World Unity/Volume 1/Issue 3/Text

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WORLD UNITY

A Montbl} Magazine for than who .mk the warld outlook upon pram! development: of pbilompljj, science, religiou, erlaiu rmd tlu- art:

”86"

JMJ HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor H ELEN B. MACMILLAN, Bmhm': Manager

Contributing Editor:

\\‘ \\‘. Arwoun WILL Haves Hanan A. MILLLR

\I_..-. Austin YANATO lcmcuum Faun Munmnuo

'. \luxnnuous BARTIIULDY Rurus M. Jones IDA Mam.“

imam BwaAN DAVID STARR JORDAN Dunn Gupu. Musk}:

l. l’ n: Bmvron‘r MOIDECAI W. JOHNSON HARRY ALLEN ()VERS’TRIZLF

I - -, ¢er A. Baxaxak SAMUEL Lucas Josm JouN HERMANN RANDALL, Ja Pu :xsuz Bovn ERNSSTJL'DET FURREST Rum

si-Vln' Cuuuswonu VLADIMIR Knum‘orr Tn. Rm‘ssun

\ . l’uos Cnnw l’. W. lino CHARLES Rxcnsr

puu'n l. Curran RICHARD Lua WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD H mm. DUHAMEL Hymn Lev: MARY SIEGRIST aw‘ n Ecxncm ALAIN Locn Ann HILLBL SILVER ".2 1 mm: ELLIS Louis MANN Auousrus O. THOMAS ‘ - q: Foul. Sm JAMES MARCIIAN!‘ GILBERT THOMAS ' ~ uz'un GXvoRNn’Z R. H. Muslin: RUS‘I’UM VA'Mma'uY "v mm" \‘o.\' GIERLOHI ALFRED W. MARTIN \Vgu’n \VALSH

, «l xr An.ms Gmnoss F. S. MARVIN Hans Wnuuam

u. Gnuum Kmun' F. Mnman M. P. Wlucurxs

-. :m n; Panxms GILMAN Lucu AMus MEAD Fun: LLOYD \Vnmm Kum Mlcuuus

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N these days the East is in need of material progress and the West is in need of a spiritual ideal. It would

be well for the West to turn to the East for illumination, and to give in exchange its scientific knowledge. There must be this interchange of gifts. The East and the West must unite to give each other what is lacking. This union will bring abouttruecivilizationwherethespiritual is expressed and carried out in the material. Receiving thus, the one from the other, the greatest harmony will prevail, all people will be united, a state of great perfection will be attained, there will be a firm cementing, and this world will become a shining mirror for the reflection of the attributes of God.

We all, the Eastern and the Western nations, must strive day and night, with heart and soul, to achieve this high ideal, to cement the unity between all the nations of the earth.

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[Page 147]WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

VOL. I DECEMBER, 192.7 No. 3

THE SEARCH FOR GOD IN A SCIENTIFIC WORLD

5) KIRTLEY F. MATHER Depammm‘ Of Gtalag], Harvard L’niwrxit}

N the greatest drama of Hebrew literature, Job voiced the eternal cry of humankind when he exclaimed, "Would that I knew where I might find God." The college student of today usually expresses the same thought in the query, ”Is there a

God?" Perhaps the real question in the minds of modern men and women is more accurately phrased if we ask, “What is the nature of God?" The attempt to discover the character of the administration of the world in which we live is apparently as old as human history and as widespread as human geography.

Primitive peoples, whether in ancient times or in places remote from modern civilization, have quite generally assumed that ~upernatural beings dwelt in every object which they saw. Each [I‘cc or river, mountain or valley, rock or swamp, had its own with or soul, which might prove either vindictive or helpful mward man. A boulder which rolls down a steep hillside and trashcs through a man's hut, does so because the being or spirit raiding in that boulder is for some reason offended with the g'tx-son whose property is thus destroyed. The spirit of the river must be bribed or placated, perhaps by a human sacxrilice, in order

52.” in flood-time its waters will not sweep away the village. Or

trznrc powerful, friendly spirits must be summoned by incantation v hurnt offering to subdue or disper5c the spirits whose wrath .1 'Jinst men has been aroused unwittingly or who are constantly ‘1: i naturally determined to make human life unpleasant and xriitult. That answer to the question concerning the nature of

I47

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God is called animism. Inanimate objects are believed to be really animated by some unseen power; every thing is imagined to possess an "anima", that is, a soul or spirit.

In a scientific a ge, such conCepts of the nature of the univche are rightly looked upon as ridiculously naive and wholly unsatisfactory. Even so, there are many relics of animism in our modern life. A little child who stubs his toc upon a rocking chair, scolds the chair for being in the way; and grown men have occasionally been known to curse the door against which they have bumped their heads.

But in the progressive discovery of the facts of nature and with more extended consideration of human experiences, rational minds soon saw the inccnsistencies in the animistic answer to the question concerning the rharacter of the administration of the universe. If there were many independent spirits, each one absolutely free to do just what it pleased, there could be no harmony in the world. Instead there would be anarchy, and it does not take a Very high degree of intelligence to discover that although there is occasional conflict between the various units in our surroundings, there is also a sm00thness and regularity of operation which necessarily bespeaks the harmonious nature of the universe. Out 0! the animistic conCL-pt there naturally developed the thought of om supreme administrator, the all-powerful over—lord who ruled the lesser spirits and thus brought order out of chaos. Under l1l> direCtion, the mob became a well-drilled army.

Primitive Judaism and medieval Christianity gave much thtsame answer to the question concerning the nature of the administration of the universe. God is a person of majestic power, rtsiding high above the earth, who is in direct and immediate Con trol of all things which happen on this lower level. Having made the world and all its inhabitants, he has withdrawn from it aml ix now watching from above. When he pulls the strings, the puppeh danCe; occasionally he stoops down to make an adjustment in the machinery. ll‘something goes wrong, down here upon this earthlx plane, the only recourse {or suffering, injured humanity is through appeal to the remote power, high above in inaccessible distance

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THE SEARCH FOR GOD IN A SCIENTIFIC \\'()RLU [49

The appeal may be phrased in magic words, or it may be strcngthcncd by burnt offerings. It may be fortiliul by ritual or Ccrcmonial, Lut man can do nothing more; the power to chnngc the mcchanism resides wholly in its maker. When God gets rczuly to act, things will be changed; man is hclplcss and can only await the will of God. .

That answer to the inquiry concerning G93 is tcchnically known as dcism. God is the transcendent crcator, but not the immanentadministrator. His task is linishcd or his labors hayc xx-caricd him, so that he is now resting in some distant place, cntircly outside of his creation. Only occasionally docs hc intcrvcnc and alter the operations of the world mechanism.

But modern science has scanned the hcavcns with its tclcscopcs

1 ml has reported that there is no place where the dcistic God may

chll. In a scientific age we know that everything happens in an orderly way in obedience to law; there is no outside intcrfcrcncc whatsoever. Every effect is produced by an adequate causc, discoverable within the universe; every causc is followed by its cchrt. Duism is today absolutely unsatisfactory to the man of SClchc. But so also is it to the intelligent man of religion. IfGod is dcistic. lill-powcrful, and in dircct and immediate control of affairs, how cm he, at the same time, be all-wisc and all-loying? Why docs hc ytrmit the suffering and sin, the unhappincss and distress, which is x.» obviously a part of the life which we know? There arc, of wurs‘c, many ways which have been used by theologians to cxtricutc thcmsdvcs from this dilemma, but they are too dcvious to i: satisfactory. For the most part they arc a tribute more to the tlt-vcrncss than to the wisdom of their authors.

Dissatisfied or cvcn repelled by dcism, many persons proclaim timnsclvcs as atheists. Most of modern atheism is mcrcly a rc.ntion to this particular idea conCcrning the nature of God. Still

am the heart of man long, as of old, for an answcr to its funda‘untal need. In this pcrplcxity, it is not surprising that an appeal Emultl be made to scicncc for aid in the Search {or God‘. Surely, ' sticncc has been so successful in discovcring the faCts of naturc, ' nuyht to have something to say ConCcrning naturc's God. It is

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reasonable to hope that the method of research which has proved successful in revealing the secrets of the material universe ought' to prove of value also in the study of spiritual realities. Granted that the man of science has to go outside of his own field and even trespass beyond the pale of natural science, he is somehow expected to have peculiar aptitude for making the venture out into the unknown, where there is no path for our guidance nor ' any ground for our feet to follow.

We ought, however, to be fully aware of the limitations not only of the individual scientist, but also of the method which is fundamental in every scientific research. That method is the method of analysis, a method which has abundantly proved its worth, but which has nevertheless very definite limitations.

Stand with the geologist on the brink of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River at twilight and watch the shadows deepen. The brilliant hues of vermilion, carmine, crimson, orange that splotch the sculptuted canyon walls, fade and change. Gradually they become deep blue, purple, almost-black, and the Colorado River is just a silver thread, barely visible at mile below our feet. Then twilight becomes darkness and you stand alone in the midst of space— the chasm, apparently bottomless, below you, utter black; the stars, apparently at an infinite height above you. startlingly bright. The geologist might analyze that scene and tell you that the rocks in the bottom of that canyon belong to [hr Archeozoic era, that upon them rest the Algonkian formations. and then, in order of succession, the various strata of Paleozoic age. The chemist might take those rocks and determine the Composition of each mineral which gives such brilliant, vivid hues m the landscape. The physicist might use his surveying‘y instruments to measure with precision the depth to the river below, to note [llL’ angles of the sculptured temples and massive buttresses on the canyon walls. Thus we might gather a great mass of data, contributed by patient scientists as a result of analysis in the particular field in which each is an expert. Do you suppose that this consummation of data concerning the Grand Canyon of the Colorado would mean to1some friend in a distant city to whom

[Page 151]THE SEARCH FOR GOD IN A SCIENTIFIC \VORLD- Egl you might send it, one thousandth part of what the Grand Cum on meant to you as you stood there? Could it convey to one who studies it alone, any concept of the value of the scene to you who had witnessed it with an increasing Sense of wonder and of awe? However complete may be the chemical and physical analysis of a great work of art, whether it be the sculpture perfected by h uman hands or by hillside tivulets, such a description is wholly inatlequate to explain its beauty, its charm, its influence upon the lives of those who 'see it-as a whole. Mathematics to the contrary notwithstanding, the whole is often greater than the sum of its putts.

Nevertheless, analysis has its values and is a help towarti the solution of most problems. Knowledge of the geology, the physiography, the chemistry and the physics of the Grand Canyon .ths to our ability to profit by its beauty, to respond to its in:Tuence. Similarly, analysis of the physical universe gives :1 basis 1mm which to start in the search for God.

To the physical chemist, matter consists of molecules formed 3w the union of two or more atoms. A few years ago it was helztved that the atom was the incompressible, indivisible and inf.-~tructible unit of the material universe. No one had any rational

?;.is as to how atoms came into existence or what really deurmined their activities after they had come to be. Today, the

'ructure of the atom is partially known and our scientilic con,g‘ts have radically changed. The atom is composed of elccn‘ons i protons, and these are in all likelihood nothing but negative i positive charges or units of elecn‘ical energy. The apparent .m‘ form and weight of objCCts are due to the number and arnxements cf the electrons and protons within the atom and to . high velocities at which these units of energy are moving. In ' er words, the atom is fundamentally an aggregation of swiftly 1.1m: units of energy. From this is derived the modem definition ‘ .mer‘ which though somewhat facetious is nevertheless true: 1‘. xtlt‘r consists of tiny particles of nothing. moving very

31H .

1 he philosophical implications of this analytical view of the

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univcrsc are obvious. The world of sense perception is a mani{csturion of cncrgy. There is "somcthing7 back of the univcr5c“. i\l;1ttcr is ncithcr ctcrnal nor ultimatc; it is a tcmporary and loml cxprcssion of cncrgy. If there is anything which is ultimzui. ctcrml, ileUlutL‘"'ilnLi our minds somehow scan to expect tlm thcrc is A'tl‘lat something must be energy. Analysis sccms to lull incvitalwly to the conclusion that energy is the ultinmtc reality the ctcrnal vcrity. Could we know its nature in its entirety, us would have at last the complete answer to the qucst ofjob.

llrrc again we turn to the methods of science. How Liikl [lh scicntist discover that thcrc wcrc clcCtrons in the atom? No lll.l'. cx‘cr saw an clcctron; yct cvury wcll-tmincd scicntist is 11".le to stakc his rcputution on the fact that clcctrons arc. Hc know that clccttons arc, bccausc hc has observed what they do. "lxt rcsults of thcir activities indicate thcir nature. Through [lib room, right now, arc passing one sort of energy nmnifcstationwhich, had we the proper mechanism available, would bccoim autlihlc as jazz music from Pittsburgh or a hit of instruction conCcrning how to make biscuits, broadcast from Boston. Thc radiiimpulses arc speeding through the room whcthcr wc arc awarc ..: than or not. We know that they arc hcrc bccauSC we can cult": than in niotion and translntc them through a mcchanism imu somcthing which is pchcptiblc to our ScnScS. Evcn so the natuzi of Etcrnal Encrgy, the Ultimate Rcality, may bc- diSCOVCRCKl l obscrving what it docs.

Oncc morc, caution is ncccssury. \Vc haw no right to 2155mm that the nmnifcstations of cncrgy which arc today pchL-ptihlc l our scnscs arc all the possiblc or actual manifestations of cncrp Our rcsults again will give us only a partial view of the wholt But that partial picturc is a tremendous help. The zoologist [Lil‘ mu. for example, that my eye is a response to something in i". cmironmcnt. That which we call light rays, coursing thl‘oufl spucc, has impinged upon scnsitivc protoplasm, the stuff of wlm all living hodics arc made. As a rcsponsc to this cxtcrnztl stimuh the splcntlitl mcchnnism of the human cyc has hccn chcloix' through fllL' cvolutionury mecss during gcologic timc. Simllzu‘h

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the human car is a response to the external world. That which wc call sound waves, pulsing through the earth's atmosphcrc, impinges upon Sensitive protoplasm, and the delicate mechanism of the car, far bcttcr in some orhcr animals than in man, but still pretty good in man, is the rcsult. But the cvolutionist cannot stop there. Man possesses other attributes than those of his body alom'. Hisycaxming for truth, his appreciation of hcuuty, his desire to make his own life worthwhile in the world, his sense of values, in short the various attributes which we say pcrtain to his soul,

u‘c just as rcal as eye or car. They, too, must bc 21 response to something in his cnvironmcnt. That which wc call the spiritual,

ptrmcating the universe, impinges upon Scnsitivc protoplasm in the form of a quadtupcd mammal who stands crcct and USCS his front limbs as hands, and the human soul, not ncarly so pcrl‘cct .1\ it some day may be, but still pretty good in the hcst of man, is

Fz-c- result. Thc causes must bc ndcquatc to produce the cflccts; thc

.lllKL’CL'le'nts cannot be lcss than the conscqucnts. To explain humanity at its hcst. the cvolutionist must ascribe to the universc iliusc qualitics which we do well to call divine.

For man, a product of the cncrgy which fills and thrills thc

sz‘.i\’crsc, is different from othcr organisms. He is of course an

V:'lelHl; doubtless "the natural history of man is the wholc Kismry of man." But thcrc arc many grades of cxlstchL’ and man Wins to stand alone upon his own lcvcl. Hc is unique, in ways _- Yiith can bc discovcrcd only by observation. cxpcrimcnt, and

,;,\-ricncc, not by any prOCcss of a priori reasoning. Nothing lilL'L'l'lllng man can bc tukcn for granted as a rcsult of observation ' nthcr animals. When the cow pauscs 0n the hilltop at sunsct i .illmirc the view, or the dog ccascs haying at the moon to con"M :1 system of astronomy, we will wclcomc the cow and thc into the category of rational acsthctic crcaturcs. in which '. rury man is rightly placed. Somehow, out of the continuity

lic pmccss, rcal differences have cmcrgul. Even though we

not undcrstand how thcsc dilfcrcnus arosc, the fliers arc x Knuwlctlgc and mystery lmvc :1 habit of existing Slle hy

. hut mystcry docs not invalidate the faCt.

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Thus in a scientific age the search for God leads to a new answer to the ancient question. The answer is theism. God is a power, immanent in the universe. He is involved in the hazard of his creation. He is striving mightily to produce a perfect display in the world of sense-perception of his own true nature. ”The whole creation travaileth," because only so can it achieve that purpose.

At present, from our point of view, the finest qualities of the motive power which drives the universe are displayed most adequately in humanity "at its best". The problem concerning the nature of God is in a very real sense coincident with the problem concerning the nature of man. Modem man looks upon the ancient estimates of God, such for example as are disclosed in the creation stories of the book of Genesis, as naive and inadequate. The patriarchs of old actually created God in the image of man, even though they announced that man was created in the image of God. The modern student of ancient literature describes such concepts of Jehovah as anthropomorphic, and with that label he succeeds in registering his new-found contempt for them. The term usually'conveys a sense of scornful judgment, even of righteom indignation. But that increment of scorn is not really native in the term. The fact is that modern estimates of God are just sh anthropomorphic as ancient ones. It is quite impossible for uto get outside of ourselves. That which we see is filtered through our eyes; that which we think is filtered through our brains. Because we recognize personality as inherent in the human SPCCiC> we attribute personality to the motive pow ers “hich ha\e eproduced mankind.

Even in our most self-congratulatory moments it must be perfeCtly obvious that the achievements of creative energy known to us are still but an inadequate expression of its complete nature. Man cannot imagine, even in his wildest dreams, what the future holds in store for creation. A crystal in a fre-Cambrian granite. formed before life appeared upon the face of the earth, could have had no comprehension of what an organism would be. A une-Celled organism in the slime of the Archeozoic Era could

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have had no comprehension of what a self—conscious man would he. If we werelimited to the estimate of creative energy which we could have formed a hundred million years ago by observing the earth and its inhabitants as they were at that time, we would probably have turned away in disgust at the thought of a God who could produce no better creature than a dinosaur or an .immonite. Obviously it is quite impossible for us now to forecast what expression of creative energy will be a reality upon this urth. or elsewhere in the universe, a hundred million or a hundred thousand years hence. Not all the resources of the universe are today in use, even as many now used were not in use a geologic period ago. In other words, the theistic God is not only immanent; he is also transcendent.

Science makes another contribution to our knowledge of God. \t last we are beginning to understand that he is spirit. The JVIIlolog)’ of that term is interesting and suggestive. It comes

mm the same classical root which gives rise also to the words,

mpiration and respiration. Breath, to the ancients, was the most

.Mtc'nllaltctl form of matter concernin5y which there was any general tmwledge. Breath and spirit were analogous concepts. And to ‘Tl.lll_\' modern folk, spirit still means an attenuated form of matter, .1. "host. To the scientist, spirit is no form of matter whatsoever; ' 1‘ the antithesis of matter. Matter is that something, no two garts of which can occupy the same place at the same time. A m: Mactory definition of matter is necessarily phrased in terms of 1.7‘1: and space. There is no satisfaCtory definition of spirit, known 7 . me; it transcends definition. But surely any definition of spirit ' i M indicate that spirit has no limitations of space or time.

We have many heritages in word and thought from our wxextors who frankly described God as a material being. Our ,uiisters still request us to "lift our faces toward the Great ,\ "nt- Throne"; they tell us still that ”He holds us in the hollow ‘ His hand." Phrases, originally designed to express the thought ' ‘ ml us a majestic, man-like being, are still in common use. But

.hihculties are not all in the field of vocabularies; we feel

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plate the divine. It is extremely difficult to keep God heal when we make our concepts of him wholly spiritual. But there are thuse in whom God as spirit is very real indeed; and to most of us there have come moments, brief and infrequent though they may Inn \been, when the Eternal Spirit was very, very real to us. I beliex c we have good reason to expect that with further development m the human mind and soul there will be improvement in nu:vocabulary and much better realization of what spirit is.‘

In the meantime, we have the encouragement that God is my longer hiding behind the gaps in our knowledge. We need not {c.tr to push back the horizon which separates the known from til; unknown, the natural from the supernatural. The more we kmm about the world in which we live, the better is our understamlim of him, the truer is our comprehension of his character.

God is partially revealed by inanimate nature, with its law abiding planets and its orderly chemical reactions. The crysué with its remarkable internal architecture and its beautiful u ternal form suggests something of the characteristics of the mm i\ t power which has brought the minerals into existence. But We {mi that power on a distinctly higher plane when we consider (h. lilies of the lield or behold the fowls of the air. Thus we learv something of the attributes of the energy that can produce .z': organism as well as a crystal, that can induce the physiological w emerge from the merely physical. Then when we investigJL humanity and inquire into the nature of man we greatly enl;n~--. our estimate of the forces that can produce personality as well .Iorganism, that can induce the psychological to emerge from xh. merely physiological. The scientist studying nature in striCt .n cordance with the rigid methods which he has developed, cumin: fail to have a profound respect for the motive powers of the l1!::verse. The farther he advances in his discovery of facts and 1:understanding of human experiences, the better able is he to gun if. in the ordering of human conduct toward the goal of a richer m: ' fuller life for man. That is, by discovering the methods of mum. we may truly associate ourselves with God in the task of emu ix e evolution.

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THE SEARCH FOR GOD IN A SCIENTIFIC WORLD [57

There is, however, another way of discovering God which, although at present outside the field of natural science, is in all probability a valid approach to him. The mystical experience of the human spirit brought face to face with the reality that tran\‘Cencls knowledge is a most enticing field for investigation, and psychologists are already making progress there. Some of the experienCes of the great prophets may be tested in our own experience. In that way we can appraise the qualifications which they possess to serve as experts in the field of spiritual realities. The great religious teachers of the past are not to be judged by magical incidents pertaining to their birth nor by the healing influence of their bones or garments preserved since their death. They are trustworthy only because we have been able to test their teachings 1:) our own experience. When we find one whose words ring true, u» far as we can test thcmgvc are justified in having faith in the

u~tworthiness of his ideas concerning realities in those realms

tum which we cannot ourselves penetrate.

Knowledge concerning God, therefore, becomes a matter of 3,1:man experience which includes both contact with the physical ‘.'.i)l‘l\l of sense—perception in which he is the motive power, and .Jm direct, though mysterious, contact with him, when spirit \is with Spirit. The human soul reaching out into the darkness

.nmcs aware of spiritual realities and through personal contact -, III the Eternal discovers something of the heights and depths - “xch cannot be measured. The experiences of other men enlarge

I 4

. enrich our own experiences and thus we become the heirs of

- L the ages. The response of the universe to the lives of great

‘ :nod men is an expression of the creative energy, which has

he called us into being and that response when fully under - ..,! is quite sufficient to satisfy our deepest yearnings. In a

-~.mic age. the search for God bids fair to give mankind the inn] which is more than knowledge.

‘in 3e 1\ the ritual in .l writs of six C~S.I_\’S he has prepared fut “orld [’11in Magazine K Jam, "‘the New World RCYL‘JlCJ by Modern Science" and “Science and Religion: l .2 Jx nr linemicv" were puhiithcd in October and November. The fuunh article in the «: gut in tht-J.imi.it_\'. igu‘ issue.

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A SPIRITUAL BASIS FOR WORLD UNITY

TI): Hindu Poiat of View

12}

DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI Author of “Hi: Bratlw'x Fate", m.

INCE no house can be built without adequate foundatiom‘

no human unity can be reared on the sands of international

commerce and the thoughtless mingling of races through

immigration. Something more solid than trade and travel is needed. Without a moral and spiritual basis the union of races tends to become a catchword of Babbits and a refuge for sentimentalists. No real advance can be made in the right direcriun without a wholesome beginning.

Asia and America of our time help (0 illustrate what I mean Ever since the discovery of the sea-route to India, European traders and colonists in large numbers have poured into the Eaxt And yet after nearly five hundred years of their intercourse with the East, all that the Westerners can show for it is that they are feared and suspected by the Orientals. From Suez to Yokohanm and from Samarkand to Ceylon the anti—Eutopean feeling spremh unchecked.

So far as my vision could see and my mind could grasp, nu matter where in the East, I have heard nothing but distrust :sz dislike of the West. This after more than four hundred years at steady intercourse betwen Asia and Europe!

The causes of tace-conflict today lie in the fact that "East 0: Suez" men have met one another not on a spiritual basis, but In: soulless commerce and conscienceless conquest. Out of such sinrui union nothing but division and difference can issue.

Analogous to that is the case of races whom the vagaries u:

immigration have brought to America. Latins, Slavs, Angla158 ’_'

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Saxons, Jews and other Orientals live together without being welded into a real unity. The recent clamour ’Jrr hundred per cent Nordicism is'a case in point. With the e‘ .cion of individual cases, many racial groups seem to rem. as far apart as in the days of Columbus.

Nowadays, though we know mr - about one another, though the advances made by our thought have thrown light in the most obscure corners of human life, yet out conscience lies in the grip of fear and our souls a prey to the' nightmare o‘f race-war. Science without conscience and money without morals have brought us

~ to a terrible pass. On what basis can we emerge from it? How to

cml this witches' sabbath of fear and hate?

In order to find an answer to the question of Human Unity, >c\'Cfal yearsago I visited India and interviewed more than one Intlian leader. I wished to learn what the East had to say on the subject. I listened with patience and reverence to many discussions on a synthesis of Europe and Asia. And under every one of them mn this one recurrent thoughtz—The brotherhood of man can be brought about by erecting it on a spiritual basis.

All the speakers held fast to that first proposition, though they could not give any adequate reason for their doing so. That struck me as unique. 80 later on, when I reached my holy man in Bmares, I asked him to give his opinion. For I‘reposed absolute uith in his powers of observation. He understood the masses of India thoroughly. And whatever he had to say was not only his gwrsonal opinion but also articulated the best element in the millions of my countrymen.

It was on a day in May, seated on the terrace of his retreat an the bank of Gunga, the holy one unbutdened his soul. Below Lz~ the sacred flood swept and eurved like a scimitar. Above us r: we the Pupil tree, spreading its pavilion of jade. A kokecl cooed «HlL’C or twice, then dropped into sleep. Nothing stirred in the mrihlc heat save the master’s voice.

He said: ”Behold the Ganges—whethet she washes the roots w: the medicinal herbs a hundred miles above here, or cuts the

, mts of the yellow and red stone walls of this city. the power of

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her being is so great that everything goes to augment the richness of her self. Until' a Nation's being becomes intense and immense like the blessed flood at our feet, how can it assimilate those diverse specks of human dust that immigration brings to its door?"

Those words of the teacher set me thinking. I looked at the yellow, violet, red and white clad pilgrims not far away, moving: like living frescoes against the tawny walls and terraces.

"So the problem of human unity is not one of doing but 0! Being?" I ventured to mention, after a pause.

”I remember," he answered, ”Buddha saying in the Dhammapada that man is ‘mind-bouhd' and 'mind-made'. I recall also the Avatara of Nazareth's words: 'As a man thinketh so is he." From that follows,'\Vhatever a man is will come out in his deeds.’ A fool may act like a wise man, yet in the long run the world will judge his deeds by his essential foolishness. A crocodile may act like a cow, yet what it is goes to qualify its actions. What the reptile is becomes the measure of what it does. Look at this city in this morning hour. That cortege of pilgrims in white worship Shiva, the procession of saffron-clad women nearby is going to the shrine of Vishnu, and that to the right, those orange elm! Sannyasins, they worship no god at all. Though all of them artso very different, yet they are one. Why? Because in the being on Benares there is no quarrel between modes of worship. Similarly. if the being of a country is inclusive by the sheer power 0‘ that, it can draw and unify many groups and races." Here the holy one stopped to look at the Ganges.

“Then all these peace societies, leagues of peoples, associations and fellowships lead to nothing?" I asked in dismay.

"No, no," hastened the master to correct me. "Those societies indicate a spiritual and a moral basis yet to be created by man."

“How are we to produce it, my Lord?" I pleaded with him. Turning his eyes on the amber water of the Ganges he explained.

"In the United States as in the British Empire, the misunderstanding of black, white, brown and yellow races rises like an allengulling flood. No matter where we look, the meeting of rates

[Page 161]A SPIRITUAL BASIS FOR WORLD UNITY 16!

..n.l creeds tends to a cataclysmic conflict. Time and again I say to myself:"They are not meeting as men but as tigers on the basis of

he forest. Simply because they are encountering one another in

the dark jungle of commercialism and conquest.’ If they would .Inly emerge into the broad daylight of humanity. “In the present coming together of races through rapid travel .iml an ever-growing commercialism, one discerns more of the

..itures of a tiger-community in the woods than a mingling of

human races. The European armed with gunboats and diplomacy .umes to Asia to sell whiskey, opium, railroads and factories. The \~i;itic, too, bent on no better ideals, is full of cunning, inaliCe mil diseased pride. If the former acts like a leopard, the latter ».;rely acts like a sick wolf. Nowhere do we perCeive healthy uzmnnity. All of it is due to what they are. A man relleCts in his 1.1.x what he really is. "In the East we say: ‘No matter how tall the doing, in time

will become as small as a person's being.’ You may indulge in

Eizmilaya-humbling deeds, but in the long run they will assume t“.- stature of the dwarf that you are. If a man is limited and of a umehial character, he will not act internationally. Any action azthnut prejudice to other races and creeds does not come from ' 1:” whose being is based on fanaticism and suspicion. As a .zzemous serpent secretes poison so do bigoted beings give forth .lTl‘iHV parochial deeds. "Consider anather example. Suppose a land was as inclusive ~ .111 ocean. As the many rivers~—blue, yellow, white, and brown, \. their differences in the steady emerald level of the deep, so do .': .ilien races lose their alienness in the inclusive boundlCSS being,y ' .1 muntry. Nations like them can be created in the future. "ll you look for inclusive and exemplary individuals you will ' i Ihcm in every community. I can speak only of Hindusthan, ' ,, It is the only place I know well. "(Lunsider Baba Nanak, the Indian saint of the Renaissance. “as loved equally by the Mussalmans and the Hindus while he .e i. And when he died, both of them claimed him. The followers

zhe l’rofltet wanted to bury Nanak, while the followers of

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Hinduism sought to cremate him. Each community thought 02 him as a saint of their own religion. 'He is ours,’ they clamorcd.

"In recent years we have heard Mahatma Ghandi called an ideal Muslim saint by Mohammedans, a Christian saint by some Christians, and a holy man by the Hindus. Of course he can be all three and more. All the different creeds have entered and 1m: their differences in the steady inclusiveness of his being.

”WhenGandhi,withhisall-inclusiveness,meetsanyEuropc.m. an Arab or a Hindu, he is able to unite them in himself. He is .1 Man: he includes all men. When the being of this human rnc: becomes inclusive, then surely we shall have Brotherhood of men For the former will be the spiritual basis of the latter, since a house needs mt‘lst have a foundation."

The Master stopped speaking and, with a gesture of his bani invited me to gaze on the throng of pilgrims performing thczr ablutions. Color upon color plunged like knife-thrusts of beauty into one's eyes. People were no more clad in the mere viola. yellow, white and saffron shawls and saris. Now it seemed 3h 1: the very white light of the sun had been split into flaming girments to clothe their brown bodies.

"You notice how well the crowd is behaving,” remark; the holy one. "It is because they have for the moment bccmm true to the being of this city which is ‘Adoration of the Deity‘ All the different sects instead of conflicting with one anoxh; are uniting.

”This city has furnished them with a basis that unites all til; battling sects ..... Ha! I can hear your thought asking tin question: 'How was that basis produced?‘

"Centuries before the birth of Christ, holy men met here .H‘ ' established communities of prayer and meditation that not (mix purified those who prayed but also those who came hither on me a pilgrimage. Through centuries of apostolic succession that pmct :t. of prayer has gone on and become the being of this holy place \ pilgrim who arrives here, if he stays long enough, is pulled up 2 the pure level of ‘Tat-That'.

[Page 163]A SPIRITUAL BASIS FOR WORLD UNITY 163

"Let us make each city of the earth like Benares. Wherever men and women meet, may they create a being. Even in the marts of the world such a thing is possible. Why not do it?"

“But it will take a long time, my Lord," I protested. “There is no time to waste just at present on creating when the wheels of doing are crushing us to death."

”Indeed," smiled the teacher ironically. “With all the laborsaving and time-saving devices that the modern man has invented, he has not been able to save time that can be wasted on Truth. Then what gobd are his devices? Do they not signify the uttermost waste?

”No, my son. It is not lack of time that is troubling this age. That is the excuse of those who do not wish to use their time. Then why run away from facts? Every great creation of man consumes time. Even a child, the creation of Its being, takes a few months. Think of the years it will take to make a Being who is as . real as an infant."

”I am afraid modern civilization will not consent to undermkc the task," I said to the teacher.

“Then modern civilization will have to do without brotherhood of man. Nanyapantha—‘There is no other path.‘ "

”None, my Lord?" I implored him.-- “No other hope?"

"Not an atom," he said with finality. “Just examine two of Illc many lives of those who had spirituality enough to preach .mJ practice Brotherhood. That will show you how much time mu need.

”Jesus spent eighteen years in solitude. From the age of IxxclVC till the age of thirty he was in obscurity. None can tell 11 here he hid himself in order to develop Christhood or his being x-Thich'he reflected in his deeds later. Brotherhood exuded from

ú1 115 fragrance from a lotus. The fragrance does not produce a ' 1m cr. It 15 the latter that IS the basis of the former.

Similarly Buddha. He spent at least fourteen years in the migncc. The history of those years is the hotbed of fancies and '2 zmclcs. But the truth of the matter is that none knows where he

is. At last, after he had become the Buddha, the being of en [Page 164]164 \NORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

lightenment and love, he preached. The sweet deeds of brotherhood fell from the honeycomb of his being. As in the case of individuals, so with groups. They must create in themselves that which they want to give forth to the world without. It can he done so easily. Just take one single generation of men during school-going age and teach it the science of Being. Inside a score m years you will have Brotherhood of men on earth. Now, go forth and practise what I have told thee, my child. After consmm practice of a few years, thou wilt be able to preach it. And in thine own lifetime the tree of thy being will bear the deathlw fruit of Brorherhood. ‘Nahi prarvyaté khalu bighna vayén.x neechia,’ says Kalidasaz‘The mediocre do not dare begin a noble

work the moment they foresee obstacles.’ Do not be mediocrt Do not insult humanity by imputmg mediocrity to It. Men cw

undertake any noble task and finish it.

“God has made man in His own image—'nara narayana: ll: who says man says the Other of Godl.‘ Man will create the spiritual basis that we need ..... In fact, we are doingsy it already. On it tht races of earth will meet as brothers. Brotherhood is not a dream It is a fact. It is already upon us."

The fire of conviction glowed in the master's eyes. It was nut what he said but what he suggested that flooded my mind uni feelings. In him I perCeived a being, a basis on whom the East uni the West could meet.

Knowing that the holy one had said his last word on tht subject, I bent low, took the dust from his feet, and said my llu; well to him and to Benares. Since then, whenever pessimism coxm near me, I renew my faith in Mankind by thinking ofhim. He 11.1 1 spoken no idle words when he said: ”Brotherhood is upon in There are many workers in the field who have true internationai being. Though hate and fear like black clouds cover the horimu. though the rumor of wars between races and classes fills the m: yet under it all we begin to discern that spiritual basis on whitf‘ we shall rear the unity of men.

[Page 165]ammiwmme

THE INTERACTION OF EUROPE AND ASIA

5} WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD Drpunmi-u! u] Illilmj, Columbia L'umn‘ily

I . Ed.” and ch’J‘f.‘ T/Je Tum” 11);]! Meet

URING the past five hundred years, and especially since

the latter part of the eighteenth century, the entire

earth in greater or less degree has been occupied by

peoples of European stock, or else brought under the influence of the Western type of civilization which they represent. Today the continent of Europe is but a fraction of the European world. To all intents and purposes the earth has become Western in outlook, spirit and accomplishment.

This vast enlargement of European power over mind and matter has given rise to the concept of human solidarity, to the msmopolitan idea that includes all races and peoples in the mmmunity of mankind. The adventurous instinct and the inventive genius of the West have made it possible. Men of European \mck have discovered and applied the agencies of communication 11 hich have narrowed distances and brought the inhabitants of the earth into intimate relationship.

All of this has served to create a world consciousness, such as

‘ “gwr existed before. At the present time, when every important 3.1le and deed are heard or felt around the globe, the conCept of muiunal independence becomes in essenCe a legal llCtioll. The idea -:1\i the reality of world interdependena have taken its plaCe. If 'M\ historic trend continues, as it seems likely to do, world unity

.11st be eventually the outcome, and the brotherhood of man in

'n! and in spirit the goal to be attained.

International law and relations, which once concerned the

mples of Europe alone, have been broadened out by them so as to

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embrace humanity at large. The folk of the Orient, Turks and Persians, Egyptians and Siamese, Chinese and Japanese, have learned regularly to send and receive ambassadors, to sign tl'CfltiCs of friendship and commerce, to have representatives at international conferences and delegates in international councils and assemblies, and to form alliances with European powers. Even their private correspondence they entrust to the supervision of an international body of European origin—the Universal Postal Union.

Within the past two hundred years in particular the great field of action in which the Western type of civilization has been chiefly operative is the Orient itself—that huge region stretching all the way from northern Africa through the continent of Asia am! further eastward still to Japan. Tenanted by a thousand millionand more of the human race, it reached a high stage of culture 111 uch earlier than Europe did. More than that, it gave to the West the basic elements of what now is called "Western civilization". Thus virtually in our own time world history, which for untold centuries had pursued a westward course, turned about and moch eastward again toward its starting-point. Lands and peoples in West and East, separated by thousands of miles, have become. relatively speaking, neighbors. How and why has all this happened, have Europe and Asia become so much interested in CLlLll other; and what have been and may be the consequences for (h.weal or woe of the human raCe?

The interaction and interpenetration of West and East, the mutuality of influence on their respective ways and thoughtx. consist broadly of two items of power: that which is given an : that which is received. Of the two phases of the process by \VlllL‘ll the civilization of the one has been affected by that of the Other. the results for the West are far the more significant—not only because they concern our own immediate ancestors and Oursclu’s as transplanted Europeans, but because they have been so long without due recognition. When, therefore, the advantages uni disadvantages conferred by the West upon the Orient are em;sidered, it is highly important to examine also into the reflex u:

[Page 167]EAST AND WEST: THE TWAIN THAT MEET l67

the process, namely: the advantages and disadvantages that have been visited in consequence upon the West itself.

In addition to supplying the fundamentals of our Western

ivilization, it was the Orient which, five hundred years and more

1go,gave the impulse that led Europeans to go forth and seek the 11 orld beyond their own shores, and ultimately to make 1: subject more or less to their will and achievement. Obedience to this unpulse has produced the meeting of East and West; has brought

ogether the two great centers of civilization, European and

\siatic, which had gazed so long in opposite direccions. Orient 1nd Occident thus have been joined 1n close and 1ntimate contact with extraordinary results for both.

The ancient seats of culture in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India 111d China were so many centers for its communication to Europe. 111 the truest sense Greece and Rome, the forerunners of the modem West, may be said ultimately to have been creations of the Orient .11 numerous symbols and evidences of civilization. They were the

111come of what had been imparted by their predecessors in tuitul’C all the way from the N ile on the west to the Yellow River

11 the east.

Following the decadence of Greece and Rome, 21 new impulse

rung from the Orient during the seventh century and later of our

The bearers of it were the Arabs, who brought to Europe

| nuch of the rich store of civilization which earlier contact had

' . 11 exhausted. It was they who restored the connecrion between

‘ :1~1 and West which in a measure had lapsed during the first

111uries of Christendom After the Arabs, and because of the

i ‘r.1hs came the Crusades as a species of reaCtion of the \Vcst

.1111st the East, and serving also to revive the conneCtion and

-; {er it closer. The relationship thus established bcthcn Asia

1 i liurope during ancient and medieval times prepared the way

1he modern period for th ' ration of Europeans and the '511s11m of their ideas and inst1tut1ons the world over.

i-mm remote ages onward to the fifteenth century, then,

":.11111 influences, both material and intellectual, had spread far

1-. 1Je into the West. They had helped to lay down the bases

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of the civilization that later was to he diffused over the earth. Many of its manifestations bore at the outset Chinese, Indian anti Persian names, which were handed on to Europe in Gram)Roman or Arabic form.

From Asia came originally domestic animals and most of tht European food—grains, including rice, the home of which \\.I\ India. In the Orient ofancient and medieval times were originate! and developed numerous praCtical arts that create civilization Many of the resultant products were carried to Europe in I'ClatiVe l \ small amounts, and some of the processes of their manufactux‘ were made known and applied there before the fifteenth Ccntlln ‘the opening of the era that was to witness the Eutopeanization n? the world. Among these early gifts from EaSt to West .verc: (Ex. working of metals and minerals, such as gold, silver, iron, copper. tin, coal and precious stones; as also the making of glass, port; lain, enamel and lacquered ware.

Thousands of years before Christendom came into existent. silk—worm culture was known in China. Even so late as the mm. of Vergil, the Romans believed that silk was a substance Comm from trees. By the sixth century the cultivation of it had tenth i Constantinople and by the thirteenth, northern Italy. From 1}; Orient of early days, moreover, were borne to Europe the knn-n. I edge and use of the cotton goods of India, western Asia ;:':. southern China, of muslin, called after Mosul, one of its nmrk.:and Persian damask, after another, Damascus; of carpets. ru :embroidered garments and shawls—from Chaul in India; 1' . production and application of colorings, like carmine, crimw' lilac, purple, azure and saffron—all Asiatic names, chiefly Amlm the making of perfumes from sandalwood, musk, frankinmxmyrrh and flowers, like attar of roses; drugs. like rhubarb .xz' camphor; and ornamental woods, like ebony. Thus did the \\I ' become possessed of many luxuries and objeets of utility “In make up the fabric of material civilization.

Orientals built the first Sea-going ships and devised mariner's Compass. Chinese junks sailed to the West coast ot

is now Called "America" long before the Europeans discover.

1

[Page 169]EAST AND \VESTI THE T\VAIN THAT MEET 169

eastern shores. Orientals, furthermore, had learned long since how to move great weights and undertake building,y operatw“ on a huge scale. They originated the earliest architecture in stone masonry, including the arch, the colonnade and the tower or spire. From their hands came the beginnings of refined sculpture: the portrait figures and the colossal statues of Egypt as well as the

. wonderful seals of Babylon. From China the Arabs brought to liurope a knowledge of gunpowder.

On the score of intellectual gifts of the Orient to Europe in .tneient and medieval times, Greek and Roman scholars and philosophers derived the fundamentals of their learning from the liast and notably from India. To the Phoenicians are attributable the art of writing and the alphabet and the suggestion of coined money. The Egyptians, Babylonians and Indians furnished mankind with the calendar, along with the initial stages in the study of mathematics—arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. From India the Arabs introduced into Europe the so-called ”Arabic numbers", the decimal system and algebra. Orientals, also, and again notably the folk of India, made the great beginnings in grammar, in metaphysics, in chemistry, medicine and music.

Out of the East came the earliest known tales in narrative prose, poems, historical, religious and philosophical works and main] treatises. India alone transmitted to Europe a well-nigh Izlexhélustiblc collection of stories and fablestf these many of the originals are found in the "Panchatantra"»——a Sanskrit term

taeming "five divisions or books". They constitute the sourCes of

III.IH_\‘ a European fable and fairy-tale and not a few of our comwumest and oldest jokes! Certain of the games and sports of the West were initiated in the East.

To China belongs the greatest of all achievements in the 'eJIHI of the intellect which serve to diffuse knowledge: the ~,:.tkittg of paper and the Invention of printing.

Long before Macedon and Rome ever dreamed of it, the

tient Orient of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia, of India and

.:n.t. inaugurated the idea and practice of government on a vast '.;1I\)Tiill as well as political scale. Theirs was the single great

[Page 170]I70 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

state or an empire constructed of groups of states. Out of tht: East, and noblest of all treasures bestowed upon the West, tomthe earliest belief in a single God. In Asia was laid the foundation of religious life for all mankind. From that continent came the creator of the dominant faith in the European world of today. There were born the systematic religions of humanity at large.

Hence it should not be forgotten that, while long ages ago the ancient Orient was originating and developing so much of what constitutes the useful, beautiful and inspiring in life, Europe, the land of our forefathers, was emerging from the primitiveness of barbarism. The West, to be sure, has improved upon and surpassed perhaps what the East brought forth; but the profound indebtedness of our civilization to it has to be acknowledged.

During all these centuries, then, it was known in Europe that many valuable things, material, intellectual and spiritual, had come thither from the Orient, and that many more must lie hidden there. The southern and eastern shores of Asia, the fabled "Indies" of vague tradition, had cast long since the spell of a mystic fascination over the Western mind. A civilization of remote antiquity was there; a dazzling array of wealth far exceeding the power of the most fertile imagination to conceive; a boundless field for adventure; an inexhaustible store of riches for the trader, a place where the wanderer and the discontented might find the satisfaction of their earthly desires. It was primarily their eager interest in the Orient, stimulated by the outcome of the Crusades. which led Europeans in the fifteenth century and later to embark upon a career of expansion into new worlds, east and west.

In view of the potent attraction of Asia, it seems strange that Europeans should have migrated to what is now America. about which before its discovery by the Genoese navigator they had knuwn virtually nothing, rather than to the Orient of which they knew so much. Among reasons for their choice was the facr that the highly civilized and hence the altogether alluring portions of the East—in India and China—were far more distant and .liflicult of access than the New World was. Not only was the civilized Orient able to hold the Europeans back, but the fate or

[Page 171]EAST AND VVESTI THE TWAIN THAT MEET [7]

[Europe itself long hung in the balance. From the fifth Century onward to the close of the seventeenth there were times when it looked as if the West would fall under Asiatic rule. The invasions of the Huns and the Arabs were so many forerunners of this menace from the East. The reaction against it exemplified by the Crusades ended after two hundred years of struggle in utter disaster. This was soon followed by mighty waves of conquest from the Orient which threatened to engulf the whole of Europe. Mongols and Turks subjugated the eastern and southeastern portions of it, pressing westward into the very heart of the continent. Genghis Khan, Baiazet, Timur and Mohammed the Second were long names of terror in the thought of Europeans, dreaded far more than any from Europe has ever been among .\.sizltiCS. Not until as late as 1683, when the Ottoman Turks were driven back from the gates of Vienna, could it be said that the West became free from the peril of Oriental domination. The first state of modern Europe to gain possession of territory 111 Asia was itself a semi-Asiatic country. All that Russia had to do was move overland to the eastward, stretching in sixty years, 1&83-1640, its mighty bulk clear across the northern part of the tnntinent to the Pacific. Though a military conquest, the shock .1s not severe. Scanty in ngmber and primitive in their scale of .1 ivanu'mcnt, the natives of Siberia stood on about the same level .1» the Russians themselves. Exclusive of the relative insignificance of the work of Russia ..: the time as a factor in the interaction of Europe and Asia, \‘x'txtcrn interests in the Orient were long confined almost wholly ' 1 tmding-posts scattered along the shores of the eastern continent ‘2! its outlying islands. The Europeans who ventured thither auth- penetrated into the interior of any country 01- came into

IX_.|t't with the great majority of the inhabitants. Their position

'.1\ ilnL' of suppliants—so many handfuls of isolate foreigners

mmcd by native princes to carry on trade.

.\1tcr the middle of the eighteenth centurv, however, with h '11111ing of the British conquest of India, the situation

u.1lh changed from one of tolerance by Asiatics to one of

[Page 172]177. \\'ORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

compulsion by Europeans. Instead of points along the coast, hugc strctchcs of territory wcrc acquired and plaCcd under \Vcstcrn rulc. Thcn Russia, which had taken on in appcarnnm more of the ways of the West, prOCccdcd to cntcr into S_\'SlL’li|;ltiC contact with thc civiiizcd lands of the Orient, with l’crsh. india, China and Japan. A rival of Grcat Britain and Frame for an exercise of control ovcr the Ottoman Empire adjoining its own duminions, it became even more of a competitor of the formcr natlun, as its widening boundarics in ccntrn! Asia brought it ncarcr to India.

Just as rivalry and competition bctwccn Russia and Grcat Britain marked tthuropcaninternational situation with rcfcrcnc: to western, Ccntral and southern Asia during the nineteenth Century, so they provokcd at the opening of the twcnticth a mu r hctwccn a Sclni-Asiatic Russia and a wholly Asiatic Japan that had undergone meanwhile a process of cxtcmal Europeanizatiun. t0 dctcrminc which should dominatc the destinies of China. What had how a contcst ovcr the acquisition of industrial and CL nmcrcial conCcssions of one sort or another became a struggle {nxnew territory.

Just as it was Great Britain that inaugurated the process of .1 forcible occupation ofcivilizcd Asia on an cxtcnsivc scale, so again it was Great Britain that opcncd up China at the cannon's "10th in the so—callcd ”Opium War" of 1841. With this act began .1 mighty shift in the Center of world politics from the Atlantic m [hc Pacific. Thereby wcrc China and Japa n made fields for the sprca-i of Europcan idcas and institutions.

Up to the outbreak of the Great War, indeed, Asia sccch m: the point of being partitioned among certain nations of Emmy; and Europeanizcd Japan. The entire continent appcarcd likely w fall into the actual possession of or into spheres of influcncc for tht hcncht of Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany and Japan. with the outlying islands apportioned bctxvccn the thhcrlanth and even the United States. Everywhere in the Orient the Wcstm: missionary, merchant, diplomat and soldier played their SUCCCSSi\ . mlcs until in the war with Russia Japan dctnonstratcd that i: would have to be reckoned in as a partner, so far as Europcaz‘

- - “v"<“)"b,v‘~lwg~.

[Page 173]EAST AND “'ESTI THE TWAIN THAT MEET l7;

.unhitions in China were concerned. A measure of restraint also was imposed when the United States put forth its policy of .nlvocating the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the (Zelestial Empire and the preservation there of the "open door"nl equal privileges of commerce for all foreign nations.

Since the Great War the European international situation in Asia has undergone a number of radical changes. Russia has mllapsed awhile and Germany ceased to play a part. What had Men the Ottoman Empire has vanished from the scene. Two remnants survive: a Turkish republic in Asia Minor and an Arab \ultanate in Arabia. Under the designation of ”mandates", the remainder has been added to the domains of Great Britain and l'mnce.

Because of this forcible penetration by the West sinCe the 'IllLlLllL‘ of the eighteenth century, profound changes in the life .mJ thought of the East have taken place. These have affected .mt‘icnt seats of culture tcnanted by more than half of the human 21cc. So great a transformation is and must be of incalculahle ~:,,:nilicance to the future of mankind. A thousand millions and

mn'e Of non-European, non-Christian humanity are found there:

.000,000 Arabs, Berbers, Egyptians, Turks and others, includ'1: the denizens of the Dutch East Indies in Java, Sumatra and .Lewhere, praCtically all of them Mohammedans; 310,000,000

Hives of India, more than three-fourths of whom are Hindus, ~ l the remainder, chiefly Mohammedans; 40,000‘000 Burmans. .\l(mcSL‘, Siamese and Indo—Chinese, mainly Buddhist; perhaps

, 00.000 Chinese and upwards of 80,000,000 Japanese, Koreans

i others of various non—Christian cults. These myriads Of the

' I moreover, show a marked tendency to increase in number.

’ _\‘ constitute now about three times the population of Europe;

! the distance of space and of race has undergone a steady

' new of narrowing, as Western control or influence over them

.lleAIHCCd. Neither Macedon not Rome at the pinnacle of their

' gurial glory ever ruled a third of the number of Asiatics who ' . m.tdc to obey the laws of Great Britain alone.

\\'hat is called by Europeans and their descendants vaguely

[Page 174]I74 “'ORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

"The East", “The Orient" or "Asia" is commonly judged by them from the standpoint of the present stage of European civilization, with its material comforts and conveniences, its mechanical devices to secure speed and output, its care for sanitary requirements, its spirit of humanitarianism, and its enlightenment in general. A fairer and more accurate estimate would be attained, were most of the Orient of today to be compared with Europe as it was prior to the nineteenth century; before the East had become appreciably Europeanized and ere Europe itself had felt the effects of the Industrial Revolution and the extraordinary changes that have followed in its train. Such an estimate might indicate that, in so far as it is still unaffected by European influences, civilized Asia is in about the same situation with regard to material comforts and conveniences, mechanical cov‘ ttivances, sanitary conditions, humanitarian interests and general enlightenment as most of Europe was in the period up to the nineteenth century.

Whatever one may understand by the word, the evidenCc is plainly written in history that civilization did not originate in Europe. Nor is it coextensive with that continent and the arms outside of it which have come to be occupied by the dCSCCfldanh of Europeans. Certain countries of Asia were civilized at a rim; when the denizens of Europe were dwelling in caves or roaming through primeval forests. Some of those Oriental lands indeed. like India and China, remain civilized, regardless of Western influence!

So far as what might be termed personal interaction is concerned, in the main and up to the nineteenth century at least, th: Europeans who encountered Asiatics along the coasts of their continent in the course of commercial exchange were disposed to look upon them simply as strange and curious peoples, set in .1 world apart, possessed of a civilization many features of whit}: “'ch extraordinary and admirable; and yet peoples too remm; from the West to be considered, either as inviting close comparison or as suggesting differences. The attitude shown was not a "lattrr of superiority or inferiority so much as one of actual apartnw

[Page 175]EAST AND WEST! THE TWAIN THAT .‘lEET I75

Since that time the growing closeness of contact between the West and the East, rendered possible by the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, has revived an ancient notion of superiority and inferiority, while not dissipating at all the idea of strangeness. Self—glorification is seen once more to be a common trait of humankind the world over. Because of their triumph in the realm of mechanical science, Europeans have been enabled to establish and expand their power in Oriental lands. This feat has aroused among them a quite . ,tural feeling that Asiatics and Orientals in general are, and must be, inferiors, inasmuch as they have been unable apparently to stem the European advance. Because these folk of the East in turn have had comparatively few or none of the Western comforts and conveniences—including artillery, aeroplanes and poison-gas—they are assumed to be backward and accordingly more or less uncivilized!

Asiatics, on their part, while recognizing the superiority of the West along scientific, technical and mechanical lines, and while endeavoring to emulate their achievements in these respects, have not admitted their own inferiority in others. The difference they have striven to overcome by a partial adoption of European ideas and institutions; or else they have had such ideas .mJ institutions forced upon them. Yet through it all their old Attitude does not seem to have undergone much alteration, namely that in essentials their particular sort of civilization is what they think i: always has been—superior to that of the West. This wnriment they base partly on the faCt that what they have is Vastly oldér than the European and partly on the notion that because the European is strange and different, it must necessarily Em- inferior.

It has been said that the ”struggle between Europe and Asia

\ the binding thread of history; the trade between Europe and NJ is the foundation of commerce; the thought of Asia is the '.1~is of all European religions, but that the fusion of their re~3‘~.‘Cti\'c types of civilization has not occurred and perhaps never all take place." On this point it might be remarked that there is jnmhahly no truism truer than the statement that human beings

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are virtually the same the world over. Why those of European stock behave like them could be posited just as well of their fellows in Asia—or elsewhere for that matter. Great differenCes. to be sure, exist in race, color, language, custom, manners, religiun and environment; but human nature, as such, in all its real essentials, evinCes characteristics that are marked by similarity.

7 The common topics of conversation are much alike cver_vwhere. In East and West men ordinarily talk about business. money, politics and the weather; women, about dress, food. servants and domestic relations. In their basic human interesh the peoples of the earth are substantially identical, even if their kinds and grades of civilization be different.

Assuming this existence of a fundamental similarity amom: human beings wherever found, what. then, appear to be the 1min points of difference or divergence between the two great centers 0: civilization, East and West? The two indeed can not be defined l1} invariable characteristics. To parodx a bit the \mrds of flu Psalmist, ”As far as the East is from the \\ am? furnishes nu determinant either of distance or of difference. To repeat in thzconnection the opening lines of a \ch1- knoxxn b.1llad—- Oh. LN is East and West is West, and never these twain shall meet" u:‘ earth at all events—would be setting truth at delinHCe; {or thu. have met and will continue to meet, rega..lless of what 111.1; happen in the hereafter. Nor does a quotation of the sort help 1‘explain either difference or similarity. The Japanese are 1111»: different from the Chinese and the Chinese from the Indians, Hi. Indians from the Japanese and the Japanese from the Persians :11: ' the Persians from the Arabs and the Arabs from the Turks tl1.1‘ any two European peoples are different from each other. And 1" the Asiatic, whatever his particular country, is profoundly J2: ferent from the European in all that counts from outward uh servation.

About the differehces between the East and the West, accuzzi ingly, it may be easy enough to generalize, but extremely dlillLlliY to prove the generalizations. As betWeen Orientals and Eumpm one may feel instinctively the differences or divergences, yet 1‘ [Page 177]EAST AND WEST: THE TWAIN THAT MEET I77

luitc unable to comprehend them intellectually. At first glance,

Tar cxamplc, the assumption might be made that the scpatatcncss t" :1 partncss is due to difference in color. If so, it was not especially ~:oticcablc in statement before the eighteenth century, and really mt much before the nineteenth. Had it been instinCtivc, thc

t-gling would have appeared much earlier.

Is it a question of religion, of Christian vmu: Mohammedan hcathcn? The Roman had the sense of difference quite as strongly ~ the European of today. Even before the Roman, the Greek

united upon ”Mcdizing", anything savoring of the Mcdcs and ilixians, as a gross offense against his dignity and nature.

Is it a matter oflaws? On this point the answer is, that when . WT equality between European and Asiatic has been cstablishul

:hc basis of laws made by the European himself, the status has

tn! to intensify, rather than to lessen, both the Europcan and . Asiatic abhorrcncc of it.

()nc hcars it said that the differences between East and \Vcst

thinly in divergent outlooks upon life: that the Europcan is ~. zztially secular, that ht: is intent upon Securing ohjccts that hc

\L‘L whcrcas the Asiatic is essentially religious, and hcncc

- ti! u pun obcdicncc to supcrnatural powers that ht) can imagine.

-- may be true of the Hindu, and in a measure possibly of thc

' .nnmcdan; but it certainly is not true of the Chincsc and HARM}, with their variety of religious and ethical beliefs and Hn-t- may declare that the Asiatic has only a scant nation of am] purity. Yet, outwardly at least, hc sccms to bc quite as t mus in his behavior as a European of the same social category .31 in, and his manners certainly are more polite. 0m.- is told, 'uHLT, that the Asiatic lacks the spirit of humanitarianism,

I nc fur his neighbor as for himself, that he is deficient in

4:: sympathy. in altruism. Such an assertion seems a hit mis

• 1 in the light of the fact that the greatest of all lovers of

nun" who badc mankind to love ones neighbor as onc's

~. .u .m Asiatic. At all events the European of the period be

?:t- nineteenth century was just about as deficient in this

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respect as his neighbor to the eastward. Humanitarianism was a comparatively late development in a Europe that for ages had usd. torture to extract evidence or to punish for difference in religiom belief, that had a hundred capital cri’mes upon its calendar, and that bought and sold human beings in its slave-matts.

In one thing at least there appears to be a well-defined difference between Orientals and Europeans. Except in the case m the Japanese, educated Asiatics as a rule do not possess the enlightened curiosity that has prompted the folk of the West to go forth and see the world. They seldom travel, and are but little interested in travelers as such, whose recorded impressions the}; are inclined to disbelieve—sometimes with justice!

W ith these general introductory considerations about the relationship between East and West. the way is now open for .1 survey of the precise fields of civilization in the Orient which the West has come so largely to dominate. For this purpose the entire region may be divided into four parts. Of them three are separate countries, and 0:.e is a geographical expression. The three in question are India, Japan and China. The fourth is the Near East—~a more or less indeterminate area, including western Am and northern Africa, and referring to lands and peoples mainly w: Mohammedan faith and formerly under the rule of what once w.the empire of the Ottoman Turks.

()f the three general divisions of the Orient, as the \\'t~: views them, the first to appear as an international problem wit? which Europe had to deal was the Near East—and that about .i Century ago, in 182.2. For a while indeed it constituted the Easter“ Question, referring specifically to conditions inherent in the ti. eline and supposedly imminent fall of the Ottoman Empire, 311m: the underlying questions were much older than the phrase. “in the term was long confined to this region alone is explained in the fact that. until about the middle of the nineteenth century. It was the sole portion of the Orient with which, since the period w the Crusades, the European nations had been brought into amr thing like collective contact. The rivalry between Great Brim: and Russia, to which attention has already been called, and which

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engendered the ”Question of the Middle East”, was a creation mainly of the second half of the nineteenth century and later. The same is true of the rise ofJapan and the "awakening” of China, along with their incidental relations to Europe and the United States, which brought both of these phenomena into existence and thus created the ”Far Eastern Question". Historically, of course, all three of them hark back to the ancient contest between the civilization of Greece and that of western Asia, carried onward through the medieval and modern struggles for the control of the routes of trade and culture between West and East.

India has an area of 1,860,000 square miles, substantially equal to that of three-fourths of the United States, or about the silt: Of the Mississippi Valley. Its population of upwards of g10,000,ooo is nearly treble the number of people in this country. The inhabitants of India are reckoned at about 171 to the square mile, as compared with thirty-five in the United States, showing a density almost five times as great. Being the sole land of ancient civilization in the Orient which has fallen and ever since remained under the absolute sway of a European nation, it holds a unique position. Accentuated by hugeness of territory and population, this position could not fail to engender momentous consequences for the relations of East and West.

The total area of the group of islands known collectively as Japan, on the other hand, amounts to a little less than 150,000 quart: miles, or a trifle larger than that of the States of Maine, \L‘\\' Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylmnia combined. The population of the insular empire proper, L'Vt‘ccding 60,000,000, is about half that of the United States. It Juaregates approximately 400 to the square mile, as conttastcd with the thirty-five in this country, having a density 'ncarly twelve times the latter's and increasing at the rate of 1.3 per cent. .1 year. Though substantially double the size of Great Britain, ,IJ pan possesses no such natural resources as its compeer in Europe. Both of them, however, lack a sufficiency of arable land with “hid! to support a growing population, which in the case of ._l.1 pan is much more rapid in its rate of increase. Their chief point

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of difference with regard to the facilities for an industrial type of civilization lies in the fact that, whereas Great Britain has or can easily obtain the requisite minerals and metals, Japan has but few and can secure them from outside only under conditions much more difficult of fulfillment.

Because of the external pressure brought to beat by Western nations. Japan was forced to break with what might be termed its Chinese and Indian past. In contrast to China, it took on a course of outward transformation which was effected spontaneously, energetically and in an amazingly brief period of time. The achievements oszipan in the sphere of rapid change indeed surpass anything heretofore known in human annals. Never before had government and people cooperated so efficaciously in accomplishing a transformation in the life of the state and its inhabitants, fundamentally altering it-in a manner which other nations would have required centuries to bring' about. That the West, accordingly, has influenced'Japan is true only in the sense that the impulse was communicated from outside of the island empire. The actual change was self-generated. \VhatJapan has done, is to learn from Eumpe certain methods of organization, civil and military, which have proved successful as a means for its own expansion and as a defense against possible aggression from Western powers.

Three words sum up the course of Europeanization in this farthest east of Asiatic lands. They are: miept; adopt; adapt! The imitative and applicative sense of the japanese has long been visible. Japan itself is at once a museum of the older culture of Asia and a laboratory of modern Europe. lts past is largely :1 copy ofChina, Korea and India; its present, in externals at least, 1 copy of the West. From these circumstances, however, one inns! not infer that the japanese are lacking in originality or in :1 faculty [or self—improvement. The point is, that as a people they have been i111itative, rather than creative.

I11 cuntradistinction to Japan, the huge region that the \\ estern \mrld commonly calls China stretches over an area e~timuted .1t 1,000,000 square miles larger than that of the Unitetl

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States. It equals in extent all of Europe, plus three states the size of New York. China is fifteen times as big also as Japan and its possessions put together; and the population is four or five times as great. Unlike its island neighbor, it is a vast expanse of isolation and divergence. Instead of being a relatively small and scattered urea, well-nigh devoid of natural resources and taxed by a teeming multitude of inhabitants, China is an enormous contiguous country of much porential wealth in, if not under, its soil, and for its size scantily populated. As against Japan's 400, it has only about [00 to the square mile. Differing from that neighbor further, it has a population that is far from being homogeneous. It has many peoples who when they speak can not understand one another, and a great variety also of religious and ethical beliefs.

Along with other folk of eastern and central Asia, the Chinese .lppear to have a characteristic in common: a certain incapacity to make continuous progress, and hence a need for some impulse from without to stir them into action again. After a given stage of rtlutively high civilization has been reached, further advance «ops short. So far as the Chinese are concerned. the proofs are found in the survival of their archaic language that while read .nlike is spoken differently; and in the arrested development of so Ill.ll1}' of their famous inventions—the mariner's compass. gunpowder, printing, and silk and porcelain manufacture. None of these has ever been applied on their own initiative by the Chinese

1 their own country to anything like the number of uSelul and

g‘metical purposes and some not so useful, except in an unforumute sense—found in the West. The Chinese thus possessed .:: ~everal instances the original genius to invent, but not the talent x-quisite for later elaboration. It is the Europeans who have imE‘l‘UVL’kl upon their Chinese models.

By way of further contradistinction to Japan, Western in:;.n-.ntions were not adopted more or less voluntarily, but were 'wreetl upon China. Not sought after by the Chinese, they “‘ch

‘ \leth'Ll when no other procedure was available. Toward Western

4.” and thoughts the spirit of the Japam-Se \‘as one of eager

guisition; that of the Chinese, apathetic enduranCe. If the

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Japanese were keen to learn about the world at large, the Chinese were quite indifferent, if not altogether hostile, to it.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, however, two views of life have come to grips in the country: that of the conservative Chinese resting upon thousands of years of tradition and opposed to the entry of things foreign; and that of Chinese educated in Western lands or in Europeanized Japan who seek to introduce exotic ways of thinking and acting. As that century wore on and a new one approached, the situation of China resembled that of a huge stranded whale—a helpless mass for wholesale plunder. Here were independent European settlements along the coast and in the interior of the country. No foreigner was subject to Chinese jurisdiction, because by treaty the principle of extraterritoriality prevailed. According to it, all aliens were amenable to consular and other officials of their own nationality alone. The government of China was not even at liberty to decide the amount of the tariff duties that might be levied upon the entry of European goods.Western demands for concessions and privileges moreover were growing apace and effective partitions into spheres of influence not far off.

As a measure. finally, of sheer self—defense China itself undertook a process of political and economic transformation, eventually deposing its imperial dynasty and calling itself .1. republic. Unfortunately from that time onward, the country has been a prey to revolution within and to menace from the foreigner without. Beset by internal commotion while girt about by Russia and Japan, Great Britain and France, the abode of one of Asia's most ancient civilizations is unsteady indeed.

But [of all regions of the Orient known to the West before thaage of European expansion overseas began, none certainly can rival in historic interest the Near East. That great stretch of country was once the seat of the famous empires and kingdoms of antiquity. More or less within its indeterminate bounds lay Egypt, Carthage, Chaldaea, Babylonia, Assyria,Judaea, Phoenicia. the realm of the Hittites and no small part of the imperial dominions of Macedon and Rome, as each and all of them succesively

[Page 183]EAST AND WEST: THE TWAIN THAT MEET 183

rose, flourished and fell. Here likewise the Crusades played their mmantic part in the life of the later Middle Ages, when Christian Iiurope sought to redeem the land of the Founder of their faith .md incidentally to attempt a premature course of expansion which was not to be realized until centuries later.

India, China and Japan were centers of Oriental civilization whose remote distance and cortesponding inaCCessibility created geographical barriers that shut them off from anything that might resemble a close connection with the Western world up to the time when the European had made the ocean an open highway

n their shores. Unlike them, during ancient and medieval times

zhe Near East had been directly or indirecdy most influential upon

he earlier development of life and thought in Europe. Through it.

~Mher as the originator—in the cases of Egypt and Babylonia, for example— or as the transmitter, on behalf of India and China, “1ch the gifts that the Western world had received up to the uxteenth century.

During most of the modern period, however, in an outward «42%: the Near East appeared to be lying in a state of suspended ..:mnation. It had ceased awhile to play any effecrive part in the {exclupment of civilization. Internally the situation was quite ?.zferent. With the decline from the latter part of the eighteenth

ezxtury onward in the power of the sultan at Constantinople. the xgiun became an area of contention and a source of discord, nut .rzmng the native inhabitants alone, but to Europeans as well. I- has: been, and still is, a Debatable Ground, fought over by a

wElev of races and religions, and a prey to Western ambitions.

What eventually brought the Near East out of its seclusiun an. not so much the internal collisions and weakness and the ' 'uytations thus offered to interference by the European, as it

.:\ the consummation ofa mighty triumph of Western inventive ‘ mm and mechanical skill—the opening in 1869 of the Suez ..'I.ll. The main route along the ocean highway between Europe ‘ ‘. the more distant Orient, which had been traCed out by .mpean navigators of an earlier period and which for hundreds ‘ u e.trs had pursued a wide detour around southern Africa, was

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diverted by the talent of European engineers into a narrow artilicial waterway, cut through the isthmus that had joined Africa to Asia. Thereafter the Suez Canal was destined to become thc trunk-linc. whence the interplay of civilizations of East and West might radiate. Then followed the grandiose project of linking Europe to Asia. as Asia had been severed from Africa. Again it was the genius and skill of Western engineers who built a railway to connect with existing European lines and to stretch from thtshores Of the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf. The artery of Steel. supplied by the Anatolian and Bagdad Railways, was to cxtuhi overland as a reinforcement to the artery of water provided h} the Snez Canal.

From the standpoint of the interaction between Europe and Asia, nevertheless, the Near East is the least important of thtfour divisions of the Orient which have been brought into contact with the 'Occidcnt in modern times. It has neither rcceich nor lmit imparted by any means as much as the lands of the Middle and the Far East for the civilization of the West and of mankind at large. India, along with Pctsia,]npa11 and China have and desert; the foremost place in the process. It is they that have rendered possible the interchange of ways and thoughts; that have mad;the East and West the twain that meet!

77

[Page 185]THE WISDOM OF THE AGES

Edited by

ALFRED W. MARTIN Ioe'iFIJ' for Erliiml ClllIIlrI, Na." York

Tlae Sacred Scriptm'm of I lilzduiwz—Cominim!

m: selections from thcmajoerda, the Rig-Vcda, rcprod need

in the preceding number of the Magazine shchd us how

the Atyas of ancient ‘ndia personified the forCcs and

phenomena of nature, an 1 then, believing thcy influchcd man for good or ill, paid them homage in hymns that accompanied the sacrifice. We have seen how this oldest portion of the Hindu scriptures reveals the religious and ethical thought of nearly mrty centuries ago. Before leaving this Veda, we must add one hymn more, one to which unusual interest attaches because it rurals a Vcdic poet brushing aside all mythology, transcending tht- polythcism and even the monotheism of his contcmpomrius .md reaching out to the monism ofan ultimate causative principle, '.\ ithout personality. And this be designated not by a name, but Ew "That One". This is the so-callcd "crcation-hymn" of which tht- most impressive stanzas arc the following:

THE CREATION-HYM N

\‘or being was there nor non-being; there was no atmosphere and no sky beyond. What covered all, and where,

lxy what protected? Was there a fathomlcss abyss of thc waters?

\cithcr death was there nor immortality; there was not the shccn of night not light of day. That One breathed, without breath, by inncr power; than it truly nothing whatever else existed besides.

1S5

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Darkness there was, hidden by darkness at the beginning; an unillumined ocean was this all. The living force which was enveloped in a shell, that one by the might of devotional fervor was born.

Desire arose in the beginning in That; it was the first seed of mind. The sages by devotion found the root of being in non-being, seeking it in (their) heart.

Who truly knoweth? Who can here proclaim it? Whencc hither born, whence cometh this creation? On this side are the gods from its creating,

Who knoweth then from whence it came to being?

This creation—from whence it came to being, Whether it made itself, or whether not Hc who is its overseer in highest heaven,

He surely knoweth—or perchancc he knoweth not.

Note the excessive caution and the startling success with which the poet, after describing, in the first stanza, primordial chaos in terms of what was not, proceeds in the second stanza to state what positively was. ”That One was and breathed without breath", i.e., not with physical or material breath—a marvellous attempt to describe a first cause without personality. Note also how the hymn ends with the note of profound skepticism, as though the problem faced were, after all, utterly insoluble.

Of the 102.8 hymns constituting the Rig-Veda, nearly all were set to music in the Sanm-Veda, or Veda of chants.—indicatcd by a musical notation. The third Veda is the Yajur or Veda ol' formulas,——a sacrificial liturgy and marking the earliest pros;compositions of India. Here the all-important thing is the proper performance of the sacrifice. the deities being of little consequence in the estimation of the priests compared to the mechanism of the ceremonial. The mode of procedure is described by Professor Bloomfield as follows:

”A crowd of priests seventeen is the largest number—conduct an interminable Ceremonial full of symbolic meaning down

[Page 187]THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF HINDUISM 187

to its smallest minutiae. The priests seat themselves on the sacrificial ground strewn with blades of sacred darbha-grass, and mark out (ht: altars on which the sacred fires are built. They handle and .xrmnge the utensils and sacrificial substances. And then they proceed to give to the gods of the sacrifice, each his proper oblamm and his proper share. Even the least and most trivial aCt has us stanza or formula, and every utensil is blessed with its own gurticular blessing." Typical of the thousands of formulas that constitute the . ilu'f-Veda is the following as translated by Prof. Bloomfield :"May life prosper through the sacrifice! May life's breath prosper through the sacrifice! May the eye prosper through the sacrifice! May the back prosper through the sacrifice!" And finally—O deepest bathos!—”Ma_v the

sacrifice prosper through the sacrifice!"

Latest of the four Vedas is the Atlmrm (circ. 1000 B. C), the Veda Of charms or incantations,—73o in all—and representing the ?‘eiigion of the poorer classes who could afford only the simplest

ites, even as the other three Vedas represent the religion of the

.~.-;ll-to—do, their ritual calling for expensive materials and the ~.:'\'ices of several priests who expected liberal fees. The charmwives of the Atharva-Vcda were recited for such purposes as the ‘ 'Iiowing: To ward off disease, to secure health and long life. to b.2111 agricultural prosperity, to defeat enemies, to release the

rulers soul from the sense of guilt and from the fear of punishmnt. Here are four selcCtions from this scripture, typical of the 1::lirc collection of stanzas:

‘7 ‘7““4'

CHARM AGAI NST JAUNDICE

['0 to the sun shall go thy heart-ache and thy jaundice: In the color of the red bull do we envelop thee!

\\'e envelop thee in red tints, unto long life.

May this person go unscathed, and be free of yellow color!

Into the parrots, into the thrush do we put thy jaundice; Into the yellow wagtail do we put thy yellowness. ATHARVA-VEDA, I: 17.

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A WOMAN‘S INCANTATION AGAINST HER RIVAL

I have taken unto myself her fortune and her glory, as :1 wreath off a tree. As a broad-based mountain may she sit a long time with her parents!

This woman shall be subjected to thee as thy bride, 0 King Yama (Pluto); till then let her be fixed to the house of her mother. or her brother, or her father!

This woman shall be the keeper of thy house, 0 King Yams; her do we deliver over to thee! May she long sit with her 1‘” " until her hair drops from her head!

With the incantation of Asita, of Kacypapa, and of Gaya, do

I cover up thy fortune, as women cover things within a chest. A.-V. I: 14

A CHARM TO GAIN PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY

I. For length of life, for mighty joy, uninjured, ever showing strength We wear Vishkandha's (rheumatics') antidote, the Amulet u: Jangida (garlic). 1. Amulet of a thousand powers, Jangida save us, all around, From pain and from inflammation, from rheumatism, uni tormenting pain. 3. This overcomes Vishkanda (the fiend), this chases the greedy fiends away! May this our panacea, may Jangida save us from distress 4. With Jangida that brings delight, Amulet given by the God~. We in the conflict overcome Vishkandha and all Rakshasax (nocturnal fiends). A.-V. II: 4

A CHARM AGAINST AN OPPONENT IN DEBATE

(Uttcred by an intending disputant before entering the auditorium and addressed to a kind of clematis called Patha.)

I. Let not the enemy win the debate! Strong and predominant art thou. Refute mine adversary's speech. Render it dull and flat, 0 Plant.

[Page 189]THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF HINDUISM 189

~_. The strong-winged bird (eagle) discovered thee, the boat unearthed thee with his snout. Refute mine adversary's speech. Render it dull and flat, 0 Plant. 3. O Rudra, Lord of Healing, skillful in thy work! Refute mine adversary's speech. Render it dull and flu; 0

Plant. Comfort us with thy power and might. Make me superior in debate. A.-V. II: 27

When the Aryas, after their migration from the table lands of the Himalayas, had settled on the banks of the Indus, they knew mthing ofan organized priesthood. Every man was his own priest. But when about 1000 B. C., the Aryas migrated eastward to the '. .liic}' of the Ganges and conquered the aborigines, there arose the uz‘mnization of a priesthood and with it a new type of literature ..1llcd memmmx, dating from 1000 to 600 B. C. Prose treatises

‘e;;\' are, giving directions to the priests for the proper per' urmzmces of the sacrifices and explaining their philosophical

.rnplications. As such, the Brahmanas are to be contrasted with "1; lyrical poems of the Rig-Veda. Indeed the Brahmanas may be

M‘HCLi to the Talmud; for just as the latter is an exposition of the 1.! Testament Pentateuch from the rabbinical standpoint, so the

mhmanas constitute an expounding from the priestly viewpoint

:he four Vedas and the ceremonial rites conneCted with them.

".::.! just as the Talmud interrupts its hair-splitting, logic-chop: :r'; expositions of the ritual (Hallacha) by inserting rare flowers - »:n the garden of legendary lore (Haggada), so the Brahmanas .u on a rich store of myths and lenends which India had 'z..»ured from time immemorial and to which Hindu poets of at cm day turned for material (e. g. Kalidasa). ConCCrned as they tor the most part with the details of a sacrificial system un..:.|Hcicd in the whole history of religions, the Brahmanas need ': detain us. Let it be noted, however, in passing that it is here A . meet {or the first time with the doctrines of Karma, trans'_:mtion and the hope of release from rebirth. 1n the longest of the Brahmanas we read:

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Whosoevcr goes to yonder world, not having escaped

final death, him Agti causes to die again and again. SATAPATHA BRAHMANA, II: 3, 8-9

Professor Eggeling of Edinburgh University in the introduction to his translation of Brahmanas says: "For wearisomc prolixity of exposition, characterized by dogmatic assertion and a flimsy symbolization rather than by serious reasoning, thCSC works are perhaps not equalled anywhere. They represent thc aetivity of a sacerdotal caste, which, by turning to account thL‘ religious instinct of a gifted and naturally devout race, had succeeded in transforming a primitive worship of the powers of nature into a highly artificial system of sacrificial ceremonies, and which was ever intent on deepening and extending its hold on thaminds of the people by surrounding its own vocation with the halo of sanctity and divine inspiration."

In the chronological succession of Hindu sacred scriptures, we come next to the Amnyalm: which appear at the end of the Brahmanas. These are forest-treatises, intended for recitation by thOSL‘ who went to the forest to live when the time for entrance on th». third of the four stages of Hindu life had been reached (disciple. householder, forest-dweller, wandering ascetic). The Aranyakneed not detain us any more than the Brahmanas because they 2”; concerned chiefly with fantastic priestly philosophy, yet we must take cognizance of the fact that just as amid the arid waste u: ritualism in the Brahmanas we find the beginnings of two etlnr groups of Hindu scriptures,—namely, the Epics of the MalwImrata and the Ramayana and the Upani:bad:,—so here in thes; forest-treatises the stress laid on taking note of the allegorical or spiritual significance of sacrificial acts makes the Aranyakas also a transitional literature to the philosophical-ethical Upanishads in which ritualism is regarded much as it was by the prophets in Israel. To this portion of the Hindu scriptures, which, in th; estimation of Hindus, ranks next to the Rig—Veda, we shall turr: in the February, 192.8 number of WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE. TM department in January will be devoted to the subject of thc Lausanne conference on religious unity.

[Page 191]

THE BIOLOGICAL SANCTIONS OF WORLD UNITY

ERNEST MAURICE BEST The United Theological Colltge, Montreal

II. TI): Unify of Man

N spite of all this evidence of the physical, chemical, biological and psychological unity of life, we still have to face the widespread tradition that men are divided by some kind of radical and ultimate difference which makes unity and cooperation

impossible. The human race is divided into four orfive distinct types, which we distinguish in terms of skin color. A closer analysis indicates fifteen or twenty diStinct racial types.~ These races are organized politically into sixty or seventy nations. Each nation in turn is subdivided into at least three social classes: first, those who work with their hands; second, those who work with their brains; and third, 2 small but dominating group which works the other two classes. It is this latter, sometimes parasitic, class which reacts most violently against the doctrine of human solidarity. It is this group which labors to keep alive the ancient prejudices and hatreds between race and race; nation and nation, class and class. of course, none of these classifications is absolute and there is endless overlapping or intergtading, racially, nationally and economically.

We hear much talk of "Nordic superiority" and of the duty of maintaining racial integrity. But this specious apologetic for economic exploitation has little or no scientific sanction. It is time we applied the known facts of inheritance to the delusion of ”pure racial strains" and to the social obsession of "blue blood". As a matter of fact the blood of the races has been mixed by migrations and wars times without number, and a "pure Nordic" h a pure mongrel, if not a pure imagination. The boast of aristocratic descent is equally fallacious, for the reason that heredity

191

[Page 192]197. \VORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

is not unilateral. For instance, I rejoice in the tradition of descent from Norman blood which entered England with William the Conqueror. But a painstaking examination of my family tree has led me to believe that this Norman blood has been somewhat diluted during the last 900 years. I find that each generation I go back doubles the number of my ancestors. Thus I have inherited from two parents, four grandparents and eight great-grand patents and so on indefinitely by geometrical progression. If I allow three generations to a century, I find that an enormous number of persons have shared in my ancestry. By the time I get back to 1500, when America was just discovered, I find that I might have 4096 participants in my family tree and even my faith in the potency of Norman blood cannot survive such serious attenuation.

Furthermore, the study of heredity has revealed the bet that we do not inherit entirely or directly from our parents. Parents transmit heredity to their children from cells which are composite and which may include determinants from as many as 48 different persons in their ancestry. In the face of such facts we should try to reduce our silly prides and prejudices and begin to walk humbly with our neighbors, as well as with our God.

As a matter of fact, the prophet was stating the baldest scientific fan when he said that God ”Hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." And it is time for us to adopt the obvious corollary that all men are brothers.

SOCIAL UNITY

In spite ofall that has been said up to this point, it may be claimed that history reveals man as constantly at war with his neighbors. From the stone club of prehistoric man to the latest battleship costing thirty million dollars, we are told that man is incorrigibly warlike. Nature is "red in touch and claw", but human nature exceeds in cruelty the fiercest beasts of prey. It is said that man is a "lighting animal" and that he has inherited brutal instinct.which make conflict inevitable and war a biological necessity. There is truth in this viewpoint, but it can be exaggerated and mneed to get perspective. The bloody ”struggle for survival", to

[Page 193]f THE UNITY or MAN 193 which the Darwinian dOCtrine of Natural Selection gave currency, has been over-stressed. Pain and fear and death are present in nature, but they represent momentary incidents in a life history. They are vastly overbalanced by joy, peace, happiness and life. Henry Drummond in ”The Ascent of Man" made it clear once for all that life is rooted and grounded in the principle of cooperation as well as of competition. ”The struggle for the life of others" is a far more adequate explanation of survival than the struggle for Self. What is still more important, the principle of mutual aid is steadily replacing the necessity for violent conflict. It is an outrageous misrepresentation of nature and of man to describe them as being constantly engaged in murder and violence. Still more unfounded is the assumption that because man inherits from a brutal ancestry he is forever condemned to beastliness. The dogma that human nature cannot be changed belongs to a prc—scientific age when a static conception of life was dominant. The fact of evolumm is in itselfa refutation of this ancient fallacy. Nothing in the universe has been changed so often or so much as ”human nature", .le there is nothing so subject to modification as the human inLint. Instead of being locked fast in the grip of iron-bound inxtincts, man is above all things malleable and plastic. He begins lilt- with a multitude of conflicting impulses and tendencies which check and counteract each other. If he inherits an instinct for cruelty, he also inherits an instinct for pity and sympathy. If he mllcl‘lts an instinct for lighting, he most obviously inherits a ~rmng tendency to let somebody else do it for him. If he inherits a rz-mlency toward self-aggrandisement, he also inherits a parental zftstlnct which leads him to love, protCCt and sacrifice for the mung and helpless, particularly his own offspring. If he inherits i-zher undesirable impulses he also inherits an ardent desire for ~ Mal approval which can inhibit them. As a consequence of all ?.‘Mx'e‘ possibilities man is the educatable animal, par excdlence. its is capable of the most astounding variations in ideas, ideals, ':.m\les,habits and skills. Heredity fixes limits for each individual at produces a constant drive away from uniformity toward .zrmion and change.

[Page 194]I94 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

As Prof. Dewey and others have shown, the uniformity of human behavior is due primarily to the conservatism of custom and habit. The fixity of human nature comes from the screen of social habits, opinions and attitudes which adults interpose between the child and the world. These social patterns change slowly and are the greatest obstacles to changing ' 'human nature' '. There is no ground for the a’ssertion that social unity is biologically impossible.

One of the most impressive indications of the law of Unity in social evolution is the steady integration of political groups into ever—larger units. Men began to live together in the family. The Biblical story of the first family indicates that even this small group could not live together peacefully. Gradually the family group enlarged to the clan or tribe, and a larger code of cooperation was established. Tribes gradually coalesced and social unity was achieved, capable of coordinating the conflicting interests 01' a small nation. Nations were gathered together by conquests and federation into larger nations and empires and the reign of law was slowly and painfully extended until world stability was reached in the Roman Empire. But like other slave empires Romc lacked internal stability and when it went down the process of social unification had to be repeated, in part at least. At the present time, we have in the United States the integration of ovcr one hundred million people of diverse national, racial and rciigimn backgrounds, cooperating in a common government and accepting common laws. In the British Empire, we have an even larger and more amazing synthesis. During the World War we had a period of cooperation when almost the whole population of the world belonged to either one or the other of the two governing allianu». It is an indisputable fact of Social Science that the social-political unit increases in size with civilization. No doubt we shall continuato have reverses and difficulties and probably more wars but ultimately we shall achieve political stability and social integration in a world society based on freedom and goodwill.

This concludes my task. I have tried to mobilize the biologicaf sanctions which justify our faith in World Unity. I have marsha I ltxi

[Page 195]THE UNITY OF MAN 195

the arguments which seem to indicate the unity and continuity of all matter, all life and all mind. It seems to me, that however various life may be in its manifestations it all rises out of a fundamental unity, which we ignore or deny at our peril. Our world is like a giant airship from whose sides we, the passengers, have recently sprung. Our ship is a part of a mighty fleet whose other units are scarcely visible to us yet. We have sailed from an unknown port for a harbor that lies beyond our ken. We are all in the same boat and this is no time for feuds between the passengers. The Unseen'Admiral evidently intends us to cooperate intelligently in the management of our ship. We do not know everything but it is clearly our business to cooperate with Nature in the development of integrated personalities more intelligent, more well disposed and more powerful than any we have yet achieved. To this gnd, we must bend our efforts to the unification and coordination At" new social order, founded on the principles of freedom, love and mopcratlon. The social obstacles to unity, which we inherit zmm custom and taboo, are steadily giving way before the impacr =t science and education, and many of our biological limitations Mm he removed in time through intelligent social action.

Now is the time for all good men to exert their influence in ruin” of Social Justice and International Generosity, Racial Har:mmy and Industrial Cooperation. The dream of a Golden Age, at Kingdom of God on earth in which all men shall realize their t \mmon sonship and their common brotherhood is neither visionirx nor impracticable. Unity is written into the Constitution of

‘.. l'nivcrse. It can be realized, and one of the most potent steps

-; this direction will be through teaching such facts as we have nu: reviewed. The Eternal God, Maker and Creator of all things Jr. 3 l-‘ather of all men, speaks in many tongues but preaches the ‘Afllc gospel of Unity, Continuity and Progress through the law

\.lCl‘lfiCC and cooperation.

[Page 196]

APOSTLES OF WORLD UNITY

IIl—BARomsss BERTHA VON SUTTNER

b JOHN MEZ Drparlmrm of Ewuomiu, Uuivmit} a] Ariqmm

“Emy reformin movement [14: t0 pa.” tbraugl; tlrm plmux; Fin! it i: laughed at, that opposed, andfirmll} it i: amucd Of adramting II): abriam."

—BERTIIA VON SUTTNISR

BOUT a quarter century before the outbreak of the World War there appeared in Central Europe a novel with the title ”Die Waffen Niedcr!”—"La} Down Your Arm." Immediately after its publication the book, whose author it made famous almost over night, attracted wide attention, :11 .E 'for years exerted a profound influence on the thought of Western Europe. Its success was amazing: it was reprinted again and again until it reached thirty editions, it was translated into Sixtccr‘. languages and had a total circulation of one million copies. The author of this epoch-making book was a woman, Baront~Bertha von Suttner, a member of the Austrian aristocracy who, .1: the time of its appearance, already enjoyed a certain reputation .p a successful novelist. "Lay Down Your Arms!" is a crusade againv war and one of the most thought-provoking contributions to (h. peace literature, for it has challenged, in the minds of thousan 3.of readers, the popular concept of war as an established and n: cvitable instrument of social progress. Competent critics have u m;pared its importance in the movement to abolish war with 13:. effect of Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous “Uncle Tom's Cabin in the cause of abolition of slavery. In 1905 the book won for its author the Nobel Peace Prize ‘ ‘ $40,000. And after the outbreak of the war in 1914so many peupl. ‘96

[Page 197]BARONESS BERTHA VON SUTTNER 197

including the soldiers in the trenches, ordered the book that it was sold out, and new editions had to be printed both in England .md Germany. Is it not strange to know in view of this astounding success, that the manuscript had first been refused by several publishers who feared that it might hurt the feelings of the militarists and war traders of Europe?

Baroness von Suttner was born in Prague in 184; , the daughter of Francis Count Kinsley, an officer of high rank in the Austrian army. Her early education begun by her mother, she continued during prolonged visits in France, England and Italy. She was a handsome and brilliant woman of the world. imbued with a noble spirit and deep love for humanity. At the age of thirty she met her future husband at Vienna. His father. Baron von Suttner, aviflcctcd to their marriage; this led them to elope to be married in mutheastem Russia where they stayed for nine years, at Tiflis

11 the Caucasus. While there, they depended for their living al:xmst entirely upon her fairly popular novels and contributions to

..»wspapers. During the Russo-Turkish war of 1878 her husband

wt to the front as correspondent, and the events of the time left .i profound impression C-u her mind.

In 1880, she returned to Vienna and found the public mind of i umpe filled with a terrible tension caused by the expectation of '..U‘. This general atmosphere of alarm and apprehension among » ‘IHL‘ of the people, and the eagerness with which others clamored

xr war, ripened in her mind the plan to write a book for the pur: w; of creating a more thoughtful attitude toward the grave

«m of war and peace. She carefully selected and studied her

.iterial, read war books, descriptions of battles and Campaigns,

.. ‘ mints of the background of the previous wars, their causes and mm. their relations upon the life and welfare of the people, the ummic costs and the manifold social effects on both victors and ...;:.1uished alike. With a hot heart and a burning pen she wrote her book, a " ..i[ indictment of war. Its main object is to present the claims ' :‘i-t- individual and the family as superior to those of the State, . : 5;.1 fur the inviolability of human life and for the rights of

[Page 198]198 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

every man. If there be any constructive benefit from war, it always brings, in the opinion of the author, in its wake such heavy .lOSSCs, " such misery and demoralization that it inevitably retards the general welfare of mankind.

The story of' the book, centering around the wartime experience of an officer and his young bride, is simple, although itphilosophy is profound. In a masterly fashion the reader is led into the true and full meaning of war and its effect upon the famof every individual in a belligerent nation. The story unfolds from the declaration of war, the call to the colors, the departure of thc youthful husband from home, the first news from the front, tllC painful aftermath of the fighting, the trainloads filled with wounded soldiers, the first list of losses with the subsequent anguish caused to those left behind, tales of hunger and cold, of fever and dysentery, the shooting of spies and deserters, the burning of villages, of the fighting itself, the drowning of an entire battalion under a collapsing bridge, the erroneous shooting of a regiment by their own artillery. Then the author describes the political background of the war, its changing and forgotten causes or aims, the propaganda of lies and hatred, the ambiguity of diplomats,—the absolute senselessness and futility of it all. culminating in an admirable appeal to the conscience of the world to discard the sham—glory military and force, armed peace and to substitute law for force, a masterpiece of realistic fiction of truly artistic tank.

"This is not a book, this is a historic event," the aged pod Peter Rosegget exclaimed upon reading the novel. A grave Financ: Minister of Austria recommended its reading to parliament in open session. The authoress was showered with letters and rcviews from all parts of the world, some filled with enthusiastit approval, a few of course derisive and indignant. But from that time on, she became identified with the movement for international peace in which she took a leading part for the rest of hu life. "It was in these days," she writes in her "Memoires", "that I learned of the existence of an International Peace and Arbitration Association in London. I wrote to its secretary, Mr. Hodgsm:

[Page 199]BARONESS BERTHA VON SUTTNER I99

Pratt, and soon found myself belonging to a large group of men and women organized for the promotion of world peace."

Encouraged by the suCCess of her book, Madame von Suttner inunded a Monthly bearing the same title,“Dic Waifen Nieder". This she edited admirably well for ten years, and thus gave a tremendous impetus to the peace movement on the continent of liurope. In 1899, her friend and coworker Alfred Hermann Fried succeeded her as editor of the magazine which he published for twenty years under the title ”Friedens—Warte" (Chronicle of Peace). It still appears at present as the official organ of the peace movement in Germany and Austria.

In 1891 Baroness von Suttner attended the World PeaCe Congress at Rome as its Vice President and took the rostrum to .iddress the brilliant assembly, as the first woman since Corinna \\ hose voice had been heard within the walls of the capitol. After her return to Vienna she began to organize the Austrian Peace Society of which she was president for many years. Later she undertook also the delicate task of carrying the organized pclec movement right into the heart of militarism and reaction in Lurope, namely into Berlin. .

What this has meant, to come out into the open in imperial (iermany and to organize a society whose aims were peaCe, disArmament, international organization, can only be appreciated by those who have known pre-war Prussia. Naturally she found very imle response at first. Politicians, press, and the bulk of public npiniun had no use for a pacifist movement. Her task was there7““: thankless and unpopular. Most people, even some of those umpathizing with her, found it expedient to discourage her. ()rhers sent in evasive or half—hearted approvals, and her work billet! for a great amount of tact, organizing skill, courage and iutience. It was an up-hill struggle, against the strongly en:renehed forces of privilege, militarism and reaction, and was Emund to bring keen disappointment in its wake. But she permzed undismayed and here and there the seed of new ideas which 4w;- planted sprang up, and she had the satisfaction during her iareiime of seeing the peace movement in Germany grow and gain

[Page 200]ZOO \VORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

momentum, until it had become a factor seriously to be reckoned with by the military rulers of Germany.

Henceforth Bertha von Suttner devoted her entire life to the cau5e of peace. She was a member of the European Council of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, of the Peace Bureau at Berne, and honorary president of many European peace societies. She was instrumental in foundin g the peace movement in Hungary, she also participated in the formation of the lnterparliamentary Union.

The Zenith of her success seemed to be at hand at the turn of the century. In 1899 the Czar of Russia addressed his famous manifesto to the governments of the world calling upon them ”to put a halt to the ever-increasing armaments and to seek the means of warding off the calamities which threaten the whole world." It has been claimed that her book had been a powerful agency in helping to bring about the manifesto, and her great part in this historic event seems to be established beyond any doubt. Shortly before the first conference met at The Hague, the Czar's representative, Prince Muraiev, called in person on the Baroness to discuss the plan for 3 Permanent Court of International Arbitration, then in the making. Baroness von Suttnet attended both Hague Conferences in 1899 and 1907, though not as an official, but as a very influential and much respected delegate. In conjunction with William T. Stead, she published a daily "Bulletin of the Hague" at her own expense with the idea of creating an atmosphere conducive t0 the success of the conference and to the deliberations of the delegates. Her drawing room at the hotel became the meeting plat‘c Of the leading members of the conference, the diplomats, politicians and publicists.

At LUCCFHC in Switzerland, at the opening of the War and Peace Museum, she met the famous inventor and manufacturer of dynamite, the Scandinavian, Alfred Nobel. She won his interest in the cause of peace, and during a subsequent visit at his home in Sweden, she such-eded in inducing him to make the famous endowment of several million francs from which every year the Nobel Peace Prize is given ”to that man or woman who shall have

[Page 201]

BARONESS BERTHA VON SUTTNER 7.01

worked most effectively for the fraternization of mankind, the diminution of armies, and the promotion of peace congresses."

Among those who received the prize were, besides herself, ‘l'hcodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Elihu Root and others. It Baroness von Suttner had made no other contribution to the peace movement than the suggestion made to Mr. Nobel to endow th Peace Prize, her name would deserve to be commemorated.

On two occasions Bertha von Suttner visited the United ‘tJtcS, first in 1904, when she attended the Thirteenth Inter:mional Peace Congress at Boston, and again in 1911 when she hnne to the States for a transcontinental lecture tour. This journey was a veritable triumph. She visited most of the larger cities, her lectures were impressive and inspiring, she attracted immense .unlicnces and was received and feted by many prominent per\HlllllltlL‘S, among others by President Taft. In Chicago and San l'rancisco her lectures were presided over by President David mrr Jordan of Stanford University.

With her pen the Baroness was able to promote the cause so jm- to her heart in a particularly powerful manner. Day after ..1 y for nearly twenty-five years, she wrote either for her own "1.x gazine and numerous books or she sent her sane and trenchant

.zm'ihutions to the daily papers and periodicals, pointing out .nlartning condition of European politics, warning against the --=;mssible attempt to preserve peace through the folly of arma'- .ms and the "balance of power", deplorinty the menace of ' .(hlcss imperialistic conquest and pointing out the only way to Junion from ruin: international organization and disarmament. ‘.z;r_\' large selection from her admirable "Chronicles of Conunmorary Events", written in the two decades preceding the war, s .u collected after her death by her friend Fried and published in

. volumes of 800 pages each under the caption,“The Struggle

' the Prevention of the World War" (Orell Fuessli CK Cie., .' :: :th ,Switzerland, 1916). To the student of the pre-wardiplomacy

l more these volumes will for a long time to come form an

'-.lllHl‘lC source of information.

Rarely has any woman lighting for a great ideal exerted a

[Page 202]2.01 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

more profound influence on contemporary thought than Bertha von Suttner. Her very name became identified with the peanmovement. To friend and foe alike she was known as "PeaCcBertha". Little wonder that the conservative and military circles subjected her to severe attacks and criticism. Hundreds of cartoons were published in which she was ridiculed, in sometimes humorous, but often also abusive manner. Whoever in Europe was in one way or the other interested in peace was thought to be tied ”to the apronstrings of that woman". What good could come, it was asked, of a cause so hopelessly bound up with feminine influence.) It is but natural that the virile and sturdy militarists had little regard for the ethical and more human aspects of the peace problem which she stressed so effectively. There were times in her life When she felt discouraged at the steady opposition, the slanderous attacks and insults hurled at her by the advocates of war, although at others she found comfort and encouragement from the contact with great souls which crossed her path, such as William Stead, the Warsaw banker Jean de Bloch, the French publicist Frederic de Passy, the London artist Felix Moscheles, Cl‘lal‘lcs Richet, D'Estoutnelles de Constant, Gaston Moch, Leon Bourgeois and others who in turn received much inspiration from this rare and noble woman.

Bertha von Suttner's place in the history of the peace mowment is assured. With her book she made thousands of her fellowmen think about war, made them see that there is another side to it than the thoughtless concept taught by the schoolbooks. Sh: was, in a sense, the founder of the organized peace movement in Central Europe. She started the first pacifist periodical which hm continued until today for nearly four decades. And in a general way she gave a great deal of strength, inspiration and nobility m the great cause to which her life was devoted. These accomplishments are all the more noteworthy in that she belonged to a family of soldiers and had grown up amidst military traditions, that sh: worked in an environment hopelessly opposed to the concept at peace, and that she succeeded at a time when it was much harder for a woman's voice to make itself heard than it would be today.

m

0

[Page 203]BARONESS BERTHA VON SUTTNER 7.03

By a strange play of fate Bertha von Suttner died on June 14, 1914, just one week before the fatal shot was fired at Sarajcwo that started the World War. She did not live to witness the catastrophe which she had strivcn so hard to prevent. ”She was not successful, she was merely right." At the time of her death the peace forces of Europe counted millions. Who knows but whether the war lords did not think it time to strike before the popular forces opposing war and monarchism had become too strong?

True, there were many who, like her, hoped and wished for peace. But none has struggled with greater devotion, with a kccner vision or firmer optimism than this sincere and brave woman whose name will stand out in history, particularly in the history of ideas, as one of the finest characters. She was not only a prophet, but a pioneer and leader in the fight for a better order of human ticstiny. She will be remembered long after the glory and fame of the military heroes will have gone down in the dark of the ages. ()cncrations vet to come will find inspiration in her idealism, when the peace movement will be seen in a truer perspective, as the beginning of that final organization of a better and happier mturc. Her battle cry, “Lay Down Your Armr," has entered deep mm the heart of men, never to be silenced before its ultimate tultillment. Then her prophetic thought and vision will be understood.

(3

[Page 204]

THE NEW HUMANITY

“Without edifice: or rule: or mum: or any argummt, TI): invitation of :11: dear love 0] comrades."

Edited by

MARY Smotusr Author a] "You Ile Can)! Aflir", :Ir.

ETWEEN poetry and science there is everywhere the deepening recognition of kinship. We are coming to realize that a golden thread unites them, that they are truly one in the service and fellowship of the imagination. Both seek the broadening and deepening and unifying of humanity. Both seek wholeness of life for all men. Both alike are "trafficking with the Gods", searching out the deep secrets of being. Both realize the divine similitude that interlocks their essences;that their goals are along convergent lines with a common center; the beauty that is truth, the truth that is beauty. Both deal with symbols and sec :1 world garmented in many-veiled beauty. Science, like poetry. pushes through the labyrinthine walls of matter to the indwelling spirit. The scientist knows that the poet's truth is his own truth the truth of the heart, the intellect and the imagination—matlc song. Today our foremost men of science do not hesitate to turn to poetry to express or to reinforce their own deepest meanings. Pom and scientist alike see every common bush aflame with God. Both uncover and go reverently in the divine presence.

MAN TO THE ANGEL

. From your pride refrain; Dark and lost amid the strife I am myriad years of pain Nearer to the fount of life. A. E.

[Page 205]THE NEW HUMANITY

ARTISTRY

To bring this loveliness to be, Even for an hour the Builder must Have wrought in the laboratory Of many a star for its sweet dust.

Oh, to make possible that heart A ml that nav breath so lightly sighed: ’ 1e art!

crucified! A. E.

SACRED SIGNS

We do not know. But they know.

The stones know. Even trees

Know. And they remember.

They remember who named the mountains And rivers,

Who constructed the former

Cities. Who gave the names

To the immemorial countries,

Words unknown to us.

They are filled with significance. Everything is filled with achievements. Everywhere Heroes passed. “To know" Is a sweet word. ”To remember" ls a terrible word. To know and

To remember. To remember and to know Means—to have faith.

A_irships were flying. .

Came pouring a liquid firc. Came flashing The spark of life and death.

By the might of spirit stony masses Ascended. A wondrous blade was forged. Scriptures guarded wise secrets.

And again everything is revealed. Everything new. The fairy tale—the legend—have become

2.05

[Page 206]7.06 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

Life. And we live again.

And again we shall change. And again We shall touch the earth.

The great "Today"_shall be dimmed Tomorrow. But sacred signs

Will appear. Then

When needed. They will be unperceivcd. Who knows? But they will create

Life. And where are

The sacred signs? NICHOLAS Romucn

(BY AN ANCIENT cnmasa war)

I believe in the deep blue sky and the smiling water.

I can see through the clouds of the sky and I am not afraid of the waves of the sea.

I believe in the living friendship given by flowers and trees.

Outwardly they die, but in the heart they live forever.

Little paths through the green wood I love, and the sound of leaves falling on the ground, or of a nut falling, or even of a breaking twig.

I believe that the days to come already feel the wonder of the days that have passed, and will permit that wonder to endure and increase.

I believe in and love my belief in—and my love for—all these things; and most of all I believe in and love the source of my belief and my love.

From the ORIENTAL MAGAZINE

You may have heard of the Blessed Mougtain.

It is the highest mountain in our world.

Should you reach the summit you would have only one desire, and that to descend and be with those who dwell in the deepest valley.

That is why it is called the Blessed_Mountain.

From ”Sand and Foam"

KAHLIL 6%

[Page 207]> U

THE NEW HUMANITY 7.07

A SONG 0F BROTHERHOOD

I who sing this, am of no land:

For though my heart is fondest of one land

Yet is this fondness truer because I love all lands.

I hate the sin of mine own flesh and blood

And love the virtues of mine enemy;

I am of England only as England is of truth.

I am of France only as France is virtuous.

l .un of Germany only as Germany is clean.

I burned my last sad prejudice but yesterday:

Now am I free to speak, being of no land.

”I‘was no pure fount of pride bade me prefer

.-\ bloated Saxon, heavy with his wine,

['0 sad—faced Bedouins, fasting and at prayer.

Brother of France, brother of Germany, brother of the American States,

Brother of Italy, Russia, Iceland and Japan,

(.omradc of the most unknown isle,

Ii thou art true, then art thou more to me

Hum one in mine own kingdom who is false.

an am I patriot to the kind deeds ofa Brahmin;

in all that assists the ultimate ends of harmony

1:: the wild songs of savages; to the good in everything.

\i\‘ flag is sewn by the fast shuttle of feet

'\'\ hcrever and whenever good Samaritans tread the highway. \1y National Anthem is the silence of Universal Peace.

I 2. we the sound of the breaking of bread in India Exttcr. far better than the sobs of waves

I “u kiss iron keels at Cowes.

. 'n more of America than I am of Canada:

L .nn more of the world than I am of America:

' .1 :n more of the Universe than I am of the World.

I » trccd have I nor know I any law that is evil. . .am one of the hosts of Barbary; ‘: .2 i L'Vcn the clouds oppress my expansion of soul.

[Page 208]2.08 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

If I were given three things to damn I would damn creed three times. If I were given more things to damn I would damn creed three more times. For had a creed been damned in India's dawn The Ganges never had known its human cry. And 0, the blue—eycd Irish but for creed Would lead the march of nations. You have asked: “When will come brotherhood? When will come the Christ?" And I reply: ”Not until crceds are one With the vain dust of their own temples." (Song of the Prairie Land) WILSON MACDONALD

[Page 209]ammemgfl

THE RISING TIDE

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

Edited 6]

J OHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. Dome" OI Pbihu'b]. Columbia University

The Science of Man

ROM its first beginnings the attempt to gain an adequate

knowledge of human nature has been linked with the

hope of a better world. It was in the 18th century that the

idea of a Science of Man really captured the imagination of the thoughtful. Impressed with the harmony and rationality of [llc Order of Nature as revealed by the science of Isaac Newton, mm revoltcd from the chaos and ancient vested stupidity, the pregudices and intolerances and injustices, the selfish rivalries and sheer irrational warfare that prevail in human affairs. They dared to hope that some day these things would pass away, and that the}- would pass away when men had created a similar science of rhcmselves and their society. The great humanitarian apostles of gwec and justice of the Age of Reason staked their all upon the \xcntific understanding of human nature.

Well, we have today plenty of psychologies, plenty of sociol"files. plenty of anthropologies, plenty of all the many branches at the social sciences. We have a swarm of professors of them all, mti an unending stream of books. We have also plenty of con{mum and stupidity, pienty of prejudice and intolerance and inumicc and war. Has our faith, then, been a delusion? Can we go -=n building up a Science of Man with no appreciable effect upon

“xman greed and human stupidity? It is easy to grow cynical to\ to feel that the more we see man and his society as they

09

[Page 210]110 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

actually are, the more we see through them, the more foolish it appears to hope that knowledge and intelligence can ever play much of a part in human life. This mood of disillusionment has been admirably expressed by C. E. Ayres in a book that suggests that we have all been wrong, that science in general and social science in particular is no savior of mankind, but 3 False Messiah. It can teach the few to see life as it actually is; it can never help the many to make it different.

If we really. possessed a science of man, we might well btdisturbed at its present impotence. But though we have plenty of sociologies and psychologiesand all the rest, there remains the doubt: Have we any real scientific understanding of human nature? The most thoughtful of present-day investigators. eagerly working through all this mass of literature and theory, all agree. "Mighty little!" We still share the ignorance of the Age of Reason, as we share their high hopes that with such knowledge we could work miracles. Two centuries of passionate investigation have given us little more. Our greatest gain has been a sense of humility, of the danger of building imposing theories on a few highly selected facts, of the need for the widest investigation of fan and the most rigorous criticism of any theory, howcwr plausible or time-honored. Even these rudiments of a successful method have been painfully achieved only in the last generation They are still the possession of only a few of the social scienCt-s. and in them of only a few of those who claim to speak with authority. At most we can say that certain schools of anthropologists and psychologists have worked out leading principlts for further investigation, have formulated attitudes toward man and his group life that offer pI'OIDISC of future understanding. it will be time to lament the failure of the Science of Man when “t have one. Till then, we can still dream that knowledge will set u.free.

There have been plenty of books written of late to populariyc the various theories of contemporary psychology and sociology. Now at last one has appeared that does not exploit a theory, but tries to distinguish between what we really know and what w:

<., m“ 1-. ! I

[Page 211]nun-I- mm—“—w». V

THE SCIENCE OF MAN 111

don't. In Man and Civilizatian, John Storck does not offer a neat picture of human nature and social life, all explained in terms of a few simple principles. He is too honest. He has mastered the results of an extraordinarily large proportion of all the experimental investigations of the last thirty years. He is conversant with all the theories that have had their day and still count enthusiastic advocates. But he never fails to distinguish between the two. He has tried to bring together what 1' osts of investigators have .lctually observed, and to let the resultant picture of man take shape of itself. In consequence, his book is probably the most valuable critical survey of what psychology and anthropology in their present state have to teach us about human nature. It leaves the impression of a multiplicity of scattered discoveries, with great gaps yawning in our knowledge. It overthrows many of the xmditional notions that have since time immemorial blinded men's minds. It effectually disposes of many of the current fads, {llL‘ theories held today because of their plausible novelty and the l.l(l\’ of any real critical sense even among educated men. In these zo'pccts, it does just what the science of man can do today for us, .unl no more. It presents an accurate picture of where we are. ”l have tried," writes Mr. Storck, ”to present a non-teclmical \ J sufficiently dignified interpretation of human activity in

umlamental agreement with the results of recent study in the

Lls of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. These dis\

;~lines, of course, are still in their infancy, and so it is impossible

r . tell what light they may eventually throw on human affairs; , 2;! they do offer intelligent people of today certain leading

wntiples and a considerable array of specific data (still rather

~ .mcred and fragmentary, it is true) that can help them to a .mr understanding of contemporary life and its problems." (iertain leading principles that help to a better understanding ' mntemporary problems—in the last analysis that is just what

psychologist and the anthropologist have to offer us. For out

r m mass of facts and the welter of clashing theories there do "‘JUIC certain fundamental attitudes, Certain ways of looking at sum nature. They are forced upon us by the facts themselves.

[Page 212]2.11 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

There are plenty of theories that bolster up the many human prejudices; there are a few that promise to be fruitful instruments of investigation that will actually add to our knowledge. The chief charm of Mr. Storck's book is the skill with which he makes these ftuitful conceptions emerge from the facts themselves. To understand these concepts, to be able to approach human problems in their terms, is to be scientifically minded with regard to human affairs. It is the best guarantee against dogma and prejudice and intolerance and callous lack of sympathy.

The most basic of these notions, what the author calls "the socioobiological view of human nature", is the working principle of all serious psychological and anthropological research. It is the conception of human life as a complex organizationofactivitics built up in response to the opportunities and the limits set by .1 definite physical and social environment. The individual starts his life as a mere bundle of possibilities, most of which can nm‘cr be realized. He is born into a group with a definite organized way of living—a culture that sets for him what he will learn to do and how he will do it. This culture, with its customs, its prescribed activities, its beliefs, is there when the infant arrives. It has itself been built up as the group has tried by invention and borrowing' to adjust itself and its physi 1 environment to each other. This culture determines the pattern in which the possibilities of the newborn child will be organized. At every turn it guides him anJ sets limits beyond which he cannot go. Mr. Storck is at his best in pointing out the all-petmeating influence of this social environment in forming the individual's characteristic activities. 1: determines what two parents will unite to form his original germplasm; it gives him a language without which he could not think. it furnishes his highest ideals.

Such a conception of human life as essentially a social or' ganization of biological possibilities cuts across many ptejudim It affords no basis for dogmatic assumption about the flaw: superiority of certain individuals or groups. While the. constitution of the germ-plasm ultimately determines the possibilino of the individual's growth, no one can tell what they are. ”Heredit y

[Page 213]THE SCIENCE OF MAN 2.13

may be regarded as furnishing the limits within which individual development, as elicited by the social and physical environment, takes place. No study yet made, however, has disclosed the exacc limit of biological capacity of any individual with regard to any single trait . . . It is clearly unwise, therefore, to regard heredity as an entity or force when it is taken in abstraction from a supporting and eliciting environment." Nor are there revealed any complcx unlearned traits in human nature: the whole concept of "instincts" is without foundation. If men are war-like and grasping. it is because they have learned to be so in their society; stiencc knows no "instincts of pugnacity or acquisitiveness". “1f [llci'c are any such complex unlearned elements of human behavior, they have as yet resisted discovery."

It follows that all of the more complex forms of activity are bui It up through experience in a definite social environment. Will, conscience, personality, character, individuality, soul,—none of these are simple things or forces, but rather certain complex forms of acquired behavior. They are to be understood in terms of the f‘JX‘thUlaf experiences the individual has undergone. They are to im- controlled by furnishing a proper environment. Though as yet we know little about the very complex processes through which these characteristic functions are organized, we can already look tm’ward to the time when we shall be able to control them far more than we can today, when we can at least guard against the mrumtion of certain obviously undesirable traits.

\lr. Storck surveys critically what we already know about

h: factors at work as the almost completely indeterminate

.utivity of the infant gradually acquires the set of the fully'L'Vclopcd personality of maturity. He is a careful guide through 11:; many recent theories of what happens when life is reorganized .u adolescence about the sexual factors. He sketches the many 1:.» of investigation by which we can hope to understand the ~ .1 mluld elements that enter into personality,such as the function .2 of the endocrine glands and the knowledge of the psychiatrist.

Individual development consists in large part in assimilating

\ :lrcat social complexes that run through all institutions. From

[Page 214]114 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

the objective viewpoint of the anthropologist Mr. Storck offers an analysis of the part played in group life by routines, tools, machines, and language. He explains the process of choice of values, the way in which social change takes place, how criticism brings social standards and knowledge of fact to bear upon customs. He makes clear the notion of a culture as a continuously changing thing, always seeking a better adjustment with its environment, always having to remake its institutions in the light of improved physical mastery of nature. One is left with the clear conviction that every idea and every ideal is a human way of meeting human needs, is developed to meet a particular situation, and must change when the problem changes.

In the concluding section the same functional attitude is applied to the great social organizations of life, the complex and overshadowing institutions of economic life, the family, art, science, and religion. There are many wise and pertinent comments; but most of all there is the all-pcrmeating conception of these things as activities, as organizations of human impulses to meet biological and social needs, as parts of cultures. So far as possible, anthropological material is drawn upon, and the attempt is made to rise from the consideration of our family arrangements, our organization of the artistic impulses, out type of religious life, to the part played by such activities in other groups and civilizations. It is precisely such an emancipation from provincialism that the anthropologist can teach us. By giving a sense of the wide variety of such forms, of the equal success of very different arrangements. of the historical genesis of our own institutions, he can reveal both what can be done with such human materials and the importance of guiding their ever changing forms intelligently. Mr. Storck treats the family, with a wealth of fact, as an institution that is today rapidly changing its form and function; he raises the basic questions involved in its revision to meet the needs of an industrial civilization. Best of all is his chapter on art, where the functional attitude is brilliantly used to clarify our tangled thought, and the passing fads of aesthetic theory are keenly analysed.

n. f,

p-Wvfl“ ~,

[Page 215]CURRENT BOOKS ON WORLD UNITY 2.15

Man and Civilization can be heartily recommended as the best existing introduction to what is most valuable in contemporary social science. It makes clear the fundamental notions involved in thinking scientifically about man and his affairs; it shows what they actually imply as tools for the analysis and solution of social problems. No one who does not find these conceptions at the bottom of his thought about human affairs can claim to have learnt the best that science has to offer him. No one who does will

be quite so easily swept off his feet by the winds of doctrine and the storms of prejudice.

93

Reading Lin of Current Book; on World Unit}

3. THE SCIENCES OF MAN

Mm AND Civxuznxou, by JOHN sroncx (Columbia U . P.)

' Brings together the findings of psychology and anthropology to give a unified picture of human nature.

How the pvcbalagiu view: human nature:

\ Boon: ABOUT OURSELVBS, by H. A. OVERSTREET (Norton)

I nxr MIND 0F YOURS, by D. n. LEARY (Lippincott) Two recent elementary and popular accounts.

I m. New PSYCHOLOGY, by A. G. TANSLEY (Dodd, Maul) DYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY, by R. s. woonwon'm (Columbia U. P.)

m. m. PSYCHOLOGY, by F. H. ALLPORT (Hougbtnn Miffliu) Three general surveys of the results of experimentation.

Ha wuwomsm, by JOHN. B. WATSON (Norton)

l'm HULOGY FROM THE STANDPOINT or A BEHAVIORIST, by JOHN B. \VATSON (Lippincott) ' Simplified statjments of the modern experimental attitude.

[Page 216]2.16 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

GESTALT Psvcnowcuz, by WOLFGANG Kb'nm (Bom‘ and Liveriglat) The most recent program of investigation, critical of the gcsults of the simplified analysis of the bchaviorists.

THE NATURE or INTELLIGENCE, by L. L. THURSTONE (Harcourt) How WE THINK, by JOHN DEWEY (Heatb) THE PSYCHOLOGY or REASONING, by B. RIGNANO (Harcourt)

THE ART 0? THOUGHT, by GRAHAM WALLAS (Harcourt) The nature and functioning of man's mind.

INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOR, by HARRY A. ovunsrlum'r (N am») Practical lessons in social control from a psychologist.

How the anthropologist view: human culture:

MAN AND CULTURE, by CLARK wxssum (Crowd!) The anthtopologist's viewpoint.

EARLY CIVILIZATION, by A. A. Gonmmwmsan (Knopf)

anmva SOCIETY, by ROBERT H. LO\VIE (Bani and Liverigbt) Popular accounts of simple societies.

The psychological and anthropological attitude applied to our our:

civilizagion: ’7

HUMAN NATURE AND CONDUCT, by JOHN DEWEY (Holt)

COMMUNITY, by n. M. MAcxvnn (Macmillan)

THE GREAT SOCIETY, by GRAHAM WALLAS (Harcourt). Scientific criticinm of theories of racial :uperiority:

THE RACIAL BASIS or CIVILIZATION, by r. H. HANKlNS (Knopf)

Pmm’nvn MAN as PHILOSOPHER, by 1mm. 31mm (Appleton)

(Prof. Randall's list will be followed in later issues by similar lists on the subjects of Religion, Science. Education and Ideals of Life.)

[Page 217]NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The new outlook of the biologist appears clearly and forcefully in Prof. Bm':essayTnaBnowoquSmcnous ur Wonu) Um". the second and Concluding patt of which is published m this issue. To the non-technical layman, the great advance which has bccn made in the presentation of nutcrial in this key science consists m J gradual but definite shifting in [he biologist's point of view. WhereAS the writer of the older generation ulcmptcd to limit man to the narmw frame of the physical world, the uritcr of today insists upon a cont.nuity into the worlds of mind and quit and in fact bases his general mnclusions upon the large: reality cxpericncedbytnan.ReadetsoiWonu) l wn' Macaw: have not failed to «:c the parallels between the new

t'mific outlook established by Pnf.

ii: a .md the intuitive convictions of 13¢; .mcient Hindus quoted by Alfnd 2! Martin. . O 0

15 t- grcat circle of human experience ‘ .~ mdced been joined in a universal u: ;u- the evidences of which lie u. ; .~~_\ where to hand in this new age. "-'\ :mcss a poet's testimony of him ~ with the scientists as ex ' - Mary Siegn‘u‘ in her department

, x \"uw HUMANITY this month, in

mon to the parallels between

‘trn scientist and ancient mystic . -t.;.!v pointed out.

The most powerful confirmation, however, may be found in the growing realization of kinship and Cooperation between the peoples of East and West. In these two profoundest of human divisions every aspect of personal and group antagonism has been developed to its ultimate degree: diiferences of race, of language, of nationality, religion, custom, environment, tradition, government—the very polarity of sub. jective and objective opposition. Tim INTERACTION or EUROPE AND ASIA by William R. shepherd, in a series of six articles begun in the present number of Wonm UNITY MAGAZINE, applies the trained historian's viewpointtothiscomplexJatefulsituation and unravels many threads long entangled in snarls of prejudice, ignorance and suspicion. The information which Prof. Shepherd has assembled and analyzed. organized as it is with an invincible commonsense which seems the fruit of sincere faith. offers a perspective upon the present tense relations of East and West unobtainable, so far as the editors are aware. in anyothercriticalworlt.Sopotcntly can this broad-based truth reinforce and supplement every program aiming for world peace and progress that the editors feel justified in requesting the cooperation of all readers in bringing Pnf. Shplml': series to the attention of interested institutions, societies and individuals.

2.17

[Page 218]2.18 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

Unavoidable mechanical necessities havemadeitnecessarytodefetthepublication of THE VBXBD PROBLEM 01! INDIAN UNITY, by Kenneth James Saunders. until January, 1928. Prof. Saunders' analysis of factors conditioning the internal relations of India makes an admirable approach to that balanced view and poised attitude which alone can bridge the extremist docuines now struggling to control public opinion in the West.

fit.

The addition of several new names to the list of Contributing Editor: this month brings Wonus UNITY MAGAzma nearer to its ideal goal: the endorsement and cooperation of dis, tinguished scholars, scientists, authors and responsible progressives so thoroughly representative not only of the nations and races but also of the religions and social professions that the magazine can be said truly to express the emergence of the international conscience and mind.

International editorial staffs have long existed in the Case of publications functioning in the field of the arts and sciences, and the extent to which this form of intellectual cooperation has been developed may be seen by reference to the notice of the review 'Scuam-u' published in the advertisin g pages ofWonu) UNITY MAGAZINE this month. The collective action of specialists, however, is less significant than cooperation which

transcends any or all forms of specialization and manifests a more general. a more human ideal. The mental an-J moral resources of humanity will not be fully measurable until administrative processes have been worked out capable of yielding the specific contribution of each science, art and faith to one organic, all-inclusive social plan. The cross-fertilization possible between science, philosophy, art. rcligion and ethics is overwhelmingly important. and indicates the sources whence may be evolved a new and worldwide renaissance.

.‘O

Several special numbers of \Vowu) UNITY MAGAZINE ate in process of development. detailed information of which will be given at a :AICK' date. These numbers are to be in the nature of symposiums each devoted to a general theme having unusual pussibilities of interest. The subjects selected are: The spiritual element in education, Interracial omit], and R:h'giu: unity. Mechanical necessities compel the editors of WORLD Uxm' MAGAZINE to date each issue after the manner of publications whmc contents reflect the more immediatc changing interests; but the aim and purpose of \Vonu) UNITY MAGAZINE would be more faithfully served it the twelve issues published in thc course of the year could be regardc‘l rather as successive chapters in on: volume striving to record the manor victories of truth.

[Page 219]

SUPPLEMENTING YOUR BUSINESS OR PROFESSIONAL INTEREST

ion of the village but of the business or

profession. Every responsible position makes so many demands upon intelligence that there is little margin left for general study and reflection.

World Unit} Magazine concentrates into one compact medium the larger world trends and influences otherwise scattered among an impossible number of books and periodicals. It is concerned with the larger principles underlying world change, and not with the superficial, cvcr-shifting outward scene.

Knowledge of the fundamental issues dealt with by the contributors to World Unity Magazine is not mctcly a personal privilege but also an educational supplement to your present technical or professional information.

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

Tun provincialism of today is not the limitat

WORLD UNITY Pumsmmo Comunou, 4 ms? urn sum, mzw tout.

Pleat: nmrm mbtm'ptian to World Unit] Magazine. I enclou $3.10. (In Canada, I4 . oo; atlm countries,

54.10.)

[Page 220]THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

public meeting has been established, one which strongly ap peals 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 intetptet 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 in dividuals willing to cooperate in the extension of this independent platform dedicated to the promotion of‘haflnony and understand ing among religions, races, nations and classes. IN the World Unity Conferences :1 new and distinctive type of

Kindly am reply coupon on la." page of this announcement

WORLD UNITY CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

JOIN Hanan RANDALL Aunt: W. Mum" MA" Runs" Movws Flannel Run Morton Hana Hoax? Moummu' qus

?rogram of .Mmiugs—Dmmber, 1927-M4}, 1928

Bocton, Mass.—Dcoembet 16, 17, 18 Philadelphia. Pa.—Jauuary 22, 23, 24 Washington, D. C.—February 19, 20, 21 Detroit. Mich.—March 20, 21, 22 Cincinnati. Ohio—Match 27. 28, 29 Cleveland, Ohio —Aptil 23, 24. 25 Pittsburgh, Pa.—May 2]. 22. 23

110

[Page 221]THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES

From Match, 1926, to June, 1927, World Unity Conferences were held in the following cities: Worcester, 51155.; 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. OnIIHO.

The Evening Tnnsaipt of Boston described the Confetenoes in an article published December 11, 1915. “The phrase ‘world unity' is still so com;umtively new that it probably summnns up a quite difl'erent thought in every mind that considers it. Whether it: regard world unity as a feasible program or a remote. unattainable

Jul, the fact that prominent sciennsts, educatoss and statesmen, as

wellasrc tativeChristians,jews .mJ followers of other faiths ate will ng to participate in a public meeting devoted to this object is a chy sig: .z'xtant indication of the new trend.

"To many, world unity implies wmcthing in the nature of a formal gmhtical organization, like an extz'mon of the much debated League 4 Nations. To others, it suggests a lunhcf perfection of the machinery of ‘ummunication. including airplanes s 'r physical going about. and radio

nr the dispatch of ideas. There are

t me .who perhaps feel that world .‘21!\' suggests at least a tentative

~ wk mg alliance between capital and

a» yr, wh file a few would undoubtedly , wt to the fact of increased religious - xmnce as indicating a future pos HKc unity between the various re -: Ius bodies of the East and the 33

It is world unity as a deeper un mnmding and stronger spirit of co opentionhetweenpeoplesthemselves, quiteapartftomtheirptesentpolitieal, economic or seligious afliliations, haweves. which is the ideal promoted by the World Unity Conferences. This view considets that it is essential to rise above all partisan questions and appeal direct to the latent humanity obscured in the hearts ofmen. To achieve this result, the fitst be ginning has been made by establishing a platform independent of any existing social organism. and thus cap: hle of giving equal respect to the idea» .114 principles of all. Probably no more univetsal publh. forum exists in this country today than the WaldUnityGonferencessupply.sinee they offer the same hospitality toJew and Mosletn as to Christian. and to scientist orphilosopher 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, howevet, does uphold a strict standard of suitability, in that each speaket must represent some approach to the problem of world unity."

wont) UNITY CONFERENCE

SPEAKERS Mmb, 1936—1111». 1927

Ma. Aunt) \V. Muun' sum; [or Elfin! C-Itm. New York Ma. Lotus Gnoou National Lem u Mid Ania Au-Kuu Klan. ND. Fm Panic- Ms‘aiuv n 1‘: U. S. lav. Knusl. Bananas Chat 0] lbs Mao", Wm. Mas. DI. Joan Hausa" Rnunu. CM M of Now Yul Stun Hanson Eli": Th Nu arm TIOIA! I Hnntsou You. Pm. Cannes Sxmuu Tlfll College

1“

[Page 222]THE WORLD UNITY CONFERENCES _—————_.

Ploy. Hun" \V. Hmu. bnidnt, Elfin" Aux. 0/ Non‘ Ami“ kw. Aunt R. Vm. National Lem ‘- Religion UuiIJ Riv. Lawns“ Pun Fin! Unitarian Chub. Ruhmr, N. Y. PROD. Jul Hon“: Swath Calla: DI. HIIIIIT Anna GIIIONI Hindi:DA. 5. P. Cum Chamila. Uuiwnio o] Buflalo Du. TlI-TI Hum Claim Tull Camiuw. Bum DI. Duwoul Lunar: Fin: Unitarian Chub, Clmlad, Obie Du. on. Hnnnl a'nluut P'ublm'n Chub, Chulal. ObiPlov. Haun- A. Mlun Obi- Itm Uu‘um'q Rnll Haul. Sum 1": Triple, Clmlal, Obie Ploy. Kant." F. Mann HM Uliunig Pact. \Vlwm E. Hocxmo HM Ulium‘o Run Hun Luv: Ta- h 11ml, Bum Plot. m D. Sun: Mania: Pal Stbul Junon quucu E. Aunt SIM Can of 050‘. Ml. Lonno Tut 3mm, Chap Mu. Cunt.- S. Cu“ PmiJc-t. Pun'lc-IJ' Calfm a] "’omm': Club. Cbiu a DA. Sun.“ ATIIWI Dun, Diu'u'l] Ideal. Unitinio a] Chicago MI. Houcu . Bums Iain) Iv Mu! film, Chicago Mn. J. C. Cantu]: Vii}. Van'fli. W51, Euglud DLUEutna I;Atnou m ' o Cbm‘ a DA. Funnel CAufEquu Pmflnu, Gum Biblkcl Iwinm, Nonlvnmm University

Du. Juno. Pun II. Par: thhu- am}, C‘a'cap kw. Fun Mnunun All Inh' and. Chicago “£23.32?" [c5 ' , ninth; o in a Run Loun 1.. MA)!!! A Sinai Cong" an'al. ain‘t Riv. Pluto)! uouv Th Puplc': CM‘, Cling Du. Wlulm R. Sunni: Colm‘ia Uu’vmity Aunt Locn, PhD. A1150! 0/ The Na! Negro Hon. Znuo-Lmo Came China: Cmul Guard. Ntw Yul Mu. MA“ Cunm [mind Now This!» Alliance Du. L. L. Dooolrr 53210-1: luminal Y.M.C. A. , 0 Di. S. 61:: w Culley DI. Auounm 0. Tuouu build», War“ Folnniu cf Eduau'uu.’ Aim Pact. Kunm- Scorr Lnoun'rrl Yah U-ium'o Mn. Dun- Aunt Em" Elinv. nu wouo romouou PloI. VLADIIIII Knnnon Com” Ulium'a Mn. Mouunou Mun M‘i Mutual MI- Aoun ManIL. M.P. 0nau.Cauh RIV. Jon: Buns. MA. Lulu. England DI. Dunn Plums Ulivmiry o] Rubunr DIbWIWAudhgmuu m: gnaw DI. E. Mgr! Uu'ul Thohgiul Collage. Momma! Plol. D. M. Kan Uniwu'o 0/ Touch DI. Jun: 1.. Human [mm o] Stink. Tom“ Puma MAUIICI Hu-rrou Uu'um'o College. Tm: Plot. R. M. MACIVII Univmio 01‘ vam

Won.» Um“ Coumnucas, 4 un- u'm 511331, NEW you: cm I an inmatd in 150 tin: ad Wu of :5: World Unity Cufmum.

Phat :MW D Iwillmmulxdb D

NAM. ..................

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[Page 223]

Some One Like You

0U have a ltiend and friends w ho‘ talk your langna ',who read and ptofit by the same books. who rely on you (0 send or tecommcnd, m year to year, the maguines carrving articles the need and want to read. This page is written that you may serve those w ho. lIkc you. wilf want to read and discuss not only the materia on the Inbiec I announccd for each Issue but In addition the TWO SERIES OF SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES

h distinguished critics of contemporary life which at: running in THE WORLD TOMORROW.

A Group of 12 Articles on VITAL RELIGION

Mi-hup Francis 1. MW] Add.“ Cu: Jenna DIV.MiHIIItd Ruben: Modemi W. Johnson Reinhold Niebuhe ('IIIIrlm W. Gilley Maude floydon [lulled Luceock .‘ht‘fl'tll‘ Eddy Hwy l". Wald David Bryn—Jonee and O O O O O O 0

Recent Gains In Amencan CIVIIIzatIon I'IIIIRII-s A. Baud . . . . . Gourmand Mary Amtiu ........ LiteralIu-e ".Irr)‘ Emerson Pondich . . . . Reliyion Shun Chase . . . "mine" and Finance \IIRInnn Thomu . . Inlernulinnal Rehliom Rockwell Kant .......... Ar! Immld Garrison \‘illnrd . . Jauruqliem Charla S.Johnson . . . . Race Relation: II.IIIIIII Lon» Shaw . . . . Education MuryVnnKleoL-k ..... IIIIluIln'ol Rehliom "rgwnil’ llmun . . . Sing: and Screen David Starr Jordan . . . . . . Scicnrr

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1;

[Page 224]THE FOUNDATIONS OF WORLD UNITY

by ’ABDU’L—BAHA

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To 'Abdu’LBahá, world unity was not a mere linking together of formal institutions developed by society in its age of spiritual darkness and division, but a meeting and blending of minds and hearts awakened to a new consciousness of the destiny of humanity. As by the action of a pure solvent, his vision served to melt away the outer self imposed by environment and quicken the inmost center of being where response is to the universal Will. The purposes and powers of that Will were upheld by him in a victory of love so complete that the sum total of his life becomes a vindication not of a nation, not of a race, not of a religion, but of mankind.

At a time when even the most enlightened liberalism conceived ofunity in partial terms—a limited unity affecting only one plane of experience, such as religion, ethics, science or politics—‘Abdu'l—Baha by word and deed created a truly universal conception of the new term.

The present work consists ofselections from public addresses delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during hisjourney through Europe and America immediately preceding the War, or from letters written to friends in the West answering questions of similar theme. This journey was in itself a significant sign of world unity, in that he spoke before audiences representing practically every social division or interest of our complex modern life. From Columbia University in New York to Leland Stanford in California, from the Bowery Mission to the dinner table of a diplomat in Washington, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá traversed not merely the geographical but also the spiritual area of the American

people.

I 12 pages, paper nun. Snmly-fiu um: «I copy atyour Lookum. From (In pu‘lisher, eighty tum poupaid.

WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION 4 Eu! 12th Sueet. New York