealthy, The Competent or Well-to-do 64 Timely Topics and The Needy; the Leisure Class, The Industrial or Busi- ness Class and The Laboring Class, — in a word, The Upper, Middle and Lower Classes, the line of exact difference be- tween any two of them being necessarily difficult to deter- mine. Professor Abbott in his interesting work — "The Expan- sion of Europe" — writes : "However much great move- ments like the Reformation had owed to the patronage of those in authority, the secularized middle class had been the prime movers in economic and cultural activities. In con- sequence, the history of the Sixteenth Century concerns itself not only with the ambitions of rulers, but with the achievements of commoners who revolutionize the world of thought and action." So, in the present century and the crisis of to-day, as we note the rise of what is called "The Middle Class Movement" or "The Common Peoples Move- ment," assuming organization, as we are told, "in every quarter of the globe," since its first formal opening in Eng- land in April, 1919, "formed," as has been said, "to obtain protection for those members of the community who could in no other way protect their domestic and political in- terests." They are the people with the "Middle Interests," the trading, professional and administrative classes and those whose income is derived from limited salaries and in- vestments and savings as distinct from the capitalist and the laborer of the day. By the Middle Classes, we also mean the plain people so- called, as distinct from those of royal, aristocratic or special social status. They constitute the body politic, the yeo- manry of the land, the great commonalty or general public, The Mission of the Middle Classes 65 the rank and file of the people as such, the order of citizens midway between the higher and the lower levels, excluding thereby, on the one hand, the privileged class and on the other the humbler elements of society — the common people in the best sense of the term, the genuine plebeians of the day, equally distinct from the patricians and the proletariat — the average people of their time. If we inquire as to their special missions as thus de- scribed some suggestions of interest may be made. 1. Their very Number gives them a status and an influ- ence that can scarcely be overestimated, far exceeding that of the upper orders, which in the very nature of the case are exclusive and in the minority, and by reason of their position wielding a power altogether foreign and superior to the menial and lowest sections of the people. Just be- cause they occupy the intermediate ground they are in the best position in which to act as a balancing factor in all extreme and abnormal tendencies. Moreover, their char- acter is such as to make them immensely potent in all that pertains to the well-being of a state. It is the common people who possess by way of distinction the common every- day virtues, the ordinary homely and practical elements of character and conduct, as distinct from those special quali- ties that belong to the privileged orders. Common sense is one of their prime possessions — the elemental qualities that underlie and condition all true progress. Mr. Bryce, in his "American Commonwealth" dwells at length on Public Opinion in its nature, its jurisdiction, the organs through which it expresses itself, how it is moulded, its local and 66 Timely Topics geographical types, his object being to show what an immense influence it holds, especially in a country such as ours and how it may best be manifested, directed and guarded. It is this Public Opinion that is the outspoken utterance of the middle classes, so pronounced and insistent that it cannot be suppressed by any device of statecraft. If for a time silenced, it will at length give voice to its senti- ments in terms so unmistakable as to defy all counter diplo- macy, and at times under pressure passing all conventional restrictions will become what Mr. Bryce calls ''Fatalism of the Multitude." It is because it is the view of the com- monalty that it must be kept with bounds, if so be it is to be of lasting benefit to the state. 2. Hence it is, that it is best expressed in countries where Free Institutions exist — "In no country" says Bryce, "is it so powerful as in the United States, in no country can it be so well studied," while in such countries as England and some of the continental nations it finds illustration just to the degree in which the people may be said to rule. It is the medium through which the democratic instincts and ideals of men are voiced, the spontaneous utterance of what the people think, desire and demand, however opposed it may be to the plans and purposes of kings and potentates. It is the plain people, after all, who hold the balance of power and will ultimately exert it at their pleasure, let the autocrats do what they may. More the spontaneous expres- sion of general sentiment than the result of reflection and argument, it cannot always be referred to any definite origin and must be accepted as the people's way of indi- cating their minds. It is in this connection that Mr. Bryce The Mission of the Middle Classes 67 makes the significant assertion that "nearly all great polit- ical and social causes have made their way first among the middle classes," guided, we may add, by such democratic leaders as John Bright and Lincoln — the great commoners of their respective peoples. "Governments," he adds, "have always rested on the silent acquiescence of the majority," even despotism and monarchy being no exception. So it is in every democratic age and nation, when in the open forum of the people and by the increasing influence of the popular press, the sentiments of the general public are widely circulated and mould the popular will. Journal- ism in free states is nothing more nor less than the organ by which public opinion records its views and by which the common people receive and impart a common-school educa- tion. 3. The middle classes constitute the chief Support of States, the main basis on which they stand and on them the main reliance is placed in times of stress. When we are told "that the excellence of popular government lies not so much in its wisdom as in its strength" it is meant that recourse is had in the main to the great body of the common folk — that part of the government which after all does the work of the world, the great professional, commercial and busi- ness class, the industrial order of any state or nation. It is to the hard-headed, clear-headed, level-headed men that a country turns when practical aid is needed either in the form of defensive or aggressive measures. The common sense of the common people is trustworthy — a species of practical wisdom possessed only by the graduates of the great public school of the world. What the historian Lord 68 Timely Topics has called "The Beacon Lights of History," what Carlyle calls the "Heroes of History," and what the American critic Whipple describes as "Representative Men," have their place that cannot be filled by members of any other class, but with all their gifts and ability, can never fill the place or do the invaluable work of the so-called middle classes. Mr. Emerson has written on "The Uses of Great Men." So he might have written with equal emphasis on The Uses of Ordinary Men — who constitute what might be called The House of Commons in the Parliament of the world — upon whom, after all, a well-ordered government is mainly founded. * In the world conflict that has recently closed whatever may have been due to the leaders of armies and navies, to generals and admirals, the brunt of the battle by land and by sea was borne by the rank and file of the common sol- diers and sailors, to whom the nations instinctively turned in the hour of their deepest need. Such is the sphere of service which the great body of the common people may be said to occupy as they stand midway between the upper and lower levels of their time, it being their significant function to mediate between extremes and hold the course of events in a steady equilibrium, proof alike against the exclusive authority of the favored few and the erratic tendencies of the lowest orders of society. It is here that Mr. Bryce utters a word of caution, in what he calls "The Tyranny of The Majority," by which the rights of the Minority are either ignored or resisted. This is a possible result arising from that consciousness of power that is possessed by the Commonalty, by the very fact of The Mission of the Middle Classes 69 their numerical strength. There is a sense in which the people as such may so abuse the prerogative, what is theirs by right of mere majority, that a form of despotism may ensue, fully as injurious as any type of autocratic rule, so that the very ends of free government may be frustrated under the guise of popular privilege. This temptation to the abuse of power is so potent that civil governments the world over, and most especially in democracies, have been obliged on grounds of self-defense to institute a system of checks and balances by which such forms of unjust legisla- tion may be nullified or impaired so as to conserve the interests of good government. It is by reason of this ten- dency of what might be called popular despotism that critics of democracy, such as De Tocqueville, have seemed to find the source of weakness in free states and indulged in dire predictions as to their possible permanence. One of the evident results of the late war lies directly along the line of this dangerous tendency, when the masses are coming more and more into the consciousness of their inherent strength under the guise of some kind of socialistic betterment and are openly declaring their independence and trespassing farther and farther beyond the line of loyalty and civic order. Herein lie alike the peril and the promise of this growing influence of the Commonalty in the modern world, to check it where it is excessive and domineering, and to encourage it when sane and safe. One of the greatest perils is found in the readiness with which the intelligent middle classes of the community are inclined to fraternize far too freely with the lowermost levels of the people — the riotous rabble of the streets. No yo Timely Topics greater responsbility rests upon the middle classes of today than to be true to their proper place and function in the modern world as the great stabilizing element in civic and social order, bringing to bear all their intelligence and sanity and sobriety of judgment, to hold a governing hand over all tendencies to lawlessness and so justify their right to be the great mediating agent in the extreme theories and movements of the time. We are living in the Golden Age of the average man and it is to him that the eyes of the world are turned, as never before, for "light and leading" if so be that the best national and international interests may be maintained and the world at large come at length under a benign and beneficent de- mocracy — a great Democratic Commonwealth administered by the people and for the people's good. To this far distant but possible ideal not a few of the world's wisest minds are looking, when all classes will dis- appear and be merged in a universal order, when "children of privilege and children of toil will be united; thinkers and laborers finding a deep union in a common experience and common desire, underlying all intellectual and social differences." To effect such a unification may be the dis- tinctive mission of the Middle Classes. THE GROWTH OF LIBERALISM One of the most distinctive movements now arresting the attention of every observant mind is that of liberalizing the thought of the world — a real enfranchisement of the human mind, far more wide-reaching and potent than that The Growth of Liberalism yi legacy of freedom which was given to Europe and the mod- ern world in the sixteenth century, a Great Charter un- precedented in scope and spirit and which, if rightly utilized and guarded will be an invaluable contribution toward the general good of the race. Nor is this beneficent result merely one of those regular and natural expressions of what we call the history of peoples, presumably marking an advance from age to age, but a specific providential move- ment, as issuing from that dramatic catastrophe which for the past four years has tested well nigh to the limit the resources and the faith of Christendom. It illustrates what the late Doctor McCosh called, The Method of the Divine Government, confirming the view that above the rule of Kings and of all human agencies there is a superhuman mind and hand controlling the course of events. If we inquire as to the scope or province of this liberalizing prin- ciple we find it all-embracing and universal in its applica- tion, affecting every human institution and every form and function of human effort and so intense, insistent and potent that nothing cansuccessfully or safely resist it. i. In Government it takes the form of democratizing every existing political system, breaking down all despotic and restrictive barriers and opening widely the way to civic freedom. There is not a government now existing that is not the subject of this irresistible influence, whereby autoc- racies and monarchies are overturned and the rule of the people as such instituted, so that the world is becoming one great commonwealth and the League of Nations is a league of liberty, a covenant of independence and inter-dependence in unified activity. 72 Titnely Topics 2. So, in the Social and Industrial sphere, where the classes and the masses, capital and labor clash and contend for supremacy, and where the higher principle of community of interest is coming into prominence. The governing tend- ency now evident is to minimize the distance and the differ- ences between the so-called "privileged classes" and the great social and industrial commonalty, insisting upon an open door to all, a genuine and well ordered socialism, by which the old time declaration "that all men are free and equal" in point of opportunity shall be confirmed in fact and a real aristocracy arise — the rule of the best, from what- ever order the best may come. 3. So, in the province of Education, there being no sphere in which this new awakening is more pronounced. Every educational centre in the land may be said to be fairly aflame with interest as to what this new order demands in the way of extension and increased efficiency. These centres of knowledge and mental discipline, though already known as seats of liberal learning, are thoroughly conscious of the fact that a new and broader interpretation of the term liberal must be made, if they are to fall in line with the issues of the hour. Science itself and all technical and pro- fessional studies must be to some extent based on the liberal arts. They are to be liberal not only in the sense of repre- senting classical culture but it is insisted that they widen the area of study and training so as to give a larger place to those branches that lie outside of the strictly classical regime as hitherto obtaining and serve to prepare the student for a more active participation in the imperative demands of that new world that is now opening. These The Growth of Liberalism 73 homes of the higher learning, so-called, are to be univer- sities in a much more comprehensive sense than that which has been handed down from the days of the schoolmen and are to adapt more and more closely the old order of study to the wider economy of the times. The Humanities as embodied in collegiate courses are to be far more human than ever, an order of discipline outside the limits of the ancient languages and pagan art and embracing all those forms of intellectual training which best prepare the modern man for the modern world. Herein we find a later and wider educational Renaissance — the establishment of a great public school of the new era — the free academy of the world. 4. So, in the Christian Church, an institution that offers no exception to the liberalizing process. Indeed there is a sense in which the church must represent this process of enfranchisement more distinctively than any other order, in that it is, of all human organizations, the most important and must by its very nature and purpose be in sympathetic accord with the developing life of the people — a real Catholic Church in its doctrine, worship and spirit and adapted as such to "all sorts and conditions of men" the world over. While there is a sense in which the church as a divine institution cannot be expected to modify its prin- ciples and methods in obedience to the requirements of the time, it is also true that as a human institution to meet hu- man needs it must be adaptive to current conditions. Hence, all Creeds and Confessions must be reviewed with reference to possible revision, so as to determine on what common ground of doctrine the church in its various orders may 74 Timely Topics stand. Preserving the essential values, the process is one of re-adjustment and shifting of emphasis — of justifiable con- cessions and compromise, if so be something like a solid front may be presented to the un-Christian world and all efforts essentially unified by a common purpose. It is one of the most heartening signs of the times that such an enfranchising process is at work throughout the Christian world, intensified in its spirit and method by the issues of the recent struggle, and teachers of theology and the Christian ministry at large are keenly alive to the neces- sity and advisability of bringing the modern pulpit in line, as far as it is possible, with the newly developed spiritual needs of the modern world. The ecclesiastical polity of the twentieth century is too expansive and virile to be embodied in the restrictive vestments of the age of Richard Hooker. When a recent writer in a work entitled "Christianity in The New Age" insists on what he calls "The Great Ad- venture" — The Need of an Adventurous Theology, Disci- pleship and Church, he is not contending for any ill-advised and radical revision of Protestant Theology and Polity, but only for a wider outlook over the needs of the Christian world as it exists to-day and a more catholic interpreta- tion of religious truth in the light of such needs, — for a church as broad as it can be made within the lines of biblical teaching. Thus it is clear that the growth of liberalism is one of the outstanding facts of the time, manifesting itself in every phase and function of individual and national life — in government and the industries, in social and educa- tional institutions, and in the Christian Church — a movement as irresistible as it is general and one which must be reck- The Growth of Liberalism 75 oned with by every lover of his kind. How to regulate and safely utilize it is the dominant question of the hour, if so be, it may be fraught with blessing to the world at large. In government, civic freedom must not be allowed to pass out of bounds and degenerate into open revolution under the name of democracy. In social and industrial orders, an open door for opportunity to all classes must not be so widely opened as to admit the entrance of the lawless and justify the wildest excesses of the proletariat. In education, the well tested traditions of the earlier eras must not be swept aside simply in order to make room for every new demand of the modern school, bceause it is new, while, above all, in the Christian Church, fundamental truth must be presumed at all hazards, be the call for modification what it may. There is no need, however, for conflict be- tween the old and the new orders, each of which must be heeded in its just demands. What is needed is sanity and impartial judgment — applying restraint when it is needed and giving liberty where needed. What is here empha- sized is this — that in a comparatively new world — made new by the course of history and the order of Providence, new points of view must be assumed, new concessions made, new conditions met by new adaptations and adjustments and a friendly temper be always manifested to that liberal- izing movement which is one of the most distinctive and promising issues of the hour. The present responsibility of the church is so serious as to be almost overwhelming and yet so essential and fraught with such commanding issues as to be positively inspiring. The Hope of the World — as it was in the beginning, is now j6 Timely Topics and ever shall be— The Hope of the World is the Christian Church. It is not in any governmental systems, however well ad- ministered, nor in any social or industrial order, however impartially established, nor even in any merely educational institution, however essential to the world's need, but it is in the church, primarily and finally that the redemption of the race is guaranteed, an agency which as yet has not been even approximately tested in its divinely endowed potency, but which when fully tested will usher in the Kingdom of God on earth, the only autocracy justifiable among men, so that after centuries of political experiment as to what order of government is best for the welfare of the world, we must perforce go directly back to the days of Moses and the prophets and reinstate the old Theocracy, when the kingdom of the world shall recognize but one order — the government of God Himself, whose right it is to reign. And thus it is that a true liberalism and a true conservatism will meet and interact and the New Era and the Old Era be unified and sanctified to a common end. Ill AMERICA'S NEED OF STATESMEN A living American Historian, writing of Congressional Government in our nation, remarks, "Somehow the Ameri- can Congress fails to produce capable statesmen. It at- tracts politicians who display affability and dexterity, but who are lacking in discernment of public needs and in abil- ity to provide for them, so that power and opportunity are often associated with gross political incompetency" — an or- der and measure of incompetency, we may add, that causes one to wonder how any human government can survive and even approximately succeed under such unfriendly conditions. Mr. Bryce, in his "American Commonwealth," dwells at length on this conspicuous feature in our national life, raising the question, "Why great men are not chosen Presidents" and the further question, "Why the best men do not go into Politics." If any loyal American has any doubt on this subject, a careful observation of the Congress of the country in the recent months of discussion of The League of Nations must have given him all the evidence he needs of an order of mental and administrative ability far below the level of what should be found in a body of men dealing with the most fundamental and far-reaching problems of national and international interest. Thus it is that the very terms, Statesmen and Statesmanship, have become sharply differentiated from the terms, Politician 77 78 Timely Topics and Politics, with the distinct understanding that they mean an order of mind and mode - of action far this side of superiority, one of the astounding facts being that so many of these mediocre officials are so utterly ignorant of their own limitations as to willingly present themselves before the American Electorate in candidacy for the highest govern- mental position within the suffrage of the people, a posi- tion second to none in its high demands among the civil governments of the world. Mr. Bryce, in a chapter, "Types of American Statesmen," submits five separate orders as they obtain in Europe — men for foreign policy, with a wide outlook over the world's horizon ; men for social and economic reform, with an apti- tude for constructive legislation; men who can administer a governmental department with skill; men who are mere parliamentary tacticians ; and men who can sway the masses in party appeal, and it is to the fourth and fifth classes, the tacticians and successful party leaders, that he con- signs the rank and file of our representatives, — excluding them summarily from those orders where "wide outlook" and "constructive legislation" are in demand, and here is the damaging indictment at present. When the most im- posing and world-embracing problems are confronting the country and its counsellors and men of vision and mental range are needed as never before, we must be satisfied with mere "tacticians" and "party leaders" and the repute of American legislation suffer untold injury in the light of European diplomacy. It is nothing less than humiliating to see what we have so signally seen of late in Washington, the Senate of the United States tossing questions of con- America's Need of Statesmen 79 tinental import back and forth over the floor of Congress with the irresponsibility of children and insisting on treat- ing great international issues from the standpoint of the district school. With but few exceptions they are local legislators and that only, verbal quibblers and that only, mere parochial politicians and not statesmen. I. One or two of the explanations of this order of officials may be cited, the decadence of type being especially notice- able since the Civil War, until it has now reached the high water mark of inability. 1. The first assignable reason is found in the fact that legislation both in the House and Senate is primarily Par- tisan in conception, method and execution. One of our most representative publicists speaks of the Senate as "the home of intrigue and jealousy" — especially out of place in the Upper House of Congress. It is for this reason that when historians attempt to describe the type and spirit of American institutions, they must devote a large part of their time, as Mr. Bryce has done, to "The Party System" and with the avowed purpose of revealing and condemning its character and methods, — such topics as "The Spoils," "Rings and Bosses," "Corruption" being stressed as most in evidence. Instead of statesmen, we have mere politicians, instead of office executives, mere office seekers, the prime function being what to secure from their office in the way of personal and partisan advantage and not what to give to the office in the way of unselfish service for the nation's weal, presidents themselves being far too often representa- tives of a party and not of the commonwealth at large. 2. A further reason for this type of legislators is found 80 Timely Topics in the fact that to the great majority of Congressmen leg- islation is a mere Business and not a Vocation of high ideal whereby constitutional government is reduced to the basis of commercialism. Politics is a Trade and not a Trust, or if, indeed, a Trust, only such on economic and not on ethical grounds. Even lower still has the decadence of type gone until we speak of government as a machine, ma- nipulated as such, and thus reduced to the level of the manual arts. The legislative body as a whole resolves itself into a committee of Ways and Means, no close questions being entertained as to what the Ways and Means are, if so be the desired results are reached. The composition of the Congress is largely responsible for this condition, and for this reason the electorate at large is finally responsible for it. "What the People Think of It," as Mr. Bryce asks, is the important query. As to the House, the great majority are either men who have devoted their lives to commerce, or lawyers whose main duties have been far more mer- cantile than juristic, the profession of Law having largely lost its type as a Liberal Calling, and become a commercial function. Even in the Upper House, most of the members are mere financiers, sent to Congress by the people to protect and foster the "Interests," so-called, in which policy must take precedence over all conflicting claims. Not until poli- tics ceases to be a handicraft and reverts to the earlier type of a vocation and trusteeship will the demand for states- men be heeded, and the memory of the days of Adams and Madison, Hamilton and Jefferson, Clay and Calhoun, and Webster be recalled. America's Need of Statesmen 81 II. If we inquire for the Essentials of statesmanship, the answer in brief is at hand : i. A mental ability above the average. 2. Administrative function. 3. Accurate knowledge of civil government — municipal, state and national. 4. An open mind to ever changing conditions. 5. Ability to interpret the public mind and need. 6. An unselfish devotion to the public weal. 7. Mental breadth so as to be a loyal American with an international outlook. These are the essentials and the test which fit a man really to represent the people instead of representing a party or himself. III. How is such a type to be secured? 1. By mental discipline in early life. 2. By acquaintance with administrative methods. 3. By a careful study of civil government. Whatever may be the decision as to universal military training, there should be universal civil instruction, training by which all the youth of the country, whatever their prospective voca- tions, should be indoctrinated in basic governmental prin- ciples and methods, in the history and purpose of free in- stitutions. The scheme for military training as presented in Congress includes very appropriately an educational clause, thus saving military training from becoming purely militaristic. The establishment recently in New York City of a League of Public Education and the professed erection of a new Town Hall as its instructional centre is clearly in the right direction and full of promise. 82 Timely Topics 4. By a keen observation of public opinion and events, keeping in touch with the temper of the time. 5. By personal participation in political affairs of a local range, so as to be prepared when it is found necessary for participation in larger state and national issues. 6. By making one's self conversant with the best books and authorities on Civil Government, such as Hallam, Bryce, Lowel, Draper, Van Hoist, Wilson and others, with such compends as The English Statesmen Series, the American Statesmen Series, and similar Collections. By one method or another, the rank and file of the Amer- ican Body Politic must acquaint themselves with civic meth- ods and problems in democratic commonwealths, if so be they may be in readiness for civic relations and responsi- bilities. The time has come and fully come when the im- posing issues of the nations must not be committed to the hands of novices and amateurs in statecraft, mere tacticians and manipulators, entering political life for personal profit and not for the general good. To this country the eyes and hopes of the nations struggling for free institutions are turned as never before, as to the greatest democratic centre of the world, and to make the great experiment successful and worthy of imitation, statesmen are needed to guide and govern the people aright. The stirring lines of the Bishop of Exeter are well in point : "Give us men, Men of thought and reading, Men of light and leading, The nation's welfare speeding. Men whom highest hope inspires, Men whom present honor fires, The American Forum of Today 83 Men who trample self beneath them, Men who make their country wreathe them, As her noble sons. Give us men," real men of State to serve the state with ability and effici- ency. This is one of America's present needs. THE AMERICAN FORUM OF TO-DAY The old Roman Forum of pagan days where the Latins were wont to assemble in open session for the discussion of pending problems has been more or less reproduced in later times down to the present century. Among English- speaking peoples it dates back to the Old English Folc-Mot, the popular assembly of the Saxon era, which summoned the people when the issues of the state demanded a National Convention, as the great Common Council of the time re- produced in modern days by the English Hustings, the Town-Meeting of the New England States, and the Plat- form of Public Address, seen most comprehensively in the Political Conventions of the time for the discussion of Party Issues, but now enlarged in its scope by the discus- sion of all forms of questions pressing for settlement, in- dustrial, economic, educational, social and sanitary. There is a sense in which it may in truth be said that one of the multiform results of the late war has been to flood the country with open questions, demanding for their final settlement a great Popular Referendum — the High Court of Appeal as conducted by the Body Politic. The Hustings and the Platform have thus been revived and accentuated and once again as of old the "Vox Populi" is heard in the 84 Timely Topics Open Forum of the people. It is a current statement that oratory, as a form of expression, has declined in modern states, partly by reason of the increased diffusion of knowl- edge and also by the ever enlarging influence of the Public Press, it being nearer the truth to say that it is the method of oral address that has declined and not oratory itself. What Mr. Bryce calls the "inflated" order of American oratory, declamatory and vociferous, appealing to senti- ment, and feeling, and merely personal and partisan inter- est, has declined and happily so, and the people in open ses- sion are demanding a deliberative and dispassionate appeal to their reason and judgment and common interest. In this respect, the living voice of the public orator has not been superseded, nor will it ever be, and it only remains for the speaker on the platform to conform to this just require- ment if so be he is to have a hearing and a following. In all departments of oral address, this condition is imperative. The lawyer before the jury and the representative of the people in legislative halls, as well as the speaker out among the people at large, must observe and obey it. These con- ditions met, the way is open for the best efforts of the orator. Thomas Carlyle, among the many pertinent passages that he has given us has none more pertinent than this : "There is a word," he says, "which if spoken to men, to the actual generation of men, will stir their inmost souls, but how to find that word, how to speak it when found," which is but another way of saying that if a man has something to say worth saying and knows how to say it in fitting form, he will always be assured of a responsive and appreciative The American Forum of Today 85 hearing. What is insisted on by the open assembly con- vened for enlightenment on pending issues is that there shall be real oratory and not mere declamation, real eloquence and not mere vocabulary, real thought and not mere sentiment, a direct appeal to the understanding and not merely to the imagination or the emotions, a vital presentation of vital questions, so that the audience will feel and know that they have listened to a man who has com- mand of the subject and command of himself and the com- mand of his auditors. It is questionable whether the Amer- ican Platform has ever had a more convincing speaker than Wendell Phillips, whose order of oratory was high above the plane of the merely sensational, and was so natural, nor- mal, undemonstrative and persuasive as to be scarcely above the level of the conversational, a quiet and sober and cap- tivating type of address under the influence of which the hearer felt himself mentally quickened and profoundly in- terested. The reply of the great Greek orator, Demosthenes, to the question as to what were the essentials of eloquence, that they were, first, action, secondly, action, and again, action, would not be at all adequate to the demands of today, when in and with the elocutionary and semi-dramatic action of the speaker there shall be seen a distinctive intellectual action and always in authority over the imagination and feelings. The orator is more than an elocutionist. He is the conveyor of truth to the human mind, the expounder and interpreter of truth. It is to the credit of the Ameri- can Audience of today, and to the good sense of the Amer- ican Bar, that no man, however fluent of speech, will be 86 Timely Topics heeded who substitutes words for thought and becomes more vociferous and vaporous as ideas diminish. It is in this respect that the mere declaimer is ruled out of order. It is recorded of Paul that when he appeared in Athens before the people in defence of Christian doctrine, cer- tain of the philosophers who were present and curiously in- terested in this apostle of the new faith, exclaimed "What will this babbler say?" and it was not until he convinced them that he had something to say worth saying and that it would be well for them to heed, that they replied, "We will hear thee again of this matter," and this is the atti- tude generally assumed by the people in open audience, "What will this babbler say?" and unless he speaks from the head to the head, and to the point in temperate and rea- sonable terms, they will have none of him. This is what Shakespeare must have meant as Falstaff says to Pistol, "If thou hast anything to say, Prithee, deliver it like a man of the world," in plain, blunt manner along the lines of com- mon sense as man talks to man in the ordinary intercourse of life. Deliver it in direct and understandable terms, as a business in hand of vital moment and not as a mere speaker who must perforce fill the time allotted to him and in the failure to realize his position, must resort to subterfuge and all the devices of the demagogue. The advice of Hamlet to the Players is as essential today as ever, that the speaker should not "saw the air," and "tear a passion all to tatters," that in "the tempest of passion he must beget temperance," "suit the word to the action, and the action to the word," "hold the mirror up to nature." Shakespeare's main indictment was that these unworthy The American Forum of Today 87 Players "strutted and bellowed" to split the ears of the groundlings, and did not "imitate humanity," their violation of naturalness being their chief offence and sure to result in absolute failure. An orator is one thing, a mere platform agitator, a mountebank, a town-crier, is quite another. An open advo- cate of truth before the people is one thing, a verbal quib- bler, juggling with words, is quite another. It is here that the personality of the speaker is in evidence, the man be- hind the message. "The Style is the man" in oral as in written language, making upon the auditor an impression in and through the message he is delivering and thereby adding immensely to the impression of the message. The "Vox Humana," however potent, is far less so than the man him- self behind the voice. This is a type of address imperatively demanded by Popular Government the world over, based as it is on the intelligence of the people at large, to whom ultimately all public questions must be submitted. "Democ- racy" we are told "is government by discussion" and this discussion is conducted in the Open Forum. A Free Press must be reinforced by Free Speech, if so be the Free In- stitutions of the modern world are to be maintained and perpetuated. Hence it is also clear beyond dispute that the educational centres of the country, our schools and col- leges, must train up a generation of men not only conver- sant with public issues and needs, but also able to defend and interpret them in the presence of the people. A mere ex- amination of these problems in the Study and Library be- hind closed doors will not do in an age such as this, but men must emerge into the open. The modern world has be- 88 Timely Topics come, in a sense, a great Out-of-Doors Convention, waiting for the man and the message so as intelligently to fulfill their civic function. Discipline in Oral Address along natural and normal lines should find its place in every college sched- ule, so as to prepare the undergraduate to take his place in the Forum of to-day and deliver his message with intelli- gent earnestness, speaking with feeling under mental control and with what Aristotle calls "persuasive efficacy." Such an order of American Oratory is gradually com- ing into its own. The vital issues of the day are so big with possibility and promise and, withal, so complex and comprehensive and difficult of settlement, that the best abil- ity is demanded to discuss them aright in open assembly. The American Forum is now established anew in the light of present conditions for the discussion of pending problems in government and education, and the social order, and the call of the country is for speakers having something to say and knowing how to "deliver it like men of the world." CONSTRUCTIVE PROCESSES There is a sense in which it may be said that all the forces, influences and functions of human activity might be clas- sified as constructive and destructive — tending more or less directly to organization or demolition, — a principle by which all movements in national and international life may be safely tested. Moreover, human nature is such the world over, either in nations or individuals, that the discouraging and deterior- Constructive Processes 89 ating factors are seen to be most in evidence, requiring strenuous and constant resistance on the part of those who would promote the formative factors. Constituted as the present order of the universe is, all things, by their very nature, tend to decline, decadence and ultimate extinction, and the mission and discipline of life consists mainly in combating the tendencies to declension by instituting a positive tendency in the line of formation. Professor Drummond in his suggestive treatise, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," has a significant chapter on "Degenera- tion," in which he develops the idea that this practical law is so active and insistent that men and nations alike must be on guard at every moment lest it become dominant and the process of degeneration end at length in atrophy and death. There is a law of gravitation downward in the thought and life of the world as potent as the law of grav- itation in the physical world. Another chapter in which "Growth" is described as a controlling counteracting principle sets forth these two agencies as contending for supremacy — those of Destruc- tion and Construction — the progress of the world being de- pendent on the supremacy of the constructive processes over all that tends to destruction. We are living at a time when these constructive processes are demanded as never before, if so be the world is to escape the evils that threat- en it and is to be really rehabilitated on sound and stable foundations. The New Map of the World now in process of making must be a map in which old lines and boundaries are to be redrawn, old methods and principles re-examined, 90 Timely Topics and a new and broader basis laid on which the structure of society may securely rest. i. In Government, the vital need and demand of the age is Constructive Legislation as opposed to all that is indirect, reactionary and negative — a positive and definite establish- ment of civil government as distinct from legislation that is only punitive and prohibitive. The discussions of the American Congress in recent months furnish a convincing commentary on the need of this higher and better method — the major portion of the legislation revealing but little con- ception of what constitutional government really means. We speak suggestively of the Formation of the Constitu- tion and the Union, of the Founding of the Republic, of the Organization of States and Laws — terms demanding positive processes. We speak of the Building of a Nation as an English historian writes of "The Making of Eng- land" — a kind of architectural method applied to civic inter- ests — synthetic rather than analytic — by which the nation is, so to speak, erected, built up by regular stages from base to capstone. When one of our American historians, in writing of Hamilton, includes him among "the states- men of creative minds who represent great ideas," he im- plies that such civil representatives know what is meant by organized processes in the state. In fact, the political ex- ponents of any country can be correctly classified on this principle — whether or not they are constructive in their speaking and acting. Writers on constitutional history, such as Stubbs and Hallan, Bryce and Fiske, rightly em- phasize this principle, insisting that the very term — consti- tutional — implies this formative process, the shaping of Constructive Processes 91 the state, from one degree of betterment to another, until the civil edifice is completed. Civil engineering, which etymologically means state engineering, must be construc- tive. 2. So in the Scientific world, where the Arts of Peace should predominate over the Arts of War, the main prom- ise of science at present lying in the fact that the discovery and invention of the practical and useful arts will take the place of the destructive devices of the late war, by which scientific talent, it must be confessed, was temporarily di- verted from its main and beneficent mission to the lower function of furnishing the opposing armies with the in- struments of destruction — murder in the first degree under the name of advanced science. The sinews of peace must now displace the sinews of war. 3. So in the Commercial world, where, unfortunately, mere exploitation and shrewd bargaining so often assume the place of primacy. He to whom business in all its form is nothing more nor less than a great organizing function, is the real man of affairs. High Finance, as it is called, thus means an order of monetary method infinitely removed from the dominant object of overdoing and undoing and outwitting a commercial competitor. The great representa- tive men in commerce and trade are, first and last, Con- structionists, and not mere manipulators of goods and sys- tems at the expense of the public at large, building up the industries of the country even at some sacrifice of personal gain — the promoters of the best interests of their customers and contributing directly to the common good. "Big Bus- iness," so called, should be big in its high ideals. In the 92 Timely Topics early history of the country, Alexander Hamilton won the distinction that he did in the sphere of national finance be- cause as United States Treasurer he built up the govern- ment's finances by a constructive method that is as stable to-day as when he established it. 4. So in the Literary World. An author, by the very meaning of the word, is one who increases the sum total of human knowledge, adding a substantial contribution to the existing content of truth, — a producer and not a mere re-producer, a creative mental factor in the realm of liter- ary art and not a mere collector or collaborator of facts and events. Especially in the sphere of criticism is this con- structive principle needed, the very words, critical and crit- icism implying that the function of the literary censor is destructive only, detecting and exposing with a good degree of mental arrogance the defects of any book that is exam- ined, thus nullifying what should be the main purpose of critical procedure, the emphasis of excellence and the con- sequent encouragement of authors. Nothing is easier than to sit in judgment on others, and the major sin that lies at the door of much of the literary criticism from the days of the Edinburgh Reviewers to the present is that it has been in the main censorious and not generous, suppressive and not stimulating, undermining and not upbuilding. All great critics, such as Lessing, Sainte Beuve, DeQuincy and Coleridge, have been constructive. 5. So in the sphere of Philosophy and Theology, depart- ments of study and investigation which in the Middle Ages, under the influence of the Schoolmen, were co-ordinated and conducted along similar lines of inquiry. Especially since Constructive Processes 93 the Franco-Prussian War have philosophical studies in Ger- many passed from the positive and constructive type to the province of pure speculation, generally ending in the bold denial of all accepted principles, represented in the system of Schopenhauer and Nietszche and less influential authors. There is a need of the revival of the old Common-Sense Philosophy of the Scottish School, a Positive Philosophy which is no misnomer, as was that of Compte, a real philosophy of "The Enlightenment," more confirming still than that of Locke, a presentation to inquiring minds of the salient principles of mental science, a genuine realism as opposed to a purely fanciful idealism. One of the best fea- tures of the recent prominence of pragmatism is that it is a protest against a merely negative philosophy in favor of a concrete and practical system that commends itself as rational and useful. In the special sphere of Theology as a distinct department of study, increasing emphasis has been laid not only in Ger- many but in Continental Europe and English-speaking coun- tries on what is known as Apologetics, wherein the attitude is one of defence rather than one of the aggressive asser- tion of fundamental truth. The refutation of abstruse theories has taken largely the place of affirmative argument by which faith may be confirmed and the basis of belief strengthened. In fine, the ultimate purpose has been to disprove an alleged objection and not to prove a definite proposition. Such a positive presentation of doctrine as Balfour gives us in his "Foundations of Belief," McCosh in "Fundamental Truth," expresses the exceptional and not the prevailing method of discussion, the result being a dis- 94 Timely Topics turbance of the convictions of the reader or hearer and an addition to the already sufficiently large amount of Open Questions. Confessions of Faith thus become Confessions of Doubt, tending to actual unbelief. Thus it is that Constructive Processes are in urgent de- mand and must be applied in ever enlarging function, if so be the best results are to be reached in the way of the world's betterment, a building up of all institutions and agencies that have succumbed to the stress of destructive forces and a building up of new institutions to meet the new demands of the time. The world at large is in process of reorganization, and the special agencies now in order in church and state and the world at large are those which are specifically structural. One of the most damaging criticisms of the final ac- countings of The Versailles Conference lies along this line, that old diplomatic policies of secrecy and double dealing and selfish interests too largely prevailed, thus ensuring future discord and hostility. The imperative demand of the people is for a Covenant of Settlement, at the same time just and generous, impartial and yet conciliatory, righteous and yet beneficent — a real contribution to the harmony of nations, the building up of a great brotherhood of states, in a word, a broadly-based, well-ordered, Constructive Peace. NATIONAL RIGHTS AND NATIONAL DUTIES Especially since the rise of Modern England and Modern Europe in the Sixteenth Century we have heard the doctrine of the Rights of Men proclaimed from every civilized cen- National Rights and National Duties 95 tre. The older historic principle of the Tenure of Kings and their Divine Right, as contested by Milton and Burke and Thomas Paine, has given place to a broader democratic policy, and the Rights of the People, in their capacity as States and Nations, have come to the front with ever in- creasing emphasis. I. Source of the Rights. If we inquire as to the ground or Source of National Rights, we find it to be two-fold. 1. Some are Natural, Absolute Rights, inherent, in a sense, by the very laws of national existence, and, as such, indispensable. It is thus that our Declaration of Independ- ence opens with the assertion that the Colonies are "to as- sume the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature * * * entitle them," and that among "self-evident truths," they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, — life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness." As such, these Rights are outside the jurisdiction of the Court, independent of the common codes of law, based as they are on principles so fundamental as to be beyond dispute, "To secure these Rights, governments are insti- tuted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." On these Rights debate is closed, and when disputed or opposed offer just provocation for war, it be- ing "the right and duty" of people to guard and maintain them. Hereby there exists in every properly constituted state a Court of Claims, conscious of their Rights and in- sistent on their maintenance at all hazards. 2. Some of these Rights are Relative and Conferred by Civic Statute, and, as such, within the province of discus- 96 Timely Topics sion, modification and possible repeal. "The Bill of Rights." so-called, established in England in 1689, was such a docu- ment — "A Declaration of Rights" by legitimate civil au- thority, determining the proper constitutional relations of the King and the people and his subjects. In no sense nat- ural or absolute, they were the result of governmental agree- ment and open at times to revision. Every political constitution, written or unwritten, is such a Bill, fixing the boundaries of civic rule, its prerogatives and its conditions, an order of Rights, therefore, admitting of amendment when the general good demands it. To es- tablish the equitable relations of these two orders of Rights referring each to its proper sphere, has been a matter of con- troversy ever since constitutional government was estab- lished, the line of separation between the two being often so delicate as to be scarcely discernible, a kind of neutral zone over which neither claimant has original jurisdiction. As might be supposed, national history is nothing more nor less than a record, on the part of nations, of National Claims. From the days of the Norman Conquest when William the Conqueror claimed the possession of England by the law of indefeasible ownership down to the present these Claims have been asserted. Defying the accepted legal principle that protracted possession constitutes an indis- putable right to ownership, these insistent claimants pro- pose a prior right and proceed at once to secure it. The basis of these Claims is National Greed, the individual sin of selfishness transferred to a whole people and brooking no denial. As it is said, in colloquial language, "everything in sight" is claimed. No clearer proof of this colossal greed National Rights and National Duties 97 can be furnished than that which is given in the history of Colonial Acquisition, where colonization has so often, and indeed, generally, meant usurpation. Exploitation and forcible conquest in the name of coloni- zation and the Rights of Man, a bold and defiant announce- ment of the Right-of-Way across the lands and into the territory of any and every people. The outstanding sin of national history is that of Self-interest, quite athwart the interests of others, the scientific law of the survival of the fittest applied in the domain of national life. The recent war has furnished a graphic example of this bold assertion of Rights in the face of every principle of justice, ignor- ing all distinction between Rights as Natural and Absolute and those that are the righteous result of counsel and legis- lation. Among the Issues of the Hour, as now pending, there is none more pronounced and vital than this. A priori, to each nation belongs the national right of Self-de- termination, Self-development, and this cannot be invaded and annulled save by a violent infringement of common law. In what Carlyle would call this "death-birth of a world," this infringement is in force and a sufficient warrant of some kind of a League of Nations is found in the fact that this boundary between natural and acquired rights must be defi- nitely fixed and the different peoples of the world know what is legitimately theirs and what is not. It is on the ad- justment of this relation, indeed, that the progress of civili- zation is based, and the prospective peace of the world. II. Duties. And here we come to the fundamental principle that there are National Duties as well as National Rights — that these 98 Timely Topics are interactive and indissolubly related so that every polit- ical prerogative should be viewed in the light of political duty. There is a Court of Civic Obligations as well as a Court of Civic Claims, the great Appellate Court, that of Final Appeal, an imposing civic referendum, so that what- ever the so-called Absolute Rights of a people may be, they are so in obedience to the still higher law of civic duty and responsibility. In fine, National Rights have their Limitations and Con- ditions. The First is that of National Trusteeship in the light of which National Rights should be at times surren- dered, in part, for the common good of the world. Every nation is a trustee, and that only, of whatever "inalienable rights," so-called, it may have and in the last analysis holds them in trust for mankind at large. Despite the doctrine of the Divine Rights of Kings, the Divine Right of the peo- ple at times takes precedence over it, as in the ''Bill of Rights" of 1689, whose chief purpose was to define the King's so-called prerogatives and set the bounds to his lib- erty. The great English Revolution of 1688 once for all settled the question that Kings should rule under fixed con- ditions, a law that obtains in church and state. No nation, whatever its inherent authority and privilege, is outside the province of Civic Trusteeship. However undisputed the National Rights may be, there are exigencies in national life when civic obligations override civic claims and what is called the Sovereignty of the State must yield to a higher power. The Political Millennium will never dawn until this principle is acknowledged and applied. A further limitation is that which grows out of what we National Rights and Natiotial Duties 99 understand by the Law of the Association of States. The World of Nations now, as never before, is a Great Civic Confederation, in which for the first time in history all or- dinary territorial boundaries have been crossed and, in a senses, cancelled, and what Whitman would call "The Open Road" is traversed by all. This is the real Highway of the Nations, free for the passage of all peoples. In a word, one of the Limitations of National Rights is International Rights, the imperative demand that, at times, and for suffi- cient reason, national claims, however just, shall yield to international claims, as those of states yield to the nation at large. As in times of stress a nation may lawfully appro- priate personal property, so may the interests of the world at large at times demand the surrender of national claims. It was John Milton who wrote in his "Tenure of Kings," "Who knows not that there is a national bond of brother- hood between man and man all over the world, neither is it the English sea that can sever us from that duty and rela- tion," which is but another way of stating that English poli- tics could not be insular but must cross the channel to Europe and assume continental function, and cross the oceans to Asia and Africa and assume world-wide function. It is this that Thomas Moore and Swift had in mind as they wrote on "International Relations"; that Richard Hooker had in mind when he declared that the voice of the law, the Law of Nations, was "The Harmony of the World"; that Milton had in mind as he wrote of the "Brotherhood of Man"; that Shelley must have had in mind as he sang "The World's Great Age Begins Anew"; that Viscount Morley had in mind as he wrote of "The Spirit of Liberalism"; ioo Timely Topics that Washington had in mind as he wrote of "America and the World." We are too far along in the course of his- tory to live by the laws of tradition and precedent, but must break way, as Bacon would express it, into "universal- ity." There is a greater declaration than that of American Independence. It is that of American Interdependence, World Interdependence, and no nation of the modern world can safely ignore and underrate it. The world has become a great Mutual Benefit Society for the transaction of World Business, a great Federated Commonwealth, and he only is a real patriot whose outlook and sympathies and ideals are international. In fine, National Rights and National Duties are inter- dependent and inseparable, determining each other and to- gether making up the ideal state, and here we come back, as we must always come back, in the study either of individual or corporate life, to the Law of Sacrifice and Service. If men and nations were heard less frequently loudly and de- fiantly asserting their Rights and preparing to defend them, and oftener heard reiterating their duties and obligations, the Golden Age would be at its dawning. We are apt to sum up the Creeds of Christendom in the Dualogue — the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, as if they were equally firmly established, forgetful that the first and the first only is a fact and the second an ideal far in the future for realization, and the road to its realization lies straight through the open highway of national sacrifice and service for the general good. The Great Commission of the Head of the Church "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" is after all the Great Com- Level-Head edness 101 mission to Modern States. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel — the gospel of Civic Trusteeship and Civic Brotherhood and Civic Sacrifice and Service — to every creature" until Civic Rights and Civic Duties interblend to the world's political salvation. LEVEL-HEADEDNESS The most startling result, in some respects, of the late world crisis expresses itself in the form of Unrest, in thought and life, in individual and national spheres, in all the phases and forms of human activity. In some respects a natural characteristic, it has become so intensified of late as to arrest the attention and excite the anxiety of all ob- servers of the course of contemporary history. Not only Central Europe but the world at large is in a state of fer- ment, a seething mass, volcanic in its character and liable at any moment to break forth in violent and destructive eruption. Events shift so rapidly from one phase to an- other that the effect is panoramic, spectacular, and even dramatic, as the movement progresses from stage to stage through act and scene toward the final catastrophe. Not only do individuals change from one status to another but entire peoples pass from one function to another with start- ling suddenness, ignoring the natural stage of transition that is supposed to intervene in any transformation. In biblical phrase "the whole head is sick," the heads of the body politic have been turned, so that in the emergency what is most needed is Mental Restoration, the presence and control of what we mean by Level-Headedness. 102 Timely Topics 1. What its elements are is our main inquiry. i. Deliberation, or as the word etymologically means, bal- ance, poise, and equipoise, a weighing of all factors by a just scale, the rule of reason over blind and lawless impulse, reflection as opposed to rash procedure, taking time enough to examine all the conditions involved for reaching safe con- clusions. It is the heedless, head-foremost method of ir- rational haste that is the frequent cause of disaster, acting before thinking, with no attempt to deliberate before de- ciding. Moderation is the need, an order of action based on a modus, a well-defined method, an avoidance of extreme measures. It is in violation of this cardinal principle that men act in a precipitate manner, obstinately regardless of reason. The Scriptural injunction, "Let your moderation be known to all men," is as applicable to the affairs of ordi- nary life and in the action of states as in the spiritual sphere. We speak of social order, of the orderly processes of gov- ernment and industry. It is simply another name for de- liberation and moderation as opposed to intemperate action, the assumption of a safe middle ground this side of radical- ism. The rule of restraint within reasonable limits is here in place. One of the University Examinations at Oxford is called "Moderations," midway in the student's course and between the lower and higher range of studies. It would be well if men and nations were periodically submitted to such a test. 2. Steadfastness, or as the earlier word expresses it, Standfastness, is a factor, an order of mind and character which Luther exhibited at the Diet of Worms, "Hier stehe L evel-Headedness 1 03 ich." Here again the biblical statement is in place. "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed." Such men are "double-minded, unstable in all their ways." Their heads, instead of being on the level, are in the air. As we say in pungent phrase, they lose their heads. They are out of their heads, in a sense, delirious, able to execute the gymnastic feat of standing on their heads, with heels over head and do all their thinking in that inverted position, vacillating men whom we never know where to find, volatile men, flying rapidly from pole to pole, the sport of every wind that blows. The word of command from the captain of a ship in a storm, or of a general in the stress of battle, is "steady," "keep your heads." It is this order of mind that is an indispensable factor in what we call Level-Headedness, or stability, by vir- - tue of which men and nations are to fill their place and do their work. "A wise man's eyes are in his head," we are told in Holy Writ, and not in his feet or abdomen. What he does he does on the level, and it is always known where to find him in any given emergency. 3. Power of Discrimination is also an essential factor in preserving this mental poise, an ability to distinguish be- tween things that differ, when at first sight they seem to be identical or similar, ability to distinguish between the true and the false, the primary and secondary, the temporary and permanent, the substantial and superficial, the feasible and the impracticable, between principle and mere details, be- tween the general and special, between facts and the infer- ences from the facts, between testimony and mere opinion, between the inherent and the merely relative, between the 104 Timely Topics obligatory and the permissive ; in a word, the faculty of dis- cernment. It is what the diagnosis is to the physician, an order of mind that can detect and interpret symptoms so as to act in the light of them, — Such a man is proof against the multiform phases of deception that arise and refuses to be carried away by mere appearances in the examination of any course of action. 4. There is a further factor involved, which may be called Symmetrical Mental Development, the concomitant culture of the intellect, feelings and will in their organic and vital relations to each other, so as to make what we suggestively style all-round men. It is thus that men may be saved from a partial one-sided half-developed training, by which truth cannot possibly be seen in its many-sidedness and multiform applications, its di- versity in common with its unity. Men but half-educated are the easy prey of distorted and imperfect views of truth, victims of all sorts of vagaries. One of the most dangerous errors to which undue Specialization leads is here, by which a man views every event or proposition from the one stand- point and determines its value or uselessness accordingly. One-sidedness is the flagrant error of the Specialist. In athletic phraseology he is off-side and refuses to play in the line where his proper place as a contestant is, and away from which he subjects himself to penalty and failure. There is the absolute need of self-control so that a man shall hold himself ever in hand in the constant temptation to swerve from the level and the line. "Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids straight before thee," is the biblical order and the essential order if men are to work and Level-Head edness 105 walk sanely. In common speech, we use the terms, sanitary and unsanitary, as applicable to physical conditions only, when as a matter of fact, mental conditions are fully as much involved and it becomes the duty of Boards of Health to guard the mind against the abnormal influences that affect it. Deliberation, Moderation, Steadfastness, Discrimination and Symmetry of Training, these are the primary constit- uents of the level mind, which is but another name for San- ity, a type of mentality as rare as it is invaluable. How few there are who are absolutely sane in this sense, normal in their thinking and acting, moving along the straight line of duty without deflection right or left, upward or downward as every passing influence may swerve them, but ever on the level, rectilinear in their attitude and movements, hold- ing themselves horizontally to the given line. The Urgent Need of Level-Headedness in times of crisis such as those now at hand is beyond all question. Even in the course of ordinary events, as the world goes on from day to day, this type and temper of mind are in place. The jurist needs it in complex judicial proceedings. The medi- cal practitioner needs it in determining symptoms and modes of medical aid. The Christian minister and pastor needs it in the delicate duties of his ofhce. The journalist needs it in dealing with the diverse questions that confront him. Men of affairs need it in the complex commercial situations that arise, and most of all those to whom great national and international interests are committed are in due need of that deliberate and discriminating judgment and that steadfast- ness of thought and purpose by which alone they can hope to meet the high demands of statesmanship. 106 Timely Topics It is, however, in the Crises of history that a nation's legislators must stand and act on the level, unmoved by all disturbing influences, characterized, first and last, by sound sense and sanity, as clear-headed, hard-headed and level- headed men. Students of the world's civic life and the processes of governments as now administered are re-opening the ques- tion raised so long ago as the days of De Tocqueville, whether Democracy, after all, as illustrated in America, is a successful theory of Civic Rule based as it is and must be on the character and intelligence of the people at large. Mr. Bryce, despite his optimistic treatment of American politics, starts the question as to "How far American Experience is Available for Europe," and not infrequently strikes a note of warning as he discusses "The Future of Political Insti- tutions" with his eye fixed on America as an object lesson, on "the clouds that hang on the horizon." One thing is clear, and that is, in popular government as nowhere else, just because it is in the hands of the people at large, this indispensable temper of sanity must prevail if so be the ends of democratic rule are to be realized. These ends are based on normal principles, on temperate judgment and midway between all forms of political excess, a safe and steady adherence to the level and the line. If Democracy in America, as De Tocqueville treats it, is to succeed, it can only be brought about by the agency of Level- Headed Americans, who "think straight" and act accord- ingly. Rational Reform 107 RATIONAL REFORM In an excellent Historical Series, "Epochs of Modern History," one of the eighteen volumes is entitled, "The Epoch of Reform." In a similar series of eight volumes, "Epochs of English History," one is under the caption "Tudors and the Reformation" (1488-1603), known as the English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. So we have a series entitled "American Reformers," while such additional series as "American Religious Leaders," "The Great Educators," "English Radical Leaders," "English Men of Action," "The Heroes of the Nations," "The World's Workers Series" and "Makers of Modern Thought," represent in biographical and historical form the great Reform Movements of earlier and later eras, of America and Europe and the civilized world at large. In fact, a careful study of the world's history reveals the pres- ence of what may be called, Periodical Reforms, following contrasted periods of declension and retrogression — the ebb and flow of national and international life, manifest in church and state, in social and industrial life, in the sphere of education, and, indeed, in every phase of human activity of a corporate character. We are living in an age when by the phenomenal condi- tions of the time, reformation is and must continue to be a dominant issue, if not, in fact, the most commanding issue at hand. It is, therefore, of the first importance that the method and spirit and ultimate purpose of such reform should be a right one, and, as such, conducive to the highest ends. That such characteristics have so largely failed to 108 Timely Topics appear in the course of Reformation is one of the most damaging and discouraging facts of history. Some of these essential characteristics may be emphasized. I. The Reform must be Demanded. There must be a real call for change and betterment, the expression of a natural evolution of events — a call so loud and insistent that it cannot safely remain unheeded, ad- dressed to every separate individual and to the nation at large. The great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century has had in English History its conspicuous place just be- cause it had such a clear and clarion call that no opposing influence could possibly ignore or silence it, and such have been the most significant Reformation movements of the world. Reformations cannot be initiated at random and for personal ends, but are an inevitable resultant of antecedent and existing conditions. II. The Reform must be Feasible. It must, at all hazards, be within the province not only of the possible, but the highly probable. Its realization must be so definitely practicable as to make it well worth the effort to compass and complete it. The necessary agencies for its fulfillment must be at hand or known to be accessible and procurable. It is a biblical injunction that he who builds a tower must count the cost beforehand, and that he who goes to war must estimate to the full the ability of his foe before entering on the field, and it is a natural and common sense injunction that however desirable a reforma- tion may be its feasibility must be attested before future action is initiated. History is replete with gross violations of this cardinal principle, whereby life and treasure have Rational Reform 109 been ruthlessly sacrificed and the very ends of reform made impossible. It is by such ill-advised procedure that the course of history has often been retarded and even reversed and the serious burden imposed upon coming generations to make amends for the errors of their predecessors. III. The Reform must be Gradational. Men and nations cannot pass at once or by rapid stages from one condition to another, from the dominance of evil to the dominance of good. All successful transitions are as such progressive and move steadily on by the law of suc- cession. Long established wrongs are not easily or sud- denly righted, and if the attempt is made forcibly to dis- place them and rectify them, violent reaction will inevitably ensue. It is in the light of this fact that a recent historian writes, "The moment of collision between an old and a new principle of human action is a revolution." It is also in the light of this fact that the historian McCarthy, in de- scribing the change of the English Ministry of Disraeli after the fall of the Gladstone administration, speaks of it as a "conservative change" whereby the ends he was seeking could be best subserved by moderate measures. The same historian gives us chapters under the significant titles "Re- form and Storm" and "Reform in a Flood," "Reform Agitation." When many of the public leaders in England were carried off their feet by the "rush of reforming energy," when some of the most serious problems of English History were presssing for solution, when temperate judg- ments were demanded and the fate of the nation depended on moderation and sobriety, impulse and fanaticism were in evidence. "Levellers" and the "Root and Branch So- no Timely Topics ciety" were dominant and in the name of Reform the demo- lition of all that was stable was threatened. Reformation, by its very nature, must be what DeQuincy was wont to call "sequacious," following the law of gradation from better to better conditions until the final consummation is reached. It is the infraction of this fundamental law that is the bane and peril of movements now occurring under the name of Reform — Anarchism, Communism, Nihilism, rampant Socialism, the primacy of the proletariat, whereby the vision of Solomon is evident, "servants upon horses and princes walking as servants." "Hasten slowly" is still a vital principle. IV. The Reform must be Catholic in Spirit, a generous and disinterested effort to secure the high ends it is seeking. At no point in the Reformation History of the world is the indictment so patent as here. It was this indictment that justified Madame Roland in her exclamation, "O Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name !" So it may be said of Reform. The record of civil and religious per- secution from the days of the pagan Emperors to the French Revolution is a startling commentary on this error of Bigoted Reform. Intolerance has been the emphatic evil attendant upon most of the Reformation Movements of the world, and so account for the slow progress they have made in the course of history. It was not till 1689, f ar along in English History, that any such thing as a Toleration Act was officially ratified, nor did the intemperate and ungra- cious spirit cease to prevail in church and state at that date, and is at this writing revealing its unwholesome influence. The representatives of every new administration in gov- Rational Reform in ernment propose remedial measures which they awow will cure all the maladies of the time. Party platforms bristle with schemes of betterment sure to settle at once all the pending problems of the day. Every industrial, civil and social organization has its absolutely successful solvent for every public wrong. The spectacle, were it not so serious, is nothing less than ludicrous, where purely fanciful pana- ceas are offered in evidence and projects for reform assume the most fantastic and irrational phases. It is well within the truth to say that the method and spirit by which and in which a Reform is initiated and conducted are as vital a factor in its ultimate success as is the Reform itself in its inherent principle. Many a righteous, desirable and feasible Reformation has been nullified or impaired by the objec- tionable spirit in which it has been conducted. As above stated, we are living in an era of Reform. It is imperative that it be temperate in its true and governing spirit. Such, in brief, are some of the salient characteristics of Rational as distinct from Irrational Reform — that it should be Demanded, Feasible, Gradational and Catholic in Spirit — a Reform in fact as well as in name, the prophecy and promise of the Golden Age. If this be so, it is evident that those on whom the respon- sibility of conducting a Reform rests should be men of sound judgment, able to discriminate between things that differ, between the practicable and visionary, correctly to interpret the "signs of the times," familiar with antecedent history and the bearing of past events on present issues, and of such temper as to attract to their leadership all classes and conditions of men, on the broad basis of unselfish and mutual interest. H2 Timely Topics Despite all that is adverse and alarming, world conditions are, in the main, slowly advancing and as the age now at hand is by necessity an Age of Reform, every man has his place and part in the general movement toward better con- ditions, until there shall be seen the dawning, at least, of that "far off divine event to which the whole creation moves" — the Re-formation of the World. INTERNATIONAL LEAGUES Some form of The Federation of States, the Confedera- tion of Commonwealths, is not only conceded to be desir- able, but it is a general world demand as one of the out- growths of the late war. The successive attempts that have been made since the era of the Napoleonic Wars to constitute some such Compact is proof in point of its desirability and necessity. Dual and Triple and Quadruple Alliances, various forms of an Entente among Associated Powers, divers schemes of federation in Church and State, have all been attempts, more or less ingenuous, to solve this international problem, the main difficulty having been that the old doc- trine of The Balance of Power has been the central prin- ciple and has succeeded in frustrating the ultimate purpose of such Coalitions. The Congress of Westphalia in 1648 is said to have been "the first time the representatives of many states had met for a great general purpose." The Holy Roman Empire, in the time of Henry the Fourth, has also been called "the first of the long series of Projects of perpetual peace," fore- runner of a similar Project in 171 3 of The Abbe de St. International Leagues 113 Pierre. In 1813 we come to the historic Project of Alex- ander I of Russia, followed by the First Treaty of Paris, the Congress of Vienna, the Second Treaty of Paris, and the Holy Alliance of 181 5, a notable series of Covenants and Pacts, more or less comprehensive, by which the attempt at least was made to solve this International Problem, by a great all-inclusive Concordat, assuring the peace of the civilized world. On through the last Century these Projects have been revived, and divers forms of Conventions and Alliances submitted to the same great end of what Abbe de St. Pierre called "perpetual peace," such as A League of North European and South European Peoples, that of all European and all Asiatic Peoples, of all Slavic and all Latin Peoples, or that of a world-wide racial Alliance of all the White Peoples as contrasted with the Colored Populations of Asia and Africa and America, North and South, and so on down to the latest Project, The League of Nations estab- lished at Versailles. In any case, the time has come when national isolation even in the most unselfish and legitimate sense can no longer be defended, when every form of nationalism must be suf- ficiently modified as to recognize the rights and privileges of all related nations. The Biblical doctrine that "no man liveth to himself" has been broadened as to apply equally fully to every separate people. The primary objects of such an alliance of States may be said to be 1. To insure and preserve International Peace, and, in- deed, the Peace of the World. 2. To protect and extend all common international in- H4 Timely Topics terests in so far as they are based on justice and the mutual relation of State to State. 3. To make a substantial contribution to the Progress of Civilization in general, founded as it must be on interna- tional comity. These objects conceded as desirable, the problem has been and is now in a special sense what the particular Type of such a Coalition shall be — how constituted and how main- tained, so as to secure the well-being of all its members, while still jealously guarding the rights peculiar to each. The League of Nations recently established in Europe, including, with but few exceptions, all the civilized countries of the world, is the most pronounced attetmpt as yet made to solve the problem and to secure these primary objects so strongly desired. Entirely aside from the substantial merits of such a World League, and they are many and weighty, the two leading objections that have been made to it either as a theory or a practical project are 1. That it infringes too closely upon the Inherent Auton- omy of the separate members, by which their national char- acter and efficiency are compromised. 2. That it is, in its World-wide Area, too Comprehensive and Complex to make anything like unity and community of action possible or probable, that the points of view of Northern and Southern Europe, of Asiatic and European, of Teuton, Slav and Latin, of the Orient and Occident, are too diverse and distant to admit of a common understanding and absolute concordance of action. "That East is West," it is agreed, may be admissible by poetic license, but not in actual political relations. These International Leagues 115 objections, it may be conceded, have a degree of solidity, especially that of complexity, arising from so wide an area as the world itself and in the light of radical difference of race and place. It is just here, therefore, where the question naturally arises whether there are no other forms of Inter- national Leagues that may secure the main benefits, at least, of a world-wide Alliance and yet be free from some of the difficulties that necessarily attach themselves to so compre- hensive a compact. Two of these are well worth consideration : I. A League of all English-speaking peoples, including the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and other states, a large and organically coherent group of peoples. If it be asked what the Grounds are of such an Alliance, the answer is obvious and significant. 1. These States have a Common Historic Origin and De- velopment, by which they are undeniably unified and of necessity sharers in a common destiny. It has been truth- fully said "that England and America are united by a com- mon tradition, extending back through centuries, that Amer- ican Free Institutions took form from the institutions of England." This is well-called "The Great Tradition" which it well behooves the people to preserve. When Gladstone spoke of "our kin beyond the sea" he had this blood rela- tionship in mind. 2. These States have a Common Language and Litera- ture, the vital import of which it is impossible to exaggerate. It is an element so deep and all pervasive as to rank right next to blood kinship itself in its practical potency. That these peoples all speak "the tongue that Shakespeare spoke" 1 1 6 Timely Topics knits their corporate lives with bands of steel and makes it as unsafe as it is unwise to ignore or underrate it. 3. These States have a Common Protestant Faith. — "The Faith and Morals hold that Milton held," the great re- ligious legacy of Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. The Puritan spirit of the Commonwealth is theirs in essence. It is when Milton writes "Of Reformation in England" that he unifies the Protestant interests of England and America, and in his "Areopagitica" contends for a Free English Press in all English States, as Burke before the British Parliament was contending for nothing less than an Anglo-American unity. 4. These States have Common Interests and Ideals. The English Historians, Green and Freeman, press the point of the destiny of England and America as one, for the reali- zation of which concordant action is needed. These Com- mon Interests are as varied as the functions of a state — political, economic, industrial and social — affecting every phase of national life. Such is the English League of an international order, that as yet has never been tested in all its inherent potency, by which the evils of separate functions might be avoided and all the benefits of corporate action secured. It is clear to any careful observer of the course of events that this co- fraternity among all of English name is more of a fact than a theory at present, and is forcing itself upon the attention of the modern world as one of the signs of the times and full of promise to the nations. II. There is another International League with which it is well worth the while of modern statesmen to reckon, The International Leagues 117 League of all Teutonic peoples, in which larger and more varied Alliance all English-speaking peoples are included and such other States as Germany and the Scandinavian peo- ples of Northern Europe, Norway and Sweden and Iceland, and still further south the States of Holland and Denmark, such countries as Austria and Switzerland, possessing in a mixed population a distinct and large Teutonic element. That these peoples should not all be unified to the common ends of civilization is well nigh a crime. It is nothing less than tragic to see, as we have seen of late, two such great Teutonic nations as England and Germany, foreordained to amity and common function, arrayed against each other on the battlefields of Continental Europe, nor will this problem of Internationalism be rightly settled until such Titanic Teutons as these combine and interact for the same great ends. Here again if we inquire for the Grounds or Reasons for such a League, we may answer in practically the same terms as those presented in the union of English Peoples. 1. These Teutonic States have a Common Historic An- cestry, traced back directly to the great Teutonic tribes of Northern Continental Europe, where Angles and Saxons lived before the great migrations of the Fifth century. Mr. Freeman, in his suggestive book "The Three English Homes," locates the first of these English homes on the shores of the Continent midway between the Scandinavian countries and Denmark, while all distinction between Ger- manic peoples and English were merged in one great Teu- tonic stock. 2. These Teutonic States have a Common Linguistic n8 Timely Topics History, the main distinction being that the English stock is of the Low Germanic order rather than that of the High German, closely akin to the Dutch Peoples of Holland. The linguistic basis and background, however, are one and the same, diverging only in subsequent years as the Ger- manic peoples retained their continental home and the migrating Angles and Saxons became a transcontinental or insular people, so that it might in truth be said that we speak the tongue that Goethe spoke. 3. These States have a Common Protestant Faith, as- suming in Germany a specifically Lutheran type as distinct from the Anglican and Genevan, but still a veritable Protes- tant faith as distinct from that of Rome. The great dis- tinctive doctrines of the English Reformation were those of Martin Luther, it being a significant fact that Luther's version of the Scriptures and the King James' English ver- sion are practically contemporaneous, the basis, respectively, of modern German and modern English as they are now developing. 4. Moreover, it may in truth be added that these Teutonic States may now be said to have Common Political Ideals, despite any secondary differences of civic order and admin- istration, whatever hitherto may have been the difference of civic polity between the German Monarchy and the Lim- ited Monarchy of England and the Representative Govern- ment of America. One of the phenomenal results of the late war has been to minimize and indeed to eliminate these differences and place these Teutonic Peoples wherever found on a common democratic plane, based, as to their govern- ments, on the final rule of the people and seeking as their ultimate aim the common weal. International Leagues 119 Such are the Grounds on which this Teutonic Alliance is based, and when this compact is finally formed, modern civilization will feel the vital and beneficent effect of it in every phase and function of its being, an Alliance broad enough to include every desirable civic interest and potent enough to hold in check every agency hostile to the world's good. Such are the two International and Interracial Leagues yet to be constituted and applied, feasible by reason of their natural and national relationship, free from those complexi- ties and essential differences that obtain in other types of alliance, each member able to retain its political individu- ality, while also able to combine with its colleagues for the attainment of great international ends. With a complete understanding as to where they agree and where they differ, willing on behalf of the general good to surrender all that is non-essential, they can unify their energies in fullest measure, being on friendly terms with any other Inter- national Alliance, Asiatic, Slavic or Latinic, it being clearly understood that no compact whatsoever, however normal or potent, can effect its ends, save on the basis of international honor, faith and good will. It is by reason of the absence of these cardinal conditions that the pages of history are replete with Political Pacts, doomed from the outset to failure, and, once again, as ever, we come back to the indis- pensable condition of any alliance, national or international — Trust in God and Faith in Man, Virtue and Honor and Good-will. For some such League of Nations this war-stricken world is waiting with tragic interest and impatience. It was this 120 Timely Topics that old Walt Whitman had in mind as he penned in his own way "The Prophecy of a New Era." "I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combinations, the solidarity of nations, I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage, I see men marching and countermarching by swift millions, I see the landmark of European kings removed, I see this day the People beginning their landmarks (all others give way) : Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day, Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God; What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of you, passing under the seas? Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe ? Is humanity forming en masse? for, lo, tyrants tremble, crowns grow dim, The earth, restive, confronts a new era." This is the great world movement that is now under way. The bugle is sounding, the ranks are fast forming, and woe will it be for that nation that under the plea of a selfish nationalism fails to fall in line with this imposing proces- sion of peoples organized to preserve the peace and promote the progress of the world. IV THE PURITAN LEGACY TO AMERICA In view of the recent Tercentenary Celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims on the shores of New England, it is fitting that this epochal event be commemorated by em- phasizing the contributions that have been made by this pioneer people to modern civilization in America. As America was discovered by Spaniards in the fifteenth century, it may be said to have been re-discovered by Eng- lishmen in the seventeenth, and so established on firm foun- dations that Plymouth assumes a significance that cannot be claimed by San Salvador, and the year 1620 signally surpasses that of 1492. It is not necessary in this connection to draw close distinc- tions between Pilgrim and Puritan as to their respective numbers, dates of colonization, points of departure and of settlement, and ecclesiastical relations to the Anglican Church. Whether few or many, settling earlier or later in the century, in Southern or Northern Massachusetts, whether Presbyterians or Congregationalists, absolute Separatists from the English Church or Non-conformists within its nominal jurisdiction, they all were a body of colonists, leav- ing the shores of the Mother Country for common reasons and for the same great ends, and finally fused into one corporate New England family, the First Americans in name and mission. These Colonists, it must never be for- 121 122 Timely Topics gotten, were the nation's founders — laying the basis of it and building the first superstructure, as best they could, and building better than they knew. As the historian Green speaks of, "The Making of England," these pioneers were the Makers of America, settlers indeed, constructionists in the strictest sense, so that the anniversary of their settle- ment well might be called, Founders' Day, the significant symbol of their building being a rock. I. Their specific Contributions to modern American his- tory and life may be studied. i . Their first Contribution was clearly within the province of Religion. It was by reason of long continued and in- creasingly rigorous religious persecutions that both Pil- grims and Puritans left their native land. Never before or since has there been a people more completely under the supremacy of the Supernatural. In their view, any govern- ment entitled to call itself such was, first and last, theocratic, under the direct guidance of God, whatever its special ap- pellation might be in the political usage of the day. These colonists were the direct descendants of the English Refor- mation of the Sixteenth Century, believed in the Bible as the Book of all Books, and brought the historic King James Version of 1607-11 with them as they set sail from Plymouth in 1620. True, indeed, some of them were mere "adventurers," as we are so often reminded by their critics, men "broken in purse and principles," but the great majority of them were God-fearing, leaving their homes to "escape the pressing danger to godliness." As we are told by the historian Hurst, "To enjoy the exercise of conscience was the Pilgrims' one passion." So potent and pervasive was The Puritan Legacy to America 123 this religious element, that not only officials in the com- munity but all others must be in personal connection with the church, if so be good government might be assured. Here it is that the historian Green makes the significant statement "that the history of English progress ... on its moral and spiritual sides has been the history of Puritan- ism." The Church was the central institution of the colony, where these sturdy Covenanters convened in acknowledg- ment of their allegiance to God as the one supreme Ruler of all peoples. 2. Closely connected with this initial Contribution was that of Education, the Church and the School being coor- dinated so closely that they were regarded as contemplating the same great ends, no real educational regime being pos- sible, as they concluded, apart from its vital relation to religious needs. It would require some stretch of the his- toric imagination to conceive of a colonial controversy at that time over the question of the Bible and the School. These were interchangeable terms, common agents of educa- tion. Nor was this educational system confined exclusively to what we call, the Common School, for the rank and file of the children of the community in the early stages of their training, but soon developed a higher and broader func- tion — a collegiate and even university type, the foundation of Harvard in 1636 being but a decade and a half after the founding of the colony. It is not to be forgotten that not a few of these "common people," so-called, were from Oxford and Cambridge, and that, as we are told, "At the close of Elizabeth's reign (1603) the tone of the univer- sities was hotly puritan." It was these ardent advocates of 124 Timely Topics education, higher and lower, who set the form for all phases of Colonial education, even though, in accordance with the general character and needs of the time, it was elementary training that was most in demand, the preparation for the everyday life of a pioneer people. Indeed, it may be said that, in the early years of settle- ment, all education was, in a sense, elementary, the univer- sity, so-called, expressing itself, as at Harvard, in the neces- sarily modest type of the school or academy, having in it, however, by definite intention, the "Promise and Potency" of advanced teaching. These pioneers in all they did had an eye on the future and legislated for its possible needs. 3. The Political Contribution of the Puritans was, also, a vital part of their religious and educational aims. It was, indeed, the desire for civil freedom and the resultant de- termination to secure it that was the original occasion of their emigration. What they called, Popular Rights, which meant, first of all, political rights, was their primary pur- pose and need as a struggling colony, the escape from that civic oppression which they had so long and patiently suf- fered. "The Petition of Rights" which they presented to the Parliament of Charles the First in 1628, and which the King reluctantly granted, was anticipated in 1620. These sturdy settlers were called "Independents" in every sense and sphere of activity, and were the forerunners of the heroes of 1776, in issuing a Declaration of Independence, insist- ing on liberty as one of their "inalienable rights," that all men were created "free." Nor was their freedom purely political, but an essential part of their religious belief and life. As Mrs. Hemans tells us, "Freedom to worship God" The Puritan Legacy to America 125 was what they sought, "faith's pure shrine," at the foot of which they might safely kneel. Though the Pilgrims believed in no ecclesiastical connection of Church and State, as it obtained in England, they did believe in the real and vital relation of Christianity and Civics, so that modern historians, in treating of the Puritan state, are obliged to treat it in terms of a strictly religious relationship. The liberty they sought was, after all, a religious liberty, whether expressed in strictly religious thought and life or in the practical province of politics. The English Reformation meant to them, as it historically meant, a civil as well as a religious reformation, and no close distinctions were to be pressed between the two spheres of human activity. It is from this point of view that the Puritan state was a Protestant state, as opposed to the civil tyranny of Roman- ism, and it is here, also, that the dominant influence of Cal- vinism is evident. It was, as the historian Green states it, "with the belief of the Calvinist that there went necessarily a high and higher sense of political order," "a devotion to an authority higher and more sacred than that of kings." In Augustinian phrase, the state was a "Civitas Dei," a city of God, on earth, where laws were to be administered on Christian prin- ciples for Christian ends. 4. The Industrial and Social Contribution of the Puritans must also be acknowledged. Social Equality has been called "the gift of Puritanism to English Politics," a sense of brotherhood, of civic fellowship and mutual interest here- tofore unknown, in the expression of which all classes stand on a common plane in the eye of God and man. It was the 126 Timely Topics Common Law and a Commonwealth under which they lived, by which a man was measured by his manhood and all rulers of the state were understood to be the servants of the people. Moreover, the age was signally the age of thrift, altogether unacquainted with the conflict of Labor and Capital, an age in which every man was a common laborer and no provision was made for the idler and the vagrant. It is just here that we find the explanation of the simple life of the time, the Golden Age of Household Economy, of old-fashioned domesticity, when sobriety, frugality, plain living and stability were the characteristics of the time. "As we conceive it," says an English historian, "home was the creation of the Puritan," and it is the home-ly virtues, as we signally call them, that were the controlling virtues of the time. It is fitting, indeed, that what is called, "Old Home Week," as celebrated in New England, dates its origin from the colonial days. The laws of the colony were, most of all, what Wordsworth calls "Household Laws." II. In the light of these Contributions, attention must be called to the Alleged Defects and Limitations of the Puri- tans. One of the most interesting features of modern his- torical criticism is that seen in the wide diversity of view that is taken by different historians as to what were the salient merits and defects of the Puritan character and mode of life, the views of such writers as Fiske and Freeman and Neale and Green being at such variance with those of Grey and Washington and others, while in the pages of Macaulay we note an apparently honest attempt to give them merited praise, even though interspersed with caustic and cynical comment. The biography of Bunyan by Froude is The Puritan Legacy to America \2j of special interest as we mark how that anti-Puritan and liberal thinker of his day deals with such a type of char- acter as that of Bunyan, and his contributions to Puritan literature, that "victim of grace" as he satirically calls him, while such inimical critics as Matthew Arnold and Mr. Taine make no concealment of their antipathy and resort for the expression of it to the full vocabulary of ridicule. i. As to their Religious Type, we are told that its most prominent features are fanaticism and bigotry, that, as the Athenians of old, they are too religious, good to the limit of repulsion, intolerant and persecuting, the advocates of witchcraft, Hebraic in the severity of their morals, at war with the pleasantries of life, revealing, in a word, what have been called, "the evils of dissent." 2. In the sphere of Education, it is alleged, as Mr. Taine phrases it, "that the Puritan destroys the artist," that in his devotion to the material elements of training, there is no room for the aesthetic, for that Hellenistic type of culture which, according to Arnold, is the final purpose of all edu- cation. Devoid of anything like a literary spirit, the writ- ings of these colonists, it is said, evince the primacy of the commonplace, and exalt mediocrity to a virtue. 3. In the sphere of Politics, their lack of deference to kings and prelates, it is added, evinced itself in the persecu- tion of all who differed from them and simply changed one form of tyranny for another, their political intolerance being the natural outgrowth of their religious bigotry, merging the state into the Church and making the civil code but a revised edition of the Decalogue. 4. So in the Social Sphere, it is alleged, we find an utter 128 Timely Topics lack of the Amenities, a rough and crude expression of character suited, perhaps, to the cabin and the frontier life of the pioneer, but quite out of keeping with anything like a standard of civilization. Their habit, we are told, was mediaeval and ascetic, that of the monastery and cloister, and within the presence of domestic life they so stressed the principle of self-denial and restraint as to make a virtue of plainness and pride themselves on their privations and struggles. Such are the Allegations and Indictments against the Puritan. Be it so. Granted that some degree of intoler- ance was evident in their religious beliefs and life, that their educational system was singularly free from the cultural character of today; that civic freedom was, at times, stressed to the burden of oppression; that they pushed sobriety to the limit of asceticism and were economic and frugal to a fault. Be it so, and still we may insist with emphasis that the greatest moral need of the time is the Puritanic sense of the supernatural; the conviction that education, in any true interpretation of it, postulates the Puritan incorpora- tion of Christianity; that in all the functions of the state, the dominant factor should be the Puritan type of a civic conscience; and that American domestic and social life should reinstate and express, as never before, the household virtues of the Puritan home. With all acknowledged progress in every sphere of thought and service, in a more liberal type of religious be- lief, in a broader educational system, in the widening of the bounds of civil freedom, and the varied advances in the industrial arts and social order, it is still true, as Mr. Democracy on Trial 129 Whipple tells us, "that the debt of gratitude which the world owes to the Puritans has never been fully paid," while we are far too apt to endorse those carping critics who find their keenest pleasure at the expense of these early- colonists. Their faults were the faults of their age, as ours are those of our age, while no body of American citizens has since lived who were better fitted for the needs of their time than were they for their generation. In these days of reconstruction in all the spheres of life, nothing would be fraught with richer results than the recog- nition, as never before, of this legacy of the Puritans to their successors, and the reinforcement of those Essential Virtues and Verities which they have transmitted and which, it must be conceded, constitute the basis of Society. The principles that produced such men as John Robin- son and Governor Winthrop, Governor Bradford and Roger Williams, Cotton Mather and Thomas Hooker and Howe, and the later generation of Hampden and Cromwell, Selden and Pym, Baxter and Bunyan and Milton, are principles with which every age must reckon, if indeed, it is to fill the place and do the work to which Providence has called it. DEMOCRACY ON TRIAL In a recent thoughtful article of a popular American monthly, the somewhat startling question is opened, 'Ts Europe Crumbling?" in which the author summons all the civilized forces of the modern world to mobilize for all contingencies, if so be the tragic catastrophe ever emerges. A similar form of question might be opened, Is representa- 130 Timely Topics tive government crumbling? Is democracy crumbling? We are told that there is a world-wide movement, a "tidal" movement, toward democratic rule, that it is as irresistible as the tides, the "out-working of certain causes," which cannot be successfully nullified or even for any length of time be retarded. This is a question that confronts every thinking man and people and demands deliberate discussion, a question forced upon us as never before by the dramatic developments of the time. I. The Elements of Democratic Government. 1. It means, first and last, the Sovereignty of the People, or of Public Opinion, in whatever legitimate form it is ex- pressed. It means the rightful rule of the majority, what- ever the type of that majority in any given nation or era may be. Popular government as that is understood means that with the masses rests the final court of appeal. Even though there may result what Bryce calls, "The Fatalism of the Multitude," the multitude is on the throne. It is a gov- ernment "of the people, by the people, for the people." 2. It means Equality of Privilege — equal status, rights and recompenses, in the eyes of the law, an open forum and a fair field for all disputants. It is here, if nowhere else, that a real opportunism obtains, the same fortune for all in the great lottery of life, "a form of society," as Lowell tells us, "in which every man has a chance and knows that he has it." 3. It means Freedom, in the well understood sense of that term, of speech, and of the pen, of thought, of assembly and of action within the well-established conditions of civil- ized life. Though all government as such is under law, Democracy on Trial 131 Democracy is distinctive as under "the royal law of liberty," of civil and social privilege. II. Hence a related question emerges, as to Primary Postulates or Antecedent Conditions of democracy — on which it is based and by which it is governed, in all the possible forms of its expression. 1. First of all, is General National Morale, a possession on the part of any free commonwealth of what are known as the public virtues, as distinct from those that obtain in personal character. It assumes a common civic conscience, amenable to generally accepted moral dictates, by which ex- ternal civic conduct is determined and controlled, revealing itself in national honor, national integrity, a sense of civic justice, and righteousness in public life, a recognition of the presence and potency of law, in fine, a theistic attitude of mind as distinct from an absolutely irreligious, or non-re- ligious attitude. It is in this sense that we speak of a Christian civilization. 2. Next in order as to Postulates is General National In- telligence — the possession of what might be called, in the language of Locke, human understanding — an ordinary de- gree of mental life, an average, everyday measure of knowl- edge. At the basis of a commonwealth is the common mind — sufficiently intelligent and well-informed to comprehend in some degree the kind of world in which it lives, and the kind of government to which it owes respect and allegiance. Common sense by its very name is a mental possession sup- posedly in possession of the common people, the rank and file of the body politic and social. 3. A further Postulate is found in the Preservation of a 132 Timely Topics distinct National Type, in any given nation and, as such, proof against loss or substantial impairment. Every state to be consistently called democratic must have individuality, civic personality, a specific corporate character all its own, and safely above the influence of denationalizing elements. In such a complex assemblage of discordant elements as the old Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, any such order as a democratic regime would have been impossible. Its very duality made it undemocratic and incapable of national fusion. One of the most difficult problems confronting the reorganization of Central Europe on anything like a democratic basis is just here, in the persistent presence, in any separate nation, of antagonistic and divergent factors. The so-called Proletariat Democracy of Russia is any- thing but democratic, by reason of the complex and utterly discordant elements that are represented in it and by the disintegrating influence by which it is doomed to downfall. 4. An additional Postulate of democracy and as vital as any, is found in the Surrender of Individual Interests for the Public Good. We speak advisedly of Democracies as Commonwealths, in which, as such, the common weal is the avowed purpose of the system, whereby the sacrifice of per- sonal privilege is so often demanded. It is a great national Commune, where mutual interests control any private in- terests and national prosperity is based on the surrender of rightful personal claims. This is the only Communism that can be rightfully sustained. Such are the Primary Postulates of a democratic order so absolutely essential to its existence as to make any at- tempt without them to constitute a free commonwealth doomed to failure. Democracy on Trial 133 III. Opposing Forces. No sooner do these fundamental Postulates assert them- selves as such than antagonistic factors are found to be at work to nullify or impair them, these undemocratic agencies being more potent in the modern world than at any previous period of the world's history. Here in reality is a battle- ground where the contest is to be as severe as on the fields of Flanders and on the outcome of which the future of democ- racy rests. 1. What we have called the General Morale is strictly op- posed by all the Immoral Forces of the day which seek so to diminish and debase it as to make it practically inoperative in national life. 2. The presence and extension of General Intelligence are confronted at every turn by the Ignorant and Illiterate Agencies that strangely find so hospitable a home and so friendly a field in the so-called civilized countries, the reve- lations of the late war exposing startling facts as to the presence of this anomaly. 3. The preservation of a National Type finds a formida- ble foe in the Indiscriminate Mingling of Races and Lan- guages possessed of diverse traditions and so diverse as to make federation well-nigh impossible. It is of this peril that Mr. Lowell spoke in his "Inaugural Address at Bir- mingham," as he stated that the democratic principle would be more likely to prevail could it be made with a people "homogeneous in race, language and tradition.'' It is here, as nowhere else, in so far as this country is concerned, that the interests of democracy are in jeopardy. It is no trifling problem before any people to mould a heterogeneous mass 134 Timely Topics into anything like civic unity and yet such unity must at least be approximately reached. There must be a real civic Concordat. 4. So as to the Subordination of Individual Interests to the Common Good. Here the titanic enemy is human self- ishness, the capital sin of the world, whereby vested in- terests, so-called, usurp the place of general interests; special privileges, that of the people's needs, and what may be called personal profiteering lies straight athwart the country's need. It is here that the supposed prerogatives of birth and rank assert themselves, the distinctive aristocratic type and temper. It is here that what a modern writer calls "ram- pant commercialism" insists on riding over and crushing all that lies in its way. "Unless democracy," says Ross, "mends the distribution of wealth, the mal-administration of wealth will end democracy." It is this peril of which Mr. Lowell speaks as especially threatening our institutions, Plutocracy as opposed to Democracy, the absolute refusal to make any great sacrifice for the general purpose, but an avowed purpose to exploit the national resources for private ends. We are in the era of special privilege. 5. There is a further enemy at the door, claiming admit- tance and control. It is the Abuse of Freedom, a pressing of the principle of democracy far beyond its legitimate fron- tiers out into the open era of lawless liberty, the worst form of anarchy. This is the gigantic and ominous problem before the civilized world today, to show newly enfranchised peoples how to use the legacy of national freedom without abusing it, and even the older democracies are in need of Democracy on Trial 135 warning. From the Baltic to the Black Sea, peoples un- accustomed to national liberty and practically unfit for it are playing fast and loose with this problem of civic re- organization on a democratic basis. Rejoicing in a free- dom of whose meaning they are ignorant, and yet a free- dom for the possession of which they are willing to struggle and suffer and die, they have set the world fairly aflame and who can tell what a fatal sweep the fires may have before they are all quenched. These are some of the Undemocratic Factors in opposi- tion to a true freedom of the state and the dominant duty of civilized Christendom is to address itself to the task of bringing civic order out of this civic chaos. IV. If we inquire as to the Methods by which this result is to be reached, despite all opposing forces, some sug- gestions may be made. 1. First of all, the quickening of the National Conscience, the elevation of the national morale, a duty of the Christian Church as well as the nation. It is in this connection that an American historian speaks of "the missionary educators" in the Orient, mining and undermining the despotisms of the East and nothing short of the principles of Christianity will induce a moral order, East and West, as indispensable to civic stability. 2. The spread of General Intelligence, the education of the people in the mass. It is here that the question of the Common School, the People's University, comes just now to the front — well called by MacAdam "The crisis in our schools," the existing need in this direction being so critical that every available agency must be used to meet and supply 136 Timely Topics it. If, as the poet declares, " Tis education forms the common mind," this formative factor must be utilized and applied so as to make any such system as democracy possible. 3. As to the Corporate Unity and Integrity of National Life, its preservation would seem to be dependent upon the ability of any separate nation so to control the incoming of alien elements as to keep them within safe limitations. Just as a language may safely admit foreign factors up to the point of possible assimilation and no further so a people's civic individuality may safely admit foreign factors only within its capability to mould and fuse them organically into the national life. National Personality in a democracy can- not be secured and preserved apart from the country's con- trol of the process of immigration. 4. So as to the Altruistic Factor in democracy. Greater emphasis must be laid upon the principle that a common- wealth in its very conception includes the virtue of personal sacrifice. It is the general welfare that constitutes its pre- eminent purpose, so that all the subdivisions of civic rule, local, municipal and state, must be subordinate to the na- tional weal. It must in truth be affirmed that democracy, as other forms of government, must be based on a gen- erous concession to Common Interests so that the realiza- tion of the democratic ideal is to be secured only by a strict resistance to every form of merely individual good. At no point does free government meet with stronger opposi- tion than just here, and at no point, therefore, is a more courageous altruistic attitude demanded to meet it. 5. So must the Abuse of Political Freedom be met by a Democracy on Trial 137 legitimate use of it. When we are told by Mr. Lowell that "England is a monarchy with democratic tendencies," he is quick to add that "America is a democracy with conserva- tive instincts," which is but another method of insisting that there can be no such result as a safe and stable free state, in which the principle of freedom is not limited by law. Democracy just because it includes the element of liberty in emphatic form and measure becomes the most dangerous species of civic rule, unless it is kept within bounds. Such as we conceive them are the Elements and Postulates of Democracy, such its Opposing Forces and the Methods of meeting and overcoming them, and once again, the question confronts us, If democracy is still on trial, is the Testing to be successful. To this, we are assured, there can be but one answer and that in the affirmative, even though it may yet be viewed, the world over, as in its experimental stage. The ground of this conclusion lies in the fact of the Universality of The Democratic Instinct, which beyond all question as such will work its way in and out past all obstructions whatever to the final issue. Its triumph is assured because "the world over certain uni- versal causes are undermining arbitrary and anti-social gov- ernment." It is as Patrick Henry phrased it, "Liberty or Death." As the poet Wordsworth phrased it, "We must be free or die." From the opening of recorded history it is seen to be true that it is toward the free rule of the people that the world has been facing and will not and cannot beat a retreat, or even call a halt. Political liberty is the ultimate ideal and goal of every people — apart from which civic existence 138 Timely Topics is useless. In that final federation of the world to which all signs are pointing and to which all policies are shaping, the only legislative chamber will be the House of Commons. Herein lie the responsibility and opportunity of our own country, to make what De Tocqueville called, "Democracy in America," the inspiring model and standard for a struggling world. There is, to our mind, nothing more pathetic and promising than what we are witnessing at the moment among the hitherto oppressed peoples of the world, in their desperate efforts to realize this political ideal. Rarely, we may venture to say, has a more inspiring scene been witnessed in the English Parliament than when Lloyd George in the most impassioned terms he could com- mand, sought to depict what was transpiring, as he spoke, in Central Europe, in the life and death struggles for civic freedom, and with an earnestness suffused with pathos was pleading with Parliament to have patience and forbearance with these peoples, suddenly called upon without prepara- tion to undertake the functions of nationhood, to begin a "new life without training and discipline," making mistakes indeed, but "the mistakes of inexperience," and he appeals with pathetic passion to Parliament to be sympathetic and forgiving toward these heroic peoples, who have been "tram- pled upon for ages and who have had no chance to learn to govern," but who still hold themselves in readiness for any sacrifice whatsoever, if so be they may secure the right to live as the free citizens of a free state. It is to this Republic of the West that these peoples are looking for "light and leading." Here is the call for an international outlook and service on the part of every National Loyalty 139 genuine American, and he who fails to recognize and realize it is an unworthy citizen of this country and is in- excusably blind to the most inspiring movement of modern times. There is an Americanism, so-called, that belies its own true character and defeats its own highest ends under the plausible principle of national loyalty — refusing to enter the open door to all peoples that Providence and the course of history and Human Brotherhood have enjoined it to enter, and deaf to the peoples across the seas that implore it to recognize the impending perils and needs of the world at large. Democracy in its very conception contains within it the principle of universality and will never fulfill its native function until it compasses the civic unity of the world. NATIONAL LOYALTY This is a subject interesting at all times in the course of a people's history, but especially prominent under present- day conditions as modified and emphasized by the late war. The pertinent question is as to just what National Loyalty means, what it involves, and what it prohibits, what its salient elements are and what its limitations and guarantees. The study of this expression of civic life through what has been aptly called "the processes of history" is as attractive as it is significant and confronts the civilized world with an urgency heretofore unknown. If we inquire at the outset as to what its Characteristics are, we note two or three of primary import : 1. Devotion to the nation's Traditions — its antecedents 140 Timely Topics and successive stages of historical development from its earliest immature forms to its present status. Every nation, older or younger, superior or inferior, may be said to have its well understood traditions of which it is zealously and naturally jealous and which it feels under solemn obligation to preserve intact against all attempts to underrate or ignore them. Civic writers have called our attention to "the in- spirations of history," well aware of the fact that the basis of such "inspirations" may be found in the successive epochs of the nation's corporate life. There is a definite some- thing in every country's history which it visibly represents, for which it stands and which gives it national place and function. Thus Greece represents culture, and Rome, power. There is a national as well as an individual personality, and this, in its essential factors, must be maintained if so be the nation is to have any place and part in the world's develop- ment. An American author has recently called our atten- tion to "The Spiritual Tradition of American Life," as manifested not only in the strictly religious sphere, but in education, literature and social order. There are spiritual traditions and secular traditions in every nation's life that make it what it is in the view of the world. National loyalty demands that the nation be true to these Traditions — to its historic status and function, ever reluctant to sur- render or disown them. As historic, they are presumed to be fixed factors in the nation's life, constitute the very basis of its existence and must, in their essential elements subsist and persist in the face of all attempts to discard them. The recent Tercentenary Celebration of the landing of the Pil- grims is a signal example of America's fidelity to her National Loyalty 141 founders and to the institutions which they established. To fail to recognize them would be disloyal. 2. Devotion to the Nation's Ideals — civic, educational, social and religious. As every nation has a history and a body of traditions, so it is supposed to have, and in reality must have what may be called a definite national Objective, a civic Aspiration, a future as well as a past, an Ideal which it aims by successive efforts to realize and enjoy. When it is said that every country has a specific mission which it is its prerogative to prosecute and fulfill this is simply to state that it has an ultimate goal toward which it is mov- ing and concentrating all its energies. Aristocracy, Mon- archy or Democracy, whatever the form of government may be, its controlling desire is to realize this type more and more completely as national life develops. To realize it is, indeed, the primary justification of its being as a nation and differentiates it from all other nations with which it is connected. When it is known what these ideals are, in themselves, and their influence, then it is known what the nation's true character is and how it stands related to the world's betterment. In this sphere of ideals it is pertinent to notice that we are on a much higher plane than that of the merely historic, in the realm of the purely imaginative, wherein we can give free play to the thought as to what may be realized as the years go on in the region of the purely possible. In the distinctly materialistic aims of states and peoples, now so potent, it is this idealistic impulse which may act as a coun- ter-agency and keep the nation well in line with all the higher factors of a nation's progress. 142 Timely Topics Such are the two basic Characteristics of national loyalty — devotion to the nation's Traditions and its Ideals, — in fine, devotion to the nation's best interests as the citizens of the respective nations conceive them, involving obedience to the laws of the land, as the very word Loy-al-ty means, defence of its rights and institutions and every possible promotion of its civic welfare. Just here, however, there are certain Limitations or Conditions that must be observed as consti- tuting a genuine loyalty. Some of these may be cited and interpreted as fundamental requisites: I. Fidelity to the nation's history and ideals is to be maintained in so far as such history and ideals are Com- mendable. Herein lies the test of every separate people and the most serious problem of all related peoples as to what historic traditions and what specific ideals shall be pre- served and what sacrificed for the general good. Differ- ence of opinion and clashing of interests at this point are the sufficient explanation of national struggles and one of the problems of the future is to harmonize conflicting in- terests and by mutual concessions secure the best interests of the world at large. "Our country right or wrong" is a national creed that in the light of this limitation must be absolutely discarded. There is scarcely a nation, if indeed any, portions of whose historic record and cherished ideals should not be disowned on behalf of the world's good and in the name of loyalty. To insist that loyalty to American history must still include the sanction of the earlier institution of slavery as a legiti- mate and desirable part of its national being, or that loyalty to Teutonic ideals must include the sanction of world- National Loyalty 143 domination, as the manifest aim of the Central Powers in the late war, is not only to invalidate all moral distinctions, but to make any such result as the world's betterment prac- tically impossible. If, as is said, history repeats itself, the repetition to be beneficial, must be that of desirable features and elements. When a recent writer tells us that "most of the ideals which guided the politics of Continental Europe in the last century could give no good account of them- selves to our unprejudiced sense of right" and "that at every step America has boldly thrown off traditions which could not account for themselves to reason," he has in mind the presence of such necessary limitation as that we are now demanding — that national history and national ideals shall be sanctioned and preserved in so far and only in so far as they conform to national equity. "Every na- tion," he states, "must be willing to amend its purposes." It is just such an amendment of purposes and of historic antecedents that is, at this moment, engaging the best thought of the modern world. States and nations, the world over, are reviewing and revising their traditions and ideals, and instituting by the necessities of the hour, a new national order. This is what is meant, in the main, by the New Era — an era in which national history is re-written and national ideals are re-examined. An interesting volume by Fried- man, "America and The New Era," is but one contribution among scores of treatises as to this demand for the reopen- ing of the question as to just what fidelity to a nation's good involves and as to what it demands in the line of national revision. II. A devotion to the nation's Traditions and Ideals in 144 Timely Topics the light of International Relations and Responsibilities. Here we come to one of the most significant developments of the late war, the new and vigorous emphasis of inter- nationalism and the consequent emphatic protest against national isolation as out of keeping with the exigencies of the hour and primary interests of the world at large. Hence, the expression as never before of The International Mind, the discussion of local issues in the light of the common good, the insistence that no state can determine its func- tions and live its life apart from the study of the interests of border states. If this requires the practical renunciation of some of a nation's cherished antecedents and aims, then the renunciation musjt be made, and this in fullest keeping with a consistent national loyalty. From the forgetfulness of this demand the civilized world has suffered untold evil and one of the costly lessons of the late tragedy has been in the line of a justifiable national concession for interna- tional ends. There is a true and a false loyalty, and while every de- voted citizen is bound to give the benefit of the doubt to his own land, there are times when a positive surrender of long cherished views must be made in the spirit of altruism. This is the "New Nationalism" now in evidence for which the modern world has long been waiting, a real League of Nations, constituted by the inevitable "processes of history" and which cannot be successfully resisted by any human agency. III. A further essential condition of National Loyalty is found in the surrender of Partisan Preference to the Na- tion's good. Political parties are a necessity and in their National Loyalty 145 place and way may be made contributive to the welfare of the people, but their place and way must be subordinate to general interests whenever these interests conflict. This is another patent outcome of the late war — a breaking down of long established political alliances, the realignment of civic orders, and an insistence that national interests shall not be ultimately determined from the standpoint of party principle. Party Loyalty is one thing. National Loyalty is a far different and a higher function, and in the case of conflict, no right-minded citizen should be in doubt where he stands. The party system has been pushed to an extreme and is now the bane of American politics, as it has been of the politics of Europe, and has been erroneously defended on the ground of national well-being. If in the exigencies of war or some impending national disaster, all partisan distinctions must be ignored and are willingly ignored as an expression of civic loyalty, such a surrender of partisan principles and prejudices is surely in demand in the every- day development of a nation's life. From this discussion certain Inferences follow : 1. National Loyalty as thus characterized and conditioned is a principle especially applicable to Free Governments, where the utmost liberty of opinion and self-determination prevail, independent of the necessary restrictions of absolu- tion. What may be called the great Democratic Ideal as more and more realized among modern representative states essentially involves this order of national loyalty, a most sig- nificant and promising trend of the times being the increas- ing surrender on the part of monarchies of anything like arbitrary rule in favor of a more liberal civic order. 146 Timely Topics 2. It may be further "suggested that this conception of national loyalty clearly indicates the duty of Adopted Cit- izens, that when adopted by voluntary preferences into the constitutional and corporate body of another state, they are thereby under legal and moral obligation to give to such an adopted nation an absolutely undivided allegiance. Never has there been a time when the insistence upon this order of allegiance should be more pronounced than now, so that newly accepted citizens from foreign lands should be ex- pected and required to renounce the status of double citizen- ship, or return at once to the land of their nativity. No self-respecting nation can be expected to recognize two distinct orders of citizens and deliberately admit an alien element into its national life. Untold evil has followed in the late war from the neglect of this civic requirement and separate nations have been obliged to restate and reaffirm the absolute necessity of a single allegiance. Alien peoples should not only be naturalized, they should be nationalized and by solemn adjuration declare their unqualified devotion to their adopted land, nor is there any country where the application of this order of loyalty is more important than in our own. We speak of loyalty as a devotion, and rightly so. It is more than a merely political allegiance to a particular gov- ernment. It is a relation of affectionate and personal in- terest — a real fellowship and cordial fraternity, — a civic brotherhood. Professor Royce in his suggestive book on "Loyalty/' treats it from this psychologic point of view, as involving the nature of a real friendship. It is thus that Charles Francis Adams asserts "that the basis of every Great Historic Movements 147 government must be the loyalty and love of its people." This is what is meant by Patriotism — the love of country, a devotion far depeer and stronger than a merely political relation can be. In the recent war we have had a conspicuous example of national loyalty on its military side when citizens by the millions proffered themselves to the defense of their native land. What the world now needs is national loyalty on its civic side. As has been well said by an American writer, "We have yet to learn as a people that the peace-time duties of government are even more critical than its duties in war." In the natural reaction from the strenuous demands of war the tendency in all governments has been far too manifest to modify and impair that unqualified devotion to the nation's interests that characterized the years of struggle. What is now needed more than ever is an order of civic allegiance and affection that does not depend on any exceptional event threatening the very life of the nation and justified on the ground of self-defense, but a patriotism that is alert and active at all times, suited as well to the ordinary activities of the nation as to the eras of emergency, — a permanent state of the public mind, unaffected by pass- ing influences and thereby directly contributive to civic stability and progress. The urgent need of the hour is a Patriotism of Peace, supplementing and sanctifying the Patriotism of War. GREAT HISTORIC MOVEMENTS In such instructive historic serials as, Epochs of Modern History, and, Epochs of English History, we have signal 148 Timely Topics examples of great historic movements in England and Con- tinental Europe, in Asia and the civilized world over, these epochal movements having received special emphasis in the recent world-wide struggle. Such representative events as the Dissolution of the Roman Empire, the Rise, Develop- ment and Disappearance of Mediaevalism, the successive Crusades to recover the Holy Land from the Saracens, the Great Migrations of Peoples from the East, spreading from Asia steadily westward into Europe and the New Western World, the Opening of the East to Western Civilization, the Beginning of the Modern Era in the Sixteenth Century, involving the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry the Eighth, the Critical Battles of the Thirty Years War, the Great Revolutions, such as those of 1688, 1789, 1776, the Norman Conquest of the Eleventh Century, the Great Char- ter of 12 1 5, the Rise of Internationalism, the Democratic Development of the Modern Era, the New Era in Indus- trialism and, by way of historical climax, the recent World War. All these and similar Historic Movements, arrest the attention of students of history and the thought of the modern world and afford material for ever new investiga- tion and instruction. Forming, as they do, but a part of those complex historical phenomena which have been in evidence since the dawn of history, they are ever appearing in other and equally significant forms and will so appear until the final record of the world's events is registered. A study of the Salient Characteristics of these Move- ments will be of interest. 1. They are, in the main, Silent and Invisible, "the final result," as has been said "of a long process of organic development." Historians have ad- Great Historic Movements 149 dressed themselves with praiseworthy assiduity to the solu- tion of the problem of the Origin or Causes of these Move- ments, which have constantly evaded explanation. What, after, all, were the determining Causes of the Thirty Years War, of the Norman Conquest, of the Westward Migra- tions, of the Revolutions of 1688 and 1789, of the Opening of the Orient? No more signal example of this fruitless quest can be found than that furnished by the late war. Causes direct and indirect, distant and proximate, national and international, racial, social, political and economic, — each has had its ardent advocates, all of whom have been baffled by what may be called the Invisibility of the Causes — reaching far back in current history, and deeply down to the inmost centre of events, expressing, as they do, the final and visible result of a long and involved and hidden series of causal agency. As Professor Munro has stated it — "In history it is seldom possible to attribute any great change to a single cause." 2. They are Irresistible, baffling all human endeavors either to stay their progress or divert their chosen courses. These "Processes of History'' are as inevitable and unyield- ing as the daily recurrence of the tides, or the rotation of the seasons, in a kind of predestined procession they rise and develop in momentum and advance from stage to stage in proud defiance of all obstructions. At times, moving with significant slowness and, at times, breaking out in startling suddenness and volume; at times, expressing themselves in a direct forward movement, and, at times, reaching their final and fullest form by circuitous courses; at times, apparently within the area of human control, but 150 Timely Topics soon evincing independent freedom, they refuse to be fore- stalled or deflected as they move steadily on toward their destined end. A glance at the Great Events of History is sufficient to evince the impotence of any attempt to prevent them. While there is a limited sense in which man may be said to make history and shape the course of human events, such events, in so far as they are epochal and pivotal, are practically outside the sphere of his prevention. Here, also, in the World War appears a pertinent illustra- tion, in that as it occurred the time would seem to have come when its occurrence was unavoidable, the necessary culmination of a series of events, dating far back of Aus- trian and Serbian history, and quite assignable to this or that King or people, whatever may have been their sub- ordinate relation thereto. These Historic Movements are irresistible because they are subterranean and tidal, moving as the Gulf Stream moves, as the Alpine Glaciers move, steadily forward to their climacteric. 3. They are Comprehensive Movements. They affect all sections and functions of the World-Order. In the Political Province, we see Dynasties and Empires overturned, the best laid schemes of designing men brought to sudden and often violent confusion, the uniform course of history apparently checked or abruptly changed. As the Scriptures state it, "the devices of the people are made of none effect." What is called, Political Sagacity, is exposed as the veriest foolishness and a new civic order emerges, altogether outside the policies of what are strangely called, the Powers. Great Historic Movements 151 So in the Social and Industrial World, these Historic Movements have fairly overturned the existing order and, as Mr. Kidd states it, "all the people are brought into the rivalry of life on conditions of equal social opportunities." Modern Socialism, so-called, in all its multiform phases is but one of the many evidences of the comprehensive ex- pression of these Movements, by which the doctrine of the Open Door has become a dominant one in all the relations of Capital and Labor. The Social Evolution of the Masses is in active formation. So, in the sphere of Mind and Educational Systems, illus- trated in such a survey as Draper's "Intellectual Develop- ment of Europe" — a development moving in the face of all opposing influences, so as to secure the offer of educational privilege to all classes of the people, a world-wide Uni- versity Extension. Courthope, in his suggestive treatise, "The Liberal Movement in English Literature," applies this all-embracing agency to the special spheres of letters — the expression of mental and educational ability in authorship. The stimulating effect of the World War along this special line of effort is clearly manifest in that real Revival of Learning that marks the second decade of the Twentieth Century. So, in the higher sphere of Religious Thought and Life, these Historic Movements are equally conspicuous, insisting on the primacy of the essential truths of Christian- ity as distinct from everything secondary and irrelevant, on the restatement of all Creeds and Confessions in terms of everyday needs, and on the fuller recognition of a safe and wholesome Liberalism. 4. These movements are, in the main, Beneficent. Indeed, 152 Timely Topics it may be said, that what is called, The Progress of Civiliza- tion, is based on this fact. They are what the historian Lord has called, "The Beacon Lights of History." Even in such apparently adverse Movements as the great Me- diaeval Period between the Fall of the Roman Empire and the opening of the Modern Era, influences are seen to be closely operating by which human progress is advanced and beneficent ends ultimately reached. It is significant in this connection to note that modern historians are already at work directing and interpreting the benefits, direct and indirect, that are seen already to be issu- ing from the tragic conflict of the last few years. They are emphasizing what are known as the Compensations of history, the almost miraculous manner in which portentous events assume a beneficent meaning and make a distinctive contribution in due time to the general good of the race, at times retarded or reversed, but never permanently thwarted. 5. Hence it may be further stated that these Movements are under Divine Direction. This doctrine is the keynote of Mr. Kidd's volume on "Social Evolution," in which he sums up all his suggestions in the comprehensive conclusion — "The Evolution which is slowly proceeding in human so- ciety is religious in character" under the ultimate direction, he would say, of a superintending Providence. In the Shakespearian phrase: "There's a divinity that shapes the ends" of human history, or as the poet Tennyson expresses it : "the event to which the whole creation moves" is a "far- off divine event," ordered and controlled under, divine agency. The attempt made by Mr. Buckle to write the His- Great Historic Movements 153 tory of European Civilization without recognizing this prin- ciple, doomed his project to failure. There is no such thing as the Philosophy of History apart from the presence of this principle which once again has been so clearly confirmed by the late war as to make its denial impossible, a struggle in which all contestants alike claimed divine sanction and sup- port. Such are some of the manifest Characteristics of these Great Historic Movements as Invisible, Irresistible, Com- prehensive, in the main, Beneficent and, in their final issues, under the government of God. It is the presence of these features that makes the study of these World-Wide Move- ments as complex and difficult as it is stimulating and im- pressive. Nothing could be more imposing than the silent, secret and solemn advance of these "Processes of History." Nothing could more stir the historic imagination than such movements, as for example, the Great Migrations of his- tory, while it is questionable whether in the course of human events there has ever been a more signal illustration of this imposing spectacle than that afforded by the late titanic struggle, in which the civilized nations of the world at large were seen in actual movement toward what a modern his- torian has well called "The Mandate of Destiny." It is this historic movement toward the realization of "Manifest Destiny" that is now engrossing the attention of the think- ing world and who can tell what are to be the issues thereof. One or two suggestions are in place : * First of all, there is here involved a distinctive Human Factor, responsible in its place and way for the results that are finally reached. It is the part of Human Agency to 154 Timely Topics "discover the signs of the times," to interpret aright and utilize those epochal historic events that are passing in sol- emn succession before it, which unless correctly interpreted and utilized may be fraught with untold disaster to the world at large. Here it is that Constructive Statesmanship is needed, as, also, intelligent and Conscientious Judgment on the part of the body politic, one of the many crucial tests of democratic government lying just here. The fact that ultimate world issues are in the hands of a controlling Providence in no sense absolves the nations from their specific obligations as cooperating agents in the evolution of history. Here, as everywhere else, divine and human factors must be coordinated if so be the highest ends are to be secured. Nations as individuals are to work out their own salvation just because a superhuman aid is guaranteed as a condition of success. 2. The attitude of the modern world in the light of these movements should be a Hopeful one. "Great and trans- forming as the coming changes in all probability will be," writes Mr. Kidd, "no overturning of society is to be ex- pected. We are moving and shall continue to move by or- derly stages to the goal toward which the face of society has in reality been set from the beginning of our civilization." It is the privilege and duty of the world's citizenship to take part in this historic advance toward ever better issues, even though these "orderly stages" may at times be arrested and diverted and even reversed by the influence of unexpected counter agencies. If the movement is not always directly upward, it may be spiral in its progress, but still will mark an advance. In fine, the world's equilibrium is at this mo- The Recent Revival of Learning 155 ment more unstable than at any previous period, and stabil- izing it is the supreme obligation and opportunity of the hour. All Movements, just because they are Movements, are attended with possible perils, but it is also true that as Movements they escape the evils of stagnation and inert- ness, have in them the principle of life and are, as such, in the direct line of progress, and will, if the nations are faith- ful to their trust, bring to this weary and waiting world what Tennyson hopefully calls "The closing cycle rich in good." THE RECENT REVIVAL OF LEARNING Students of educational history are aware of the fact that since the distinctively classical period of the older peoples of Europe there have been periodical awakenings of educa- tional interest and activity, notably in the Eighth, Eleventh and Sixteenth Centuries. The first, in the reign of Charle- magne, was the beginning of a new order, under the special influence of Alcuin. The second is of special significance as marking the rise of Universities, with all which that im- plies in the development of European civilization. The third derives its chief importance from the fact that, occurring in the Sixteenth Century in the reign of Henry the Eighth, it opened the Modern Educational Era, as it indeed opened the modern era in its widest functions, known as the English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. It was far more than English in its promise, a real European awakening all along the line of educational interests — the Golden Age of Humanism. 156 Timely Topics At the opening of the Twentieth Century there begins the fourth and latest Revival of Learning, which at the close of the second decade of the century is in the full tide of its ex- pression. Embracing all the best elements of preceding awakenings and including additional elements of its own, it already gives promise of surpassing all antecedent move- ments in the area of its operation, in the value and utility of the interests at stake, and especially within the province of modern education. I. If we inquire as to its Scope, it is nothing less than world-wide, affecting all modern states and peoples, a ver- itable International Renaissance. All grades of institutions — primary, secondary, collegiate and university, larger and smaller institutions, privately endowed and state supported institutions, denominational and undenominational, for men and for women, liberal and technical, are included in this comprehensive movement, a movement particularly pro- nounced in America. It is a significant fact that this new departure is quite independent of the late war as a deter- mining factor in its origin, its inception dating well back to the first years of the century, gathering momentum as the century advanced, only accentuated in its progress and character by the late international struggle. Statistics re- cently compiled by the Institute of Public Service in America, including a period of six years and more than two hundred colleges and universities, reveal the unprece- dented growth of this movement and its ante-war record as fully equal to later growth. Prophecies as to what a quarter of a century hence may reveal as to this expansion are nothing less than startling, and issue the summons to The Recent Revival of Learning 157 all educational agencies to prepare the way for this phenom- enal revival. It is a sign of the times as serious as it is promising, as rich in its responsibilities as in its recom- penses, an opportunity rarely offered to any generation, and one which if fully met and utilized will make a hitherto unknown contribution to what Bacon called "The Advance- ment of Learning." II. It is now in place to inquire as to what are the De- mands of this Revival, which, indeed, will require "educa- tional statesmanship" to meet. 1. First of all, a New Alignment of Educational Forces and Methods, — a real educational reconstruction, as impera- tively needed as the reconstruction of the state, so as to har- monize with new conditions. More specifically, what is needed is a preparation of the people for the world of to- day. If, as we are told, "education seeks to adjust the individual to life," it is the life of today — "keeping ahead of the forward movement of civilization" — the establish- ment of a School of Life for the twentieth century as dis- tinct from the eighth and sixteenth. Hence a substantive modification of educational methods and aims must be made, as fully in keeping with the time as the methods of Alcuin and Erasmus were in keeping with the ages of Charlemagne and Elizabeth. The demand is for educational review and revision in the light of contemporary history, by which the varied steps of educational progress may be acknowl- edged and provision made for their expression. This will involve not only a re-examination and readjustment of edu- cational schedules, but a far closer relationship than now exists among all grades of schools — secondary, collegiate 158 Timely Topics and graduate, so that the public schools of the country, the People's University, shall have a vital connection through a regular gradation, with the university proper, a connection such as that already existing in countries such as Germany, in which the educational institutions are under the juris- diction of the state and responsible thereto for their ef- ficiency. 2. The Concomitant Development of Culture and Charac- ter, such as that which obtained in the early history of the country, when the Puritans and Pilgrims erected the school and the meeting house in close proximity, as necessary to each other, as interactive agencies in the building of the state. A Christian education in the well understood sense of that term is one of the imperative demands of this Revival. It is a significant fact that what is known in Eng- lish History as the Revival of Learning in the sixteenth century and the opening of the modern world was a dis- tinctively religious movement as well as educational, under the unified title of the English Reformation, in which the great leaders of the time, such as Erasmus and Cheke dif- fused the study of the Greek language as Hooker and Knox were infusing new vigor into all the functions of the church. Apart from this co-operation of the secular and religious, this great Revival of Learning as Archbishop Trench asserts, might have been a questionable blessing. Education, if truly interpreted, must be symmetrical — a development and disci- pline of the whole mind, — mind and heart and will and con- science, so as fully to meet the complex responsibilities to which educated men will be called. Education is far more The Recent Revival of Learning 159 than mere knowledge. It is a formation of character and conduct, a preparation for life in all its variety of duty, in- dividual and social. The "New Education" so-called, must justify itself before a new world as a Christian education, unsectarian and vital, based on the great fundamental facts and truths of revealed religion and as such contributive to the best interests of the race. III. The beneficent Results of such a Revival of Learn- ing are evident. 1. First of all, Education as a Calling is at once lifted to its normal level of honour and appreciation, taking its place among the great professional activities of the world, bringing into play the best faculties of the mind and acknowledged on all sides as a necessary factor in compas- sing the high ends of modern life. Teaching thus inter- preted is more than a mere pedagogic employment for im- perfectly prepared incumbents and assumed only as a tem- porary expedient, subordinate to some higher function. The recent establishment at Yale University of a Graduate De- partment of Education is in the right direction, whereby its dignity as a vocation is realized and adequate provision made for a supply of qualified educators. In the higher grades of instruction, it is, in all particulars, one of the liberal professions and demanding correspond- ing ability. No valid Revival of Learning can be instituted apart from such a conception of its requirements. 2. Such an educational awakening will diffuse a new In- tellectual Spirit through all the functions of modern life, and will prove the best antidote against those forms of gross materialism which have become so conspicuous in contempo- 160 Timely Topics rary history. Just here it is interesting to note what the effect of the World War has been in opening the eyes of multitudes of men to the necessity of educational equipment, if so be they are at all adequately to meet the new demands of a new and serious age. The startling deficiency of the American soldiery along these lines as evinced in the various cantonments and schools of the army has called the atten- tion of the government and the nation at large to the need of an immediate reformation and has stimulated the rank and file of the army to compass this needed result. So emphatic is this awakening that the War Department is now inaugurating a movement by which the colleges of the country may make full or partial provision for the education of soldiers chosen on the ground of their special ability and aptitude. While this, at first, must be limited in its scope, the educational fervor will deepen and widen until it per- meates the military body as a whole and leads to most de- sirable results in the proper mental training of the soldiery. Outside the army, however, and over the land at large, this new desire will express itself in varied forms of educational effort and the body politic and social will feel at once the influence of the stimulus and rise to ever higher levels. This general intellectual quickening is one of the dominant demands of the day, by which America will no longer be open to the charge of national well-being along merely ma- terial lines and will assume a mental type of leadership thor- oughly in accordance with its origin and destiny as a people. Among American ideals none is more insistent and prom- ising than those of the subordination of a purely material civilization to a higher and nobler type, in which the intel- The Recent Revival of Learning 161 lectual demands of the age shall be more and more fully- met. 3. A further result of this Revival of Learning will ap- pear in the fact that it will form the best Basis of American Democracy. As has been said, "An Illiterate Democracy" is a contradiction in terms. General Intelligence is a demo- cratic postulate, without which free governments cannot long subsist. The government "of the people and by the people and for the people" must be broadly based on an enlightened public, on the education of the masses at large, so that their expressed will shall be for the best interests of the nation. The mediaeval adage that "Ignorance is the mother of devotion" has long since been displaced by the adage that "Knowledge is power" — power in the best sense and exer- cise of it — power to think and act intelligently. Here is one of the dominant and serious problems of the American world and wherever government is wholly representative, an un- educated electorate being a constant danger to the state. One of the most encouraging signs of the times, is the awakening of all classes of the people to this necessity, if so be Democracy is to justify itself as the ideal form of government. It is thus clear that educators and most especially in col- legiate circles, have an inspiring mission to fulfill, whereby the American Commonwealth may be conspicuous in modern history for the excellence and efficiency of its educational system, for the character and general culture of its citizen- ship and thus be an evermore potential factor in the world's advancement. It is a heartening thought that in our own land and the world over, the "Schoolmaster is abroad" as never before. 1 62 Timely Topics THE EMPHASIS OF PRINCIPLES IN LIBERAL EDUCATION The topic of interest now before us has direct reference to the vocation of teaching, its primary method and purpose in Higher Education, in order to secure the best results. This is one of those open questions with which the educator of today is confronted and which presses more and more urgently for solution. I. To our mind the answer is quite beyond tenable doubt, the primary method being "The Discovery and Exposition of Principles" as distinct from the emphasis of any form of detailed or pedagogical data. Whatever may be the rightful place of facts and detailed knowledge in the prov- ince of elementary and secondary instruction this is but sub- ordinate and relative within the domain of Liberal Educa- tion, a type of teaching far in advance of anything below it and in thorough accord with the advanced stages of the student's progress. Liberal Education, as illustrated in our colleges and universities, is liberal not merely in the sense of being general and comprehensive in the diversity of sub- jects included, but liberal in its method, purpose and spirit, a real education and enfranchisement of the intellect so as to make it equal to the high behests of scholarly life as they will unavoidably arise as the years pass on. This higher method may be amply illustrated in every separate depart- ment of collegiate study. In Philosophy, the great fundamental principles of mental life and action are stressed, as distinct from metaphysical facts and data. Philosophy, as such, is viewed and eluci- Emphasis of Principles in Liberal Education 163 dated in its primal postulates quite distinct from the mere History of Philosophy, however important in its place that may be. What Herbert Spencer called "First Principles" are here mainly in evidence as distinct from any possible or desirable application of such principles to specific and con- crete phenomena. What Balfour terms, 'The Foundations of Knowledge," are studied as superior to any type of super- structure imposed thereon. So, in History, the governing question at this point of view is — What are the great vital and vitalizing principles that lie at the basis of all those external events and incidents that we call History and which serve to justify and explain them, and without which they are but an incoherent assem- blage of daily occurrences. We speak, and speak rightly, of the "Philosophy of History" — a profound and searching inquiry into the great formative causes of national events and progress, an order of inquiry so clearly evinced in such historians as Schlegel, Guizot, Hallam and Buckle. So, in Social and Political studies, as evinced in Spencer's "Principles of Sociology" or Kidd's "Social Evolution" and in Aristotle's "Politik," a study of the first principles of social and political organization, an interpretation of civic phenomena far below any visible expression of them. So, in the domain of Ethics, of Religious Thought and Life, from the Ethics of Aristotle to Spencer's "Principles of Ethics" and Balfour's "Foundations of Belief," where- in an investigation of first causes is instituted, the determin- ing factors of all written creeds and external conduct — the Philosophy of Religion as presented by Caird. It is a sig- nificant fact that in the Christian Scriptures this is the 164 Timely Topics dominant method — the fundamental principles of human conduct being laid down with no attempt whatever to apply them concretely to the daily developing life of the individual. So, in the sphere of Literature, a province of education in which right methods are especially needed — the conten- tion being that what DeQuincy calls, The Literature of Power, should supersede and control the Literature of Knowledge. Such treatises as Courthope's "Liberal Move- ment in English Literature," Hugo's Literature and Philosophy," Knight's "Studies in Philosophy and Litera- ture," Posnett's "Comparative Literature," Winchester's "Principles of Literary Criticism," amply illustrate this higher and better method by which the student is encour- aged to look beneath all visible literary phenomena to the causes and conditions that underlie and explain them, to make what Miiller calls the Science of Thought dominate what Schopenhauer calls the Art of Literature, the verbal expression of thought. In fine, there is scarcely any department of educational function in which this primacy of principle should not be the controlling factor. Though there is a sense in which in the teaching of Experimental Science and the Liberal Professions of Law and Medicine, concrete facts and data would seem to be mainly in evidence, even here the great principles of the subjects discussed may find appropriate emphasis. The recent discussion in this country as to the comparative merits in juristic teaching of emphasizing specific legal cases as concrete illustrations of law, or that of insisting upon the priority of the great juristic principles underlying them, reveals the importance of this open ques- Emphasis of Principles in Liberal Education 165 tion and has served to confirm the superiority of the latter method. In Science, such representative educators as Agas- siz, and Guyot, and in Law, such authorities as Rufus Choate and John Marshall, stressed the value of funda- mental principles back of all external data, while even in Schools of Divinity, behind and below all verbal embodi- ments of doctrine, the supreme validity of Fundamental Truth is taught. It is scarcely too much to say that edu- cators and authors, the world over, in all departments of in- struction and expression, can be classified at this point, as Bacon and Thomas Arnold, Coleridge and Emerson, far sur- pass such authors as Macaulay, Matthew Arnold, Pater and Addison. Such great educators in our own country as Mark Hopkins, Arnold Guyot, Theodore Dwight, Wayland, and Whitney, were great in that generic and germinal prin- ciples were stressed in philosophy, science, jurisprudence, and language as superior to any collection of facts and data, teachers whose primary purpose it was to give to the stu- dent, first of all, the great generalizations that were de- ducible from all the facts in evidence. Modern Higher Education is in no greater need of refor- mation than in this special sphere of Principles, the prevail- ing method of instruction reversing the natural order and viewing the examination of details as first in evidence and value. The method is historical, biographical, textual and critical, rather than philosophic, and the student is left at the end with a mass of ill-assorted facts and conclusions, un- related to any cardinal principles by which they might be unified, coordinated and made applicable to all contingent needs. No sphere of instruction has suffered more at this 1 66 Timely Topics point than Literature, so largely studied and taught by a kind of piecemeal, fragmentary process, informing the mind of the student at the expense of any logical process. The Plays of Shakespeare and the verse of Milton are minutely examined in line and letter and artistic construc- tion, textually and philologically, quite aside from an exam- ination of those fundamental laws that lie at the basis of the drama and epic. Literary Criticism is the dominant subject and on the side of verbal technique and of literature as an art. In the sphere of English Composition this error of method is conspicuous, a requisition of themes and essays, quite irrespective of those generic principles of written ex- pression which Herbert Spencer emphasizes in his "Philoso- phy of Style." The great laws of expression laid down by Aristotle, Bain and Whately, are subordinated to an unin- telligent practice in the art of composition, forgetful of what DeOuincy in his "Rhetoric and Style" shows us as to how to write effectively. In the sphere of Philosophy, hair-splitting distinctions between this and that author, or system, a purely speculative treatment of philosophic theories made in Germany is given the student in the place of those primary metaphysical laws that lie behind all forms of mental process. The main danger in the modern system, known as Pragmatism, lies in the fact that as pragmatic the purely practical side of psycho- logic study will be emphasized at the expense of the intel- lectual and fundamental. It is sometimes asked whether Modern Higher Education has made any perceptible ad- vance over the methods and results of a half-century ago. Whatever the answer to this question may be, and conced- Emphasis of Principles in Liberal Education 167 ing that, taking education in its widest sense and scope, a decided progress has been made, this much is clear, that the subordination of principles to facts and theories in con- temporary teaching has in so far marked a real decadence and is training a generation of students possessed of a less distinctive philosophic order of mind than the graduates of fifty years ago. They know far more, but do far less profound and profitable thinking. Some of the benefits of this Higher Method may be cited: 1. Mental Discipline is first in order — a real intellectual gymnastic as distinct from a mere acquisition of educational data. Mental training is, after all, the ultimate end of edu- cation quite irrespective of this or that acquisition or attain- ment. What Miiller calls the Science of Thought, is the dominant factor, so that, as Huxley phrases it, "the intel- lect is a clear logic engine with all the parts of equal strength and in working order." The making of thinkers is the ideal of education. 2. A further benefit is that of Initiative and Independence of Judgment, by which the student is encouraged and en- abled, in any case that may arise, to apply basic principles in his own way. There is nothing here of a kind of educa- tion made to order and warranted to produce specific results when applied, but an order of training that simply builds the basis for the superstructure, furnishes the necessary guid- ance to the student in his personal researches, develops and preserves individual freedom and thus ensures the best pos- sible mental results. 3. It is at once apparent that such a method awakens and sustains Interest, whereby all educational processes are at 1 68 Timely Topics once freed from all that is indifferent, mechanical and unprofitable and the student is incited to his best mental endeavor. Nothing less than Inspiration is the direct result, the emancipation and broadening of every intellectual fac- ulty and function. It is only such a type of training, basic and not superficial, that is enduring and compensating. Education is essentially grilndlich, as the Germans term it. We are living in an era of unwonted educational activity. The intellectual world at large is aflame with interest as to what the best methods and aims of mental training are and real thinkers are in demand to discuss and decide the pend- ing problems that have recently emerged out of the turmoil of the time. Upon the centres of Liberal Learning, as never before, the eyes of a waiting world are fixed and the solemn obligation rests upon them to furnish year by year a body of men who are really educated, mentally trained in the fundamental processes of thought and able to bring to bear on any issue presented to them an intellectual type of treat- ment. Never were world conditions so unsettled, and what is now in demand above all else is the stabilizing of all human functions and forces — the actual settlement of the mental and moral and social order of the world. To further such an end as this is the high privilege and duty of every real educator. THE MODERN AGE OF UNREST Every age may be said to have its individuality, its special historic type, which it is the business of the historian to ob- serve and describe. This twentieth century in which we are living is notably an Age of Unrest, of action and reaction, of The Modern Age of Unrest 169 ebb and flow, of cross-currents and acute conflicting inter- ests, so as to baffle, at times, all attempts to study and com- prehend them. The events of one day are no criterion as to what may issue on the morrow and the observer must content himself with what he can catch by hasty glances at this ceaseless shifting of actor and scene. The occurrences are nothing less than dramatic. If we inquire into the Causes of such an era of agitation, a partial explanation may be found. 1. In the Constitution of Human Nature, in obedience to which a certain degree of unrest is not only possible but unavoidable and desirable in the line of a legitimate aspira- tion toward better and better conditions, a dissatisfaction with any result hitherto secured, with any conditions now existing. Apart from such discontent there could be no real advance along the lines of civic and social order. It is an infallible indication of vigor and vitality. But the present era of unrest must be accounted for on other grounds, by reason of its extreme type and expression, run- ning quite athwart all precedent, ignoring or violating all the ordinary processes of progress and conspicuous by its very irregularity and excess. It is thus that we are forced to observe a different origin so as to account for universal conditions. 2. Thus we find in the recent World War, in its distinctive and disintegrating effects, — breaking down all barriers, testing all accepted standards, shaking all foundations, questioning all facts and formulas, and insisting that the civilized world must build all over again the established order and usher in a new and presumably a better age. If 170 Timely Topics every war is in reality a Revolution, this international con- flict has been emphatically so, volcanic in its violence, so as to institute a condition of constant eruption. In every sphere and phase of national life, the time has been "out of joint." So extraordinary are the issues, that what we call Crises have become events of common occurrence and men and nations live in daily expectation of the incredible. The only result that is sure to happen is the unexpected. The outcome of all this irregularity, it is clear to see, is Unrest, of the most pronounced type, a state of mental and emotive tension, altogether abnormal and excessive, so that life is passed, for the time being, in a kind of bewilderment and nothing serves to admit of solution and settled form. The most lamentable legacy of the late war is this Era of Unrest. It is a significant comment on this condition that as the late Mr. Howells conducted for years a literary department in Harper's under the title "The Easy Chair," it is now one of the functions of The Forum to give us a monthly record under the title "The Uneasy Chair." It is this uneasiness that has become the prevailing temper of the time, — a veritable World Dis-Ease, — a genuine neurasthen- ic disorder — a shattering of the world's nerves, and attended, unless checked, with dire distress. Some of the Characteristics of this Unrest may be cited : 1. Change, for the mere sake of change, be the conse- quences what they may. Anything, it is plausibly argued, would be an improvement over that which is. The call is for Re-adjustment, a beginning all over again. The Old Order must give way, even though succeeded by an in- ferior one. It is, in fine, the rampant spirit of Radicalism The Modern Age of Unrest 171 at all costs, the levelling of all distinction, the erasure of all landmarks, a re-drawing of the world's map, — a turn- ing the world upside down, with no specific plan whatso- ever to set it right. In church and state, in politics and social order, in the industries, in education, and the church itself, standards count for nothing, and the Roman motto is in force — "The times are changing and we must change with them." 2. A further Characteristic is seen in The Desire for Im- mediate Results, by the operation of which all intermediate stages are ignored. No allowance is made for the thor- oughly normal and hitherto accepted process of transition, but a violent leap must be made over all intervening spaces, between the past and the future, if so be tangible and prac- tical results may be readily reached. In direct contravention of the order of Providence in the government of the world, or the order of nature and history in its best developments, it stoutly denies the validity of the gradational and adopts the violent regime of revolution and reaction. Under the laudable principle of Reform it insists upon its own method of reformation, by which a slow and safe advance must yield to rapid movement and moderate measures to a kind of lawless liberalism. This is a form of procedure that at this moment is begetting chaotic conditions, the final issue of which may be attended by untold evils. 3. An additional feature of this Unrest is seen in The Supremacy of Selfish Interests over all benevolent and gen- erous impulses. Whenever personal profit and the general good conflict, there is no hesitation in subordinating the latter to the former. It is the autocracy of avarice over all 172 Timely Topics competing and counter claims. It is this colossal evil as expressed in national and international relations that is the sufficient explanation of most of the wars which in the course of history have devastated the world. Back of the so-called defence of national honor and the maintenance of national integrity, there has almost invariably been the economic factor, so prevalently and perniciously potent as to make the nation's purely financial and industrial inter- ests the controlling principle. It is this tyranny of trade that has so often forced the final issue of war, the intolerant demand that an open door must be made for any particular people's commerce, let the consequences be what they may to other peoples. Despite high-sounding phrases as to na- tional and international reciprocity, special corporate inter- ests finally prevail and the philanthropic doctrine of Al- truism is permanently ignored. Much of the Chronic Rest- lessness of modern life, personal and general, is the Rest- lessness of Greed, a state of mind in ceaseless agitation and ferment lest it may be thwarted in its inordinate ambition to advance at any cost its selfish and sordid interests. The Consequences of such Unrest are not far to find. 1. It is directly conducive to the Pessimistic Temper. Nothing as it now exists is of value. Any possible good lies in the future, and even there the outlook is dim and forbidding. Instead of Browning's assertion that the world "means intensely and means good," evil is the dominant factor, and the devil is on the throne. No individual and general optimism can possibly obtain, as long as this feverish Unrest remains the bitter foe of anything like faith and courage and hope and peace. The Modern Age of Unrest 173 2. Mental and Moral Decadence is a further consequence of Unrest, a gradual disintegration of wholesome tissue, until the subject of it becomes incapable of any high order of effort. It is this deteriorating factor in men and nations that, unless checked in its harmful influence, will sound what Little calls "The Doom of Modern Civilization" and some Gibbon will arise to write its Decline and Fall. The multi- plication of what may be called, Mental Infirmaries, is con- clusive and ominous evidence of this growing discontent which tends to disorganize both body and mind. 3. Such Unrest is the natural and inevitable parent of Uncertainty, so that there can be no such desirable result as Settled Conditions. Nothing can be taken for granted as finally adjusted and consequent plans to be adopted based on fixed and permanent results. Instead of the positive, there is the negative; instead of confidence, only doubt; in- stead of stability, instability ; and it cannot be known where to find, at any given time, persons or peoples. The modern world, at large, is at the moment in this perilous mood of vacillation, midway between extremes, the easy prey of any destructive agency. The favorite song of the soldiers in the late war, "Where do we go from here" is a fitting medley for the world at large. Where we are now and whither bound, who of us can tell, so variant are the voices that we hear, so diverse the signals that we see. The nations are indeed at the Cross- Roads, and not until conditions are stabilized, will it be known, whither we are bound and the words of Clough are confirmed: 174 Timely Topics "Where lies the land to which the ship would go? Far, far ahead is all her seamen know. Where lies the land she travels from? Away Far, far behind is all that they can say." What are the Correctives of this disastrous temper of the world today? 1. First of all, a Valid Conservatism, a full appreciation and utilization of existing factors of progress, a stout and, if need be, stubborn resistance against changing the present order, until a new and better order is seen to be possible. There is such a thing as The Essential Values — a real and abiding ground-work far below all that is transient. There are some truths that are still true, some realities that are still real, and on which therefore men and nations may safely count and rely. 2. An additional corrective may be found in Recognition of The Law of Gradational Progress as opposed to sudden and violent transition. This is the divinely appointed and natural law. The orderly movements of the planets and the seasons, the gradual growth of all organisms from their feeblest beginnings to full maturity, the principle of sequence in the moral government of the world, all confirm the essential importance of development by regular stages. As has been said "Continuity is as essential to law, society and institutions as progress itself." Indeed, it may be said that all permanent progress is based upon it. The unreasonable demand for rapid results so characteristic of the age is thus rebuked and men and nations are enjoined to exercise the saving grace of patience if so be the desirable ends are to be secured. 3. Still another Corrective of Unrest is seen in the exer- The Modern Age of Unrest 175 cise of the Altruistic Spirit, as distinct from that of Self- Seeking, a real Communism fraught with untold blessing to the world. Instead of a heartless and lawless monopoly under the baneful influence of which all the finer feelings of a people are stifled, the best elements of human nature assert themselves in the establishment of what may be called a world-wide Fraternity or Comradeship, — a veritable League of Nations, quite independent of merely diplomatic or official character, but broadly based on the principle of individual aims and comity, whereby the common interest is exalted above special interest, the weaker peoples protected and enriched by the stronger peoples, cooperation exalted above mere competition and a new era of a genuine Social- ism ushered in. 4. To all which Correctives might be added the Revival and Invigoration of the Moral Forces of the World, of faith and hope and love and conscience, of the cardinal virtues of the soul, of all that goes to constitute personal and na- tional character, a restoration of the primitive and basal elements of a revealed religion. Nothing will do more to relieve the restlessness of the time, than a restatement and reinforcement of those moral qualities whose possession is the surest guarantee of peace. Such, as we conceive them, are the Causes, Character- istics, Consequences and Correctives of that spirit of Unrest which is a dominant feature of the modern world, and in no nation more dominant than in our own, — a conspicuous American type, not confined to any one class, rich or poor, high or low, but representative of all orders of the people and expressing itself in multiform phases, the Malady of 176 Timely Topics Unrest, a real social epidemic, that must be radically cor- rected if the nation is to have a healthy corporate life and exercise a healthful influence over a restless world. The greatest need of the world today is Rest. — Rest from the ravages of war and rest from the ravages of worry, na- tional and individual — Quietude under the benign effects of which the orderly and beneficent procession of life will go on with ever increasing efficiency and the biblical prophecy be fulfilled when "Knowledge and wisdom will be the stability of the time." It is this stabilizing of an un- stable world on which the future of civilization depends and to this desired end it is the duty of all peoples to con- tribute. As Mr. Sumner in his memorable address "On The True Grandeur of Nations" eloquently stated it — "Let the bugles sound the Truce of God." It is this Truce of God for which this restless world is waiting, for that peace which, as Professor Sloane has stated it, "is the Test of Our Democracy." V THE ACADEMIC POINT OF VIEW The words, Academy and Academic, reveal in their verbal history a wide variety of usage and meaning. Back in the days of Greek philosophy they were significant of Plato and his School, discussing the great problems of metaphysics. In France, at the time of Cardinal Richelieu, the Academy was the centre of the titled scholars of the country — the Academicians as they were called, whose main business, at first, was the preservation of the purity of the French lan- guage. In later educational usage, the Academy is an institution midway between the primary school and the college, prac- tically synonymous with the secondary school of our day. In modern collegiate usage, Academic Courses of study are those that are contrasted with the scientific and technical, the classical studies by way of distinction, leading to the A.B. degree. In the phrase, the Academic Mind, a new significance is noted, a type of mind unique in its nature, method of work- ing and governing end, and which, as such, calls for a care- ful examination as to its characteristics and causes. In com- mon usage, it indicates a point of view peculiar to scholars and so peculiar as to be in large part, it is said, out of line with the prevailing and popular currents of thought. This popular meaning assigned to the word academic may 177 178 Timely Topics be amply illustrated. Thus, a modern author (Freedman) writes : "The fear of those promoting the improvement of public administration has been that the theorizing and book- ishness of the academic school would be carried over into this field. We should then produce mere doctrinaires, theorists, dreamers. "We are asked," he adds "to interpret the life around us out of books which are antiquated before their ink is dry." "In December, 1918," we are told, "Mr. Wilson said in London that while at first he had been accused of being aca- demic in his interest in the League now we find the prac- tical minds of the world determined to have it." Mr. Lowell, in his paper on "Democracy," writes, "The great question of suffrage is no longer the academic but rather the practical one." The celebrated consensus of German scholars and professors relative to the World War affords a signal illustration of this reactionary and pedantic state of mind — this strictly academic point of view. Some of the alleged Characteristics of this Academic Point of View may be cited : 1. It is called Traditional, as distinct from being Pro- gressive and Modern, the mediaeval order of mind, quite out of touch and sympathy with the ever changing and advancing movements of history. Its point of view remains fixed, unaffected by passing events and processes. It insists on the primacy of the older eras as older and approaches and discusses pending problems from the past as the essential background and basis of argument. 2. It is called Visionary, as distinct from being Practical and Efficient, a purely speculative or theoretical order of The Academic Point of View 179 mind, dwelling and working in the area of the imaginative and fanciful, quite unconcerned as to what may or may not be the outcome of it all. It is the romantic and not the realistic type of mental action, in full sympathy with the Kantian philosophy in the domain of "Pure Reason," but not in that of the "Practical Reason." In this particular, as nowhere else, have scholars been the subject of emphatic criticism, the demand being that they emerge from their chosen world of the ideal and come out into the open and down to the lower levels of the actual and deal with the facts and verities of modern life. As Durant expresses it, "They suffer from Academitis — overfondness for themes." 3. It is said to be Dogmatic, as distinct from being Tol- erant, an order of mind practically closed to the incoming and influence of new ideas or of any class of ideas not in harmony with its accepted tenets. It has long since, we are told, and once for all reached and tabulated its conclusions on fundamental questions, and practically refuses, in the light of new evidence, to reconsider its position and take new ground when demanded. What is called the progress of thought is dependent upon and subordinate to the ac- cepted deliverances of the past and cannot be safely or even consistently modified. This is the Ipse Dixit of the Schools, — a final decision of the Court which precludes the re-open- ing of the question. 4. It is styled a Local mind, as distinct from being Com- prehensive, quite opposed to making the bounds of truth and knowledge wider yet as the years go on. Its vision, it is said, is one-eyed and its field of operation limited by the narrow range of the present and the visible environment. 180 Timely Topics Hence its action is always circumscribed, committed to keep- ing within its definitely marked boundaries, lest it diverge into dangerous extremes. The rational doctrine of neces- sary mental limitations is pressed to an extreme and thought is made a prisoner for life. Such are the alleged salient Characteristics of the Aca- demic Mind, as we hear them cited. It is Traditionary, Visionary, Dogmatic and Local, and, as such, receives the pronounced protest of the outside world. To express its various features in a single word of current use, it is the Pedantic mind, an order of mind out of sympathy with the modern, the practical, the tolerant and comprehensive type. Rightly or wrongly, the world of scholars has suffered im- mensely hitherto from this prevailing view as to their status and mental habit, in the light of the world's rapidly varying thought and life, especially pronounced, we are told, in the sphere of historical, political and economic studies, where the conclusions reached, it is said, are purely "academic," that is to say, purely theoretical and inapplicable to existing needs and as such to be ignored by the outside world as useless. Furthermore, it is alleged, its presence and influence are far too potent in the spheres of literature and philoso- phy. One of the most frequent objections to the retention of classical studies in their original measure is found in the assertion that as such they serve to foster the mediaeval point of view, to the detriment of that later and wider out- look which is supposed to accompany the development of history. If we seek for Causes of this order of mind, in so far as it has hitherto obtained, one or two may be cited. The Academic Point of View 181 i. It is quite conceivable that it is due, in part, to what may be called the Isolated Life of the scholar, shut in as he is, within the confines of the study and the library. As a man of books, by way of distinction, he is perforce, by the very nature of his calling, mainly confined to the inside area of the student's life, as contemplative rather than active, subjective rather than objective, dealing with the inner pro- cesses of thought and the solution of mental and educa- tional problems rather than with the pressing questions of the outside work-a-day world. His very vocation demands seclusion, and any emergence therefrom by way of a per- sonal participation in the shifting currents of the world's daily life would seem to be a deviation from his normal and natural duties. 2. Moreover, a partial explanation of this type of mind may be found in the Unchallenged Deliverances of the study and classroom, where the scholar as an educator speaks in an ex-cathedra manner giving to his students what are assumed to be final judgments on subjects at issue. The educator by his very position and calling is supposed to speak with un- questioned authority, his conclusions as reached in his study, being outside the province of appeal and debate. It is the supposed duty of those sitting at his feet to receive and en- dorse his instructions without gainsaying. At no point in an educator's life, or a student's life, is there greater danger than just here, by which the teacher as an official guide is supposed to speak without a word of challenge and the student is supposed to listen without the privilege of chal- lenge. It is not strange, therefore, that the Academic Mind has been so often interpreted in the sense we have indicated. 1 82 Timely Topics A significant fact now clearly evident is that of a Pro- nounced Modification of this Point of View in the line of a more modern, practical, catholic and comprehensive outlook, in a word, the recognition on the part of the Academic Mind as hitherto expressed of the new conditions now pre- vailing, and the necessary adjustment to these conditions. i. This radical and desirable change has been induced, in part, by what may be called the Progress of Thought — the gradual departure from antecedent standards and conditions to the rapidly developing processes of contemporary thought, in fine, by the enfranchisement of the mind and the widen- ing of all its functions. This is in no sense a discarding of anything in the past which is fundamental, and, as such, worthy of retention but simply an insistence that there is such a phenomenon as progress in the course of history, that such progress must be acknowledged, and that existing needs cannot be met by traditional agencies, methods and aims. 2. Here again, as an underlying agency we are bound to recognize the definite influence of the recent World War, in the line of liberalizing all mental and social processes. In no sphere has this been more apparent than in that of the scholarly world, whereby, as never before, and indeed for the first time, men of letters and men of affairs have been brought into sympathetic and effective union, resulting in an increasingly intelligent commercial constituency and an increasingly practical educational constituency. There is, to our mind, no more promising result of the late tragic catastrophe than this liberation of that academic mind which for generations has opposed all such widening of function, and by which it is vitally coordinated with all the other Successful Teaching 183 wholesome processes of civilization and the everyday life of the modern world. Its special promise lies in the fact that this change of out- look and activity is thoroughly in keeping with that world- wide movement toward the combination and co-operation of all helpful agencies which is the dominant tendency of the time. It is simply another form of evolution, only applied within the sphere of the intellectual and educational. Higher Education, so-called, has needed no modifying factor more than this, by which the cloister has given place to the open forum of free discussion, by which the study and exchange have come to a mutual understanding and will cooperate for common ends. Henceforth the academic point of view is nation-wide and world-wide, catholic and comprehensive enough to embrace every human interest and thus minister to the daily progress of the race. SUCCESSFUL TEACHING It must readily be conceded by those who have carefully observed the history and status of education that in propor- tion to the number of persons engaged in the special vocation of teaching there are comparatively few who may be said to be masters of the art, and this is true in all grades of institutions from the village school to the college and uni- versity, though less distinctly marked in technical and pro- fessional centres. In the lower grade of schools the ex- planation of so large a percentage of unsuccessful work is due partly to the fact that so many instructors are lacking in general intellectual fitness and so many are compelled on 184 Timely Topics purely economic grounds to commit themselves to an order of service for which either by nature or training they have no particular qualifications. Their adoption of teaching as a life-work is mainly with reference to a livelihood, the de- mand for teachers being so insistent that boards of exam- iners are apt to be far too lenient in pressing the claims of adequate preparation on the part of those who offer themselves for pedagogic positions. In the upper grades of educational work — the colleges and universities, this lack of capable instructors is far too pronounced, much of the explanation lying in the fact that the temptations to scholarly research and publication rather than teaching itself, are too appealing to be resisted. To this research or productive work all else is sacrificed and the college student must per- force content himself with securing from the instructor what may be called his secondary service, his primary in- terests lying elsewhere in the retiracy of his study and library. If it is said that such scholarly investigations ought to tend directly toward successful service in the class- room, the facts of the case do not confirm it, many pro- fessors, strange to say, being too erudite to be helpful to the average student, not being able to utilize their mental ability and possession of extensive knowledge to the practical profit of the pupil, while it must be conceded that many college instructors underrate the value and need of the purely teaching art and resort to no special pains to being successful behind the teacher's desk. They are at their best only when alone among their books and manuscripts. Some few men, adepts in scholastic research, however unfitted for pedagogic service, there must be in every seat of liberal Successful Teaching 185 learning. The great body of professors, however, should be first and last efficient teachers, giving this art primacy- over all else in their college work and making it apparent to the students under their instruction that all their mental vigor and acquisitions are placed, first and last, at their disposal, their main purpose being so to practicalize their scholarship as to subserve the student's most imperative needs. One reason why in technical and professional schools, in law, medicine and divinity, the ratio of successful teachers is much larger than in the non-professional, is found in the fact that the student body in such cases is more mature and receptive and more deeply interested in that they are work- ing for a specific vocational end — the preparation for a pro- fession. Such an order of teaching must be direct, per- sonal and practical. The professor must get close to the ground floor of the pupils' needs and interests and subor- dinate all his scholarship to vocational ends. It is clearly evident and full of promise that in higher education, trustees and patrons and scholars themselves are insisting more and more, that the first function of a teacher is that of teach- ing, pure and simple, whose place cannot be taken by any other form of educational service. 1. Some of the requisites may be cited: Most funda- mental is that of Knowledge. The teacher must have the facts and truths of his particular subject well in hand, must be thoroughly grounded in his special field, a master of it in all its parts and phases, thoroughly at home therein and thus making on the mind of the student the invaluable and indispensable impression of an unqualified familiarity with 1 86 Timely Topics his department, as being - in no sense an amateur therein. In no particular is a body of students more critical and, justly so, than at this point, where they may be said to take the measure of a man, to ascertain his fitness to assume the role of an educator and, alas for him who is discovered by them to be simply a novice, using them only by way of ex- periment. Nor is this knowledge of one's subject sufficient, but it demands a comprehensive acquaintance with all other knowledge that is vitally related to it and contributive to its clear understanding, a teacher of the English language or literature, for example, being necessarily conversant with all those closely related languages and literatures that serve to explain the English itself and throw light upon its vocabu- lary, structure and literary uses. There is a sense in which every successful teacher must be well informed outside his specialty so as to interpret it in the light of its educational environment. 2. A further requisite is that of Presentation — an ability inherent or acquired, for the communication of knowledge. a. First of all, in terms of Clearness. This is a funda- mental qualification, for which naught else can be substi- tuted, and quite distinct from the mere possession of neces- sary teaching material. It is a matter of expression, impar- tation and adaptation, in which so many instructors, capable elsewhere, partially or completely fail. As the old adage phrased it — "It is better to be dumb than not to be under- stood." Intelligibility as well as intelligence is needed, a faculty of utterance so conspicuously clear as to make itself immediately understood by the attentive mind, a power of discrimination and interpretation, enlisting at once the re- Successful Teaching 187 spect and cooperation of the student. The very word Teach, which we get from Old English, means to explain, to set forth a truth so that it is fully apprehended and compre- hended, the indispensable condition of clear expression being clear thinking, it holding true, with few exceptions, that he who has thought a subject through and through until it stands out clearly before his own mind, can thereby render it clear to others. b. Moreover, this Presentation must be given with Im- pressiveness. As Richard Baxter once stated it — "We mis- take men's diseases when we think there needeth nothing to cure them of their errors but the evidence of truth." That something more, he would say, is impressiveness, a deliver- ance of the truth with convincing and persuasive cogency, so that it penetrates through all obstructions into the mind of the listener. All true teaching must have what Aristotle called "persuasive efficacy," so that what is made clear to the understanding shall appeal also to the heart and con- science and will. In fine, it may be said that teaching must have not only a didactic quality, but an oratorical quality — a distinctively impressive and inspiring element. The thought must have, as an old writer stated it, "an impulse in it" — must project itself upon the mind and inject itself into the mind of the student. Instruction must not only be imparted, but im- bedded, and this will require on the part of the instructor a corresponding aptness of presentation and representation, so that students as they listen will not only be enlightened but influenced and incited to mental action. c. Still again the knowledge must be presented so as to 1 88 Timely Topics awaken Interest. Instruction and impression, though funda- mentally essential must be reinforced by an added qualifica- tion, — that of securing and holding the attention of the stu- ments to the subject in hand, until they are made to feel that it is to their personal and permanent interest to give heed to it and as far as possible, to utilize it in all their thinking. The very etymology of the word inter-est from the Latin — that which concerns us, confirms this interpreta- tion. Nor is it meant here that the instructor must be merely entertaining, aiming only at the mental pleasure of the student. He must be positively stimulating and inspir- ing, so presenting his teachings that the student is incited thereby, yields assent thereto and feels that the knowledge presented appeals directly to his personal intellectual ad- vantage, so that he cannot afford to ignore or underrate it. It interests him. It concerns him. Such are the essentials of teaching — a thorough mastery of the subject taught in itself and its relation to closely kindred subjects and a power of presentation in terms of clearness, impressiveness and interest. Knowledge and the ability to impart it are so requisite that nothing can be substituted for them, if any- thing like the education of the student is secured. To this there must be added the practical suggestion that in and through all these factors of success there must be the pres- ence of the teacher's personality. Schools of pedagogy have a place and in their way give their pupils a kind of fitness for their work, but they can never take the place of the man himself behind the desk. The greatetst teachers are born such as well as made such and despite all forms of training must after all fall back on their own individuality. The Office and the Man 189 The civilized world is looking as never before, to centres of learning to clarify the situation and save civilization it- self from disaster. Military prowess has been tried and has failed. All forms of industrial and social theories have been tested in vain and it is in sheer desperation that the eyes of the nation are turned to the Christian church and the seats of learning for the enlightenment and aid that they need. Upon the teachers of the day the solemn responsibility is laid to respond to this appeal and justify the faith that is thus reposed in them. THE OFFICE AND THE MAN "The fact is," says Mr. Bryce, "that Americans have ig- nored in all their legislation, as in many of their adminis- trative arrangements, the differences of capacity between man and man." Mr. Fosdick, in his book "American Police Systems," writes to the same effect and with special refer- ence to our Municipal Offices, as he says, "Another contrib- uting factor in the failure of our administration of justice lies in the poor quality of our- magistrates and prosecuting officers," by which, as he contends, the very ends of justice are thwarted and direct encouragement given to the lawless classes. Mr. Vanderlip, the American financier, emphasizes this defect in our administration, as applied to foreign legis- lation, and goes so far as to advocate the formation of what he calls, a Super-Senate, which shall have jurisdiction over diplomatic appointments, and act as a check on the Presi- dent and Secretary of State and the Committee on Foreign Relations. 190 Timely Topics The repeated suggestions that were offered to President 1 Harding as to the composition of his cabinet, if so be it might be equal to the critical demands of the time, evince the unwonted interest taken by the American public in securing suitable public functionaries, — men adapted men- tally and administratively to the respective vocations to which they are appointed. One of the most vital and re- sponsible duties incident to the late war was in this matter of official aptitude and is a duty no less dominant in present post-war conditions. There is a formal and fundamental law of fitness in all provinces — material and moral — a pre- established harmony that must be observed in order to secure the best results, important in all administrative func- tions, but most especially in those now so manifest, where the most vital interests of the nation are involved and where faulty measures jeopardize the very life of the state. It is of these high offices that we now speak. For the sacred office of the ministry, it is held, that a can- didate should be the recipient of a special divine call — a direct summons from Heaven to an earthly vocation, the call of the church being but the ratification of the preceding and higher call. The Biblical injunction is that such a man should show himself to be "approved of God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," not a "novice," but a man suited to so sublime a service. In the secular professions of Law and Medicine and Education, no less than in the Min- istry, there should be a clear and convincing call to save those high vocations from the incompetent incumbent — mere "novices," pettifoggers rather than jurists, charlatans and mere practitioners rather than physicians proper, peda- The Office mid The Man 191 gogues and pedants rather than real educators, experiment- ing at the expense of clients and patients and pupils, instead of ministering to their personal needs, while even in the lower level of the non-professional activities — in business and the industries, this original law of fitness between the man and his work may be fully applied. If it be asked, what the qualifications are by which a man is fitted for high official function in any department of serv- ice — some qualities may be cited. 1. Special ability for the duty assigned. Something more is needed than general mental or official fitness, mere average capability for the work in hand. The Biblical injunction "To every man his work" means his particular work for which he is particularly qualified. That he is enjoined "to abide in the calling to which he is called" implies specific ability to fulfill the calling. "Surely," writes Plato, "men should not rule whose aptitude is for digging ditches, and men fit to legislate should not live out their lives as coo- lers." It was a high tribute to the character and judgment of Governor Lowden when offered the Secretaryship of the Navy, that he should have declined it on the ground of lack of knowledge and naval inexperience and consequent unfitness for the special duties involved. Such a conception of official function if practically applied, would reduce the official population of our national and civic centres by the thousands. The name of the Misfits is Legion. "Prepared Places are for Prepared People" is a principle applicable to all spheres of life. 2. Personal Aptitude is an essential. This is what is really meant by the conjunction — The Office and The Man 192 Timely Topics — the man in his entire personality, for more is meant here than mere mental ability or even administrative ability. It refers to innate qualities of temperament and habit — that peculiar product that we call individuality, by which one man is differentiated from all others, and initiates and applies his independent methods. It involves an accurate and a com- prehensive acquaintance at first hand with human nature, good judgment, common sense, as well as educated sense, what we commonly call, tact, a real instinctive estimate of man and conditions. It includes the possession of an adapta- bility of means to ends, a willingness at times to act when no special reason can be given, and where the timid spirit would fail to act. Not a little of the well-known criticism of chaplains and Christian workers in the late war lay just here, in the absolute lack of personal fitness by which official fitness was nullified in its working, a lack of that degree of good sense which indicates without mistake the best line of procedure under given circumstances. To the minister of religion, the jurist, and the physician, and the man of affairs, such a requisite is indispensable to success. The average man is all too quick to discern in any official incumbent the lack of such a characteristic and re- fuses, thereby, to follow his leading. Such a knowledge of men in the aggregate and of human nature in its indi- vidual types is so essential that representative officials, in whose hands such appointments rest, are chosen by govern- ments and business corporations mainly on the ground of their instinctive capability in this direction — suiting the man to the office and the office to the man. Signal instances of success and failure were manifest in the late war, and in The Office and The Man 193 the present trying period of peace and consequent readjust- ment of the world's activities similar results are likely to issue. 3. A sense of Accountability. When Webster was asked what impressed him most in his personal experience, rela- tion and duties, he replied — the Sense of Responsibility — the fact that he must be held strictly accountable for the fulfillment of any function to which he might be called. Much of his signal success as a jurist in the prosecution of vast and vital issues was due to this vivid realization of moral obligation, of his duty to his clients and to the public at large. It is the lack of this ethical conviction that characterizes so large a percentage of office-holders in the various spheres of official duty — professional and non-professional, sacred and secular, civic and commercial, by reason of which vital functions on which the destinies of states may depend are lightly apprehended and indifferently executed. Mere time- serving takes the place of worthy and unselfish service, and little heed is taken by the incumbent as to what the dire effects of his indifference may be. A man cannot obey the biblical injunction and "walk worthily of the vocation to which he is called," save as he has a close conception of what the vocation is and what it involves. Irresponsible of- ficials are unfortunately too much in evidence. One of the urgent duties of the hour is to awaken, if possible, in such functionaries this sense of accountability, if so be the merely personal and mercenary motive in official service may give place to a really disinterested devotion to its claims and thus ensure these beneficent results which the very idea of service involves. 194 Timely Topics 4. A final qualification is Fidelity. There is something more than a mere conviction of the importance of any given function. It is the purpose faithfully and fully to realize it, let the difficulties be what they may, so that in season and out of season, the incumbent is at his post, wholly committed to the work at hand. Such a temper in the discharge of official duty is immeasurably above that of one who is accomplishing a mission simply as a wage- earner with his eye mainly on the rewards of office and not on the office itself. So common is this selfish spirit that the good words, function and functionary, have given us the unfortunate word — perfunctory, indicative of an absolutely mechanical and half-hearted prosecution of any given call- ing, — rendering the least service possible and regardful of merely individual interest. Much of the friction and antag- onism between labor and capital would disappear if per- functory service should give place to disinterested service. "It is required of stewards," says the Scripture, "that a man be found faithful." This is the divine and human requisition and essential to good results. Herein may be said to be found a test of personal char- acter by which self-knowledge shall be so thorough and im- partial as to be a competent judge of personal aptitude for any given function, inducing the acceptance of it, or its rejection as outside the limits of one's ability and experience. Though arguing a degree of modesty and humility quite be- yond the prevailing measure, it is an order of personal estimate that would, if realized, be fraught with untold blessing to the world at large. This is the spirit of Paul as he asked "who is sufficient for these things"; of Moses The Office and The Man 195 when he said, "I am not eloquent but slow of speech'' ; of Jeremiah as he replied when summoned to high service, "I cannot speak, for I am a child," and it is often to these very men, conscious to a fault of their own defects, that the summons comes as it came to Paul and the prophets to fill the place and do the work assigned them, — The office seeks the man. It is often just such worthies, the unassum- ing possessors of real merit, for whom the world is waiting and upon whom it lays its authoritative hand and bids them obey the call that comes to them unsought. The application of this principle reveals one of the most characteristic features and weaknesses of Heredity Govern- ment, especially when it assumes the form of Absolute Monarchy, in that the recipients of the throne come into power by the claims of heredity — claimants by birth to royal place, privilege and power, altogether irrespective of mental or administrative fitness. One of the most dis- tressing chapters in Continental and even in English history is seen in the long list of emperors and kings who have been conspicuously deficient in governmental functions and have prostituted their office to the basest ends. It is this feature as much as any one factor that has made European History so much a record of unsuccessful administration — when the most vital interests of kingdoms and peoples have been committed to mere amateurs in state-craft — who have played fast and loose with their responsibilities. In a limited monarchy, such as England, where abso- lutism is held in check by a degree of liberalism in govern- ment, this evil is materially modified, and the King is prac- tically subordinate to the Commons. Herein lies the grave 196 Timely Topics responsibility of Popular Government, just because it is popular and not hereditary — the people themselves consti- tuting the great electorate to whose hands are committed the choice of their rulers. Officials in a democratic com- monwealth are precisely what the body politic desire them and elect them to be. In no respect is Popular Government the subject of criticism more clearly than here, in view of the appalling number of incompetent and unprincipled of- ficials who are chosen directly by the people to the highest places of public service. It is just here that Democracy is even yet regarded by many as a mere experiment, yet to be proved as the best possible form of civic rule, the only and sufficient answer being that the theory or principle on which it is based is a sound one, and that it is incumbent on the great voting body to see that it is properly and fully applied. Suiting the action to the word is the Shakespearian for- mula for dramatic success. "The right word in the right place" has been said to be the secret of a good style. The right man in the right place is the open secret of successful results in any province, a fact that has been fully realized by those in whose hands the power of appointment rests. Presidents of Republics, such as our own, Presidents of colleges and of great cor- porations and representative religious orders must be fully aware of this fact and aim to act accordingly. It is with the failure along this line in mind that Shakespeare wrote : "O that estates, degrees and dignities Were not derived unjustly, How many that command would be commanded." And we might add — How many that are commanded would command. Eras of Reaction igy A radical and startling reversion of existing relations would ensue until something like a normal adaptability of the man to the office would be secured. Upon no principle is the progress of civilization more dependent than on this adjustment of office and officials, so that in government and the professions, in business and the social orders the formal law of fitness shall be observed. Not "arms and the man," but the Office and the Man is the key-note of the Modern Aeneid. ERAS OF REACTION What is known in Natural Science as Action and Reac- tion is the expression of a universal and an unalterable law, manifesting itself in every sphere — physical, mental and moral. Hence, the presence of Normal Reactions, which as universal are marked by the possession of certain charac- teristics. They are Gradual, occurring in the regular on- ward movement of the activities and functions of life, both in persons and peoples. They are Temperate, always exist- ing in a modified form and measure and thus obedient to natural laws. They are Beneficent in their working, and thus welcomed as a sign and surety of common benefit. i. In the Natural World, they are expressed in the ebb and flow of the tides, and in the orderly procession of the seasons on whose regular recurrence men may depend with absolute confidence. 2. In Personal Experience, the alternation of joy and sorrow, of success and failure, of satisfaction and disap- pointment, is as common a succession as the rise and fall 198 Timely Topics of the tides and constitutes what we call human experience, practically the same the world over. 3. In Government, it is seen in the undemonstrative and orderly passage of absolute monarchy into limited monarchy and thereby into a representative democracy, as seen in English and to some extent in Continental History, as in France. In American History the election of Senators by the people at large, instead of their election by the states, has been a quiet and radical reform, as, indeed the great suffrage movements of contemporary history may be said to have been accomplished through the orderly processes of popular expressions. In the Commercial World this law of Reaction in its healthful form has been manifested in the periodical modifi- cations of the Tariff, in the noiseless and unexcited passages from a dull to an active market, in the recent modification of American finance, as seen in the Federal Reserve System, and in the peaceable transfer of thousands of our soldiers from the activities of the camp to those of the counting- room. In the Literary World, every great nation evinces these movements from the creative to the critical, from the real- istic to the romantic, so signally illustrated in English Let- ters. What is called the Golden Age as distinct from in- ferior epochs is but one example of this rational reaction, from one type of condition to another. It is but one of the evidences of the law of change to which everything human is subject. In the Religious World, this law is manifested in the deliberate passage from doubt to certitude, from intense Eras of Reaction 199 emotive states to regulated feeling, in a word from an ill- defined faith to a rational system of belief and method of life. These expressions of Reaction are characteristically nor- mal, fall into line with all other normal processes of life and are directly contributive to personal well-being and the development of natural life. There is, however, the province of Abnormal Reaction, where the natural principle of Action and Reaction as equal is subverted and where we are clearly within the area of Abnormal Psychology. Here the Reactions are sudden and, at times, Violent, dis- ruptive and disorganizing, so unexpected as to find no pro- vision at hand for their correction and control. They are, moreover, Excessive in their measure, passing all ordinary and reasonable bounds over into the most extreme forms possible. They are, distinctly, Harmful, serving no desirable end, running athwart well-established principles and policies and demanding immediate suppression. In the Natural World, this type of Reaction is seen in earthquake and tempest, drought and flood, famine and pes- tilence, as in China, whereby whole peoples are sacrificed and creation tends to revert to chaos. In Personal Experience, ecstacy gives place to despair, optimism to pessimism, and the tragi-comic is the dominant type. In Government, the most pronounced absolutism passes over without notification into the most decided democracy, one form of civic rule gives way to another only by the radical process of civil revolution and a Reign of Terror 200 Timely Topics is the inevitable result. In Cuba and the Latin-American States, as among the Central Powers, this abnormal civic regime is in its worst expression. "Cubans are not gaining faith" writes a recent author "in the possibility of changing from one administration to another by the constitutional method of election and are feeling more confirmed in the ne- cessity of resorting to Revolution." Professor Hayes in his instructive volumes "The Political and Social History of Modern Europe," gives a significant chapter entitled "The Era of Metternich," "Revolution or Reaction," in the development of which he submits an in- teresting and startling survey of the periodical occurrence of Reaction or Revolution in the attempted reconstruction of Europe, after the devastating wars of the Napoleonic Era, emphasizing the Bourbon Revolution in France, the Tory Reaction in Great Britain, the Trial and Abandonment of Liberalism in Russia, the Maintenance of Autocracy in Cen- tral Europe, and the ultimate reversal of the despotic poli- cies of Metternich in favor of a modified civic freedom. So on through the subsequent history in the discusion of such vital questions as Democratic Reform and Revolution, the Growth of Nationalism, the New Imperialism, down to the very beginning of the Battle of the Nations in 1914, there is evident this swinging of the world's pendulum back and forth between the two extremes of Reaction and Radicalism, and a desperate attempt to reach in some way a position of stable equilibrium. In the Commercial World, an era of general prosperity is followed without due notification by one of distress. Stable conditions in the markets and the industries give Eras of Reaction 201 place to panic and the wisest heads are at their wits' ends to comprehend and compass the movement. In the Literary World, — a Golden Age is followed by one of mediocrity and barrenness. In the Religious World — Orthodoxy gives place to Her- esy, Enthusiasm to Apathy, and, for the time being, all creeds and confessions seem to have passed into abeyance, and, as in France in the days of Voltaire, there is a wide- spread renunciation of all religious beliefs. These are the Abnormal, if not Subnormal Reactions of history — concretely illustrated in every age and people and demanding the careful study of every lover of mankind. As Abnormal they mark what Gibbon would call, the Decline and Fall of Civilization, illustrate the dominance, for the time being, of all the extreme elements of human nature, and, unless controlled, will check the moral movement of civilization and set it back to primitive conditions. Action and Reaction must be equalized. Reactionary and Radical alike must make a mutual surrender and meet on the middle and safer ground of reason and law. These Reactions, as might naturally be supposed, are especially prominent in the great crises of history, when the very foundations of the civic and social order are disturbed and new conditions must be met by new methods. In fact, no great historic movement has taken place that has not begotten some such reversion, often so intent and acute as to be of the nature of a catastrophe and threatening the very existence of the state. It is because they are Abnormal that they are dangerous and difficult to control. 'Twas so in the dissolution of the Roman Empire, in the capture 202 Timely Topics of Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in the establish- ment of Modern Europe, in the sixteenth century, in the successive revolutions that have arisen down to the open- ing of the recent war, the occasion of which is largely found in the vain attempt to impose upon the modern world the political principles and methods of the Dark Ages, substitut- ing might for right, and aiming to turn back once and for all the democratic trend of the time. Some of the special manifestations of this modern Era of Reaction may be noticed. i. The emphatic Increase of Crime in all the Allied States and Central Powers, the extreme expression of it in Amer- ica, forming the subject matter of a treatise by Commis- sioner Fosdick. There is the surging of what the statis- ticians call the Crime Wave, breaking on every shore and threatening to submerge all modern institutions. Students of government and social order and economics, students of military science and experts in psychology are being engaged in examining the possible causes of this criminal trend, induced in part by physical causes — the stress of camp life and the shock of battle and, in part, by a distinct mental and moral deterioration — a reaction of the whole man against the established order and an irresistible inclination to oppose and undermine it. So dominant has this destructive ten- dency become, that the cautious methods of the criminal class hitherto obtaining have given place to daring ad- venture in the very face of law, and society finds itself obliged to organize, as never before, as a great protective association for self-defense. 2. A further manifestation takes the form of Labor Un- Eras of Reaction 203 rest — an ever-increasing degree of friction between capital and labor, — and an imperative demand on the part of the employee for a fuller recognition of his claims. Instead of an army of soldiers in their country's service and willingly obedient to the behests of their leader, there is seen an almost equally large army of the unemployed, — partly by reason of a failure to find employment, but mainly by reason of a determined unwillingness to labor at all or only in lieu of a compensation altogether exorbitant. How to grapple with this menacing problem is one of the serious questions of the hour, and measures are in evidence in every nation to mini- mize this consuming friction and coordinate, if possible, all classes and conditions. A question partly civic and partly economic and involving so many complex and conflicting issues, it may well tax the wisdom of the wisest. 3. A spirit of Agitation is one of the issues of this Re- action — the sheer love of disturbance — finding its chosen vocation in disarranging all that is settled and clamoring with persistent boldness for a new and radically different order. Disturbers of the public peace are in evidence as never before — self-constituted revolutionists, avowedly without any constructive programme and bent on agitation for the sake of agitation, already dinning in our ears the dire prophecy of the "Next War" in comparison with which, it is said, all past horrors will be insignificant — criminals at large taking advantage of present conditions to reinaugurate a Reign of Terror. In fine, we are living in an era when it would seem the Loyalty of War has largely given place to the Disloyalty 204 Timely Toffies of Peace, and thousands of men who were willing to face suffering and death for the nation's honor, now that they are mustered out of military service, affect a complete re- version of function and must be counted as practically dis- loyal, — the reaction from the spectacular and exciting life of the soldier to the commonplace and comparative mo- notony of the private citizen expressing itself in chronic dissatisfaction and not infrequently in criminal protest and revolt. Such, as we conceive it, is an Era of Reaction, in its Normal and Abnormal expression, as seen in the Natural World, in Personal Experience, in Government and the Commercial World, in the Literary and Religious World and its characteristics in its Abnormal Form and Special Manifestations. Hence, the duty of the hour is manifest — the restoration of normal conditions — of the civic, commercial and re- ligious and social equilibrium, by which the ebb and flow of the modern world may proceed by natural law and Action and Reaction once again be equalized. Men and nations must come to themselves, return to sanity, their mental and moral balance secured. There is a sense in which the world may be said to be in a state of delirium, as the word etymologically signifies — a out of the furrow" — and must by some process or another be brought back into the furrow and thus able to maintain a straight line of advance as the years go on. Putting hands to the plough, there is to be no looking back, lest the plough shall deviate from its course and the furrow be missed. So vital is this issue, that the destiny of nations is depend- A Needed Revival of Conscience 205 ent thereon. So imminent is the existing status that modern civilization itself is at stake and all personal and private interests must be sacrificed to the common weal and na- tionalism in all states recognize the claims of internation- alism. Instead of a Covenant of Europe, there must be a Covenant of all Peoples, instead of the Balance of Power, the Balance of Obligation and Privilege, and "The Allies" be accepted as the fitting title of the "Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World" — a Holy Alliance in truth. A NEEDED REVIVAL OF CONSCIENCE Conscience is a natural and universal sense — a moral and religious instinct, what Matthew Arnold fittingly calls "A Sense in us for Conduct," — what Wordsworth calls "A Spark of Celestial Fire," "Stern Daughter of the Voice of God." Hence, it deals with character, with motives, purposes, obligations, in a word, with good and evil, detect- ing and asserting the fundamental difference between them. Functioning as a monitor before action, it assumes the of- fice of a judge after action, accusing or excusing, a mental faculty, on the one hand, dealing with the knowledge of right and wrong and an emotive exercise, on the other, experienc- ing satisfaction or dissatisfaction. If we inquire as to the types or forms of its expression, we find them to be as varied as the functions of human activity, entering as a vital principle into every possible phase of human experience. There is the Professional Conscience, as seen, for exam- ple, in what are known as Medical Ethics and Legal Ethics. 206 Timely Topics The Journalistic Conscience, as exhibited in the modern newspaper press. The Athletic Conscience, as expressed in the field of sport. The Academic Conscience, as manifested in the colleges of the country. The Commercial and Industrial Conscience, as seen in the marts of trade and expressed in the world of labor in the relation of "Ethics and Economics." The Civic Conscience, — the application of moral law to government, — municipal, state, national and international, discussed by Aristotle in his "Ethics and Politik." The Social Conscience, operating in the domain of popu- lar habit and custom. In fine, no province in human thought and life is with- out the presence, in some degree, of this interior principle. The need of its revival is one of the dominant disclosures of the time — a need all too apparent in each of its possible spheres of expression. Some of these types may be exam- ined. i. As to what may be called Professional Ethics, a signal illustration may be cited as applicable to the hour. At a recent meeting of the American Bar Association, a Report was presented by a Committee entitled, significantly — "The Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances," as to the "Standards of The American Bar." The Report was based on a Questionnaire sent to the judges of the various states. Some of the judges, it is said, were not aware that any such Canons of Ethics applicable to the Law had been adopted in their states, while in several states no canons A Needed Revival of Conscience 207 were issued. As a special example, it is stated that the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, reported thirty-eight complaints, "the con- version of a client's money seeming to be the besetting sin." Other complaints included such ethical "Grievances" as false affidavits, deceiving clients, forcing a settlement, con- cealment of disbarment on the part of applicants for ad- mission to the bar, inducing clients to invest in a hazardous enterprise, personal solicitation of legal business, and so on. That these misdemeanors, and such as these are far too com- mon in the Legal Profession, cannot be questioned. The province of Medical Ethics is by no means free from cor- responding violators of anything like an ethical code re- quiring strict conformity. It is in treating of Professional Codes that Jeffs writes "Concerning Conscience," while Professor Drake in his in- structive book "Problems of Conduct" writes to the same effect. "There is need of acknowledged Professional Codes, drawn up by representative members and enforced by public opinion within the professions." Hendrick in his "New Medical Ethics" contends for a similar standard. In medi- cine even more than in the law this supremacy of conscience is needed to safeguard the best interests of the patient and also to preserve the integrity of the profession itself. 2. In the field of Modern Newspaper Journalism, and particularly in America, flagrant violations of anything like an ethical standard are manifest, so that there are times not infrequent when the reader is at a loss what to accept as valid and reliable and what to reject. The actual manu- facture of news and their bald manipulation are in evidence, 208 Timely Topics the old policy being illustrated, where the writers were ac- cused of going to history for their imagery and to their imagination for their facts. Unqualified assertions are made quite apart from any real historic basis, and the allega- tion is squarely made that the "interests" so-called, are often the proprietors of the Press, whose bidding must be obeyed, the representatives of the Press spending much of their time in the lobby of our national and state capitols awaiting a ''consideration. " One of the most reprehensible forms of this journalistic method is seen in the reckless manner in which it often deals with personal honor and repute, exposing with "pitiless publicity" the innermost life of the home, making a specialty of scandal and dealing fast and loose with private character. What is needed is accredited facts and the seamy side of life given a less con- spicuous place in the columns. Head-line Journalism is one of the signal developments of the time. As a protest against this type of journalism, attempts have been made to issue a daily or weekly periodical based on fact and the purpose to emphasize the better and not the baser phases of daily life. The most recent attempt in this direction appeared in the American Daily Standard of Chicago, "issued for the purpose of presenting the point of view of a Christian daily newspaper, keeping off the front page any news of crime." It was established, as it says, "to signalize the end of the exploitation, the sensation- alizing, the stringing out of murder, divorce and scandal." The "Standard" was founded, "because there was a real sentiment against the excessive display of crime news and because growing numbers of the people want constructive A Needed Revival of Conscience 209 and accurate journalism." That the experiment survived but a few months, was due not so much to the lack of finan- cial support as to the fact that "growing numbers of the people" want the facts somewhat embellished and magnified. Journalism, after all, will be what the people wish it to be, a true transcript of life or an exaggerated one. In the sphere of Literary Criticism as given in the Daily Press, we note a flagrant violation of conscience, candid and unprejudiced examination often giving place to partial review. Books and authors are summarily dismissed after the most cursory reading, a hasty glance at the Table of Contents being quite sufficient to justify a final opinion as to merit and demerit, though the author has a right to ex- pect the emphasis of excellence and the sympathetic treat- ment of defect. The critics instead of being competent and candid judges are often simply "literary freaks," in no sense entitled to the name of critics in the sense in which Matthew Arnold and Lowell understood and illustrated that appel- lation. In this respect a manifest gain would be secured both for literature and daily journalism if the estimate of books and authors were left to those Weekly and Monthly Issues, in which criticism is given a place of prominence. 4. In the sphere of Athletics, this moral faculty has its place and claims, though often disregarded in favor of questionable methods. "We are out to win" has been too often the slogan of the field, — to win by fair means or foul. It is a significant fact that in pagan times we find the high ideal in this particular province. "Preceding the Olympic Games the contestants were assembled before the statue of Zeus, swearing that they were worthy to compete and 210 Timely Topics would act faithfully and loyally." Thirty days before the contest select judges examined the character and antecedents of the contestants, if so be no unworthy aspirant might gain admittance to the field, an order of procedure that would have prevented such athletic scandals as have at times disgraced and jeopardized some of our most attractive American sports. There is a sense in which the principle of honor — "a fair field and no favor" may be said to be fundamental in the province of sport, where the contestants are supposed to meet on a "gentlemen's agreement" and conduct the contest in strictest conformitv to the code. 5. There is another type of conscience which may be called the Academic, unique in its province and method of expression. It is the type prevailing in all institutions of learning — liberal or technical, under state or private con- trol. It is specifically the code of the campus, and quite un- recognized as applicable outside the collegiate area. It has its own standards, rewards and penalties and inside its par- ticular field is as exacting as any non-collegiate code of con- duct, as exacting indeed as a military code. It expresses it- self in all the varied phases of university life — in the class- room and on the campus, in all social functions, in the rela- tion of class to class and of these to the teaching body, manifested even in the sphere of religious observance and, pervading as an atmosphere the entire undergraduate life. Partly the product of youth as such in its desire for freedom and partly the expression of academic tradition, it stands out as a characteristic feature of modern university life, to be accepted as such and modified as collegiate conditions themselves are changed. A Needed Revival of Conscience 211 6. The Commercial Conscience is one of the most dis- tinctive types — more pronounced and active in this twentieth century than in any antecedent era. "Possibly there never was a time" writes an acute observer "when dishonest speculators were so busy and adroit in finding ways to cheapen everything by deceit. "Business exploitation," writes Croly, "is now allied with political corruption." It is here that we have the Ethics of the Exchange and the Marts of Trade — by the influence of which we have Profiteering in the place of honest Profit- ing, Out-doing, Un-doing, Over-doing, a victimized people. It would seem to be the Golden Age of Adulteration of Goods and Drugs and even Foods, a controlling or corner- ing of the market by which the consumer is forced to pur- chase at exorbitant rates and swell the sum-total of excess profits to the commercial manipulator. Corporations, it is said, have no soul, and we. may add no consciences ; while responsibility is so diffused as to make detection and pun- ishment well nigh impossible. The atrocious crime of child- labor is justified on the ground of its profitableness. Business is said to be business, with its own code and con- ditions — its own means and ends, its own estimate of profit and loss. What is called commercial cleverness or sagacity, takes the form of shrewdness and double-dealing, of studied adroitness by which the buyer is for the time at the mercy of the seller. Most of the high cost of living has been due to this throttling of the Moral Sense in the every-day transactions of trade — this unholy alliance of "Mechanism and Morals." In the Industrial World there may be seen one of the 212 Timely Topics prominent forms of this Commercial Creed — the sphere of "Ethics and Economics." Hence the Dual Entente of Capital and Labor, while presumably acting in unison for common benefit, is found, too often, to be at cross purposes, aiming at totally diverse and independent ends. "Nearly all the wars fought in Europe from the fifteenth century, have been wars for the Open Market," writes Devoe, — specific economic wars. The demand for mutual concession which is made by a patient public is ignored. What Presi- dent Harding has called "The Gospel of Understanding" of fair and square dealing is unheeded and "The Impassable Gulf" between classes is widened. What is needed is what Shakespeare calls "even-handed justice" — a conscientious application of the Golden Rule. 7. There is a Civic Conscience, illustrated by Aristotle in his "Ethic and Politik," the Canons of the Moral Law, applied to municipal, state, national and international inter- ests, and in the sphere of the industries. Even in pagan days contracts were made under the patronage of The God of Good Faith. It is against this stultification of conscience in Politics, that Professor Croly protests in his "Progressive Democ- racy," and it is with this in mind that Vice-President Cool- idge wrote : "We must smite the rock of the Public Con- science if the waters of Patriotism are to pour forth." A comparison of the apparently disinterested and almost de- votional pledges of a Party Platform with a Post-Election fulfillment of them will afford one of the best illustrations in American Civic Life of this remanding of conscience to the rear when the conditions demand it. In the manipula- A Needed Revival of Conscience 213 tion of the ballot, in the transactions of the lobby chamber, legislation may often be seen offered for sale to the highest bidder. Private and Corporate "Interests" must be con- sulted and satisfied ere the common good is regarded, the sphere of Municipal Government in this country being rightly regarded by Bryce as a signal disgrace to our insti- tutions, — the public school system itself being a victim of the Ward Politician. In most of our municipal administrations it may be said that conscience and common councilmen are not on speaking terms. "Let us hope," writes Secretary Hay in his relation to in- ternational diplomacy, "we may never be big enough to outgrow our conscience," and he adds, with a touch of sar- casm, "there might be a worse reputation for a country to acquire than that of always speaking the truth and always expecting it from others." This was his high policy as to the "Open Door," not only economically, but ethically, and he sounds a note of warning "that American Diplomacy, national and international, is perpetually in danger of laps- ing from this moral level." Such lapsing has been far too frequent, a real Lapsus Conscientiae. "There are no ethical friendships" we are told, "between states in our day." Writers are calling our attention to the Social Conscience — communal as distinct from personal, our very word — Morals — as derived from the Latin, being synonymous with Customs or Community Habit. This is what is called Gen- eral Morale, the public code of ethics, the average type of conduct, as variable as public opinion, suiting itself to the rapidly shifting conditions of modern life. This is Com- munity Ethics, notable for its elasticity and rather boastful 214 Timely Topics of the fact that it is an order of popular habit always down to date. It is morality a la mode. It is this Social Laxity and, indeed, Social Tyranny, that Tennyson had in mind as he wrote in "Locksley Hall": "Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth. Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth." It is the modern type of life that Mr. Henderson, M.P., Secretary of the Labor Party in England, has in mind, as he says : "This is the day of the social conscience. There is a corporate sense of sin. There is need of corporate re- pentance. There is a probability of corporate salvation." The modern novel and play based so largely on the pro- nounced prevalence and the attractiveness .of domestic dis- cord and scandal are a manifest reflection and indicator of social standards. Hence the open parade of wealth in the face of the struggling masses, the abrogation of all restraint in dress and demeanor, the insistence on absolute freedom in the domain of conduct, in a word, the recognition of prevail- ining social standards as the only warrantable code of ethics. Such books as "Christianity and the Social Conscience," and "The Social Basis of Religion" aim to span the im- passable gulf that lies between such a conception of conduct and that which so largely obtains in the modern social world, the negation of conscience in the social order being a didactic mark of the Ultra-Socialistic Theory of the day. "Social Justice" it is well said "depends on the Social Conscience." From such a survey, what is first of all clear, is — A Common Characteristic of Ethical Laxity — a spirit of moral A Needed Revival of Conscience 215 compromise and accommodation to suit the demands of the hour, in a word, Unconscientiousness. As the satirist Butler writes in "Hudibras" : "Why should not conscience have vacation As well as other courts of the nation !" What are theologically called Conscientious Scruples, it is urged, must be confined to convents and churches and not be observed in the everyday life of the outside world, where men are supposed to act freely and only in obedience to their interests and instincts. Hence the need of a moral awaken- ing — the assertion of the authority and supremacy of Con- science, demanding the recognition of its claims and brook- ing no evasion — the unqualified subjection to its dictates as ultimate and beyond repeal, a divine oracle, a supreme court of final jurisdiction. The voice of God in man — soul — to be heeded in all professional and private life, in all the forms of human activity, its enlightenment consti- tuting a valid obligation, if so be, it may be a safe guide to conduct in every phase of life. That there are some signs of such an awakening, how- ever dim and infrequent, is one of the auspicious features of the day. Emphatic protests against unethical procedure are more often heard than hitherto. Public opinion is show- ing some indication of betterment and insisting on the recog- nition of its demands in all private and public functions, a real revival of the moral sense, especially needed in free governments, where the people rule and where as such the voice of the people is proved to be the voice of God. It was Ben Jonson, with his mind on the church in its need of an awakening of conscience who wrote : "That 216 Timely Topics the pulpit should ring and the aisles of the churches should ring with that round word." Not only the aisles of the churches, we may add, but also the halls of legislation and our market-places, our literature and journalism, our aca- demic centres and our society at large should ring with that round word, and ring so loud and clear that every ear should hear and heed it, and the moral order of the world be maintained. THE MAINTENANCE OF STANDARDS This is one of the urgent demands of the hour, a direct result of the late war, a demand that must at all hazards be met, if so be civilization itself is to be maintained. A World-War, despite its indirect advantages, is a world- catastrophe, the most manifest and radical effect of which is unsettlement — the disintegration of all existing institu- tions and functions and the unchecked reign of riot. The old days of "The Lord of Misrule" are revived, and any- thing like settled order is uprooted. It is the Golden Age of Dis-Establishment. Hence the call for Standardization — the revival and reenforcement of First Principles — those granitic and tested foundations on which the structure of the world rests. There are some things which in bliblical language "cannot be shaken" though all else disappear. There is a "Kingdom that cannot be moved" — the kingdom of truth and justice and righteousness, and it is the duty of the hour to recognize and defend that kingdom against all disturbing agencies and thus ensure universal progress and peace. The Maintenance of Standards 217 1. In Government, there are some generally accepted Fun- damental Truths — those Civic or Political Postulates which are presupposed in all well-organized states, as essential to their very existence, so essential as by their abolition or impairment to jeopardize all national and international life. There are "inalienable rights" that must be preserved, in- alienable principles that must be maintained, the basis of law and order, — the prerequisites to anything like the general good of the race. What our American historian Fiske calls "Political Ideals," what such British writers as Stubbs and Freeman, in their Constitutional Histories, define and de- scribe as the bases of Civil Government the world over, and of the system of Jurisprudence and International Law — These are the factors that constitute the very foundation of government and must be held inviolate at all hazards. Civil Polity thus conceived at once takes its place among the high vocations of life, immeasurably removed from that merely official and self-seeking type of public service that so often characterizes the modern state. 2. In the Commercial and Industrial world there are ac- cepted laws on which the future of trade may be said to rest — Honor, Honesty, Probity and Candor, Fair Dealing and Mutual Confidence, whereby all parties involved shall con- sult each other's interests and secure a common share in all accruing benefits. Business thus conceived is raised at once from the plane of merely personal or corporate advantage to that of a commercial commonwealth, a real Mutual Benefit Society in which the buyer and seller, employer and employee, are in the real sense, partners, sharers of one another's labors, promoters of one another's interests. 218 Timely Topics 3. So, in the Educational World, a province in which disturbing factors are especially manifest and by reason of which the whole subject of educational method and aims is once again reopened for debate and decision. What is, after all, the primary purpose of education, secondary and col- legiate; what are the most desirable and efficient ways and means of realizing it; to what degree does the past afford an answer and in what respects must it be ignored and radical changes instituted — these are insistent and persistent problems and will not down until settled and settled rightly. Just here it is essential to preserve those primary prin- ciples of all educational processes which have been thor- oughly tested and have proved trustworthy and desirable. There are certain indispensable factors without which edu- cation in a valid sense cannot be secured, standards of scholarship and culture, which constitute what Hamerton calls "The Intellectual Life" and the maintenance of which is not a matter of opinion, but of vital necessity. 4. So, in the Literary World — the domain of taste and aesthetic art, that province in which what Arnold calls "a sense of beauty" is a prime requisite — a real artistic instinct. This is that type of mental activity which finds its expression in written form, in prose and verse, in the wide area of authorship. It is for this that Matthew Arnold contends in his "Essays on Criticism," Bagehot in "Literary Studies," Beggs in the "Development of Taste," Corson in his "Aims of Literary Study," Dowden in his "Studies in Literature," and all those numerous writers who have insisted on the pre- servation of those cardinal canons of criticism which from the days of Aristotle have been regarded as essential factors. The Maintenance of Standards 219 Peoples and individuals must conform to them to be called literate. 5. So, in the Religious World, the province of Doc- trine and life. Here, as nowhere else, the foundations of faith must be in evidence, on which all truth is supposed finally to rest. What the Scriptures call "Sound Doctrine," "Soundness in the Faith" is thus conceived as fundamental. There is in every man what Arnold calls "A Sense of Con- duct," an ineradicable instinct, an order of life based on cer- tain a priori principles, from which there can be no safe divergence. The great historic Creeds and Confessions of Christen- dom are supposed to embody such canons of religious thought. Whatever difference of opinion may be held as to secondary truths, there are some cardinal truths on which Christianity is founded and in the acceptance of which all confessors must unite. This is the Consensus Gentium in the realm of religion. In the light of these suggestions as to the primacy of Standards in all departments of thought and life, it is per- tinent to sound a note of warning as we discern what may be called, The Modern Trend, so potent and persuasive and far-reaching that all opposing forces must be summoned successfully to thwart it. 1. In Government, there is the tendency to break away from all precedent and long established political principles into the open area of unregulated liberty, by which ex- pediency takes the place of justice, partisanship the place of unselfish loyalty, and under the name of democracy and the rights of the people, the wildest excesses are sanctioned. 220 Timely Topics On such a theory of government civic order and civic pro- gress are impossible and the most sacred interests of states are at the mercy of the lawless. The fundamental policy of the proletariat is the subversion of standards — the com- plete reorganization of national life on the basis of com- munism, whereby, as a final issue, tyranny and anarchy pre- vail. No result of the recent war is more ominous than this, and it appeals to every right-minded citizen to control it and insist on the retention of political standards. 2. In the Commercial and Industrial Sphere this dan- gerous Trend expresses itself in the abolition of anything like a Commercial Code and the substitution of personal interest for the common good. Instead of the interaction of capital and labor, of producer and consumer, for mutual benefit, what is now broadly known as Exploitation is the accepted creed and each one for himself takes the place of the Golden Rule of Altruism. Business, it is held, has a well defined province and policy of its own, quite outside of ordinary procedure, in which it is understood that all existing standards are annulled and a new regime instituted more in keeping with the exigencies of the hour. Com- merce and the Industries, it is argued, may have been profit- ably pursued under the restricted requisites of the past, when the world was less inter-dependent and competition less acute, but not so now, when trade has become world- wide and commercial rivalry cannot be met by ordinary methods. Profiteering in the place of honorable profiting has become a practical science, in the hands of industrial ex- perts, who insist that old business standards are effete. 3. So, in the sphere of Education. The very theory of The Maintenance of Standards 221 education as held hitherto is re-opened and questioned, — what it really signifies, what its ultimate purpose is and what the best methods are by which its ends may be attained. The fundamental principle on which Higher or Liberal Education is based is challenged and we are asked to sub- ordinate what has been known as Intellectual Culture to the material demands of the time. This is far more than a question as to the comparative merits of a classical and scientific training, as discussed by Matthew Arnold and Mr. Huxley, respectively, far more than a question even as to the relative value of a general and a vocational training. It is a question as to what makes education what it purports to be, when a man may be said to be educated, what the inspir- ing spirit of mental training is and how it may best be cultivated and expressed. This is the crucial problem and all those who are interested in the things of the mind must recognize this modern uneducational trend and make haste to meet and resist it. 4. So, in the Domain of Letters, in which the departure from accepted standards of literary art are so manifest, Literature is fundamentally a fine art — an expression of aesthetic sentiment and taste, in prose and verse, and can- not safely be reduced to the level of the material and mer- cenary. One of the most pronounced tendencies of the time is the commercializing of literature — the substitution of literary notoriety for literary repute, of mere entertain- ment for inspiration and instruction. It is the era of the best sellers as indicating literary genius, and authorship is in the open market for the highest bidder. In the sphere of Fiction and the Drama, this unliterary trend is most 222 Timely Topics conspicuous, and the Novel and the Play must be so con- structed as to satisfy the popular demand for the sensa- tional, superficial and financially profitable. These, it would seem, are the only standards worth observing. 5. So, in Religious Thought and Life. What are called the Standards of the church and the Christian world at large are accepted, if at all, with emphatic reservations. Free- dom of Thought on which insistence is made, is especially applied to the province of religious doctrine, and the trend is straight toward the negation of all creeds and confessions — the abolition of standards. It is the Era of the Latitudi- narian, who prides himself on his freedom from all accepted doctrinal restrictions and is a tourist at large in the realm of thought, having the right of way over all local boun- daries. He has the self-assumed privilege of Extra-Terri- toriality in the sphere of truth. If the church is to exist as an institution and there is to be any such thing as a dis- tinct basis of action, and a real religious order and civiliza- tion, this ir-religious, un-religious, non-religious trend must be checked. Thus it is that in Government, the Industries, Education, Literature and the Religious Realm, the Demolition of Standards is the ominous trend, partly, the expression of that tendency to unrestricted action germane to human na- ture from the beginning, and intensified, as it has been, by the destructive influence of the recent war. Hence, the duty of the hour is manifest on the part of those who may be called — The Standard-Bearers of Modern Civilization, in which duty the Christian Church and Chris- tian Institutions of Learning have a special mission to ful- The Maintenance of Standards 223 fill, not simply in conserving the essential values in religion, education and literature, but in government and the indus- tries and society at large. The biblical injunction to "hold the traditions" which we have inherited "earnestly to con- tend for the faith once delivered" to us, is an injunction ap- plicable to every sphere of human thought and activity. Be ing assured as to what the standards are, then we are to hold them inflexibly against all counter influences. It is, moreover, pertinent to note that this maintenance of standards, of fundamental truth, is in no sense incon- sistent with a Valid Progressivism, but is rather its neces- sary guarantee and support. Any such thing as a genuine and wholesome liberalism must be guarded and governed by certain unalterable principles, by a fixed foundation of truth and right, lest it degenerate into lawless and violent ex- tremes. One of the dominant and most difficult duties of the hour in church and state, in social, civic and commercial life is to mediate between an ultra conservatism and an ultra liberalism, whereby there may be secured what with- out contradiction may be called, a liberal conservatism and a conservative liberalism, — the only sure guarantees of progress. The Reactionary and the Radical must alike be discarded, and a safe middle ground be found on which all alike may stand, and work for the fulfillment of com- mon ends. As Archbishop Whaley states it: "It is not enough to believe what we maintain, but we must maintain what we believe and because we believe it." Some fixed point of departure must be held, some final court of appeal there must be to which all doubtful issues may be referred. In human history, as in the sphere of physical science, there 224 Timely Topics must be with the dynamic factor the static factor, by virtue of which the dynamic is able to function. It is this static factor which must be established and maintained, to secure what the Scriptures call "the stability of the times." e THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 AA 000 241112 l : [ 1