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[Page 73]

WORLD UNITY

A Monthly Magazine for those who seek the world outlook upon present developments of philosophy, science, religion, ethics and the arts.

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor

Contributing Editors

W. W. ATWOOD MARY AUSTIN HARRY CHARLESWORTH No POON CHEW RUDOLPH 1. COFFEE GEORGES DUHAMEL HAVELOCK ELLIS AUGUSTE FOREL HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS KAHLIL GIBRAN CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN YAMATO ICHICKASHI RUPUS M. JONES DAVID STARR JORDAN SAMUEL LUCAS JOSHI VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF P. W. Kuo HARRY LEVI LOUIS MANN ALFRED W. MARTIN F. S. MARVIN KIRTLEY F. MATHER LUCIA AMES MEAD KARIN MICHAELIS HERBERT A. MILLER FRED MERRIFIELD DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI HARRY ALLEN OVERSTREET JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. FORREST REID WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD MARY SIEGRIST ABBA HILLEL SILVER AUGUSTUS O. THOMAS GILBERT THOMAS RUSTUM VAMBERY ALAIN LOCKE M. P. WILLCOCKS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Editorial Office-4 East 12th Street, New York City

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 4 East 12th Street, New York City. MARY RUMSEY Movius, president; HORACE HOLLEY, vice-president: FLORENCE MORTON, treasurer: JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Secretary. Published monthly, 35 cents a copy, $3.50 a year in the United States, $4.00 in Canada and $4.50 in all other countries (postage included). THE WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION and its editors do not invite unsolicited manuscripts and art material, but welcome correspondence on articles related to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U.S. A. Contents copyrighted 1927 by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION. [Page 74]

The Century of Hope

F. S. MARVIN

WHAT hope, we have next to ask, does the last century hold out for the general progress of legalized relations between the free nations which have thus been growing up? On this the answer is unequivocal. The nineteenth century was an incomparable first, in the extension of international law and in the reference to arbitration of questions in dispute, The former development was the sequel to the growth of trade and science, and of industrial and medical art. As all these things are by nature international, they brought in their train a mass of inter-state conventions which as much exceed the similar agreements of earlier centuries as our statute law of the nineteenth century exceeds all the rest put together. The second development, that of arbitration, was the result of convenience and common sense, and is almost entirely a feature of the nineteenth century. . . .

But we must pass on to the wider and deeper links. The Hague Conference and The Hague Tribunal, though the historian will note them carefully as landmarks in international progress, are rather to be classed with those earlier efforts, Penn’s Essay and St. Pierre’s Project, as symptoms rather than as great events. . . .

It remains, however, paofoundly true—the most important fact in our whole discussion—that the spiritual forces, of which we may trace the workings in the same period, are the supreme factors, both in building the individual soul and in giving a common soul to all humanity... It is in this sphere, the sphere of pure intellect, that, as Dante showed, the unity of mankind is most fully realized. All seats of learning, whether universities or learned societies, or associations for spreading knowledge in wider circles, are in reality the organs of a true internationalism, and strengthen the human spirit by knowledge springing from a universal source and tending ultimately to the universal good. [Page 75]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

by JOHN HERMAN RANDALL

II. The Forces Making for Unity

The heart of Christendom is turned more or less earnestly today in the direction of 'Christian unity', but greatly as this is to be desired, it is not enough. In a world which is so fast becoming one community, the sectarianism of one religion in relation to other religions must be transcended, re-placed by an intelligent and whole-hearted sympathy between religions which shall make of religion, whatever its name, the supreme unifying force in the life of mankind.

But during the same period that these mighty disunifying forces have been dominating the world there have been other forces, gradually growing stronger and becoming more apparent, that have been making both directly and indirectly for the consciousness of a common humanity, for mutual understanding and cooperation, for the new spirit of unity and fellowship in the life of humanity. If these disunifying forces represent the old age that is fast disappearing, it is the new forces making for unity that are the embodiment of the spirit of the new age that is even now dawning on the world.

The first of these forces making for unity is modern science, and especially in its great achievement in making of this globe a geographic unit. A century ago the peoples of this earth were separated by vast expanses of territory and still ster stretches of water. Today huge railway systems have belted all continents and great steamship lines are traversing all the seas. There have come [Page 76]the telegraph, the telephone, and latest of all, the radio, which have made of this world a tiny whispering gallery. Space has been annihilated. It is doubtful if a hundred years ago there were a dozen daring individuals who even dreamed of journeying around the world. In the month of January from the single port of New York alone there sailed a half dozen or more palatial occan liners, carrying literally tens of thousands of men and women, on their annual cruises around the world. Last month there was opened for service the Transatlantic Telephone Radio, which makes it possible for a man to sit in his office in New York and send his voice 3600 miles across the Atlantic so that the man sitting in his office in London receives his message. And yet, it was only fifty years ago that Alexander Graham Bell sent the first telephone message from Boston to New Haven.

And now comes the aeroplane. Grover Clarke, the editor of the Pekin Leader, recently said, in a public address in New York City, that before he died he fully expected to be able to step into an aeroplane in Pekin in the morning, lunch at Tokio at noon, dine at Honolulu that night, breakfast in San Francisco the next morning, and dine in New York the second evening. We who live in the midst of these rapid developments of science do not begin to appreciate the tremendous changes that are taking place in the annihilation of space, nor do we begin to appreciate how this planet is fast becoming one little neighborhood. When aerial travel is once practically established-and it will be at no distant date-what then will become of national boundaries, of custom tolls, of tariffs, and even of the distinctions of languages? The simple fact is that science through all its marvelous discoveries and inventions has brought the peoples of this globe into one community, though they are scarcely beginning to be conscious of this fact as yet. China is no longer thousands of miles away; it has become a suburb of New York, or more accurately, New York is a suburb of China. There are no longer any "foreign countries" as respects their distance from us, any more than there are any "alien peoples". We are all living today in one community, thanks to science-a world community, and the supreme task of the twentieth century [Page 77]is to make this fact real, as we enter more fully into a world-consciousness. The world has become a geographic unit through the annihilation of space by science.

But it is also true that this world is fast becoming an economic unit. A hundred years ago each nation was pretty much sufficient unto itself. Without the means of travel and communication, each country was practically a "walled" country in that it depended on its own resources. Supplies of food, clothing, housing and all the other demands of the people came from within their own borders, generally speaking. All this is changed today. With the establishment of the means of communication, with the opening up of trade and commerce with all portions of the world, with the coming of the Industrial Revolution and its steadily increasing demands for new markets and raw material, no nation is any longer sufficient unto itself. We have all become mutually dependent and interdependent one upon the other. If isolation in space has been annihilated, economic isolation has just as truly been abolished by the development of a world commerce, the coming of a world industrialism, the foreign investments of all peoples which, for weal or for woe, have bound us all together economically.

Norman Angell, the English publicist, made a statement recently which illustrates this great change that has come over the economic life of the world. He said, in substance, that when the War came, every intelligent Englishman admitted frankly that at bottom this was an economic war. With the rapid growth of her industries and trade, Germany had been fast crowding England out of many of her world markets. She had become England's most formidable business rival. According to the time-honored principle, the only way to get rid of a business competitor was to crush him, and so England with the help of her allies had no alternative but to proceed to crush her economic rival. In this she was successful. But with what result? In the years following the crushing process the economic life of England has been at lower ebb than at any time since the days following Waterloo, and finally, things became so desperate for England that her [Page 78]the citizens went down into Lombard Street and raised literally tens of thousands of pounds and sent them over to Germany in order to get the "crushed rival" on her feet so that England could begin doing business with her again. If it means anything, it proves that the prosperity and well-being of any nation today depends upon prosperity and well-being of all peoples, so closely linked have the lives of all become. We are indeed all "members one of another" today, not as a matter of theory, but in the most practical affairs of our daily economic life as well.

One of the great revelations of the War was the fact that the last century had built up a vast, complex, intricate, and most delicate economic machinery that involved the whole world to a degree that very few realized; and the economic conditions in all countries since the War are but the inevitable result of the disorganization of that world machinery by the War. The old competitions and rivalries have no place in the new world into which man has come. The Congress at Vienna last October, at which some 2,000 delegates representing all the states of Europe were present, had as its objective the economic cooperation of Europe—all for each and each for all. The new spirit making for unity in the life of men will not rest content until the spirit of just and fair cooperation shall have permeated the economic relations of all peoples.

But still more significantly, the cultural life of the world is rapidly becoming one as it has never been in the past. A hundred years ago we knew little or nothing about the ancient cultural life and ideals of other peoples outside of the western world. Today that ignorance is fast being dispelled. Max Muller and others translated the sacred books of the East into English, making the knowledge of the Eastern religions available to all; and out of this has come the new science of comparative religion with its genuine appreciation of the highest and best in all religions. Through gifted scholars we have become acquainted with the literature, the art, the music, the drama, as well as the religion, of those other peoples; and with this knowledge all ideas of "superior" and "inferior" races have been proven unscientific. We have dis- [Page 79]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

covered that all peoples of every race have the same general abilities and powers, and, once given the opportunity, they express them in the same general way. The old idea that it was the mission of one race to extend its particular brand of culture throughout the whole world is giving way to the recognition that each race and every people have their distinctive contributions to make to world culture, and that we have no right, nor can we afford, to despise or ignore any of them.

The distinct contribution of the western world to world culture is science. There is no such thing as a national science—English or Russian or German or Chinese—in the nature of things there can only be one science, that is, a world science. The same science that is taught today in Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Princeton, is also taught in the same way in the universities of Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, Pekin, Tokio and Yokohama. But if our contribution is science, the cultural life of the Orient has its own contribution to make as well, and we are beginning to see that we have much to learn from the East; we must learn to take as well as to give. This is the purpose of the University of India, founded by Sir Rabindranath Tagore, as a clearing house of the best that both East and West have to offer. The cultural life of the future will not consist exclusively of Anglo-Saxon culture, or German kultur, or French culture, or Slavic culture, or Chinese culture, or Indian culture. It will rather be the harmonious blending of the best and highest of all these various cultures that have cariched the life of men based on a deep and intelligent appreciation of the distinctive contributions that all peoples have made. The cultural life of the wor.d in the future will not consist of a deadly uniformity out of which all variety has been driven; it will consist of unity in variety—the deep consciousness of the common and universal life from which all differences spring.

A fourth influence making for unity is the growing realization of what modern warfare really means. War is so old a thing and so deeply intrenched in the emotional life of men, and the rationalizations we make about war have become so vital a part of most peoples’ thinking, that an abstract argument against war, or a [Page 80]wholesale denunciation of war, leaves many people cold and unresponsive. Far more persuasive, in my judgment, are the cold, grim facts becoming constantly more clearly convincing as to the mechanical character of modern warfare, the sources out of which it springs, the methods that modern war must necessarily employ and the unparalleled destructive effects that it is bound to have increasingly in the future. These are the facts, rather than any mere sentimentalizing over war, that are bound to furnish dynamic power to all Peace organizations if they are wise enough to use them rightly, that are already bringing the peoples of all lands into one universal league against war as being in its modern form, whatever it may have been in the past, utterly subversive of every human value and destructive of the very basis of civilization itself. It is this realization, spreading everywhere today, that is bringing all peoples, unconsciously as yet, into closer unity and understanding in their common struggle against the arch-enemy of mankind.

Lastly, there is a growing sense of the need of a new synthesis in human life that cannot fail to make for the spirit of unity and cooperation. In every quarter today there is being expressed the feeling, "Why all this needless strife, these wasteful conflicts, the vague confusion, this ignorant muddling through of problems?" As Graham Wallas puts it, "the amalgam has dropped out of life; the centrifugal forces are in the saddle, and there seems nothing left to bring us together in fruitful service to humanity and mutual cooperation one with another." As races, nations, classes and individuals we are all backing off into our little corners and shouting out our own shiboleths or siboleths. Why cannot the centripetal forces be set in operation? Why can we not get together? Why can we not achieve a general common view-point as to what life really means? Why should we not, in spite of all our differences, work together for the real advance of humanity's life as a whole? This spirit is growing unmistakably. You will find it expressed in the best books, coming today from the philosophers, the historians, the social theorists, the religionists in every land. The desire thus born is being translated into strong and clear [Page 81]

THE IDEAL OF WORLD UNITY

aspiration throughout the world, and it will find at length--it must find-the methods and the technique whereby this new spirit of human unity, of cooperation and of fellowship can become the energizing power in political institutions, in economic organizations, in religious bodies everywhere, until civilization shall indeed be born anew and all men shall indeed come to know themselves as brothers.

The ideal of World Unity toward which men are more or less vaguely groping their way today is not, then, any kind of uniformity, but a unity in diversity, a unity that recognizes differences, respects them and includes them all in its Wholeness; it is a recognition of the moral and spiritual equality of all races and of all men; it realizes that the interest of all men are mutual interests, and that what hurts one hurts all, and what helps one helps all. It is not a theory to be believed, but a new consciousness to be experienced, to be felt and known and loved as one loves life itself. It is to be found and realized as one begins to lay aside his prejudices and seeks to refashion his thinking, and then begins to move out along the line of goodwill, of cooperation and sympathy with all who live and aspire everywhere.

In the drama entitled, "The World We Live In" by the Czechoslovakian brothers Capek, which was produced in New York a few years ago, there was a series of scenes depicting different phases of modern civilization. In the last scene, the "Vagabond" attempts to sum up the meaning of it all. In substance he says: Here we all are in this world, races, nations, classes, individuals, all striving for the same thing-the struggle for existence. We are all reaching out for the richer, fuller, more satisfying life. But is it not strange that while we are all striving for the same thing, we are all striving against each other; we are hurting, weakening, wounding, maiming, killing one another? After a pause he resumes: Why can we not strive together for richer and fuller life? Why can we not as races, as nations, as classes, as individuals, stand shoulder to shoulder, and heart to heart, and strive together against death in every form-physical death from disease and pestilence, mental death from ignorance [Page 82]and superstition, moral death from sin and crime? Why can we not together strive for all that makes for the richer, fuller, happier life for all men everywhere?

Just because the spirit of the new age dawning is the spirit that makes for unity and understanding, for fellowship and co-operation, against all the old forces making for disunity and separation, for bitterness and strife, the great word of today, and increasingly of tomorrow, will be that one word—together. In just the measure that we can find something of ourselves in all others and something of others in ourselves, will we come to share the spirit of the new age, and thus become potent influences in the realization of the new ideal of World Unity.

The first part of Mr. Randall’s article, dealing with the forces making for disunity, appeared in the October issue. [Page 83]

APOSTLES OF WORLD UNITY

II-LEON BOURGEOIS (1851-1925)

by ALBERT LEON GUÉRARD Department of Literature, Stanford University

LEON BOURGEOIS, in America, is not a name to conjure with. In his own country, his position was a singular one: lofty, but somewhat remote. Yet he filled to perfection a definite place in the development of world unity. His eminent respectability, his sanity, his tact, were needed, no less than the mystic fire of a Tolstoy or the massive, impassioned eloquence of a Jaurès. He was the first leading statesman to subordinate, in his own career, the field of national politics to the service of world organization. He saved the two Hague Conferences from complete failure; he provided a working philosophy of international cooperation; he made the expression "Société des Nations" familiar and a respected one, and thus prepared the way for the present League. He never was dramatic, and in a sensation-loving age, he never provided a good "story" for newspaper men. But he served a great cause, and he served it long and well.

His life was too smoothly successful to be fascinating. He was reticent: when we speak of his life, we can mean only his public career. He was born in Paris, in 1851, the son of a watchmaker. He studied, and for a brief season, he practised the law, which, at twenty-five, he abandoned for an official administrative position. He rose rapidly in the French bureaucracy, was a Prefect at thirty-one, and, at thirty-six, had attained one of the most important and most coveted posts in the service, that of Prefect of Police in Paris. He made therefore a brilliant record as a practical administrator [Page 84]before he went into politics, and he retained throughout his life the cautious, judicial and pragmatic turn of mind of the executive official.

In 1888, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, against the military demagogue, and Revanche advocate, the "Caesar for Music-Halls", the "shop-soiled Napoleon", General Boulanger. Almost immediately, he was offered a cabinet position, and his very brilliant and rapid career culminated in the leadership of the Radical Party. As such, he became Prime Minister in November, 1895, and retired in April 1896, still supported by the Chamber, but opposed by the Senate. The right of the Senate to overthrow ministries was not very securely established, and Bourgeois might have made a successful fight. But he was exactly the reverse of a politician, and above all of a Radical politician (although the term radical has not quite the same connotation in French as it has in recent American parlance). He had been, from early youth, cautious, moderate, diplomatic, eminently conciliatory and reasonable. It is highly to the credit of French Parliamentarism that a man of Bourgeois's quiet refinement should be almost forced to a leading political position. But he was glad to give up what he thought sterile strife.

After his resignation from the Premiership, he steadily refused to be in the front rank again. He was still the official leader of the Radical party, and it became a sort of ritual in French politics to offer him, at every crisis, the chance of forming a cabinet. He quietly declined. The Presidency of the Republic, for which his natural dignity and his moderation made him particularly suitable, was within his grasp: but he could not be tempted. He did not, however, sulk in his tent like another conservative leader of an advanced party, Lord Rosebery. He remained in active politics, but as a reserve force. He repeatedly accepted portfolios—for the last time in the short-lived Painlevé Cabinet in 1917. He was at one time President of the Chamber of Deputies, and later President of the Senate. In the thirty-five years of his political life, through the most bitter crises of French politics (Boulangism, Panama, Dreyfus Case, Anticlericalism, etc.), he had at first many opponents, but he never had an enemy. [Page 85]

LÉON BOURGEOIS

I saw Léon Bourgeois for the first time about thirty years ago. It was at a meeting of the Education League, an admirable institution, of which he was long the devoted and very active President. He was remarkably handsome in a quiet style. No touch of Bohemianism in him, as there was in Gambetta; no one could have mistaken him for a business man or for a Colonel in mufti: bearded, frock-coated, with the inevitable steel pince-nez, he was, every inch of him, the professional man, the "intellectual". But he was not an ascetic, unworldly looking intellectual: there was no lack of quiet assurance behind his professional glasses. His rather full countenance, a certain thickness about his lips, a touch of heaviness about his nose, gave him an almost semitic appearance. These features of his physiognomy became even more strongly marked in his old age. I have never heard it suggested, except by the irresponsible "Gyp", that he had Jewish blood in his veins. But, in France, the intellectual Jews are so thoroughly assimilated that you never can tell.

He was a perfect orator: that is to say, the thought of oratory never came to your mind whilst you were listening to him. His mastery of French was faultless, his voice well-modulated, his manner restrained without stiffness.

In 1896, he published a brief but important work of moral and political philosophy: SOLIDARITY. With his gift, not for compromise, but for conciliation, he had hit on a doctrine with which collectivists and individualists were satisfied. Does the individual exist for the sake of society, or society for the sake of the individual? In the abstract, how could we know, and why should we care? In practice, we must adjust the two conflicting claims. On what basis? For the unqualified assertion of total dependence or total independence, he substituted the notion of inter-dependence, or Solidarity. Man, historically, is not quite free. Between him and society there exists a quasi-contract, morally binding and justifiably enforced. Liberty begins when the social debt is paid. This unassuming doctrine, opposed to the anarchism of the extreme liberals, and to the tyranny of the State worshippers, has gradually found its way into the French educational [Page 86]system, and may be said to be the moral basis upon which it reposes. Between the ideal of a "free-for-all" fight, and the ideal of enforced conformity, it raised the ideal of willing cooperation. We have insisted upon this little book, for Solidarity was the guiding principle of Léon Bourgeois, not only in pure politics and in social problems, but in international relations as well. In his mind, the individual nations were free, but inter-dependent. Between them, history had created a quasi-contract. The Society of Nations, like human society, existed before its laws were formulated. It did not have to be created: it only had to be recognized. The quiet doctrine of Bourgeois turned world unity from a wild utopia into a scientific fact.

In 1899, he was sent to The Hague as first French delegate to the Peace Conference. He contributed to the creation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and became a member thereof. In 1907, he was again first French plenipotentiary to The Hague. Once more, he was chairman of the Arbitration commission, and he attempted to secure the adoption of compulsory arbitration, were it only in a strictly limited field, such as the juridical interpretation of international conventions. The uncompromising hostility of Germany caused this moderate proposal to fail.

Many people interested in the growth of world unity feel that Bourgeois's very active participation in the Hague conferences was perhaps the decisive factor that saved them from disastrous failure. The United States was probably the only great nation in which official opinion was fairly ready for a move in the direction of organized peace. England is slow in making up her mind—however sensible and even generous that mind usually is, when it is finally made up. Germany and her "brilliant second" were frankly hostile—indeed openly contemptuous. Even France was hesitating. No one took the Tsar very seriously. His initiative seemed the vain gesture of a dreamy autocrat, not even so practical or so sincere as the constant and pathetic pleas of Napoleon III for "European congresses". The Tsar was too powerful not to be politely humoured; public opinion, although torpid, had taken rather kindly to the idea of reducing armaments. But it was [Page 87]

LÉON BOURGEOIS

understood among "sensible, practical men" that this pious ceremony would have no serious consequences.

Public opinion was definitely ahead of official opinion; and the disappointment at the meagre results of the Conferences was very great. But the failure was not such as to cause a violent reaction of cynicism. A few men, among whom Bourgeois ranks first, put so much earnestness and so much moderation into the work of the Conferences that world unity, from a vague and rather suspicious ideal, became a definite, practical goal. The long disease of diffidence and despair, the passive acceptance of Bismarckian "realism", which had followed the collapse of the humanitarian hopes of 1848, was checked at last, and the process of recovery began. These services are "imponderable": many ardent pacifists bracketed Bourgeois with the cynical diplomats who, with peace on their lips, had consciously sabotaged the work of the Conferences. History, we trust, will be more equitable.

From 1899, without giving up his participation in French politics, Bourgeois thought in terms of The Hague as well as in terms of Paris. His reports to Parliament, his addresses before international meetings, his great influence among French teachers, contributed to break down the massive prejudices against world organization. It must be remembered that in those days, the revolutionary parties alone proclaimed an international ideal. These many years of useful activity are summed up in a capital little book (Bourgeois was averse to ponderous tomes) entitled LA SOCIETE DES NATIONS, the Comity, or Society, of Nations. The phrase, which he did not coin, but which he popularized, has remained official in French. We need hardly point out that, as a title, it is much better than the Wilsonian League. A League is a fighting organization: Wilson's League was a compound of Bourgeois's Society and of the American "League to Enforce Peace".

Bourgeois was inevitably called upon to help in the preparatory work of the Peace Conference; he reported to the French Senate on the Treaty of Versailles; in 1919, he was the head of the French Delegation to the League of Nations. It was fitting that the Presidency of the Assembly should be given to him. [Page 88]We regret that his voice, during these difficult years, was not raised in favor of a more generous policy. Unfortunately, the Extremists were in the ascendant: the Tiger himself was considered as a moderating influence! Bourgeois was no longer vigorous enough to fight them; and he would probably not have been inclined to do so, even if he had been able. He had long been identified with the region of Rheims, the martyred city: we are apt to forget how hard it was then for a son of bleeding France to become again a "good European" and rise "above the strife". However, it must be said that, as early as 1919, Bourgeois proposed considerably to strengthen the League. He wanted to entrust it with the supervision of armaments; and although he was averse to the idea of a superstate, he favored the creation of an international militia. Moderate as ever he was in the vanguard.

In spite of the fact that he had been a belligerent, he received in 1920 the Noble Peace Prize. Unable to deliver in person the customary address, he sent it in writing to the Nobel Committee: it will be found in the Proceedings of the Nobel Foundation for 1921-22. It is his political testament, and a very noble document, which all lovers of peace would do well to meditate. In the advocacy of their ideal, the appeal to sentiment is uncertain: waves of feeling may carry us into war; the appeal to interest is rejected by many as ignoble; and, unfortunately, whilst it is true that no nation ever profited by war, dynasties, special interests and powerful individuals may be among the profiteers. Only the appeal to reason will avail in the end. Bourgeois is a rationalist, a son of Descartes and Voltaire. But his rationalism is not detached and cold: his long career, so evenly successful, ended in an affirmation of hope and an act of faith.

In 1923, his health, which for many years had not been robust, grew decidedly worse, and his eyesight failed him. He resigned his many important positions, and kept his stoic vigil until September 29, 1925. France, whom he had loved and served so well, gave him a national funeral. When The Hague and Geneva have their Halls of Fame, his place shall be there, unobtrusive but secure. [Page 89]

SCIENCE AND RELIGION: ARE THEY FRIENDS OR ENEMIES?

by KIRTLEY F. MATHER Department of Geology, Harvard University

"The dust of controversy---what is it, but the falsehood flying off?"

THE recent wave of opposition to the teaching of evolution in American schools and colleges is in part caused by the fear that science and religion are enemies rather than friends. The attack upon science has all too often been based upon ridiculously unsound premises, but the belief that something is wrong with science must nevertheless be carefully considered. Mr. Bryan voiced the opinion of many persons when he exclaimed at Dayton, Tennessee: "You must choose between evolution and Christianity; you cannot accept both." To many, the advance of science presupposes the retreat of religion.

At first glance, history appears to support that conclusion. Time and again, in the progress of civilization, scientists and theologians have joined issue concerning some point of fact. Does the earth revolve around the sun, or does the sun actually move across the "firmament of the heavens" from dawn to dark? Is man a result of evolutionary processes by which he has developed from other forms of animal life, or was he manufactured in a few hours rom a lump of clay? A Galileo is hailed before the Sacred Congregation of the Index at Rome in 1633; a John Scopes is summoned into a District Court at Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925. Whatever may be the verdict of the particular time and place, the abiding judgment of thoughtful men everywhere is in favor of the scientist. With monotonous regularity the world discovers that science is [Page 90]right, that theology is wrong. Does this set the precedent for the future? Must religion retreat ignominiously until it is pushed completely into the discard by an advancing and victorious science? The experience of the past does indeed suggest the trend of the future, but when the theologians have been thus defeated it was because they fought not as the champions of real religion but as the defenders of an outworn and faulty science in the face of a new and truer science. The cardinals at Rome in 1633, Mr. Bryan and his colleagues at Dayton in 1925 were not defending Christianity against its enemies; they were the champions of the science which was current in about the year 1000 B. C. in the countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean. A theology which believes its chief mission in life is to preserve tradition rather than to discover truth is a static theology; it is bound to fall before the advance of dynamic science.

The history of every great religion shows a definite development and modification of the theological and philosophical concepts which it cherishes, because no great religion could possibly be stationary. It must be moving forward, keeping abreast of the ever-moving current of human thought. In Roman Catholicism, for example, there has been noteworthy progress along these lines in spite of its conservatism and its respect for tradition. It was, of course, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church who demanded of Galileo a retraction of his statement concerning the movement of the earth and caused Bruno to be burned at the stake because he would not renounce newly discovered and greatly cherished scientific principles. But that happened hundreds of years ago. Today, the Roman Church takes a very different attitude toward evolution. Formerly, Roman Catholicism acted as though its faith depended upon the belief that the earth is the fixed and immovable center of the universe; today Roman Catholicism takes an absolutely impartial view toward evolution. There are individual priests, here and there, who affirm that evolution is anti-Christian; but the leaders of that great sect make no pronouncement either way. They say, and say wisely, that it is none of their business, that it matters not a whit to the Catholic faith whether evolution [Page 91]

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be true or false. In the Roman Catholic Church there are many great institutions of learning, the faculties of which include hundreds of skilled teachers of science, many of whom accept evolution as a demonstrated principle. The position which this large group of Christian folk take today is a perfectly logical one. The modern attack upon the scientists comes not from the Catholic, but from the Protestant. There are a number of Protestant denominations, not nearly so wise, perhaps because not nearly so old as the Roman Church, who rush blindly, although very boldly, into the breach and announce that no one can accept the findings of modern science and at the same time keep his faith in God.

The reason for that pronouncement is obvious to the historian. Protestantism started as a wave of opposition to the Roman Catholic dogma that there is one infallible spokesman for God, that the Pope by virtue of his office holds the keys to heaven, that his official utterances are clothed with Divine authority and are to be accepted unquestioningly as inerrant. Protestantism affirmed that no human being is infallible; that there is no single individual through whom men must make their approach to the Divine Spirit. At first, when the Protestant denominations were starting upon their notably victorious career they upheld no infallible authority to take the place of the infallible Pope who had thus for them been set aside. Responsibility for the discovery of religious truth was placed quite frankly upon each individual. The founders of Protestantism looked upon the Bible intelligently as a collection of many books, the values of which were by no means the same. But men curiously hesitate to trust their own judgments; they generally want to place the responsibility for a decision upon some other person or thing. A flip of the coin, a blind choice of a verse of scripture, the advice of a friend, are preferred to one’s own reasoned judgment. In religion especially do men crave an absolutely sure authority and very soon, in the history of Protestantism, an Infallible Bible began to take the place which had been occupied by an Infallible Pope. Thus the Bible came to be known as the Word of God, an inerrant source of instruction in all [Page 92]matters, secular or religious, upon which it touched. Its science as well as its philosophy and ethics must be defended as of Divine origin or inspiration.

With that view of religious authority, science can make no peace. The description of the external world which was satisfactory to the writers of the more ancient portions of the Old Testament is now known to be faulty and inadequate. The science of Genesis is in complete opposition to the science of the Twentieth Century; no amount of quibbling over the meaning of terms can harmonize the two. But the majority of intelligent persons nowadays have a fairly good understanding of the real nature of the Bible. It is not a book, but a collection of books. It is a library of religious and historical documents written by different individuals at different times for different purposes.

Some of these documents are clearly allegorical and were never intended by their composers to be taken literally. When a man talks or writes about a "tree of knowledge of good and evil", he is obviously using a figure of speech; he is not referring to any particular species of fruit tree, apple or otherwise. Similarly when he describes man as formed of the dust of the ground and receiving from God the breath of life, is it not likely that he is thinking crudely of the fact that man is a creature of mixed nature: of the earth, earthy; but capable also of great spiritual development? To take the allegory and the parable, the figure of speech and the picturesque romance of the Bible as literal statements of fact is to do that volume a great injustice.

The chronologic succession of the many documents interwoven in the Bible reveals unmistakably the evolution of one great type of monotheism. For example, in certain parts of this library there are specific directions as to just how burnt offerings should be prepared, just what garments should be worn, just what ritual must be followed, just what environment must be entered in order to commune with Jehovah. Then in contrast to that archaic idea of what God expects of men, there is a great prophet who asks "What does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?" There has been a [Page 93]

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change from one type of religion based on formalities and rules, to another type of religion based on mode of life and relations to one's fellowmen.

Or again, the stories of creation in Genesis reveal something of the ideas which men at one period of Jewish history had concerning the relation of God to man. Why was it that Adam and Eve were sent forth from the Garden of Eden? According to the popular notion it was because they had broken a regulation when they partook of the fruit of a prohibited tree, and as punishment for thus breaking the law they were sent forth from the Garden. But the last three verses of the third chapter of the Book of Genesis tell a very different story and give a most revealing flash of insight concerning the patriarchal estimate of Jehovah. "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden cherubims with flaming swords which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life."

In striking contrast is the voice of the humble Carpenter of Nazareth, "I came that ye might have life and have it more abundantly." "For God so loved the world that he gave his Son that whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting life." Ancient Judaism had evolved into Christianity; monotheism was racing forward, progressing with the expanding and advancing minds of men.

Nor should we think that revelation was completed when the last documents in the Bible had been compiled. John of Patmos was not the last inspired writer the world has seen. Witness the biblical record itself. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free;" not "I have here given you all the truth, and you are now free." "When he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth;" not "I have told you everything you need to know and all is now revealed." The Biblical scriptures are but a part of the greater library which records the success [Page 94]with which men have discovered the nature of the universe, the character of spiritual energy, the qualities of life.

But this is only a small part of the problem under consideration. If we grant that it is the business of theology primarily to discover truth and only secondarily to preserve tradition, we cut through the temporary and trivial conflicts to the fundamental relations between science and religion.

Science has as its goal the complete description of the universe in which we live; religion seeks to find the most abundant life which man may possess in such a universe. Geology is a collection of beliefs and ideas about the earth, it deals with facts and experiences pertaining to the transformations of material objects when acted upon by such forces as gravitative attraction and electro-magnetic impulses; it strives to interpret aright the world of sense perception, of which we are so constantly aware. Theology is a collection of beliefs and ideas about the mutual relations between God and man; it should deal with facts and experiences pertaining to the higher reaches of human life; it must strive to interpret aright the spiritual realities of which adventurous souls are abundantly aware.

The most inspired men of religion, if we may rate the quality of their inspiration by the permanency of their influence, have been characterized by scientific habits of mind. They have looked to nature to discover nature's God. "Consider the lilies of the field; behold the fowls of the air." Not mere rhetoric; but absolutely sound advice. The Master Teacher used those phrases because he meant just what he said. If one understands plant and animal life, one will be led through that understanding to a new comprehension of the nature of the Power which is partially displayed in that sort of life. But these leaders in the field of religion have been wise enough to base their teachings on spiritual realities rather than on current descriptions of the material universe Jesus, for example, did not commit himself concerning the principles of Meteorology, although there were many contemporary debates about the nature and origin of the wind.

The theologian must use the scientist's description of physical [Page 95]

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phenomena as an aid in discovering the higher values of life. It is the business of theologians today just as it was the business of Moses, Elijah, or the Christ, to take the best description of the physical world, which the keenest observers and most rational thinkers of their day can offer, and to give to that description the spiritual interpretation needed that men may properly evaluate the forces operating in the universe. The development of theology is therefore intimately related to the expanding knowledge of the material universe which has marked the more recent evolution of man.

From one point of view it is true that the scientist and the theologian ought to remain each in his own territory. Beyond doubt much of the apparent conflict between science and religion has been due to the failure to comprehend the distinction between these two fields of thought. Nevertheless there is a broad area in which they necessarily overlap. How can one tell what is the most abundant life unless one knows the nature of the universe in which that life must be lived? How can one get a satisfactory religious motive and outlook for life in a physical world without understanding the nature of that physical world? Somehow religion must be related to the life which we know through observation and experience; and this life is certainly a part of the field of natural science. We must discover how the mind of man operates in order to learn how the soul of man may grow. We must know the regulations of physical life in order to reach out and upward into the realm of psychical life. Science and religion are too intimately related to permit any barrier to be erected between them.

Unfortunately, many persons refuse to appraise them similarly. Science in its discovery of the regulations of the physical world, is proclaimed as going forward victoriously day after day. But as a matter of fact nearly every victory for science means necessarily the overthrow of some previously cherished idea which scientists had held. The quantum theory and the Einstein theory bid fair to destroy or greatly modify certain principles which physicists have long held. But no one ever considers this revolution in physical science as anything except a great victory. [Page 96]Similarly, if the theologian must also have his face toward the future, if he must be discovering truth, then necessarily his progress involves the rooting out of error, the abandonment of ideals long cherished. He too must destroy in order to construct. he too must break down the old in order to build the new. But strange though it seems, if theologians announce that a concept long cherished in the annals of religion is no longer acceptable because of newly discovered f...s or a new understanding of experiences, most people conclude that this is "just another defeat for religion".

This is obviously unfair. When a theologian abandons a formerly acceptable belief concerning the nature of the Administration of the Universe because he finds it incompatible with new information concerning operations within the universe, it should no more be reckoned a defeat for religion than the development of the quantum theory should be hailed as a defeat for science.

That of course implies that the creeds and dogmas of religion are milestones which mark the progress of our discovery of the real nature of God, and the true relations between man and God. They originated as statements of belief, interpretations of facts and experiences. Although they were based upon life, they have become for many persons mere words to be repeated glibly and thoughtlessly. To understand them aright we must focus our attention not on their phraseology, but upon the experiences and facts which brought them into existence.

Ofttimes those experiences were interpreted in the light of the contemporary beliefs concerning the physical world. With the advance of science, new interpretations are necessary. Frequently the great truths of religious philosophy have been so closely associated in the minds of churchmen with the faulty description or incomplete understanding of natural phenomena possessed by ancient prophets, that the advances of science have seemed to be just as much a blow to those truths as to the concepts of nature with which they were associated. On the contrary, the result of many scientific discoveries has been to affirm anew the validity of many of the truly fundamental doctrines of theology and to [Page 97]impress upon mankind more forcibly than ever before the abiding value and true satisfaction of the richer type of life implied by a rational religion.

In both science and religion there is need for the ever recurring cycle in which the prophetic mind is followed by the priestly mind. Flashes of insight into the nature of the world and of human existence are gained by the prophets. Then they are crystallized into phrases by the priests. To the prophet goes the credit of leadership in discovery; to the priest goes the credit for preserving the knowledge gained by the prophet. Ever and again, new prophets must arise, both in science and religion, to burst the confining walls of inherited orthodoxy and blaze new trails to higher vantage ground.

As one considers the evolution of religion it is well to note that however firm may be its foundation on facts and experiences, there needs must be not only new statements of old truths, but also the radical modification of ideas to fit the new experiences of the race. Every experience is real, and therefore true; only beliefs about experiences may be true or false. The test may be applied only by the great experimental method of science: what is the result in human lives of the particular belief undergoing appraisal? By their fruits may the doctrines of theology be known.

Here especially the theologian needs to use the methods which have proved so successful when used by science in its interpretation of nature. An interpretation which seems satisfactory only to one individual, when many have the same or a similar experience, must be looked upon with considerable scepticism. Experiences may be accepted as correctly interpreted and rightly understood when a particular belief about them seems satisfactory to a large number of thoughtful men who are in a position to pass judgment upon that belief. Science has learned to distrust not merely the hasty conclusion of the untutored mind, but also the biased conclusion of an individual who has already committed himself regarding similar problems. Realizing as we do, how difficult it is to understand correctly the nature of the external world of sense perception, it is necessary to take every precaution [Page 98]when we attack the still more difficult task of interpreting the mystical experiences of the human spirit.

Because the normal human mind is inherently rational, at least in some degree, such tests have always been applied to religion. In consequence, we find that every great religion has centered around a great personality. Theology in the abstract, however rational it may appear to be, has little appeal to the average man. But theology made vital in the life of an individual is one of the most powerful forces in the universe.

The evolution of religious philosophy is keeping pace with the expanding knowledge of the material universe. Therein is indicated the abiding nature of spiritual realities. Because men dare to stake their lives upon the correctness of their beliefs concerning the nature of the universe and the character of its administration, mankind will survive in the struggle for existence. That struggle is by no means ended because we have bread and clothing, automobiles and airplanes. The real problems which we have to face are in the realm of the spiritual rather than the material, the psychical rather than the physical. There are crises in the evolution of life in front of mankind as well as behind him. To win through to the truly satisfactory life of which the prophets have dreamed, man must summon every aid which can come to him from religion as well as from science.

"The world stands out on either side, No wider than the heart is wide. Above the world is stretched the sky, No higher than the soul is high. The heart can push the sea and land Farther away on either hand. The soul can split the sky in two And let the face of God shine through. But East and West will pinch the heart That can not keep them pushed apart; And he whose soul is flat, the sky Will cave in on him by and by." -EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY [Page 99]

EDUCATION AND INTERNATIONALISM

by EDWARD L. TROXELL Dean of Trinity College

TODAY more than ever in the world's history—not excepting the period of the World War—are the nations of the earth brought into a strong bond of close relationship. No nation can afford to miss the opportunity of strengthening the world unity and fellowship which men are striving for and which many have already found to exist in large measure. The neighborliness of nations is in part an incident of the rapid advancement of science, especially in methods of communication and travel; it is also largely a result of conscious action and effort on the part of those whose vision and imagination go far beyond the present petty interests of individual nations.

In recasting our ways of thinking under these changing conditions, and in the consideration of all life problems, it is an important fact that spiritual leaders today are constantly drawing lessons from science and the material world; while the scientist just as eagerly searches for the spiritual application of his new discoveries to the deeper things of human experience. So in this anomalous condition we cease to be scientists or ministers or philosophers, as such; all are spiritual and each is more scientific in his way of acting and thinking.

World unity in matters of race, religion, politics, etc., is being given a strong impetus today through a concerted movement which promises much in the way of educating all people to the greater possibilities and opportunities of brotherhood and internationalism. In this paper, we are concerned not only with the purposeful attempts to bring about world amity and a close cooperation between the nations of the earth, but we are also [Page 100]interested in the fact that such a friendliness exists already, comes forth spontaneously, and is inevitable in the future.

INTERCOMMUNICATION

Almost overnight, it seems, we find ourselves neighbors of the people of Europe; at the present time it is an old story to cite the crossing of the oceans and lands by aeroplane. Although probably not more than a score of men have accomplished the feat of flying from one continent to another, yet it promises to be a most ordinary event in the near future. The few men who have traveled in this novel manner to and from foreign cities, have excited such admiration for their daring and skill that they have effectively brought the people of distant nations to a closer friendship; the human contact has stimulated the sympathy already existing between all races.

Although it is not unusual for official and even unofficial visitors to arouse great enthusiasm and affection between nations, it is the increased possibility of this that stirs such interest at the present time. Just as harmony and unity exist between the states of a nation, because the people cease to be citizens of any one particular state, so the international spirit may supersede narrow nationalism, not with harm but with every advantage to the races and countries concerned.

Due to the amazing advancement of science, the voice of a man may be heard in the most distant parts of the earth, as it is sent forth with the velocity of light. Developments in the use of electricity, facilitating the telegraph and telephone, and now in a superlative degree the radio, have not only kept pace with aeroplane perfection but have been in large measure responsible for its remarkable success. No more do we need to send our "ambassadors of goodwill to foreign lands to establish or maintain friendly contacts, for they who represent the nation may have direct intercourse with those in authority elsewhere and indeed with the multitude itself. The President of the United States, speaking over a chain of radio stations had a possible fifty million hearers—we [Page 101]

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are told---not only in America but in the centers of civilization on every continent.

Messages of friendliness flash through the ether at a speed that would circle the earth seven times in one second, inspiring confidence, allaying distrust, and establishing goodwill and understanding among the nations of the world. Photographs may be transmitted from one continent to another in a few minutes; negotiable checks are sent in the time it takes to write them; business may be transacted with foreign countries as easily as it can be carried on between the cities of this land. Our market, our Stock Exchange reflects immediately the conditions abroad, and we find ourselves deeply concerned in and in a large measure dependent upon the affairs of the Old World.

INTERNATIONALISM

Thus we approach a time when such a phrase as "100% Americanism," or "America for Americans", and all super-patriotic devices of the sort, cease to have the usefulness and significance they once held; we realize now that they bespeak a selfishness and narrowness that is not in accord with the sentiment of a nation of fine ideals; they have no place or purpose in a country which enjoys such prosperity and which is so competent to serve the rest of the world.

No more may men speak of foreigners in the derogatory manner they were wont to use in referring to those whose tongue is unfamiliar; German children, even to the time of the World War, were taught that North America was a land of barbarians. We find that the "Heathen Chinese", taken as another example, are not inherently illiterate and ignorant; their civilization, their art, literature, science, had reached a high degree of development long before the culture of the western races began. "Civilization ever trends westward" and, literally looking to the west, beyond Japan whose progress has been so phenomenal recently, destiny has set for China a great awakening; her restoration and advancement are being strongly encouraged and aided in America even now. The progressive development of China, or any other nation, has a [Page 102]bearing and influence on our own welfare, and we are impelled to the belief that hereafter the success of any single country can not be achieved and prolonged in the face of a great world disaffection.

The increasingly closer contact, which is now being secured in terms of nations and in world proportions, is just a repetition in kind of what has been done again and again as civilization and improved methods of travel and exchange have brought rural districts in touch with the great centers. Parts of the South, great stretches of the West were almost hopelessly out of accord with the rest of our country until the telegraph, the railroad, and more recently and more especially the automobile not only brought new ideas to isolated groups, but even accomplished an intermingling and intermigration of the individuals of separated districts. Probably nothing except a common enemy breaks down the barriers and antagonisms which exist between sections, nations, races, more quickly than the direct contacts which result from the commingling, intermarrying, cooperation, that is inevitable among people brought into close association; the world is experiencing this very thing on a new and unprecedented scale.

Just so unusual is the response of nations and their people to the distinguished visitors from other lands, so much enthusiasm has one country felt over the accomplishments of aviators from another that we are prone to think world unity is already achieved; we are lulled into a smug complacency. Much must yet be done to stabilize the minds of temperamental peoples, to lay a broad foundation on which mutual interest may rest, even when and if international respect may lapse temporarily. The finer sentiments of our dispassionate moments should be insured against the devastating effects of momentary ill-will and irrationalism.

EDUCATION IN WORLD AFFAIRS

It is inevitable that the people of the earth will more and more have common interests and identical ambitions, but education in terms of world affairs and on a universal scale should be encouraged by every legitimate means: by sensible advertising, by instruction, by the propagation of the gospel of goodwill and understanding. [Page 103]Those who represent and direct the affairs of nations are more apt to appreciate this phase of the world's needs, but the great multitude must be impressed with the importance of extending the horizon of their interests beyond national boundaries. The conviction of the need and possibility of a world brotherhood, a world fellowship, will take the place of the more primitive instinct of national self-preservation.

This education, in addition to the splendid encouragement derived from the World Unity Movement", has received a great impetus in the recent exploits of our aviators; great events of any sort fire our imagination, but the daring feats of these men, of whom the list is growing rapidly, have commanded the highest admiration of all mankind. The spontaneous reception accorded these world figures, without regard to age, religion, race, or nationality, demonstrates, when the opportunity is offered, the subconscious readiness of men of all lands to let down their national barriers.

Despite the anger and hostility which we developed during 1914-18 against Germany and her allies, the World War wrought miracles in unifying the purpose and outlook of all men; and now that the battles are over and the artificially stimulated antagonism and hatred toward the opponents is swept aside, we realize that the encounter has strengthened preexisting bonds, has increased our knowledge of the world in terms of world affairs, and has inspired a wholesome respect in mankind for mankind.

CULTURAL PROGRESS

In days of old it seemed that cultural progress was spontaneous and had connection with, or dependence upon physical advancement; yet the rule is that the material world must pave the way, afford the neccessary leisure for thought, and must furnish the basis for cultural development. The facts known, we would find this a rule for all time; it certainly is especially true in the twentieth century.

So rapid has been our material progress in recent years that we have not had time to adjust our new code to the shifting [Page 104]scene: the cultural never keeps pace with physical progress but always lags behind. The youth of today is criticized because he is attempting to work out this new adjustment. In spite of the fact that we may too rashly tear down an old structure before any new shelter is formed, the replacing of that which is faulty, inadequate, untrustworthy in the abstract world is as imperative as is the erection of a new edifice in the physical world, of better design and greater endurance. Men of today will be tardy in coming to the full appreciation of the new conditions; the deeper and fuller significance can only be realized in succeeding generations.

As new accomplishments and new discoveries are made in the physical world, the younger generation finds it impossible to adjust itself to the old codes and old customs of life. In these circumstances they seek freedom from that which encumbers needlessly and in their inexperience are sure to revert to a more primitive state, with lower moral standards. In the end sure progress has to be seized upon by the older generation and through education and instruction, secured for those who follow.

In the new condition of world-relationship and the propinquity of races and nations, with the certain and increasingly rapid interchange of ideas, customs, and commodities, we find ourselves launched into a new state of affairs, that demands a whole new spiritual outlook, a new culture, and a new moral control. [Page 105]

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

Edited by ALFRED W. MARTIN Society for Ethical Culture, New York

The Sacred Scriptures of Hinduism

T the close of the preceding article, it was proposed to present the readers of World Unity Magazine with selected passages from the sacred scriptures or bibles of seven extant great religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, Confucianism, the first three constituting the 'Aryan' group, the next three the 'Semitic', and the seventh representing the so-called Turanian' group.

Let us begin with the oldest portion of the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, viz., the Rig-Veda, metrical compositions of a people who forty centuries ago occupied the territory between the Indus and the Ganges and who were the ancestors of present-day Hindus in India.

The name Veda derives from the Sanskrit "Vid", to know, and means knowledge, or more particularly, religious knowledge. The word "Rig" signifies praise-hymn, i. e., a hymn in praise of the personified forces and phenomena of nature. Hence the Rig-Veda connotes the collection of hymns of praise expressing the religious knowledge that obtained in ancient India among the so-called Aryas. The Rig-Veda is therefore not a chronicle of kings, not a set of laws, nor an exposition of theological tenets, but a collection of prayer-hymns, the spontaneous utterance of a simple religious faith, which is still revered and used by Hindus today.

Compare the beginning of each of the sacred scriptures of the other religions with those of Hinduism and it will be observed that the latter are unique in that the very beginning of the Hindu canonical scriptures consists of a collection of prayer-hymns. From the very [Page 106]inception of their history the Hindus believed in the efficacy and necessity of prayer, and are distinguished today by the regularity and frequency of their practice of prayer. The Rig-Veda is a collection of 1028 hymns, of some 10,000 stanzas in all, the whole five times as long as the Hebrew Psalms. In the estimation of orthodox Hindus, the Rig-Veda is regarded not as a human composition but rather as a divine revelation breathed forth from the mind of the eternal into the souls of poet priests, Rishis as they were called, who first put them into Sanskrit. These religious poems were ncidental to the sacrifice-the dominant feature of Vedic life; for the chief acts of the people who lived this life were sacrificial. Their chief thought and concern was the praise and conciliation of their gods at the sacrifice-a libation of the juice of the Soma plant and of Ghee, melted butter, poured into the sacrificial fire to the accompaniment of the hymns.

Open the Rig-Veda anywhere and you read the daily drama of sunrise and sunset, of dawn and twilight, of sunshine and rain, of wind and storm, of light and darkness. "What else," asked the late Max Miller (to whom we are chiefly indebted for what we know of the Veda) "was there to interest these Aryan folk but this very drama?" Yet it would be a sorry mistake to see in these descriptions merely an account of nature-processes. These Aryas addressed the sun, the wind, the rain, etc., with the pronoun "Thou". In the words of one of the Rishis, "We are not sun worshippers, not fire worshippers, not wind worshippers, but sun. fire, wind are symbols of a Power within them, ruling them and related in various ways to man." Every aspect of nature gave to this primitive people cause for reflection and produced the belief that some power resided within or behind each force or phenomenon. so that no part of the universe was regarded from a physical or material standpoint alone, but always as embodying or expressing a power higher than man and capable of influencing human affairs. The Vedic poet rose in the early morning to a sacrificial day. The very first natural phenomenon he saw was the glorious maiden Ushas, the dawn, and she was spontaneously praised and pressed into the service of her worshippers. [Page 107]

PRAYER-HYMN To USHAS, THE DAWN

We have crossed to the other side of darkness, Gleaming Aurora hath prepared the way. Delightful as the rhythm of poem, she smiles and shines. To happiness her beauteous face arouses us. This light hath come, of all the lights the fairest. The brilliant brightness hath been born, far-shining, Urged on to prompt the sun-god's shining power. Night now hath yielded up her place to morning. Bright bringer of delights, Dawn shines effulgent. Wide open she hath thrown for us her portals. Arousing all the world, she shows us riches. Tis Heaven's Daughter hath appeared before us, The maiden dazzling in her brilliant garments. Thou sovereign mistress of all earthly treasure, Auspicious Dawn, flash thou to-day upon us!

RIG-VEDA, BOOK 1: 92, 113

When the Vedic Hindu said "Savitri, Thou Sun", or "Surya, Thou Sun", he was not thinking of the fiery ball that rose over the Himalayas and set behind the Indus, but rather was he thinking of the power within or behind the sun and regarded as responsible for what the sun does as giver of heat or of light, as life-promoter for as life-preserver; for, each of these functions he spontaneously personified and addressed by an appropriate name.

PRAYER-HYMN TO SAVITRI (The Sun as Life-Promoter)

God Savitri, approaching on the dark blue sky, Sustaining mortals and immortals, Comes on his golden chariot, beholding all the worlds. O Fiery God, with thy keen eye, Thou scannest, like God Varuna, The doings of all busy men. [Page 108]Thou stridest o’er the sky’s broad space. Thy rays do measure out our days; Thine cyc all living things surveys. R.-V. I: 35; III: 62

PRAYER-HYMN TO SURYA

(The Sun as Life-Preserver)

By lustrous heralds led on high, The fire-Sun ascends the sky; His glory draweth every eye. The stars which gleamed throughout the night, Now scared, like thieves slink fast away, Quenched by the splendor of thy ray. Thy beams to men thy presence show; Like blazing fires they seem to glow. R.-V. I: 50

Indra, Agni, Dyaus, Varuna-what are all these names but attempts on the part of this ancient people to symbolize the infinite in the finite, the invisible in the visible, the supernatural in the natural? We say, "it thunders"; the Aryas said, "Indra thunders." We say, "it rains"; The Aryas said, "the Maruts, comrades of Indra, have come."

PRAYER HYMN TO INDRA

(Thunder)

Let us sing glory to the far-famed Hero, who must be praised with fair hymns by the singer!

Unto the Great we bring great adoration,--a chant with praise to him exceeding mighty!

O Strong God, the riches which thy hands have holden from days of old, have not perished nor wasted.

O Indra, thou art splendid, wise, unbending! O Lord of power, strengthen us with thy might! R.-V. I: 60, 62 [Page 109]

HYMN TO AGNI (Fire)

Agni, accept this log of wood, This service which I bring to thee, Hear graciously these prayers and songs! With this log let us honour thee, Thou son of strength, the horse's friend, And with this hymn, thou nobly born. And let us servants with our songs Serve thee, the lover of our songs, Wealth-lover, giver of our wealth! Be thou our mighty, generous lord, Thou lord and giver of our wealth, And drive all hatred far from us!

PRAYER-HYMNS TO DYAUS-PITAR (Heaven-Father) AND TO PRITHIVI-MATER (Earth-Mother)

R.-V. II: 6

I praise with sacrifices mighty Heaven and Earth At festivals, the Wise, the Strengtheners of Law, Who, having Gods for progeny, combined with Gods. Through wonder-working wisdom bring forth choicest boons. With invocations on the gracious Father's mind, And on the Mother's great inherent power I muse. Prolific Parents! They have made the world of life And for their brood all round wide immortality.

R.-V. I: 159

Yea, Heaven and Earth, ye hold in your possession Full many a treasure for the liberal giver. Grant us that wealth which comes in free abundance! Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings!

R.-V. VII: 53 [Page 110]What sin we have at any time committed Against the Gods, our friend, our house's chieftain, Thereof may this our hymn be expiation! Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger! R.-V. I: 185

The most highly ethicized of the Vedic deities was Varuna (Ouranos, Heaven) for he was guardian not only of the Cosmos but also of the moral order, the keeper of Rta (righteousness), to whom the Aryas prayed for release from the oppressing sense of guilt and for forgiveness of sins.

PRAYER-HYMN TO VARUNA (as World-Guardian)

Whoso stands, walks, or sneaks about, And whoso goes slinking off, whoso runs to cover; If two sit together and scheme— Varuna is there as the third and knows it.

Whoso should flee beyond the heavens far away Would yet not be free from King Varuna. From the sky his spies come hither, With a thousand eyes do they watch over the earth.

All this Varuna beholds: What is between the two firmaments, what beyond. Numbered of him are the winkings of men's eyes. As a (winning) gamester puts down the dice, Thus does he establish these (laws).

PRAYER-HYMNS TO VARUNA (As guardian of the moral order)

Whatever ordinance of Thine, O God, O Varuna, as we are men, We violate from day to day.

Give us not as a prey to death, To be destroyed by Thee in wrath, To Thy fierce anger when displeased! [Page 111]

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF HINDUISM

Varuna hear this call of mine! And be propitious this day! Longing for help, I cried to Thee! Thou, O wise God, art Lord of all! Thou art the King of earth and heaven! Hear, as Thou goest on Thy way!

R.-V. I: 25

With mine own self I meditate this question: When shall I have with Varuna communion? What gift of mine will He enjoy unangered? When shall I happy-hearted see His mercy?

O Varuna, what was my chief transgression, That Thou wouldst slay a friend who sings Thy praises? Tell me, God undeceived and sovereign, guiltless, Would I appease Thee then with adoration?

Set us free from the misdeeds of our fathers. From those that we ourselves have perpetrated;* Like cattle-thief, O King, like calf rope-fastened, So set Thou free Vasistha from the fetter.

Twas not mine own will, Varuna, ’twas delusion. Drink, anger, dice, or lack of thought, that caused it: An older man has led astray a younger. Not even sleep protects a man from evil.

O let me like a slave, when once made sinless, Serve him the merciful, erewhile the angry. The noble god has made the thoughtless thoughtful; He speeds the wise to riches, he a wiser.

R.-V. III: 86

Note the distinction made at this early date (1500 B. C.) between sins for which we are personally responsible and those inherited from ancestors. [Page 112]As from a bond release me from transgression. May we swell, Varuna, Thy spring of order, (ethical) May no thread break as I weave my devotion Nor mass of work before the time be shattered. Remove afar the wrongs which I have committed! O King, may I not suffer through another's deed! R.-V. II: 28

And now, in conclusion, let us ask in what sense have Christians outgrown the Theism of the Rig-Veda, the gospel of the divine in nature and in man? Only in this: They have dropped the letter "s". The Aryas recognized deities; the Christians know only Deity. The former spoke of gods; the latter speak of God. The ancient Hindus thought of the universe as split up into innumerable parts, each superintended by a particular deity; the modern Christian thinks of the universe as a unit, an organic whole, superintended by an infinite and eternal Power manifested in the creation. But despite these differences, Vedism has still its value for the modern world since it serves to bring home to us the helpful truth that there is no such thing as "dead" matter or "brute matter or "inert" matter, but that wherever we turn we are face to face with what is ultra-material. Vedism reminds us that spirit is bound up with matter in all its forms, that the universe is throbbing, thrilling, pulsing, with divine energy and divine meaning [Page 113]

THE BIOLOGICAL SANCTIONS OF WORLD UNITY

ERNEST MAURICE BEST The United Theological College, Montreal

1. The Unity of Matter

As the World War drew to a close, men everywhere began to dream of a new era in which the age-old doctrine of universal brotherhood would at last find practical expression. We had been fighting, so we believed, to enthrone justice and liberty and democracy throughout the world. We were enthralled by the vision of a world society, a League of Nations, bound by solemn covenants to justice, goodwill and cooperation. The Golden Age foretold by prophet and poet had arrived at last.

But we were too optimistic. The idealism which had been cultivated so sedulously by the war leaders of every country was soon abandoned in the clash of selfish interests. The familiar spirits of greed and fear and hatred were still with us. Our dominant political and economic groups could not bring themselves to a broad and generous policy, either to their enemies or to their allies. As a consequence we have had a revival of a brazen, selfish nationalism. We have had a recrudescence of racial hatreds. We have seen a wild scramble for the control of the world's natural resources, with a cynical disregard for the rights of weaker nations. We have been dragged to the very edge of economic perdition by vicious struggles between Capital and Labor. As a natural consequence, we have a new and fiercer competition for military and naval supremacy than we ever dreamed of even in "the mad days" preceding 1914.

To support these conflicts, present and prospective, there has developed a world-wide propaganda pretending to offer scientific, ethical and even religious sanctions for these policies of individual and group selfishness. We are reminded that we live in a world of [Page 114]infinite diversity, which inevitably leads to conflicts of interest. It is pointed out that life exists at many levels and that it is a law of nature for the inferior types to subserve the good of the few who are superior. There are bitter protests against the folly and wickedness of all "Socialistic" attempts to level life down to an ignoble uniformity. The Darwinian hypothesis of natural selection has been given the widest application in social, political and economic theory. It is said that human nature being what it is, and what it always will be, we can be sure that the only adequate motive for industry is self-interest and the only guarantee of peace is superior force. Lord Birkenhead, one of England's most successful politicians, has summarized this pig-pen philosophy admirably: "The world still belongs to the strong arm and the shining sword."

Thus we are brought face to face with a "realistic" philosophy of individualism and nationalism, which scorns the idle dream of a world brotherhood transcending the barriers of racial, national, economic and cultural difference.

It is useless to deny that there are facts of experience which seem to justify this emphasis on Competition and Difference. The world does appear to have progressed through a blind, selfish and ruthless struggle for survival. There are enormous differences between the various levels of life and between different racial and national groups. We face here one of Life's many paradoxes in the unsolved relationship between Variation and Unity, between the Individual and the Group. The Pluralist asserts that the world consists of an infinite number of unrelated atoms or monads. The Monist feels sure that ultimately these points of energy in space, whether physical or mental, find their ground in some universal and eternal One. The principles seem to be mutually exclusive and contradictory, but we cannot escape the evidence which proclaims the world as both "The Many" and "The One".

It is not my intention to offer you an easy and final solution of this ancient dualism. I have not discovered "The one single hypothesis which explains everything." I shall content myself with the still too ambitious effort to summarize for you the biological sanctions which support the thesis of world unity. [Page 115]

THE BIOLOGICAL SANCTIONS OF WORLD UNITY

This is no easy task, for the development of science has been so rapid in recent years that it is difficult to keep in touch with even its major generalizations. In the second place, science is so highly specialized that even an "encyclopedist" would hesitate to commit himself. My only excuse is that the insistent demands of religion and education require every thinking man to emulate the ambitious M. D. who advertised himself as a "Specialist in all Diseases".

The difficulty of developing a synoptic view of man and world should not prevent us from making the attempt, for our age is in desperate need of a gospel which is consistent with the facts of scientific discovery. The old sanctions and explanations of life continue to crumble, and if there are any grounds for our faith in human solidarity and cooperation we should put them forth without delay. There can be no doubt that the discoveries of the last two or three hundred years have had a disintegrating effect on the religious and philosophical systems which we have inherited from the ancient world. Each new extension of science has seemed to emphasize the facts of Difference and Multiplicity. The world is profuse and diversified beyond the wildest dreams of even our immediate forefathers. We seem to face vast aggregations of incongruous and unrelated elements and experience. The world appears to be a veritable kingdom of Ishmael in which it is "Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost." If there is a constructive and unifying principle in science we should not allow it to be obscured by the more obvious facts of Variation and Difference.

In addition to this disorganizing effect of science we must remember that the natural man inherits a strong bias toward pluralism and discontinuity. The history of thought shows that the human mind is attracted first of all by Variations and Differences. Consciousness is aroused by the sudden, the dramatic and the abnormal, and only after much reflection does it begin to discover the underlying facts of Unity and Continuity. Primitive religion is universally polytheistic, and it is only with culture that men begin to economize in gods, to arrange them in [Page 116]hierarchies and to arrive at even a nominal monotheism. Even such a highly rationalized religion as Christianity has had difficulty in making a satisfactory synthesis, as may be seen from 1600 years of dialectic to prove that the Eternal One may yet be Three. Still more significant is the persistence of an unresolved remainder, operating as Satan, the spirit of Evil who divides the world with God. Even this reduction of the Many to Four or to Two is beyond the range of millions of devout Christian people today, as is evidenced by the worship of the saints and the popularity of spiritism.

The natural man is first impressed by the manifold representations of life and it requires a high level of reflection to appreciate the All-Embracing One. It has always been difficult for men to achieve a unified and coherent theory of life. They have always found it easy to abandon the austere worship of Jehovah, the one true God, for the far less exacting demands of a multitude of Baals. If we believe that the world really has coherence, unity and purpose, we should make haste to present our case as briefly and simply as possible.

COSMIC UNITY

For reasons which will appear as the argument develops, I should like to begin with a very brief summary of the evidence indicating the unitary character of the material universe. The development of improved apparatus for the study of astronomy, combined with the rapid advance of experimental physics has greatly increased our knowledge of the cosmos. According to recent computations, space contains many millions and probably many billions of stars, similar to our sun. These suns represent all stages of development. from extremely hot, luminous and diffuse gases to cold, dark and compact solids. Many are smaller than our sun, but some are seventy times as large in mass and millions of times larger in extent. Although beyond the reach of direct evidence at the present time it seems reasonably certain that thousands of them must be attended by planets similar to our earth. The life cycle of these stars from birth to extinction is a very long one, in some cases at least, requiring a time interval of 200 million years. All [Page 117]

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of these stellar bodies are in very rapid motion, the average star travelling at the rate of 600 million miles per year. In spite of their numbers and rapid motion, they are not unduly crowded in space, which extends for many million light years. It takes light about eight minutes to travel from the sun to the earth. But our nearest star neighbor is 250,000 times farther away and its light takes about four years to reach us. A spiral nebula at the present limits of astral visibility is 250,000 times farther away from us than this nearest star. This is about a million light years away and permits us to roll back the curtain of time and actually watch the development of events which took place a million years ago. It is also evident that, however haphazard and irregular the distribution of these heavenly bodies may appear to be, they are actually arranged in orderly systems in which each unit is related to the whole. Our earth is an insignificant fraction of our solar system. Our solar system is part of a still larger and more remote cluster of stars. Thousands of these star clusters combine to make up our galaxy, which reveals its cross section to us in the Milky Way. Beyond this universe are other galaxies only now coming within the reach of our instruments. Unless we are hopelessly deceived we have worlds beyond worlds, stars beyond stars, galaxies beyond galaxies, in infinite extension.

Amazing as these revelations of the extent of Time and Space may be, the most significant facts for us are the interrelation of all these bodies and the continuity of their development. Everywhere in space and over incalculable periods of time we find this Cosmos subject to common law and to a regular order. The physical, chemical and mathematical laws which we can work out experimentally apply accurately to the nature and development of these infinitely remote systems. There may be many galactic systems and billions of stars, but we find that all of them appear to be amenable to the laws of atomic structure, gravitation, temperature, mass and motion which are applicable in the little world in which we live, Infinite Space, Infinite Time, Infinite Variety, but binding them all together we find regularity, orderliness and unity. Our modern instruments enable us to annihilate [Page 118]Time and Space, and the drama of Creation is unfolding before us. The story is not complete yet, but so far as we have gone the Cosmos reveals a common nature which transcends its differences. Its variations are swallowed up in the overwhelming revelations of Continuity and Unity. We are not mistaken when we talk of. the Universe-for the world of Matter and Energy is eternally and everywhere One.

THE UNITY OF MATTER

This conviction of cosmic unity has been greatly strengthened by recent experiments demonstrating the interchangeability of matter and energy. All forms of matter can be identified as some combination of about 90 known elements. Each of these elements is made up of molecules containing a specific combination of atoms. Each atom in turn is made up of a specific organization of electrons. The electrons, at long last, seem to be merely points of force or energy rotating in Ether. Although Ether has never been demonstrated, it is a primary assumption of modern physical science. The giant nebula and the unthinkably minute electron alike depend upon it. Indeed it is the one universal substance, in which all matter originates and from which all energy derives.

J. G. Thomson says, “The Ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative philosopher. It is as essential to us as the air we breathe. The study of the universal substance is perhaps the most interesting and important duty of the physicist.” Here then is the ultimate and universal source of all that we call matter. The infinite variety of matter, organic and inorganic, which we see about us, our sun and its planets and the distant nebulae, are nothing but orderly and mechanical constructs from this original source. Thus the study of physical science brings us back, with overwhelming conviction, based on experimental as well as theoretical knowledge, to a belief in the Unity of Matter. The description of Ether by physicists is curiously reminiscent of the theologians’ attributes of God. Ether is matter but it is not susceptible to sensory tests. It is universal in space. It is eternal in time. It is the source of all power. In it we live and move and have [Page 119]

THE BIOLOGICAL SANCTIONS OF WORLD UNITY

our being. It may even have spiritual and mental powers. Sir Oliver Lodge says, "Matter it is, but material it is not. It belongs to the physical universe, but that is not to deny that it may have some mental and spiritual functions." It is an instructive spectacle to observe the men of science who have long since scorned the anthropomorphic idea of a universal and unseen Spirit, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, invite our faith in almost the same conception, re-baptized as "Ether". However that may be, the main point for us is the fact that the majority of physicists are committed to the doctrine of One Universal Substance. Ether, electron, atom, molecule, element, gas, liquid, solid, mineral, vegetable, animal, planet, star and nebula, all alike are temporary and fragmentary representations of the Infinite, Eternal and Universal Energy.

Even if the Ether hypothesis should be abandoned (and many physicists do not consider it essential) we still have an astounding revelation of the regularity and orderliness which marks the progression step by step from immaterial energy up through electron, atom and molecule to those elements which are condensed enough and stable enough for us to see and handle. We have sufficient experimental evidence now to be certain that all our elements are related to each other and that matter and energy are interchangeable. The energy that burns in the remotest star is governed by the same laws which control the changes that occur when we light a match. Wherever we turn we find Law and Order, Continuity and Unity. The Universe is alive. It vibrates with energy from centre to circumference. But the Reign of Law governs all from atom to nebula. Behind and beneath the incalculable pluralism of electrons and stars, we discover a basic solidarity, an endless continuity, an unbroken regularity, which proclaims the presence of one universal substance of power.

THE UNITY OF LIFE AND MATTER

Many people are quite willing to admit the principle of Unity in the material world, or even the evolution of our planet from some parent nebula, but are quite aghast at the suggestion that living matter may have originated from what we are pleased to call [Page 120]"dead matter". Yet this theory may not be so preposterous as it seemed to be, before we understood the marvelous complexity and mobility of atom and electron. Chemically considered, all living matter is merely a combination of a few very simple elements. chiefly oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon and calcium, with a few traces of a dozen other chemicals to complete the formula. All the raw materials for making a plant or an animal can be found in sea water and air. These five common elements account for 152 lbs. of a man weighing 157 lbs. The other 5 lbs is made up of other very common elements. Indeed it is reported that the raw materials for a first-class, able-bodied man can now be purchased at any chain drug store for 98 cents. A more highly organized equivalent can be secured by breaking about 80 dozen eggs into a pan. From the point of view of chemistry, there is not the slightest evidence of an impassable barrier between plant and animal life and inorganic matter. It is the same old stuff, put together in a new and more complex way. Many have been the experiments to bridge the step between the laboratory and the living organism and some amazing results have already been achieved. Dr. Jacques Loeb of the Rockefeller Institute secured some astonishing analogues and was firmly convinced of the mechanical origin of life. Experiments with crystallization have also indicated the close relation between these phenomena and the organization of the simpler forms of plant life. We are all familiar with the similarity of the frost crystals painted on the window by Jack Frost and the structural plan exhibited by ferns. Still more striking analogies are to be found in the so-called crystal animals. A recent news despatch announced the success of two Chicago experimenters in securing the fertilization of the eggs of elementary animal forms by the action of ultra-violet rays. Some fifteen years ago Dr. Loch took a section from the heart of an embryo chicken and placed it in a synthetic chemical solution with the result that it has achieved immortality in two senses. All of these experiments, as well as many theoretical considerations, point in the direction of a basic Unity between plant and animal life and the simpler organization of matter which we describe as inorganic. [Page 121]

THE UNITY OF PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE

Tradition has divided the organic world into two quite distinct branches, plant and animal. Yet it is not always easy to distinguish between them. Sponges appear decidely plant-like, yet are really animals. The volvox is claimed by both botanists and zoologists. Most animals live on plants but some plants live on animals. Plants get fatigued, sleep and reproduce in much the same ways as animals do. Some plants are exceedingly sensitive to noise and touch. Year by year, evidence accumulates to indicate that plants and animals had a common origin and the phenomena of plant life are no less remarkable than those of animals. In fact some romantic botanists are inclined to endow plants with mental and even emotional qualities. Perhaps there is some truth in the old fancy that flowers only grow for those who love them. At all events, while we can see differences between plants and animals, increasing knowledge makes us realize that here too we have common elements and a fundamental Unity.

THE UNITY OF ANIMAL life

I will not take time to rehearse the familiar story of biological evolution. The links in the chain of evidence, which connects the higher animals including man with successively lower and simpler forms of life, are too well known to need repetition. It is impossible to tell whether life developed from a single source or whether it developed along many collateral branches. For the present, it appears that life rose by successive stages from a microscopic one-celled protozoan somewhat like the amoeba. These stages may be represented for our purpose by the following types of amoeba, sponge, jellyfish, starfish, worms, insects, clams, lancelet, fish, trog, reptile, bird and mammal. The evidence for this theory is cumulative and conclusive. It can be studied in comparative anatomy, which reveals the skeletal, neural, muscular and organic progression in living species. It can be studied in embryology which shows the development of each individual from the fertilized egg to birth and the mysterious recapitulation of earlier life [Page 122]forms. It can be studied in geology where the successive stages of life have left their record in the rocks. The evidence is decisive and overwhelming. We cannot deny that there are many sceptics about this doctrine of the unity and continuity of life, but their vociferous lack of faith would be more impressive if they would take the trouble to study the facts. A year or two in a biological laboratory is a guaranteed cure for doubt on this subject.

Many of those who boggle at a few monkeys in their ancestral trees, will no doubt be scandalized at the suggestion that the whole animal creation has shared in their genealogy but there seems to be scientific evidence to support this opinion. In animal life, we have enormous variation, but every department of biological science today proclaims the Unity and Continuity of life.

THE UNITY OF THE MENTAL LIFE

The concept of Evolution which fascinates the modern mind is in essence a grand generalization, declaring the Unity of all life, and tracing the gradual ascent of man from primeval protoplasm millions of years ago. But a still wider generalization is finding confirmation from the study of Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy. It suggests that the ancient dualism between organic and inorganic matter is not an ultimate one. This so-called "gap" is merely a stage, in an unbroken sequence of events in Time and Space, which binds the most elementary form of matter in an incandescent nebula to the highest manifestation of which we know, in the soul of man.

It is possible that some who have followed us to this point may shrink from the next step, which suggests that mentally we are also akin to lower forms of life. The theological doctrine of "the soul" and the philosophical insistence on the uniqueness of human "reason" have long been invoked, in defense of pluralism. As a matter of fact, however, modern psychology has discovered that the laws of Unity and Continuity are as binding mentally as they are biologically, physically or chemically. There are at least four or five levels of mental action, but they merge imperceptibly into each other. The lowest type of mental response is common to both [Page 123]

THE BIOLOGICAL SANCTIONS OF WORLD UNITY

plant and animal life. It is often called "Tropism", literally the capacity to turn toward or away from stimuli. These stimuli are: chemical, by which we react to food, air and water; mechanical, by which we adjust ourselves to gravity, pressure and vibration; and such other stimuli as temperature, light and electricity. Even the lowest forms of life, without any specialized nerve tissue are quite capable of making the most intricate adjustments to their environment at this level.

With the development of a specialized nervous system, we find the capacity for a long list of desirable and almost automatic responses which are described as "Reflexes". These include all such native reactions as winking, sneezing, standing, coughing, swallowing, crying, laughing, sitting, kicking, grasping, and the lip and tongue reflexes which make language possible. These reflexes merge gradually into long series of connected responses which we call Instincts by which the higher organisms secure their marvellous adaptation to the conditions of life. With the elaboration and multiplication of Instincts we find a new type of behavior which we call Intelligence, that is, the ability of each individual to learn from his own experience. At first, this may be little more than a sensory-motor response, by which habits are acquired. Later on it rises to the full height of conceptual thought, with the ability to look before and after, and to look within as well as without, which we call Reason and Self-Consciousness.

It used to be the fashion to assign Tropisms to plants, Instincts to animals, and to limit Reason to man. This arbitrary division does not accord with the facts. Man, even the highest and best, remains constantly under the control of the lower forms of mental action. Without their support he could not live five minutes, and only a relatively small amount of human action is really based on Reason. On the other hand there is decisive evidence that almost all animals have some capacity for intelligent action. The higher animals have a considerable degree of intelligence and even the lowly earthworm shows a remarkable capacity for adjusting means to ends in the face of new situations. One student of the protozoa claims that if these animals were large [Page 124]enough for us to observe their activities, we would not doubt the presence of the higher mental capacities. Those who hold that the highest manifestation of spirit is to be found in the realm of Feeling have even less justification for a doctrine of human Separatism. Common experience alone, without the exact testimony of animal psychology, gives us ample evidence of our emotional kinship with bird and beast. Even dogs have courage and fidelity, love and sorrow and in many instances our inarticulate comrades put our alleged humanity to shame. It is only the overwhelming vanity and egotism of man which leads him to assume that he is so absolutely different mentally. Man is different and superior mentally to other forms of life but his uniqueness should not blind us to the basic unity of all psychic phenomena. We have no lack of human beings whose mental capacity grades back to the point where it is indistinguishable from the higher animals.

Every one of us has had to climb the ladder by which life rises from physico-chemical reactions to conscious purpose. Our mental life is part and parcel of a universal mentality whose height and breadth and depth we are only beginning to suspect. Here is the nexus between matter and mind, between physiology and psychology, between material and spiritual. On the one hand the reactions of physics and chemistry and on the other the first rudiments of mental action in the simplest responses to stimuli. Recent psychology with its amazing revelations of the non-conscious foundations of behavior and of the effects of the ductless glands on behavior, has helped us to retrace the steps by which personality has emerged from matter and energy. Even the cautious commentator of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is constrained to say, "It must be allowed that no natural barrier separates the field of inquiry in Psychology and Sociology from Biology proper." [Page 125]T

THE NEW HUMANITY

"Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument, The institution of the dear love of comrades."

Edited by MARY SIEGRIST

TRUE poets are slow to enter the gates of the Blessed unless they can take with them all men. They show us that the great attritions are made within ourselves but that the expanding individual consciousness seeks ever to become one with the consciousness of all men. Cosmic consciousness knows no barrier of race, caste or creed. "Whence it cometh all things are, And it cometh everywhere."

How shall the Pilgrim of Eternity find his way across the narrow mountain passes, the chasms and abysses, the worlds within worlds of being? By building, through the Spirit of Poetry, a bridge of beauty. This will serve him through all weathers and in all spiritual topographies. It will help him "keep away from the little deaths". The large deaths he knows that no one can scape, but being poet, he cries out, "As often as they slay me, I will resurrect myself!" This sheer power of survival is the test of the poet. Always he recreates himself and, a conscious pilgrim on an endless journey, weaves himself continually-changing garments of beauty.

There are days when I seem to balance the whole universe On the arms of my rocking chair: Days when the swinging powers of the air— The suns and moons and satellites of space— Burning to find an appointed meeting place, Use their divining rods to reach my soul. When suddenly, the whole [Page 126]Impenetrable meaning of creation Fills me with mad elation. The very skies come down to balance there In sacred poise, the ecstasy of prayer. There are hours when the rushing thoughts of the whole world Come thronging through my brain. I suffer the people's joy, their garnered pain. Their nerv. their veins, their arteries so mixed with mine, I cannot from my heart their hearts untwine. Single no longer, nor a separate cell, Their being from my own I cannot tell, For strangely has my soul become a door Through which the longings of the millions pour. They have become my littleness, and I their vast; The ocean hoarded in the drop, at last. There are days when the marching feet of all the race Come surging, thronging, singing through my heart Each ardent pulse of mine, their counterpart. I feel the quickening of new blood, the est Of myriad goals ablaze within my breast. As though a giant girded me with might, I sense the coming triumph of the right. Crowding the corridors of daily sense God's noble victories, man's recompense. Oh could I cry it, sing it from the tallest tower: "In unity, in unity is power!"

ANGELA MORGAN

Fly messenger! through the streets of the cities ankle-plumed Mercury fly! Swift sinewy runner with arm held up on high! Naked along the wind, thy beautiful feet Glancing over the mountains, under the sun, By meadows and water-sides-into the great towns like a devour- ing flame, [Page 127]

THE NEW HUMANITY

Through slums and vapors and dismal suburban streets, With startling of innumerable eyes-fly, messenger, fly! Joy, joy, the glad news! For he whom we wait is risen! He is descended among his children- He is come to dwell on the Earth! (Towards Democracy) EDWARD CARPENTER

I am seeking myself, and what if I find you, my universal brother! I ask no thing for myself in which you are not included. When I pray for me, it is for the dual me, you and me. When I work, it is both of us. I may seem to be doing the thing for myself, but I am doing it for all men who can realize the thrill of attainment, of action and mastery.

I do not come with alms, but with aims, with performances, with the benefactions of a wrought life.

I, the restorer of myself, am not unconscious of the perishing multitude. For you and for me my dumb soul finds its voice. I speak the living words to my own listening-and your soul hears. I come proving me-and refute my doubts to you. (A Soul’s Faring) MURIEL STRODE

TEMPLE-INSCRIPTIONS

Half-way up the hill And into the light. Where the heart is, There is Buddha. How can the hills of the spirit Be only in the Western Quarter? The distant water, The near hills, The deep blue of the clearing sky. [Page 128]What is sacred is universal. The three religions have for their soul One principle. The pure wind, The bright moon, The clear and thoughtful heart. WITTER BYNNER

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.

Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill.

From Gitanjali By RABINDRANATH TAGORE

I HEAR IT WAS CHARGED AGAINST ME

I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy in- stitutions, But really I am neither for nor against institutions, (What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the destruction of them?) Only I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of these states inland and seaboard, And in the fields and woods, and above every keel little or large that dents the water, Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument, The institution of the dear love of comrades. WALT WHITMAN [Page 129]

THE RISING TIDE

Notes on current books possessing special significance in the light of the trend toward world unity.

Edited by JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR., Department of Philosophy, Columbia University

The Public and Its Problems

The new age of human relationships' has no political agencies worthy of it. The democratic public is still largely inchoate and unorganized . . . Mental and moral beliefs and ideals change more slowly than outward conditions. If the ideals associated with the higher life of our cultural past have been impaired, the fault is primarily with them. Ideals and standards formed without regard to the means by which they are to be achieved and incarnated in flesh are bound to be thin and wavering. Since the aims, desires and purposes created by a machine age do not connect with tradition, there are two sets of rival ideals... Conditions have changed, but every aspect of life, from religion and education to property and trade, shows that nothing approaching a transformation has taken place in ideas and ideals. Symbols control sentiment and thought, and the new age has no symbols consonant with its activities. Intellectual instrumentalities for the formation of an organized public are more inadequate than its overt means. The ties which hold men together in action are numerous, tough and subtle. But they are invisible and intangible. We have the physical tools of communication as never before. The thoughts and aspirations congruous with them are not communicated, and hence are not common. Without such communication the public will remain shadowy and formless, seeking spasmodically for itself, but seizing and holding its shadow rather than its substance. Till the Great Society is [Page 130]converted into a Great Community, the Public will remain in eclipse. Communication can alone create a great community. Our Babel is not one of tongues but of the signs and symbols without which shared experience is impossible.

"We are not concerned to set forth counsels as to advisable improvements in the political forms of democracy. Many have been suggested. It is no derogation of their relative worth to say that consideration of these changes is not at present an affair of primary importance. The problem lies deeper; it is in the first instance an intellectual problem: the search for conditions under which the Great Society may become the Great Community. When these conditions are brought into being they will make their own forms. Until they have come about, it is somewhat futile to consider what political machinery will suit them."

These passages from John Dewey's lectures on "The Public and its Problems"* strike the keynote of a study of modern political life that is extraordinarily shrewd and wise. But their application reaches beyond the difficulties in the functioning of democratic machinery to the basic problem facing our complicated society. Wherever they have gone industry and commerce have broken down the older forms of local community life and built up a Great Society in which men are involved in associations whose consequences reach to the ends of the earth. Men are bound to their fellows, dependent upon them, involved in their interests to an extent impossible till the coming of modern technology. Such a society demands above all organization, the provision of channels through which intelligent guidance and regulation of this interdependent life can be carried on. Yet "the creation of adequately flexible and responsive political and legal machinery has so far been beyond the wit of man." All of the devices so hopefully installed, from the direct primary to the League of Nations, have become new means for satisfying the ambitions of interested groups. In the face of the futility of all such purely institutional reforms, Mr. Dewey is led to ask, what is it whose absence makes all such attempts abortive? His answer is, our in-

\*The Public and Its Problems, by John Dewey. New York: Henry Holt and Co. 224 pages. $2.50 [Page 131]dustrial society has not become a community. It has bound us together in close association, "but the fact of association does not of itself make a society. This demands perception of the consequences of a joint activity, and of the distinctive share of cach element in producing it. Such perception creates a common interest; that is concern on the part of each in the joint action and in the contribution of each of its members to it. Then there exists something truly social and not merely associative."

There could hardly be a more forceful statement of the fundamental conviction on which this magazine is founded, that before we can hope to adjust the manifold group frictions of our world we must become aware of the common interests that bind us together, and that this consciousness of our unity must be the guiding spirit underlying our attempts to create the Great Community. For by sober and penetrating analysis Mr. Dewey makes it clear that it is just such a new spirit that is needed. That he should turn aside from the concern of contemporary political discussion with the perfecting of democratic devices, to point out that the real problem is not new machinery but a new awareness of our related life, is especially significant. Mr. Dewey has long stood for the solution of problems, not in terms of any abstract principles, but rather of the specific conditions brought to light by a realistic analysis of particular difficulties. When he tells us, therefore, that our greatest need is for "a clear consciousness of a communal life," we can rest assured he has been forced to such a conclusion by inexorable facts.

The book starts by establishing political activity upon the basis of such a consciousness. The public, or "the people", consists of those thus aware of the consequences of their association with their fellows, and interested in the intelligent regulation of those consequences. Such a public when organized with officials to direct the play of human activities can be properly called a state. A century ago, in the conflict with privileged and hereditary interests, democratic states came into existence. But the public that was able under simpler conditions to devise machinery for its own control has been swamped by the tangled associations brought in [Page 132]by industrialism, and has been split up into scattered groups, too diverse and too rapidly changing for any appreciation of the real interests that bind the community together. It is true that the Great Society has given men a vastly greater number of common interests; but it has so complicated group life that men are no longer able to see beyond their narrower group concerns. The very changes that have made it so essential that men organize and integrate the life of mankind have made it almost impossible for them to do so.

Mr. Dewey is no cynic who feels that the task is impossible; neither is he a reformer with a panacea. "This inchoate public is capable of organization only when indirect consequences are perceived, and when it is possible to project agencies which order their occurrence." The consciousness of man's common interests with his fellows, and the means of regulating them, must wait upon the attainment of a kind of knowledge and insight which does not yet exist. The Great Community, that society that is not only a unified whole but is sufficiently aware of its unity to control its own forces, depends on the working out of a social science that shall be no mere body of generalizations in aloofness from life, but as much a part of our social activities as industrial technology is today.

It is impossible to enter here into the discussion of the conditions that must be met before such a science and such a public aware of itself and its problems can be hoped for. Mr. Dewey is at his best in this careful analysis of the essential conditions of a democratically organized unified society; and all who share a concern for the Great Community must read his own pages. The list of specifications is long, and each one, from the genuine freedom of social inquiry and discussion to the restoration of some form of local community life, is difficult enough to attain. Mr. Dewey is no mere enthusiast for democracy and world unity; he clearly realizes the careful and intelligent work that must be done before men can be brought to realize their common concerns. But it is just such painstaking analysis of the obstacles in the path that is needed today. Enthusiasm is not enough, nor unselfish devotion. [Page 133]There must be the illumination of trained intelligence, working with the fullest knowledge of the facts.

What keeps Mr. Dewey from despairing of the democratic ideal, in spite of the fact that it has so far been unable to devise any machinery adequate for an industrial world, and has even failed to create a public aware of the need of such machinery, is his conviction that at bottom democracy is inherent in the very forms of social existence. "Regarded as an idea, democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the idea of community life itself. It is an ideal in the only intelligible sense of an ideal: namely, the tendency and movement of some thing which exists carried to its final limit, viewed as completed, perfected. Since things do not attain such fulfillment but are in actuality distracted and interfered with, democracy in this sense is not a fact and never will be. But neither in this sense is there or has there ever been anything which is a community in its full measure, a community unalloyed by alien elements? The idea or ideal of a community presents, however, actual phases of associated life as they are freed from restrictive and disturbing elements, and are contemplated as having attained their limit of development. Wherever there is conjoint activity whose consequences are appreciated as good by all singular persons who take part in it, and where the realization of the good is such as to effect an energetic desire and effort to sustain it in being just because it is a good shared by all, there is in so far a community. The clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy."

One would needs go far to find a better statement of the conviction that the Great Community is that ideal toward which our industrial and scientific civilization must work, or a better program for the careful investigation that can alone bring it nearer. [Page 134]

PHILOSOPHY

2.

THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY, by WILL DURANT (Simon and Shuster) The development of the complex set of ideas we have inherited.

COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY, by PAUL MASSON-OURSEL (Harcourt) A comparison between the philosophic traditions of the West, of India, and of China.

THE HISTORY OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY, by RADHAKRISHNAN (Macmillan) The problems of Hindu thinkers.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF PHILOSOPHY, by JOHN DEWEY (Holt)

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEAL, by FELIX ADLER (Appleton) Two attempts to face the spiritual problems of the new world, from two different philosophic positions.

EXPERIENCE AND NATURE, by JOHN DEWEY (Open Court) A program for the cooperation of all philosophic thinkers.

PHILOSOPHY AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM, by WILL DURANT (Macmillan) How philosophy can deal with social conflicts.

THE NEW SPIRIT, by HAVELOCK ELLIS (Houghton Mifflin)

CREATIVE UNITY, by RABINDRANATH TAGORE (Macmillan)

TRAVEL DIARY OF A PHILOSOPHER, by HERMANN KEYSERLING (Harcourt)

THE WORLD IN THE MAKING, by HERMANN KEYSERLING (Harcourt)

SYMBOLISM, by A. N. WHITEHEAD (Macmillan)

INSIDE EXPERIENCE, by J. K. HART (Longman's)

ANALYSIS OF MATTER, by BERTRAND RUSSELL (Harcourt)

PHILOSOPHY, by BERTRAND RUSSELL (Norton)

THE REALM OF ESSENCE, by GEORGE SANTAYANA (Scribner)

A BOOK ABOUT OURSELVES, by H. A. OVERSTREET (Norton)

IDEALISM AS A PHILOSOPHY. by R. F. A. HOERNLE (Doran) Expressions of the new spirit in East and West.

(Prof. Randall's list will be followed in later issues by similar lists on the subjects of Religion, Science, The Sciences of Man, Education and Ideals of Life [Page 135]

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE has been singularly fortunate in being able to secure six articles by Kirtley F. Mather on SCIENCE AND RELIGION. This series, appearing from October, 1927, to March, 1928, is a brilliant statement of the issue which, in one form or another, has become the pivotal point of the struggle between progress and inertia throughout civilization. All six articles were delivered as lectures by Prof. Mather during the week of August 22-27, at the Institute of World Unity.

In the series published under the title APOSTLES OF WORLD UNITY, we have the human and dramatic aspect of the transitional age presented in terms of twelve significant lives. Any selection of a limited number of those who have served the ideal of world peace during the past two generations must appear arbitrary. In planning these biographical sketches, how- er, the editors have had the privi- eece of consultation with one of the most experienced students in the in- retnational field. The final decision was to omit names of those who, like Woodrow Wilson, are primarily iden- tined with the sphere of politics, or, like Andrew Carnegie and Ginn, ex- pressed their convictions through financial gifts. The list chosen, as is dent, concentrates rather upon men and women who advanced the cause of peace by educational methods, com- bining the spirit of goodwill with technical or professional services. The first name in the list, David Starr Jordan, was sketched in the October issue by Charles Henry Rieber of the University of California at Los An- geles. After the article by Albert Léon Guérard on Léon Bourgeois in the present number, there will appear similar articles on Bertha von Suttner, Norman Angell, Alfred H. Fried, Jane Addams, Romain Rolla d, Emily Hob- house, Edwin Morel, Jean Jaurès, Hamil- ton Holt and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. At a time when much effective service for in- ternational peace has inevitably fallen into the hands of impersonal organi- zations, and the ideal itself is so be- smirched by partisan politics in all countries, too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the vital factor of in- dividual consecration as the only dynamic capable of attaining the goal.

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES, edited by ALFRED W. MARTIN, realizes for the general reader and student the essential facts and new point of view made possible by the development of Comparative Religion, but too frequently assumed rather than actually known. Mr. Martin in this department is creating a valuable text book com- piled from the Scriptures of the seven [Page 136]ancient religions, interpreted with sympathy and reverent insight. WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE considers as the very heart of its aims and objects the privilege of promoting knowledge of the unity of religions which anticipates and insures every other form of unity needed by men. Mr. Martin's own prefatory statement in the October number best explains the nature and scope of this department.

Thanks to MARY SIEGRIST, editing the department THE NEW HUMANITY, an anthology of poetry revealing the world's passionate dream of brotherhood from age to age is gradually taking form in the pages of this magazine. The testimony of the poets returns with renewed force and meaning now that it is reinforced by the convictions and purposes of the scientists. Angela Morgan's vivid lines, published this month, were written especially for WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE.

How can one keep in touch with the conclusions of living scientists, philosophers, psychologists and sociologists, scattered as they are among books and articles published in many different languages? Above all, how can one sift the positive elements from the negative, the sound from the specious, reality from propaganda?

THE RISING TIDE, edited by J. H. RANDALL, JR., aims to perform this much needed service for the reader sincerely desirous but unable to acquaint himself with current contributions to world unity in these varied fields. Those who have read Professor Randall's The Making of the Modern Mind will appreciate what a highly specialized intelligence has been placed at the disposal of the readers of WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE.

The December issue will contain several articles devoted to the Orient. The editors are pleased to announce The Vexed Problem of Indian Unity by KENNETH SAUNDERS, author of Epochs of Buddhist History, Gotama Buddha, etc., and World Unity from the Hindu Point of View, by DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI, author of Caste and Outcast, My Brother's Face, etc.

Against this background WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE will begin the publication of six articles by WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD, Seth Low Professor of History, Columbia University, on The Relations of East and West. Mr. Shepherd's research covers the period of the last five hundred years, and includes the factors of commerce, industry, customs, philosophy, science, politics and religion. This material has become known to a large number of students, by whom it is regarded as the most thorough exploration of this surpassingly important field. The articles were delivered as lectures at the Institute of World Unity during the week of August 29-September 3. [Page 137]

THE WORLD UNITY Conferences

To Create Harmony and Understanding Among Religions, Races, Nations and Classes

Program of Meetings OCTOBER and NOVEMBER 1927 [Page 138]

THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

In the World Unity Conferences a new and distinctive type of public meeting has been established, one which strongly appeals to all who desire to come into contact with the forces making for universal unity yet prefer not to identify themselves with any formal organization through membership or dues.

A World Unity Conference consists of several consecutive meetings at which responsible leaders in the fields of education, science, philosophy, ethics and religion interpret those fundamental principles of human association capable of overcoming traditional prejudice and promoting the ideals of brotherhood and world peace.

Conferences are held at frequent intervals in cities throughout the United States and Canada. These meetings are open to all, without dues, admission ticket or collection. The committee will be pleased to receive correspondence from organizations and individuals willing to cooperate in the extension of this independent platform dedicated to the promotion of harmony and understanding among religions, races, nations and classes.

Kindly use reply coupon on last page of this announcement

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCE COMMITTEE JOHN HERMAN RANDALL FLORENCE REED MORTON ALFRED W. MARTIN HORACE HOLLEY MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS HELEN LOUISE PEARSON

Program of Meetings—October and November, 1927 New York City—October 10, 11, 12 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.—October 23, 24, 25 Brown University, Providence, R. I.—October 31, Nov. 1, 2 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.—November 5, 6, 7 Chicago, Ill—November 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 Worcester, Mass.—November 27, 28, 29 [Page 139]

THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

From March, 1926, to June, 1927, World Unity Conferences were held in the following cities: Worcester, Mass.; Eliot, Maine; Philadelphia; Buffalo; Cleveland; Boston; Dayton, Ohio; Chicago; New York; Springfield, Mass.; New Haven, Conn.; Rochester, N. Y.; Hartford, Conn.; Montreal, Quebec; and Toronto, Ontario.

The Evening Transcript of Boston described the Conferences in an article published December 11, 1926. "The phrase 'world unity' is still so comparatively new that it probably summons up a quite different thought in every mind that considers it. Whether we regard world unity as a feasible program or a remote, unattainable ideal, the fact that prominent scientists, educators and statesmen, as well as representative Christians, Jews and followers of other faiths are willing to participate in a public meeting devoted to this object is a very significant indication of the new trend.

"To many, world unity implies something in the nature of a formal political organization, like an extension of the much debated League of Nations. To others, it suggests a further perfection of the machinery of communication, including airplanes for physical going about, and radio for the dispatch of ideas. There are Some who perhaps feel that world unity suggests at least a tentative working alliance between capital and labor, while a few would undoubtedly point to the fact of increased religious tolerance as indicating a future possible unity between the various religious bodies of the East and the West.

"It is world unity as a deeper understanding and stronger spirit of cooperation between peoples themselves, quite apart from their present political, economic or religious affiliations, however, which is the ideal promoted by the World Unity Conferences. This view considers that it is essential to rise above all partisan questions and appeal direct to the latent humanity obscured in the hearts of men. To achieve this result, the first beginning has been made by establishing a platform independent of any existing social organism, and thus capable of giving equal respect to the ideals and principles of all. Probably no more universal public forum exists in this country today than the World Unity Conferences supply, since they offer the same hospitality to Jew and Moslem as to Christian, and to scientist or philosopher as to religionist, while the black and yellow races have also found on this platform a place not inferior to that accorded the white. The selection of speakers, however, does uphold a strict standard of suitability, in that each speaker must represent some approach to the problem of world unity."

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

March, 1926-June, 1927

MR. ALFRED W. MARTIN Society for Ethical Culture, New York

MR. LOUIS GREGORY National Lecturer on Racial Amity

ALI-KULI KHAN, N.D. Former Persian Minister to the U. S.

REV. KAPRIAL BREDOSIAN Church of the Martyrs, Worcester, Mass.

DR. JOHN HERMAN RANDALL Community Church of New York

SYUD HOSSAIN Editor The New Orient

THOMAS QUE HARRISON Youth Movement

PROP. CLARENCE SKINNER Tufts College [Page 140]

THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

PROF. HENRY W. FTZEL President, Esperanto Assoc. of North America

REV. ALBERT R. VAIL National Lecturer on Religious Unity

REV. LAWRENCE PLANK First Unitarian Church, Rochester, N. Y.

PROP. JESSE HOLMES Swarthmore College

DR. HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS Historian

DR. S. P. CAPEN Chancellor, University of Buffalo

DR. TEH-YI HSIBH Chinese Trade Commissioner, Boston

DR. DILWORTH LUPTON First Unitarian Church, Cleveland, Ohio

DR. JOEL HAYDEN Fairmount Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, Ohio

PROP. HERBERT A. MILLER Ohio State University

RABBI HILLEL SILVER The Temple, Cleveland, Ohio

PROF. KIRTLEY F. MATHER Harvard University

PROF. WILLIAM E. HOCKING Harvard University

RABBI HARRY LEVI Temple Israel, Boston

PROF. FRANK D. SLUTZ Moraine Park School

JUDGE FLORENCE E. ALLEN Supreme Court of Ohio

MR. LORADO TAFT Sculptor, Chicago

MRS. CHARLES S. CLARK President, Presidents' Conference of Women's Clubs, Chicago

DR. SHAILER MATHEWS Dean, Divinity School, University of Chicago

MR. HORACE J. BRIDGES Society for Ethical Culture, Chicago

MR. J. C. CHATTERJI Vidya Varibdi, Cambridge, England

DR. EUSTACE HAYDON University of Chicago

DR. FREDERICK CARL EISELEN President, Garrett Biblical Institute,

DR. JACOB PISTER St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Chicago

REV. FRED MERRIFIELD All Souls Church, Chicago

DR. MAX MASON President, University of Chicago

RABBI LOUIS L. MANN Sinai Congregation, Chicago

REV. PRESTON BRADLEY The People's Church, Chicago

DR. WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD Columbia University

ALAIN LOCKE, Ph.D. Author of The New Negro

HON. ZIANG-LING CHANG Chinese Consul General, New York

MRS. MARY CHAPIN International New Thought Alliance

DR. L. L. DOGGETT President, International Y. M. C. A. College, Springfield

DR. S. L. JOSHI Dartmouth College

DR. AUGUSTUS O. THOMAS President, World Federation of Educational Associations

PROF. KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE Yale University

MR. DEVERE ALLEN Executive Editor, THE WORLD TOMORROW

PROF. VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF Cornell University

MR. MOUNTFORT MILLS Bahá’í Movement

MISS AGNES MCPHAIL, M.P. Ottawa, Canada

REV. JOHN BEVAN, M.A. London, England

DR. DEXTER PERKINS University of Rochester

DR. WILLIAM MOSHER University of Syracuse

DR. E. M. BEST United Theological College, Montreal

PROF. D. M. KEYS University of Toronto

DR. JAMES L. HUGHES Inspector of Schools, Toronto

PRINCIPAL MAURICE HUTTON University College, Toronto

PROF. R. M. MACIVER Northwestern University University of Toronto

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES, 4 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY

I am interested in the aims and purposes of the World Unity Conferences. Please send announcements ☐ I will cooperate locally ☐

NAME.. ADDRESS... [Page 141]

THE WORLD OUTLOOK

A HUMANITY molded by ages of physical struggle has suddenly been compelled to deal with a new world of mental and spiritual powers. Every human faculty and social institution is now involved in a process of re-adaptation which no agency can check and the final result of which no one can foretell.

Greater in their implications than the battles of the World War are these strifes in the boundless theatre of mind and heart which from day to day signalize the world's progress toward the New Age.

In World Unity Magazine a number of independent students, representing different races, nations and religions, are describing important aspects of this universal transition. Whatever books or magazines you are now reading, you will find in World Unity Magazine a distinctive approach to the fundamental issues confronting this generation.

Subscribe to World Unity Magazine and bring it to the attention of your friends.

WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 4 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK.

Please enter my subscription to World Unity Magazine. I enclose $3.50. (In Canada, $4.00; other countries, $4.50.) [Page 142]

Institute of World Unity

A SUMMER conference appealing to those interested in the development of the humanitarian ideal in terms of science and philosophy has been founded as a service to world unity. Under the auspices of the Institute, leading educators will each season offer courses presenting subjects of vital significance.

The program of the first season, held at Green Acre, Eliot, Maine, shows the character and scope of this unique experiment in the field of "adult re-education".

PROGRAM OF INSTITUTE OF WORLD UNITY AUGUST, 1927

August 1-6. Nationalism and Internationalism, by Herbert Adams Gibbons. Nationalism before 1789. Nationalism vs. Internationalism from 1789 to 1815. Factors in the Development of Nationalism in Europe from 1815 to 1870. Nationalist Movements in Europe from 1870 to 1914. Nationalism vs. Internationalism from 1914 to 1919. The International Movement Since the World War.

August 8-13. The Making of the Modern Mind, by John Herman Randall, Jr. The Building of the Christian Tradition. The Discovery of the Scientific Order of Nature. The Romantic Call to a Larger Experience. The Growth of Faith in Evolutionary Science. The Adjustment of Religion to the Scientific Faith. The Emergency of the Ideal of a Functionally Unified World.

August 15-20. Comparative Religion, by Samuel Lucas Joshi. The Main Phases of Development among Leading Religions. A Survey of the Concepts of God, Prayer and Sacrifice. The Nature of the Soul and a Comparative Study of Eschatology among Different Religions. India's Contribution to the Interpretation of the Central Problems of Religion. Science and Religion among Western Nations in the 19th Century. Some Problems of Today and the Religious Outlook for Tomorrow.

August 22-27. Science and Religion, by Kirtley F. Mather. The New World Revealed by Modern Science. Survival of Religion in the Struggle for Existence. Machines, Men and Mystics. The Search for God in a Scientific Age. Miracles and Prayer in a Law-Abiding Universe. The Present Trend of Science and Religion.

August 29-September 3. The Relations of East and West, by William R. Shepherd. The Meeting of East and West. Western Ways in Eastern Lands. Western Thoughts in Eastern Minds. Eastern Ways in Western Lands. Eastern Thoughts in Western Minds. Two Strong Men Stand Face to Face.

Present plans contemplate a winter as well as summer session of the Institute of World Unity. The program will be published in a few weeks. To receive information, kindly send name and address, and state whether bulletins of summer or winter sessions are desired.

INSTITUTE OF WORLD UNITY 4 EAST 12TH STREET, NEW YORK [Page 143]Reading List of CURRENT BOOKS on WORLD UNITY By JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, PH. D. Review Editor, World Unity Magazine WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE Reprint No. 1. Ten cents a copy postpaid In quantity, five cents WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORP. 4 East 12th Street New York

THE FOUNDATIONS of WORLD UNITY

SELECTION from the public addresses delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at Universities, Churches, Synagogues and Peace Societies in the United States and Canada during 1912.

112 pages, paper covers. Seventy-five cents a copy at your bookstore. From the publisher, postpaid, eighty cents.

WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORP. 4 East 12th Street New York

GROUP SUBSCRIPTIONS For the Benefit of Non-commercial Organizations

THE attention of executives, field workers and members of organizations established for service without commercial profit is called to the Group Subscription Plan of World Unity Magazine.

The purpose of this plan is to enable those identified with institutions or societies of an educational, scientific, ethical, religious or humanitarian character to receive copies of World Unity Magazine at a special discount based upon group subscription.

Under the Group Subscription Plan, the specified number of monthly copies will be sent to one address only, for re-distribution to members through the regular channels of the organization itself.

By elimination of mailing and also selling costs on such copies, the Group Subscription Plan represents scientific economy which should bring publisher and reader together in actual cooperation not possible in the case of the ordinary magazine.

Group Subscriptions apply to the following number of monthly copies ordered for a period of one year: 25 50 100 500 1000

If you are a member of a non-commercial organization you can receive World Unity Magazine at a special rate.

Details on request WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE Office of the Business Manager 4 East 12th Street, New York [Page 144]

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Forthcoming Features

Conversations with the Wandering Jew LION FEUCHTWANGER Author of Power

Where Does Babbit Go from Here? CHARLES A. BEARD Author of The Rise of American Civilization

A Realistic View of Minority Rights ALBERT J. NOCK Former Editor The Freeman

Paul Among the Jews-A Play FRANZ WERFEL Author of the Goat Song; Juarez

Now a Monthly

SOME CONTRIBUTORS:

ALFRED ADLER CHARLES A. BEARD JEAN-RICHARD BLOCH BENJAMIN CREMIEUX IRWIN EDMAN WALDO FRANK L. FEUCHTWANGER BERNARD GLUECK LOUIS GOLDING PHILIP GUEDALLA HORACE M. KALLEN MORDECAI M. KAPLAN LUDWIG LEWISOHN

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LEWIS MUMFORD ALBERT JAY NOCK MAURICE SAMUEL PAUL ROSENFELD ARNOLD ZWEIG ETC.

Also Book Reviews, Stories and Articles; Translations of Current Stories and Plays; and Political and Literary letters from abroad.

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