World Unity/Volume 1/Issue 5/Text

[Page 293]

WORLD UNITY

A Monthly Magazine

for those who 59:12 the world outlook upon prumt development: of philosophy, science, religion, ethic: and the art:

Joan HERMAN RANDALL, Editor Homes Houmr. Managing Editor

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HELEN B. MACMILLAN, Blaine” Manager

C. F. Ammv

w. W. Arwoon

Mn! Aurrm

A. Mlxmmonn BARTHOLDY BARON BAUDIAN

L. F. m Buurou Gann- A. BBNBKIR Pmnl Bovn

Hun Canmworra No Poor: Cuw

Runoun I. Conan Gnonon Duanuu.

ANNA B. Ecxs-ram HAVILOCK ELm Auaus'rl Foul.

C. F. Gun

V. Scuuun Gk'vnm'rz Human: von GBILACH Hlnlll‘l' Amus Gluom Kmuz. Guns CHAILO‘I‘II Plums Gluum Joust W. GIAEAM

Contributing Editor:

MAIJA Gnuxman-Koscunsn KARIN Mlcuuus

Fun: H. RANKIN: qu. HA":

Y‘uno Icalcaum Rum: M. Joxu Monnlcu “7.10:1an DAVID Sun Jonas Snwu. Lucn Josnl Enlist J unnVLADIMII. KnAmon P. W. Kuo

Ricaun Lu

Hnu Luv:

ALAIN Locn

Gnome: DI Lun'cs Louu L. Mum

Sn Juan MAICIAN‘I' VICI‘OI Mnouzumn R. H. Mutant Auun W. MAIJIN F. S. anm KII'I'LI‘! F. Mnnn Lucu Ann Mun

Haunt A. Mann Fun Mnnmuo DaAN Gown. Mann]! IDA Mam:

Han! Aunt Ovnsum Dunn PIIKINS

JOHN Hnum RANDALL, Jn. Cnnus RICE" Fonm Run

Tn. Ruvmu

WILLIAM R. Snunnn Muv Smalm'

Ann HILL". Suva lsmoz Swan Auounm O. THOMAS Gmnr Tuouas Rus‘ruu Viuna'n Warn Wauu

HAN: WIIIIIO

M. P. Wlucocxs Fun: LLOYD Wmcm‘

Editorial Offices—4 East 11th Street, New York City

\VORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by Woxm UNITY PunusmNG CORPORATION, 4 East 12th Street, New York City: MARY RUMSEY Movws, president; Hone: Hounv, vicc-pmidmt; qumcn Morton, mourn; JOHN Hum»: RANDALL.

urztar]. Published monthly. 35 cents a copy, $3.50 a year in the United States.

$4.00 in Canada and $4.50 in all Other countries (postage included). Tun \VonLn Um“ Punusnmo Comunou and its editors do not invite unsolicited manuscripts and art material. but welcome correspondence on articles related to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U. S. A. Contents copyrighted

1928 by Woun Um" Punusalxo Conouuon.

[Page 294])~\

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l‘f-m-f‘l l‘f‘m'. ‘ “‘N'h". ) ‘fi‘fllt‘?’ ”fwht‘" "‘3; 1-?) N‘f'k-fi’l lfaf'nfyl

an individual, according to the theory maintained in

this study, brings to the group a predisposition to

identify himself with it, and its influence on him arises from his own nature. By nature he is adapted to the group. In the evolution of the human species and in most prehuman species, no individual survived except as a member of a group. In fact, the individual survival has been much more dependent on the survival of the group than on any possible extension which the individual could make on his isolated behalf. The tesult has been that both the normal instinct and its halfeonscious enhancement by imagination, custom, and tradition have made the individual value his own personal existence less than that of his group. “It is sweet to die for one's country," because the survival of one's country is actually more significant to one than the survival of one's individual self. Such a driving emotion could only be felt as the fulfilment of a basic impulse, never derived from abstract reasoning. Each individual unconsciously postulates his own existence in the continuity of his group, because in the struggle for survival there was no other possibility of existence.

In view of the interpretation of the nature of the group and the instinctive relation to it of the individual, we must try to understand the individual otherwise than we would if he did not have this almost organic relationship. An individual is never an isolated being psychologically, not only because of the effect of others as stimuli on him, but because of his very nature which makes it impossible {or him to exist or to fulfil himself except as a member of a group. The group is of the most vital importance to him, because of his own nature. Rationality has no meaning if it does not involve an individual functioning as part of a group. The intellectualist mode of thinking was accepted under the delusion that the individual was the unit of thought. The prevalence of this mode, however, has been so general that it seems to he actually immoral to substitute a more factual explanation for its absolute dogma.

—Racn, Nation: and Clmm', Haunt Anoumus MILLER

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[Page 295]WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

\‘on. 1 FEBRUARY, [92.8 No. 5

EDITORIAL

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RELIGIOUS IMPERIALISM

UR recent events have served to bring home to laymen the fact that established religion is responding but slowly and reluctantly to the spirit of the new age. These events are: the rise of the Ku Klux Klan; the crisis in the Church of

llngland over the revision of the Prayer Book; the difficulties -.nmuntered by the World Conference on Faith and Order held at Lausanne; and the Papal Encyclical which officially separates the Roman Catholic Church from so-called'Pan-Chtistian' movements.

However distinct these occurrences are with respect to their historical background and the religious personalities and groups

tnmcdiately concerned, their total effect upon the secular mind

\ to confirm the impression that the worldwide moral leadership

icldcd by Woodrow Wilson during the greatest crisis of civilizamm is truly indicative of the victory which the spirit of religion his won over its outer form.

As this impression deepens, the consequence can only be to nuitkcn the tendency on the part of free, yet responsible souls to n :k a basis for collective action in some new experience open to «hers of like nature on terms preserving the self-i'espect of all, m.tuntrolled by the traditions of any sect or creed.

The essential fan to consider is this insistence upon religious

npcrialism—this struggle for what may be termed mythological

'.“.'r:' at a time when the precisely similar ideal long held by gulliical and economic bodies is being voluntarily abandoned for a \ ikc of a larger, more inclusive and More useful ideal. The subum c error in the doctrine of political sovereigntv is simpler and '1: n"; casil) comprehensible than the subjectiie error corrupting

95

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the corresponding dOCtrine of religious sovereignty, but it must be remembered that erroneous doctrines are never overthrown by logic and reason until they have first been discredited by the fans of everyday life.

From the point of view of World Unity, the reaffirmation of the principle of exclusive religious sovereignty is a public disaster of the most sinister kind. In actual application it means that thL‘ statesman or financier seeking grounds for cooperative engagements between his group and any other group, after realizing and admitting the factors of mutuality involved in the external situation, is compelled, if he be a member of such a religious body, to repudiate all members of the other group in the very area of experience where self-respect and reverence are born. What international treaty and what economic arrangement can be expected to endure without the foundation of all the moral resourCCs available on both sides? Until there can be a treaty of spiritual peace between religions, how can governments covenant togethcr to keep the material peace?

Much light is thrown upon the present status of formal religion by those students of history who have recently shown the stages of evolution through which each civilization seems to pass, the final stage being that when culture has crystallized into rigid forms—the stage of utmost-material power coinciding with thtdecay of the creative spirit and the approach of final dissolution. However inevitable religious sovereignty may be regarded in terms of tradition, this doctrine cannot, even today, be justified in terms of tomorrow's humanity and tomorrow's recreated world.

The alternative to the doctrine of exclusive Revelation is .l fellowship of liberal spirits voluntarily pledging their loyalty to the God of all mankind. Impossible as a world religion may appear under present conditions, the very act of seeking and furthering mutual cooperation and understanding stimulates the heroic, thc self—sacrificing qualities of men. If the exclusive religions breed the negative virtues, and the hope of brotherhood produces thc positive virtues, this may be the method by which ‘evolution

solves the ptesent apparent impasse.

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NATURE AND THE LAW OF LOVE

5) VLADIMIR KAumz-rorr College 0] Engineering, Camel! Unit'mirj

n3 subject of religion and world peace may be discussed

either objectively or emotionally. Emotionally or in tuitively, I should like to see all the civilized and semi civilizcd nations on earth living at peace, each working out its own destiny in accordance with its inborn traits, beliefs, climate, etc. Emotionally, I feel God in me and in the rest of the universe and intuitively I know that He wills that I should live an unselfish spiritual life of service and confidence.

Were I to address‘ an audience of persons who believe in these things as strongly as I do, I should simply have to exhort them to cling steadfastly to their ideals, tell them of my own (subjective) experiences, play on their emotions by gestures and intonation, and they would go home firmer in their beliefs than they ever were. However, a skeptic in the audience would probably go home more skeptical than ever, saying to himself that I had not presented my objCCtive arguments, that he could have urged atheism and the law of the jungle with equal force before a group of kindred tcilow-skcptics.

So I have learned by experience to keep my emorional beliefs t.) myself and to cherish them and try to live up to them to the best of my ability and understanding, at the same time constantly wm'ying and improving them the best I can. Like many others, I Eme learned that we can best help others not by urging our intuit:\ c tenets upon them but by living our lives in accordanc: mth x-ur beliefs and by demonstrating to them 0b)cCti\‘cf.1L‘t> and {actors '-\ h ich have led us to our point of view.

‘ . Z.c IJCJS here presented have been used by the writer in his talks 1mm: s:~:‘a. '» / ??h'lkf‘ 6/

.,

I

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So this article is not an emotional partisan appeal, nor even an argumentative presentation of the subject of religion and world peace. It is simply a brief account of certain facts, observations. and reasoning, mostly not original with me. that may be of assistance and interest to those who care to think upon the subject and to arrive at their own conclusions.

At the outset we must agree to recognize certain facts, whether we like them or not. Such is. for example, the incontrovertiblc fact that from immemorial times warfare, hatred, and distrust have been the usual mode of living of human communities. Another fact is that at all stages of civilization, the principle of war ha> been approved, or at least tolerated, by the gods of every nation. Even during the last Great War, ministers of the Gospel, in military uniforms, invoked Divine help for victory. A hide-bound intuitionist would say: “What are these facts to me? I know that God within the demands peace and love at all costs." To such a one, the modern scientific method has nothing to offer, for anothcr intuitionist might with equal force claim that the god within him demands bloodshed and poisonous gases. We simply have to tell them that thinking that elephants are yellow does not make them so. At the same time, the existence of such simon-pure intuitionists is also a curious scientific fact, which we must not disregard. but add to our array of facts to be properly correlated and scientifically interpreted.

Thus, we shall limit our circle of readers to those who recognize'at least some objective validity of facts, as recorded by our external senses, in building up out set of beliefs and rules of bchavior. Any desires or ideals, such as a longing for universal peace, or a belief in a God of Love, as well as purely intellectuil conclusions from observed facts, must also be included in our data. And to be altogether modern and broadminded, we must include the will to act in a certain way, subconsciously or consciously, among our ”biological material", to be analyzed and. explained. However, every laboratory worker must rccogniz; certain limitations in the precision and range of the instrument) which he is using, and so from the outset we must recognize that

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whatever conclusions we may reach will be limited by the modes of working of our minds, by the ”will to believe", and by that intangible though all-powerful “initial attitude" which, like a piece of colored glass, determines the starting point of view and gives us a Plato, a Descartes or a Schopenhauer.

When we actually decide to base our beliefs and mode of action upon a biological foundation, in othet words, when we decide to derive our conclusions from an almost infinite array of jumbled-up and often unclassified data of various natural sciences, we are at once confronted with the formidable obstacle that it is an impossibility for one person to have a firm foundation and extensive knowledge of zoology, botany, geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, history, anthropology, psychology, physiology, economic laws, logic, metaphysics, etc. Aristotle probably knew most of what was known in his time; Herbert Spencer made a heroic attempt to synthesize the nineteenth-century knowledge, but most searchers for truth have to get their data second-hand. [n this age of cooperation, with individual physicians combining into clinics and small shops and stores combining into gigantic factories, department stores, and chain stores, may we not hope for a cooperative working out of a system of philosophy wherein leading scientific spirits would furnish the supreme generalizations to which their respective sciences are capable, and experts in philosophy and logic would unify the generalizations of the individual sciences into still more general statements comprising two or more sciences? While this may sound like a factory-made system of philosophy, yet I believe that in grandeur and convincing comprehensiveness it would surpass anything yet attempted by the greatest individual minds.

While we are not yet in a position to undertake such allembracing synthesis, we can at least observe some fairly definite indications of the effect of a faithful study of some one department of nature upon a devoted scientist. Having lived most of my life among natural scientists, I recently made a composite picture of scientists' attitude toward life and its fundamental problems.

The gods of seafaring peoples ride on waves, and the gods of

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mountaineers live on crags and hurl rocks down the precipices. An atheist’s god is on his vacation, and a scientist's god wears a laboratory apron and shakes gigantic test tubes. We not only create our gods in our own image and likeness, but we could not do otherwise. Now and then it dawns upon some of us that while our conception of God may be all right as far as it goes, it does not go more than an inch in a million miles. Then we see that other folks' gods aren't wrong either, but are other little inches in the same million miles.

My life has been spent mostly among natural scientists, mathematicians, and engineers of various kinds and among books and articles written by them. So I shall attempt to lay before you some of the philosophy of life that comes as a result of living the unnatural live of a natural scientist. It is immaterial whether or not I personally subscribe to all these views. They are meant to be collective views of those persons who have tried to draw general conclusions beyond their narrow scientific specialty, although based on it.

Most of us do not go so far, and while convinced of the fact that immutable laws rule for the particular kind of fishes which we are studying, continue to believe in hocus-pocus in everything else. 50 never mind if the pictute which I am about to draw docs not agree with professors whom you know. I have in mind a chemically pure scientist who exists only in the imagination.

I. A scientific attitude is one of extreme humility, both as to facts and their interpretation. The man in the street sees many things in nature to make him bow his head in reverence, but for every fact or phenomenon that he is able to appreciate, a scientist sees thousands of facts and relations which become more and more ~ wonderful as one dissects and analyzes them. So even if the god whom he warships is but a narrow and one-sided deity, it is a part of true and infinite God nevertheless, just as much as that of a seer or religious enthusiast is.

z. A scientific attitude is highly unselfish and disinterested. An investigator is inspired by the ideal of truth, no matter where it may lead him and with whose interests it might conflict. He has

[Page 301]p.

NATURE AND THE LAW OF LOVE 30!

the courage of his convictions, and, because of being absorbed in his problem, cares but little about worldly power, material riches, pleasures of senses, or even general fame. He is satisfied to be m'otably known among his fellow workers.

3. A scientific attitude is that of one who rejoices in tribulations, knowing that they work patience and experience. Many a worthy scientific discovery or generalization has been made be(Just of disturbing or secondary factors. Moreover, every student of science knows that it sometimes takes years and even centuries to correlate a group of facts into a general law, and he therefore patiently adds his mite of honest information to lighten the burden of a future co-worker.

4. A scientific attitude satisfies one's sense of symmetry, harmony, completeness and beauty! In a rainbow, in the orbits of .‘clestial bodies, in a rose, or in a graceful feline, knowing details, reasons, laws, or scientific terms,enhances the admiration a thouundfold and adds the joy of a naturalist to that of a poet.

5. A scientific attitude is one of being clearly conscious of a lofty though unknown purpose in things and animals which have nothing to do with man and his puny welfare. A scientist understands the beautiful allegory of the command to Noah to take in irh him into the ark males and females of all living things and am only of those useful to him. So a naturalist's sympathy and mriipassion is of the broadest kind, and is not limited by ignorant g‘ulitics, economic struggle, excuse of creeds, or natural fear and .blmrrence. Nor is his sympathy confined to words only. To him

‘nc whole world is a majestic temple; a laboratory and a city of

mu! at the same time. With his expert knowledge, he agitates for umctuaries for wild beasts and plans for merciful killing of fur: tiring animals, and for the preservation of forests and the purity

.' berams. 6. A scientific attitude towards humanafl'airs, future destinies, ..r:J past history of humanity is based upon a firm biological point 2 view. A scientist knows that hidden forces are at play which n: infinitely greater than armies, treaties, individual ambitions,

\lcluded mobs. After the excitement and the smoke of the battle

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are over, human events resume their regular course, and the principal results are usually of a kind entirely unpremeditated and unforeseen. A scientist sees a struggle for existence among nations and among groups within a nation, as a biological phenomenon or law, but he also sees that with an increase in knowledge and understanding, armed conflicts will become more and more avoidable and will be replaced by a peaceful international cooperation, such as he is actually enjoying with kindred scientists of orhcr nations. Until then he sorrowfully steps aside, not swayed either by hysterical threats or by mushy sentimentality.

7. A scientific attitude is one of confidence and repose. be cause of a clearly perceived organic unity and perennial balancc in the universe. In a jungle, before man comes with his cruel axe and ugly green paintgthousands of species live and propagate. kill and eat each other without malice or envy and all continue to exist in a wonderful dynamic equilibrium through many hundreds of thousands of years. He sees the racial problem and its real menacing aspects perhaps more clearly than a kukluxer does,bccause he knows that an inter—penetration by hemmed-in (anl therefore more aggressive) races is inevitable. But his biological instinct and broader sympathies dictate an attitude and a solution entirely different from one prompted by animal fear and impatience

8. A scientific attitude is one of working hypothesis and open mind. A dogmatic final solution, into which all future facts and laws simply must fit or be rejected, is entirely foreign to .5 scientific mind.

As in philosophy, so in natural sciences, the net result at i painstaking search of over 1,000 years for a general expression or interpretation of the underlying'realities of life, has been mainlx negative. We know that God does not speak to us in Hebrew frun‘ a cloud; that the earth with its conceited passengers is not :h: center of the universe; and that right or wrong is mainly demmined by what has been found to be'bcneficial to a people in tlt. past. However, these negative results have been of tremenduuvalue in keeping up a feverish,unceasing search fox something mm; refined, more embracing, and more satisfying and majestic. Wit}:

[Page 303]NATURE AND THE LAW or LOVE 30;

Spencer, we worship the Unknowable, and at the same time are irresistibly driven to know more about it.

For the sake of explanation, assume that man is not the highest species on earth, but that there is a species X which considerably exceeds humanity in intellectual powers, in kindness, in will power, etc. By studying this species, as well as the behavior of lower animals, our scientists could definitely place us on the scale of development, tell the evolutionary tendencies in us, and lay down a set of ideals to live up to, in order to approach the species X at as rapid a rate as possible. But we know of no species X, so that scientists can only guess at the direction in which humanity is moving and improving. It is for this reason that ideals of universal love, peace, etc., must for the present be considered hypotheses, in the scientific sense. Ofcourse, humanity has produced Jesus, Socrates, Buddha, Gandhi, the founder of the Bahá’í movement, and many others, who may almost be considered as representatives of a higher race, and I personally believe that several important points ,on which these men have a greed constitute the highest truths known to humanity. Nevertheless, I could not prove this statement with the same objective convincingness as the Pythagoras theorem or the law of gravitation, and therefore am not trying to urge this belief on others.

No great naturalist, familiar with the scientific method, would claim that humanity should live according to the law of the jungle, simply because lower animals obey this law. It is more correct to say that there is some unknown general law or tendency for behavior which in a specific case of lower animals is manifested .u the familiar struggle for existence, individual and collective, hut which in civilized humanity begins to acquire a more complex .md noble aspect. We still compete with each other and have wars m" aggression, but we also have powerful tendencies in the opposite Jircction which make us ashamed of our fear and selfishness. I mnsider these tendencies to be the first embryonic workings of a powerful law which exists in the world in a potential form and \\ hich will be working with full force within the span of a few . :cncrations to come. In fact, I am so fully convinced of the all [Page 304]304 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

potent tendency towards universal peace and federative unity of humanity. that I am ready to throw my whole enthusiasm in this direction, in spite of feverish preparations for a new war. Yet, I could not prove my faith, so it must remain an intuition or a working hypothesis; in my case it is both, and I do not urge it on others.

Let me give two examples: A sphere is a specific simple‘casc of an. ellipsoid, and a small portion of a plane may beconsidcrcd to be a part of a large sphere. From the properties of a plane mcannot generalize to those of a sphere, nor from the properties of a sphere to those of an ellipsoid. Valid conclusions are only possible from more general to less general. A geometer who knows thc properties of an ellipsoid, can immediately formulate the simplified theorems which apply to the sphere; similarly, from the properties of a spherical triangle those of a plane triangle follow as simplified relationships. To take another example: Man can create new conditions ' which apparently never existed before; yet Nature instantly and without hesitation causes its laws to apply to the new conditions as though she had them in readiness. In modern physical, chemical and biological laboratories, such conditions have enabled us to perceive formerly deduced laws as particular cases of more general laws. Similarly, keeping in mind the complex social and economic structure of modern civilized humanity, laws deduced from ohsetvations on primitive peoples should appear as very specific cases. Prohibition of liquor has led to bootlegging, hi-iacking. and other phenomena which could hardly have been foreseen showing the existence of a powerful though mysterious dynamnequilibrium. The lasting effects of the Great War in many respect. have proved to be just the opposite of those expected by the victors and the vanquished alike. For these reasons, while fully respecting the lessons of the past, I do not hesitate to throw myself into the task of upbuilding universal peace. In the longing or many persons for it, I see the workings of a more general law or which family, tribal, and national ties and unity have been only partial manifestations.

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Strife among human groups has been a universal state of affairs, but so has been also a gathering of groups into larger friendly aggregates, with demarcation lines gradually obliterated. So, rather than to look upon the law of the jungle as a general immutable law, I prefer to look upon it as a specific case of the Luv of temporary mm which may be formulated thus: On each stage of cultural development there is the best size and form of human group, for fostering the completion of that particular development. For this purpose, the group creates a crust (a coccoon) Around itself, both for protective and for aggressive purposes. After a time, this crust is dropped and replaced by a larger crust comprising several groups, etc.

We have seen the size of this coccoon grow from the family to the League of Nations, but everywhere the characteristics are strikingly alike. The membets constituting the unit hardly evet look upon its necessity or advantages from a correct biological point of view. They are mutually hypnotized from childhood until death by pleasant phrases like "our family is the nicest," "the greatest State in the Union," ”our country right or wrong," “we are the greatest people on earth," ”the sun never sets on our Juminions," etc. This, of course. is nature's foresight. to make \urc that a useful arrangement is not left to the judgment of iniiividuals. It is for the same reason that certain pleasure is associ.lth with eating and sex intercourse.

A federation of states, such as exists in this country, in the British Empire. among Soviet Republics, and to some extent in (icrmany, provides, so to say, a soft shell for each component ware, and a hard shell for the federation as a whole. The next endeavor should be to thin down the soft shells to a mere gossamcr, to change the hard shells to soft shells, and we shall have the ncxt step towards world unity. A hard shell may be needed for a mm to protect a federation of civilized countries against backxmrd 0r barbaric races.

This softening of national shells has to be gradual and ~ponmneous, but there is no reason why it could not be helped by ucntlc means. That is, while the consciousness of numerous in [Page 306]306 \VORLD UNlTY MAGAZINE

dividuals of each nation is changing from within, causing them to place more and more value on world unity, and less and less value on racial or political isolation, bristling bayonets, and distrust of neighbors, we can advocate this unity orally and by printed word, make definite reciprocity offers, and establish new tics, cultural, commercial, social, religious, sportive, etc.

I am willing to grant that many a confirmed atheist is a perfect internationalist and is working unselfishly towards world unity. In fact, all present endeavors towards making the League of Nations a powerful agency for world unity are based (at least officially) on non-religious foundations. If I am bringing religion in this essay at all, it is because personally I cannot think of world unity or work towards it on a purely human foundation. For me, there is something mystical, almost a miracle, in this growth of the idea of unity, a manifestation of a higher law of which we have not been previously aware, except through our noblest representatives whom we killed just because they told us of it. To me, every step towards peace and unity among nations is also a step toward a better understanding of the Supreme Intellect and Love, which governs the world. Jesus understood this when he said that a man could not love God, whom he has no: seen, and hate his neigh bor whom he has seen. Only in proportion as we learn to love our brothers and serve them, can we become conscious of the presence of a living God within us.

I am say'ng this so as to bring out another great generalization derived from observation on nature, namely that of dynamic equilibrium. When we put, say, a chunk of steel on one pan of the scales and balance it by weights on the other pan, the resulting equilibrium is static or stationary. When, however, two armies try to break through each other's lines day after day, advancing and receding in turn a few yards here and there, the equilibrium may be called dynamic. In the organic world all equilibrium is dynamic. Witness our political oreconomic struggle. The resulting conditions may remain stationary over considerable periods of time, but they remain so only because of a continued struggle for supremacy on the part of the component forces.

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NATURE AND THE LAW OF LOVE 307

This should be a lesson to those dreamy reformers who see 'as the final ideal) the lions and the lambs lying together, in an everlasting siesta, and eleCtticity doing all the disagreeable chores. This would be death and annihilation. No, in our future state, tumprising all the civilized countries on earth, there will be a strong and healthy political life, struggles, accusations, martyrs, temporary sct-backs, reforms, etc. All we should hope to abolish within reasonable time is armed conflicts and continuous preparamm for them. Our United States do not have armed conflicts mung themselves, nor do they prepare themselves for such.

We have heard much about international arbitration and an

itt-rnational court of justice to decide disputes between nations.

I .un not opposed to such, only I am afraid that undue importance x .ittached to such a court by those who wish to see nations and mes knit closer together. Compare a family which is held tothcr by the father's severity and sense of duty with one tied into i, .znit by mutual love and desire to help and to serve.

Divine Love is the greatest power of earth, and no world a luration can be safely built on any other foundation, be it mzztual advantages, fear, existence of an international court, or Eur not. A family, a fraternal organization, or a state, is truly

' mg only in the proportion in which its members love each ":cr. and not in the proportion in which they are afraid of each

r or of consequences of wrongdoing. Love may be emotional,

- :my be intellectual, it may be volitional; all kinds are good. Let .\ qrivc for more love among men, and then treaties, parliaments, m» of justice, etc., will readily take care of themselves.

However, love does not consist in a nice feeling akin to that 'xg‘t'ricnccd by one after a good meal, sitting in a comfortable .rznthair. Jesus, Socrates, Bahá’u’lláh, Debs, Gandhi, and their

gr, loved men and were ready at any time to demonstrate this -. e by action. In fact, they could not have done otherwise than

' > v did, because for them life consisted in helping others and forv. :1 mg themselves. The universal law that "love means sacrifice" in been known even to many species of animals in the form of -: her love. Leaders of humanity have merely extended the mean [Page 308]308 “’ORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

ing of the word “mother" from a biological to a sociological sense. In other words, the real law seems to be as follows: "In a group of living beings, an advanced individual (a leader) will naturally act for the benefit and continuity of the group, chn though such actions should be against his or her personal welfarc as understood by the lower individuals of the group. Therefore, the lower individuals call it a sacrifice."

A mother-bird who flies in the face of a stronger enemy, and a reformer who allows his body to be burned, act in accordance with this law. The next step in the application of this law ought to be more general collective sacrifice, because the percentage of intelligent leaders in a group is increasing with culture. History‘ witnessed such collective sacrifice on the part of Christians in (h:Roman Empire, on the part of the Quakers in the Colony nl Massachusetts, etc. Also, when this country joined the allies lr‘. the Great War, certain of .our citizens (conscientious obiccmn‘ refused to be drafted; others openly preached against the war They were imprisoned and even subjected to tortures. This was .I collective sacrifice on the part of self-appointed leaders (mothcn. in the foregoing sense) who saw things as they will be instead of seeing them as they appeared at the time.

Before a federation of civilized countries becomes a realm more sacrifice will be required. A new and potent form of collutive sacrifice will be a refusal on the part of a stronger or mm; favorably situated country, like ours, to be benefited by tho. advantages, and voluntary steps taken towards sharing them wix‘ others, first of all with the Latin-American Republics. Anotlur form will be a sacrifice of national honor for the sake of th: honor of mankind. Individuals have done it, why not group w individuals or their representative governments?

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate my belief that a study 0! nature and of primitive races, far from leading to matcriali.~:r. skepticism, or the law of the jungle confirms the highest religim; and ethical aspirations of civilizeJ humanity, felt intuitiulx Natural biological laws may be stated in a form which inclu.i:both the lower animals and the noblest specimens of human”.

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suggwgmfim

APOSTLES OF WORLD UNITY

V—ROMAIN ROLLAND

5)! ALBERT LEON Guéluum Dopamine!“ af Literary", Stanford Uniwuitj

posuas are not all cast in the same mould; nor is it even necessary that each individual apostle should be single minded and consistent. Some, like Tolstoy, rush fearlessly

ahead; others, like Léon Bourgeois, follow with deitrmined but cautious steps their narrow shaft of clear light; others .Hldln grope blindly, torn between hope and despair. Romain Rolland is like unto none of these. He speaks with assurance, nay with fervor, but his gospel is not clear. He is never so weak as “hen he strives to be forcible. He is the noble servant of conflicting ideals: his worship of Art and his Tolstoyan love of the pmple could never be brought into harmony. The greatest perhaps nf ncar-geniuscs and half-successes in our time, he is unimpeach.ii3lc and irritating. But if we forget for a moment his “message", .i{ once confused and lofty-if we reach the man himself, his bei-.ililt-rment, his very weakness, make him human and lovable. Hc is striving to be a good European: and a good European in this .i :1; must needs be a creature of many minds and moods. He is the «Vnibul of all our perplexities. Two great and positive services, mecver, he has rendered. Before the war be hacked mightily at fl]: chief root of international misunderstanding, the tragic and mipid enmity between Germany and France. During the war, he lJTCkl to stand, awkwardly perhaps, taCtlessly if you please, muragcously at any rate, ”above the strife". A haphazard phiinsophcr, an incomplete artist, he is none the less the very em milimcnt of good will and only through men of good will shall yucc descend upon earth.

109

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Romain Rolland springs from that provincial bourgeoixie which, from time immemorial, has been the backbone of France. He was born at Clamecy (Burgundy) in 1866. From 1886 to 1889, he attended the glorious Rue d'Ulm Normal School, an institution without a parallel in the English-speaking world. Recruited through the stiffest competitive examination, Rue d'Ulm possesses an atmosphere, a tradition, an 'esptit de corps', which are lacking in the moboridden Sorbonne. It would be gross ingratitude for :1 Rue d'Ulm alumnus, a Nomalim, not to thank the Lord day and night that he is not like other men. Rolland has remained a Nomalim to this day.

These years of Rolland's young maturity were for France a moment of disillusionment and almost of despair. The scientific ideal, cherished for nearly forty years, had been declared bankrupt. The Revolutionary ideal, after so many failures, had lost its magic glow. The patriotic ideal, associated with the vainglorious talk of Rwancbe, had been vulgarized by the tawdry adventurer Boulanger. The cleverest in the land were toying ptettily with the thought of decadence. Out of these spiritual marshes, Rolland found two ways of salvation: music and Tolstoy. To music he had been devoted from his childhood; Tolstoy was revealed to him at the Rue d'Ulm school. But his two gods clashed: Tolstoy denounced modern music,and in particularWagner's,as sophisticated and meretricious. This early discord was never resolved. Throughout his career. Rolland remained a devotee of Art, in its most learned, esoteric and supercilious form; and at the same time he wanted with Tolstoy, to go to the people, to serve the people. (0 become one of the people. So he always speaks with two voices. his simplicity, when he is simple, bears the mark of strain; his charity is streaked with disdain.

In the French School of Rome, where he spent the next two years, he became truly a cosmopolitan. This he owed to a large extent to Malwida von Meysenburg. This admirable woman, thcn seventy-two years of age, was, in the Bismarckian era, a survivor of idealistic Germany—that Germany of the Francfott Parliament which we still believe arose from its grave in 1918, and unfurled

[Page 311]ROMAIN ROLLAND 3 I I

once more the black, red and gold banner of 1848. Through F riulein vou Meysenbutg,Rolland was prepared to hear the music in the Gettnan soul, in spite of the rattle of Hohenzolletn ironmongery.

For many years Romain Rolland was a professor of musical esthctics and the history of music. He dreamed also of a literature "for the people", of an art "for the people". The “people", scenting the subtle blight of condescension in these well-meant efforts, remained indifferent. The Dreyfus crisis broke out: Rolland was—already !—”above the strife".

From 1904 to 1912. he published in seventeen instalments of the Cabim de la Quinzaim (Fortnightly Notebooks) his great cycle of jean-Cbristopbe. It was a ten-volume hymn to Music; a hymnwistful rather than triumphant~to all-conqueting Energy; the biography of an artist from the cradle to the grave; the interprctation of two cultures. With the literary merits of this massive work, we are not here concerned. The author was not glaringly unequal to the magnitude of his theme: this alone would suffice to place jean-Cbristopbc far above best sellers, prize winners, and the clever concoctions lauded by the cliques. No one denies it a place, and a very honorable one, in contemporary world literature.

For our purpose, what is chiefly significant is that, in the stormy days of Agadir, a Frenchman should strive to understand Germany. Rolland is no slavish admirer of German thoroughness and Kultur: such excesses were reserved for a few American professors of a generation now vanishing. What he did was to rcncw the great tradition of mutual respect, which had honored the élite of the two countries before the era of wilful and blatant k hauvinism. Madame de Staél had studied—and perhaps idealized

Germany in her epoch-making book. Victor Cousin, the tsar of l-‘rcnch philosophy, went to Germany as to a fountain head. Michelet and Hugo spoke with loving reverence of Gemmnia .\l.mr. When Renan discovered the philosophical and religious ,zcnius of Germany, he felt "as tho' he were entering a temple." \nd Rolland knew also the tributes of affectionate admiration I‘Jid by the greatest Germans to the exquisite and fearless spirit

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of France. In the gathering storm he wrote these words which should. have been taught in every school ‘frorn Konigsberg to Bayonne':

"Who knows. in Ftance._the force of sympathy which urges towards France so many generous hearts "1 the neighboring nation? So many loyal hands stretched out toward us, and which are not responsible for the crimes of politics! And do you not see us either, you our German brothers, to whom we say: Here are our hands. In s ite of lies and hatreds, we can not be separated. We need you. you need us, for t e greatness of our spirits and of our races. We are the two wings of the West. Break one, and the flight of the other will be broken. War may come: but it will not unclasp our hands, nor sever the fraternal flights of our souls." .

War did come. Rolland was too old to be conscripted and he spurned the facile show of volunteering in which Anatole France indulged. He served suffering humanity, obscurely and well, in a Swiss agency for the welfare and exchange of prisoners.

Especially in the days when war hysteria had become a religion, he dared to remain a good European, Still nursing the unconquerable hope of reconciliation. The result was a storm of obloquy such as seldom assailed a quiet, well-meaning writer. To be sure, Rolland gave his enemies an excellent opening. In some of his papers, his extolling of Art at the expense of living men seemed inhuman; he cared more for the stones of Rheixns than for the blood of his countrymen. Maurice Barrés's quivering sympathy for the huprlest of the Poilu: shone in comparison. Rolland's Eutopeanism had too narrow a basis: he thought in terms of a self-conscious, exclusive aristocracy of culture. The vast generosity that burned in Jaurés was lacking in him; and also the intellectual keenness which was soon to reassett itself in Anatole France. The very title Above tin Sm]: was pharisaical and offensive. Still, with all these restrictions, Above ti): Strife remains a noble book. It strikes us at present, not as Pro-Geflnan, not even as coldly neutral, but as decidedly pro-French. France weakened her cause in refusing to accept him as her spokesman. But already the "War to End War" had relapsed into . . . just another war. Ten years were to drag their disheartening course before, in sheer lassitude, Europe could find her way to Locarno. Rolland's spirit had lived at Locarno all the time. '

[Page 313]ROMAIN ROLLAND 3 13

Uncertain in tone like all his utterances, at the same time forced and tremulous, Rolland's book, on the whole, was generous and wise. It was one of the few witnesses that saved the French soul from falling into chauvinism pure and simple. It was not the only one: personally, we prize much higher the crusade led by Jaurés, and so tragically cut short, or the testimonies of Barbusse and Duhamel. But Rolland's was the most effective beyond the frontiers of France. It made the saner elements in Germany realize that French sanity was not dead. After the November Revolution in particular, Romain Rolland found himself a (great man east of the Rhine.He knew for the first time the sweets of popular triumph. His dramas of the French Revolution, which in Paris had attracted little attention, were performed in Germany before enthusiastic crowds. The Berlin public, roused out of its tax por by the apocalyptic hopes and fears of the hour, imparted to these somewhat bookish productions some of its own feverish heat.

Rolland devoted several other books to the war problem. Not one reached the heights of Jean-Cbriuopbe, nor did any one achieve the notoriety of Above tb: Strife. Clerambault, in which it is difficult not to detect an autobiographical note, is weak and unlovable compared with our old friend Mr. Britling. Pierre e: Luce, a Parisian idyl brutally ended by a shell from Big Bertha, added nothing to its author's fame. Liluli, a savage denunciation of chauvinistic illusions in the form of an Aristophanesque phantasy, is cleverer and more profound; the sketch of the ”good old God" who passes back and forth with bland equanimity from the Gallipoulets to the Hurluberloches, is a pungent satire. The chapters on war psychology in the latest volume of his new cycle, The Soul Enchanted, are not deficient in penetration and power.

The common fault of all these writings, however, is that their tone is diragmable. This criticism may sound odd: it is not expected that pacifism should be made palatable to the militarists ——or vice versa. But Rolland seldom attempts to understand his opponents. In their so-called 'hetoism' he will see nought but stupidity and cowardice. He never says out of a truly loving heart: ”Forgive them, for they know not what they do." In rebuking

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these enraged men, insanely torturing one another, he cannot unbend from his "holier than thou" attitude. Through some inner flaw, his culture, his artistic gifts, his generosity, never work in perfect coordination. We have in him a composite picture of the Sage, the Poet, the Prophet, in which the different lineaments fail to coincide, and produce a blurred impression.

These faults reveal, we believe, an essential weakness in Romain Rolland. But they are also the inevitable and heavy price that he had to pay for attempting to think a: a European in a disintegrated Europe. That he should have dared, and not failed altogether, ought to suffice to his glory. Others, we trust, will rise in days of greater spiritual unity. Their thought will be firmer, their voice clearer, their temper sweeter than Romain Rolland's. But let them not forget the forerunner who picked his way, stumbling many times, across the slime and the barbed wire entanglement of international hatred.

[Page 315]W

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Men live less and [engroyaphial and mot: and mate in spititual communities. The involunuty elements of existence to be limited to the regional ates. the voluntary elements find increasing opportunity of self-exptession through association of likeminded pople selected out of the entire population by identity of inmate and ideals. In this department, all Unit] Magnum will publish each month a brief description of some in t modern movement, voluntary in chatacter and humanitarian in aim. believing that know ed of these activities is not only essential to the wotld outlook, but also offett the tn: tunedy for t sense of isolation and loneliness which has followed the breakdown of the traditional local neighborhood.

THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATlON

5] CONSTANCE MORLEY 0/ t!» Iumiml Emu

BSPONDING to the need of an international clearing house on educational matters, this Bureau was founded at Geneva in December, 192.5. It was given its impetus by the Institut J. J. Rousseau, an institution of educational science connected with the University of Geneva, and particularly fitted to sponsor a new international organization, having itself former pupils now occupying responsible positions in forty different countries, and considerable material already collected on all subjects relating to education. ‘ Geneva, the seat of the League of Nations, 3 city daily becoming more cosmopolitan and possessing ancient educational traditions, is undoubtedly the most appropriate home for such an urganization, working as it does in a scientific spirit and preservmg absolute neutrality on all national, political, philosophical .an religious viewpoints. If the world is to move ahead, it must do so as a whole. How 15 it to establish its unity, except through education? How are clucationalists to work together without the help of a central organization to coordinate and spread their work? Through personal correspondence, interviews and advice of experts, and a Luge documentation furnished by other educational bodies, the Bureau is trying to link together the educators of the world, to m

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put at their disposal the knowledge of what methods the ables: men are applying in other countries.

Notwithstanding its short life, it already numbers over three hundred members and one hundred and sixty correspondents in fifty-five countries. This is one invaluable source of its own information, and also a _very important means of disseminating, through the Bulletin published quarterly, the educational news which it collects. It responds with reliable data to all sorts of questions relating to primary or secondary education, questiom coming to it by letters or visitors from all over the world. During: this last summer, alone, it received four hundred visitors and w mic fifteen hundred letters. There is no lack of variety in the questionit receives:

”What is the Dalton Laboratory plan and how does it dimr from the Winnetka system?"

“We wish to erect a secondary school for girls in Algeria can you furnish us with the plans of a few good modern buildings?"

"What has been done, in Switzerland for instance, to foster the children's love of the soil and teach them the elements or agricultural work?"

"How is moral education imparted in the French non-rcligious schools?"

”How does the system of 'visiting teachers' work in the U. 8.?"

Progress in experimental psychology has gradually modiliuii the old methods of teaching; it is imperative that the alert educan )r in every land keep in touch 'with what other countries are doing To this end, the Bureau has already made a survey of internatiuniul correspondence between school children and reported on it. lt 1m organized an exhibit of history and geography text-books, 311.: pamphlets on the teaching of world citizenship and the 1.68ch m Nations. A bibliography of these books has been widely Circular; 1 in English, French and German. It also started an inquiry or: patriotism and one on auto—educative material. Last summer. tur teachers travelling in Europe, a little guide—book to charaCterism schools was published, which proved itself most useful.

[Page 317]THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATlON 317

In April, 192.7, the Bureau called a conference at Prague on “What the School can do for Peace," in which four hundred and fifty educationalists from eighteen different countries took part. It had a signal success, and lovely and interesting discussions were a feature. The delegates went back to their own lands with many new and practical ideas based on the recommendations passed by the conference. It was agreed that everything possible be done to further international school correspondence, study tours for teachers, exchange of teachers and children, the establishment of homes for students, international camps, and the calling of international student conferences.

,Plans are already afoot for the convening of another conference on the very special question of bilingualism. People who live in a country where another language is infrequently head are not apt to realize the tremendous problem confronting populations of comparatively small areas where children must learn and study m a language not their own. The Bureau of Education wishes to lift this problem out of the fog usually thrown around it by political issues, to the impartial realm of science, and have it \tudlcd by experts solely in its bearing upon the development of the children.

Other projects, other dreams spur us on. We dream of a m.ttional center for education in war} country—a few countries .I lrcatly have them—linked together by the International Bureau. \\ c want to publish an International Year Book of Education, siting in permanent and striking form the latest and most imimrtant contributions from all countries. We most urgently desire in establish closer cooperation between all educational movements, m that the work done shall not be duplicated and the various mtcfnatloflal organizations working for peace shall not overlap. Above all, we hope to aid in educating the younger generation m the ideas of peace and world brotherhood, to bring about through the youth of the world, that understanding between n.ttions which alone can save our civilization.

[Page 318]WQW

THE INTERACTION OF EUROPE AND ASIA

5} WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD Dipal-nu o] Himg, Colon“: Uaivmio

III. Wutem Tbougbt: in Eastern Mind:

HE distances that have kept the several groups of mankind

apart are not those set by geography alone. Intellectual

and spiritual differences make the bounds of separation

wider still. Both have been overcome in no slight degree during the past five hundred years by the genius, skill and enterprise of the European. Just as he has shortened time and space through the betterment of transportation and communication and the processes of commet'ce, so he has lessened mental and moral differences through the diffusion of his type of culture, even if heightening at times their contrasts.

Of the elements in the inner and personal life of mankind conveyed from West to East the one that has rendered the finest service is the thopght of an essential unity of interest and effort. Before the peoples of the Orient were brought into systematic relationship with their fellows in Europe they had never risen to .the concept in practical application of the distinctively cosmopolitan and humanitarian. Apart from philosophic abstractions expressive of it, they lacked the spirit of altruism, a concern for others as well as themselves, the desire and willingness for cooperation. The idea that, in addition to a sense of duty toward one's self, one's family and one's community, there is a higher and noble: duty that comprehends all mankind in its sweep of vision and action, formed little or no part of their consciousness.

It is precisely this thought that most distinguishes and makes commendable the work of Europeans in the East. In and because of their process of expansion they have devised. cherished and 318

[Page 319]\VESTERN THOUGHTS IN EASTERN MINDS 319

.ifl‘llul the concept of the advantage of all peoples. From West In lint have come aspiration and effort directed toward the general benefit of the human race, the establishment of great in~x nutions of international service to humanity at large. Through mun indissoluble bonds of community in thought have been JCJICKI. which draw the members of mankind steadily closer muud the recognition of world unity. Three agencies of action have made possible this outstanding .h lHL‘VClllelt of the European in the transmission of his type of \ ulturc to the peoples of Asia. They have been furnished by

.muiz;1ge, religion and education. Upon the manner of their

. y; u .1 t ion obviously depends the degree in which the consciousness .2 mutual understanding may prevail. Lurupean languages have rechristened localities in the Orient, .~ 1 \ mg to native names a European spelling. Much less commonly

Ezt) have called them after places in the homeland, events in its

.2 mnry. ideas associated with the Christian faith and impressions . 1:.1 ml 01' emotions kindled by the sight of new lands and peoples. . m nges in Eastern tongucshave been produced ina variety of ways "\ lllc transplantation of European forms of speech. Western ex; muiuns have been blended with native idioms so as to provide a . 1 nrml medium of intercourse, a ”lingua franca". R cli gion, the second of the instrumentalities for the spread of . .;.'n}‘c.ll1 thought, appears to have wielded an influence upon the «mug mind, less through doctrinal teachings than through the -. elation it affords of Western intellectual processes. In this

Apcet it has served primarily as a means of education, and not of

.. .nml conversion. Though of Eastern origin, like all other great 'ulhs‘ Christianity has never appealed to the vast majority of hunts. It attracts neither the Mohammedans, who have their n founder and prophet, nor the Buddhists, with their redeemer

. \\ hum they would sink their future being, nor the Hindus, who

.r.uc annihilation in the hereafter, nor the Japanese whose only .ll god is their country, not the Chinese, with their unreligious of ethics, their veneration of ancestors and their general .\ :ttucism in religious matters.

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Aside altogether from the religious aspects of their work. Christian missionaries have performed yeornan service in spreading Western thought in Eastern lands. Far more than any other Class of foreigners, they have penetrated into the interior of the country. mingled with the people, lived as members of the local community, and hence come into close acquaintance with their fellow human beings. They have been a useful factor in social regeneration, cooperating with native leaders in the battle for improvcmeat. It is they who have founded hospitals and dispensarics. giving shelter, comfort and peace to hundreds of thousands of the sick and suffering, and they who have established centers for the propagation of modern medical science. Granted that in communicating a knowledge of Christianity and of European civilization through a relief of physical ailments their work may havc been regarded by the folk concerned as a sort of magic, this does not detract at all from the significance of what they have accomplished. These spiritual heralds of the West, moreover, have done inestirnable service through their translation of European wmings into Asiatic tongues. Together with their educational activities in the schools and colleges that they have erected, it has awakened among Orientals a widespread interest in the naturt and importance of Western learning.

In addition to what has been achieved by the missionaries Europeans and their American kinsmen have done much to f:rniliarize themselves with Asiatic life and thought as well as Kw promote the spread of knowledge about the West. They haw: founded learned societies devoted to the study of Oriental civilizr tions. They have established schools, colleges and universities or the Western type. They have helped no less in providing op portunities for young Asiatics to study in Europe and the Unite: States.

Education as such, however, is but one of the poweriu. agencies at work in diffusing Western thought through thc Orient. Among them are newspapers, other periodicals and book.in European languages, especially English, photographs, rain: and above all, motion pictures. They have been quickening mcnui

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WESTERN THOUGHTS IN EASTERN MINDS 37.1

orccs that have aroused and intensified curiosity almost every“ here in Asia about the Westerti'world. They have caused Indians,

jgpanese, Chinese and Turks to start educating their own people

v similar means. Governments, societies and individuals have

umpcrated vigorously in making use of every sort of instrumenulity thus suggested which will serve to broaden intelligence Among the masses and bring them up to the level of popular en:: glitcnmcnt in the West.

Orientals have founded educational institutions after Eu'-~pcan and American models. They are publishing news sheets, muzines and books both in European languages and in the .-.~macular. In them even the American cartoon has often a con~_.~;cuous place. Many a favorite “comic" from the United States "1: crept into Asiatic periodicals; and many an Oriental has had a .‘zmcc to perceive something supposedly ‘funny in the crude and .‘szdish drawings that they discover in old American newspapers fist! to wrap up goods.

This multiplication of materials in print has opened for the "nscs in the East new windows upon a world hitherto lying far -. and their mental horizon. Among them literacy is advancing ,zdtc. In centers of Islamic life the cry of the newsboy in the --.::s vies with the call of the muezzin from the minaret. There

i clSCWhCl‘C happenings at home and abroad are recorded in a ..: 2 ‘.’C press that outbids the chatter of the bazaar and the marketIn many a seaport of the East the most popular literature

~ .x a he a cheap translation of some Western story.

The spread of literacy through enlarged opportunities for -.:_\-mg in school and college, the publication of newspapers. ‘ .. _:.uincs and books, the use of the radio and the dissemination

1‘2;- motion picture thus are all operating to diffuse throughout . Uncut 3 knowledge of Western modes of thinking. In Asia as uuhcrc they are drawing the peoples of the earth toward a -:,umnity of interest in the current affairs of life and producing a um identity of concern for what affects human existence in its unmitl forms.

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mrwaxcn or WESTERN MOTION PICTURES

So long as the folk of the East were confined to speech am} print for the entry of knowledge and ideas, information about the West was slow to gain headway. Once dependent upon formal mstruction or upon news dispatches, they are now availing themselves of an agency far more effective. This agency is the motion picture. What newspapets formerly had supplied is becoming, .1 means rather to confirm or exemplify notions presented on 1h; screen. No other source of information can compete with it n: ease of distribution, vividness, reality, and power to attract (h; multitude.

It is this invention of the Western mind which has enable: the peoples of the Orient as never before to behold those of [in West face to face. In the films are depicted scenes and actions 0: which they had had little or no conception. Behind faces that an foreign and manners that are alien they perceive the play u: passions and emotions akin to their own and yet in many WMdifferent. These they can share no less than understand, for Kim. motives at work are virtually identical in humanity whereu’ found. That which the West may admire, dread or hate, so nut the East. Of all mechanisms devised by the European and givcr. to the Asiatic the motion picture is the one that gtatifies the 1m \ of novelty common to everybody—the “one touch of nature which ”makes the whole world kin"!

The realism portrayed by the film has enabled the Oricnu‘ mind to gain an intimacy of acquaintance with the charathr .uz. customs of the West to a degree wholly unimaginable a decad: two ago. What had been deemed strange or peculiar is bcconn::; replaced by impressions suggestive of marked readjustmcnh attitude. Like those of other mechanical things from the “b: the effects are good and bad, but in this case with a decided pr. ponderance on the latter.

What is thrown on the screen doubtless has conveyed to :Pz. spectators quite definite notions of restlessness, energy, cm: prise, romance and other evidences of a power to achieve. IL; resentation of these qualities may stimulate among Oricnufi

[Page 323]WESTERN THOUGHTS IN EASTERN MINDS 32.}

latent forces of accomplishment. It may facilitate progress toward occupying in the modern world the post of importance to which the antiquity and worth of their civilization entitle them.

On the other hand, the motion picture threatens seriously to ltsscn the amount of influence and respect long held by the Eurupcan, if not also to spread notions of communism and similar schemes for the subversion of society. It must be remembered that films exported to Asia from the United States, Germany, Italy and l‘rauce consist mainly of those which have been commercial milures, and hence can be exhibited at low cost, or which on .iccount of their moral unfitness are denied exhibition at home.

RISE or NATIONALISM

A contribution of Western thought possessing still greater potentiality for good or evil in Asia is that which has engendered there the spirit and attitude called "nationalism". In no sense an outgrowth of Oriental conditions, it has sprung from the impact at European ideas. It is the inevitable reaction of peoples made tunscious of themselves bythe influence of the foreigner. Patriotism , 1t) fellow sentiment, is something likewise unknown to Asiatics before the advent of the European. Their sense of loyalty took on personal, social or religious forms quite unrelated to the love of muntry as such.

Nationalism already instilled by precept and example through

hc introduction of Western languages, religion and education,

Ewwne exalted into high fervor by knowledge of the impassioned trxcs and slogans accompanying the World War. These had de.:.mch loudly in favor of the principle of “sclf-deterrnination", '! lllc right of all peoples to have their own form of government .llhl to live their own lives as they saw fit. The European propa.‘ers of them, to be sure, had in mind certain ethnic groups found uh in the territories of their immediate opponents. Unfortunately a xr the retention of Western political and economic hold upon the t i: 1cm, so general a principle has no geographical or racial bounds. .:~ mntent embraces all humanity. It appeals to Asiatics quite as math as it does to Europeans.

National self-detennination, accordingly, this concept of

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Western origin, has become a creed among Orientals. It lies deep rooted in the modern outlook'of Turk and Persian, Egyptian ant! Arab, Indian and Chinese. Substantially every manifestation ot unrest, dissatisfaction and hostility displayed in the East has proceeded from it. What Europeans have done and what they have said and written to exemplify nationalism at home have provoked the state of mind which finds vent in displays of antagonism against the French in Syria, against the British in India. against the foreigner at large in China. These outbursts of hostile sentiment are not directed against Europeanflas individuals or even as a class. Neither political discontent arising out of subjection nor the fear of economic exploitation is sufficient to cxplain them. The basic cause is visible instead in the growth of a consciousness of nationalism for which European precedents are responsible. From the West it has come as part and parcel of the ideas and institutions of the homeland carried to the East.

Though among the more vigorous groups of Asiatics Western dominance in idea and institution has intensified racial concepts clustering about particular countries or localities, this is nut trllL' of other communities. In certain areas, like Ceylon and to some extent also in Burma and Persia, a process of mental and spiritual uprooting appears to have taken place, which may presagc a disintegration of society there. It would indicate that in proportion as European thought enters the Oriental mind the possessor of 1: shows evidence of losing his own soul. Intellectually he is dnembodied; morally he becomes a nondescript.

Western ideas penetrating into the East would seem thus U) have engendered a twofold consequence. They have bred ram! and national sentiments provocative of social antipathies an}. religious intolerance. At the same time they have produCcd J measure of deracination which causes the very essence of self to vanish while the semblance of an alien culture is assumed. In. fluenccs of the sort tend to function in a vicious circle. The \\'c~t may look upon Orientals as fanatical, sullen, insolent and almgether unreliable barbarians devoid of the qualities that mahgenuine nationality possible, or else may regard them as indc.

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terminate creatures detached from their original culture by the impact of European modes of thought yet unable adequately to assimilate them for purposes of replacement. To hold either of these contradictory viewpoints is to confess that what both represent is a result of Western domination. So long, therefm'e, as a political at economic mastery be maintained by the European over the Asiatic, a mastery over the older by the younger type of civilization, just so long will these cross currents prevail. Only by effective cooperation between men of the West and the East, possessed of intelligence and character, appreciative of the significance to one another of their respective types of culture, disposed to work for approximation rather than displacement, desirous of bringing to the Orient the best that the intellect of the ()ccident affords, and offering it on the basis of a mutuality of respect, rights and obligations, can this confusion in mind and soul give way to the harmony of reciprocal understanding.

WESTERN THOUGHT IN THE NEAR EAST

Among the regions of Asia in which Western thought has gained headway the Near East is one where American influence has been conspicuous. In this respect it is second only to China. The Near East has been for nearly a century the scene of American missionary endeavor represented in school, college and university.

These educational impulses regularly have taken on a practical form. A region lacking professional men equipped with a knowlcdge of Westetn methods has been supplied with physicians, pharmacists, dentists, teachers, technicians and engineers. Although the instruction that they have received may not be thorough, and necessarily so when imparted to Orientals whose preparation is insufficient and whose patience for long continued study of things alien is even less,yet it has ptoved widelybeneficinl. The same is true of that given in industrial and commercial schools under American direction. These have sent forth many a capable farmer, merchant, commercial agent and other business representative whose services both to native communities and to Western interests have become increasingly valuable.

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wns'rnnx monom- tN mom

In India the impact of Western thought has been attended by consequences quite unforeseen. Whatever may be said, for example. of the utility of the English language as a medium of instruction. its establishment as the official tongue was not altogether the part of wisdom. Through their knowledge of it the intelligent classes among the Indians have learned much about European character. practices and ideals, about things evil and good, which they have turned to their own advantage. Widening familiarity with them and with certain phases of English history in particular has strengthened local reaction to British rule in fomenting the spirit of nationalism. .

Christianity, on the other hand, has gained few adherents, and even then almost wholly among the least influential orders of society. So far as education for the masses is concerned, their European masters have done extremely little. Hardly twelve per cent of the males and barely two per cent of the females throughout the countty areable to read and write any language whatever. Possibly one per cent understands English. For this situation of wholesale ignorance and illiteracy, insufficient financial provision and inapptoptiate methods of instruction ate not alone‘tesponsiblet An official attitude unfavorable to education of the‘ people at large has much to do with it.

Inadequate or unexpected as the cultural results appear to have been, there is no doubt that'the transmission of Western thought has left a profound impression upon the Indian mind. No better evidence of it perhaps could be cited than utterances of that great spiritual leader, Mohandas Katatnchand Gandhi. Asked what the nations of the West might do in furthering the development of the East, and especially that of India, he replied: “From niy observations of the West . . . I have learned two outstanding facts: first, cleanliness; second, energy . . . To a large extent it has been energy after things material. If the Indian people could have that same amount of energy. tightly directed, they would receive a great blessing." Answering a further question, as to the manner in which Christianity might aid India and other Eastern

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lands at a time when ideas of nationalism are so much to the fore, he said: ”What we need most of all is sympathy . . . Many of the people who come out here to study my people only scratch the surface. If they would dig deep by means of sympathy, they would find a stream of life there, pure and clear.”

In practice the principles advocated .by Gandhi and his followers signify non-cooperation with the British in all respects: social, political and economic. Not only would they disobey existing laws and suffer the penalty for so doing, but they would withdraw Indians from every occupation in public and private life which might bring them into contact with their European rulers, even taking the children out of official and private schools conducted by them. They would refuse also to import or to use products of British manufacture. The extent to which this process of non-cooperation has reinforced or weakened the other manifestations of Indian nationalism obviously is a question not yet .mswerable.

wzs'ranx monon-r m JAPAN

A very different picture of the bearings of Western thought upon the Oriental mind is furnished by Japan. Ever since the government and people of this Far Eastern land were made acquaintcd with European languages, religion and education, their .mitudc toward them has remained substantially unalteted. No

n.utcr what might be done to encourage the entry of Western

glcas and usages, they should never be allowed to work anything im- a transformation in the Japanese character as such. To this end

hc foreign teacher or models were to be retained no longer than

'Yngllt be necessary to realize certain specific objects. Whenever

hcir usefulness in this respect ceased, they were promptly to be

uluded. The communication of European thought by Europeans

mordingly should be countenanced only up to the point where

hc Japanese themselves could be employed to advantage.

Although early contacts with representatives of various - t-uplcs from the West had introduced into the Japanese speech a

.m1ber of words and expressions, English above all Other Eu' vpean tongues is the one that has made the greatest advance. It

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has become indeed virtually the second language of the country. Without being as in India the official speech of a foreign ruler. it has been converted through voluntary adoption by the educated class into a medium of intercourse which has enabled the Japanese to acquire greater knowledge of the Western world than any of their fellows in the Orient.

Among Asiatic countries, moreover, Japan stands foremost in promoting the'education of its people. Contrasted with the situation elsewhere in the East, the number of illiterates among them is much smaller even than in the United States. Japan also has introduced and developed all the devices of the West for the diffusion of knowledge and ideas on a'scale far exceeding the efforts of any other Oriental folk. Newspapers, periodicals, books. radio and the motion picture are all so many instrumentalities of Western origin which serve to widen and deepen popular intelligence. '

WESTERN rnouon'r m CHINA

Unlike its island neighbor, which from the beginnings 02' contact with the West had a strong and firmly-rooted consciousness of its nationality, requiring no enhancement from abroad other than what might enable it better to resist foreign attempts at domination, China has been brought to a nascent realization of its place in the world by forces more or less directly imparteJ by Europe and the United States. Entry of the languages of foreigners, of their faith and of their modes of education have accomplished changes that bid fair to revolutionize the life and thought of a people who for untold centuries have held tenacious! )to their type of civilization.

All this has contributed, albeit slowly and far from widely as yet, to the formation of a public opinion in China. The promoters of .it have become imbued with a self-respect and a consciousness of nationhood as the West comprehends that term. From the United States, Europe and Europeanized Japan the idea of "China for the Chinese" has derived its initial impulses. Those most active in its diffusion are the so—called foreign 'students' who have learned abroad how modern nations are constituted and what

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should be done to enable their native land to take its rightful place among them.

The group or community interest, formerly so dominant in (ihina, thus is passing into a national consciousness moulded by democratic ideas spread sedulously among the masses of the population by every agency of publicity which the West has brought forth. Substantially all the courses of action recommended also are derivatives of Western experience. Some favor the employment of economic methods, like the mechanical betterment of transportation and communication. Others emphasize popular education to assure national advancement. Not a few look to military and political instrumentalities, such as the West has known how to utilize for the restoration of peace and the attainment of orderly progress. Still others regard the system adopted m Soviet Russia as one altogether worthy of imitation. The last of these expedients, however, is the one that seems the least hkely to be followed.

Of the several phases of foreign influence operative upon the (.hinese mind undoubtedly the most potent have proceeded from (ircat Britain and the United States. Yet neither the material iwncflts of British ttade'nor the mental values of American educanunal methods can be genuinely effective in helping the people of ( him to solve the mighty problems that the conversion of an .mcient civilization into an embodiment of modern ideas calls mnh unless and until the powers of the West abandon the special privileges that their nationals enjoy in Chinese tertitory. So far, moreover, as lessons drawn from Western experience have shaped A growing sense of democracy there, they have not been conducive m the sort of nationhood most suitable for the Chinese people. \\ cstcrn education implanted among them should be directed what to preparing the youth of China to become patrioticmchd, and not mere imitators and adapters of what is foreign. I or it would bode ill not alone to that vast country but to humanity xii: world over, were Western thought to control utterly the \' hinese mind, and the Chinese soul thereby be lost.

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THE NEW HUMANITY

"Wilton: dtfiu: or rule: or mum or u] «gamut, Tb: inm'mmn of (be dear law of cmdu. "

Edited by

Mun: Sxaoms'r Attic! 0] “Ya- rba Cunt AIM", m.

m; creative listener finds his goal in that Great Service

that Dante envisioned for himself: in becoming the Scril‘c

of the Eternal Love. But how shall he find the larger

rhythms unless all men become free?. . . He comes soon In understand that the stone which is borne to the temple is a manyfaceted one, of many hues; that all teligions have gateways leadin g Into It.

In the searching spirit of the ancients he traces the van beginnings of the Spirit of Poetry—in that of the Hebrew, Greek. Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Egyptian, Indian. In this fourth dimensional world he perceives new spiritual identities. Putting asidc prejudice. he sees the path of the poet through all religions. Htreioices in “penetrating the manifestation of life's complexitics‘ He is an Egyptian, worshipping the Nile, the gift of Amon R4 He is a Brahman, chanting hymns unto Varuna, Agni and lndm A Buddhist, seeking the Four Great Truths and to follow in the Noble Eightfold Path. A Brother of the Golden Rule laid down m China. A Christian, disciple of Jesus, lover of mankind, brother of all. The child of Allah, Lord of all the worlds. In every man hesees his brother's face. His teligion, to follow ”after the Gm! Companions". As poet, to belong to those "whose names are written in the Book of Love."

11°

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1’33 NEW HUMANITY 33 I

am: 133 cm! oouumoml x I am a devotee of Zoroaster; The Zend-Avesta thrill: me at I read the words of him who spoke of purity; I strive to follow in his footsteps, taking care that every thought of mine be good. That every word be kind, and evety deed a sacrament of love. Thus do I cleanse myself from sin and evil.

For One there is whose Purity doth hold a lustre I desire to see t in mine Ahura-Mazda—Greatest and Best, Wisest and most Beautiful, Beyond Him is no other.

1

I am Egyptian graving hieroglyphs,

The mystic symbols of a faith profound.

I hail Him Lord of all the thrones of earth who sendeth forth the N ile;

Yea, hail to thee, 0 Nile, the gift of Amon Ra to man

That he may learn to give unto his brothers.

So let me live whilst here on earth that when at last I come into the Hall of Truth,

And stand before the One who reigneth there—Master of Truth, Mistress of Verity I may not blush with shame at memory of my deeds,

But say with truth and honesty that I did strive to live as in His sight.

No act of mine shall make a brother fearful, poor, or wretched;

I will not cause a sister dear to weep;

Never by me shall watercourse aside be turned.

From mouth of nursling never milk removed.

I am a Brahman, 3

And my hymns I chant unto Vatuna. Agni, Indra,

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And unto the only God above the gods, pervading all yet all transcending,

The Universal Spirit.

He who moves, yet moves not, who is far yet near,

The Self-existent.

He in whom all creatures live, who lives in all,

The World‘s Protector,

Lord of the Lord of Causes.

The man who understands

That every creature exists in God alone, and thus perceives the Unity of being, is blest And blesses, for no more can he regard another with contempt.

Dwelling upon the sacred symbol, Om, he sees at last Divinity

in all, . And even to his enemy he turns with loving look and asks for fellowship,

Whisp'ting the secret that shall make earth one: Tat twain asi—“Thou, too, art That."

4 I am the Buddhist,

Seeker of the way that leads to light from darknessFollower of him who left the palace and the dream of power, put on the yellow robe, and thus became the friend of man.

'Tis my ambition, knowing the Four Great Truths, and all they mean to suffering human kind,

To follow in the Noble Eightfold Path, Dreaming the dream of Dharma.

It is my aim to so live out my life,

So fill it with the flowers of sweet compassion and the fruits of love

That men may learn from me the might of gentleness.

I would salvation seek, not for myself alone, but for all creatures throughout all the worlds;

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run NEW HUMANITY 333

I That all at last he linked in friendlinessone common bond of righteousness and loveAnd then one peace—Nirvam—one glad test.

5

I am a Brother of the Golden Rule laid down in China,

(Tonfucius is my Master,

He who sought to know the truth, to love it, and to find delight in constant daily practice of its virtues.

My God is Duty, and my worship quest of perfection;

Sclf—culture my first task, for well I know its fruits in others—so powerful is example.

One rule—The Master's rule—my guiding star in every walk of life:

Do not to others that which thou wouldst not they should do to thee.

6 I am a Christian A disciple I, of Jesus, lover of mankind, brother of all;

I share with him the dream of bliss that led unto the CrossA Kingdom here on earth! A Reign of Love!

In hearts and lives a Kingdom—God's—and man's!

My task is plain, my duty clear;

In my own heart and life the love must rule that I would see in others;

Only thus shall I, like Jesus, act my part in building up the Kingdom;

Only thus shall I, like Jesus, do my Father's will.

In raise the fallen and to lead the blind,

Tu free the captive, and to the broken-hearted bring the soothing touch of pure affection,

I'r‘csc are my aims; .

Not creeds but deeds, service not sacrifice,

Ihese my ideals.

.\1 y watchword Love, my goal the Brotherhood of all Mankind.

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7 I am the child of Allah,

And read the words He gave unto Mohammed. Holy Koran, telling of One—the only God—there is no God but He.

To Him belongeth East and West—wherever I turn to pray, 10, there I see the face of God.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds,

Thee do I worship, unto Thee may I my ways submit, Guide Thou my right.

I have no fear of death, for nought but good can come from Perfect Goodness,

Yet wait I not for death to taste of heaven—here on earth I seek 2 Paradise.

8 My Country is the world,

My Church—wherever I ma , All ground is h eac day a Sabbath. My-b ers and my sisters all who dwell with me upon this earth.

For all are journeying on the Open Road;

One is our past and one our destiny;

One then shall be our present aim whilst we are fcllow-travellcrs. To hear each Others' burdens—to stretch the helping hand.

And this is my Religion So to live that all may see that I have sat at feet of Masters,

Men of olden time who walked with God,

And men who since have followed in their footsteps,

Morris, Mazzini, Whitman, Thoreau, Tolstoy and Tagore.

After the Great Companions!

Yes, and to belong to those who have their names inscribed x.’ that great Book whose pages are the H:-.ttts of Men.

After the Great Companions!

And to belong to those whose name' .e written in the Book a: Love.

WILL “Ah

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MIRACLES AND PRAYER

IN A LAW-ABIDIN G UNIVERSE 6} KIRTLEY F. Mums: Defamer o] Gaby, HM UWM'IJ BASONING minds have found response in a rational universe; the day of magic is past. Science has given us a vivid impression of the law and order which characterize the world. The attributes of the universe, so far as known to us, are such as to make obvious and necessary the conclusion that its administration is orderly, that God is a God of Law. Our minds rejoice to find Him so; only thus is He worthy of our trust. God is a God of Law, therefore trustworthy, therefore congenial to the scientific mind. But the new knowledge of God brings a real problem in its train. Most new knowledge introduces dilemma; as we enlarge the field of our understanding, the lifting of the horizon reveals pitfalls, bogs and swamps as well as fair vistas and rolling hills. If God is a God of Law, operating always .1 ml everywhere in the same way, how can He also be a God of [.m'c, helping you and me in our time of need? We may grant, as

met people do, that the regulations and arrangements of the

-.;:1ivcrse are such as to make possible the collective prosperity of the particular species of creature to which we belong. We may tnnccde that in the long run things presumably will come out all Y‘L'ht. that the human race will somehow muddle through. But .21: human spirit yearns for something more than that. Our hearts .immnd a God who can do a retail business even though engaged

n wholesale transactions, who can touch us individually, here

mti there, now and then, at our particular point of need. Is the !;~m:md unreasonable? Has modern science relegated to the limbo u: untrustworthy jehovahs, the “Personal God" of the Christian? This is the outstanding problem in the minds of thoughtful

ii],

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college men and women today. It is approached from many anglcs‘ most commonly perhaps through the consideration of prayer and miracles. It frequently expresses itself in the closely related questions: does the modern expectation of orderly sequence in every department of nature consign miracles as well as magic, to the discard? Has prayer any function in a law-abiding universe?

Probably there are few words in the English language mortloosely used than the word, miracle. Its definitions are numerous and conflicting. “A miracle is something beyond the power of man to perform." Then, the movement of the stars through space. the rotation of the earth upon its axis,these and similar phenomena are miracles. Or again, a race between a train and an automobile to a grade crossing ends in a tie; the automobile is smashed to fragments, but the driver emerges unscathed from the wreck. As he tells the story, he will very likely say, “It was a miracle that l escaped alive." Neither of these definitions touches the real heart of the miraculous. From the religious point of view an event is a miracle only if it serves to reveal something concerning the nature and purposes of God. Thus, in the New Testament the words. sign and wonder, are frequently associated in references to the miraculous. A miracle is not merely an extraordinary event, an unusual or spectacular episode, a wonder; it is also an illuminating event, a means of revealing to man something of the character of God, a sign.

Concerning every reported miracle, whether recorded in ancient scriptures or related as a current event, three questions ought to be asked in turn. First, did the episode actually occur as recorded or related? The first precaution of the scientist is to ma 1;: certain that the facts are accurately and adequately in hand. EVcn cursory examination of the statements made byhistorians of ancient times indicates that the well-known fallibility of the modern representative of the press is not a new trait of human nature

Another reason why the records or reports of supposedly miraculous events are not historically accurate is traceable to the fan that the human mind naturally attempts to explain every occurrence which it notes. It is characteristic for a man who has

[Page 337]MIRACLES AND PRAYER IN A LAW-ABIDING UNIVERSE 337

been impressed by an incident to pass quickly from the statement of what occurred to an explanation of what occurred. First in the minds of his hearers and then in his own mind the explanation becomes so intimately intermingled with the description of the incident that they can scarcely be dissociated one from the other. Therefore, the explanation of the fact may be set forth as though it were the faCt itself.

Biblical literature is liberally sprinkled with this sort of record. During the conquest of Canaan, a particular day of crisis was so filled with soul-stirting incidents, the clash of arms, the final victory for the soldiets under the banner of Joshua, that it «cemed to have been an unusually long day. And for those who experienced the incidents of that day, it was uniquely long; never mr them was there a day like that, before or since. Promptly their minds jumped from the experience to the explanation. How did {hat particular day happen to be so long? To people who thought {he earth was flat, who believed that the sun actually climbed m the eastern heavens to the apex of the vaulted firmatnent and xhcn descended to the west, the obvious explanation was that the sun had stood still for a time in heaven. The explanation is recorded as though it were the fact.

The critical question concerning the accuracy of the record 41' the report must often be answered in the negative. Occasionally A c can strip off the exaggeration and the explanation and discover

Hc actual nature of the incident or the experience, but often it is

impossible to do so and no definite answer to the question is forthmming. In that case it is worthwhile to proceed to the next question only if we assume what the actual episode probably was.

t we do that, we must always remember that the value of the

':;1r.lculous event is no more certain than the assumptions which one been made concerning its nature.

The second question is the philosophical one. Having sifted records critically, a residue of fact has been obtained. We be.t \c that certain things happened. We inquire, can the event as i‘zukrclatcd be explained so that we may understand how it ‘xtllrer? ls it a wonder? It is to be expected that with advances in

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knowledge, events formerly quite beyond the pale of human understanding should become amenable to rational explanation, Incidents which formerly were beyond comprehension can now he explained. Many of the miracles of healing recorded in the Bihlc are now rather well understood because of modern knowledge oi the laws of psychotherapy. In one sense of the word, the advanCc of science reduces the wonder with which man is impressed by the phenomena of nature. In another sense, the element of wonder is actually increased by scientific understanding. Is radio-telephony less wonderful to the electrical engineer than to the untutorcd savage of a tropical jungle?

Be that as it may, the third question is obviously the 1110:! important. It is the religious question. Of what is the event significant? What is its moral value? Is it a sign? Under the outworn deistic theory of the administration of the universe, the more inexplicable the event, the more significant it became. Overwhelmed by primitive wonder, brought face to face with that which transcended all understanding, man had witnessed thtintervention of God in the affairs of nature. The abnormal event transpiting without teference to any controlling laws, with nu necessary relations between causes and effects, was a sign that God had interfered to make an adjustment in the machinery, tlm He was communicating directly with men. Moral values “'ch promptly assumed.Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed by the ashes of a volcanic eruption because not even ten righteous mcn could be found among the inhabitants of those cities. But to thttheist, the significance of an event increases as it is rationalize! The more completely he understands how it occurred, the dccpcr is his insight into the character and purpose of God. In 0thcr words, it is quite impossible ”to explain a miracle away' '. Probing into the methods of nature, reveals the real meaning of the natural world. As primitive 'wondet' is decreased by rational under“ standing, the significance of the event is deepened, its value a~ .1 ‘sign' is increased.

To the man of science, all the world is now marvelous; every event is both wonderful and full of significance, a means of ht [Page 339]MIRACLBS AND PRAYER IN A LAW'ADIDING UNIVERSE 339

coming acquainted with the administration of the universe. Only 15 we succeed in following through the rational chain connecting giusc with effect, can we hope to discover the meaning of life. Greater works" are now being accomplished than ever before in

hc history of man. Consider, for example, the establishment of a

mcdical service which will within a few years rid India of leprosy. amcthing in the universe has worked through the minds of technically trained men so that they have been led to a discovery ,1! the cause of that dread disease and thereby have learned how it may be prevented. Something in the universe, moving upon the ?:carts as well as the minds of the citizens of a great common:xcalth, has impelled the British Parliament to appropriate large \ums of money, not for the immediate benefit of the inhabitants a England, but for the “people of a distant land. Such events are truly significant of the character of the world in which we live. a greater work is being accomplished than the healing of ten .L'pcrs among the hundreds on the shoxes of Galilee.

But, as might be expected. this expanded concept of the

xxraculous brings its attendant difficulty. If all the world is now

"maculous, how may we recognize among the countless events of 'ur lives those which reveal God in His true relations to mantznd? Obviously, not every event which takes place is in perfect 'irmony with the finest possibilities inherent in the energy ~~.mi{csting itself in the world of sense perception. Things which .u; unfortunate for the universe happen as well as those which tr; fortunate. By what standard may we judge these events? How 'm)‘ we discriminate between the temporary and individual 'cmicncics on the one hand and the eternal and universal tendxcs on the other? That of course is the problem of religion; it is - :mnd the pale of science. It is exactly the field in which religion ~ mprcmc, the field of values. Science describes the event, relates

.w it occurred, suggests its possible significance; but religion ~. 1;)! determine its value.

For the Chtistian, the answer is clear, because the Christian

.1 \ assumed that Jesus of Nazareth displayed the true character of

2: Administration of the Universe. The answer is analogous for

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adherents to any of the great religious sects, for every religion is built around a personality and in each a similar assumption is made. Allegiance is pledged to a particular personality becausé oi the assumption that the individual life correctly portrays rhc qualities of the Supreme Personality. There is no way to prove the validity of this fundamental assumption except the methul of science: try it and sec. Having made this assumption, the Christian merely asks a fourth question to complete the scrim pertaining to the miraculous. Does the event, when rightly understood, promote or strengthen in men the type of character which may be seen in Christ? For this reason, Christ is the touchstone n! Christianity; because of the importance of this question, we into bring others to see him as he really was; as long as men ask thxx question, he will continue to be a living power in the world.

This view of miracles as perfectly natural phenomena rather than as supernatural manifestations, is welcomed by all whu believe in the essential and underlying unity of the universe. l‘ut it of course presentsfrom a new angle the problem of freedom The inquiry concerning the freedom of the human will, the ahilm of the individual actually to make up his own mind, is matched [u the problem of the freedom of God to devise and attain certa'm goals. Is the Administrative Personality supreme, if it is limited I.expression only within the laws of nature?

The statement that God is omnipotent has proved to bc ‘stumbling block for many thoughtful persons. Obviously, ommyotence should not imply that God can do anything and cvm thing; no power can make a three-year-old horse in three minum Anyone can think of countless things which not even a Suprcnz. Power could do; but this is very evidently pushing a truth to l ridiculous extreme. Rather is it in time that the Administraun Personality has all the power that there is, and in that sense on}; is God omnipotent. Omnipotence implies the ability to use .L. available power, rather than the capacity of accomplishing cvcn thing that any mind can possibly imagine would be desirable u? interesting to accomplish.

But modern'science'gives us abundant reason for believln.

[Page 341]MIRACLES AND PRAYER IN A LAW-ABIDING UNIVERSE 341

that all the forces operating in the universe ate law-abiding. If therefore God the omnipotent is confined within the bounds of natural law, how can He be a ”Heavenly Father" who answers the pleas of troubled humanity? The ptoblqm of the miraculous is thus intimately linked with the problem of prayer.

As we attack the two-fold problem from this angle, we must first of all get a clearer understanding of what is meant by natural law. A. S. Eddington, an eminent British physicist, has recently presented a very helpful analysis‘ of the scientist's understanding of the laws of nature, which he groups in three categories.

There are, first, the ”identical laws" such as the law of gravitation, the law of conservation of mass and energy, and the laws of electric and magnetic force. These are commonly cited as typical instances of natural law and are the first to come to mind in any consideration of the immutability of law.

Second, there are the "statistical laws" which are obeyed by groups independently of the characteristics of the individuals composing the group. Among these are the laws of gases and of thermodynamics. The assemblage of molecules in a body of gas obeys the statistical laws regardless of thecompositim of the gas. An expanding gas absorbs heat at a rate determined by its expansion, not by its constitution. Certain gas wells in Texas may hc observed with the valves and pipes constantly encrusted with frost although exposed to the hot sun of a Texan summer, because of the release of pressure as the gas escapes from the ground into the enlarged pipes at the surface. The laws are the same, whether it is the natural gas from the ground, the sulphur dioxide of an clccttic refrigerating machine, or the pure oxygen of a laboratory txpcrimcnt.

In the third category of natural laws are placed the "tran\Ccndcntal laws" of atomic structure and of the quantum process. l'hesc laws determine the association and movement of electrons .md protons, the form and construction of the atom, the "flow"

a: cncrgy. No one has yet succeeded in forming an intelligible

'u mutt, Religion and Reality. ed. Joseph Needhnm, published by Macmillan, New York. 1915, 2;. zu-ué,

[Page 342]342. WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

conception of the quantum process, yet enough is known about it to indicate that it is a most amazing development of physical theory. Two notions concerning the nature of light have long been under consideration. One, the corpuscular theory, implies that light consists of separate, extremely small, but material bodies hurled, like a stream of drops from a high-pressure hose or a succession 6f bullets from a swift-firing machine-gun, at such tremendously high velocity as to enable them to penetrate any objects in their paths. The alternative theory of the nature of light is the vibration theory which postulates the existence of a mysterious medium, the ether, the vibrations of which constitute light. The quantum theory is in a certain sense a compromise between these two conflicting ideas. It implies that the energy vibrating through space consists of separate discrete particles. not of matter, but of energy; that energy "flows" not as a steady stream, but as a succession of swiftly consecutive impacts. The individual units of energy are the "quanta" which give the name to the process and theory.

These three kinds of natural law have interesting relationships to each other. In the first category are laws pertaining to processes that science can now both describe and explain. The laws in the 'second category pertain to processes which have been described but cannot yet be explained; whereas in the third category are laws pertaining to processes which have not as yet been either satisfactorily described or adequately explained.

Never in the experience of man has an identical law of nature been violated within the limits in which it has been discovered to operate. The law of gravity is an excellent illustration. It is frequently asserted to be a universal and inviolable law. Such it surely is, but only within certain limits. In our everyday experience there are frequent demonstrations of its limitations. The excess ink upon the letter paper is absorbed into the blotter placed above the writing pad; the liquid has risen in obedience to other identical laws which operate with utter disregard for the law of gravity. Oil rises in the wick of the kerosene lamp and keeps the flame burning steadily, because its movement is in a region beyond the

[Page 343]MIRACLES AND PRAYER IN A LAW‘ABIDING UNIVERSE 34}

limits of gravitation. Molecules of liquid in close contact with molecules of solid substances, such as the fibres of the blotting paper or the cotton wick, obey the laws of adhesion and cohesion rather than the law of gravity. It is not that the law of gravity has been violated; it is merely that the territory in which that law is supreme has been transcended. Under certain conditions the capillary forces are more powerful than the gravitational; each identical law is inviolabie only within definite and generally recognizable limits. Much more must be learned about the limitations of the several laws of nature before we may assert that God .md man have by them been robbed of freedom.

Even within their appropriate limits, the identical laws do not annihilate freedom; in one sense, they do not even restrict trccdom. Give an artist a piece of blank paper and a crayon; tell him he is free to draw anything he wants, that no one will ever tensor his artistic creation. Still is he bound; he cannot, for uampic, draw a circle the circumference of which is exactly six umcs its radius. To do that would be to violate the laws of nature, \xhich manifesting themselves in the fundamental principles of l-luclidean geometry decree that the circumference of eyery circle shall have the relationship zPi-R. But did an artist ever complain that his style was cramped, his freedom limited. that he could not express himself satisfactorily, because he could draw no other um lc than this? That restriction, whatever it may mean, does not prevent him from giving expression by his art to his creative personality. Surely, if this be true for an individual human person.l lity, the supreme administrative personality can similarly display m crcativeness within law.

More important than this inference, however, is the fact that the identical laws are really not laws of governance; they are mcrcly descriptions of what Nears. The law of gravity, for ex.1 mplc, states that grz‘vitation varies inversely as the square of the ,ixsmncc between two bodies and directly as their mass. This is tncrciy a description of the behavior of the force of gravitation;

K Jues not tell wly gravity varies in this particular and peculiar

uunncr. The laws which really govern the universe are the statistical

[Page 344]344 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

and transcendental laws. Although these laws still baffle us, mhave every reason for believing that they are rational and inviolable; that they are truly laws. These administrative rcgulm tions determine how ”spirit with Spirit may meet," how a man may "make up his own mind"; they explain why there should be in living organisms a ceaseless urge to change, a ”divine dissatisfaction" with the existing conditions. Because of them and through them. ”ideas govern the world."

This presents the challenge of the moment: discover the nature of the transcendental laws, find out the regulations in accordance with which the universe is really governed. It is thc most difficult task to which mankind is summoned, a task rcquiring breadth of vision as well as keenness of intellect, wisdom as well as knowledge. Fortunately, it is not necessary for us to complete the ultimate analysis of the structure of the atom bcforc we can make use of transcendental laws. Gravitation was utilized by primitive man long before Sir Isaac Newton was born. Experience is the companion of observation among the scientist's tools. Interpretation of experiences is often more difficult and more valuable than the analysis of objective observations.

This challenge transfers the problem concerning prayer from the administrative to the operative end of the chain. Or from another point of view, it promotes mankind from the position of office boy to that of executive partner in the organization of the universe. Many persons are unwilling to pray because they :er afraid they will ask God to do something which He cannot do, but the real difficulties are at this end, the human end of the avenue of prayer. Most assuredly we cannot expect that becausc of prayer, whether or not it be accompanied by the bribe of .l burnt offering or a promise, whether or not it be couched in certain magic phrases, natural laws will be set aside. We cannot expect that the administration of the universe is sufficiently inconsistent to overturn one set of laws by any other. Each established law will continue to operate unchanged throughout the entire area of its individual dominion. But may it not be that prayer is one of the established laws of the universe. and as such has its appropriate

[Page 345]MIRACLES AND PRAYER IN A LAW'ABIDING UNIVERSE 34S

position among the transcendental laws? Experience seems to unlicate that wherever any human element enters into the problem, prayer is an essential part of the process of giving expression to ll": Supreme Personality. The reservoirs of spiritual power are mil; the laws bv which that power may enrich human life are established; the ability to use those laws is potentially present in man. But the flood is dammed at this end of its channel, not at its source. The barriers are ereCted by human nature, they are not inherent in the nature of the universe.

It is my personal belief that prayer not only reaCts psychologically to benefit the one who prays; it also puts at the disposal of the Transcendental Spirit a tool which, however weak or tiny it may be, is nevertheless indispensable in the project of (renting a world which will be an adequate expression of the umurc of God. I would suggest that in the healing of disease, medicine without prayer is just as foolish as prayer without mcdicine. 0n the other hand, in the present state of my knowledge mnccrning meteorology and my expectation concerning tran\L‘cndcntal lawsJ would not spend one moment of my time praying mr rain or for the cessation of a storm at sea. I do not now see how the human element can possibly be involved in such affairs. In contrast, I would consider it a justifiable expenditure of energy to pray that the citizens of two unfriendly nations should dare to mkc a chance that human nature is much the same on both sides at the boundary line and should act on the belief that love is xtmnger than hate, brotherliness more powerful than battleships.

x : rx Muller's article is the fifth in a series of six essays he has prepared for World Unity Magazine Mum and Rdi in. "The New World Revealed by Modem Science". ”Science and Religion: Are 2 Ln l‘nends 0t emies?"."The Search for God in a Scientific World". and "Men, Machines and

\1» ~ucs” were published in October. Novembet, Decembet and Januaty. The sixth article in the mm “'1“ appear in the Match issue.

[Page 346]I

a mamme !

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES Edited by

Amman W. MARTIN Suite, [or Erbiul Clltm, New York

The Sacred Scripture: of Hinduism—Cmtinued

THE UPANISHADS

x1- to the Vedas the most important of all the Hindu scriptures are the Upanishads. What the New Testa ment is to the Christian that are the Uparushads to every educated Hindu. The word means Hseances 0r "mystic teachings' 'and is applied to a collection of 108 philosophic prose-poems. All have been translated into English, but special value attaches to Professor R. E. Hume's translation of “Thc Thirteen Principal Upanishads". The Upanishads reveal the Indian mind seeking to know the meaning of the world of nature and the world of man, searching with an eagerness never surpasscd and rarely equalled. Here we see the Indian mind climbing from peak to peak of mental attainment, leaving each in turn Without reluctance or regret, because of the promise of a summit higher still. And if, at times, their thought declines to what is commonplace, this is more than atoned for by their passion for the absolut: truth and their sincere consciousness of not having attained it.

Moreover, in the Upanishads we see these truth-seekers carrying on their search in the sweetest spirit, exemplifying the precept in the epistle to the Ephesians with reference to ”speaking th: truth in love". Here in this noble literature, we find pbilmpluu.‘ Hinduism even as in the Brahmanas we found ceremonial Hinduism and, in the Rig-Veda, brim! devotional Hinduism.

The Upanishads are often called "the end of the Veda". This. in truth, they are as to the time of their composition and thtir place in the long line of .S‘um', or revealed texts. "End of rh: 10‘

[Page 347]THE SACRED SCIIFI'UIES OP HINDUISM 347

Veda" they also are in the higher sense that they present the {male of a development of teligious and philosophical thought, the germ of which is in the RigoVeda. No important form of mud crn Hindu thought but has its ditect source in the Upanishads. Thc cider of these antedate the teaching of Gautama, the Buddha, while the later ones presuppose Buddhism. The Upanishads contain no 11mm of religious or philosophical thought, though they inspired each of the various forms of systematic Hindu philosophy. They are, in truth, compilations from different sources, recording the range of Hindu philosophic and religious thought between the eighth and sixth centuries before our era. It is not so much the results reached in speculation as it is the originality, the splendid pluck and sweetness of spirit of the writers of the Upantshads that gives the latter their endearing and enduring quality. As Professor Bloomfield says: “We ate captivated by the quality of thcendeavm more than by thequality of the thingaccomplished. ’ ' Schopenhauer, who was profoundlyinfluenced by the monistic philosophy of the Upanishads and whose own philosophical system is largely based on ideas akin to those found in the Upantshads, said, referring to Du Perron's Latin translation: “Next to the original it is the most rewardful reading possible in the wurlJ: It has been the solace of my life; it will be the solace of my death." And he adds the reason for his faith in the Upanishads, namely, that their fundamental doctrine is what has always called to: "the unceasing meditation of the wise"; the dOCtt-ine of an ultimate unity of reality, the metaphysical Absolute, Brahma. Here is sct forth a monism, the most uncompromising and pcricrvid to be found anywhere. According to this docnine, all plurality. i: only apparent because the entire universe of things and at human beings is the manifestation of an immanent divine Reality, the absolute One, Brahma. We have already met with tins monism in its incipiency in the Rig-Veda, witness for example the famous Cteation-Hymn (R. V. X. 12.9) reproduced in the December number of this magazine. It derives the universe not imm any god or gods but, treating these as of secondary origin, ths the first principle in Tad Elan, That One; neuter gender.

[Page 348]348 wont.» UNITY MAGAZINE

impersonal; uncharacterizable, indescribable, yet Other than lt there ‘was nothing at all. And this monistie concept is one with the Brahma of the Upanishads only they carry the concept still further, holding not only that each individual human being is identical with this indwelling cosmic Soul, but also that the individual (atman) is the clue to the all-embtacing World-Atman.

. In the Rig-Veda, the term Brahma is used over two hundred times but never as signifying the Supreme Being, the ultimate Reality. This connotation of the term appears for the first time in the Upanishads and their central idea is that the whole world of things and of human beings is the manifestation of an immanent. divine, absolute, unitary Reality, called Brahma. In one of the early Upanishads we read:

"In the beginning, my dear, this world was just Being, one only without a second. To be sure, some people say,‘In the bcginning this world was just N un-being,one only without a second; from that Non-being, Being was produced,’ but, verily, my dear, whence could this be? How out of Non-being could Being be produced? On the contrary, my dear, in the beginning this world was Being, one only without a second. It bethought itself, ‘Would that I were many! Let me procreate myself!‘ It emitted heat. (Similarly, the heat ptocreated water and the water food.")

Chandogya U. VI: 7.

‘As are the spokes held together in the hub and felly of the wheel, just so in this Soul, all things: all worlds, all breathing things, all selves, are held together." (Btihad II: 515.) But a final tefinement of this idealistic conception of reality was yet to be worked out. It grew out of the distinction made between. the phenomenal and noumenal worlds, between "that which is sensuously perceived and that which can not be thus brought into consciousness but can only be thought." Hence the manifold sense world was abandoned as illusory (Maya) and its underlying basis seen to be the limitationless pure unity of being, the real Brahma.

‘ l

[Page 349]- m.- mwm...m-wm~ «W

nu: SACRED SCRIPTURES or mNDmsM 349

"This Brahma is without an earlier and without a later, Without an inside and without an outside, For him east and the other directions are not, Nor across, nor below, nor above . He is unlimited."

Maitri VI: 17

”Brahma is He who, dwelling in all things, yet is other than .lll things, whom all things do not know, whose body all things m, who controls all things from within—He is your Soul, the Inner Controller, the Immortal."

"Brahma is He who, dwelling in the mind, yet is other than he mind, whom the mind does not know, whose body the mind

" 15, who controls the mind from within."

"Brahma is the unseen Seer, the unheard Heater, the unzfmught Thinker. Other than Brahma there is no seer. Other than Hulima there is no heater. Other than Brahma there is no thinker. Buhma is your Soul."

Brihad U. 11: I ”Not by speech, not by mind, Not by sight can He be apprehended. How can He be comprehended Otherwise than by one's saying 'He is'?" Katha U. I: 13

This monism is charmingly expounded in the thirteenth «Allon of the Chandogya Upanishad, the famous parable of the hilt.

"The master said to his pupil, 'Place this salt in the water. In the morning come to me. ' When he came, the Master said to him, 'That salt you placed in the water last evening—please bring it hither.’

[hen he grasped for it but did not find It, as it was completely dissolved.

‘Plcase take a sip of it from the top,‘ said he. ‘How is it?’ fialt.

fake a sip from the middle,‘ said he. “'How Is it?‘

[Page 350]350 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

‘Salt.’

'Take a sip from the bottom,’ said he. “How is it?‘

'Salt.’

'Set it aside. Then come back to me.‘

He did so, saying, 'It is always the same.’

Then He said to him, 'Verily indeed, my dear, you do not perceive Being here. Vetily indeed it 1': here.’

3. 'That which is the finest essence—this whole world has flu! as its soul. That is Reality. That is Atman (Soul). That art thou, my pupil.’ "

m 3‘!“an or ran uumsaans IN 1m: LIGHT or 1mm moms.“

Interspetsed amid all the religio-philosophical speculation of the Upanishads we find many a moral maxim but no attempt to ma kc the theoretical philosophy expounded a basis for morality. In. deed, the writers of the Upanishads seem to have regarded him who held the doctrine of the all-pervading Absolute, as thereby released from all sense of personal responsibility, because it is thc deity who really acts in and through him, thus exculpating him from whatever wrong he seemingly has done. Indeed. in these scriptures it is contended that knowledge of the Absolute as th: only Reality relieves one of any concern regarding the right or wrong of anything one does. As illustrating this relation of morality to the monism of the Upanishads let the following quotation) suffice.

"As water adheres not to the leaf of a lotus flower, so mi adheres not to him who knows" (that one's self is Brahma).

Sacred Books of the East, I: 67

"He who knows (the identity of the finite human with th: Infinite Ultimate) is not stained with evil, even though he consorts with evil people. He becomes pure, clean, the possessor of A

world." pure S. B. E. 1:84

”As a rush-reed laid on a fire would be burned up, even so are burned up all the evils of him who knows" (t‘he‘mystety of th: identity of the self with the World-Soul).

.S. B. E. I: 91

[Page 351]THE SACRED SCRIPTURES 0F HINDUISM 351

"One who knows the bliss of Brahma—he feats nothing. He does not distress himself with the thoughts, 'Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is bad?’ He who knows, frees himself from these thoughts. This is the mystic doctrine (Upm:5h21d).” The reason for this entire self-exculpation is that it is no longer "I" that act, but the Brahma who dwelleth in me—he

docth the works. S. B. E. XVI: 63

"As a snake is freed from its skin, so is he (who knows these truths) free from sin." This is a glad tiding of salvation according to philosophic Hinduism; here is redemption, not merely from punishment for sin, but from the very responsibility for sin.

S. B. E. XVI: 2.82.

"He who knows this (doctrine of the metaphysical unity of .111 things in Brahma)—although he commits very much evil, he umsumes it all, and becomes clean and pure."

S. B. E. XVI: 199

Elsewhere we read:

"As a spider might come out with his thread, as small sparks . tame forth from the fire, even so from this Soul come forth all ntal energies, all worlds, all beings."

Brihad U. II: 1.2.0

Such is the cardinal Hindu monistic concept-—opaque in the iixg-Veda. translucent in the Brahmanas, transparent in the l panishads. From this monism, it was but a step to the pantheistic

ECJ of Brahma as literally everything. The Real of the real; not

nztly the source of all things but the essence of all things.

"Brahma indeed, Brahma before, Brahma behind, to right and to left, Stretched forth from below and above; Brahma indeed is the whole world, this widest extent." Mundalta U. 11:2..11

And since the highest object in the world of experience is the h uman spirit, the supreme Brahma must resemble spirit more than

[Page 352]3S7. WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

matter, and, correlated with man, the Ur-grund, or Ultimate, is conceived as Infinite Soul (Atman) with which the finite soul (atman) is one.

“Both he who is here, in a person, And he who is yonder in the sun, He is one."

Taittitiya U. H: 8

"He who is yonder, yonder person I myself am he." Brihad U. 515

”His is that shining form which gives heat in yonder sun and which is the brilliant light in a smokeless fire, as also the fire in

the stomach which cooks food. For thus has it been said: 'He who is in the fire, and He who is here in the heart, and He who is

yonder in the sun—He is one.‘ " Maitti Upanishad

The directly known self (atmap) is real and must therefore be a part of the Ut-grund of all-being, Brahma. So argued the ancient Vedantist in the Upanishads and henceforth the terms Brahma and Attnan were used interchangeably. In the words of Professor Hume, ”The two great conceptions—Bralma, reached first realistically, the unitary cosmic ground, with outteachings toward a cosmo-thropic ground; and Am», the inner being of the self and the non-self, the great world-spirit—were joined. the former «king over to itself the latter conception and the two being henceforth to a considerable degree synonymous." Here the quest for the real, fat the unity, for the diversified world, for the key to the universe, reached a goal. Thus the unity, searched for flow the start of Hindu speculation, was found.

[Page 353]

WORLD UNITY FORUM

.. mam questions eonftonting thoughtful people today are not merely important—they are unn. Ardhle. If they ate not solved rationall , they will solve themselves by the vety pressure of events. 5 .d or ill. Pethaps the outstanding of the times is something in the nature of an international

.. .lm in which minds of difl'erent countries. races and religions can meet on common und for an

-. L hang: of views promoted fot the sake of ttuth and the enrichment olexperience. Whi eciviliution . gnllfling its forces together to produce new institutions based on mutual confidence and goodwill. e: m ctiun, however slight and unassuming, put Iotth as an appeal to the international mind will vne ulue at least {0: the individuals concerned. In this depattment the readers of World Unit] mum: ate invited to expteu their opinions on matters which reflect the restless. experimental

um: of the age. WHAT CAN RELIGION D0?

in: last fifteen years have witnessed a profound development in the approach to the problem of universal peace. From the naive expectation that an era without warfare could be ushered in by the edict of an international di.

~lomacy somehow converted to the principles of the Sermon on

{he Mount, we have traveled to the opposite extreme in the mnviction held by many that any and all political action is mipotent in its effect upon world affairs, since the reins of real JUIhol‘lty are held by the leaders of industry and finance.

While this issue is clarifying itself, the larger forces making

or peace are obscured by the inevitable cynicism which grips

people who know that vital decisions are being made but feel

hcmselves hopelessly in the dark as to the final outcome.

At a deeper level also. there exists an entirely new degree of appreciation of the spiritual factors involved in the problem of true, enduring peace. According to this view, the relative insluence of political and economic forces is secondary in comparison

0 the part that must be played by the spirit of understanding and.

cooperation among the world's diverse groups.

What can religion do? What can religion do in the world of

nner motive and aspiration to transform mass bewilderment,

mJSS indifference into a positive power capable of realizing the yrograms developed by Otherwise ineffective leaders? At what pomt are the spiritual tesources of this dynamic age beginning to trystallize in religious expressions of a truly universal charaCter?

35)

[Page 354]

THE RISING TIDE

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

Edited by

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. Dcpm of Pbilmpb]. Cola“: Univmiry

TI): Unificatian of the Social Science:

n2 impartial observer of our present intellectual scene can hardly fail to be impressed by the evidences on every hanl of a tendency toward the unification of knowledge. For at least a generation specialized investigation and ex- perimentation have been amassing mountains of facts. The generalizing concepts and hypotheses that served to organize the world 02' our fathers have proved 'in almost every case too narrow and limited to serve as scientific tools in our own. The need for new synthetic concepts is driving men to search 'for the common foundations, not only of physics and chemistry, not only of the physical sciences and the sciences of life, but of the entire realm of human knowledge.

80 far have facts outstripped the power of the older theories of physics to embrace them all and make them all intelligible. that physicists themselves have been forced to turn to startling new hypotheses. Such nations as the kinetic theory of matter and the biological theory of evolution, to which the 19th century had recourse when they became aware of the inadequacies of the oldcr Newtonian science, are no longer sufficiently inclusive and allembracing. Out present-day electrical world has outgrown: ewcn the concepts of Newtonian mechanics; analysis of natut'a‘l phenomena into individual and unrelated atoms has broken down Scientists have had to bring the fundamental notion of time into physics, 1nd have increasingly had to recognize the importance 0:

3”

[Page 355]ma UNIPICATION or THE socuu. scumcns 355 organic systems of interrelations. One of the major enterprises of present-day philosophy has been to criticize and unify the basic principles of physical explanation.

The same necessity of unification and synthesis is finding expression in the social sciences. These sciences were first organized, .2n the model of mechanics, in the 18th century. The great critics the Romantic period clearly pointed out the inadequacy of such 1 model; they maintained that society is more like a living organ.sm than a machine, and that its history is of fundamental impunance. Under such inspiration the social sciences were trans:nrmed and enlarged, and imposing new syntheses were put forth. when the biological notion of evolution became popular, evolumnary systems of social science had their day. But these syntheses, '\ hcther Hegelian, Comtian. or Spencerian, proved premature and

t .unstricting as more and more facts were brought to light. For «cr 2 generation now workers in psychology, anthropology,

tanomics, politics, and sociology have been afraid of speculative

stems; they have turned rather to the specialized investigation

g -t fact, with most fruitful results. But today, inst as in the physical

? mcnccs. there is the growing realization that further discovery is xpcndent on the unification of this large body of data by bringing .: mxo one interrelated realm of knowledge and developing orcmizing hypotheses.

Several preliminary attempts at such a new synthetic eEort nave been recently made. They are all keenly aware that any .mtication of social knowledge today must grow out of the facts 'nher than precede them; they haye learned the lesson of the u :lurc of the evolutionary speculative systems. They have not been ~. .in-idual efforts, but have tried to organize the ideas of a number

E 7 men. They realize that a new synthesis of the social sciences i e: ~h: be a democratic and cooperative enterprise, the work of i :.\ thinkers aiming, each in his own way, at the same goal.

( E. Merriam and H. E. Barnes attempted such a bringing

[ rthcr of the diferent social sciences in their Himo of Political

• .3: nu, Rum Tum, in which political theory was made the

i ?.flanizing element. Barnes attempted I similar task in his New

[Page 356]356 WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE

Him») and the Social Studio, using history as the uniting bumJ Dunes has also published Tl): Him») and Pmpem of the Sam; Sciences, in which ten collaborators trace the rather similar .5:velopment of their particular fields, and point to the cmcrgcnc: (1: concepts common to them all. Last year E. C. Hayes edited a volume on Recent Developments in the Social Sciences. All these books _ are valuable efforts to sketch the picture of the social scicnncs a they exist today. For the most part they emphasize the historica. . development of the different disciplines, and when they hav: tried to bring them together, the method has usually been u. exhibit them in the light of their contributiflns to one field.

Now there has appeared a volume that carries this unificatim: one step further. In The Social .S‘cimce: and their Intemlamm' edited by W. F. Ogbum and A. Goldenweiser, thirty-three experts deal each, not with one field, but with the relations between nu

' allied fields.ThusJohn Dewey writes on Anthropology and Ethics Franz Boas on Anthropology and Statistics, Roscoe Pound or Sociology and Law, and Morris Cohen on the Social Sciences an; the Natural Sciences. The resulting picture is of a loosely‘iinific: body of knowledge in which all specialized parts are intimatch bound to each other; the portrait of an organized social scienc: emetges. Certainly no more impressive evidence of a synthct:tendency in modern thought has yet appeared.

The names of the two editors are in themselves significant Dr. Goldenweiset is an able representative of the most critics anthropological tendencies; and it is clear that a unification of the social studies will come in terms of the anthropologists' methw and concepts. The notion of culture and its elements has alrew come to be basic for all progressive students of society. Dr. Ogburr is fmiliat for his careful application of statistical methods it social problems; and it is obvious today that it is through statistm alone that we can hope fox an exact social science. Both these fauare nude explicit in the introductory essay by the editors on th: field of the social sciences.

‘ V. F. Ogbun and A. Goldenweiset. Th Said .I‘n‘nm all M 1m”, Houghmn Mr! Company. viiifio‘ pp.

[Page 357]THE UNIPICATION 01’ THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 357

There have been three major influences in the social field in the last two generations. The prestige of biology was first felt after I 859; the analogy of a biological organism, and the notion of a uniform evolutionary development, wete controlling a genetanon ago. There followed the achievement of a critical method by mthropology, which today fumishes the fundamental concepts J nd the unifying orientation, as well as the most exact techniques, to the other branches. This basic position of anthropology today

5 well illustrated by the fact that the outstanding philosophy

that has grown out of the social sciences, John Dewey's, views the world {tom the anthropologist's vantage point and generalizes hlS concepts. The influence of psychology has not yet been fully tclt, {or so fat psychologists have been quarreling over one-sided md inadequate methods, and have not achieved a secure science.

The reaction against evolutionary speculation was a turning to the investigation of isolated facts. But "r'martmentalizing and specialization, while to a degree inevitawe and conducive to highCS! achievement, are seen to have their attendant evils. Research, discovery, and invention, which are greatly encouraged “y specialization, are also snfierets if the process of isolation goes mu far . . . Specialization means refinement of method, thorough mmmand of data, and detailed analysis; but intercommunication brmgs perspective, germination of new ideas, and synthesis."

However valuable specific studies may be, we are living in a .mficd culture. "The problems of living society do not range

hcmsclves so as to fit the artificial isolation forced upon the

m ial sciences by difl'erences of specific subject and method. These ymhlcms are as they are. If they are to be solved. whatever mmvledge we possess about society must he called into service. xx hcrever needed."

The editon's conclude their survey with a statement of the mxcralizations that can already be made as preparatory to a new “ml synthesis. “The 'seientific' future of the social sciences depends upon theit amenability to statistical methods. The the-, arena] unit of these sciences is not so much man the animal nor nun the psychic being as M in min}; and if sociology is defined

[Page 358]358 worm um’rv MAGAZINE

is lb: 3M] of flu principle: underlying m': :m‘al "lath”, then 1: follows thatthe natural meeting ground of the social sciences and the sphere par excellence of their interrelations are in their common sociological level. The social problems, finally, of a living society are no respecters of academic or methodological distinctions. however far, therefore, the social sciences my depart from each other in their comeptual specialization,they must ever be prepared for the call to pragmatic reunification and cooperation."

Thus the need for a unification of human effort is felt in the sciences of man as in the sciences of nature. If mch a synthetic social science can be developed out of our multitudinous facts. there is at least the hope that it will serve as a potent instrument in the further unification of our discordant civilization.

Reading Lin of Cum“ Book: on World Unity 5. EDUCATION

'Enucutox as WORLD-BUILDINO, by 'ruouu nwmson (Hamid U . P.) EDUCATION, by n. L. momma (Macmillan) Tu: Huron or Eoucauou, by mun. uounon (Macmillan) The nature and development of the edueatioul ptoeett. Dnuocuct AND Enucamou, by JOHN um? (Macmillan) an Scuoow r03 Ow, by n. n. nzwnv (Dams) Naw Scuoou IN rm: Ow Worm, by wasnnunm: AND s-rauss (Day) EDUCATION AND flu: Goon Lira, by autumn uussau. (Bani and Limigbt: Modern edwtioml currents. Tn: HuuAmsz or Knowuma, by JAMES unvu nonmsos (DOM) (Prof. Randall's list will be followed in later issues by similar line on the sub ‘ ieett of Religion and Ideals of Life.) NOTE—Buh m" dum'nd in ch": Miraflo- cu “Wham”:Wald um, Mama. [or u. Maw: 1m pm ,1.» pm...

[Page 359]M

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Among the services which WontL‘sm Mamas: hopes to tender in mdcrs in this department is the occasional blication of an Index of (unent aguine Articles on sub:ccts reflecting the world outlook and .dtal 0! inhalation! peace. Some months ago. in fact. the editon brought this intention to the notice ”i leading periodicals published in the Orient and Europe a well u in m: Unites! States. requesting the cooperation oG their editors in pte;uring the Index. Douhtlet: because the classification 'world unity' as yet emits with it no sharply definite xmpression. the returns have been allogethel‘ inadequate up to the [met:m tune.

Such an Index, however. seem uluable enough to 'uttify futthet ctfort on out putt. we will weltome infatuation {tom any tender about cunentuticletwhieh t tome contribution tothewoe unity zdealJt‘uoneolthediustend modern thonghtthnteolnucholit must be contained to the fottunee not metely of one ezine but of out quickly panting te. It is in ordet to mitt in extending the useful m‘: of outstanding essays inbned with the new spirit. and in ptmiding our teadets with the widest possible contact with the nut enlightened thought 9‘ the day. that the Index

Meanwhile we ate to ive ulcm ‘ mmmufiu. mg antcb t to out

mentiomfltwp UUA-ja. by Gilhett Many. III Yale Renew for January. 191'; Won't W: for

Pure, by Lady Astor, M. P.. in McCall's Magazine fotjanuaty. 192.8; Rota! 61in: in :6: Qt“! [or Pam. by Norman Thomas, in The World Tomorrow for anuary. t ;Aa Amriun Locale. y met . Shotwell, in The Rotatian or December, 191.7; A PW Conduit. on Bum Under1M5, editorial in The American Hebrew for April 15. 1917; M4 and World Pan. a symposium in Christian Century iot- December 2.}, 191.6; A hpul far a Amie“ Docm'u a] World Putt, by Henry W. Steed Ill Current History, December. 191.7; Ln Endgame“ J: I'Hinain u I: W do In de, by James T. Shotwell, in L'Esptit International for October, 1 7; and Renovation of

t!» Rune, by ,t Robert Cuttius. in Monthly Ctitetion on) fat November 1 7 (qu in The Liv ing Age {o.t anuaty !. 19:8).

.0.

Fat many people.h in the progress of the clematic i eal tests largely upon the emergence of the engineer type of public tenant and the clinic nation of the lawyet litician. The social philotoghy tnen holding manning positions in the tcientiilic technical fields a consequent an ' t m. In view of thi’eV feet. . Kmpeenft Nam and u. Law of lull cmiet substantial interest. since this article A thenttimdeofonewhoeomhinetthe

minnofunivmi teachetwith ' industrial 3 ' tion. Pint. Kampeto‘.auongothetiteuolinmt. it the m of Steinolneu

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in the labotntoxiet of the General Electtic Company.

0..

Among the interesting book: received but not ed: to review in Prof. J. HJhnd 's rtmentisaportfolio of Industtia Pnintingt b Mr. Gerrit A. Beneker, A. P. Jo neon Co.. publishers. Grand Ra ids. Mich.

The portfolio contains fullcolor reproduction: of Mt. Beneltet't well known industtial painting: with aeeompan ing in ive editotials by t e mitt. ch illustration measures seven by eight and onehalf inches.

Mr. Beneket seems to have been given the mission of redeeming modern industry from the crude brutality of in otigin and bringing the factory and its worker into the human tr:dition of beauty and significanee.'l1lis aspeetofeontemgary art is valuable in that it heipe worket to realize emotional] the connection between his job mjthe world. It is good to know that these lice have been taken In by on]: and colleges where t eir educational value is

apptecinted.

it!

We am reminded b a discriminating reader that worl unity it not “a development to applaud but: problem

0 tol_ve".dlll'c t_his whlica‘thion to far

33 IVCI'I mm It It W18 englished mete! to watch [tom the tide line: a thri ' game bound to be won by the {avenue phyets. we hasten to correct it. The W intention oftheeditoawu topovide a vehicle for the expression of n definitely emetging me: of mind—a

state of mind recognizin no cunventional boundaries in th% World of reality which tuttounds and mm: eventually ptevailin the social world Front thu new state of mind lhcr: has already been born a convicnm: which is rapidly altering the OUIIOUk of science, re igion and industry That collective nuts of habit which detennines the Itnlctural forms at society must follow and not accumpuny the intuition: of the mun: advanced individuals. We may assert that a given devekgflllent is ineviublc if the state of min demanding it h.“ actually been established among the leaders throughout the social group concerned. It at aheady iustifia I: to have faith that world unity wzll prevail, since the consciousness 0! world unity he's already manifcszcd itself among significant individuals amon 11 races, nations, religions and efnses. But there it nothing m the inner attitude wotthy the name of faith to permit the assumption that those who believe in humm tolidgrity expect it to come without

. a net scaled to the sublimity of

t e vision. If we study the spread of every ancient religion whnch has attuned vital life and influence. we ive that its area d e‘ective inuenee was peerlemined b the boundaries of Won III ering and discipline. The tufl’eting and ditci line of humanity heve become wad wide, thetefme the next form 0! social integration can fill the same m. In transitional era the backward looking people nuke the sumistake of consideting as unulporunt thoeewhoateleut adapted to current standards of excellence be cause they ate attivin to attain excellence of a totally dictum kind.

[Page 361]'1‘!!! WORLD UNITY commas

5

public meeting has been established, one which strongly ap peals to all who detite to come into contact with the forces making for universal unity yet ptefet not to identify themselves with any formal orpniution through membership 0: dues.

A World Unity Conference consists of several consecutive meetings at which responsible leaders in the fields of education, science, philosophy, ethics and religion interpret those fundamental principles of human usocittion 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 d x’ viduals willing to cooperate in the extension of this independent platform dedicated to the promotion of harmony and understand m g among religions, races, nations “Id classes.

In the World Unity Conferences 1 new and distinctive type of

‘Program of Jimiuy—Jamo—May, 1928

Philadelphia, Pa.—juury 18 to 24 Washington, D. C.—Fehruuy 19. 20, 21 Demit. Mich.—Much 20. 21. 22 Cincinnati. Ohio—Much 27. 28. 29 Cleveland. Ohio —Aptil 23, 24. 25 Portland, Maine—May 21, 22. 23

Wunw Uum Com, 4 um um mm, w you cut luimmd'nthdutdmuolthWHUU-iomlmn Plan ndw D 1 “WM: :1