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[Page 225]

WORLD UNITY

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

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, Editor HORACE HOLLEY, Managing Editor HELEN B. MACMILLAN, Business Manager

C. F. ANSLEY W. W. ATWOOD MARY AUSTIN

A. MENDELSOHN BARTHOLDY BARON BAUDRAN 1. F. DE BEAUFORT GERRIT A. BENEKER PIERRE BOVET EDWIN ARTHUR BURTT HARRY CHARLESWORTH No. POON CHEW RUDOLPH I. COFFEE BAYARD DODGE GEORGES DUHAMEL ANNA B. ECKSTEIN HAVELOCK ELLIS AUGUSTE FOREL F. GATES V SCHULZE GÄVERNITZ HELLMUTH VON GERLACH ileanERT ADAMS GIBBONS KAHLIL GIBRAN CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN

Contributing Editors JOHN W. GRAHAM FRANK H. HANKINS LUCIA AMES MEAD MARJA GRUNDMANN-KOSCIENSKA KARIN MICHAELIS A. EUSTACE HAYDON WILL HAYES YAMATO ICHICHASHI RUPUS M. JONES MORDECAI W. JOHNSON DAVID STARR JORDAN SAMUEL LUCAS JOSHI ERNEST JUDET VLADIMIR KARAPETOFF P. W. Kuo RICHARD LEE HARRY LEVI ALAIN LOCKE GEORGE DE LUKÁCS LOUIS L. MANN SIR JAMES MARCHANT VICTOR MARGUERITTE R. H. MARKHAM ALFRED W. MARTIN F. S. MARVIN KIRTLEY F. MATHER HERBERT A. MILLER FRED MERRIFIELD DHAN GOPAI. MUKERJI IDA MÜLLER HARRY ALLEN OVERSTREET DEXTER PERKINS JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. CHARLES RICHET FORREST RIED TH. RUYSSEN WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD MARY SIEGRIST ABBA HILLEL SILVER ISIDOR SINGE AUGUSTUS O. THOMAS GILDERT THOMAS RUSTUM VAMBÉRY WALTER WALSH HANS WEHBERG M. P. WILLCOCKS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Editorial Office:—4 East 12th Street, New York City

WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE is published by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 4 East 12th Street, New York City: MARY RUMSEY MOVIUS, president; HORACE HOLLEY, vice-president; FLORENCE MORTON, treasurer; JOHN HERMAN RANDALL, secretary. Published monthly, 35 cents a copy, $3.50 a year in the United States, $4.00 in Canada and $4.50 in all other countries (postage included). THE WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION and its editors do not invite unsolicited manuscripts and art material, but welcome correspondence on articles related to the aims and purposes of the magazine. Printed in U. S. A. Contents copyrighted 1928 by WORLD UNITY PUBLISHING CORPORATION. [Page 226]

Community

OCIALISATION and individualisation develop pari passu. The unity of these two factors is re-they constitute, for that unity is personality. This must be the basis of any account of communal development. The actual development of personality attained in and through community by its members is the measure of the importance these attach to personality both in themselves and in their fellow-men. By aid of this clue we can bring all the other aspects of communal development, the growth of communal economy, the growth of environmental control, under a single law.

To show the unity of communal development is to show also the line of communal development, the direction of a road that stretches, who knows, to a yet undreamed-of distance. Community has advanced along that road, not in any steady progress, but in spite of halts, wanderings, and retreats. As it has advanced, the meaning of its march has become, though still dim, yet clearer. Blind impulses are superseded by conscious forces, whereupon it appears that much that was blind in its operation—blind to us whom it impelled—was yet not meaningless, but continuous with what now reveals itself as our own conscious purpose. If that purpose grows still clearer, the movement of community will become more straightforward, towards an age for which the records of this present time will be a memory of "old unhappy far-off things."

—R. M. MACIVER, Community [Page 227]

I. Humanity in Wilderness

IF impelled by some overwhelming inner shock, we moderns have retreated into an individualism no more capable of true community than a rock-lined cave. In this spiritual retreat lies the secret causes of the nationalism which dominates political thought, and of the fundamentalism which dictates the public policies of religion. Repudiating equally the rich and varied treasures offered by the cultures of the past and the amazing opportunities promising a more glorious future, the typical modern, withdrawn into an elemental self, has become adapted to a momentary present devoid of enduring reality, like a leaf torn from the tree of life. Or, like the solitary survivor of a storm at sea, cast upon the few sterile acres of a nameless island, he struggles incessantly for his daily food, and in the struggle forgoes the inner being sustained by the fellowship from which he has been spewn.

This solitary being, this moral exile, constitutes the crowd thronging Main Street when the day's work is done; he preaches most of our sermons; he weaves the intricate network of our legislation; he passes upon our international treaties; he writes our textbooks; he sets up the objectives to be attained alike by Capital and Labor; he surrounds himself with mechanisms connecting him with every corner of the earth and with a large proportion of its inhabitants; he knows that every atom of the universe has infrangible association with every other atom; but in his heart he feels no union with the sun shining in the heavens, nor with the earth softly breathing beneath his feet, nor with a [Page 228]single fellow-exile scattered by the maniac tempest of the great war.

This modern retreat into individualism is nothing less than a descent from the human to the animal plane. It represents an instinctive effort to hide from intolerable fear within the secret recesses of self which penetrate downward to the depths of nature, just as they open upward to the heights of spirit. The mental and moral aptitudes required to sustain the good will demanded by the intricacies of a world civilization, cannot be found in personalities separated from their fellows as by the darkness of night.

What greater mystery did life ever present than this spectacle of an age which has succeeded in creating a mechanical unification interpenetrating the entirety of our external life throughout its physical compass North, South, East and West, only to lose at the very moment of this miraculous consummation, the spirit of unity on which human existence from day to day depends' Instead of the ennobling and fruitful cosmopolitanism which should crown this modern world of large scale production equipment, of motion picture, radio and airplane, we find a larger and more dangerous jungle sibilant with life reduced to continuous self-defense. Man has gone back to that fundamental anarchy which arises when moral darkness closes around the ruins of an age unworthy to endure.

The present era is thus a psychological wilderness, of unknown duration, which we are compelled to traverse under conditions of surpassing spiritual hardship to find the promised land of world unity builded beyond the horizons of time. The journey is so difficult, beset with so many strange terrors and consuming griefs, that only the free mind and heart, led by faith in supreme Justice, will ever emerge. The past in us is the wilderness—the past of division and strife, the past of the animal man. [Page 229]

UNIVERSAL ETHICS

based on a new revision of Good and Evil by ALOIS RICHARD NYKL Marquette University

SA basis for the following synthesis it is assumed that

A. THERE IS NO ACTUAL PROBLEM OF GOOD, ONLY THE PROBLEM OF EVIL.

B. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL IS A REAL ONE AND CANNOT BE DISMISSED BY MERELY IGNORING IT.

c. A CLEAR DISTINCTION MUST BE MADE BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND MORAL EVIL.

1. In nature there is no clear distinction between physical and moral evil; there is a consciousness of physical evil, but no clear conception of any moral evil. Certain animals appear to have a code of ethics, but they apply it only to their own group and show no evidence of being conscious of a responsibility to a higher agent.

2. In man the first dawn of a distinction between good and evil in general was based on the conception of life and death. Whatever furthered life was good, anything that endangered life was evil. Life was associated with constructive forces, death with destructive forces. The snake which bit man was evil, the tree which gave him fruit was good. He deified both before he became aware of the fact that they were not independent agents, but mere tools in the power of a higher agent. Thus from animism, fetishism and polytheism, mankind advanced to dualism, and finally to monotheism, at first clannish, later universal. Atheism, agnosticism and similar developments of thought which ignore [Page 230]anything beyond experimental science cannot develop a satisfactory ethical basis (cp. par. 11).

3

The classifications of good and evil in early pagan philosophers, and those who follow them, based on the ideas of pleasure vs. pain, useful vs. harmful, are inadequate, since they do not make a clear distinction between the physical and the moral evil, and consequently are too near the animal conception of life. This is generally true of polytheism. In dualism, two opposing agents make the world the scene of their contest, under the supervision of a supreme deity that never allows evil to be permanently victorious. In monotheism, the dilemma of reconciling the infinitely good Creator with the existence of evil (i.e. destructive forces of nature), was solved by the Job-like resignation to the idea that God created everything to a purpose often hidden from man’s understanding, by the theory of original sin and total depravity, and many other, more or less fanciful, inventions. Systems where God is replaced by Idea, Brahma, Tattvam-asi, Tao, and other terms, are more logical in their conception of a kind of a karma which leads from the Absolute, through the material Relative, back to the Absolute, but are too abstract to be of any practical use. Though it is plausible to assume that physical evil is a retribution for moral evil, it is not within our province to determine to what extent this is true.

4

When analyzing the causes of physical evil, we find that they are partly beyond our control and partly within it. The first-named have generally been associated with the idea of Fate and Chance, the other with Free Will. Some thinkers have denied Free Will, arguing that if a man was born with the latent power to control his actions by means of intelligence and reason, this latent power was his Fate, something beyond his control. Others have represented it as Divine Grace, effect of karma, heredity. The argument against Free Will is incorrect, since Free Will only concerns the control of powers with which the organism is already endowed, regardless of antecedents. This being true, there is no doubt that there are situations in which man can exercise Free Will in choosing between several ways of conduct. [Page 231]5. The same applies to moral evil. Here we have to deal with a code of conduct established by human society in the course of time. This code differs according to period, climate, and intelligence of the people that establishes it. Apparently, therefore, it is purely relative and utilitarian. Nevertheless, a closer analysis discloses an unchanging principle behind the forming of such codes, an Absolute idea, which follows the first dawn of the distinction mentioned in par. 2.

6. This Absolute idea is based on the perception that man is different from the rest of the living organisms in nature despite all apparent similarity; that he is not a MERE PRODUCT OF NATURE, but that within nature, itself also created, a higher Creative Energy is operating, and that its work in the world of phenomena culminates in man as its highest agent on earth, to whom all other things are subjected.

7. Once this idea is established in his mind, man begins to put forth an effort to differentiate himself from other animals—among which he often includes other groups of men—in order to have the inner satisfaction that he is actually and justifiedly their lord. He frames a code of conduct whereby he subjects instincts and impulses to a process of rationalization. He knows why he is doing certain things, why he should do them, or why he should not do them. Within this sphere of knowledge he undoubtedly is a free agent.

8. Thus he establishes a moral code in which he classifies human actions—including thoughts and words—as either pleasing or displeasing to the Creative Energy whose agent he conceives himself to be on earth, and to whom he feels he owes responsibility for his actions, as conforming to its desire or being against it.

ALL ACTIONS THAT HELP HIM TO REACH A HIGHER LEVEL OF SELF-MASTERY, PERFECTION, NEARER APPROACH TO GOD’S IMAGE, ALL THAT WHICH WIDENS THE GULF BETWEEN HIM AND THE MERE ANIMAL, ARE GOOD. ALL ACTIONS THAT CAUSE HIM TO SINK TO A LOWER LEVEL, EVEN BELOW THAT OF AN ANIMAL, ARE EVIL.

9. This appears to be the evolution and the fundamental [Page 232]basis of the idea of moral good and evil, upon which everything in human life rests: religion, government, art. The only exception is experimental science which deals with purely physical phenomena. Hence in a period of utter confusion, as is the present one, a revision of the problem of evil is desirable in order to enable us to distinguish the essential from the non-essential concerning the best purpose of life and the highest ideal of life, so as to conform in the best possible manner to the standard expressed under par. 8.

10. Every living organism wants to live, since it MUST live, unless it prefers death to life. The inevitable law governing this "MUST" is that it must live— 1. by preserving its life against organisms that seek to destroy its life; 2. by consuming and transforming for the purpose of its life other living organisms.

This process seems to us, in our present stage of evolution, cruel and selfish. We have passed through its cruder phases in all their ugliness without fully realizing their horror, and now are trying to mitigate the ruthlessness of the process. At times it seems to us that in so doing we are improving on the work of the Creative Energy, whose existence, wisdom, and providence we are led to doubt, and even incline to the belief that behind life there is nothing but an inexorable law of an indifferent nature.

11. Can nature be the ultimate cause and source of life? We see of course that in accordance with the aforesaid inexorable law successive waves of life have come into existence on earth and have disappeared. Ugly monsters preyed upon each other, and later upon men. Men have exterminated many of the ugly monsters of past ages and have preserved only serviceable animals for use in their work. Men have exterminated less intelligent or physically weakened races of men, or reduced them to slavery. Much of this extermination was done by natural cataclysms. In view of this it seems absurd to adhere to the idea of a Creative Energy which would have permitted these sanguinary struggles and cataclysms, in order to evolve a higher intelligence on earth. [Page 233]It seems absurd to assume that it was a part of the plan of the Creative Energy to evolve in the mind of a certain tribe of men an intelligence that could subdue other tribes, less intelligent or less powerful, and exterminate them if they were stubborn enough to persist in their resistance to such a procedure. It does scem absurd, and yet we cannot accept nature as the ultimate cause and deny the existence of the Creative Energy, if we wish to continue on the upward path and do not wish to sink into scientific animalism.

12. Can we justify our position? If we examine the purely physical universe, we find that no natural force is able to produce another which would be capable of annihilating or consciously controlling it. It is self-evident, therefore, that nature would not be capable of producing within its sphere, of its own volition, a force which after a long struggle would finally succeed in opposing it successfully by finding out its secrets. If man’s mind was able to reach that stage it follows that it cannot be a product of nature. It follows that nature is but a milieu in which a more powerful agent is operating toward a more perfect expression of his will. The process through which life has reached its present stage on earth must, absurd though it may seem, have been following a logical plan of the Creative Energy. It cannot be the result of the inexorable law of an indifferent nature. When human mand reaches the stage of knowing how to cooperate with the will of the Creative Energy, it is entirely within its power to eliminate all the apparent cruelty of the plan.

13. What is that plan? Records of men’s deeds, laboriously preserved, frequently in a very inaccurate or falsified form, show us clearly its effects. We know only of a period of about eight thousand revolutions of the earth round the sun, which we call years. Beyond that, all exact computation, intelligible to us, ceases. Whether it took one million or one billion years for this planet to cool off and form out of a gaseous nebula does not mean much to our three-score-and ten span of life, and does not absolve us, in our mortal form, from the necessity to breathe, drink, sleep, and procreate. Both in the macrocosm and in the [Page 234]microcosm our intellect is helpless. Our experimental scientific endeavor can bring us only to a hypothetical point where our reason began to differentiate between good and evil (cp. 2). It could be expressed thus: A-N- 1928 A. D. = Creative Energy, through the milieu of nature, reaches the point A which is the beginning of man’s reason and subsequent evolution. Science cannot explore the antecedents of that point.

14. What is, then, our primary task within the sphere intelligible to us and accessible to us in our mortal form? How can we, without losing respect for the value of human life and men’s actions, employ the brief span allotted to us by the Creative Energy in a manner that will satisfy our conception of good and evil (cp. 8), and re-assure us that our life was lived in the best possible way, in a truly human manner, devoid of all brutish attributes?

15. Two main lines of thought have developed among the races of men on earth concerning this question.

One recommends ACTION: constant active exercise of all our faculties in the direction of common and mutual welfare. Purely selfish striving, though still largely practised, has been generally condemned as harmful to society. This group believes that THIS present life, as the nearest accessible form of Eternity, demands our primary attention.

The other recommends NON-ACTION as the only escape from committing evil: a more or less complete renunciation of this life in its physical aspects, and its employment largely as a preparation for a higher, spiritual form of existence. The eye of intelligence should be directed toward the attainment of a perfect fusion with the non-material principle of life, the Creative Energy itself.

Within these two main divisions we find an infinite number of variations, ranging from the glorification of tyranny to the self-mortification of ascetics.

Can a satisfactory reconciliation of the two groups and their innumerable variations be effected on the basis of some Golden Rule? [Page 235]

UNIVERSAL ETHICS

16. Within the limits of known history the principle of action has proved itself to be preferable. Its accompanying evils have been due to an excessive application of it. It has sent waves upon waves of human beings from one end of the earth to another, preaching new articles of faith, new codes of conduct with new standards of good and evil, with more vehemence than logic. The last of its unreasonable outbursts was christened the Great War, and so small is the faith of those who constantly hark back to their animal stage, in human reason, that we are promised worse outbursts in the future.

The principle of non-action, while it has saved people from the evils resulting from aggressiveness, has caused evil effects through omission of doing good.

17. This divergence of aims is at the root of our present confusion. We are unable to agree on one program, on one true ideal of life for all men. The advancement of mechanics and engineering among the action-group has caused them to lower their spiritual values. Too much importance is attached to the various mechanical devices which they have invented for their physical and material comfort. They have forgotten that these devices cannot inject more GOODNESS into the human moral code, quite on the contrary. The question is, then: Are the nations, possessing the physical power, justified by the plan of the Creative Energy to impose their will on the nations which desire to live in peace according to their own, less active, interpretation of life?

In case of resistance, are the stronger nations justified in exterminating the weaker ones by high explosives and chemicals or in reducing them to slavery?

Or is the plan of the Creative Energy to be interpreted that there is a human solution of the divergence, on the basis of a UNIVERSAL CODE OF ETHICS, tolerant to local differences, but tending to educate human beings in the spirit of cooperation which would enable them to realize the various shades of their vision of happiness without the intervention of the animal nature in the form of brute force?

18. In order to answer this question, civilized nations must [Page 236]in the first place make an inventory of their present assets and liabilities. If they decide that they have reached the development of truly HUMAN beings, their program must be arranged along the lines of the following paragraphs:

2 We accept as a self-evident truth that the universe is actuated and governed by a Creative Energy, acting through an otherwise inert nature, according to certain laws, which men can utilize either for their benefit or their destruction. This Creative Energy is the first cause of all things. In order to give it a uniform name we propose to refer to it as Alpha.

b The universe being a diversified manifestation, rather than emanation, of Alpha, it follows that human beings, in whom this manifestation has reached its highest knowable stage on earth, can only realize the true purpose of their career in life by uniting their different-not superior or inferior-talents in the pursuit of one common goal, which is HAPPINESS, resulting from constant, though not necessarily violent, self-improvement. We assume that it has been the motive of Alpha to prepare on this earth, through the agency of natural forces, an environment which would enable the constantly rising intelligence of human beings to grasp this motive with ever-increasing vividness, and use the natural wealth of the earth in harmony with it.

C The struggle which is looked upon as the struggle between good and evil is merely the desire of human beings to regulate their conduct in harmony with the wish of Alpha, as best they can conceive it, eliminating as much as possible brutish conduct from their mutual [Page 237]

UNIVERSAL ETHICS

intercourse. We recognize that this struggle was-considered from our present standpoint-extremely cruel in the preceding stages of the development of life, but we believe that the time has come for a complete rationalization of the process, and for the elimination of all unreasonable cruelty.

d

The UNIVERSAL CODE OF ETHICS, outlined under e, makes an appeal to civilized nations to decide whether they have actually reached the stage of improvement where they can claim the title of HUMAN BEINGS, truly superior to animals in their conduct, and able to regulate their conduct like men. If they are able to answer affirmatively, and to go on record on that point, the historians can close the ERA OF BARBARISM and initiate a new era, the ERA OF TRUE HUMANITY.

IN METAPHYSICS, WE ACCEPT ALPHA AS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE, ESSENTIALLY IDENTICAL WITH THE IDEA OF GOD IN THE VARIOUS RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS, WHICH WE DECLARE TO BE BEYOND SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION.

IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD, WE ACCEPT THE LAW OF COOPERATION DIRECTED TOWARD COMMON HAPPINESS, BY OVERCOMING NATURAL OSBSTACLES AND BY USING NATURAL FORCES TO LIGHTEN THE BURDEN OF OUR WORK. WE REJECT INACTIVE FATALISM, THOUGH WE ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS OF THE INFINITESIMAL SMALLNESS OF OUR EARTH IN THE COSMOS; IT IS EXACTLY THIS CONSCIOUSNESS THAT MOVES US TO REALIZE THE PRIME NECESSITY OF TRANSFORMING THIS EARTH INTO A PARADISE INSTEAD OF TRANSFORMING IT INTO A PLACE OF SUFFERING BY ACTIONS UNWORTHY OF HUMAN BEINGS. WE DO NOT FEEL DISCOURAGED BECAUSE OF WHAT OUR ANCESTORS MAY HAVE BEEN, NOR ARE WE UNDULY ELATED OVER WHAT OUR [Page 238]POSTERITY MAY BECOME IN THE NEXT BILLION YEARS: WE ARE FIRMLY RESOLVED TO DO OUR DAILY TASK, COMMENSURATE WITH OUR STRENGTH AND NECESSITY, TO FURTHER MUTUAL WELFARE. WE REJECT RUTHLESS EXPLOITATION BASED ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF MEN INTO "SUPERIOR" TYRANTS AND "INFERIOR" BEASTS OF BURDEN, FROM ANY POINT OF VIEW.

IF WE ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THESE PRINCIPLES, WE CAN DISMISS FROM OUR MINDS ALL CONCERN ABOUT FUTURE LIFE, FOR IF WE SHALL HAVE DONE OUR DUTY NOW, IT WILL BE SUFFICIENT IN THIS WORLD AND IN THE NEXT.

In order that our posterity may have a better mental basis for the realization of this program, we propose that all civilized nations of the earth should enter into a covenant providing that religious and political history should be taught everywhere in harmony with the above principles. The events of the past must be treated from a purely objective point of view, without perpetuating the ideas of hatred, contempt, glory, and revenge in young minds. The principles under ought to suffice to any human being anywhere on earth as a religion; as regards history, children must be taught not to repeat the errors of their ancestors. The idea of "getting even" must be eliminated from their thoughts. The old tablets and totems should be placed respectfully in museums, and humanity should begin a NEW LIFE with a light heart, without undue hurry, excessive effort, and a stupid desire of building new Babylonian towers.

19. If we can bring these simple facts within the understanding of mankind, then, no matter whether we are white or brown, we can realize all the ideals of human happiness which we [Page 239]

UNIVERSAL ETHICS

severally follow in different ways, for we shall then become truly conscious of the fact that ESSENTIALLY we believe the same thing and want to attain the same goal. Our view of life will thus become truly COSMIC.

20. This COSMIC VIEW of our position in the world of phenomena, of our relations to ourselves, to others, and to the Creative Energy, will automatically help us to rid ourselves of all EVIL, namely, the animal attributes with which our material body burdens us and pulls us down to the animal sphere, making us conscious IF WE YIELD-of having failed, "transgressed," or "sinned."

21. Thus we shall become free. Mutual extermination of nations and individuals, under any pretext, will no longer be necessary as the price of graduating into a higher sphere of consciousness. [Page 240]

PROGRESS BY TELIC GJ.DANCE

by MARY HULL

I. The Evolution of the Ideal of Progress

N CONSIDERING the life of man in history or in contemporary social relations there are two hypotheses open to us. We I may postulate that, from the largest sweep of the historic process down to the most insignificant detail of the individual’s daily life, man’s assumed control over his own destiny is an illusion, that he is in truth as powerless to alter his present or his future as the mote eddying in the sunbeam, troubled with no such illusory self-consciousness as mocks the highest of created beings... or, on the other hand, we may postulate that man’s personal history and that of society are, to some extent, and within certain limits, subject to human control, consciously directed. Thus in “Historic Determinism and the Individual” Mr. James Adams succinctly states the two interpretations of history which have divided philosophers from time immemorial into the two opposing camps of determinism and free will.

The adherent of determinism is usually a materialist, regarding matter as the prime factor of life and man as the product of his environment, while the protagonist of free will is invariably an idealist believing that spirit is the prime factor of life and that ideas determine the evolution of the social environment. The protagonist of free will begins his argument with the statement that man’s belief in his power to change conditions, called an “illusion” is really a vital instinct, and as such, must be assumed, even from the biological standpoint, to have some definite function. And he clinches his argument with the pragmatic evidence that this instinct works, with the incontestable fact that, other [Page 241]

THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEAL OF PROGRESS

factors being equal, a man's success is in proportion to his faith in his own powers, and that every progressive period in the long course of history has been one of waxing faith, and every decadent period has been one of waning faith. Since the association of faith and success is constant, the relationship is not casual, but causal.

Out of the heart are the issues of life. Here is the great creative force that brings us into being and here is the motive power back of all human achievement. But to achieve its end this emotional urge must be supported by the hope of attainment. Deprived of hope, it becomes destructive, it feeds upon itself and tends to consume everything it touches.

The ineffectual masses of humanity are not swayed for good or for evil by a master passion, and that is precisely why they are ineffectual. By successive diverse wishes they are blown hither and thither, their lives are thus filled with meaningless movement, and they never go far in any given direction. But the distinguished individual who outstrips his fellows achieves success just because a dominant desire, rooted in faith, has become a controlling ideal, a magnet which moulds his character into definite form and draws him with irresistible force toward his goal.

The same principle operates in society. Whenever a group makes a higher general average or attains a higher level in some particular respect than that of contemporary groups, it is lifted to this eminence by the force of a controlling ideal. For ideals are in no sense the by-product of a civilization. They are its nucleus, the core out of which its institutions evolve. And it is their respective controlling ideals rather than the peculiar physical conditions usually ascribed by historians that give civilizations their distinctive coloring. The controlling ideal of the Middle Ages, for example, was religious. Men banked their hopes on life beyond the grave; the typical institution that grew out of this faith was that of the monastic orders, and the central idea attained concrete expression in the enduring stone of the Gothic Cathedral and the immortal verse of the Divine Comedy. The [Page 242]men of the Renaissance were too enchanted with the newly recovered treasures of classic times to be concerned with the future; to them the present was rich in possibilities of joy and activity. From religion they turned to Nature, which they conceived as a rational order that might be known by science and art and be made to serve the purpose of man. Their cult of beauty blossomed out in a recrudescence of sculpture and a new development of pictorial art unsurpassed before or since. Their scientific spirit came to fruition later in our own age.

The animating idea of modern times up to 1914 was belief in progress. The earthly progress of humanity was the general test to which social ends were submitted as a matter of course. The conjunction of "Democracy and Progress," "Liberty and Progress, Education and Progress," which met us at every turn evidenced the popular feeling that no social or political theory was tenable which was not consistent with this controlling idea.

It is true that the conception of progress is not strictly modern. Seers have glimpsed it intuitively in all ages. But as a popular doctrine it had no existence in classical antiquity or in the mediaeval period. The Renaissance prepared the way for it and Roger Bacon foreshadowed it. In the seventeenth century it was advanced first as a purely speculative theory. It captured the imagination of some of the French philosophers of the eighteenth century, in particular of Turgot and Condorcet, but it was not until the nineteenth century that scientists apprehended the vast significance of this theory and began to search in earnest for general law which would define and establish it. Darwin's "Origin of Species," published in 1859, definitely disproved the stubbornly supported dogma of the fixity of species and afforded a scientific hypothesis for what had hitherto been merely a brilliant guess. The researches of Darwin and his contemporaries in the separate fields of anatomy, paleontology, embryology, and biology, all offered impressive testimony to man's unity with all life, to his origin by evolutionary processes from lower forms, and to his continuing modification under the pressure of the ever present determinates of selection, variation, heredity, and en- [Page 243]

THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEAL OF PROGRESS

vironment. From the mass of facts unearthed by the early evolutionists the fundamental principle was deduced, namely that the trend of life is upward, and, according to some scientists inevitably so. "Progress," declares Herbert Spencer, "is not an accident, but a necessity." Thus buttressed by the doctrine of evolution, and further reinforced in the minds of the masses by the unprecedented advance during the nineteenth century in industry, commerce, and population, the theory of progress became a popular religion. It is obvious that the idea of progress could not have developed into a doctrine in an earlier age, because it involves a synthesis of the past as well as a prophecy of the future, and prior to the nineteenth century, when the sudden extension of science illumined the whole course of life, there was not sufficient knowledge of the past to form the basis of such a belief.

The doctrine of progress, as we have seen, is based upon an interpretation of history which regards man as slowly advancing in a definite and desired direction, and it implies the assumption that this process is the inevitable outcome of man's nature. Coupled with this belief in the inevitable advance of society was the conviction that our own civilization was the culmination of all the civilizations of the past and was destined to lead in the course onward. Self-confident and elated by the simultaneous unwonted advance in knowledge and material prosperity, we were riding the crest of the wave, happily oblivious of the yawning gulf straight ahead.

It is true that before the war there were a few dissenters to the popular religion. Notable among them were Oswald Spengler and Count Keyserling. The first volume of Spengler's "Decline of the West" condemning the idea of progress as an illusion, and prophesying the collapse of Western Civilization was written, though not published, before the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, and Keyserling had pointed out the degenerative tendencies of our too materialistic regime. But these prophets made little impression upon the public at that time, and the prevailing attitude,—and this is especially true of our own country,-was one of smug optimism. The sudden terrific jolt of the war rent the veil that [Page 244]hid from minds of less insight the sinister forces which produced the world tragedy, and shattered all the foundations of belief. All at once we swung violently from one extreme to the other, from radical and shallow optimism to radical and stultifying pessimism. All the traditions and institutions, religious, social and political, upon which society is based have become suspect; even democracy, for which but a short time ago we were ready to fight and die, is thoroughly discredited, and in the general disintegration of belief, faith in progress, the inspiring and unifying ideal of the age, is in danger of becoming, too, "a dead time's exploded dream."

During the last nine years a veritable flood of literature has poured forth voicing the common disillusionment and fears for the future. Ominously suggestive are the very titles of some of these books and reviews, such as, "The World Unbalanced," "The World in Revolt," "The Revolt of Civilization," "Salvaging Civilization," "Mankind at the Crossroads," "The Decay of Europe," "The Decline of the West," "Saturated Civilization," etc. Biologists, psychologists, political economists and philosophers all agree that we have reached a most critical period in which certain disruptive forces, which must inevitably overwhelm our civilization unless they are stayed, are gathering momentum at an alarming rate.

The impending disaster, according to these modern Jeremiahs, springs variously from the development of nationalism, race hatreds, and greed, which lead inevitably to interracial wars; it grows out of anarchy, internal strife, class wars, and moral degeneration; and it is the dreary outcome of the deterioration of racial stock by dysgenic selection, the free breeding of the lowest section of society while better classes become progressively sterile.

Now, although the voice of the depressimist is still heard, we see evidence of a wholesome rebound from the mood of extreme pessimism that was our first reaction to the sudden revelations of the war, and the realization of the perils that confront us in galvanizing us into protective action. The problem [Page 245]of staving off these dangers and of building a more stable foundation for the future is being investigated from all angles. From every forum and press in the land pour forth "the innumerable passionate questings and public stock taking" which Mr. Spengler observes are the mark of a great crisis. National and international conferences on a great variety of questions follow each other in swift succession, and new associations to attack some aspect of the hydra-headed evils of the time spring up over night.

The ensuing welter of ideas is confused and chaotic and, for the greater part, the movements are sporadic and unrelated to any single guiding principle. There is no general agreement as to the source and cure of the recognized evils. Some still pin their hopes for the future to political nostrums, others to reforms in our economic system. One earnest group finds that the cause of all our troubles is in our departure from the sacred traditions of the past and that the remedy is a universal return to these traditions. Another equally earnest group, and one that is steadily increasing in numbers, holds that the cracks in our social structure, in our industrial, educational and religious institutions, which heretofore we have essayed to mend, have widened into fissures too great for cementing, and that many of our cherished traditions must be scrapped and new molds fashioned and new channels hewn for turning human energy into more constructive courses.

Between the extreme reactionists who are trying to sweep back the tide and the progressives who seek to utilize the power of the tide in the construction of new forms, there can be, of course, no agreement. But it is quite possible and it is highly necessary to find a common meeting ground for all the separate groups that are truly progressive and capable of disinterested action. And to end much vain beating in the void, to coordinate scattered energies, and to direct and sustain our enthusiasm, we must have a clear vision of our ultimate goal and an ennobling conception of our common destiny. What more splendid ideal can we conceive of than that of progress? But at this critical juncture the ideal of progress which was our guiding star when we crashed [Page 246]into the rocks, is naturally under a shadow. Leading thinkers in Europe seem disposed to toss it on the dump heap along with other recently broken idols; and those who decry it most loudly offer no worthy substitute. Here in America, perhaps because, being of pioneer stock, we are inherently optimistic, many still cling to the ideal of progress; but our conception is superficial. Let us, therefore, examine this ideal to see wherein it has failed and why the current conception is inadequate.

The primary meaning of progress according to Webster is "to go forward, to advance; as (a) In actual space. (b) In the growth of an animal or plant; increase. (c) In business of any kind. (d) In knowledge; in proficiency. (e) Toward ideal completeness or perfection." The term is susceptible of many interpretations. An inclusive definition is advance toward human betterment. But human betterment means this to you and that to me, in accordance with the direction of our respective desires. To a philosopher like Herbert Spencer, the term means advance toward ideal perfection; to the man on the street, it signifies increase in material welfare, increase in size, power and even speed. "It was obvious to many of our grandparents," Dean Inge caustically remarks, "that a nation which travels sixty miles an hour must be five times as civilized as one that travels only twelve." To the scientist it means growth in knowledge, but even scientists, for the greater part, share the frankly materialistic conception of the average man, for practically all of the sociologists of the pre-war period have conceived of progress as the direct reaction of man to his material environment and in particular to the increase of positive knowledge concerning the material world. The dominant conception, therefore, has been that of increase in material welfare.

Faith in the potency of science to increase material goods has been amply justified. The unprecedented increase of knowledge of the material universe in modern times has resulted in an equally unprecedented increase in material prosperity. But this exclusively material expansion carries within itself the seeds of its own dissolution, and for it we are paying a heavy price. We might [Page 247]

THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEAL OF PROGRESS

naturally conclude that when men are freed by economic advance from the worries and incessant labor incident to poverty, and given leisure for the pursuit of other aims than the primary ones of securing food, shelter and clothing, they would turn to the cultivation of the higher faculties. But this is not the case unless concomitantly with the release from drudgery, society provides a stimulus to, and suitable opportunities for culture. Otherwise what happens is that the habit of centering attention on material ends blinds men to the existence of loftier values, and the power to secure material advantages only breeds the desire for more.

The fact is, that the pre-occupation with material well-being that characterized the nineteenth century spiritually impoverished the lives of the rich and poor alike, and reached its logical outcome in the world war. "Competition of riches," observes the philosopher Hobbes, "honours, command, or other powers inclineth to contention, enmity and war", because the way of one competitor to the attaining of his desire is to kill, subdue, supplant or repel the other. Just such competition brought about the war, and science made it the most destructive war in history.

Now in place of regarding science as the mainspring of progress some of our leading thinkers consider it our chief peril. This is the theme of Bertrand Russell's "Icarus." Icarus, having been taught to fly by his father, Daedalus, was destroyed by his rashness. The same fate is likely to overtake the society which holds in its hands the tremendous power conferred by science, and is dominated by instinct and caprice. "Men have used the increased production they owe to science," states Mr. Russell, "for three purposes: first, to increase the population; second, to raise the standard of living; and finally, to provide more energy to war." Count Keyserling expresses the same idea: "Today we abruptly find ourselves face to face with the truth that the greater our command over Nature the greater of soul we must be to exercise that command . . . we lack this essential quality so utterly that we are threatened with destruction by our own inventions."

The fallacy of the materialistic conception of progress is that it confuses the instruments of progress with the end. Science, [Page 248]divorced from religion and philosophy, is a neutral force that lends itself as readily to destructive exploitations as to constructive development. In short, science and material goods alike promote progress if they are put to a good use; they fail to promote progress if they are put to a bad use. In the hands of a rational and well-disposed humanity they are a tremendous power for good. In the hands of a humanity governed by instinct and passion they hold corresponding power for evil.

The truth is, our civilization is lopsided, unbalanced. In the early stages, society, like the child, is naively curious about the hidden powers of external nature rather than about the equally mysterious and vastly more potent powers of human nature. And the dominant interest in the external world that characterizes Western Civilization has resulted in marvelous progress in physical science while commensurate advance in social science is dangerously in arrears. Thus morally we react to conditions in an irrational and infantile manner that is wholly incongruous with our stage of adult physical growth.

Now what progress demands in order to restore the disturbed balance and enable us to reap the fruit of our recent achievements in science is the rational conduct of society. The rational conduct of society can be assured only by improving the racial stock and by securing a better response through a system of social education definitely shaped with reference to the desired goal. And the only power capable of motivating and sustaining the moral regeneration thus involved is that of an energizing faith.

What exactly is the desired goal?

Progress existed cons before man appeared. Man is the apex of the whole movement, he is one with evolving process, and he is governed by the same principles that apply to all creation. Biological progress, we know, is characterized by an increasing specialization of functions and cooperation of activities leading to an increase in the adaptation of the organism to its environment. Beasts have achieved this end through the perfecting of instinct. The specialization and cooperation involved in the case of man lies in increased plasticity and general educability which confer greater powers of adjustment and afford a measure of [Page 249]

THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEAL OF PROGRESS

variability and freedom. Thus, whereas the beast secures adaptation only by means of changes in its own body, man secures a much greater degree of adaptation by altering the environment to suit his own needs and by the favorable reaction of his highly educable nature to the conditions thus improved. Further, in the case of the beast there is a distinct limit to progress, for the specialization of an instinct reaches a stage beyond which it cannot go without destroying the internal balance of integration and adaptability to general external conditions. But specialization in plasticity and general educability never reaches the point of saturation.

Out of man’s superior plasticity and general educability spring the powers of reason and sympathetic imagination which are requisite both for the control of nature and for successful social organization. These powers ever have, and must ever continue to facilitate adaptation in all fields. So far, in the expansion of the power of sympathy and the extension of the sway of reason, only a beginning has been made; further progress along these lines is illimitable.

In his adaptation to environment, man must reckon with his own psychic powers and his social milieu vastly more than with external nature. In the organic series the individual is a solitary being. For the moment he is the custodian of his kind, destined to appropriate what he may of valuable experience and to pass on of this what he can. For relief from the limitations and dangers of such isolation, man, from the beginning, has sought some sort of union in communal life. And from this union of separate individuals a new unit comes into being, a new type of individual, society, which is potentially immortal and capable of storing in itself the gains made from generation to generation by its evanescent members.

From infancy on there is a constant interaction between the individual and society. By social traditions and institutions the child is molded into the pattern of the cultural group to which he belongs, and in turn, by force of mind, he may modify these same traditions and institutions. That man is truly man only in [Page 250]his relationship to society is shown by the pathetic descriptions given by travelers of persons, who by some mischance have grown up in human isolation. Invariably these unfortunates appear more like wild animals or idiots than like human beings. The term "society" embraces mankind. Society may include a great number of cultural units. In early stages of society the cultural unit is the political unit.

History reveals a gradual evolution of the idea of the political unit. The conception of the state develops consecutively from that of the family to that of the clan, from that of the clan to that of the tribe, from that of the tribe to that of the nation, and from that of the nation to that of a federation.

The process of this evolution is easy to trace. Contiguous groups either destroy each other by continuous warfare, or one group acquiring some sort of superiority, conquers its neighbors and holds them thereafter or for a period in some form of subjection. Or else, realizing that there is a mutual advantage in common action against a common foe and that the exchange of commodities is more profitable than war, adjacent states form an alliance for the purpose of trade and of common defense. With the social intercourse that ensues as a result of these political and commercial relationships comes an interchange of ideas, intermarriage, the breaking down of prejudices, and the assimilation of traditions; and eventually political boundaries are enlarged to include the groups which have now a common culture.

Where the alliance is voluntary, as in the latter instance, the results are mutually advantageous and the movement is clearly progressive. The bond of union in each case is a common aim and the sense of kinship. This union, therefore, is both a development of the consciousness of kind and a triumph of reason over instinctive prejudice and pugnacity. Each fresh expansion is characterized by a widening of the sphere of friendly cooperation and a narrowing of the sphere of hostile competition. With each fresh expansion there is, too, a release for peaceful enterprise of energy formerly spent in friction and strife. And finally with each fresh expansion the common store of social inheritance is enlarged, and [Page 251]

THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEAL OF PROGRESS

the individual members are enriched by stimulating contacts and opportunities for self-development. As the state increases thus in size and in diversity of condition, it increases also in complexity of structure. And this increase in complexity of structure calls for commensurate increase in integrity and a higher grade of allegiance on the part of its members as a whole, or at the very least, on the part of their responsible leaders.

Noting that the above-mentioned phenomena are constant, philosophers infer that the goal of history is world unity; the evolution of a cultural and political unit that shall coincide with society, the expansion of the consciousness of kind to include all humanity, the development of a world community organized on a rational basis, that shall promote the improvement of the human stock, that shall offer to the individual the widest possible scope for endeavor and self-realization, and that shall reconcile personal freedom with social control through the accomplishment of a common aim for mankind as a whole.

Freedom demands not the passive condition of absence of restraint, but the positive condition of the presence of opportunity. A child cast on a desert island would be free from human coercion, but he could live only an animal existence, he would not be free to develop the social qualities which distinguish man from the beast because these qualities are developed only by social institutions. Freedom, then, requires that the surroundings of the individual from the very first shall be conducive to the full and harmonious development of the intrinsic human impulses.

In an ideal social organization there can be no conflict of interests between the central power and the different members of the group. And the freedom of the individual is not like that of cancer cells in a body which run riot, feeding upon and destroying the organism, but like that of the normal cells each of which is a unit, and free in so far as it is provided with every opportunity to do the work for which it is fitted by nature under the control of the body as a whole, being supported and protected by the body and identifying itself with the body. Here the analogy is incomplete because whereas the cell is strictly limited in its reaction and [Page 252]loses its individuality in its subordination to the whole, man, by reason of his greater variability and his faculty of multiple personality, may be subordinate to the community and at the same time enjoy full individuality.

Individual freedom and social control can be reconciled only by the identification of the interests of the individual with that of society. The close bond of union required by such an identification of the interests of the different members with the community as a whole can be forged only by the pursuit of a common aim. And the only type of aim the accomplishment of which can bring satisfaction to all is a spiritual aim. For material goods are always mine or thine, and we will unite in pursuit of them only for the sake of gaining advantage over a third competitor; but spiritual rewards are not vitiated by competition, they alone may be shared by all men alike without diminishing the return.

Progress means increase in the realization of what is believed to be of the highest value. The idea of progress is itself in process of evolution. Mankind advances largely by the trial and error method. Having tested the theory of the masses that material betterment spells progress and found it wanting, our next experiment should be to try out the dictum of the sages of all times that human betterment can come only through the development of spiritual capacities, and that all other things should serve as a means to this end. We can make permanent progress, they assure us, only by holding fast to ultimate values, the good, the true, and the beautiful. These values are absolute because they are ends in themselves and bring their own reward. The successful pursuit of purely personal and selfish ends brings to the individual satiation, but not satisfaction, and it results in social conflict. But the full development of the altruistic self that is achieved by the pursuit of goodness, beauty and truth brings both inner harmony and social harmony. The good individual is automatically the good citizen. Thus, in the final analysis, the ultimate goal of the individual and that of society are one. [Page 253]

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Men live less and less in geographical and more and more in spiritual communities. The involuntary elements of existence tend to be limited to the regional area, the voluntary elements find increasing opportunity of self-expression through association of likeminded people selected out of the entire population by identity of interests and ideals. In this department, World Unity Magazine will publish each month a brief description of some important modern movement, voluntary in character and humanitarian in aim, believing that knowledge of these activities is not only essential to the world outlook, but also offers the true remedy for the sense of isolation and loneliness which has followed the breakdown of the traditional local neighborhood.

INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE LEAGUE

by FRED W. ROGERS Organizing Secretary, Theosophical Order of Service

The International Correspondence League is an organization belonging to the Theosophical Order of Service. The object of the League is to promote the aims of International Brotherhood, by linking up Theosophists in every corner of the world by means of correspondence. We are told by our great leaders that the keynote of the coming race and the distinguishing feature of the new era is to be a fuller realization of that human brotherhood to which we all theoretically pledge allegiance—and over which at times we are inclined to be weakly sentimental.

Brotherhood, whether national or international—and it cannot be one without the other—must be based on something more concrete than pious aspirations, it requires translating into the solid fact of everyday experience. Brotherhood must be broad based on mutual understanding.

This does not necessarily imply identity of thought; though it may become that, but an attempt to understand the hopes, the aspirations and the general viewpoint of those who are separated from us by race, tradition, creed, color and language. This means an attempt at any rate to view the world and all [Page 254]its problems from the standpoint of the Greek, the Turk, the Hindu, the Chinese, the German, the French, the men and women scattered North, South, East and West and living under different conditions and in different climes from our own.

There are between forty thousand and fifty thousand members of the Theosophical Society scattered throughout forty-two countries of the world, all having one idea in common—a profound belief in the truth of theosophical teachings. This is the basis on which the International Correspondence League founds its organization.

Forty thousand people—black, red, yellow, brown, white—speaking a multiplicity of tongues, but each and all interested in one common philosophy and applying that same philosophy to the varying conditions under which they live.

By means of an exchange of cheerful, frank and homely letters, filled with intimate touches of the simpler and more human side of everyday life, the I. C. L. believe that a blending of the interests and a clearer mutual understanding will result.

A few of our correspondents are highbrow and maintain a high level of interchange of thought on philosophy and so on; but in the main the bulk of the letter writers prefer to confine their exchange to the personal details of every day life which reveal in more intimate fashion the individuality of the writers.

This seems to be the best way to start a correspondence, and forms a good foundation on which to build any interchange of ideas of a more brainy character.

The language difficulty except in one or two instances is negligible, thanks to the avidity with which our continental and in fact most overseas friends have learned or are learning English.

One of the pleasing features of much of the correspondence, has been the extent to which students of the "other man's" language have helped one another, and corrected their papers.

Frequently correspondence has resulted in exchange visits from the one country to the other, and many warm, lasting friendships have been established and sustained.

This is solid service work for international brotherhood. [Page 255]

IX JAMES RAMSAY MACDONALD

by H. M. SWANWICK Author of "Builders of Peace"

WHENEVER I reflect on the character and career of my friend, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, I find myself asking—a little wearily after many years—how long it will be, if indeed it ever will be, before mankind learns to conduct politics as an art of cooperation, based on social science, instead of as an art of warfare based on nothing more beneficial than that ancient and instinctive branch of psychology, the study of the mob-mind and the best methods for its creation and exploitation. The question obtrudes itself because it has long seemed to me that the usual way of conducting politics does more wrong to a nature like MacDonald's than to that of most politicians one knows; creates situations which for him are a handicap, while for others they are a positive advantage; makes it impossible for him to do his best work.

Politics is warfare and warfare not of the cleanest. Women used to be told so in the days when they were hammering at the doors of Parliament and it was and is true. If actual abuse has become less scurrilous than it used to be, if a "fine gift for vituperation" no longer has scope for so much exercise as formerly, the arts of innuendo, of evasion, of skillful suggestion, of press and publicity manipulation have, by refinement, become more effectual. A politician ingrained, like Mr. Lloyd George, is completely in his element here. He is peppery and may flare up when attacked, but he is never deeply hurt; fundamentally he does not care what is said of him; he regards politics as a knockabout [Page 256]show in which resounding whacks are given with bladders and he will skip about with the best of them and return the whacks, laughing uproariously at the joke of bursting some other player's bladder and not fretting if his own is burst.

For very different reasons, Mr. Baldwin is passably indifferent to what is said about him. He is not in love with power; his heart is not deeply engaged in politics; he is not personally ambitious; when he is turned out of office he will not feel he has been thwarted in his life-work.

These men are leaders of two old established parties, with long experience of office and great funds largely obtained by the sale of honors in the past and by the subscriptions of very rich men. They themselves are personally in comfortable financial circumstances. Compare with these two, their tasks and temperaments, the third: the Leader of the Opposition, a poor man personally, head of the Party of the Poor.

Mr. MacDonald holds a political faith with a tenacity all his own. He is a Socialist once and for all, but he believes in establishing the Socialist State by establishing the Socialist Society and he knows that this must be a matter of slow growth, of education, of taking people with you. The kind of Socialism he is after postulates the cooperation of a great and enduring majority and it is obvious that such cooperation cannot be rushed or enforced. All his life he has worked at the grinding daily education of the masses, putting into his work all the passion and all the grit of his Scottish nature. When he was of middle age the World War seemed to sweep away all he cared for, even his influence with his own party. Those who saw him come out of the meeting where he resigned his leadership in 1914 found in a set, white face the blank stare of a man who sees no end to disaster. Yet in a few months his bold stand had won him the devotion of great masses of workers and ten years later he became head of the first Labor administration. No wonder he was avid of power! He had work to do and time was flying.

Yet note the prudence of the man. It was only in November, 1922 that the Labor Party became the second party in the House [Page 257]

JAMES RAMSAY MACDONALD

and therefore entitled to the quaint name of "His Majesty's Opposition"; it had held that position a bare fourteen months when it was rushed into office without a majority even in the House of Commons and against the overwhelming opposition of the House of Lords. When the King sent for MacDonald he had had no previous experience even in a minor ministerial part, and among the Commoners in his administration only four had held office before.

It is true that the country was anxious to give Labor a chance; "Society," many politicians and most of the Civil Service were helpful. But the new government was, after all, on a string and could at any moment be destroyed. It was a position to daunt even a brave man. I thought at the time that MacDonald showed the highest daring in making the venture and he did so for two most excellent reasons: one was that there was a very great thing to do and he believed he could do it, namely to get the French out of the Ruhr and begin the reconciliation of France and Germany; the other was that a beginning had to be made in learning the intricacies of office and a good deal might be learned even in a few months.

Obviously if these objects were to be attained, it was of the first importance to reassure people about the alleged "wildness" of the Labor Party. Some ardent Socialists thought that what the first Labor Government had to do was to bring out a vast scheme of socialization and then to go out of office. Some ardent Pacifists thought that the first Labor Government should introduce a bill to sink the fleet and disband the army and then go out of office. These regarded the position as an opportunity for a gesture; Mr. MacDonald regarded it as an opportunity for getting something done and for acquiring experience for the future. He was very prudent in his choice of the men in key positions, notably of the man to raise and spend the money of the nation and of the man to deal with imperial relations.

He kept foreign affairs in his own hands and for this he has been much blamed. It was obvious that no man could carry this immense load and tread this difficult path for long and there was one man in the party with a far more extensive knowledge [Page 258]of foreign affairs than he; but the two had incompatible temperaments and, for the particular business of dealing with the French, Mr. MacDonald was remarkably well suited. Possibly the more far-sighted of his opponents saw that the stars in their courses were favorable to him in this matter; that his old friendship with M. Herriot and his links with the French Left would make it easier for him to make a settlement that would relieve the economic strain caused by the collapse of the mark. They were willing for him to try. He did try with infinite patience and tact and he succeeded in getting the French out of the Ruhr and in laying the foundation of the understanding which, two years later, resulted in Germany's voluntary abandonment of all claim to Alsace and Lorraine and her adhesion to the League of Nations as one of its most loyal members.

As to his other object, certainly he and the Party learned a great deal; some made their mark; some maintained a timid attitude in regard to their permanent officials; not one made any serious misstep. The way was prepared for a future Labor Government with a longer term of office. The country was so far reassured that this would have seemed a likely prospect in the early future but for two circumstances: one was the obvious exhaustion of Mr. MacDonald's strength and the other was the resolve of the Opposition to stampede the country out of the sense of security which the sight of Labor in office had engendered. Undoubtedly the latter was made easier by the former. If it had not been so, it appears unlikely that such small causes should have had such considerable effects.

There seemed every likelihood that the Government would be defeated on the Treaty with Russia, the negotiation of which had dragged its length along through the summer and autumn. Across this important issue there cut a trifling incident. Certain officials had undertaken the prosecution of one Campbell, a Communist but a British ex-service man too, and when this case came to the notice of the government, it stopped the prosecution. A great noise was immediately raised by the Opposition which demanded an inquiry. The government refused, was [Page 259]defeated and resigned. In his conduct of this issue and of the analogous one of the Zinovieff letter, sprung upon him in the middle of the general election which followed, Mr. MacDonald showed signs of nerves frayed to breaking point. The irrelevance and unreason of most of the attacks upon him were rendered more exasperating by the fact that he was being associated with a creed and a movement, Communism, which he detested and it was probably his violent reaction against this association which made him endeavor to deal with the Zinovieff letter under impossible conditions. Even now he cannot refrain from arguing that upon having the document brought to his notice he acted as promptly as mortal man could act, whereas the wiser course would have been to refuse to comment upon it until he could get back to the Foreign Office, and if anyone had told him the Daily Mail had got hold of the letter and meant to publish it, to reply in the now classic sentence: "Publish and be damned!" He is still concerned to assure people that he has no love for Communists, a fact of which sensible people are aware and which people of another sort will never believe upon his word.

It is in incidents like this, in the power that spiteful people have to deflect his purpose, in his consequent over-secretiveness and desperate over-driving of his nerves that the wastefulness of public life is seen. Here is a man with a coherent scheme of life, with a policy and a philosophy far beyond those of any other British politician, whose brief period of office changed the international atmosphere almost beyond hope: he has long patience and lays his plans well ahead, yet he lets the yelping pack disturb him.

He has often been foully abused, but then so have other politicians who have not cared so much. It is perhaps one of the penalties of being a very reasonable person that the flamboyant successes of unreason so exasperate him. It would be pleasant to think he need waste no more of his precious strength in such unnecessary endurance. He cares so greatly about great things that he could afford to laugh at the political triflers. And laughter would be his best weapon. [Page 260]

"A SON OF MOTHER INDIA ANSWERS"

by DHAN GOPAL MUKERJI Author of "His Brother's Face," etc.

The editors of World Unity Magazine are grateful to Mr. Mukerji, and toasers, E. P. Dutton and Company, for permission to reprint the following passage from A Soof Mother India Answers." World Unity considers that the relations of East and West are of such paramount importance at this time that any opportunity to assist in promoting Dhan Gopal Mukerji reply to Katherine Mayo's widely read book is a privilege, if not a moral obligation.

ASSUMING that the Anglo-American public is totally satisfied and agrees with Miss Mayo that India must clean her house, we have still to convince the public most concerned in this-the Hindus. The failure of her book lies in its having misrepresented the sons and daughters of Hindusthan. Not only men but also women have denounced it as untrue to the facts. For that reason I invite Miss Mayo to bring out a very short and new edition of the book packed with strict facts and ready clinical notes. In short, I am willing to offer myself to assist her to re-write the book. If it is done it will win all the Indian social reformers over to her side. Without further delay I set forth to outline the new edition.

We shall begin by giving credit to the Indians both Hindu and Moslem for the virtues that they possess. We shall praise them for their loyalty to Great Britain during the last war. We shall go even so far as to praise Gandhi for suspending the practice of his personal philosophy of non-violence during the period of the great conflict. We shall make mention of his contribution along with that of the princes and the common people to the morale and the physical efficiency of the Indian army. They did superb work wherever they were sent.

Having blessed the Indians for not stabbing England in the back at a very critical hour we shall give them credit for the [Page 261]

"ASON OF MOTHER INDIA ANSWERS"

virtue that they possess most next to loyalty: namely, gratitude. After that we shall praise him for his sense of duty, which he maintains in the most trying circumstances. Anyone who has read "Gunga Din," and "Kim" can testify how dutiful an Indian can be. Untold Hindus consider "duty heavier than a mountain and life lighter than a feather." And, of course, as a corollary to those virtues Indians must possess some truthfulness, humility, and generosity.

Having disposed of their virtues we shall give them due credit for their art and literature. As for their philosophy and mysticism we shall become "trumpet-tongued" in praise of both. We shall not hesitate to say with the western philosopher, "The Upanishads have been the solace of my life, let them be the solace of my death." I think our appreciation of his excellence has made the Hindu very receptive by now. Having won our way into his heart we can safely broach to him the question of (1) his excessive other-worldliness which is the source of all of his troubles, such as, (2) caste, (3) child-widows, (4) high rate of infant mortality, and (5) the seclusion of women known as Purdah.

It is not easy to find out the cause of our preference for other-worldliness, and the Via Mystica. Instead of getting lost in the unfathomable abyss of research into the origin of the Hindus' devotion to mysticism we shall inform him that though God likes man to choose the better part, the way of Mary, it will be better for the Hindu race to take up the way of Martha for a while. If the Indians want to be respected by the self-governing nations of the world they should give up the Via Mystica and set their feet firmly on the path of Modern Science. I think, this idea presented with extreme graciousness and abundant humor, without invectives, will not fail to convince all India. Once the Hindus see eye to eye with Miss Mayo it will be easy for her to persuade them and the British government to pass a law making excessive concentration on religion on the part of any individual a real crime. Here the reader may grow skeptical of the complete success of such a measure, nay, he may go further, and tell [Page 262]us of the strange set-backs that the Eighteenth Amendment has received here and there in the United States. But God-intoxication in Hindusthan like alcoholic intoxication can not be dealt with mercifully. I am speaking from a knowledge of my own people. If they are to abandon listening to the Son of God, like Mary, they will have to be dealt with similarly. And if we are backed by sufficient number of important Hindus we should, at any event, do our best as did the followers of Volstead in America.

The next thing that India should be told is that the relation of man and woman should be based on hygiene and eugenics; physiology should displace metaphysics. We shall appeal to the men in the name of the love and respect that they invariably feel for their women. Since the space at our disposal will not permit us to quote passages from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and other documents of the remote past that testify to the reverence and tenderness that Hindus have felt for their wives and mothers, we shall quote English witnesses of the past hundred years. Let us just cite two witnesses who will serve our purpose admirably.

In 1813 at the time of the renewal of the Charter of the East India Company Sir Thomas Munroe was asked if Hindu wives were not the slaves of their husbands. Munroe replied, "They have as much influence in their families, as I imagine, the women 'have in this country! . . . If... a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect and delicacy, be among the civilized people, then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe; and if civilization is to become an article of trade between the two countries, I am convinced that this country (England) will gain by the imported cargo."

About a hundred years later Flora Annie Steele who lived many years in India writes: "To a Hindu man or woman marriage is a solemn religious duty. It is an absolutely inviolable sacrament, and divorce is unknown, the underlying theory being that before God the male and the female form together the perfect human being. Therefore, neither can worship apart from the other. Before such a belief as this, it is idle to talk about the [Page 263]

A SON OF MOTHER INDIA ANSWERS

woman's position being degraded. . . Once married, a Hindu almost invariably becomes a perfect prey to his women folk, at any rate for some years. It is astonishing to what lengths the woman's influence may go." ("India," page 67).

After the Hindu men have received credit for being tender and respectful to their women, Miss Mayo could demand of them two most fundamental reforms. She could say: If you really are so kind and noble, then give absolute equality to all of your sisters, mothers and wives. Make seclusion of women a crime, punishable by law. Allow women to choose their husbands. Nay, more than that, from now on make divorce as free and easy as in America and France. That reform, I hope, will put the relation of the sexes on a scientific basis throughout India. Once those points are settled we shall find the question of the high death-rate of infants an easy one to tackle. All the Indians will join us in our crusade against it. Still, if there be some recalcitrant fellows, we should depict for them those few details and vivid personal experiences which Miss Mayo could take to court and swear are all true.

They are, as we all know, about the agonies of young mothers under the care of mid-wives. Our authoress and the European doctors are deeply distressed by what they have witnessed. Naturally it makes them indignant. Before rewriting her book, Miss Mayo must call upon thousands of Indian doctors. She could say to them: "Now we appeal to you who are working to alleviate the sufferings of your people!" After all, the majority of the medical men in India are Indians. We should go to the medical schools and colleges that are run at the taxpayer's expense, not to mention those institutions endowed by the Indian people. With our sympathy, we should sweep all India before us. We should not hesitate to note that the record of harm done by the mid-wives is rapidly diminishing, because the Indian doctors are growing in numbers. In India today the ablest doctors along with the ablest scientists and the best lawyers, are Indians. We should appeal to such Hindu doctors as Bidhan Roy and Nilratan Sirkar of Bengal, Dr. Subarao of Madras who is doing [Page 264]very advanced research work in Harvard, and last of all, to the important physicians from the other provinces of India. Compare that appeal with what we have in "Mother India" at the present moment. In it in vain we search for the names of the talented Indian medical men and the progress that they have made in many directions toward ameliorating the sufferings of women and children. I am equally disappointed to find no reference to Indian "science institutes," their own endowments, run by their own scientists, some of whom are world famous.

Not only to our kind doctors but to Indians that are studying other branches of modern science we shall give the credit that they deserve. After all every world-famous man of science in India, is an Indian: For example, Rahman, Sah, P. C. Ray, Bose, Rasik Dutt, Ramanujan, and Ghosh. And the scientists that they are training will do credit to the fair name of India in the near future.

Before going any further Miss Mayo must seize the present opportunity and correct a great blemish in "Mother India"—its lack of perspective. For instance, nowhere in her book has she given a scientific statement of the processes of Indian history that explain the origin of the Caste System, and the genesis of the practice of Suttee (burning of the widows).

Having presented the causes of many of the Indian social customs and traditions with adequate and unbiased history, Miss Mayo must not hesitate to praise the chief Indian reformer, Ram Mohun Roy, and his valiant fellow-workers without whose most persistent and consistent efforts the burning of the widows could not have been abolished nearly a century ago. (See "The Face of Silence.")

Though that custom, whose historical necessity had disappeared, was at that time done away with, the next logical step in social reform, the remarriage of the widows, was taken up by another man, Isvar Vidyasagar a few years after Ram Mohun’s premature death. Vidyasagar like his predecessor was a Brahmin (priest) and the greatest Sanskrit scholar of his day. He showed from our scriptures that, as they give no sanction for Suttee, so they give no sanction for the enforced widowhood of women. [Page 265]He fought like a tiger for the re-inauguration of the custom of remarriage of widows-a custom that had been interrupted for nearly eight hundred years. He argued that since those harsh centuries and the exigency of our history had passed, it was natural and logical that widows should not only be permitted to live but also to remarry. After considerable work he succeeded. If Ram Mohun Roy was the morning star of Indian social reform, Isvar Vidyasagar was its risen sun. Had he not established, some forty years ago, the sanction given by our scriptures and theology that widows can remarry if they wish to do so, the Census Report of 1921 (page 161) would not say cheerfully:

A considerable number of societies have been formed in different parts of India with the avowed object of encouraging the remarriage of widows. One of the most successful of these has its headquarters in the Punjab where . . . there seems considerable scope for its enterprise, and it is conducted on the principles of the Sanatan Dharma as a Hindų institution.

If I seem to presume to re-write Miss Mayo’s book for her, I beg the reader to note that I have done it to point out a golden opportunity that awaits her. She can yet enlist the Hindu people on her side by eliminating from the book all the errors and half-truths, thus reducing it to a quarter of its present size.

She ought not to hesitate to sacrifice her rather difficult thesis in order to bear down the full weight of her sympathy for the Hindu women and infants. If I were in her position I would not bother about sex being at the bottom of India’s troubles. I would concentrate on the troubles that are provable. They are enough to keep one occupied.

I hope Miss Mayo will heed my counsel. I hope she will not be offended at my suggestions. On the contrary if she repeats the wild generalizations, edition after edition, she will have made an enemy of the Hindu race.

There is no doubt her book has done much harm. If the [Page 266]feelings and opinions of the Anglo-Saxon race are at all compre- hensible to a Hindu then I must frankly say that "Mother India" has provided a lot of Anti-Hindu propaganda in England and America. In India the book has caused a great deal of Anti- Western agitation. The burden of all the oratory in many mass- meetings has been that "Mother India" proves that Westerners hate and despise us, therefore, away with Western imperialism. All the reports of the numerous meetings that I have read are charged with strong Anti-Western phrases and sentiments. They all accuse Miss Mayo of hitting a race that is down (conquered). Whether it is an accurate estimate or not, it seems to me that since the Amritsar Massacre there has not been anything that has created so much resentment against the British in particular and the West in general as the book under review. Can this be what Miss Mayo wished and intended? This raises the question whether its publication was worth the candle of race-hatred that has been lighted. In the present state of world-affairs can we afford to speak and write so that instead of bridging, we widen the gulf between man and man? The answer to that question must come from the West since "Mother India" is the work of a Westerner, but India's own reply to Miss Mayo might well be in the words of my holy man in Benares:

"India needs love. The West has given her criticism these many years. ... I am quite clear in what I am saying: love her and she will fulfill her destiny. . . .

"The world is suffering from judgment. Men talk philosophy to their brother writhing and bleeding on the ground, a spear planted in his heart. What the poor wounded man needs, they, the instructors of mankind, do not see; it is not the salt of judg- ment on his wound, but the strong hands of affection. East and West are words that stab with criticism-drop thy words, like daggers by the roadside, and rush to thy Brother's rescue. . . . Bring out the Face of Compassion from within thy heart! Bathe the wounded body of man in the cleansing currents of thine inward peace." [Page 267]

UNITY AND DISUNITY IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Edited by DEXTER PERKINS Department of History and Government, University of Rochester

Mr. Kellogg's Plan—France and Germany, the Orient

SINCE the last issue of World Unity, Mr. Kellogg's proposal for the outlawry of war has been passed upon by all the governments to w which it was addressed. France, as was seen in the last issue, proposed a certain number of reservations. The point of view which she assumed has now been echoed by Great Britain and by Japan. Both these governments have made it clear that, while they accept the proposal in principle, they do not wish to see the right of self-defense curtailed, and are equally unwilling to enter into engagements which will prove to be contrary to the obligations assumed by membership in the League of Nations. The British went further than to reserve on these points alone. Sir Austen Chamberlain's answer to Mr. Kellogg, though acquiescent in tone, also raised the question of particular regions of the world in which Great Britain had a paramount and special interest, and attack upon which would be for her a matter of self-defense. Sir Austen made this ingenious reservation more telling by intimating that the United States might wish to enunciate a similar theory, a thinly veiled reference to the Monroe Doctrine.

While Japan and Great Britain expressed these views, Italy and Germany took a more favorable attitude, at least in theory. The German government accepted the Kellogg proposals unequivocally, a move which was taken in Paris as an attempt to exhibit the superior virtue of Berlin over that of Paris. [Page 268]Italian regime promised its "cordial collaboration," and at the same time suggested the remission of the question to a committee of jurists, a suggestion which had already been declared inadmissible by Mr. Kellogg himself. The attitude of the Fascist regime, however, justifies the opinion expressed in last month's review that Italy will not oppose insuperable obstacles to the American project.

All in all, the answers which have been sent to Washington inspire a certain amount of hope for the future. But the hope should not be exaggerated. It is traditional diplomacy to accept generous proposals in principle, and defeat them in detail, and there are still thorny matters to be dealt with before a really sound international compact can be signed, to say nothing of ratification. In particular the British reservation with regard to special regions is one that can give a great deal of trouble. As stated in the British note, it is extremely vague and extremely dangerous, and it will not be easy to reduce it to more manageable form. The question which it raises, moreover, is one that will sooner or later crop up on this side of the water. Many Americans will not relish any treaty which does not permit the United States to retain its freedom of action in case of attack upon an American state by a European power.

Another thing that is wholly clear, is that any engagement which is drawn up must recognize the existing frame-work of international peace as represented by the League of Nations. Whether or not we are inclined to accept the thesis that the heart of the problem of world peace is machinery for the punishment of the law-breaking nation, we must at least recognize that this is the basis upon which the League structure is based, and upon which European statesmen are inclined to proceed.

There is also a technical problem involved in the outlawry of war. It will probably have to be conceded that "legitimate self-defense" is not war. But what is "legitimate self-defense"? And what of such military operations as the United States is now conducting in Nicaragua, not against an established government, but against an irregular guerilla force which claims [Page 269]to be fighting for national independence? What of the use of troops to protect national interests in troubled regions, as, again, in Nicaragua, or in China? These questions may seem like quibbling, but they are really much more than that. For they are sure to assume a very practical aspect when a treaty is in actual operation. It is better to face them than to dodge them, for an agreement to outlaw war which leaves open all kinds of questions of interpretation is an agreement which will be relatively ineffective.

To say all these things is not for one moment to depreciate Mr. Kellogg's proposals. It is mere cheap cynicism to set them down, as have some newspapers both at home and abroad, to mere partisan manoeuvering on the verge of a national electoral campaign. It is hardly wiser to assume that, because they are so extremely simple in point of form, they are mere nebulous pieces of phrase-making. At its lowest valuation, a pledge to abstain from war would have a distinct moral value, and would make it easier, to take only one example of its practical effect, to deal with such a problem as that of armaments. And the chances are that it would mean something more. It would bring the United States into a closer association with the other great states of the world. It would probably lead almost automatically to some consideration of ways and means of punishing a law-breaking state.

Nor are the difficulties which have been raised in preceding paragraphs insuperable. Many of the objections to the Kellogg formula can be solved by providing that the violation of the compact by one power will release the others from their engagement. This, indeed, has already been proposed, as I have pointed out in an earlier discussion of the matter. With the right spirit, and with a solid support in public opinion all over the world, the way of putting the thing can and will be found. The important thing for Americans is to make it clear that they want to find it, and that they are willing to discuss patiently and understandingly the problems of detail that inevitably arise in connection with it. [Page 270]There are two other matters which I should like to touch upon in connection with this brief survey of international politics. One of them is the elections in France and Germany. In France M. Poincaré has been triumphantly returned to power. M. Poincaré is a rather stiff-necked person, to whom magnanimity is very far from natural. But he is still head of a ministry in which the parties of the Left will be represented, and in which the more pacific-minded Briand is foreign minister. Moreover, even a Poincaré must be impressed by the trend of events in Germany. For in the recent elections across the Rhine, the German people spoke decisively in favor of international reconciliation. The Nationalist party, the heir to the Junker point of view, went down to defeat, while the Socialists made very decided gains, and will probably be able to secure the office of prime minister for their leader, Otto Braun. Under such circumstances, the way to better relations between France and Germany lies wide open. These two great secular rivals may soon be on better terms than in many generations.

There is one cloud on this particular part of the horizon. That is the spirit of discontent which seems to be developing in Alsace-Lorraine, where the so-called Autonomist party made considerable gains in the last election. There is no evidence that this party is supported by Germany; indeed it is much more probable that French anti-clericalism and bureaucratic administration are the secret of its increasing strength. But the French are not likely to see this, and the reaction of such a movement on Franco-German relations is not likely to be a happy one.

If we turn to the Orient, we see there great events preparing, but events that do not lead to any very rosy optimism with regard to world peace. The Nationalist movement in China seems on the verge of the conquest of the North. Already this northern movement has led to a clash with Japan, the exact character of which remains somewhat obscure. But the Chinese Nationalists have recently put forward their claim to Manchuria as well as the rest of China, and this is to strike Japan in a sensitive spot. In Japan, too, there are militarist groups which can [Page 271]

MR. KELLOGG'S PLAN—FRANCE AND GERMANY, THE ORIENT

be counted upon to make trouble. The prime minister, himself, Tanaka, is rather closely affiliated with this group. On the other hand, in both countries there are more moderate elements. The Japanese can suffer severely from Chinese hostility, especially through commercial boycotts, and the interruption of trade. The Chinese need to put their own house in order before challenging the Island Empire. Wise statesmanship on both sides will look toward peace. But the situation is precarious, and the national passion that is flaming up in the Far East, while it has its inspiring side, is also filled with peril. It will take much self-restraint on both sides to avoid a clash. The clash may not come today or tomorrow, but surely the fact must be faced that, while Europe is relatively stable, Asia is decidedly unstable.

In the meantime, the United States maintains an attitude of relative aloofness which ought to be satisfying to those who fear an armed conflict in the Orient. [Page 272]

THE NEW HUMANITY

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

Edited by MARY SIEGRIST Author of "You that Come After," etc.

THE poet's ideal is to see "no longer blinded by his eyes"; to hear, no longer "deafened by his ears." The more he is poet at the roots of life, the more doors will open out for him into the invisible. "He whom a dream hath possessed" knows the only liberation there is from the self. He can afford to be calm in the face of tangled fates, because he knows how to break into the skies—how to ride above the battlefield in the chariot of his dream. As he rides from world to world of consciousness, he feels the unity of all life. He feels that God and man and nature are one multitudinous being.

The very first poetry that men made was organic in the simple acts of their daily life. Their songs and chants for digging or lifting stones, for rain in their dance-rituals, for the birth of children, for the burial of their dead—all these gave them joy and courage of life. They could not have lived without them. And while to the mass of men it may seem otherwise, there are those who find it even more necessary today, in the midst of our hectic, clamoring hours, to tune in to the "sweet ever-lasting Voices." Not by bread alone we live—but by every singing word.

HE WHOM A DREAM HATH POSSESSED

He whom a dream hath possessed knoweth no more of doubting, For mist and the blowing of winds and the mouthing of words he scorns; [Page 273]Not the sinuous speech of schools he hears, but a knightly shouting, And never comes darkness down, yet he greeteth a million morns. He whom a dream hath possessed knoweth no more of roaming; All roads and the flowing of waves and the speediest flight he knows, But wherever his feet are set, his soul is forever homing, And going, he comes, and coming he heareth a call and goes.

He whom a dream hath possessed knoweth no more of sorrow, At death and the dropping of leaves and the fading of suns he smiles, For a dream remembers no past and scorns the desire of a morrow, And a dream in a sea of doom sets surely the ultimate isles.

He whom a dream hath possessed treads the impalpable marches, From the dust of the day's long road he leaps to a laughing star, And the ruin of worlds that fall he views from eternal arches, And rides God's battlefield in a flashing and golden car.

-SHAEMAS O'SHEEL The Little Book of Modern Verse

THE NEW GOD

In temporary pain The age is bearing a new breed Of men and women, patriots of the world And one another. Boundaries in vain, Birthrights and countries, would constrain The old diversity of seed To be diversity of soul. O mighty patriots, maintain Your loyalty!-till flags unfurled For battle shall arraign The traitors who unfurled them, shall remain [Page 274]And shine over an army with no slain, And men from every nation shall enroll, And women-in the hardihood of peace! What can my anger do but cease? Whom shall I fight and who shall be my enemy When he is I and I am he? Let me have done with that old God outside Who watched with preference and answered prayer: The Godhead that replied Now here, now there, Where heavy cannon were Or coins of gold; Let me receive communion with all men Acknowledging our one and only soul! For not till then Can God be God till we ourselves are whole! -WITTER BYNNER

THE TUFT OF FLOWERS

I went to turn the grass once after one Who mowed it in the dew before the sun. The dew was gone that made his blade so keen Before I came to view the levelled scene. I looked for him behind an isle of trees; I listened for his whetstone on the breeze. But he had gone his way, the grass all mown, And I must be, as he had been-alone. "As all must be," I said within my heart, "Whether they work together or apart." But as I said it, swift there passed me by On noiseless wing a bewildered butterfly, [Page 275]

THE NEW HUMANITY

Seeking with memories grown dim, overnight Some resting flower of yesterday's delight. And once I marked his flight go round and round, As where some flower lay withering on the ground. And then he flew as far as eye could see, And then on tremulous wing came back to me. I thought of questions that have no reply, And would have turned to toss the grass to dry But he turned first and led my eye to look At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook, A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared. I left my place to know them by their name, Finding them butterfly-weed when I came. The mower in the dew had loved them thus, By leaving them to flourish, not for us, Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him, But from sheer morning gladness at the brim. The butterfly and I had lit upon Nevertheless, a message from the dawn, That made me hear the wakening birds around, And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground, And feel a spirit kindred to my own; So that henceforth I worked no more alone; But glad with him, I worked as with his aid, And weary, sought at noon with him the shade; [Page 276]And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach. "Men work together," I told him from the heart, "Whether they work together or apart." - ROBERT FROST Modern American Poetry

In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still, In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot, I do not dare to draw a line Between the two, where God has not. -JOAQUIN MILLER Byron [Page 277]

WORLD UNITY FORUM

Certain questions confronting thoughtful people today are not merely important—they are unescapable. If they are not solved rationally, they will solve themselves by the very pressure of events, good or ill. Perhaps the outstanding need of the times is something in the nature of an international forum in which minds of different countries, races and religions can meet on common ground for an exchange of views promoted for the sake of truth and the enrichment of experience. While civilization is gathering its forces together to produce new institution, based on mutual confidence and goodwill, every effort, however slight and unassuming, put forth as an appeal to the international mind, will have value at least for the individuals concerned. In this department the readers of World Unity Magazine are invited to express their opinions on matters which reflect the restless, experimental nature of the age.

CORRESPONDENCE

We are indebted to one of our readers for the following quotation from "The Future of America: A Biological Forecast," by an anonymous scientist in Harper's Magazine, April, 1928, which serves as one possible solution of the problem raised by this department in March.

"Interbreeding is going on rapidly among all the various nationalities and races represented in our population. . . . Even between the whites and blacks there has been a large amount of interbreeding. According to the Census returns for 1870 about 12% of the negro population were mulattoes; by 1910 this number had increased to 10.9%; and, although in the 1920 Census this percentage is reduced to 15.9, the Bureau of the Census considers this figure unreliable. It seems probable that at least one-fifth of all persons of African origin in the United States have more or less white blood. At the same time the 'vital index' for the pure blacks is, according to Pearl, never more than 1, which means that they are not increasing in numbers.

"Judging by the history of many other countries where different races have been associated and have ultimately amalgamated, we may expect that within a few hundred years all rational, racial, and color lines in this country will virtually disappear. This is what happened in ancient Egypt, Greece, and [Page 278]Rome; in medieval Italy, Sicily, and Spain; and this is now happening in South Africa, South America, Mexico, the West Indies, the South Sea Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. There is every reason to expect that amalgamation will be the ultimate solution of all our racial and color problems."

Unusual "human interest" attaches to these words written the editors of World Unity by a Catholic nun: "In your statement of purpose I find so much that is in accordance with my own deepest feelings—though unexpressed—that I am encouraged to write to you. I am of American birth, English parentage; a Protestant in early years, now a Catholic and a Sister of Mercy. Perhaps one who has ties on both sides of any given interest is better qualified to see clearly the respective claims of each side, to know the strength and weakness of these claims, to see what is essentially the same under accidental differences, and thus to bind together in healing amity the several issues of the respective sides. . . . Two truths are basically in accord, however faint, under all sound and confusion, under all seeming discordancies: these are we all want world peace, and we all want amity among the people. Your magazine World Unity seems to me to be an agency peculiarly fitted to the needs of the day, and to give expression to the best and deepest desires of the best men and women of the world."

Not unfitted to this department is the remark made by a college senior after attending a lecture delivered by one of our contributing editors: "For the first time in our four undergraduate years we are told and resold to the idea that man has a soul. That certainly is news! For four years our pedagogs have attempted to direct our thoughts into scientific channels. They have taught us that materials and methods were the alpha and omega of life. . . We think that our artist friend is right. After all, we have a soul—something ought to be done about it." [Page 279]

The Sacred Scriptures of Buddhism

WE COME now to the Sacred Scriptures of that religion which has the distinction of being the first in the history of the world to transcend national boundaries and become actually international. Within three centuries of the death of its Founder, Buddhism was made the state religion of India, under King Asoka (250 B.C.). But eventually (1000 A.D.) after a protracted and fierce conflict with Brahmanism (which contended with Buddhism for the religious control of India), it was driven out of India, the land of its birth, and found its way to Ceylon, Thibet, Burmah, Siam, Malaysia, China, Manchuria, Korea, Mongolia and Japan. In these countries it has undergone strange transformations so that of the five hundred millions of adherents calling themselves Buddhists, scarcely any represent the religion of the Founder in its pristine purity.

T. W. Rhys-Davids, one of the foremost authorities on the subject, has said: "Not one of the five hundred millions who offer flowers now and then on Buddhist shrines, who are more or less moulded by Buddhist teachings, is only or altogether a Buddhist. The late Oxford professor of Sanskrit, Monier Williams, discussing the degeneration of the religion, shows what a far cry it is from present-day Buddhism to the teachings of the Founder: "Starting from a very simple proposition that all life involves sorrow, and that all sorrow results from in-

"Buddhism, p. 7- [Page 280]dulging desires which ought to be suppressed—Buddhism has branched out into a vast number of complicated and self-contradictory propositions and negations. Its teaching has become both negative and positive, both agnostic and gnostic. It passes from apparent atheism and materialism to theism, polytheism and spiritualism. It is, under one aspect, mere pessimism; under another, pure philanthropy; under another, monastic communism; under another, high morality; under another, a variety of materialistic philosophy; under another, simple demonology; under another, a mere farrago of superstitions, including necromancy, witchcraft, idolatry and fetishism. In some form or other it may be held along with almost any religion, and embraces something from almost every creed. It has in its moral code much common ground with Christianity; and in its mediaeval and modern developments it presents examples of forms, ceremonies, litanies, monastic communities, and hierarchical organizations scarcely distinguishable from those of Roman Catholicism.

And yet a greater contrast than that presented by the essential doctrines of Buddhism and Christianity can scarcely be imagined.***

But our concern in this series of studies is with the Buddhism of Gotama, its Founder, and with Sacred Scriptures that constitute our ultimate source of information concerning it. These Scriptures are called Pitakas. The word means "baskets" and as here used refers not to the ordinary receptacle of that name but to tradition as symbolized in those archaeological excavations which are conducted with the aid of baskets handed from workman to workman standing in a long line from the spot whence the earth is removed to that where it is deposited for examination. So a long line of teachers and pupils have handed on the treasures of Buddhistic teaching, as a tradition, in three Pitakas (Ti-Pitakas).

First, the Vinaya-Pitaka, or rules of discipline for the order of monks. For, Gotama, on achieving his eager quest for a solution of the riddle of life, gathered about him a community

Buddhism, pp. 13, 14— [Page 281]

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF BUDDHISM

of disciples to propagate his discovery, an order of monks, whose hair and beard were shorn and who wore a yellow robe, made of rags. The Vinaya-Pitaka then (translated in Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XIII) is the "Discipline-basket" of ordinances said to have been laid down by the Buddha as occasion suggested their necessity. Many of these rules have to do with the homes of the monks, their beds and rugs and clothes. Other regulations relate to the intercourse of the members of the order one with another, and with the people of the community, while the matter of conduct towards women is treated with minute detail.*

Second, the Sutta-Pitaka, "Sermon-basket," consisting of four great Nikayas (collections) including 186 dialogues of the Buddha and his disciples. † This Pitaka is the most essential, the most original and the most attractive portion of the Buddhist Scriptures. Much of it corresponds in character to what among Christians is called a Gospel. Here it is that we find Gotama's ethical teaching, more especially his gospel of "the four noble Truths" and of "the eightfold Noble Path," which ends in Arahatship or sainthood,-a foretaste of Nirvana.

Third, the Abhidhamma-Pitaka, "Expansion-basket," ex- pansion, i.e., of the Dhamma which means the Truth, the Norm. The most interesting of the seven books composing this third of the Pitakas is that known as the Katha-Vatthu or "Account of Opinions." It sets forth the 252 most dangerous of the heresies rampant in King Asoka's reign during which the book was written. Abhidhamma used to be translated "metaphysics," but this is clearly an error as metaphysics has no place in Buddhism for reasons that will be stated in the next article of this series.

As with other ancient peoples, notably the Hindus, so with the Buddhists, the art of writing was not taken advantage of for the purpose of any kind of literature; its use was wholly confined to recording short messages or notes or private letters or advertisements of a public character. Thus the text of the

• For illustration of these see the opening chapters called "The Pat mokka," one of the oldest Buddhist text-books. S. B. E. XIII, pp. 7-66.

† See Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XI, for an English translation of twelve of these dialogues. [Page 282]three Pitakas, before it was reduced to writing, was handed down for about three hundred years (550-250 B.C.) solely by memory. It lived only in the minds of the Bikkhus (disciples) and by them was handed down in the manner that seems to us moderns so unsafe, yet the substantial accuracy of the transmitted text of trained repeaters is now established. Belief in the correctness of the ancient tradition has been tersely expressed in the well-known stanza of the Ceylon Chroniclers of the first century before our era:

"The text of the three Pitakas and the commentary thereon The wise Bikkhus of former time had handed down by word of mouth. The then Bikkhus perceiving how all beings do decay Meeting together wrote them in books that the Dhamma (Truth) might last long."*

The total extent of the three Pitakas is about ten thousand pages octavo, as printed by the Pali Text Society. Were our King James version of the Bible to be printed in the same form and type, it would occupy some five thousand pages. Hence, the Buddhist Bible of Ti-Pitakas is substantially double the size of our English Bible.†

But in addition to these canonical books there are certain lesser works of a miscellaneous character that in the Third Century B.C. came to be included in the list of authoritative scriptures and treated as appendices to the Pitakas.

One of these is a short tract that opens with the so-called Buddhist creed:—

"I take my refuge in the Buddha. I take my refuge in the Dhamma. I take my refuge in the Order."

A sort of first reader" it is, for young neophytes after they had joined the order.

\* S. B. E. XIII, p. 35- † For a complete list of the 29 books of the three Pitakas see S. B. E. XI, pp. 36-7. [Page 283]

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES OF BUDDHISM

Another of these supplements to the Pitakas is the Dhammapada, a poetical treatise of 423 stanzas for each of twenty-six selected points of Buddhist ethics.

Typical of the contents of the Dhammapada are the following verses descriptive of "a first-class person":

"Not by lineage nor by caste is one a first-class person (Brahman). He is a first-class person in whom are truth and righteousness and purity.

"By whomsoever no evil is done in deed or word or thought, --him I call a first-class person, who is guarded in these three.

"Him I call a first-class person who, though he has committed no offence, yet endures reproach, stripes and bonds, and who has endurance for his force and strength for his army.

"He is a first-class person who does not give way to anger, who is careful of religious duties, who is pure, upright and controlled.

"Whoso is wise with deep wisdom, seeing the right way and the wrong, and has reached the goal,-him I call a first-class person.

"Him I call a first-class person who, without hurting any creatures, whether feeble or strong, does not kill nor cause slaughter.

"Him I call a first-class person who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with the violent, and free from greed among the greedy.

"Whoso takes nothing, small or great, good or bad, unless it be given him, he is a first-class person."

Included also in the Canon is a collection of stanzas, called Thera-Theri-Gatha or "Songs of the Elders" attributed to 107 of the leading Theras (Monks) and 73 of the leading Theris (Nuns) in the Order during Gotama's life-time. Speaking of the latter, Rhys-Davids said: "Women of acknowledged culture are here represented as being the teachers of men and as expounding to less advanced Brethren or Sisters in the Order, the deeper and more subtle points in the Buddhist philosophy of life."

The Dhammapada, 391-409. S. B. E. Vol. X, 1.80 foll. [Page 284]Finally, in this collection of authoritative sacred scripture eventually incorporated into the Canon, are the verses of the Jatakas—stories of the 550 previous births of the Buddha, they are called—but in reality a potpourri of folk-lore unmatched anywhere in the world in point of antiquity and of purity. Each story has its canonical verse, attributed to the Buddha in one or another of his previous births and unintelligible save in conjunction with the uncanonical prose commentary. Before leaving these Jataka tales, it should be remarked that they contain deep truths and are calculated to impress lessons of great moral beauty. This is particularly true of the tale of "the Merchant of Seri," reminding the reader of the parable of "the pearl of great price" in the Gospels; the tale of "the Measures of Rice" and the tale of the Banyan Deer" which gave its life to save a roe and her young an example of the noblest kind of self-sacrifice. As a source of moral instruction for children of the primary grade the Jatakas hold a place second to none. [Page 285]

THE RISING TIDE

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

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

The Problems of Religion in the Modern World

THOUGH it is a real task to reinterpret religious truth in the light of modern science, it is by no means a hopeless one; and though it is necessary, it is not the only necessary task. In the light of modern philosophical inquiries it is justifiable to assume that the most needed hypotheses of religion are metaphysically defensible. In the present situation of religion in civilization, it is more necessary to inquire if and how the peculiar attitudes and the unique life which proceeds from a religious interpretation of the universe may be made to serve the needs of men in modern civilization. The fact is that more men in our modern era are irreligious because religion has failed to make civilization ethical than because it has failed to maintain its intellectual respectability. For every person who disavows religion because some ancient and unrevised dogma outrages his intelligence, several become irreligious because the social impotence of religion outrages their conscience."

In such words Reinhold Niebuhr sounds the keynote of his thoughtful and judicious "study in the social resources and limitations of religion in modern life."* For twelve years Mr. Niebuhr has occupied one of the outstanding liberal pulpits in Detroit; he has just been called to become professor of ethics and the philosophy of religion in Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Reinhold Niebuhr, Does Civilization Need Religion? The Macmillan Co. 242 pp. $2. [Page 286]He is a young man: he is bound neither by the firmly rooted convictions of traditional orthodoxy nor by the no less cramping if subtler chains of traditional liberal religion. His appraisal of the problems religion faces in our modern scientific, industrialized civilization is probably the most clear-sighted viewing of the situation that has yet appeared. It is realistic where most liberals are sentimental, without the faintest yielding to the temptation of cynicism or despair. If the thoughtful reader finds that philosophically he has not thought his way entirely clear of the old supernaturalism, he involves himself in considerably less of metaphysical compromise than do most of the leaders of liberal religious opinion.

Mr. Niebuhr frankly recognizes that traditional religion has come to play a less and less important part in our modern life. "Since the dawn of the modern era the tides of faith have ebbed and flowed so that it is not easy to chart their general course; but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that each new tide has barely exceeded the mark left by a previous ebb. A psychology of defeat, of which both fundamentalism and modernism are symptoms, has gripped the forces of religion. Extreme orthodoxy betrays by its very frenzy that the poison of scepticism has entered the soul of the church; for men insist most vehemently upon their certainties when their hold upon them has been shaken. Frantic orthodoxy is a method for obscuring doubt. Liberalism tries vainly to give each new strategic retreat the semblance of a victorious engagement. To retreat from untenable positions is no doubt a necessary step in preparation for new advances; but this necessary strategy has not been accompanied by the kind of spiritual vigor which would promise ultimate victory. The general tendencies toward the secularization of life have been consistent enough to prompt its foes to predict religion's ultimate extinction as a major interest of mankind and to tempt even friendly observers to regard its future with grave apprehension."

Mr. Niebuhr sees the essential core of religion as the defense of the dignity and value of human personality. That has today been assailed by two forces: the science that has greatly compli- [Page 287]

THE PROBLEMS OF RELIGION IN THE MODERN WORLD

cated the problem of maintaining the plausibility of the personalization of the universe by which religion guarantees the worth of human personality; and the science which, applied to the world's work, has created a type of society in which human personality is debased. Since "it is easier to challenge the idea of an impersonal universe than to change the fact of an impersonal civilization, modern liberal churches have concentrated their energies on the intellectual problem of "reconciling religion and science," at the expense of the far more fundamental ethical problem of providing adequate inspiration and guidance for our industrial civilization. That contemporary philosophers have solved the first problem in a fairly adequate way, Mr. Niebuhr feels convinced; that the churches have not seriously faced the second is the burden of his message.

There are thus two major problems facing religion: to come to terms with contemporary scientific philosophies, and to adjust itself to the needs of an industrial order. Mr. Niebuhr is rather a moral prophet than a metaphysician; he gladly leaves the first of these tasks to others better qualified. His own philosophy is second-hand and not completely worked out; he is apt to follow the latest changing winds of philosophic fashion. "The concept of personality," he states, "is valid only in a universe in which creative freedom is developed and maintained in individual life as well as in the universe. Religion tries to prompt man to ethical action by the sublime assumption that the universe is itself ethical in its ultimate nature whatever data to the contrary the immediate and obvious scene may reveal." He recognizes that liberal leaders of opinion have not fully worked out a philosophy sustaining this faith. "Religion may in fact be forced to make some concessions which even modern liberalism seems still unwilling to make. Modern religionists, particularly popular apologists, are inclined to add the word creative to the word evolution, and assume that their problem is solved. Modern liberalism is steeped in a religious optimism which is true to the facts of neither the world of nature nor the world of history. The ultimate worth of human personality in the universe may not be [Page 288]guaranteed as immediately or as obviously as liberal religion seems inclined to assume. Liberal religion may be forced to discard its metaphysical and theological monisms, which have been its support even more than orthodoxy's, and concede that freedom and creativity in both man and the cosmic order are more seriously circumscribed than religion had assumed."

Mr. Niebuhr thus realizes the dangers of too facile a faith; yet the judicious reader will hardly feel that he has avoided them. He too personalizes the universe, in the face of modern philosophy, seemingly believing that only thus can the conviction that the universe is ethical in its ultimate nature be maintained. That the universe can be the kind of place in which man's moral life and aspiration finds a natural and sustaining environment without itself being ultimately a moral will and personality, he is apparently unable to see. He knows the dangers of the easy optimism which traditional monistic idealism has fostered among the liberals, and wisely prefers the older Platonic dualistic idealism in terms of which Christinaity was first formulated. He leans heavily on Albert Schweitzer and his dualistic metaphysics; for the moral prophet decries monism and insists on the gulf between what is and what ought to be. The real and the ideal must not be confused; yet the ideal must be attainable. In traditional Christian theology, formulated in terms of Platonism, the doctrine of the Incarnation and the Cross did stand for just this religious and moral reality. "An absolute dualism either between God and the universe or between man and nature, or spirit and matter, or good and evil, is neither possible nor necessary. What is important is that justice be done to the fact that creative purpose meets resistance in the world, and that the ideal which is implicit in every reality is also in conflict with it."

Mr. Niebuhr is close to contemporary pluralistic naturalism when he insists: "In a sense there is not a single dualism in life; rather there are many of them.... There is, in short, no reason why religion should not hold to its faith in God without either identifying him with or losing him in the concrete world. The moral and spiritual values in which religion is interested have a [Page 289]

THE PROBLEMS OF RELIGION IN THE MODERN WORLD

basis in concrete actuality. They are on the one hand not a mere effervescence on the surface of the concrete, and on the other hand they are not the only basis of historical realities. "There is no reason why religious and moral experience should not build further upon the foundation laid by science." If the author were only willing to pursue his own suggestions further, he would see that contemporary philosophers agree with his rejection of 19th century dogmatic determinism, and that their pluralistic naturalism does provide a firm foundation for precisely the values he wishes to emphasize. He is the heir of the Lutheran and Pauline insistence on the reality of moral struggle; were he but willing to interpret that struggle as one of the practical dualisms of experience, he need have no quarrel with pluralistic metaphysics.

Mr. Niebuhr is much happier in dealing with the second religious problem, the conflict of religion and industrial society. The spiritualizing of the social order is not the only function of religion; it also harmonizes the conflicts of individual personalities, and asserts the dignity and worth of human personality in defiance of nature’s indifference and contempt. But Protestantism in general and liberal religion in particular has neglected the first of these tasks. Religion is capable of enlarging the social imagination; it alone adds to intellectual sophistication the insistence in the moral worth of every personality. An ethical iealism without a religious foundation, the author feels, is cold and ineffective. It lacks saving humility in the face of something greater than man; it is as certain to issue in final despair as in unjustified pride. Yet liberal religion has made little of this ethical resource. The heir of the individualism of the Reformation and Puritanism, it is middle-class, complacent, and acquiescent in the existing industrial disorder. "The same religionists who pride themselves upon the reasonableness of their faith generally use their very modern and revised religion to sanctify a very unmodern and unrevised ethical orthodoxy, an individualistic orthodoxy which makes much of self-realization and comparatively little of the social needs of modern life. . . . The authority of Jesus, to which they appeal, has indeed been given a new emphasis, but this has been [Page 290]done because liberal Christianity valued the theological simplicity rather than the moral austerity of his gospel. In the same way many liberal Jews have appealed from the law to the prophets, not because they had a great passion for the ethical rigors of an Amos or Isaiah but because they found obedience to the minute exactions of the law too onerous in a sophisticated age. The modern church seems no more inclined to undertake the task of spiritual regeneration than the orthodox church."

Mr. Niebuhr is well known as the exponent of a social gospel; he insists on the application of the teachings of Jesus to contemporary society. His chapters in this vein are noble and inspiring; yet he does not question the "absolute validity" of the traditional Christian ethics. That the modern problems of group relations, of establishing a genuine group morality, are tremendous, he clearly realizes; but he never raises the question of whether our world does not demand something more adequate to its needs than the simple ethical teachings of the Nazarene. There is much of the old and futile complaint that "the trouble with Christianity is that it has never yet been tried." There is little serious grappling with the problem of whether the fault does not lie in the incompleteness of Christian ethics.

Thus in both of the two main tasks confronting religion today, ably as he has analysed them, Mr. Niebuhr fails to see the necessity for a more complete reconstruction than has yet been tried. Yet, for all that, his book is an admirable statement of the problem. We need a religion for our new world, a religion that will not only be in harmony with our intellectual and moral needs, but that will contribute its own peculiar leaven to the whole. "If the creation of an international society is a task to which moral and spiritual resources must contribute, its maintenance and development are no less dependent upon the cooperation of spiritual insight with political prudence. . . . The task of making complex group relations ethical belongs primarily to religion and education because statecraft cannot rise above the universal limitations of human imagination and intelligence. A robust ethical idealism, an extraordinary spiritual insight and a [Page 291]high degree of intelligence are equally necessary for such a social task. The difficulties of the problem are enhanced by the fact that the religious imagination and astute intelligence which are equally necessary for its solution are incompatible with each other. Religion is naturally jealous of any partner in a redemptive enterprise; and the same intelligence which is needed to guide moral purpose in a complex situation easily lames the moral will and dulls spiritual insight. It is possible that this difficulty may permanently destroy every vestige of morality in the group relations of modern society. The necessary partnership and the inevitable conflict between the religio-moral and the rational forces is obvious in both the political and the economic problems of the present age."

Mr. Niebuhr has not solved this eternal conflict, but he has contributed mightily toward its clarification.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Emergent Evolution and the Development of Societies, by William M. Wheeler, Norton. Race and Civilization, by Friedrich Hertz, Macmillan. Creation by Evolution, by Frances Mason, Macmillan. Elements of Rural Sociology, by Newell L. Sims, Crowell. New Dimensions, by Paul Theodore Frankl, Payson and Clarke. Native Problem in Africa, by Raymond L. Buell, Macmillan. The Last Enigma, by Henry Frank, Four Seas. Problems of the Pacific, by J. B. Conliffe, University of Chicago Press. China: A Nation in Evolution, by Paul Monroe, Macmillan. Essentials of Eastern Philosophy, by Prabhu Dutt Shastri, Macmillan. The Problems of Peace, by Geneva Institute of International Relations, Oxford Press. Contemporary Economic Thought, by Paul T. Homan, Harper. Symbolism, by A. N. Whitehead, Macmillan. [Page 292]

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The mind which has learned how to explore the universe and dominate the processes of nature is a mind which has become unfitted to deal adequately with human problems. The two fields are utterly different and require utterly different keys to be entered and possessed. From our modern preoccupation with science there has resulted a mold and habit of thought, an instinctive outlook, all the more incapable of perceiving and registering true social values because it approaches them with presumptions of knowledge and power not justified by the essentia! facts. Thus the modern age has developed a sociology projected into humanity as it were from external sources, a sociology which until lately but repeated the patterns etched upon the mind by its contacts with non-human reality upon different levels.

But there are bridges between natural and social science which recent workers have begun to cross, and in the crossing, to acquire the utlook necessary for understanding human realities upon their own terms. One of these bridges is psychology, another is history.

A generation beginning to be preoccupied with the general problems and meanings of history is a generation whose characteristic mind will sooner or later be transformed into an instrument as sensitive to the relations and inter-relations of people as the mind of the scientific age was to the relations of bodies and functions in the cosmic world. This is not to infer that the new mental outlook now in formation will be unscientific-rather it will augment the rigid narrowness which we have called the "scientific" mind with awarenesses and understandings the chemist or astronomer never required.

In their fullest sense, in fact, history and psychology are practically interchangeable terms. Neither the historian nor the psychologist can attain the fulfillment of his subject without drawing upon the other set of values.

"Telic Guidance" by Mary Hull, the first chapter of which appears in this issue of WORLD UNITY, admirably proves this new trend. Here we have an approach to history in its most modern realization, not as a mere story on the one hand, nor as an adjunct to economics on the other, but as the visible expression of an evolving humanity, a separate and distinct order of reality yet unexplored, whose measure can be nothing less than the whole possibilities of man. "Telic Guidance" brings a new dimension to WORLD UNITY MAGAZINE, a valid effort to interpret the movement of the vast river of human life, a challenge both to our understanding and to our will. [Page 293]

NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The comments of readers on Mary Hull’s work will be highly appreciated by the author as well as by the editors.

The episode of “Mother India,” of particular interest to this department on account of the privilege accorded WORLD UNITY of reprinting a portion of Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s reply to Katherine Mayo’s book, offers an illustration of the new quality of international relations implied by “Telic Guidance.” It would be difficult to imagine any kind of formal legislation or other direct action on the part of the governments concerned capable of producing a more vivid impression than the Mayo charges. On this level the frontiers are closed with greater and greater difficulty; and as the world of East and West opens more freely to common influences of thought, the philosopher must eventually surpass the politician. Thought waxes in power as it deals with fundamental truth rather than with mere justifications of existing conditions. While the Mayo episode represents the negative and not the positive side of this fact, it indicates the gradual rise of a psychological “super-state” which some day will be able to remedy the defects of governments hopelessly enmeshed with the problems of a struggle for existence they themselves have largely caused.

In the “Sacred Scriptures of Buddhism” we have a glimpse at the least aggressive of religions but that which has been most successful in producing a conduct corresponding to its doctrine. In all probability, the Buddhistic element, with merely the name omitted, has become the “religion” of an important section of the Christian population in the West. The names and terminologies of religion gradually connote values of civilization rather than of spiritual truth, and the complex order evolved by and with one religion can never be transferred to another environment.

“Universal Ethics,” by Professor Nykl of Marquette University, may be termed the spearhead of all those desires and ideas expressed by the concept world unity. It organizes in one compact statement the substance of many volumes of preliminary thinking—the “approaches” which have been coming so frequently from the press for a generation. Professor Nykl’s statement, to be effective, needs the momentum of emotions aroused by the conviction that drift is the supreme disaster of this age. It needs also the wisdom of disciplined lives to supply the guidance required to strike the target in daily application. In its completeness, however, and its unfailing logic, “Universal Ethics” brings to most of us a clarification of the ethical problem we never could have produced for ourselves, and supplies a criterion throwing light upon the road of future development at a particularly difficult turn. [Page 294]

The Maturity of Man

EVERY human being has the possibility of making two profound discoveries—the discovery of self, and the discovery of humanity.

The distance between these two experiences is the measure of man.

Few of us pass through the insistencies of self which make the normal child and attain the selflessness by which spiritual maturity attains possession of the boundless universe we call humanity.

The outlook of man in his maturity is ever the same. Beneath all superficial differences of epoch, race, religion and society, that which the matured soul visions is a condition of harmonious inter-relationship capable of rendering to each the qualities of all.

What we term "world unity" today is but the restoration of that vision which gave Law to Moses, Peace to Buddha, Courtesy to Confucius, Love to Christ. It is a fresh release of that spirit which guides humanity along an endless inner path not seen by eyes nor trodden by fleshly feet.

Because today so many can share the vision of world unity, the age is blessed by the potencies of indomitable faith.

In World Unity Magazine you will find the food by which faith is nourished and made conscious of its aim.

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Please enter my subscription to World Unity Magazine. I enclose $3.50. (In Canada, $4.00; other countries, $4.50. Indicate whether subscription is to begin with October, 1927, or current issue.) [Page 295]In THE WORLD TOMORROW Beginning in the Fall A Challenging Series on

A NEW ECONOMIC ORDER

Ways of Transforming the Present Competitive Order Into a Cooperative System

Why Seek a New Economic Order? Harry F. Ward: Professor of Christian Ethles, Inion Theological Seminary: Author of The New Social order, ete.

The Minimum Wage and the Family Wage Paul H. Douglas: Professor of Industrial Re lations, Iniversity of Chicago: Author of Wages and the Family, etc.

Social Insurance I. M. Rubinow: Director, Jewish Welfare So ciety. Phila-lelphia: Author of Social Insur- ance, etc.

Labor Organization Benjamin Stolberg: A recognized expert on lar problems: contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the Nation, ete,

Worker's Education A. J. Muste: Head of Brookwood Labor Col lege at Katonah, New York: Chairman of The Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Consumer's Cooperation Cedric Long: Sereiary of Cooperative League of 1. 8. A.: President Consumers' Cooperative Housing Association.

Cooperative Marketing Gordon H. Ward: Graduated from University of Minnesota in agricultural economies: now specializing in cooperative marketing.

Public Regulation of Industry John Maurice Clark: Professor of Economics, Columbia University: Author of The Social Control of Business, etc.

Public Ownership Har W. Lor: Executive Director. Lengne ay for, National Reach: Author of Pub The Ownership It and Abroad, etc.

Taxation William Orton: Professor of Ewomles, Smith Cog ferme y with British Ministry of 1- bor Author of Labor in Transition, ele.

Social Control of Credit J. A. Hobson: English writer: Author of Im perialism, and Wealth, The Conditiona of Industrial Prare, ete,

International Economic Cooperation Kirby Page: Editor. THE WORLD TOMORROW; Amir of Dollara end World Peace, etc.

Politics for the New Day Norman Thomas: Socialist Candidate for Ires. int of the United States: previously a can- didate for Mayor of New York try and Gov- ernor of New York: Author of Is Conscience a Crime etc.

Substitutes for the Profit Motive Writer to be announced.

Living More Simply Patrick M. Malin: Associated with Sherwood Ely in his work with college students; how engaged in a special study of the social ef fects of luxury.

The Psychology of Social Change Eduard C. Lindeman: Professor, New York Set of Social Work: Research Associate of The Inquiry: Author of Social Discovery, etc.

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Reading List of CURRENT BOOKS on WORLD UNITY

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For thirty-five years the leading quarterly in its field, The International Journal of Ethics numbers among its contributors the foremost writers in America and Great Britain.

Its province is both the central field of ethical knowledge and practice, and the bordering fields of law, politics, economics, literature, and religion. Promoting the study of ethics and of other sciences in so far as they bear directly upon conduct, the Journal is a common ground for the interchange of views between students of law and students of ethics and the social sciences.

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