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diff --git a/39065.txt b/39065.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7951b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/39065.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7087 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Five Great Philosophies of Life, by +William de Witt Hyde + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Five Great Philosophies of Life + +Author: William de Witt Hyde + +Release Date: March 7, 2012 [EBook #39065] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIVE GREAT PHILOSOPHIES *** + + + + +Produced by Christina Blust, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE + FIVE GREAT PHILOSOPHIES + OF LIFE + + + BY + WILLIAM DE WITT HYDE + PRESIDENT OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE + + + New York + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 1924 + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + COPYRIGHT, 1904, + BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + + Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1904. Reprinted + January, 1905; January, 1906; January, 1908; June, 1910. + + + COPYRIGHT, 1911, + BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + + Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1911. Reprinted + May, 1912; May, 1913; May, 1914; July, 1915; January, November, + 1917; August, 1919; February, October, 1920; June, November, + 1921; September, 1922; June, 1923; September, 1924. + + + Norwood Press + J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. + Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + +When asked why some men with moderate talents and meagre technical +equipment succeed, where others with greater ability and better +preparation fail; why some women with plain features and few +accomplishments charm, while others with all the advantages of beauty +and cultivation repel, we are wont to conceal our ignorance behind the +vague term _personality_. Undoubtedly the deeper springs of personality +are below the threshold of consciousness, in hereditary traits and early +training. Still some of the higher elements of personality rise above +this threshold, are reducible to philosophical principles, and amenable +to rational control. + +The five centuries from the birth of Socrates to the death of Jesus +produced five such principles: the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure, genial +but ungenerous; the Stoic law of self-control, strenuous but forbidding; +the Platonic plan of subordination, sublime but ascetic; the +Aristotelian sense of proportion, practical but uninspiring; and the +Christian Spirit of Love, broadest and deepest of them all. + +The purpose of this book is to let the masters of these sane and +wholesome principles of personality talk to us in their own words; with +just enough of comment and interpretation to bring us to their points of +view, and make us welcome their friendly assistance in the philosophical +guidance of life. + +Why a new edition under a new title? Because "From Epicurus to Christ" +had an antiquarian flavor; while the book presents those answers to the +problem of life, which, though offered first by the ancients, are still +so broad, deep, and true that all our modern answers are mere varieties +of these five great types. Because the former title suggested that the +historical aspect was a finality; whereas it is here used merely as the +most effective approach to present-day solutions of the fundamental +problems of life. + +"Why rewrite the last chapter?" Because, while the faith of the world +has found in Jesus much more than a philosophy of life, in its quest for +greater things it has almost overlooked that. Yet Jesus' Spirit of Love +is the final philosophy of life. + +To the question in its Jewish form, "What is the great commandment?" +Jesus answers, "The first is Love to God; and the second, just like it, +Love to man." Translated into modern, ethical terms his philosophy of +life is a grateful and helpful appreciation; first of the whole system +of relations, physical, mental, social, and spiritual, as Personal like +ourselves, but Infinite, seeking perfection, caring for each lowliest +member as an essential and precious part of the whole; and, second, of +other finite and imperfect persons, whose aims, interests, and +affections are just as real, and therefore to be held just as sacred, as +our own. + +To love, to dwell in this grateful and helpful appreciation of the +Father and our brothers,--this is life: and all that falls short of it +is intellectually the illusion of selfishness; spiritually the death +penalty of sin. + +From this central point of view every phase of Jesus' teaching, his +democracy, compassion, courage, humility, earnestness, charitableness, +sacrifice, can be shown to flow straight and clear. + +Of course such a limitation to his philosophy of life leaves out of +account all supernatural and eschatological considerations. We here +consider only the truth and worth of the teaching; not who the Teacher +is, nor what may happen to us hereafter if we obey or disobey. + +Yet even from this limited point of view we may get a glimpse, more real +and convincing than any to be gained by the traditional, dogmatic +approach, of the divine and eternal quality of both Teacher and +teaching--we may see that beyond Love truth cannot go; above Love life +cannot rise; that he who loves is one with God; that out of Love all is +hell, whether here or hereafter; and that in Love lies heaven, both now +and forevermore. + + WILLIAM DE WITT HYDE. + + BOWDOIN COLLEGE, + BRUNSWICK, MAINE, + July 25, 1911. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + THE EPICUREAN PURSUIT OF PLEASURE PAGE + + I. Selections from the Epicurean Scriptures 1 + II. The Epicurean View of Work and Play 20 + III. The Epicurean Price of Happiness 29 + IV. The Defects of Epicureanism 36 + V. An Example of Epicurean Character 46 + VI. The Confessions of an Epicurean Heretic 53 + + CHAPTER II + STOIC SELF-CONTROL BY LAW + + I. The Psychological Law of Apperception 66 + II. Selections from the Stoic Scriptures 71 + III. The Stoic Reverence for Universal Law 82 + IV. The Stoic Solution of the Problem of Evil 87 + V. The Stoic Paradoxes 90 + VI. The Religious Aspect of Stoicism 95 + VII. The Permanent Value of Stoicism 101 + VIII. The Defects of Stoicism 106 + + CHAPTER III + THE PLATONIC SUBORDINATION OF LOWER TO HIGHER + + I. The Nature of Virtue 110 + II. Righteousness writ Large 116 + III. The Cardinal Virtues 123 + IV. Plato's Scheme of Education 131 + V. Righteousness the Comprehensive Virtue 138 + VI. The Stages of Degeneration 143 + VII. The Intrinsic Superiority of Righteousness 153 + VIII. Truth and Error in Platonism 159 + + CHAPTER IV + THE ARISTOTELIAN SENSE OF PROPORTION + + I. Aristotle's Objections to Previous Systems 169 + II. The Social Nature of Man 176 + III. Right and Wrong determined by the End 179 + IV. The Need of Instruments 191 + V. The Happy Mean 194 + VI. The Aristotelian Virtues and their Acquisition 199 + VII. Aristotelian Friendship 209 + VIII. Criticism and Summary of Aristotle's Teaching 212 + + CHAPTER V + THE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT OF LOVE + + I. The Teaching of Love 215 + II. The Fulfilment of Law through Love 219 + III. The Counterfeits of Love 239 + IV. The Whole-heartedness of Love 247 + V. The Cultivation of Love 257 + VI. The Blessedness of Love 264 + VII. The Supremacy of Love 277 + + INDEX 293 + + + + +THE FIVE GREAT PHILOSOPHIES + +OF LIFE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EPICUREAN PURSUIT OF PLEASURE + + +I + +SELECTIONS FROM THE EPICUREAN SCRIPTURES + +Epicureanism is so simple a philosophy of life that it scarcely needs +interpretation. In fact, as the following citations show, it was +originally little more than a set of directions for living "the simple +life," with pleasure as the simplifying principle. The more subtle +teaching of the other philosophies will require to be introduced by +explanatory statement, or else accompanied by a running commentary as it +proceeds. The best way to understand Epicureanism, however, is to let +Epicurus and his disciples speak for themselves. Accordingly, as in +religious services the sermon is preceded by reading of the Scriptures +and singing of hymns, we will open our study of the Epicurean philosophy +of life by selections from their scriptures and hymns. First the master, +though unfortunately he is not so good a master of style as many of his +disciples, shall speak. The gist of Epicurus's teaching is contained in +the following passages. + +"The end of all our actions is to be free from pain and fear; and when +once we have attained this, all the tempest of the soul is laid, seeing +that the living creature has not to go to find something that is +wanting, or to seek something else by which the good of the soul and of +the body will be fulfilled." "Wherefore we call pleasure the alpha and +omega of a blessed life. Pleasure is our first and kindred good. From it +is the commencement of every choice and every aversion, and to it we +come back, and make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good +thing." "When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not +mean the pleasures of the prodigal, or the pleasures of sensuality, as +we are understood by some who are either ignorant and prejudiced for +other views, or inclined to misinterpret our statements. By pleasure we +mean the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the soul. It is not +an unbroken succession of drinking feasts and of revelry, not the +enjoyments of the fish and other delicacies of a splendid table, which +produce a pleasant life: it is sober reasoning, searching out the +reasons for every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs +through which great tumults take possession of the soul." "Nothing is so +productive of cheerfulness as to abstain from meddling, and not to +engage in difficult undertakings, nor force yourself to do something +beyond your power. For all this involves your nature in tumults." "The +main part of happiness is the disposition which is under our own +control. Service in the field is hard work, and others hold command. +Public speaking abounds in heart-throbs and in anxiety whether you can +carry conviction. Why then pursue an object like this, which is at the +disposal of others?" "Wealth beyond the requirements of nature is no +more benefit to men than water to a vessel which is full. Both alike +overflow. We can look upon another's goods without perturbation and can +enjoy purer pleasure than they, for we are free from their arduous +struggle." + +"Thou must also keep in mind that of desires some are natural, and some +are groundless; and that of the natural some are necessary as well as +natural, and some are natural only. And of the necessary desires, some +are necessary if we are to be happy, and some if the body is to remain +unperturbed, and some if we are even to live. By the clear and certain +understanding of these things we learn to make every preference and +aversion, so that the body may have health and the soul tranquillity, +seeing that this is the sum and end of a blessed life." "Cheerful +poverty is an honourable thing." "Great wealth is but poverty when +matched with the law of nature." "If any one thinks his own not to be +most ample, he may become lord of the whole world, and will yet be +wretched." "Fortune but slightly crosses the wise man's path." "If thou +wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches, but take away from his +desires." + +"And since pleasure is our first and native good, for that reason we do +not choose every pleasure whatsoever, but oftentimes pass over many +pleasures when a greater annoyance ensues from them. And oftentimes we +consider pains superior to pleasures, and submit to the pain for a long +time, when it is attended for us with a greater pleasure. All pleasure, +therefore, because of its kinship with our nature, is a good, but it is +not in all cases our choice, even as every pain is an evil, though pain +is not always, and in every case, to be shunned." + +"It is, however, by measuring one against another, and by looking at the +conveniences and inconveniences, that all these things must be judged. +Sometimes we treat the good as an evil, and the evil, on the contrary, +as a good; and we regard independence of outward goods as a great good, +not so as in all cases to use little, but so as to be contented with +little, if we have not much, being thoroughly persuaded that they have +the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it, and that +whatever is natural is easily procured, and only the vain and worthless +hard to win. Plain fare gives as much pleasure as a costly diet, when +once the pain due to want is removed; and bread and water confer the +highest pleasure when they are brought to hungry lips. To habituate +self, therefore, to plain and inexpensive diet gives all that is needed +for health, and enables a man to meet the necessary requirements of life +without shrinking, and it places us in a better frame when we approach +at intervals a costly fare, and renders us fearless of fortune." + +"Riches according to nature are of limited extent, and can be easily +procured; but the wealth craved after by vain fancies knows neither end +nor limit. He who has understood the limits of life knows how easy it is +to get all that takes away the pain of want, and all that is required to +make our life perfect at every point. In this way he has no need of +anything which involves a contest." "The beginning and the greatest good +is prudence. Wherefore prudence is a more precious thing even than +philosophy: from it grow all the other virtues, for it teaches that we +cannot lead a life of pleasure which is not also a life of prudence, +honour, and justice; nor lead a life of prudence, honour, and justice, +which is not also a life of pleasure. For the virtues have grown into +one with a pleasant life, and a pleasant life is inseparable from them." + +"Of all the things which wisdom procures for the happiness of life as a +whole, by far the greatest is the acquisition of friendship." + +"We ought to look round for people to eat and drink with, before we look +for something to eat and drink: to feed without a friend is the life of +a lion and a wolf." "Do everything as if Epicurus had his eye upon you. +Retire into yourself chiefly at that time when you are compelled to be +in a crowd." "We ought to select some good man and keep him ever before +our eyes, so that we may, as it were, live under his eye, and do +everything in his sight." "No one loves another except for his own +interest." "Among the other ills which attend folly is this: it is +always beginning to live." "A foolish life is restless and disagreeable: +it is wholly engrossed with the future." "We are born once: twice we +cannot be born, and for everlasting we must be non-existent. But thou, +who art not master of the morrow, puttest off the right time. +Procrastination is the ruin of life for all; and, therefore, each of us +is hurried and unprepared at death." "Learn betimes to die, or if it +please thee better to pass over to the gods." "He who is least in need +of the morrow will meet the morrow most pleasantly." "Injustice is not +in itself a bad thing: but only in the fear, arising from anxiety on the +part of the wrong-doer, that he will not escape punishment." "A wise man +will not enter political life unless something extraordinary should +occur." "The free man will take his free laugh over those who are fain +to be reckoned in the list with Lycurgus and Solon." + +"The first duty of salvation is to preserve our vigour and to guard +against the defiling of our life in consequence of maddening desires." +"Accustom thyself in the belief that death is nothing to us, for good +and evil are only where they are felt, and death is the absence of all +feeling: therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us +makes enjoyable the mortality of life, not by adding to years an +illimitable time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For +in life there can be nothing to fear, to him who has thoroughly +apprehended that there is nothing to cause fear in what time we are not +alive. Foolish, therefore, is the man who says that he fears death, not +because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the +prospect. Whatsoever causes no annoyance when it is present causes only +a groundless pain by the expectation thereof. Death, therefore, the most +awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that when we are, death is not +yet, and when death comes, then we are not. It is nothing then, either +to the living or the dead, for it is not found with the living, and the +dead exist no longer." + +These words of the master, given with no attempt to reconcile their +apparent inconsistencies, convey very fairly the substance of his +teaching, including both its excellences and its deep defects. The +exalted esteem in which his doctrines were held, leading his disciples +to commit them to memory as sacred and verbally inspired; the personal +reverence for his character; and the extravagant expectations as to what +his philosophy was to do for the world, together with a glimpse into the +Epicurean idea of heaven, are well illustrated by the following +sentences at the opening of the third book of Lucretius, addressed to +Epicurus:-- + +"Thee, who first wast able amid such thick darkness to raise on high so +bright a beacon and shed a light on the true interests of life, thee I +follow, glory of the Greek race, and plant now my footsteps firmly fixed +in thy imprinted marks, not so much from a desire to rival thee as that +from the love I bear thee I yearn to imitate thee. Thou, father, art +discoverer of things, thou furnishest us with fatherly precepts, and +like as bees sip of all things in the flowery lawns, we, O glorious +being, in like manner, feed from out thy pages upon all the golden +maxims, golden I say, most worthy ever of endless life. For soon as thy +philosophy issuing from a godlike intellect has begun with loud voice to +proclaim the nature of things, the terrors of the mind are dispelled, +the walls of the world part asunder, I see things in operation +throughout the whole void: the divinity of the gods is revealed, and +their tranquil abodes which neither winds do shake, nor clouds drench +with rains nor snow congealed by sharp frost harms with hoary fall: an +ever cloudless ether o'ercanopies them, and they laugh with light shed +largely round. Nature too supplies all their wants, and nothing ever +impairs their peace of mind." + +Horace is so saturated with Epicureanism that it is hard to select any +one of his odes as more expressive of it than another. His ode on the +"Philosophy of Life" perhaps presents it in as short compass as any. He +asks what he shall pray for? Not crops, and ivory, and gold gained by +laborious and risky enterprise; but healthy, solid contentment with the +simple, universal pleasures near at hand. + + "Why to Apollo's shrine repair + New hallowed? Why present with prayer + Libation? Not those crops to gain, + Which fill Sardinia's teeming plain, + + "Herds from Calabria's sunny fields, + Nor ivory that India yields, + Nor gold, nor tracts where Liris glides + So noiseless down its drowsy sides. + + "Blest owners of Calenian vines, + Crop them; ye merchants, drain the wines, + That cargoes brought from Syria buy, + In cups of gold. For ye, who try + + "The broad Atlantic thrice a year + And never drown, must sure be dear + To gods in heaven. Me--small my need-- + Light mallows, olives, chiccory, feed. + + "Give me then health, Apollo; give + Sound mind; on gotten goods to live + Contented; and let song engage + An honoured, not a base, old age." + +For a lesson from the new Epicurean testament we cannot do better than +turn to the sensible pages of Herbert Spencer's "Data of Ethics." + +"The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by +social conditions is the first requisite to the attainment of the +greatest general happiness. To see this it needs but to contrast one +whose self-regard has maintained bodily well-being with one whose +regardlessness of self has brought its natural results; and then to ask +what must be the contrast between two societies formed of two such kinds +of individuals. + +"Bounding out of bed after an unbroken sleep, singing or whistling as he +dresses, coming down with beaming face ready to laugh on the smallest +provocation, the healthy man of high powers, conscious of past successes +and, by his energy, quickness, resource, made confident of the future, +enters on the day's business not with repugnance but with gladness; and +from hour to hour experiencing satisfactions from work effectually done, +comes home with an abundant surplus of energy remaining for hours of +relaxation. Far otherwise is it with one who is enfeebled by great +neglect of self. Already deficient, his energies are made more deficient +by constant endeavours to execute tasks that prove beyond his strength, +and by the resulting discouragement. Hours of leisure which, rightly +passed, bring pleasures that raise the tide of life and renew the powers +of work, cannot be utilized: there is not vigour enough for enjoyments +involving action, and lack of spirits prevents passive enjoyments from +being entered upon with zest. In brief, life becomes a burden. Now if, +as must be admitted, in a community composed of individuals like the +first the happiness will be relatively great, while in one composed of +individuals like the last there will be relatively little happiness, or +rather much misery; it must be admitted that conduct causing the one +result is good and conduct causing the other is bad. + +"He who carries self-regard far enough to keep himself in good health +and high spirits, in the first place thereby becomes an immediate source +of happiness to those around, and in the second place maintains the +ability to increase their happiness by altruistic actions. But one whose +bodily vigour and mental health are undermined by self-sacrifice carried +too far, in the first place becomes to those around a cause of +depression, and in the second place renders himself incapable, or less +capable, of actively furthering their welfare. + +"Full of vivacity, the one is ever welcome. For his wife he has smiles +and jocose speeches; for his children stores of fun and play; for his +friends pleasant talk interspersed with the sallies of wit that come +from buoyancy. Contrariwise, the other is shunned. The irritability +resulting now from ailments, now from failures caused by feebleness, +his family has daily to bear. Lacking adequate energy for joining in +them, he has at best but a tepid interest in the amusements of his +children; and he is called a wet blanket by his friends. Little account +as our ethical reasonings take note of it, yet is the fact obvious that +since happiness and misery are infectious, such regard for self as +conduces to health and high spirits is a benefaction to others, and such +disregard of self as brings on suffering, bodily or mental, is a +malefaction to others. + +"The adequately egoistic individual retains those powers which make +altruistic activities possible. The individual who is inadequately +egoistic loses more or less of his ability to be altruistic. The truth +of the one proposition is self-evident; and the truth of the other is +daily forced on us by examples. Note a few of them. Here is a mother +who, brought up in the insane fashion usual among the cultivated, has a +physique not strong enough for suckling her infant, but who, knowing +that its natural food is the best, and anxious for its welfare, +continues to give milk for a longer time than her system will bear. +Eventually the accumulating reaction tells. There comes exhaustion +running, it may be, into illness caused by depletion; occasionally +ending in death, and often entailing chronic weakness. She becomes, +perhaps for a time, perhaps permanently, incapable of carrying on +household affairs; her other children suffer from the loss of maternal +attention; and where the income is small, payments for nurse and doctor +tell injuriously on the whole family. Instance, again, what not +unfrequently happens with the father. Similarly prompted by a high sense +of obligation, and misled by current moral theories into the notion that +self-denial may rightly be carried to any extent, he daily continues his +office work for long hours regardless of hot head and cold feet; and +debars himself from social pleasures, for which he thinks he can afford +neither time nor money. What comes of this entirely unegoistic course? +Eventually a sudden collapse, sleeplessness, inability to work. That +rest which he would not give himself when his sensations prompted he has +now to take in long measure. The extra earnings laid by for the benefit +of his family are quickly swept away by costly journeys in aid of +recovery and by the many expenses which illness entails. Instead of +increased ability to do his duty by his offspring there comes now +inability. Lifelong evils on them replace hoped-for goods. And so is it, +too, with the social effects of inadequate egoism. All grades furnish +examples of the mischiefs, positive and negative, inflicted on society +by excessive neglect of self. Now the case is that of a labourer who, +conscientiously continuing his work under a broiling sun, spite of +violent protests from his feelings, dies of sunstroke; and leaves his +family a burden to the parish. Now the case is that of a clerk whose +eyes permanently fail from overstraining, or who, daily writing for +hours after his fingers are painfully cramped, is attacked with +'scrivener's palsy,' and, unable to write at all, sinks with aged +parents into poverty which friends are called on to mitigate. + +"And now the case is that of a man devoted to public ends who, +shattering his health by ceaseless application, fails to achieve all he +might have achieved by a more reasonable apportionment of his time +between labour on behalf of others, and ministration to his own needs." + +After this lengthy prose extract, let us turn to the modern Epicurean +poets. + +At once the best and the worst rendering of Epicureanism into verse is +Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam. It is the best because of the +frankness with which it draws out to its logical conclusion, in a +cynical despair of everything nobler than the pleasure of the moment, +the consequences of identifying the self with mere pleasure-seeking. It +is the worst because, instead of presenting Epicureanism mixed with +nobler elements, as Walt Whitman and Stevenson do, it gives us the pure +and undiluted article as a final gospel of life. The fact that it has +proved such a fad during the past few years is striking evidence of the +husky fare on which our modern prodigals can be content to feed. + + "Come fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring + Your Winter-garment of repentance fling: + The bird of Time has but a little way + To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing. + + "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, + A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou + Beside me singing in the Wilderness-- + Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow. + + "Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears + _To-day_ of past Regrets and future Fears: + _To-morrow!_--Why, To-morrow I may be + Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years. + + "I sent my soul through the Invisible, + Some letter of that After-life to spell: + And by and by my Soul return'd to me, + And answer'd, "I myself am Heav'n and Hell: + + "Heav'n but the vision of fulfill'd Desire, + And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on Fire, + Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves, + So late emerged from, shall so soon expire." + +From this melancholy attempt to offer us Epicureanism as a complete +account of life, overshadowed as it is by the gloom of the Infinite +which the man who stakes his all on momentary pleasure feels doomed to +forego, it is a relief to turn to men who strike cheerfully and firmly +the Epicurean note; but pass instantly on to blend it with sterner notes +and larger views of life, in which it plays its essential, yet strictly +subordinate part. + +Of all the men who thus strike scattered Epicurean notes, without +attempting the impossible task of making a harmonious and satisfactory +tune out of them, our American Pagan, Walt Whitman, is the best example. + + "What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me, + Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns, + Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me, + Not asking the sky to come down to my good will, + Scattering it freely forever. + + "O the joy of manly self-hood! + To be servile to none, to defer to none, not to any tyrant known + or unknown, + To walk with erect carriage, a step springy and elastic, + To look with calm gaze or with flashing eye, + To speak with a full and sonorous voice out of a broad chest, + To confront with your personality all the other personalities of + the earth. + + "O while I live to be the ruler of life, not a slave, + To meet life as a powerful conqueror, + No fumes, no ennui, no more complaints or scornful criticisms, + To these proud laws of the air, the water, and the ground, proving + my interior soul impregnable, + And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me. + + "For not life's joys alone I sing, repeating--the joy of death! + The beautiful touch of death, soothing and benumbing a few moments, + for reasons, + Myself discharging my excrementitious body to be burn'd, or render'd + to powder, or buried, + My real body doubtless left to me for other spheres, + My voided body nothing more to me, returning to the purifications, + further offices, eternal uses of the earth. + + "O to have life henceforth a poem of new joys! + To dance, clap hands, exult, shout, skip, leap, roll on, float on! + To be a sailor of the world bound for all ports, + A swift and swelling ship full of rich words, full of joys." + +Whitman, with this wild ecstasy, to be sure is an Epicurean and +something more. Indeed, pure Epicureanism, unmixed with better elements, +is rather hard to find in modern literature. One other hymn, by Robert +Louis Stevenson, likewise adds to pure Epicureanism a note of strenuous +intensity in the great task of happiness which was foreign to the more +easy-going form of the ancient doctrine. In Stevenson Epicureanism is +only a flavour to more substantial viands. + +THE CELESTIAL SURGEON + + "If I have faltered more or less + In my great task of happiness; + If I have moved among my race + And shown no glorious morning face; + If beams from happy human eyes + Have moved me not; if morning skies, + Books, and my food, and summer rain + Knocked on my sullen heart in vain:-- + Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take + And stab my spirit broad awake! + Or, Lord, if too obdurate I, + Choose thou, before that spirit die, + A piercing pain, a killing sin, + And to my dead heart run them in." + +While we are with Stevenson, we may as well conclude our selections from +the Epicurean scriptures in these words from his Christmas Sermon: +"Gentleness and cheerfulness, these come before all morality: they are +the perfect duties. If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they +are wrong. I do not say, 'give them up,' for they may be all you have; +but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better +men." + + +II + +THE EPICUREAN VIEW OF WORK AND PLAY + +Pleasure is our great task, "the gist of life, the end of ends." To be +happy ourselves and radiating centres of happiness to choice circles of +congenial friends,--this is the Epicurean ideal. The world is a vast +reservoir of potential pleasures. Our problem is to scoop out for +ourselves and our friends full measure of these pleasures as they go +floating by. We did not make the world. It made itself by a fortuitous +concourse of atoms. It would be foolish for us to try to alter it. Our +only concern is to get out of it all the pleasure we can; without +troubling ourselves to put anything valuable back into it. Since it is +accidental, impersonal, we owe it nothing. We simply owe ourselves as +big a share of pleasure as we can grasp and hold. + +This, however, is a task in which it is easy to make mistakes. We need +prudence to avoid cheating ourselves with short-lived pleasures that +cost too much; wisdom to choose the simpler pleasures that cost less and +last longer. Such shrewd calculation of the relative cost and worth of +different pleasures is the sum and substance of the Epicurean +philosophy. He who is shrewd to discern and prompt to snatch the most +pleasure at least cost, as it is offered on the bargain counter of +life,--he is the Epicurean sage. + +We might work this out into a great variety of applications: but one or +two spheres must suffice. Eating and drinking, as the most elemental +relations of life, are the ones commonly chosen as applications of the +Epicurean principle. These applications, however, the selections from +Epicurus and Horace have already made clear. + +The Epicurean will regulate his diet, not by the immediate, trivial, +short-lived pleasures of taste, though these he will by no means +despise, but mainly by their permanent effects upon health. Wholesome +food, and enough of it, daintily prepared and served, he will do his +best to obtain. But elaborate and ostentatious feasting he will avoid, +as involving too much expense and trouble, and too heavy penalties of +disease and discomfort. He will find out by practical experience the +quantity, quality, and variety of simple food that keeps him in perfect +condition; and no enticements of sweetmeats or stimulants will divert +him from the simplicity in which the most permanent pleasure is found. +To eat cake and candy between meals, to sip tea at all hours, no less +than to drink whiskey to the point of intoxication, are sins against +the simplicity of the true Epicurean regimen. + +The Epicurean will not lose an hour of needed sleep nor tolerate such an +abomination as an alarm clock in his house. If he permits himself to be +awakened in the morning, it will be as Thomas B. Reed used to when, as a +student at Bowdoin College, he was obliged to be in chapel at six +o'clock. He had the janitor call him at half-past four, in order that he +might have the luxury of feeling that he had another whole hour in which +to sleep, and then call him again at the last moment which would permit +him to dress in time for chapel. + +These things, however, we may for the most part take for granted. We do +not require a philosopher to regulate our diet for us; or to put us to +bed at night, and tuck us in, and hear us say our prayers. Those +elementary lessons were doubtless needed in the childhood of the race. +The selection from Spencer on work and play strikes closer to the +problem of the modern man; and it is at this point that we all sorely +need to go to school to Epicurus. Perhaps we are inclined to look down +on Epicurus's ideal as a low one. Well, if it is a low ideal, it is all +the more disgraceful to fall below it. And most of us do fall below it +every day of our tense and restless lives. Let us test ourselves by this +ideal, and answer honestly the questions it puts to us. + +How many of us are slaving all day and late into the night to add +artificial superfluities to the simple necessities? How many of us know +how to stop working when it begins to encroach upon our health; and to +cut off anxiety and worry altogether? How many of us measure the amount +and intensity of our toil by our physical strength; doing what we can do +healthfully, cheerfully, joyously, and leaving the rest undone, instead +of straining up to the highest notch of nervous tension during early +manhood and womanhood, only to break down when the life forces begin to +turn against us? Every man in any position of responsibility and +influence has opportunity to do the work of twenty men. How many of us +in such circumstances choose the one thing we can do best, and leave the +other nineteen for other people to do, or else to remain undone? How +many of us have ever seriously stopped to think where the limit of +healthful effort and endurance lies, unless insomnia or dyspepsia or +nervous prostration have laid their heavy hands upon us and compelled us +to pause? Every breakdown from avoidable causes, every stroke of work +we do after the border-land of exhaustion and nervous strain is crossed, +is a crime against the teaching of Epicurus; and these diseases that +beset our modern business life are the penalties with which nature +visits us in vindication of the wisdom of his teachings. Every day that +we work beyond our strength; every hour that we spend in consequent +exhaustion and depression; every minute that we give over to worrying +about things beyond our immediate control, we either fall below, or else +rise above, Epicurus's level. + +If we rise above him, to serve higher ideals, conscious of the sacrifice +we make, and clear about the superior ends we gain thereby, then we may +be forgiven. What some of those higher ideals are we shall have occasion +to consider later. But to work ourselves into depression, disease, and +pain, for no better reason than to get high mark in some rank-book or +other, to gratify somebody's false vanity, to get together a little more +gold than we can spend wisely or our children can inherit without +enervation, to live in a bigger house than our neighbour has or we can +afford to take care of--to work for such ends as these beyond the point +where work is healthy and happy, is to commit a sin which neither +Epicurus nor Nature will forgive. With the people who have risen above +Epicurus, and are deliberately sacrificing to some extent the Epicurean +to one of the higher ideals, as I have said, we have no quarrel; for +them we have only hearty commendation. We do not ask the mother whose +child is dangerously sick, the statesman in a political crisis, the +artist when the conception of his great work comes over him, to heed for +the time being the limits of strength and the conditions of completest +health. All we ask of them is that later on, when the child has +recovered, when the crisis is past, when the picture is painted, they +shall reverently and humbly pay to Epicurus, or to Nature whom he +represents, the penalty for their sin, by a corresponding period of +complete rest and relaxation. We must bear strain at times; and Nature +will forgive us if we do not take it too often. But we must not bunch +our strains. We must not pass from one strain to another, and another, +without periods of relaxation between. We must not let the attitude of +strain become chronic, and develop into a moral tetanus, which keeps us +forever on the rack of exertion from sheer restless inability to sit +down and enjoy ourselves. + +What we take from excessive work Epicurus would bid us add to needed +play. Play is an arrangement by which we get artificially, in highly +concentrated form, the pleasure which in ordinary life is diffused over +long periods, and attainable only in attenuated form. Play puts the +great fundamental pleasures of the race at the disposal of the +individual. + +Foot-ball, for instance, gives the student of to-day the essential joy +in combat of his barbarian ancestors, with the modern field-marshal's +delight in subtle tragedy thrown in. Base-ball gives the intense zest +that comes of speed, accuracy, and cunning exercised in emergencies. +Golf, in milder form, gives us the pleasure that comes of accuracy of +aim and calculation of conditions in good company and in the open air. +Billiards give to the clerk cramped all day over his desk the joy of a +delicate touch which otherwise would be the exclusive property of his +artisan brother. The various games of cards give the mechanic and the +housewife a taste at evening of the eager interests that fill the +banker's and the broker's days. Checkers and chess give to the humblest +in their homes some touch of the pleasures of the general and admiral. +Dancing carries to the limit of orderly expression that delight in the +person and presence of the opposite sex which otherwise would have to be +postponed until youth was able to assume the more serious +responsibilities of permanent relationships. Sailing, tramping, camping +out, hunting, fishing, mountain climbing, are all devices for bringing +into the lives of studious, strenuous, city people the elemental +pleasures which otherwise would be the monopoly of sailors, fishermen, +foresters, and explorers. Swimming, skating, bicycle riding, driving a +horse or an automobile, all give the keen joy that comes of the mastery +of graceful and forceful motion. + +The theatre, which embodies so distinctively the peculiar essence of +play that its performances have appropriated the name, takes us in a +couple of hours through the epitomised experience of many persons +extending over many years in circumstances far removed from our +individual lives. Poetry, novels, biographies, histories, painting, +music, and all the forms of art perform for us this same function. They +take us out of our local and temporal situation, and let us live in +other days and other lands, in other customs and costumes; and so +enormously widen the world of experience we imaginatively make our own. +Besides in all the forms of play and art the ends are made artificially +simple, the means are made supernaturally accessible; so that instead of +toiling for years in doubt of results as in actual work, we experience +in play, and witness in artistic representation, the whole process of +selecting materials and moulding them to a successful issue in a few +minutes, or a few hours at most. All this reacts upon our power to +prosecute with confidence the remoter ends, and marshal the more +obdurate means of real work. It expands and limbers our capacity to +subordinate means to ends and find delight in the process as well as in +the outcome. Hence a man who goes a year without a considerable period +given over to play, or a week without at least one or two solid periods +of it, or lets many days go by without any play whatever, is selling his +birthright of personality for a mess of pottage. Psychology and pedagogy +are recognising the important function of play in the development of +personality as never before. Professor Baldwin, in his "Social and +Ethical Interpretations," sums up the functions of play in these words: +"In the education of the individual for his life-work in a network of +social relationships play is a most important form of organic +exercise,--a most important method of realisation of the social +instincts; gives flexibility of mind and body with self-control; gives +constant opportunity for imitative learning and invention, and is the +experimental verification of the benefits and pleasures of united +action." + + +III + +THE EPICUREAN PRICE OF HAPPINESS + +Whoever contracts his work and expands his play, on Epicurean +principles, will of course have common sense enough to cut off hurry and +worry altogether. Both are sheer waste and wantonness,--the most foolish +and wicked things in the whole list of forbidden sins. The Epicurean +will live his life in care-tight, worry-proof compartments; working with +all his might while he works; and then cutting it off short; never +letting the cares of work intrude on the precious precincts of +well-earned leisure, or permitting the strain of remembered or +anticipated toil to mar the hours sacred to rest and recreation. Some +things are bound to go wrong in every life. That is our misfortune. But +there is no need of brooding over them in gratuitous grief after they +have gone, or dreading them in gloomy anticipation before they come. If +either in anticipation or in retrospect these evils are permitted to +darken the hours when they are physically absent, that is not our +misfortune; it is our folly and our fault. + +We hear a great deal in these days about mind cures, and rest cures, and +faith cures, and cures by hypnotism, and cures by patent medicines. If +anybody needs these cures, of course he is welcome to them; though there +is much to be said for the stalwart conservative who refused proffered +aid of this sort with the remark that he would rather die in the hands +of a skilful physician than be cured by a quack. Strict obedience to the +plain, homely doctrine of Epicurus would prevent ninety-nine one +hundredths of the physical and mental ailments which these various +systems of healing profess to cure. In almost every such case work, or +the square of work which is hurry, or the cube of work which is worry, +carried beyond the sane limits which Epicurus prescribes, is at the root +of trouble. Where it is not work and worry, it is their passive +counterparts, grief nursed long after its occasion has gone by, or fear +harboured long before its appropriate object has arrived. Cut these off +and all the use you will have for either healers or physicians will be +on such comparatively rare occasions as birth, death, contagious +diseases, and unavoidable accident. You will not be the chronic patient +of any doctor regular or irregular; or the consumer of any medicine, +patented or prescribed. + +Neither useless regrets for the past nor profitless forebodings for the +future should ever cast their shadows over the present, which taken in +itself is always endurable, and may generally be made positively happy. +Memory should be purged of all its unpleasantness before its pictures +are permitted to appear before the footlights of reflection; and the +searchlight of expectation should always be turned toward the pleasures +that are still in store for us. Past and future are mainly in our power, +so far as the quality of things we remember and anticipate are +concerned. And even the brief and fleeting present is mainly filled by +reminiscence and anticipation, so that it too is largely what we please +to make it. + + "The world is so full of a number of things, + I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." + +If any one of us is not happy all the time, except at the rare instants +when toothache, or the news of a friend's illness or death, or a bad +turn in our investments takes us by surprise--if happiness is not the +dominant tone of our ordinary life, it is simply because we do not want +it, in that thoughtful, enterprising, insistent way in which the +scholar wants knowledge, or the business man wants money, or the +politician wants votes. Whoever is willing to pay the price in prudent +planning of his daily pleasures, in relentless exclusion of the +enterprises and indulgences that cost more pain than they can return in +pleasure; whoever will cut out remorselessly the things in his past life +on which he cannot dwell with pleasure, and lop off the considerations +which give rise to dread; whoever is willing to pay this Epicurean price +for happiness can have it just as soon and just as often as he pays down +the cash of a faithful and consistent application of these principles. +If any man goes about the world in a chronic unhappiness, it is +ninety-nine per cent the fault, not of his circumstances, but of +himself. There is not a reader of this book whose circumstances are so +black that another person, in those same circumstances, would not find a +way to be supremely and dominantly, if not exclusively and continuously, +happy. There is not a reader of this book so rich, so blessed with +family and friends, so occupied and diverted, but that another person in +those same circumstances would be miserable himself, and a source of +misery to everybody with whom he came in contact. Epicurus is right, +that happiness is up at auction all the time, and sold in lots to suit +the purchaser whenever he bids high enough. And the price is not +exorbitant: prudence to plan for the simple pleasures that can be had +for the asking; resolution to cut off the pleasures that come too high; +determination to amputate our reflections the instant they develop +morbid symptoms, and to take an anti-toxine against fret and worry, the +moment we feel the approach of their contagious atmosphere; +concentration, to live in a self-chosen present from which profitless +regret and unprofitable anxieties, projected from the past or borrowed +from the future, are absolutely banished. + +It is high time to treat melancholy, depression, gloom, fretfulness, +unhappiness, not merely as diseases, but as the inexcusable follies, the +intolerable vices, the unpardonable sins which a sane and wholesome +Epicureanism pronounces them to be. + +The Epicurean principle, then, forbids us to go whining, whimpering, and +weeping through this glorious and otherwise cheery world, making +ourselves a burden and nuisance to our friends; and tells us frankly +that if we are so much as tempted to such melancholy living, it is +because we are too improvident, too slothful, too stupid to cast out +these devils, which a little plain fare, hard work, outdoor exercise, +vigorous play, and unworried rest would exorcise forever. It bids us put +in place of these banished sighs and groans and tears, the laughter, +song, and shout that "spin the great wheel of earth about." We may sum +it all up in the picture of a worthy Epicurean's day. + +After a night of sleep too sound to harbour an unpleasant dream, he +greets the hour of rising with a shout and bound, plunges into the bath, +meets with gusto the shock it gives, and rejoices in the glow of +exhilaration a vigorous rubbing brings; greets the household "with +morning face and morning heart," eager to share with the family the +meal, the news, the outlook on the day, resolved like Pippa to "waste no +wavelet of his twelve-hours' treasure"; then, whether work calls him +forth immediately or not, takes a few minutes of brisk walking and deep +breathing in the open air until he feels the great forces of earth, air, +and sunshine pulsing in his veins; then greets the work of kitchen or +factory, office or field, schoolroom or counter, bench or desk with an +inward cheer, as something to put forth his surplus energy upon; and +through the swift, precious forenoon hours delights in the mastery over +difficulty his stored-up power imparts; takes the noon-day meal gayly +and leisurely with congenial people; through the early afternoon hours +does the lighter portion of the day's work if he must; gets out for an +hour or two in the open air if he may, with horse, or wheel, or +automobile, or boat, or racket, or golf clubs, or skates, or rod, or +gun, or at least a friend and two stout walking shoes; comes to the +evening meal in the family circle widened to include a few welcome +guests, or at the home of some hospitable host, in garments from which +all trace of stain or hint of strain has been removed, to share the best +things market and purse afford, served in such wise as to prolong the +opportunity for the interchange of wit and banter, cursory discussion +and kindly compliment; spends the evening in quiet reading or public +entertainment, games with his children or visiting with friends; and +then returns again to sleep with such a sense of gratitude for the dear +joys of the day as sends an echo of "All's well" down through even the +shadowy substance of his unconscious dreams. Surely there are some +features of this Epicurean day which we, in our bustling, restless, +overelaborated lives, might introduce with great profit to ourselves, +and great advantage to the people with whom we are intimately thrown. A +series of such days, varied by even happier holidays and Sundays, broken +once or twice a year at least by considerable vacations, added together, +will make a life which Epicurus says a man may live with satisfaction, +and after which he may pass away content. + +If there be no other life, let us by all means make the most of this. +And if, both here and hereafter, there be a larger life than that +perceivable by sense,--as, on deeper grounds than the Epicurean +psychology recognises, most of us believe there is,--this healthy, +hearty, wholesome determination to live intensely and exclusively in the +present is a much more sincere and effective way to develop it than the +foolish attempt of a false other-worldliness to anticipate or discount +the future, by a half-hearted, far-away affectation of superiority to +the simple homely pleasures of to-day. + + +IV + +THE DEFECTS OF EPICUREANISM + +Thus far we have pointed out certain valuable elements of truth which +Epicureanism contains. Only incidentally have we encountered certain +deep defects. Epicurus's "free laugh" at those who attempt to fulfil +their political duties, his quiet ignoring of all interests that lie +outside his little circle, or reach beyond the grave, his naive remark +about the intrinsic harmlessness of wrong-doing, provided only the +wrong-doer could escape the fear of being caught, must have made us +aware that there are heights of nobleness, depths of devotion, lengths +of endurance, breadths of sympathy altogether foreign to this +easy-going, pleasure-seeking view of life. Justice requires us to dwell +more explicitly on these Epicurean shortcomings. Much that has been +charged against the school in the form of swinish sensuality is the +grossest slander. Still there are defects in this view of life which are +both logically deducible from its premises, and practically visible in +the lives of its consistent disciples. + +The fundamental defect of Epicureanism is its false definition of +personality. According to Epicurus the person is merely a bundle of +appetites and passions; and the gratification of these is made +synonymous with the satisfaction of himself. But gratifications are +short; while appetites are long. The result is that which Schopenhauer +has so conclusively pointed out. During the long periods when desire +burns unsatisfied, the balance of pleasure is against us. In the +comparatively brief and rare intervals when passions are in process of +gratification, the balance can never be more than even. Therefore our +account with the world at the end of any period, whether a week or a +year or a lifetime, is bound to stand as follows: credit, a few rare, +brief moments--moments, too, which have long since vanished into +nothingness--when appetites and passions were in process of +satisfaction. Debit, the vast majority of moments, amounting in the +aggregate to almost the total period considered, when appetites and +passions were clamouring for a satisfaction that was not forthcoming. +The obvious conclusion from the frequent examination of the Epicurean +account-book is that which Schopenhauer so triumphantly +demonstrates,--pessimism. The sooner we cease doing business on those +terms, the less will be the balance of pain, or unsatisfied desire, +against us. To be entirely frank, the devotees of Omar Khayyam would +have to confess that it is this note of pessimism, despair, and +self-pity, at the sorry contrast of the vast unattainable and the petty +attained, which is the secret of his unquestionably fascinating lines. +Here the blase amusement-seeker finds consolation in the fact that a +host of other people are also yielding to the temptation to bury the +unwelcome consciousness of a self they cannot satisfy in wine, or any +other momentary sensuous titillation that will conceal the sense of +their spiritual failure--a failure, however, which they are glad to be +assured is shared by so many that the sense of it has been dignified by +the name of a philosophy and sung by a poet. + +Pleasure cannot be sought directly with success; for pleasure comes +indirectly as the effect of causes far higher and deeper and wider than +any that are recognised in the Epicurean philosophy. Pleasure comes +unsought to those who lose themselves in large intellectual, artistic, +social, and spiritual interests. But such noble losing of self without +thought of gain is explicitly excluded from the consistent Epicurean +creed. + +In the picture of the Epicurean life already drawn, while domestic and +political life have been presupposed as a background, nothing has been +said about the sacrifice which one is called upon to make in the support +and defence of a pure home and a free country. That was expressly +excluded by Epicurus. Whatever attractiveness there was in the picture +of the Epicurean life previously presented was largely due to this +background of presupposition that this happy life was lived in a +well-ordered and stable family, and in a free and just municipal and +national life. In fact it is only as a parasite on these great +domestic, social, and political institutions which it does nothing to +create or maintain, and much to weaken and destroy, that Epicureanism is +even a tolerable account of life. If we now paint our picture of the +Epicurean man and woman with this background of domestic and civic life +withdrawn, the ugliness and meanness of this parasitic Epicureanism will +stare us in the face; and while we ought not to forget the valuable +lessons it has to teach us, we shall shrink from the completed picture +as a thing of deformity and degradation. + +Who then is the consistent Epicurean man? He is the club man, who lives +in easy luxury and fares sumptuously every day. Everything is done for +him. Servants wait on him. He serves nobody, and is responsible for no +one's welfare. He has a congenial set of cronies, loosely attached to be +sure; and constantly changing, as matrimony, financial reverses, +business engagements, professional responsibilities call one or another +of his circle away to a more strenuous life. He is a good fellow, +genial, free-handed with his set, indifferent to all who are outside. He +generally hires some woman to serve for a few months as the instrument +of his passions; only to cast her off to be hired by another and +another until in due time she dies, he cares not when or how. + +As business men these Epicureans are apt to be easy-going, and therefore +failures. As debtors, they are the hardest people in the world from whom +to collect a bill. As creditors or landlords they are the most merciless +in their exactions. Their devotion to the state is generally confined to +betting on the elections; the returns of which they watch with the same +interest as the results of a horse-race. Their religion is confined to +poking fun at the people who are foolish enough to be going to church +while they are at their Sunday morning breakfast. + +We all know these Epicureans; we do business with them; we meet them +socially; we treat them decently; but it is to be hoped that underneath +the smooth exterior we all detect their selfish heartlessness. They have +taken a doctrine, which, as applied to the good things which are made to +minister to our appetites is sound and true, and have perverted it into +a moral monstrosity by daring to treat human hearts and social +institutions as mere things, mere instruments of their selfish +pleasures. + +Epicurean women, likewise, abound in every wealthy community. They +spend the winter in Florida, New York, or Washington; dividing the rest +of the year between the sea-shore, the mountains, and the lakes, with +occasional visits to what they call their homes. They must have the best +of everything, and assume no responsibility beyond running up bills for +their husbands to pay, or to remain unpaid. Their special paradise is +foreign travel, and no pension or hotel along the beaten highways of +Europe is without its quota of these precious daughters of Epicurus. +They flit hither and thither where least ennui and most diversion +allures. Two or three years of this irresponsible existence is +sufficient to disqualify them for usefulness either in Europe or +America, either here or hereafter. When they return, if they ever do, to +their native town or city, the drudgery of housekeeping has become +intolerable, the responsibilities of social life unendurable, and their +poor husbands are glad enough when the restless fit seizes them again +and they can be packed off to Egypt, or Russia, or whatever remote +corner of the earth remains for their idle hands and restless feet, +their empty minds and hollow hearts, to invade with their unearned gold. + +There is no guarantee that the Epicurean will be the chaste husband of +one wife, or a faithful mother, or a good provider for the family, or a +devoted citizen of the republic, or a strenuous servant of art or +science, or a heroic martyr in the cause of progress and reform. If all +men were Epicureans, the world would speedily retrograde into the +barbarism and animalism whence it has slowly and painfully emerged. The +great interests of the family, the state, society, and civilisation are +not accurately reflected in the feelings of the individual; and if the +individual has no guide but feeling, he will prove a traitor to such of +these higher interests as may have the misfortune to be intrusted to his +pleasure-loving, self-indulgent, unheroic hands. + +There are hard things to do and to endure; and if we are to meet them +bravely, we shall have to call the Stoic to our aid. There are sordid +and trivial things to put up with, or to rise above, and there we may +need at times the Platonist and the mystic to show us the eternal +reality underneath the temporal appearance. There are problems of +conduct to be solved; conflicting claims to be adjusted; and for this +the Aristotelian sense of proportion must be developed in our souls. +Finally there are other persons to be considered, and one great Personal +Spirit living and working in the world; and for our proper attitude +toward these persons, human and divine, we must look to the Christian +principle. To meet these higher relationships with no better equipment +than Epicureanism offers, would be as foolish as to try to run barefoot +across a continent, or swim naked across the sea. Naked, barefoot +Epicureanism has its place on the sandy beaches and in the sheltered +coves of life; but has no business on the mountain tops or in the depths +of human experience. + +It will not make a man an efficient workman, or a thorough scholar, or a +brave soldier, or a public-spirited citizen. It spoils completely every +woman whom it gets hold of, unless at the same time she has firm hold on +something better; unless she has a husband and children whom she loves, +or work in which she delights for its own sake, or friends and interests +dearer than life itself. Epicureanism will not lift either man or woman +far toward heaven, or save them in the hour when the pains of hell get +hold of them. No home can be reared on it. The divorce court is the +logical outcome of every marriage between a man and a woman who are both +Epicureans. For it is the very essence of Epicureanism to treat others +as means; while no marriage is tolerable unless at least one of the two +parties is large and unselfish enough to treat the other as an end. No +Epicurean state or city could endure longer than it would take for the +men who are in politics for their pockets to plunder the people who are +out of politics for the same reason. An Epicurean heaven, a place where +eternally each should get his fill of pleasure at the expense of +everybody else, would be insufferably insipid, incomparably unendurable. +It is fortunate for the fame of Epicurus and the permanence of his +philosophy that he evaded the necessity of thinking out the conditions +of immortal blessedness by his specious dilemma in which he thought to +prove that death ends all. As a temporary parasite upon a political and +moral order already established, Epicureanism might thrive and flourish; +but as a principle on which to rest a decent society here or a hope of +heaven hereafter, Epicureanism is utterly lacking. If there were nothing +better than Epicureanism in store for us through the long eternities, we +all might well pray to be excused, as Epicurus happily believed we +should be. For any ultimate delight in life must be rooted in something +deeper than self-centred pleasure: it must love persons and seek ends +for their own sake; and find its joy, not in the satisfaction of the man +as he is, but in the development of that which his thought and love +enable him to become. + + +V + +AN EXAMPLE OF EPICUREAN CHARACTER + +The clearest example of the shortcomings of Epicureanism is the +character of Tito Melema in George Eliot's "Romola." Pleasure and the +avoidance of pain are this young Greek's only principles. He is "of so +easy a conscience that he would make a stepping-stone of his father's +corpse." "He has a lithe sleekness about him that seems marvellously +fitted for slipping into any nest he fixes his mind on." "He had an +unconquerable aversion to any thing unpleasant, even when an object very +much loved and admired was on the other side of it." According to his +thinking "any maxims that required a man to fling away the good that was +needed to make existence sweet, were only the lining of human +selfishness turned outward; they were made by men who wanted others to +sacrifice themselves for their sake." "He would rather that Baldassarre +should not suffer; he liked no one to suffer; but could any philosophy +prove to him that he was bound to care for another's suffering more than +for his own? To do so, he must have loved Baldassarre devotedly, and he +did not love him: was that his own fault? Gratitude! seen closely, it +made no valid claim; his father's life would have been dreary without +him; are we convicted of a debt to men for the pleasure they give +themselves?" "He had simply chosen to make life easy to himself--to +carry his human lot if possible in such a way that it should pinch him +nowhere; but the choice had at various times landed him in unexpected +positions." "Tito could not arrange life at all to his mind without a +considerable sum of money, and that problem of arranging life to his +mind had been the source of all his misdoing." "He would have been equal +to any sacrifice that was not unpleasant." "Of other goods than pleasure +he can form no conception." As Romola says in her reproaches: "You talk +of substantial good, Tito! Are faithfulness, and love, and sweet +grateful memories no good? Is it no good that we should keep our silent +promises on which others build because they believe in our love and +truth? Is it no good that a just life should be justly honoured? Or, is +it good that we should harden our hearts against all the wants and hopes +of those who have depended on us? What good can belong to men who have +such souls? To talk cleverly, perhaps, and find soft couches for +themselves, and live and die with their base selves as their best +companions." + +This pleasure-loving Tito Melema, "when he was only seven years old, +Baldassarre had rescued from blows, had taken to a home that seemed like +opened paradise, where there was sweet food and soothing caresses, all +had on Baldassarre's knee; and from that time till the hour they had +parted, Tito had been the one centre of Baldassarre's fatherly cares." +Instead of finding and rescuing this man who, long years ago, had +rescued Tito when a little boy from a life of beggary, filth, and cruel +wrong, had reared him tenderly and been to him as a father, Tito sold +the jewels which belonged to his father and would have been sufficient +to ransom him from slavery, and finally, when found by Baldassarre in +Florence, denied him and pronounced him a madman. He betrayed an +innocent, trusting young girl into a mock marriage, at the same time +ruining her and proving false to his lawful wife. He sold the library +which it was Romola's father's dying wish to have kept in Florence as a +distinct memorial to his life and work. He entered into selfish +intrigues in the politics of the city, ready to betray his associates +and friends whenever his own safety required it. + +What wonder that Romola came to have "her new scorn of that thing called +pleasure which made men base--that dexterous contrivance for selfish +ease, that shrinking from endurance and strain, when others were bowing +beneath burdens too heavy for them, which now made one image with her +husband." In her own distress she learns from Savonarola that there is a +higher law than individual pleasure. "She felt that the sanctity +attached to all close relations, and therefore preeminently to the +closest, was but the expression in outward law, of that result toward +which all human goodness and nobleness must spontaneously tend; that the +light abandonment of ties, whether inherited or voluntary, because they +had ceased to be pleasant, was the uprooting of social and personal +virtue. What else had Tito's crime toward Baldassarre been but that +abandonment working itself out to the most hideous extreme of falsity +and ingratitude? To her, as to him, there had come one of those moments +in life when the soul must dare to act on its own warrant, not only +without external law to appeal to, but in the face of a law which is not +unarmed with Divine lightnings--lightnings that may yet fall if the +warrant has been false." The whole teaching of the book is summed up in +the Epilogue. In the conversation between Romola and Tito's illegitimate +son Lillo, Lillo says, "I should like to be something that would make +me a great man, and very happy besides--something that would not hinder +me from having a good deal of pleasure." + +"That is not easy, my Lillo. It is only a poor sort of happiness that +could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. We +can only have the highest happiness, such as goes along with being a +great man, by having wide thoughts, and much feeling for the rest of the +world as well as ourselves; and this sort of happiness often brings so +much pain with it, that we can only tell it from pain by its being what +we would choose before everything else, because our souls see it is +good. There are so many things wrong and difficult in the world, that no +man can be great--he can hardly keep himself from wickedness--unless he +gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to +endure what is hard and painful. My father had the greatness that +belongs to integrity; he chose poverty and obscurity rather than +falsehood. And there was Fra Girolamo--you know why I keep to-morrow +sacred; he had the greatness which belongs to a life spent in struggling +against powerful wrong, and in trying to raise men to the highest deeds +they are capable of. And so, my Lillo, if you mean to act nobly and +seek to know the best things God has put within reach of men, you must +learn to fix your mind on that end, and not on what will happen to you +because of it. And remember, if you were to choose something lower, and +make it the rule of your life to seek your own pleasure, and escape from +what is disagreeable, calamity might come just the same; and it would be +calamity falling on a base mind, which is the one form of sorrow that +has no balm in it, and that may well make a man say, 'It would have been +better for me if I had never been born.'" + +The trouble with Epicureanism is its assumption that the self is a +bundle of natural appetites and passions, and that the end of life is +their gratification. Experience shows, as in the case of Tito, that such +a policy consistently pursued, brings not pleasure but pain--pain first +of all to others, and then pain to the individual through their +contempt, indignation, and vengeance. The truest pleasure must come +through the development within one of generous emotions, kind +sympathies, and large social interests. The man must be made over before +the pleasures of the new man can be rightly sought and successfully +found. This making over of man is no consistent part of the logical +Epicurean programme, and consequently pure Epicureanism is sure to land +one in the narrowness, selfishness, and heartlessness of a Tito Melema, +and to bring upon one essentially the same condemnation and disaster. + +Still, not in criticism or unkindness would we take leave of the serene +and genial Epicurus. We may frankly recognise his fundamental +limitations, and yet gratefully accept the good counsel he has to give. +Parasite as it is,--a thing that can only live by sucking its life out +of ideals and principles higher and hardier than itself, it is yet a +graceful and ornamental parasite, which will beautify and shield the +hard outlines of our more strenuous principles. There are dreary wastes +in all our lives, into which we can profitably turn those streams of +simple pleasure he commends. There are points of undue strain and +tension where Epicurean prudence would bid us forego the slight fancied +gain to save the ruinous expense to health and happiness. Let us fill up +these gaps with hearty indulgence of healthy appetite, with vigorous +exercise of dormant powers, with the eager joys of new-learned +recreations. Let us tone down the strain and tension of our anxious, +worried, worn, and weary lives by the rigid elimination of the +superfluous, the strict concentration on the perpetual present, the +resolute banishment from it of all past or future springs of depression +and discouragement. Before we are through we shall see far nobler ideals +than this; but we must not despise the day of small things. Though the +lowest and least of them all, the Epicurean is one of the historical +ideals of life. It has its claims which none of us may with impunity +ignore. To serve him faithfully in the lower spheres of life is a +wholesome preparation for the intelligent and reasonable service of +Stoic, Platonic, Aristotelian, and Christian ideals which rule the +higher realms. He who is false to the humble, homely demands of Epicurus +can never be quite at his best in the grander service of Zeno and Plato, +Aristotle and Jesus. + + +VI + +THE CONFESSIONS OF AN EPICUREAN HERETIC + +A heretic is a man who, while professing to hold the tenets of the sect +to which he adheres, and sincerely believing that he is in substantial +agreement with his more orthodox brethren, yet in his desire to be +honest and reasonable, so modifies these tenets as to empty them of all +that is distinctive of the sect in question, and thus unintentionally +gives aid and comfort to its enemies. Every vigorous and vital school of +thought soon or late develops this species of _enfant terrible_. Like +the Christian church, the Epicurean school has been blessed with +numerous progeny of this disturbing sort. The one among them all who +most stoutly professes the fundamental principles of Epicureanism, and +then proceeds to admit pretty much everything its opponents advance +against it, is John Stuart Mill. His "Utilitarianism" is a fort manned +with the most approved idealistic guns, yet with the Epicurean flag +floating bravely over the whole. He "holds that actions are right in +proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to +produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and +the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure. +Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends; +and all desirable things are desirable either for the pleasure inherent +in themselves, or as means to the promotion of pleasure and the +prevention of pain." A more square and uncompromising statement of +Epicureanism than this it would be impossible to make. + +Having thus squarely identified himself with the Epicurean school, Mr. +Mill proceeds to add to this doctrine in turn the doctrines of each one +of the four schools which we are to consider later. First he introduces +a distinction in the kind of pleasure, "assigning to the pleasures of +the intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral +sentiments, a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere +sensation." When asked what he means by difference of quality in +pleasures, or what makes one pleasure more valuable than another, merely +as a pleasure, except its being greater in amount, although he tells us +there is but one possible answer, he gives us two or three. First he +appeals to the verdict of competent judges. "Of two pleasures, if there +be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a +decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to +prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure. If one of the two is, by +those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the +other that they prefer it, even though knowing it to be attended with a +greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any quantity +of the other pleasure which their nature is capable of, we are justified +in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality, so +far outweighing quantity as to render it, in comparison, of small +account." + +This appeal to competent judges, or, in other words, to authority, +involves no philosophical principle at all unless we may call the +doctrine of papal infallibility, to which this appeal of Mill is +essentially akin, a principle. If these judges are competent, there must +be a reason for the preference they give. In the next paragraph Mill +tells us what that principle is; but in doing so introduces the +principle of the subordination of lower to higher faculties, which we +shall see later is the distinguishing principle of Plato. On this point +Mill is as clear as Plato himself. "Now it is an unquestionable fact +that those who are equally acquainted with, and equally capable of +appreciating and enjoying both, do give a most marked preference to the +manner of existence which employs their higher faculties. Few human +creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for +a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no +intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person +would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be +selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, +the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are +with theirs. They would not resign what they possess more than he, for +the most complete satisfaction of all the desires which they have in +common with him. If they ever fancy they would, it is only in cases of +unhappiness so extreme, that to escape from it they would exchange their +lot for almost any other, however undesirable in their own eyes. A being +of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably +of more acute suffering, and is certainly accessible to it at more +points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, +he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade +of existence." This appeal to quality rather than quantity of pleasure +puts Mill, in spite of himself, squarely on Platonic ground and abandons +consistent Epicureanism. An illustration will make this clear. A man +professes that money is his supreme end, the only thing he cares for in +the world; he tells us that whatever he does is done for money, and +whenever he refrains from doing anything it is to avoid losing money. So +far he puts his conduct on a consistently mercenary basis. Suppose, +however, that in the next sentence he tells us that he prizes certain +kinds of money. If we ask him what is the basis of the distinction, he +replies that he prizes money honestly earned and despises money +dishonestly acquired. Should we not at once recognise, that in spite of +his original declaration, he is not the consistently mercenary being he +professed himself to be? The fact that he prefers honest to dishonest +money shows that honesty, not money, is his real principle; and, in +spite of his original profession, this distinction lifts him out of the +class of mercenary money lovers into the class of men whose real +principle is not money but honesty. Precisely so Mill's confession that +he cares for the height and dignity of the faculties employed rather +than the quantity of pleasure gained lifts him out of the Epicurean +school to which he professes adherence and makes him an idealist. + +When asked for an explanation of his preference of higher to lower, Mill +at once shifts to Stoic ground in the following sentences: "We may give +what explanation we please of this unwillingness; we may attribute it to +pride, a name which is given indiscriminately to some of the most and to +some of the least estimable feelings of which mankind are capable; we +may refer it to the love of liberty and personal independence, an +appeal to which was with the Stoics one of the most effective means for +the inculcation of it; to the love of power, or to the love of +excitement, both of which do really enter into and contribute to it; but +its most appropriate appellation is a sense of dignity, which all human +beings possess in one form or another, and in some, though by no means +in exact, proportion to their highest faculties, and which is so +essential a part of the happiness of those in whom it is strong, that +nothing which conflicts with it could be, otherwise than momentarily, an +object of desire to them. Whoever supposes that this preference takes +place at a sacrifice of happiness--that the superior being, in anything +like equal circumstances, is not happier than the inferior--confounds +the two very different ideas of happiness and content. It is +indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low has +the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed +being will always feel that any happiness which we can look for, as the +world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its +imperfections if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him +envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only +because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. +It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; +better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the +fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is because they only +know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison +knows both sides." + +When pressed for a sanction of motive Mill appeals to the Aristotelian +principle that the individual can only realise his conception of himself +through union with his fellows in society: to the social nature of man +and his inability to find himself in any smaller sphere, or through +devotion to any lesser end. "This firm foundation is that of the social +feelings of mankind; the desire to be in unity with our +fellow-creatures, which is already a powerful principle in human nature, +and happily one of those which tend to become stronger, even without +express inculcation, from the influences of advancing civilisation. The +social state is at once so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to +man, that, except in some unusual circumstances or by an effort of +voluntary abstraction, he never conceives himself otherwise than as a +member of a body; and this association is riveted more and more, as +mankind are farther removed from the state of savage independence. Any +condition, therefore, which is essential to a state of society, becomes +more and more an inseparable part of every person's conception of the +state of things which he is born into, and which is the destiny of a +human being. In this way people grow up unable to conceive as possible +to them a state of total disregard of other people's interests. They are +under a necessity of conceiving themselves as at least abstaining from +all the grosser injuries, and (if only for their own protection) living +in a state of constant protest against them. They are also familiar with +the fact of cooeperating with others, and proposing to themselves a +collective, not an individual, interest, as the aim (at least for the +time being) of their actions. So long as they are cooeperating, their +ends are identified with those of others; there is at least a temporary +feeling that the interests of others are their own interests. Not only +does all strengthening of social ties, and all healthy growth of +society, give to each individual a stronger personal interest in +practically consulting the welfare of others; it also leads him to +identify his feelings more and more with their good, or at least with an +ever greater degree of practical consideration for it. He comes, as +though instinctively, to be conscious of himself as a being who of +course pays regard to others. The good of others becomes to him a thing +naturally and necessarily to be attended to. This mode of conceiving +ourselves and human life, as civilisation goes on, is felt to be more +and more natural. Every step in political improvement renders it more so +by removing the sources of opposition of interest, and levelling those +inequalities of legal privilege between individuals or classes, owing to +which there are large portions of mankind whose happiness it is still +practicable to disregard. In an improving state of the human mind, the +influences are constantly on the increase, which tend to generate in +each individual a feeling of unity with all the rest; which feeling, if +perfect, would make him never think of, or desire, any beneficial +condition for himself, in the benefits of which they are not included. +The deeply rooted conception which every individual even now has of +himself as a social being tends to make him feel it one of his natural +wants that there should be harmony between his feelings and aims and +those of his fellow-creatures. It does not present itself to their minds +as a superstition of education, or a law despotically imposed by the +power of society, but as an attribute which it would not be well for +them to be without." + +Lastly Mill introduces the Christian ideal. "As between his own +happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as +strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator. In the +golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the +ethics of utility. To do as one would be done by, and to love one's +neighbour as one's self, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian +morality." In his attempt to prove the Christian obligation on an +Epicurean basis the inconsistency between his Epicurean principle and +his Christian preaching and practice becomes evident. Master of logic as +Mill was, an author of a standard text-book on the subject, yet so +desperate was the plight in which his attempt to stretch Epicureanism to +Christian dimensions placed him, that he was compelled to resort to the +following fallacy of composition, the fallaciousness of which every +student of logic recognises at a glance. "Happiness is a good; each +person's happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, +therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons." As Carlyle has +pointed out, this is equivalent to saying, since each pig wants all the +swill in the trough for itself, a litter of pigs in the aggregate will +desire each member of the litter to have its share of the whole,--a +fallacy which a single experience in feeding pigs will sufficiently +refute. It requires something deeper and higher than Epicurean +principles to lift men to a plane where Christian altruism is the +natural and inevitable conduct which Mill rightly says it ought to be. + +These confessions of an Epicurean heretic, wrung from a man who had been +rigidly trained by a stern father in Epicurean principles, yet whose +surpassing candour compelled him to make these admissions, so fatal to +the system, so ennobling to the man and to the doctrine he proclaimed, +serve as an admirable preparation for the succeeding chapters, where +these same principles, which Mill introduces as supplements, and +modifications, and amendments to Epicureanism, will be presented as the +foundation-stones of larger and deeper views of life. Mill starts with a +jack-knife which he publicly proclaims to be in every part of the handle +and in every blade through and through Epicurean; then gets a new handle +from the Stoics; borrows one blade from Plato, and another from +Aristotle; unconsciously steals the biggest blade of all from +Christianity; makes one of the best knives to be found on the moral +market: yet still, in loyalty to early parental training, insists on +calling the finished product by the same name as that with which he +started out. The result is a splendid knife to cut with; but a +difficult one to classify. Our quest for the principles of personality +will not bring us anything much better, for practical purposes, than the +lofty teaching of Mill's "Utilitarianism," and its companion in +inconsistency, Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Ethics." All our five +principles are present in these so-called hedonistic treatises. But it +is a great theoretical advantage, and ultimately carries with it +considerable practical gain, to give credit where credit is due, and to +call things by their right names. Thanks to the candour of these +heretics, though the names we encounter hereafter will be new, we shall +greet most of the principles we discover under these new names as old +friends to whom the Epicurean heretics gave us our first introduction. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +STOIC SELF-CONTROL BY LAW + + +I + +THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LAW OF APPERCEPTION + +The shortest way to understand the Stoic principle is through the +psychological doctrine of apperception. According to this now +universally accepted doctrine, the mind is not an empty cabinet into +which ready-made impressions of external things are dumped. The mind is +an active process; and the meaning and value of any sensation presented +from without is determined by the reaction upon it of the ideas and aims +that are dominant within. This doctrine has revolutionised psychology +and pedagogy, and when rightly introduced into the personal life proves +even more revolutionary there. Stoicism works this doctrine for all that +it is worth. Christian Science and kindred popular cults of the present +day are perhaps working it for rather more than it is worth. + +Translated into simple everyday terms, this doctrine in its application +to the personal life means that the value of any external fact or +possession or experience depends on the way in which we take it. Take +riches, for example. Stocks and bonds, real estate and mortgages, money +and bank accounts, in themselves do not make a man either rich or poor. +They may enrich or they may impoverish his personality. It is not until +they are taken up into the mind, thought over, related to one's general +scheme of conduct, made the basis of one's purposes and plans, that they +become a factor in the personal life. Obviously the same amount of +money, a hundred thousand dollars, may be worked over into personal life +in a great variety of ways. One man is made proud by it. Another is made +lazy. Another is made hard-hearted. Another is made avaricious for more. +Another is fired with the desire to speculate. Another is filled with +anxiety lest he may lose it. All these are obviously impoverished by the +so-called wealth which they possess. To rich men's wives and children, +whose wealth comes without the strenuous exertion and close human +contact involved in earning it, it generally works their personal +impoverishment in one or more of these fatal ways. For wealth, in an +indolent, self-indulgent, vain, conceited, ostentatious, unsympathetic +mind, takes on the colour of these odious qualities, and becomes a +curse to its possessor; just because he or she is cursed with these evil +propensities already, and the wealth simply adds fuel to the +preexistent, though perhaps latent and smouldering flames. + +On the other hand one man is made grateful for the wealth he has been +able to accumulate. Another is made more sympathetic. Another is made +generous. Another is urged into the larger public service his +independent means makes possible. Another is lifted up into a sense of +responsibility for its right use. On the whole the men and women who +earn their money honestly are usually affected in one or more of these +beneficial ways, and their wealth becomes an enrichment of their +personality. + +Now it is impossible that this hundred thousand dollars should get into +any man's mind, and become a mental state, without its being mixed with +one or other of these mental, emotional, and volitional accompaniments. +The mental state, in other words, is a compound, of which the external +fact, in this case the hundred thousand dollars, is the least important +ingredient. It is so unimportant a factor that the Stoics pronounced it +indifferent. The tone and temper in which we accept our riches, the ends +to which we devote them, the spirit in which we hold them, the way in +which we spend them, are so vastly more important than the mere fact of +having them, that by comparison, the fact itself seems indifferent. Like +all strong statements, this is doubtless an exaggeration. You cannot +have just the same mental state without riches that you can have with +them. The external fact is a factor, though a relatively small one, in +the composite mental state. The virtues of a rich man are not precisely +the same as the virtues of a poor man. Yet the Stoic paradox is very +much nearer the truth than the statement of the average man, that +external things are the whole, or even the most important part of our +mental states. + +The same thing is true of health and sickness. Health often makes one +careless, insensitive, negligent of duty; while sickness often makes one +conscientious, considerate, faithful, and thus more useful and efficient +than his healthy brother. Popularity often puffs up with pride; while +persecution, by humbling, prepares the heart for truer blessedness. +Hence whether an external fact is good or evil, depends on how we take +it, what we make of it, the state of mind and heart and will into which +it enters as a factor; and that in turn depends, the Stoic tells us, on +ourselves, and is under our control Stoicism is fundamentally this +psychological doctrine of apperception, carried over and applied in the +field of the personal life,--the doctrine, namely, that no external +thing alone can affect us for good or evil, until we have woven it into +the texture of our mental life, painted it with the colour of our +dominant mood and temper, and stamped it with the approval of our will. +Thus everything except a slight residuum is through and through mental, +our own product, the expression of what we are and desire to be. The +only difference between Stoicism and Christian Science at this point is +that Stoicism recognises the material element; though it does so only to +minimise it, and pronounce it indifferent. Christian Science denies that +there is any physical fact, or even the raw material out of which to +make one. All is merely mental, says the consistent Christian Scientist +with the toothache. There is no matter there to ache. The Stoic, truer +to the facts, and in not less but more heroic spirit declares: "There is +matter, but it doesn't matter if there is." The toothache can be taken +as a spur to greater fortitude and equanimity than the man whose teeth +are all sound has had opportunity to practically exemplify; and so the +total mental state, toothache-borne-with-fortitude, may be positively +good. + +This doctrine that external things never in themselves constitute a +mental state; that they are consequently indifferent; that the +all-important contribution is made by the mind itself; that this +contribution from the mind is what gives the tone and determines the +worth of the total mental state; and that this contribution is +exclusively our own affair and may be brought entirely under our own +control;--this is the first and most fundamental Stoic principle. If we +have grasped this principle, we are prepared to read intelligently and +sympathetically the otherwise startling and paradoxical deliverances of +the Stoic masters. + + +II + +SELECTIONS FROM THE STOIC SCRIPTURES + +First let us listen to Epictetus, the slave, the Stoic of the cottage as +he has been called:-- + +"Everything has two handles: one by which it may be borne, another by +which it cannot. If your brother acts unjustly, do not lay hold on the +affair by the handle of his injustice, for by that it cannot be borne; +but rather by the opposite, that he is your brother, that he was brought +up with you, and thus you will lay hold on it as it is to be borne." +Here the handle is a homely but effective figure for the mass of mental +association into which the external fact of a brother who acts unjustly +is introduced before he actually enters our mental state, and determines +how we shall feel and act. + +"If a person had delivered up your body to some passer-by, you would +certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in delivering up your mind +to any reviler, to be disconcerted and confounded?" The reviling does +not become a determining factor in my own mental state unless I choose +to let it. If I feel humiliated and stung by it, it is because I am weak +and foolish enough to stake my estimate of myself, and my consequent +happiness, upon what somebody who does not know me says about me, rather +than on what I, who know myself better than anybody else, actually +think. A boy at Phillips Andover Academy once drew this distinction very +adroitly for another boy. There had been a free fight among the boys +causing a great deal of disturbance, and Principal Bancroft had traced +the beginning of it to an insulting remark on the part of the boy in +question. Dr. Bancroft accused him of beginning the trouble. "No, sir," +said the boy, "I did not begin it. The other fellow began it." "Well," +said Principal Bancroft, "you tell me precisely what took place, and I +will decide who began it." "Oh," replied the boy, "I simply called him a +'darned' fool, and he took offence." Now if the other boy had been a +Stoic, he would not have taken offence, and the first boy might have +called him a fool with impunity. Imputing Stoicism to that extent to +other people, however, is very dangerous business. Stoicism is a +doctrine to be strictly applied to ourselves, but never imputed to other +people, least of all to the people we wish to abuse and revile. + +Epictetus again states his doctrine most explicitly on the subject of +terrors. "Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they +take of things. Thus death is nothing terrible else it would have +appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death, +that it is terrible. When, therefore, we are hindered, or disturbed, or +grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to ourselves; that is, to +our views." + +Again he makes a sharp distinction between what is in our power,--that +is, what we think about things; and what are not in our power,--that is +external facts. "There are things which are within our power, and there +are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, +aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. +Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one +word, whatever are not properly our own affairs." + +"Now the things within our power are by nature free, unrestricted, +unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak, dependent, restricted, +alien. Remember, then, that if you attribute freedom to things by nature +dependent, and seek for your own that which is really controlled by +others, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, +you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you take for your own +only that which is your own, and view what belongs to others just as it +really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; +you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do +nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an +enemy, nor will you suffer any harm." + +All this is simply carrying out the principle that we need not concern +ourselves about purely external things, for those things pure and simple +can never get into our minds, or affect us one way or the other. The +only things that enter into us are things as we think about them, facts +as we feel about them, forces as we react upon them, and these thoughts, +feelings, and reactions are our own affairs; and if we do not think +serenely, feel tranquilly, and act freely with reference to them, it is +not the fault of external things, but of ourselves. + +In his discourse on tranquillity Epictetus gives us the same counsel. +"Consider, you who are about to undergo trial, what you wish to +preserve, and in what to succeed. For if you wish to preserve a mind in +harmony with nature, you are entirely safe; everything goes well; you +have no trouble on your hands. While you wish to preserve that freedom +which belongs to you, and are contented with that, for what have you +longer to be anxious? For who is the master of things like these? Who +can take them away? If you wish to be a man of modesty and fidelity, who +shall prevent you? If you wish not to be restrained or compelled, who +shall compel you to desires contrary to your principles? to aversions +contrary to your opinion? The judge, perhaps, will pass a sentence +against you which he thinks formidable; but can he likewise make you +receive it with shrinking? Since, then, desire and aversion are in your +power, for what have you to be anxious?" + +Epictetus bids us meet difficulties in the same way. "Difficulties are +things that show what men are. For the future, in case of any +difficulty, remember that God, like a gymnastic trainer, has pitted you +against a rough antagonist. For what end? That you may be an Olympic +conqueror; and this cannot be without toil. No man, in my opinion, has a +more profitable difficulty on his hands than you have, provided you but +use it as an athletic champion uses his antagonist." + +Epictetus does not shrink from the logic of his teaching in its +application to the sorrows of others, though here it is tempered by a +concession to the weakness of ordinary mortals. "When you see a person +weeping in sorrow, either when a child goes abroad, or when he is dead, +or when the man has lost his property, take care that the appearance do +not hurry you away with it as if he were suffering in external things. +But straightway make a distinction in your mind, and be in readiness to +say, it is not that which has happened that afflicts this man, for it +does not afflict another, but it is the opinion about this thing which +afflicts the man. So far as words, then, do not be unwilling to show him +sympathy, and even if it happens so, to lament with him. But take care +that you do not lament internally also." At this point, if not before, +we feel that Stoicism is doing violence to the nobler feelings of our +nature, and are prepared to break with it. Stoicism is too hard and cold +and individualistic to teach us our duty, or even to leave us free to +act out our best inclinations, toward our neighbour. We may be as +Stoical as we please in our own troubles and afflictions; but let us +beware how we carry over its icy distinctions into our interpretation of +our neighbour's suffering. + +I have drawn most of my illustrations from Epictetus, because this +resignation comes with rather better grace from a poor, lame man, who +has been a slave, and who lives on the barest necessities of life, than +from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and the wealthy courtier Seneca. Yet +the most distinctive utterances of these men teach the same lesson. +Seneca attributes it to his pilot in the famous prayer, "Oh, Neptune, +you may save me if you will; you may sink me if you will; but whatever +happens, I shall keep my rudder true." Marcus Aurelius says: "Let the +part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements +in the flesh, whether of pleasure or pain; and let it not unite itself +with them, but let it circumscribe itself, and limit those effects to +their parts." "Let it make no difference to thee whether thou art cold +or warm, if thou art doing thy duty, and whether dying or doing +something else. For it is one of the acts of life,--this act by which we +die; it is sufficient then in this act also to do well what we have in +hand." "External things touch not the soul, not in the least degree." +"Remember on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this +principle: that this is not a misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good +fortune." + +The most recent prophet of Stoicism is Maurice Maeterlinck. In "Wisdom +and Destiny," he says:-- + +"The event itself is pure water that flows from the pitcher of fate, and +seldom has it either savour or perfume or colour. But even as the soul +may be wherein it seeks shelter, so will the event become joyous or sad, +become tender or hateful, become deadly or quick with life. To those +round about us there happen incessant and countless adventures, whereof +every one, it would seem, contains a germ of heroism; but the adventure +passes away, and heroic deed there is none. But when Jesus Christ met +the Samaritan, met a few children, an adulterous woman, then did +humanity rise three times in succession to the level of God." + +"It might almost be said that there happens to men only that they +desire. It is true that on certain external events our influence is of +the feeblest, but we have all-powerful action on that which these events +shall become in ourselves--in other words, on their spiritual part. The +life of most men will be saddened or lightened by the thing that may +chance to befall them,--in the men whom I speak of, whatever may happen +is lit up by their inward life. If you have been deceived, it is not the +deception that matters, but the forgiveness whereto it gave birth in +your soul, and the loftiness, wisdom, completeness of this +forgiveness,--by these shall your eyes see more clearly than if all men +had ever been faithful. But if, by this act of deceit, there have come +not more simpleness, loftier faith, wider range to your love, then have +you been deceived in vain, and may truly say nothing has happened." + +"Let us always remember that nothing befalls us that is not of the +nature of ourselves. There comes no adventure but wears to our soul the +shape of our everyday thoughts; and deeds of heroism are but offered to +those who, for many long years, have been heroes in obscurity and +silence. And whether you climb up the mountain or go down the hill to +the valley, whether you journey to the end of the world or merely walk +round your house, none but yourself shall you meet on the highway of +fate. If Judas go forth to-night, it is toward Judas his steps will +tend, nor will chance for betrayal be lacking; but let Socrates open his +door,--he shall find Socrates asleep on the threshold before him, and +there will be occasion for wisdom. We become that which we discover in +the sorrows and joys that befall us; and the least expected caprices of +fate soon mould themselves to our thought. It is in our past that +Destiny finds all her weapons, her vestments, her jewels. A sorrow your +soul has changed into sweetness, to indulgence or patient smiles, is a +sorrow that shall never return without spiritual ornament; and a fault +or defect you have looked in the face can harm you no more. All that has +thus been transformed can belong no more to the hostile powers. Real +fatality exists only in certain external disasters--as disease, +accident, the sudden death of those we love; but inner fatality there is +none. Wisdom has will power sufficient to rectify all that does not deal +death to the body; it will even at times invade the narrow domain of +external fatality. Even when the deed has been done, the misfortune has +happened, it still rests with ourselves to deny her the least influence +on that which shall come to pass in our soul. She may strike at the +heart that is eager for good, but still is she helpless to keep back the +light that shall stream to this heart from the error acknowledged, the +pain undergone. It is not in her power to prevent the soul from +transforming each single affliction into thoughts, into feelings, and +treasure she dare not profane. Be her empire never so great over all +things external, she always must halt when she finds on the threshold a +silent guardian of the inner life. For even as triumph of dictators and +consuls could be celebrated only in Rome, so can the true triumph of +Fate take place nowhere save in our soul." + +It would be easy to cite passage after passage in which the great +masters of Stoicism ring the changes on this idea, that the external +thing, whether it be good or evil, cannot get into the fortified citadel +of my mind, and therefore cannot touch me. Before it can touch me it +must first be incorporated into my mind. In the very act of +incorporation it undergoes a transformation, which in the perverse man +may change the best external things into poison and bitterness; and in +the sage is able to convert the worst of external facts into virtue, +glory, and honour. Out of indifferent external matter, thinking makes +the world in which we live; and if it is not a good world, the fault is, +not with the indifferent external matters,--such as, to take Epictetus's +enumeration of them, "wealth, health, life, death, pleasure, and pain, +which lie between the virtues and the vices,"--but in our weak and +erroneous thinking. + + +III + +THE STOIC REVERENCE FOR UNIVERSAL LAW + +The first half of the Stoic doctrine is that we give our world the +colour of our thoughts. The second half of Stoicism is concerned with +what these thoughts of ours shall be. The first half of the doctrine +alone would leave us in crude fantastic Cynicism,--the doctrine out of +which the broader and deeper Stoic teaching took its rise. The Cynic +paints the world in the flaring colours of his undisciplined, individual +caprice. Modern apostles of the essential Stoic principle incline to +paint the world in the roseate hues of a merely optional optimism. They +want to be well, and happy, and serene, and self-satisfied; they think +they are; and thinking makes them so. If Stoicism had been as +superficial as that, as capricious, and temperamental, and +individualistic, it would not have lasted as it has for more than two +thousand years. The Stoic thought had substance, content, objective +reality, as unfortunately most of the current phases of popular +philosophy have not. This objective and universal principle the Stoic +found in law. We must think things, not as we would like to have them, +which is the optimism of the fabled ostrich, with its head in the sand; +not in some vague, general phrases which mean nothing, which is the +optimism of mysticism: but in the hard, rigid terms of universal law. +Everything that happens is part of the one great whole. The law of the +whole determines the nature and worth of the part. Seen from the point +of view of the whole, every part is necessary, and therefore +good,--everything except, as Cleanthes says in his hymn, "what the +wicked do in their foolishness." The typical evils of life can all be +brought under the Stoic formula, under some beneficial law; all, that +is, except sin. That particular form of evil was not satisfactorily +dealt with until the advent of Christianity. + +Take evils of accident to begin with. An aged man slips on the ice, +falls, breaks a bone, and is left, like Epictetus, lame for life. The +particular application of the law of gravitation in this case has +unfortunate results for the individual. But the law is good. We should +not know how to get along in the world without this beneficent law. +Shall we repine and complain against the law that holds the stars and +planets in their courses, shapes the mountains, sways the tides, brings +down the rain, and draws the rivers to the sea, turning ten thousand +mill-wheels of industry as it goes rejoicing on its way; shall we +complain against this law because in one instance in a thousand million +it chances to throw down an individual, which happens to be me, and +breaks a bone or two of mine, and leaves me for the brief span of my +remaining pilgrimage with a limping gait? If Epictetus could say to his +cruel master under torture, "You will break my leg if you keep on," and +then when it broke could smilingly add, "I told you so,"--cannot we +endure with fortitude, and even grateful joy, the incidental inflictions +which so beneficent a master as the great law of gravitation in its +magnificent impartiality may see fit to mete out to us? + +A current of electricity, seeking its way from sky to earth, finds on +some particular occasion the body of a beloved husband, a dear son, an +honoured father of dependent children, the best conductor between the +air and the earth, and kills the person through whose body it takes its +swift and fatal course. Yet this law has no malevolence in its impartial +heart. On the contrary the beneficent potency of the laws of electricity +is so great that our largest hopes for the improvement of our economic +condition rest on its unexplored resources. + +A group of bacteria, ever alert to find matter not already appropriated +and held in place by vital forces stronger than their own, find their +food and breeding place within a human body, and subject our friend or +our child to weeks of fever, and perchance to death. Yet we cannot call +evil the great biological law that each organism shall seek its meat +from God wherever it can find it. Indeed were it not for these +micro-organisms, and their alertness to seize upon and transform into +their own living substance everything morbid and unwholesome, the whole +earth would be nothing but a vast charnel house reeking with the +intolerable stench of the undisintegrated and unburied dead. + +The most uncompromising exponent of this second half of the Stoic +doctrine in the modern world is Immanuel Kant. According to him the +whole worth and dignity of life turns not on external fortune, nor even +on good natural endowments, but on our internal reaction, the reverence +of our will for universal law. "Nothing can possibly be conceived in the +world, or even out of it, which can be called good without +qualification, except a Good Will. Intelligence, wit, judgment, and the +other _talents_ of the mind, however they may be named, or courage, +resolution, perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are undoubtedly +good and desirable in many respects; but these gifts of nature may also +become extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to make use of +them, and which, therefore, constitutes what is called character, is +not good. It is the same with the gifts of fortune. Power, riches, +honour, even health, and the general well-being and contentment with +one's condition which is called happiness, inspire pride and often +presumption, if there is not a good will to correct the influence of +these on the mind." + +"Everything in nature works according to laws. Rational beings alone +have the faculty of acting according to the conception of laws, that is, +according to principles; _i.e._ have a will." + +"Consequently the only good action is that which is done out of pure +reverence for universal law. This categorical imperative of duty is +expressed as follows: 'Act as if the maxim of thy action were to become +by thy will a Universal Law of Nature.' And since every other rational +being must conduct himself on the same rational principle that holds for +me, I am bound to respect him as I do myself. Hence the second practical +imperative is: 'So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person +or in that of any other, in every case as an end, never as means only.'" + +In Kant Stoicism reaches its climax. Law and the will are everything: +possessions, even graces are nothing. + + +IV + +THE STOIC SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF EVIL + +The problem of evil was the great problem of the Stoic, as the problem +of pleasure was the problem of the Epicurean. To this problem the Stoic +gives substantially four answers, with all of which we are already +somewhat familiar:-- + +First: Only that is evil which we choose to regard as such. To quote +Marcus Aurelius once more on this fundamental point: "Consider that +everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power. Take away then, when +thou choosest, thy opinion, and like a mariner who has doubled the +promontory, thou wilt find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay." +"Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint: I +have been harmed. Take away the complaint: I have been harmed, and the +harm is done away." + +Second: Since virtue or integrity is the only good, nothing but the loss +of that can be a real evil. When this is present, nothing of real value +can be lacking. A Stoic then says, "Virtue suffers no vacancy in the +place she inhabits; she fills the whole soul, takes away the +sensibility of any loss, and is herself sufficient." "As the stars hide +their diminished heads before the brightness of the sun, so pains, +afflictions, and injuries are all crushed and dissipated by the +greatness of virtue; whenever she shines, everything but what borrows +its splendour from her disappears, and all manner of annoyances have no +more effect upon her than a shower of rain upon the sea." "It does not +matter what you bear, but how you bear it." "Where a man can live at +all, he can live well." "I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must +go into exile. Does any man hinder me from going with smiles and +cheerfulness and contentment?" "Life itself is neither good nor evil, +but only a place for good and evil." "It is the edge and temper of the +blade that make a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard; and so +it is not money and possessions that make a man considerable, but his +virtue." "They are amusing fellows who are proud of things which are not +in our power. A man says: I am better than you for I possess much land, +and you are wasting with hunger. Another says: I am of consular rank; +another: I have curly hair. But a horse does not say to a horse: I am +superior to you, for I possess much fodder and much barley, and my bits +are of gold, and my harness is embroidered; but he says: I am swifter +than you. And every animal is better or worse from his own merit or his +own badness. Is there then no virtue in man only, and must we look to +our hair, and our clothes, and to our ancestors?" "Let our riches +consist in coveting nothing, and our peace in fearing nothing." + +Third: What seems evil to the individual is good for the whole: and +since we are members of the whole is good for us. "Must my leg be +lamed?" the Stoic asks. "Wretch, do you then on account of one poor leg +find fault with the world? Wilt thou not willingly surrender it for the +whole? Know you not how small a part you are compared with the whole?" + +"If a good man had foreknowledge of what would happen, he would +cooeperate toward his own sickness and death and mutilation, since he +knows that these things are assigned to him according to the universal +arrangement, and that the whole is superior to the part." + +Fourth: Trial brings out our best qualities, is "stuff to try the soul's +strength on," and "educe the man," as Browning puts it. This +interpretation of evil as a means of bringing out the higher moral +qualities, though not peculiar to Stoicism, was very congenial to their +system, and appears frequently in their writings. "Just as we must +understand when it is said that AEsculapius prescribed to this man horse +exercise, or bathing in cold water, or going without shoes, so we must +understand it when it is said that the nature of the universe prescribed +to this man disease, or mutilation, or loss of anything of the kind." +"Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind, that resolves to live and +die master of itself. Adversity is the better for us all, for it is +God's mercy to show the world their errors, and that the things they +fear and covet are neither good nor evil, being the common and +promiscuous lot of good men and bad." + + +V + +THE STOIC PARADOXES + +A good test of one's appreciation of the Stoic position is whether or +not one can see the measure of truth their paradoxes contain. + +The first paradox is that there are no degrees in vice. In the words of +the Stoic, "The man who is a hundred furlongs from Canopus, and the man +who is only one, are both equally not in Canopus." + +One of the few bits of moral counsel which I remember from the infant +class in the Sunday-school runs as follows:-- + + "It is a sin + To steal a pin: + Much more to steal + A greater thing." + +This, in spite of its exquisite lyrical expression, the Stoic would +flatly deny. The theft of a pin, and the defalcation of a bank cashier +for a hundred thousand dollars; a cross word to a dog, and a course of +conduct which breaks a woman's heart, are from the Stoic standpoint +precisely on a level. For it is not the consequences but the form of our +action that is the important thing. It is not how we make other people +feel as a result of our act, but how we ourselves think of it, as we +propose to do it, or after it is done, that determines its goodness or +badness. If I steal a pin, I violate the universal law just as clearly +and absolutely as though I stole the hundred thousand dollars. I can no +more look with deliberate approval on the cross word to a dog, than on +the breaking of a woman's heart. There are things that do not admit of +degrees. We must either fire our gun off or not fire it. We cannot fire +part of the charge. We want either an absolutely good egg for breakfast, +or no egg at all. One that is partially good, or on the line between +goodness and badness, we send back as altogether bad. If there is a +little round hole in a pane of glass, cut by a bullet, we reject the +whole pane as imperfect, just as though a big jagged hole had been made +in it by a brickbat. We get an echo of this paradox in the statement of +St. James, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in +one point, he is guilty of all." + +This paradox becomes plain, self-evident truth, the moment we admit the +Stoic position that not external things, and their appeal to our +sensibility, but our internal attitudes toward universal law, are the +points on which our virtue hangs. Either we intend to obey the universal +law of nature or we do not; and between the intention of obedience and +the intention of disobedience there is no middle ground. + +Second: The wise man, the Stoic sage, is absolutely perfect, the +complete master of himself, and rightfully the ruler of the world. If +everything depends on our thought, and our thought is in tune with the +universal law, then obviously we are perfect. Beyond such complete inner +response to the universal law it is impossible for man to advance. + +Curiously enough, the religious doctrine of perfectionism, which often +arises in Methodist circles, and in such holiness movements as have +taken their rise from the influence of Methodism, shows this same root +in the conception of law. Wesley's definition of sin is "the violation +of a known law." If that be all there is of sin, then any of us who is +ordinarily decent and conscientious, may boast of perfection. You can +number perfectionists by tens of thousands on such abstract terms as +these. But if sin be not merely deliberate violation of abstract law; if +it be failure to fulfil to the highest degree the infinitely delicate +personal, domestic, civic, and social relations in which we stand; then +the very notion of perfection is preposterous, and the profession of it +little less than blasphemy. But like the modern religious +perfectionists, the Stoics had little concern for the concrete, +individual, personal ties which bind men and women together in families, +societies, and states. Perfection was an easy thing, because they had +defined it in such abstract terms. Still, though not by any means the +whole of virtue as deeper schools have apprehended it, it is something +to have our inner motive absolutely right, when measured by the standard +of universal law. That at least the Stoic professed to have attained. + +Third: The Stoic is a citizen of the whole world. Local, domestic, +national ties bind him not. But this is a cheap way of gaining +universality,--this skipping the particulars of which the universal is +composed. To be as much interested in the politics of Rio Janeiro or +Hong Kong as you are in those of the ward of your own city does not mean +much until we know how much you are interested in the politics of your +own ward. And in the case of the Stoic this interest was very +attenuated. As is usually the case, extension of interest to the ends of +the earth was purchased at the cost of defective intensity close at +home, where charity ought to begin. As a matter of fact the Stoics were +very defective in their standards of citizenship. Still, what the law of +justice demanded, that they were disposed to render to every man; and +thus, though on a very superficial basis, the Stoics laid the broad +foundation of an international democracy which knows no limits of +colour, race, or stage of development. Though Stoicism falls far short +of the warmth and devotion of modern Christian missions, yet the early +stage of the missionary movement, in which people were interested, not +in the concrete welfare of specific peoples, but in vast aggregates of +"souls," represented on maps, and in diagrams, bears a close +resemblance to the Stoic cosmopolitanism. We have all seen people who +would give and work to save the souls of the heathen, who would never +under any circumstances think of calling on the neighbour on the same +street who chanced to be a little below their own social circle. The +soul of a heathen is a very abstract conception; the lowly neighbour a +very concrete affair. The Stoics are not the only people who have +deceived themselves with vast abstractions. + + +VI + +THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF STOICISM + +The Stoics had a genuine religion. The Epicureans, too, had their gods, +but they never took them very seriously. In a world made up of atoms +accidentally grouped in transient relations, of which countless +accidental groupings I happen to be one, there is no room for a real +religious relationship. Consequently the Epicurean, though he amused +himself with poetic pictures of gods who led lives of undisturbed +serenity, unconcerned about the affairs of men, had no consciousness of +a great spiritual whole of which he was a part, or of an Infinite Person +to whom he was personally related. + +To the Stoic, on the contrary, the round world is part of a single +universe, which holds all its parts in the grasp and guidance of one +universal law, determining each particular event. By making that law of +the universe his own, the individual man at once worships the +all-controlling Providence, and achieves his own freedom. For the law to +which he yields is at once the law of the whole universe, and the law of +his own nature as a part of the universe. "We are born subjects," +exclaims the Stoic, "but to obey God is perfect liberty." "Everything," +says Marcus Aurelius, "harmonises with me which is harmonious to thee, O +universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time +for thee." + +A characteristic prayer and meditation and hymn will show us, far better +than description, what this Stoic religion meant to those who devoutly +held it. Epictetus gives us this prayer of the dying Cynic: "I stretch +out my hands to God and say: The means which I have received from thee +for seeing thy administration of the world and following it I have not +neglected: I have not dishonoured thee by my acts: see how I have used +my perceptions: have I ever blamed thee? have I been discontented with +anything that happens or wished it to be otherwise? Have I wished to +transgress the relations of things? That thou hast given me life, I +thank thee for what thou hast given: so long as I have used the things +which are thine I am content; take them back and place them wherever +thou mayest choose; for thine were all things,--thou gavest them to me. +Is it not enough to depart in this state of mind, and what life is +better and more becoming than that of a man who is in this state of +mind, and what end is more happy?" + +He also offers us this meditation on the inevitable losses of life, by +which he consoles himself with the thought that all he has is a loan +from God, which these seeming losses but restore to their rightful +owner, who had lent them to us for a while. + +"Never say about anything, I have lost it; but say, I have restored it. +Is your child dead? It has been restored. Is your wife dead? She has +been restored. Has your estate been taken from you? Has not this been +also restored? 'But he who has taken it from me is a bad man.' But what +is it to you by whose hands the giver demanded it back? So long as he +may allow you, take care of it as a thing which belongs to another, as +travellers do with their inn." + +The grandest expression of the Stoic religion, however, is found in the +hymn of Cleanthes. Elsewhere there is too evident a disposition to +condescend to use God's aid in keeping up the Stoic temper; with little +of outgoing adoration for the greatness and glory which are in God +himself. But in this grand hymn we have genuine reverence, devotion, +worship, praise, self-surrender,--in short, that confession of the glory +of the Infinite by the conscious weakness of the finite in which the +heart of true religion everywhere consists. Nowhere outside of the +Hebrew and Christian Scriptures has adoration breathed itself in more +exalted and fervent strains. The hymn is addressed to Zeus, as the +Stoics freely used the names of the popular gods to express their own +deeper meanings. + +HYMN TO ZEUS + +"Thee it is lawful for all mortals to address. For we are Thy offspring, +and alone of living creatures possess a voice which is the image of +reason. Therefore I will forever sing Thee and celebrate Thy power. All +this universe rolling round the earth obeys Thee, and follows willingly +at Thy command. Such a minister hast Thou in Thy invincible hands, the +two-edged, flaming, vivid thunderbolt. O King, most High, nothing is +done without Thee, neither in heaven or on earth, nor in the sea, except +what the wicked do in their foolishness. Thou makest order out of +disorder, and what is worthless becomes precious in Thy sight; for Thou +hast fitted together good and evil into one, and hast established one +law that exists forever. But the wicked fly from Thy law, unhappy ones, +and though they desire to possess what is good, yet they see not, +neither do they hear the universal law of God. If they would follow it +with understanding, they might have a good life. But they go astray, +each after his own devices,--some vainly striving after reputation, +others turning aside after gain excessively, others after riotous living +and wantonness. Nay, but, O Zeus, Giver of all things, who dwellest in +dark clouds and rulest over the thunder, deliver men from their +foolishness. Scatter it from their souls, and grant them to obtain +wisdom, for by wisdom Thou dost rightly govern all things; that being +honoured we may repay Thee with honour, singing Thy works without +ceasing, as it is right for us to do. For there is no greater thing than +this, either for mortal men or for the gods, to sing rightly the +universal law." + +Modern literature of the nobler sort has many a Stoic note; and we ought +to be able to recognise it in its modern as well as in its ancient +dress. The very best brief expression of the Stoic creed is found in +Henley's Lines to R. T. H. B.:-- + + "Out of the night that covers me, + Black as the Pit from pole to pole, + I thank whatever gods may be + For my unconquerable soul. + + "In the fell clutch of circumstance + I have not winced nor cried aloud. + Under the bludgeonings of chance + My head is bloody, but unbowed. + + "Beyond this place of wrath and tears + Looms but the Horror of the shade, + And yet the menace of the years + Finds, and shall find me unafraid. + + "It matters not how strait the gate, + How charged with punishments the scroll, + I am the master of my fate: + I am the captain of my soul." + +The chief modern type of Stoicism, however, is Matthew Arnold. His great +remedy for the ills of which life is so full is stated in the concluding +lines of "The Youth of Man":-- + + "While the locks are yet brown on thy head, + While the soul still looks through thine eyes, + While the heart still pours + The mantling blood to thy cheek, + Sink, O youth, in thy soul! + Yearn to the greatness of Nature; + Rally the good in the depths of thyself!" + + +VII + +THE PERMANENT VALUE OF STOICISM + +If now we know the two fundamental principles of Stoicism, the +indifference of external circumstance as compared with the reaction of +our own thought upon it, and the sanctification of our thought by +self-surrender to the universal law; and if we have learned to recognise +these Stoic notes alike in ancient and modern prose and poetry, we are +ready to discriminate between the good in it which we wish to cherish, +and the shortcomings of the system which it is well for us to avoid. + +We can all reduce enormously our troubles and vexations by bringing to +bear upon them the two Stoic formulas. Toward material things, toward +impersonal events at least, we may all with profit put on the Stoic +armour, or to use the figure of the turtle, which is most expressive of +the Stoic attitude, we can all draw the soft sensitive flesh of our +feelings inside the hard shell of resolute thoughts. There is a way of +looking at our poverty, our plainness of feature, our lack of mental +brilliancy, our humble social estate, our unpopularity, our physical +ailments, which, instead of making us miserable, will make us modest, +contented, cheerful, serene. The mistakes that we make, the foolish +words we say, the unfortunate investments into which we get drawn, the +failures we experience, all may be transformed by the Stoic formula into +spurs to greater effort and stimulus to wiser deeds in days to come. +Simply to shift the emphasis from the dead external fact beyond our +control, to the live option which always presents itself within; and to +know that the circumstance that can make us miserable simply does not +exist, unless it exists by our consent within our own minds;--this is a +lesson well worth spending an hour with the Stoics to learn once for +all. + +And the other aspect of their doctrine, its quasi-religious side, though +not by any means the last word about religion, is a valuable first +lesson in the reality of religion. To know that the universal law is +everywhere, and that its will may in every circumstance be done; to +measure the petty perturbations of our little lives by the vast orbits +of natural forces moving according to beneficent and unchanging law; +when we come out of the exciting political meeting, or the roar of the +stock-exchange, to look up at the calm stars and the tranquil skies and +hear them say to us, "So hot, my little man";--this elevation of our +individual lives by the reverent contemplation of the universe and its +unswerving laws, is something which we may all learn with profit from +the old Stoic masters. Business, house-keeping, school-teaching, +professional life, politics, society, would all be more noble and +dignified if we could bring to them every now and then a touch of this +Stoic strength and calm. + +Criticism, complaint, fault-finding, malicious scandal, unpopularity, +and all the shafts of the censorious are impotent to slay or even wound +the spirit of the Stoic. If these criticisms are true, they are welcomed +as aids in the discovery of faults which are to be frankly faced, and +strenuously overcome. If they are false, unfounded, due to the +querulousness or jealousy of the critic rather than to any fault of the +Stoic, then he feels only contempt for the criticisms and pity for the +poor misguided critic. The true Stoic can be the serene husband of a +scolding shrew of a wife; the complacent representative of dissatisfied +and enraged constituents; maintain unruffled equanimity when cut by his +aristocratic acquaintances and excluded from the most select social +circles: for he carries the only valid standard of social measurement +under his own hat, and needs not the adoration of his wife, the cheers +of his constituents, the cards and invitations, the nods and smiles of +the four hundred to assure him of his dignity and worth. If he is an +author, it does not trouble him that his books are unsold, unread, +uncut. If the many could appreciate him, he would have to be one of +themselves, and then there would be no use in his trying to instruct +them. His book is what the universal law gave him to say, and decreed +that it should be; and whether there be many or few to whom the +universal law has revealed the same truth, and granted power to +appreciate it, is the concern of the universal, not of himself, the +individual author. Again, if he is in poor health, weary, exhausted, if +each stroke of work must be wrought in agony and pain,--that, too, is +decreed for him by those just laws which he or his ancestors have +blindly violated; and he will accept even this dictate of the universal +law as just and good: he will not suffer these trifling incidental pains +and aches to diminish by one jot the output of his hand or brain. When +disillusion and disappointment overtake him; when the things his youth +had sighed for finally take themselves forever out of his reach; when he +sees clearly that only a few more years remain to him, and those must be +composed of the same monotonous round of humdrum details, duties that +have lost the charm of novelty, functions that have long since been +relegated to the unconsciousness of habit, vexations that have been +endured a thousand times, petty pleasures that have long since lost +their zest: even then the Stoic says that this, too, is part of the +universal programme, and must be accepted resignedly. If there is little +that nature has left to give him for which he cares, yet he can return +to her the tribute of an obedient will and a contented mind: if he can +expect little from the world, he can contribute something to it; and so +to the last he maintains,-- + + "One equal temper of heroic hearts, + Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will + To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." + +When there is hard work to be done, to which there is no pleasure, no +honour, no emolument attached; when there are evils to be rebuked which +will bring down the wrath and vengeance of the powers that be on him who +exposes the wrong; when there are poor relatives to be supported, and +slights to be endured, and injustice to be borne, it is well for us all +to know this Stoic formula, and fortify our souls behind its +impenetrable walls. To consider not what happens to us, but how we react +upon it; to measure good in terms not of sensuous pleasure, but of +mental attitude; to know that if we are for the universal law, it +matters not how many things may be against us; to rest assured that +there can be no circumstance or condition in which this law cannot be +done by us, and therefore no situation of which we cannot be more than +master, through implicit obedience to the great law that governs +all,--this is the stern consolation of Stoicism; and there are few of us +so happily situated in all respects that there do not come to us times +when such a conviction is a defence and refuge for our souls. Beyond and +above Stoicism we shall try to climb in later chapters. But below +Stoicism one may not suffer his life to fall, if he would escape the +fearful hells of depression, despair, and melancholia. As we lightly +send back across the centuries our thanks to Epicurus for teaching us to +prize at their true worth health and the good things of life, so let us +reverently bow before the Stoic sages, who taught us the secret of that +hardy virtue which bears with fortitude life's inevitable ills. + + +VIII + +THE DEFECTS OF STOICISM + +Why we cannot rest in Stoicism as our final guide to life, the mere +statement of their doctrine must have made clear to every one; and in +calling attention to its limitations I shall only be saying for the +reader what he has been saying to himself all through the chapter. It +may be well enough to treat things as indifferent, and work them over +into such mental combinations as best serve our rational interests. To +treat persons in that way, however, to make them mere pawns in the game +which reason plays, is heartless, monstrous. The affections are as +essential to man as his reason. It is a poor substitute for the warm, +sweet, tender ties that bind together husband and wife, parent and +child, friend and friend,--this freezing of people together through +their common relation to the universal law. I suppose that is why, in +all the history of Stoicism, though college girls usually have a period +of flirting with the Stoic melancholy of Matthew Arnold, no woman was +ever known to be a consistent and steadfast Stoic. Indeed a Stoic woman +is a contradiction in terms. One might as well talk of a warm iceberg, +or soft granite, or sweet vinegar. Stoicism is something of which men, +unmarried or badly married men at that, have an absolute monopoly. + +Again if its disregard of particulars and individuals is cold and hard, +its attempted substitute of abstract, vague universality is a bit +absurd. Sometimes the lighter mood of caricature best brings out the +weaknesses that are concealed in grave systems when taken too seriously. +Mr. W. S. Gilbert has put the dash of absurdity there is in the Stoic +doctrines so convincingly that his lines may serve the purpose of +illustrating the inherent weakness of the Stoic position better than +more formal criticism. They are addressed + +TO THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE + + "Roll on, thou ball, roll on; + Through pathless realms of space + Roll on. + What though I'm in a sorry case? + What though I cannot pay my bills? + What though I suffer toothache's ills? + What though I swallow countless pills? + Never you mind! + Roll on. + + "Roll on, thou ball, roll on; + Through seas of inky air + Roll on. + It's true I've got no shirts to wear; + It's true my butcher's bills are due; + It's true my prospects all look blue-- + But don't let that unsettle you-- + Never you mind! + Roll on. + (It rolls on.)" + +The incompleteness of the Stoic position is precisely this tendency to +slight and ignore the external conditions out of which life is made. +Its God is fate. Instead of a living, loving will, manifest in the +struggle with present conditions, Stoicism sees only an impersonal law, +rigid, fixed, fatal, unalterable, unimprovable, uncompanionable. Man's +only freedom lies in unconditional surrender to what was long ago +decreed. Of glad and original cooeperation with its beneficent designs, +thus helping to make the world happier and better than it could have +been had not the universal will found and chosen just this individual +me, to work freely for its improvement, Stoicism knows nothing. Its +satisfaction is staked on a dead law to be obeyed, not a live will to be +loved. Its ideal is a monotonous identity of law-abiding agents who +differ from each other chiefly in the names by which they chance to be +designated. It has no place for the development of rich and varied +individuality in each through intense, passionate devotion to other +individuals as widely different as age, sex, training, and temperament +can make them. Before we find the perfect guidance of life we must look +beyond the Stoic as well as the Epicurean, to Plato, to Aristotle, and, +above all, to Jesus. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PLATONIC SUBORDINATION OF LOWER TO HIGHER + + +I + +THE NATURE OF VIRTUE + +Epicureanism tells us how to gain pleasure; Stoicism tells us how to +bear pain. But life is not so simple as these systems assume. It is not +merely the problem of getting all the pleasure we can; nor of taking +pain in such wise that it does not hurt. It is a question of the worth +of the things in which we find our pleasure, and the relative values of +the things we suffer for. Plato squarely attacks that larger problem. He +says that the Epicurean is like a musician who tunes his violin as much +as he can without breaking the strings. The wise musician, on the +contrary, recognises that the tuning is merely incidental to the music; +and that when you have tuned it up to a certain point, it is worse than +useless to go on tuning it any more. Just as the tuning is for the sake +of the music, and when you have reached a point where the instrument +gives perfect music, you must stop the tuning and begin to play; so when +you have brought any particular pleasure, say that of eating, up to a +certain point, you must stop eating, and begin to live the life for the +sake of which you eat. To the Stoic Plato gives a similar answer. The +Stoic, he says, is like a physician who gives his patient all the +medicine he can, and prides himself on being a better physician than +others because he gives his patients bigger doses, and more of them. The +wise physician gives medicine up to a certain point, and then stops. +That point is determined by the health, which the medicine is given to +promote. Precisely so, it is foolish to bear all the pain we can, and +boast ourselves of our ability to swallow big doses of tribulation and +pronounce it good. The wise man will bear pain up to a certain point; +and when he reaches that limit, he will stop. What is the point? Where +is the limit? Virtue is the point up to which the bearing of pain is +good, the limit beyond which the bearing of pain becomes an evil. +Virtue, then, is the supreme good, and makes everything that furthers +it, whether pleasurable or painful, good. Virtue makes everything that +hinders it, whether pleasurable or painful, bad. What, then, is virtue? +In what does this priceless pearl consist? We have our two analogies. +Virtue is to pleasure what the music is to the tuning of the instrument. +Just as the perfection of the music proves the excellence of the tuning, +so the perfection of virtue justifies the particular pleasures we enjoy. +Virtue stands related to the endurance of pain, as health stands related +to the taking of medicine. The perfection of health proves that, however +distasteful the medicine may be, it is nevertheless good; and any +imperfection of health that may result from either too much or too +little medicine shows that in the quantity taken the medicine was bad +for us. Precisely so pain is good for us up to the point where virtue +requires it. Below or above that point, pain becomes an evil. + +Plato spared no pains to disentangle the question of virtue from its +complications with rewards and penalties, pleasures and pains. As the +virtue of a violin is not in its carving or polish, but in the music it +produces; as the virtue of medicine is not in its sweetness or its +absence of bitterness, so the virtue of man has primarily nothing to do +with rewards and penalties, pleasures or pains. In our study of virtue, +he says, we must strip it naked of all rewards, honours, and emoluments; +indeed we must go farther and even dress it up in the outer habiliments +of vice; we must make the virtuous man poor, persecuted, forsaken, +unpopular, distrusted, reviled, and condemned. Then we may be able to +see what there is in virtue which, in every conceivable circumstance, +makes it superior to vice. He makes one of his characters in the +Republic complain that: "No one has ever adequately described either in +verse or prose the true essential nature of either righteousness or +unrighteousness immanent in the soul, and invisible to any human or +divine eye; or shown that of all the things of a man's soul which he has +within him, righteousness is the greatest good, and unrighteousness the +greatest evil. Therefore I say, not only prove to us that righteousness +is better than unrighteousness, but show what either of them do to the +possessors of them, which makes the one to be good and the other evil, +whether seen or unseen by gods and men." Accordingly he attributes to +the unrighteous man skill to win a reputation for righteousness, even +while acting most unrighteously. He clothes him with power and glory, +and fame, and family, and influence; fills his life with delights; +surrounds him with friends; cushions him in ease and security. Over +against this man who is really unrighteous, but has all the advantages +that come from being supposed to be righteous, he sets the man who is +really righteous, and clothes him with all the disabilities which come +from being supposed to be unrighteous. "Let him be scourged and racked; +let him have his eyes burnt out, and finally, after suffering every kind +of evil, let him be impaled." Then, says Plato, when both have reached +the uttermost extreme, the one of righteousness treated shamefully and +cruelly, the other of unrighteousness treated honourably and +obsequiously, let judgment be given which of them is the happier of the +two. Translating the language of the "Gorgias" and the "Republic" into +modern equivalents: Who would we rather be, a man who by successful +manipulation of dishonest financial schemes had come to be a +millionnaire, the mayor of his city, the pillar of the church, the +ornament of the best society, the Senator from his state, or the +Ambassador of his country at a European Court; or a man who in +consequence of his integrity had won the enmity of evil men in power, +and been sent in disgrace to State prison; a man whom no one would speak +to; whom his best friends had deserted, whose own children were being +brought up to reproach him? Which of the two men would we rather be? And +we must not introduce any consideration of reversals hereafter. +Supposing that death ends all, and that there is no God to reverse the +decisions of men; suppose these two men were to die as they lived, +without hope of resurrection; which of the two would we rather be for +the next forty years of our lives, assuming that after that there is +nothing? + +Plato in a myth puts the case even more strongly than this. Gyges, a +shepherd and servant of the king of Lydia, found a gold ring which had +the remarkable property of making its wearer visible when he turned the +collet one way, and invisible when he turned it the other way. Being +astonished at this, he made several trials of the ring, always with the +same result; when he turned the collet inwards he became invisible, when +outwards he reappeared. Perceiving this he immediately contrived to be +chosen messenger to the court, where he no sooner arrived than he +seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew +him, and took the kingdom. Plato asks us what we should do if we had +such a ring. We could do anything we pleased and no one would be the +wiser. We could become invisible, out of the reach of external +consequences, the instant our deed was done. Would we, with such a ring +on our finger, stand fast in righteousness? Could we trust ourselves to +wear that ring night and day? Would we feel safe if we knew that our +next-door neighbour, even our most intimate friend, had such a ring, and +could do just what he pleased to us, and yet never get caught? Can we +tell why a man with such a ring on his finger should not do any unjust, +unkind, impure, or dishonourable deed? + + +II + +RIGHTEOUSNESS WRIT LARGE + +The Republic is Plato's answer to this question. Why, you may ask, +should he give us a treatise on politics in answer to a question of +personal character? Because the state is simply the individual writ +large, and as we can read large letters more easily than small letters, +we shall get at the principle of righteousness more readily if we first +consider what it is in the large letters of the state. In presenting +this analogy of the state I shall freely translate Plato's teachings +into their modern equivalent. What, then, is the difference between a +righteous and unrighteous state? + +An unrighteous state is one in which the working-men in each industry +are organised into a union which uses its power to force the wages of +its members up to an exorbitant level, and uses intimidation and +violence to prevent any one else from working for less or producing more +than the standards fixed by the union; it is a state in which the owners +of capital, in each line of industry, combine into overcapitalised +trusts for the purpose of making the small sums which they put into the +business, and the larger sums which they do not put in at all, except on +paper, earn exorbitant dividends at the expense of the public; it is a +state in which the politicians are in politics for their pockets, using +the opportunities for advantageous contracts which offices afford, and +the opportunities for legislation in favour of private schemes, to +enrich themselves out of the public purse; it is a state in which the +police intimidate the other citizens, and sell permission to commit +crime to the highest bidder; it is a state in which the scholars concern +themselves exclusively about their own special and technical interests, +and as long as the institutions with which they are connected are +supported by the gifts of rich men, care little how the poor are +oppressed and the many are made to suffer by the corrupt use of wealth +and the selfish misuse of power. Such is the unrighteous state. And +wherein does its unrighteousness consist? Obviously in the fact that +each of the great classes in the state--working-men, capitalists, +police, politicians, scholars--are living exclusively for themselves and +are ready to sacrifice the interests of the community as a whole to +their private interests. Now a state which should be completely +unrighteous, in which everybody should succeed in carrying out his own +selfish interests at the expense of everybody else, would be +intolerable. United action would be impossible. No one would wish to +live in such a state. There must be honour even among thieves; otherwise +stealing could not be successful on any considerable scale. The trouble +with it is that each part is arrayed in antagonism against every other +part, and the whole is sacrificed to the supposed interests of its +constituent members. + +What, then, in contrast to this would be a righteous state? It would be +a state in which each of these classes fulfils its part well, with a +view to the good of the whole. It would be a state where labour would be +organised into unions, which would not insist on having the greatest +possible wages for the least possible work, but which would maintain a +high standard of efficiency, and intelligence, and character in the +members, with a view to doing the best possible work in their trade, at +such wages as the resources and needs of the community, as indicated by +the normal action of demand and supply, would warrant. It would be a +state in which the capitalists would organise their business in such a +way that they might invite public inspection of the relation between the +capital, enterprise, skill, economy, and industry expended, and the +prices they charge for commodities furnished and services rendered. It +would be a state in which the police would maintain that order and law +which is the equal interest of the rich and poor alike. It would be a +state in which the men in political offices would use their official +positions and influence for the protection of the lives and promotion of +the interests of the whole people whom they represent and profess to +serve. It would be a state in which the colleges and universities would +be intensely alive to economic, social, and public questions, and devote +their learning to the maintenance of healthful material conditions, just +distribution of wealth, sound morals, and wise determination of public +policy. + +Wherein, then, does the difference between an unrighteous and a +righteous state consist? Simply in this--that in the unrighteous state +each class in the community is playing for its own hand and regarding +the community as a mere means to its own selfish interests as the +supreme end,--while a righteous state on the contrary is one in which +each class in the community is doing its own work as economically and +efficiently as possible, with a view to the interests of the community +as a whole. In the unrighteous state the whole is subordinated to each +separate part; in the righteous state each part is subordinated to the +common interests of the whole. If, then, we ask as did Adeimantus in the +Republic, "Where, then, is righteousness, and in which particular part +of the state is it to be found," our answer will be that given by +Socrates, "that each individual man shall be put to that use for which +nature designs him, and every man will do his own business so that the +whole city will be not many but one." Righteousness, then, in the state +consists in having each class mind its own business with a view to the +good of the whole. On this, which is Plato's fundamental principle, we +can all agree. + +As to the method by which the righteous state is to be brought about +probably we should all profoundly differ from him. His method for +securing the subordination of what he calls the lower class of society +to what he calls the higher class is that of repression, force, and +fraud. The obedience of the working-men is to be secured by +intimidation; the devotion of the higher classes is to be secured partly +by suppression of natural instincts and interests, partly by an +elaborate and prolonged education. The rulers are to have no property +and no wives and families that they can call their own. He attempts to +get devotion to the whole by suppressing those more individual and +special forms of devotion which spring from private property and family +affection. In all these details of his scheme we must frankly recognise +that Plato was profoundly wrong. The working classes cannot and ought +not to be driven like dumb cattle to their tasks by a force external to +themselves. The ruling class, the scholars and statesmen, can never be +successfully trained for disinterested public life by taking away from +them those fundamental interests and affections out of which, in the +long run, all public spirit takes its rise and draws its inspiration. In +opposition to this communism based on repression and suppression by +force and fraud, the modern democracy sets a community of interest and a +devotion of personal resources, be they great or small, to the common +good on the part of every citizen of every class. The utter inadequacy +and impracticability of the details of Plato's communistic schemes +about the wives and property of his ruling class should not blind us to +the profound truth of his essential definition of righteousness in a +state: That each class shall "do the work for which they draw the wage" +with a view to the effect it will have, not on themselves alone, but +primarily on the welfare of the whole state, of which each class is a +serving and contributing member. This essential truth of Plato our +modern democracy has taken up. The difference is that, while Plato +proposed to have intelligence and authority in one, and obedience and +manual labour in another class, the problem of modern democracy is to +give an intelligent and public-spirited outlook to the working-man, and +a spirit of honest work to the scholar and the statesman. + +The defect of Plato lies in the external arrangements by which he +proposed to secure the right relation of parts to the whole. His +measures for securing this subordination were partly material and +physical, partly visionary and unnatural, where ours must be natural, +social, intellectual, and spiritual. But he did lay down for all time +the great principle that the due subordination of the parts to the +whole, of the members to the organism, of the classes to society, of +individuals to the state is the essence of righteousness in a state, +and an indispensable condition of political well-being. + + +III + +THE CARDINAL VIRTUES + +Righteousness in a state then consists in each class minding its own +business, and performing its specific function for the good of the state +as a whole. Righteousness in the individual is precisely the same thing. +There are three grand departments of each man's life: his appetites, his +spirit, and his reason. Neither of these is good or bad in itself. +Neither of them should be permitted to set up housekeeping on its own +account. Any one of them is bad if it acts for itself alone, regardless +of the interests of the self as a whole. Let us take up these +departments in order, and see wherein the vice and the virtue of each +consists. First the appetites, which in the individual correspond to the +working class in the state. + +Let us take eating as a specimen, remembering, however, that everything +we say about the appetite for food is equally true of all the other +elementary appetites, such as those that deal with drink, sex, dress, +property, amusement, and the like. The Epicurean said they are all good +if they do not clash and contradict each other. The Stoic implied that +they are all, if not positively bad, at least so low and unimportant +that the wise man will not pay much attention to them. Plato says they +are all good in their place, and that they are all bad out of their +place. What, then, is their place? It is one of subordination and +service to the self as a whole. Which is the better breakfast: a half +pound of beefsteak, with fried potatoes, an omelette, some griddle cakes +and maple syrup, with a doughnut or two, and a generous piece of mince +pie? or a little fruit and a cereal, a roll, and a couple of eggs? + +Intrinsically the first breakfast is, if anything, better than the +second. There is more of it. It offers greater variety. It takes longer +to eat it. It will stay by you longer. If you are at a hotel conducted +on the American plan, you are getting more for your money. + +Righteousness, however, is concerned with none of these considerations. +What makes one breakfast better than the other is the way it fits into +one's life as a whole. Which breakfast will enable you to do the best +forenoon's work? Which one will give you acute headache and chronic +dyspepsia? Immediate appetite cannot answer these questions. Reason is +the only one of our three departments that can tell us what is good for +the self as a whole. Now for most people in ordinary circumstances, +reason prescribes the second breakfast, or something like it. The second +breakfast fits into one's permanent plan of life. The work to be done in +the forenoon, the feelings one will have in the afternoon, the general +efficiency which we desire to maintain from day to day and year to year, +all point to the second breakfast as the more adapted to promote the +welfare of the self as a whole throughout the entire life history. If we +eat the first breakfast, appetite rules and reason is thrust into +subjection. The lower has conquered the higher; the part has domineered +the whole. To eat such a breakfast, for ninety-nine men out of every +hundred, would be gluttony. Yet, though eating it is vicious, the fault +is not in the breakfast, not in the hunger for it; but in the fact that +the appetite had its own way, regardless of the permanent interests of +the self as a whole; and that so far forth reason was dethroned, and +appetite set up as ruler in its place. Indeed there are circumstances in +which the first breakfast would be the right one to choose. If one were +on the borders of civilisation, setting out for a long tramp through the +wilderness, where every ounce of food must be carried on his back, and +no more fresh meat and home cooking could be expected for several days, +even reason herself might prescribe the first breakfast as more +beneficial to the whole man than the second. Precisely the same +breakfast which is good in one set of circumstances becomes bad in +another. The raw appetite of hunger is obviously neither good nor bad. +The rule of appetite over reason and the whole self, however, is bad +always, everywhere, and for everybody. It is in this rising up of the +lower part of the self against the higher, and its sacrifice of the self +as a whole to a particular gratification that all vice consists. + +On the other hand, the rule of reason over appetite, the gratification +or the restraint of appetite according as the interests of the total +self require, is always and everywhere and for everybody good. This is +the essence of virtue; and the particular form of virtue that results +from this control of the appetites by reason in the interest of the +permanent and total self is temperance--the first and most fundamental +of Plato's cardinal virtues. + +The second element of human nature, spirit, must be dealt with in the +same way. By spirit Plato means the fighting element in us, that which +prompts us to defend ourselves, the faculty of indignation, anger, and +vengeance. To make it concrete, let us take a case. Suppose the cook in +our kitchen has times of being careless, cross, saucy, wilful, and +disobedient. The spirit within prompts us to upbraid her, quarrel with +her, and when she grows in turn more insolent and impertinent, to +discharge her. Is such an exercise of spirit a virtuous act? It may be +virtuous, or it may be vicious. In this element, considered in itself, +there is no more virtue or vice than in appetite considered in itself. +It is again a question of how this particular act of this particular +side of our nature stands related to the self as a whole. What does +reason say? + +If I send this cook away, shall I be a long while without any; and after +much vexation probably put up with another not half so good? Will my +household be thrown into confusion? Will hospitality be made impossible? +Will the working power of the members of my household be impaired by +lack of well-prepared, promptly served food? In the present state of +this servant problem, all these things and worse are quite likely to +happen. Consequently reason declares in unmistakable terms that the +interests of the self as a whole demand the retention of the cook. But +it galls and frets our spirit to keep this impertinent, disobedient +servant, and hear her irritating words, and see her aggravating +behaviour. Never mind, reason says to the spirited element in us. The +spirit is not put into us in order that it may have a good time all by +itself on its own account. It is put into us to protect and promote the +interests of the self as a whole. You must bear patiently with the +incidental failings of your cook, and return soft answers to her harsh +words; because in that way you will best serve that whole self which +your spirit is given you to defend. In ninety-nine cases out of a +hundred a quarrel with a cook, on such grounds, in present conditions, +would be prejudicial to the interests of the self as a whole. It is the +sacrifice of the whole to the part; which as we saw in the case of +appetite is the essence of all vice. Only in this case the vice would +be, not intemperance, but cowardice, inability to bear a transient, +trifling pain patiently and bravely for the sake of the self as a whole. + +Still, there might be aggravated cases in which the sharp reproof, the +quarrel, and the prompt discharge might be the brave and right thing to +do. If one felt it a contribution one was required to make to the whole +servant problem, and after considering all the inconvenience it would +cost, still felt that life as a whole was worth more with this +particular servant out of the house than in it, then precisely the same +act, which ordinarily would be wrong, in this exceptional case would be +right. It is not what you do, but how you do it, that determines whether +an outburst of anger is virtuous or vicious. If the whole self is in it, +if all interests have been fully weighed by the reason, if, in short, +you are all there when you do it, then the act is a virtuous act, and +the special name of this virtue of the spirit is courage or fortitude. +Anger and indignation going off on its own account is always vicious. +Anger and indignation properly controlled by reason in the interest of +the total self is always good. Precisely the same outward act done by +one man in one set of circumstances is bad, and shows the man to be +vicious, cowardly, and weak; while, if done by another man in other +circumstances, it shows him to be strong, brave, and manly. Virtue and +vice are questions of the subordination or insubordination of the lower +to the higher elements of our nature; of the parts of our selves to the +whole. The subordination of appetite to reason has given us the first of +the four virtues. The subordination of spirit to reason has given us +fortitude, the second. + +Wisdom, the third of Plato's cardinal virtues, consists in the supremacy +of reason over spirit and appetite; just as temperance and courage +consisted in the subordination of appetite and spirit to reason. Wisdom, +then, is much the same thing as temperance and courage, only in more +positive and comprehensive form. Wisdom is the vision of the good, the +true end of man, for the sake of which the lower elements must be +subordinated. What, then, is the good, according to Plato? The good is +the principle of order, proportion, and harmony that binds the many +parts of an object into the effective unity of an organic whole. The +good of a watch is that perfect working together of all its springs and +wheels and hands, which makes it keep time. The good of a thing is the +thing's proper and distinctive function; and the condition of its +performing its function is the subordination of its parts to the +interest of the whole. + +The good of a horse is strength and speed; but this in turn involves the +cooerdination of its parts in graceful, free movement. The good of a +state is the cooeperation of all its citizens, according to their several +capacities, for the happiness and welfare of the whole community. Wisdom +in the statesman is the power to see such an ideal relation of the +citizens to each other, and the means by which it can be attained and +conserved. The good of the individual man, likewise, is the harmonious +working together of all the elements in him, so as to produce a +satisfactory life; and wisdom is the vision of such a truly satisfactory +life, and of the conditions of its attainment. Since man lives in a +world full of natural objects, and of works of art; since he is +surrounded by other men and is a member of a state; and since his +welfare depends on his fulfilling his relations to these objects and +persons, it follows that wisdom to see his own true good will involve a +knowledge of these objects, persons, and institutions around him. Hence +rather more than half the Republic is occupied with the problem of +education; or the training of men in that wisdom which consists in the +knowledge of the good. + + +IV + +PLATO'S SCHEME OF EDUCATION + +Education, therefore, in Plato's ideal Republic, was a lifelong affair, +and from first to last practical. For the guardians, the men who were to +be rulers or, as we should say, leaders of their fellows, he prescribed +the following course: From early childhood until the age of +seventeen,--that is, through our elementary and high school periods,--he +would give chief attention to what he calls music; that is, to +literature, music, and the plastic arts, with popular descriptive +science, or, as we call it nowadays, nature study. This, with elementary +mathematics and gymnastics as incidental, constituted the curriculum for +the first ten or twelve years. The chief stress through all these years +he lays on good literature,--good both in substance and in form; for +children at this age are intensely imitative. Plato practically +anticipated the latest results of child study, which tell us that the +child builds up the whole substance of his conception of himself out of +materials borrowed from others and incorporated in himself by imitative +reproduction; and then in turn interprets and understands others only in +so far as he can eject this borrowed material into other persons. Hence +Plato says it is of supreme importance that the children shall learn to +admire and love good literature. That teachers should be able to teach +the children to read and write and cipher and draw he would take for +granted. The prime qualification, however, would be the ability to so +interpret the best literature as to make the children admire and imitate +and incorporate the noble qualities this literature embodies. Into the +literature thus inspiringly taught in the school, only that which +praised noble deeds in noble language should be admitted. Plato's +description of good literature for schools will bear repeating: "Any +deeds of endurance which are acted or told by famous men, these the +children ought to see and hear. If they imitate at all, they should +imitate the temperate, holy, free, courageous, and the like; but they +should not depict or be able to imitate any kind of illiberality or +other baseness, lest from imitation they come to be what they imitate. +Did you never observe how imitations, beginning in early youth, at last +sink into the constitution and become a second nature of body, voice, +and mind?" "Of the harmonies I know nothing, but I want to have one +warlike, which will sound the word or note which a brave man utters in +the hour of danger and stern resolve, or when his cause is failing and +he is going to wounds or death or is overtaken by some other evil, and +at every such crisis meets fortune with calmness and endurance; and +another which may be used by him in times of peace and freedom of +action, when there is no pressure of necessity--expressive of entreaty, +or persuasion, or prayer to God, or instruction of man, or again of +willingness to listen to persuasion or entreaty or advice; and which +represents him when he has accomplished his aim, not carried away by +success, but acting moderately and wisely, and acquiescing in the +event. These two harmonies I ask you to leave: the strain of necessity +and the strain of freedom, the strain of courage, and the strain of +temperance. We would not have our guardians grow up amid images of moral +deformity, as in some noxious pasture, and there browse and feed upon +many a baneful herb and flower day by day, little by little, until they +silently gather a festering mass of corruption in their own souls. Let +our artists rather be those who are gifted to discern the true nature of +beauty and grace; then will our youth dwell in a land of health, amid +fair sights and sounds; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, will +meet the sense like a breeze, and insensibly draw the soul, even in +childhood, into harmony with the beauty of reason. Rhythm and harmony +find their way into the secret places of the soul, on which they +mightily fasten, bearing grace in their movements, and making the soul +graceful of him who is rightly educated, or ungraceful if ill educated; +and also because he who has received this true education of the inner +being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art or nature, +and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives +into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly +blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is +able to know the reason of the thing; and when reason comes, he will +recognise and salute her as a friend with whom his education has made +him long familiar." + +Thus, according to Plato, the important thing for a youth to secure by +the time he is seventeen is the admiration of noble deeds, and noble +words, and noble character. The love of good literature is the backbone +of this elementary education. Manual training and nature study, as a +means to the appreciation of beautiful works of art and beautiful +objects in nature, he would also approve. On the whole Plato is an +advocate of those very reforms which are now being introduced into the +elementary and secondary schools in the name of the New Education. What +one loves is of more importance than what one knows; what one wants to +do, and is interested in trying to do, is of more consequence at this +stage than what one has done. Early education should be an introduction +to the true, the beautiful, and the good in the form of great men, brave +deeds, beautiful objects, and beneficent laws. The development of taste +is more than the acquisition of information; the inspiration of +literature, history, art, and descriptive science is far more valuable +than drill beyond the essentials in grammar, geography, and arithmetic. + +Plato's programme for the years from seventeen to twenty, three of our +four college years, is even more startling and heretical; and quite in +line with certain tendencies in our own day. He would set apart the +three years from seventeen to twenty for gymnastic exercises, including +in such exercises, however, military drill. Plato appreciated both the +advantage and disadvantage of intense athletic exercises. "The period, +whether of two or three years, which passes in this sort of training is +useless for any other purpose,--for sleep and exercise are unpropitious +to learning; and the trial is one of the most important tests to which +they are subjected." + +At the age of twenty he would select the most promising youths and give +them a ten years' course in severe study of science. This systematic +study corresponds to the graduate and professional period in modern +education, only he extends it over ten years, where we confine it to +three or four. Again at thirty there is another selection of those who +are most steadfast in their learning and most faithful in their military +and public duties, and these are given a five years' course in dialectic +or philosophy. They are trained to see the relation of the special +sciences to each other and how each department of truth is related to +the whole. At the age of thirty-five they must be appointed to military +and other offices. "In this way they will get their experience of life, +and there will be an opportunity to try whether, when they are drawn all +manner of ways by temptation, they will stand firm or stir at all." And +when they have reached the age of fifty, after fifteen years of this +laboratory work in actual public service, holding subordinate offices +and learning to discriminate good and evil, not as we find them done up +in packages and labelled in the study, but as they are interwoven in the +complicated texture of real life, "those who still survive and have +distinguished themselves in every deed and in all knowledge, come at +last to their graduation; the time has now arrived at which they must +raise the eye of the soul to the universal light which lightens all +things and behold the absolute good; for that is the pattern according +to which they are to order the state and the lives of individuals and +the remainder of their own lives also, making philosophy their chief +pursuit; but when their turn comes, also toiling at politics and ruling +for the public good." + +The wisdom which comes of this prolonged and elaborate education is the +third of Plato's four cardinal virtues. In the state it is the ruling +principle, and its agents are the philosophers. As Plato says in a +famous passage: "Until then philosophers are kings, or the kings and +princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and +political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures +who follow either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand +aside, cities will never cease from ill,--no, nor the human race, as I +believe,--and then only will this our state have a possibility of life +and behold the light of day." Precisely so, no individual will attain +his true estate until this philosophic principle, which sees the good, +through training has been so developed that it can bring both appetite +and spirit into subjection to it, as a charioteer controls his +headstrong horses. + + +V + +RIGHTEOUSNESS THE COMPREHENSIVE VIRTUE + +We now have three of the cardinal virtues: temperance, the subjection of +appetite to reason; fortitude, the control of the spirit by reason; and +wisdom, won through education, the assertion of the dictates of reason +over the clamour of both appetite and spirit. But where, amid all this, +Plato asks, is righteousness? In reply he remarks, "that when we first +began our inquiry, ages ago, there lay righteousness rolling at our +feet, and we, fools that we were, failed to see her, like people who go +about looking for what they have in their hands. Righteousness is the +comprehensive aspect of the three virtues already considered in detail. +It is the ultimate cause and condition of the existence of all of them. +Righteousness in a state consists in each citizen doing the thing to +which his nature is most perfectly adapted: in minding one's own +business, in other words, with a view to the good of the whole. +Righteousness in an individual, then, consists in having each part of +one's nature devoted to its specific function: in having the appetites +obey, in having the spirit steadfast in difficulty and danger, and in +having the reason rule supreme. Thus righteousness, that subordination +and coordination of all the parts of the soul in the service of the soul +as a whole, includes each of the other three virtues and comprehends +them all in the unity of the soul's organic life. + +"For the righteous man does not permit the several elements within him +to meddle with one another, but he sets in order his own inner life, and +is his own master, and at peace with himself; when he has bound +together the three principles within him, and is no longer many, but has +become one entirely temperate and perfectly adjusted nature, then he +will begin to act, if he has to act, whether in a matter of property, or +in the treatment of the body, or in some affairs of politics or of +private business; in all which cases he will think and call just and +good action, that which preserves and cooeperates with this condition, +and the knowledge which presides over this wisdom." + +Unrighteousness, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of this. "Then +assuming the threefold division of the soul, must not unrighteousness be +a kind of quarrel between these three--a meddlesomeness and +interference, a rising up of a part of the soul against the whole soul, +an assertion of unlawful authority, which is made by a rebellious +subject against a true prince, of whom he is the natural vassal--this is +the sort of thing; the confusion and error of these parts or elements in +unrighteousness and intemperance, cowardice, and ignorance, and in +general all vice." In other words, righteousness and unrighteousness +"are like disease and health; being in the soul just what disease and +health are in the body." "Then virtue is the health and beauty and +well-being of the soul, vice is the disease and weakness and deformity +of the soul." From this point of view our old question of the +comparative advantage of righteousness and unrighteousness answers +itself. Indeed, the question whether it is more profitable to be +righteous and do righteously and practice virtue, whether seen or unseen +of gods and men, or to be unrighteous and act unrighteously if only +unpunished, becomes, Plato says, ridiculous. "If when the bodily +constitution is gone, life is no longer endurable, though pampered with +every sort of meats and drinks, and having all wealth and all power, +shall we be told that life is worth having when the very essence of the +vital principle is undermined and corrupted, even though a man be +allowed to do whatever he pleases, if at the same time he is forbidden +to escape from vice and unrighteousness, or attain righteousness and +virtue, seeing that we now know the true nature of each?" + +Righteousness, according to Plato, is the condition of the soul's health +and life. To part with righteousness for any external advantage is to +commit the supreme folly of selling our own souls. Righteousness is the +organising principle of the soul; unrighteousness is the disorganising +principle. Health and life rest on organisation. Disorganisation and +vice are synonymous with disease and death. Therefore, all seeming gains +that one may win in the paths of unrighteousness really involve the +greatest possible loss. + +We have now seen what righteousness is, whether in a state or in an +individual. It is the health, harmony, beauty, excellence of the whole +state or the whole man, secured by having each member attend strictly to +its own distinctive work, with a view to the good of the whole state or +the whole man. Thus defined it is something so obviously desirable and +essential, that nothing else is worthy to be compared with it. Whoever +parts with it even in exchange for the greatest outward honours, +emoluments, comforts, or pleasures, is bound to get the worst of the +bargain. Yet men do part with it; states do part with it. And the eighth +and ninth books of the Republic are devoted to a description of the four +stages of degeneration through which states and individuals pass on the +downward road from righteousness and virtue to unrighteousness and vice. +The breaking up of a thing often reveals its nature as effectually as +the putting it together; and as we have traced the four virtues by which +either the state or the soul is constructed, it will throw added light +upon the problem to trace in conclusion the four stages through which +men and states go down to destruction. + + +VI + +THE STAGES OF DEGENERATION + +The first step down is where, instead of the good, men seek personal +honour and distinction. At first the deterioration, whether in state or +individual, is hardly noticeable. An ambitious statesman, on the whole, +will advocate, if he is shrewd and far-sighted, much the same measures +as the statesman who is intent on the welfare of the state. For he knows +that by promoting the public welfare he will most effectively gain the +reputation and distinction he desires. Yet there is a marked difference +in the attitude of mind, and in the long run that difference will +express itself in action. When it comes to a close and hard decision, +where the real interest of the state lies in one direction, and the +waves of popular enthusiasm are running in an opposite direction, the +man who cares for the real welfare of the state will stand fast, while +the man who cares supremely for honour and distinction will be more +likely to give way. Besides, contention and strife will arise, since the +ambitious man is more anxious to do something himself than he is to have +the best thing done by some one else. Hence the state where the +statesmen love power, office, and honour will be less well off than the +state where they are disinterestedly devoted to the public good. + +Just so the man who is supremely covetous of power and honour will be +weaker than the man who loves the good and follows the guidance of +reason as supreme, in both these respects. He will be prone to follow +the clamour of the multitude when he knows it is not the voice of +reason; and he will try to have his own way, even when he knows that the +way of another man is better than his. As Plato says, "He gives up the +kingdom that is within him to the middle principle of contentiousness +and passion, and becomes proud and ambitious." Here, then, are the two +tests by which each man may judge for himself whether he is a degenerate +of the first grade or not. First: Will you do what reason shows you to +be right every time, at all costs, no matter if all the honours and +emoluments are attached to doing something a shade or two off from this +absolutely right and reasonable course? Second: Would you rather have +what is best done by somebody else, and let him have the credit of it, +rather than get all the credit yourself by doing something not quite so +good? The man of pride and ambition can never be quite disinterested in +his service of the good, although incidentally most of the things he +does will be good things. As Plato puts it, "He is not single-minded +toward virtue, having lost his best guardian." He has neglected "the one +thing that can preserve a man's goodness through his life--reason +blended with music." + +It is a short and easy step, in state and individual, from the love of +honour down to the love of money as the guiding principle of life. The +appetitive side of life is always present, even in the most upright of +men. It may be asleep, but it is never dead. And when there is nothing +more deep and vital than the love of honour to hold it in restraint, it +is sure to wake up and prowl about. Rivalry for honour soon reveals the +fact that directly or indirectly honour and office can be bought. Then +comes the state of things where only rich men can get office, or can +afford to hold it if it comes to them. That in the state is what Plato +calls an oligarchy. The deterioration of a state under this condition is +very rapid, for, as he says, "When riches and virtue are placed together +in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls. +And so at last, instead of loving contention and glory, men become +lovers of trade and of money, and they honour and reverence the rich man +and make a ruler of him, and dishonour the poor man." The evils of this +oligarchical rule, he says, are illustrated by considering the nature of +the qualification for office and influence. "Just think what would +happen if the pilots were to be chosen according to their property, and +a poor man refused permission to steer, even though he were the better +pilot?" The other defect is "the inevitable division; such a state is +not one but two states, the one of poor men, the other of rich men, who +are living on the same spot and ever conspiring against one another." + +The avaricious man is like the state which is governed by rich men. "Is +not this man likely to seat the concupiscent and covetous elements on +the vacant throne? And when he has made the reasoning and passionate +faculties sit on the ground obediently on either side, and taught them +to know their place, he compels the one to think only of the method by +which lesser sums may be converted into larger ones, and schools the +other into the worship and admiration of riches and rich men. Of all +conversions there is none so speedy or so sure as when the ambitious +youth changes into the avaricious one." + +Nowhere is Plato more keen or more fair than in his judgment of the +money-maker. He says that he will generally do the right thing; he will +be eminently respectable; he will not sink to very low or disreputable +courses. All his goodness, however, will be of a forced, constrained, +artificial, and at bottom unreal character. He will be good because he +has to, in order to maintain that standing in the community on which his +wealth depends. In Plato's own words: "He coerces his bad passions by an +effort of virtue; not that he convinces them of evil, or exerts over +them the gentle influence of reason, but he acts upon them by necessity +and fear, and because he trembles for his possessions. This sort of man +will be at war with himself: he will be two men, not one; but, in +general, his better desires will be found to prevail over his inferior +ones. For these reasons such an one will be more decent than many are; +yet the true virtue of a unanimous and harmonious soul will be far out +of his reach." + +The next step down for the state is what Plato calls democracy. Of the +democracy of intelligence and self-control diffused throughout the body +of self-respecting citizens Plato had formed and could form no +conception. By democracy he meant the state of things where each man +does that which is right in his own eyes. "In the first place the +citizens are free. The city is full of freedom and frankness--there a +man may do as he likes. They have a complete assortment of +constitutions; and if a man has a mind to establish a state, he must go +to a democracy as he would go to a bazaar, where they sell them, and +pick out one that suits him. Democracy is a most accommodating and +charming form of government, full of variety and diversity, and (this, +perhaps, is the keenest of all Plato's keen thrusts) _dispensing +equality to equals and unequals alike_." + +The man corresponding to democracy in the state, is the man whose life +is given over to the undiscriminating enjoyment of all sorts of +pleasures. "In this way the young man passes out of his original nature +which was trained in the school of necessity, into the freedom and +libertinism of useless and unnecessary pleasures, putting the government +of himself into the hands of the one of his pleasures that offers and +wins the turn; and when he has had enough of that, then into the hands +of another, and is very impartial in his encouragement of them all. +Neither does he receive or admit into the fortress any true word of +advice; if any one says to him that some pleasures are the satisfactions +of good and noble desires, and others of evil desires, and that he +ought to use and honour some and curtail and reduce others--whenever +this is repeated to him he shakes his head and says that they are all +alike, and that one is as honourable as another. He lives through the +day, indulging the appetite of the hour; and sometimes he is lapped in +drink and strains of the flute; then he is for total abstinence, and +tries to get thin; then again, he is at gymnastics; sometimes idling and +neglecting everything, then once more living the life of a philosopher; +often he is at politics, and starts to his feet and says and does +anything that may turn up; and, if he is emulous of any one who is a +warrior, off he is in that direction, or of men of business, once more +in that. His life has neither order nor law; and this is the way of +him,--this he terms joy and freedom and happiness. There is liberty, +equality, and fraternity enough in him." + +The life of chance desire, unregulated by any subordinating principle, +then, is the third stage of the descent and degradation of the soul. + +In the state democracy speedily and inevitably passes over into tyranny. +All appetite is insatiable. In a state where each citizen does what he +pleases "all things are just ready to burst with liberty; excess of +liberty, whether in states or individuals, seems only to pass into +excess of slavery. Then tyranny naturally arises out of democracy." He +then proceeds, with prophetic pen, to trace the evolution of the modern +political boss. First there develops a class of drones who get their +living as professional politicians. Second, "there is the richest class, +which, in a nation of traders, is generally the most orderly; they are +the most squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the +drones; this is called the wealthy class, and the drones feed upon them. +There is also a third class, consisting of working-men who are not +politicians and have little to live upon; these, when assembled, are the +largest and most powerful class in a democracy; but then, the multitude +is seldom willing to meet unless they get a little honey. Their leaders +take the estates of the rich and give to the people as much of them as +they can consistently with keeping the greater part themselves. The +people have always some one as a champion whom they raise into +greatness. This is the very root from which a tyrant (that is, as we +should say, a boss) comes. When he first appears above ground, he is a +protector. At first, in the early days of his power, he smiles upon +every one and salutes every one; he, to be called a tyrant who is making +promises in public and also in private, and wanting to be kind and good +to every one! Thus liberty, getting out of all order and reason, passes +into the harshest and bitterest form of slavery." The worst form of +government, according to Plato, is that which we know too well to-day in +our great cities: the government of the professional politician who +maintains himself by buying the votes of the poor with the money he has +squeezed out of the rich. All pretence of administering the government +in the interest of the community is frankly abandoned. The boss, or +tyrant, as Plato calls him, frankly and unblushingly avows that he is in +politics for what he can get out of it. + +The true statesman, the philosopher king, in Plato's phrase, sees and +serves the public good. Such a government Plato calls an aristocracy, or +the government of the best for the good of all. First below that comes +timocracy, or the government of those who are ambitious for power and +place. Next comes oligarchy, the government of the rich for the +protection of the interests of the moneyed class. Next below that, and +as a logical consequence, comes populism, which is our word for what +Plato calls democracy; a government which aims to satisfy the immediate +wants of everybody, regardless of moral, legal, or constitutional +restraints. Last, and lowest of all, comes the rule of the professional +politician who has thrown all pretence of regard for the public good, +all consideration of honour, all loyalty to the rich and genuine +sympathy for the poor to the winds, and is simply manipulating the forms +of government, getting and distributing offices, collecting assessments +and distributing bribes, all in the interests of his own private pocket. +Between disinterested service of the public good and such unblushing +pursuit of private gain, Plato says that there is no stopping place. +Logically Plato is right; historically, too, he was right at the time +when he was writing. Modern democracy, however, is a very different +thing from the populistic democracy with which Plato was familiar and +which our large cities know too well. A democracy, resting on +intelligence and public spirit, diffused through rich and poor alike, +was beyond Plato's profoundest dreams. That great experiment the +American people, with their public-school system, and their principle of +the equality of all before the law, are now trying on a gigantic scale. + +Corresponding to the tyrannical state comes the tyrannical man. "The +wild beast in our nature gets the upper hand and the man becomes +drunken, lustful, passionate, the best elements in him are enslaved; +and there is a small ruling part which is also the worst and the +maddest. He has the soul of the slave, and the tyrannical soul must +always be poor and insatiable. He is by far the most miserable of all +men." "He who is the real tyrant, whatever men may think, is the real +servant and is obliged to practice the greatest adulation and servility +and be the flatterer of mankind; he has desires which he is truly unable +to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor if you +know how to inspect the soul of him. All his life long he is beset with +fear and is full of convulsions and distractions. Even as the state +which he resembles, he grows worse from having power; he becomes of +necessity more jealous, more faithless, more unjust, more impious; he +entertains and nurtures every evil sentiment, and the consequence is +that he is supremely miserable and thus he makes everybody else equally +miserable." + + +VII + +THE INTRINSIC SUPERIORITY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS + +Plato first constructs the ideal character and shows that it consists in +the righteous rule of the intelligent principle in man over the spirit +and the appetites. A soul thus in harmony with itself, under the rule +of reason, is at once healthy, happy, beautiful, and good. Later, +reversing the process, he shows how the good, beautiful, true, healthy +condition of the soul may be destroyed through the successive steps of +pride, avarice, lawless liberty, ending at last in the tyrannous rule of +some single appetite or passion which has dethroned reason and set +itself up as supreme. The consequence of it all is that "the most +righteous man is also the happiest, and this is he who is the most royal +master of himself; the worst and most unrighteous man is also the most +miserable; this is he who is also the greatest tyrant of himself and the +most complete slave." + +The reason why the life of a righteous man is happier than the life of +an unrighteous man is that it has "a greater share in pure existence as +a more real being." "If there be a pleasure in being filled with that +which agrees with nature; that which is more really filled with more +real being will have more real and true joy and pleasure; whereas, that +which participates in less real being will be less truly and surely +satisfied and will participate in a less true and real pleasure. Those, +then, who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony +and sensuality, never pass into the true upper world; neither are they +truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of true and abiding +pleasure. Like brute animals, with their eyes down and bodies bent to +the earth, or leaning on the dining table, they fatten and feed and +breed, and, in their excessive love of these delights, they kick and +butt at one another with horns and hoofs which are made of iron; they +kill one another by reason of their insatiable lust; for they fill +themselves with that which is not substantial, and the part of +themselves which they fill is also unsubstantial and incontinent." "Thus +when the whole soul follows the philosophical principle, and there is no +division, the several parts, each of them, do their own business and are +righteous, and each of them enjoy their own best and truest pleasures. +But when either of the other principles prevails, it fails in attaining +its own pleasure and compels the others to pursue after a shadow of +pleasure which is not theirs." + +Having reached this point Plato introduces a figure, which carries the +whole point of his argument. "Do you now model the form of a +multitudinous, polycephalous beast, having a head of all manner of +beasts, tame and wild, making a second form as of a lion, and a third of +a man; the second smaller than the first, and the third smaller than +the second; then join them and let the three grow into one. Now fashion +the outside into a single image as of a man, so that he who is not able +to look within may believe the beast to be a single human creature. Now +unrighteousness consists in feasting the monster and strengthening the +lion in one in such wise as to weaken and starve the man; while +righteousness consists in so strengthening the man within him that he +may govern the many-headed monster." "Righteousness subjects the beast +to the man, or rather to the god in man, and unrighteousness is that +which subjects the man to the beast." + +Finally Plato sums up the discussion by anticipating the question which +Jesus asked four centuries later. "How would a man profit if he receive +gold and silver on the condition that he was to enslave the noblest part +of him to the worst? Who can imagine that a man who sold his son or +daughter into slavery for money, especially if he sold them into the +hands of fierce and evil men, would be the gainer, however much might be +the sum which he received? And will any one say that he is not a +miserable caitiff who sells his own divine being to that which is most +godless and detestable and has no pity? Eriphyle took the necklace as +the price of her husband's life, but he is taking a bribe in order to +compass a worse ruin." He even pushes the question a step further and +asks, "What shall a man be profited by unrighteousness even if his +unrighteousness be undetected? For he who is undetected only gets worse; +whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his +nature silenced and humanised; the gentler element in him is liberated +and his whole soul is perfected and ennobled by the acquirement of +righteousness and temperance and wisdom. The man of understanding will +concentrate himself on this as the work of life. In the first place he +will honour studies which impress these qualities on his soul and will +disregard others. In the next place he will keep under his body and will +be far from yielding to brutal and irrational pleasures, and he will be +always desirous of preserving the harmony of the body for the sake of +the concord of the soul. He will not allow himself to be dazzled by the +opinion of the world and heap up riches to his own infinite harm. He +will look at the city which is within him, and he will duly regulate his +acquisition and expense, in so far as he is able, and for the same +reason he will accept such honours as he deems likely to make him a +better man. He will look at the nature of the soul, and, from the +consideration of this, he will determine which is the better and which +is the worst life and make his choice, giving the name of evil to the +life which will make his soul more unrighteous, and good to the life +which will make his soul more righteous; for this is the best +choice,--best for this life and after death. Wherefore my counsel is, +that we hold fast to the heavenly way and follow after righteousness and +virtue always, considering that the soul is immortal and able to endure +every sort of good and every sort of evil; then shall we live dear to +one another and the gods, both while remaining here and when, like +conquerors in the games who go round to gather gifts, we receive our +reward." + +With this magnificent tribute to the intrinsic superiority of +righteousness over unrighteousness Plato concludes his greatest work. +The question why a man should do right, even if he wore the ring of +Gyges which would exempt him from all external consequences of his +misdeeds, has been answered by a thoroughgoing analysis of the nature of +the soul, and the demonstration that righteousness is that organisation +of the elements of the soul into an active and harmonious unity, wherein +its health and beauty and life and happiness consist. In conclusion let +us borrow from another of Plato's dialogues the prayer which he ascribes +to Socrates,--a brief and simple prayer, yet one which, in the light of +our study of the Republic, I trust we shall recognise as summing up the +spirit of his teaching as a whole. "Beloved Pan, and all ye gods who +haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward +and inward man be at one. May I reckon the wise to be the wealthy; and +may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the temperate can carry. +Anything more? That prayer, I think, is enough for me." + + +VIII + +TRUTH AND ERROR IN PLATONISM + +Obviously this Platonic principle is vastly deeper and truer than +anything we have had before. The personality at which both Stoic and +Epicurean aimed was highly abstract,--something to be gained by getting +away from the tangle and complexity of life rather than by conquering +and transforming the conditions of existence into expressions of +ourselves. Epicurus makes a few sallies from his cosey comfortable camp, +to forage for provender. The Stoic draws into the citadel of his own +self-sufficiency; and from this fortified position defies attack. Plato +comes out into the open field, and squarely gives battle to the hosts +of appetite, passion, temptation, and corruption, of which the world +outside, and our hearts inside are full. In this he is true to the moral +experience of the race: and his trumpet-call to the higher departments +of our nature to enter the "great combat of righteousness"; his demand +of instantaneous and absolute surrender which he presents to everything +low and sensual within us, are clear, strong notes which it is good for +every one of us to hear and heed. To him as to Carlyle, "Life is not a +May-game, but a battle and a march, a warfare with principalities and +powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange-groves and green +flowery spaces waited on by the choral muses and the rosy hours; it is a +stern pilgrimage through the rough, burning sandy solitudes, through +regions of thick-ribbed ice. He walks among men, loves men with +inexpressible soft pity, as they _cannot_ love him; but his soul dwells +in solitude, in the uttermost parts of creation. All Heaven, all +Pandemonium are his escort. The stars, keen glancing, from the +immensities, send tidings to him; the graves, silent with their dead, +from the eternities. Deep calls for him unto deep. + +"Thou, O World, how wilt thou secure thyself against this man? None of +thy promotions is necessary for him. His place is with the stars of +Heaven; to thee it may be momentous, to thee it may be life or death; to +him it is indifferent, whether thou place him in the lowest hut, or +forty feet higher at the top of thy stupendous high tower, while here on +Earth. He wants none of thy rewards; behold also he fears none of thy +penalties. Thou canst not hire him by thy guineas; nor by thy gibbets +and law-penalties restrain him. Thou canst not forward him; thou canst +not hinder him. Thy penalties, thy poverties, neglects, +contumelies,--behold all these are good for him. To this man death is +not a bugbear; to this man life is already as earnest and awful, and +beautiful and terrible as death." + +This is a note which appeals forcibly to every noble youth. It has been +struck by the Hebrew Prophets and the Christian Apostles: by Savonarola +and Fichte, and a host of heroic souls; but by no one more clearly and +constrainingly than by Plato. It is the note of earnest and aggressive +righteousness; without which no personality can be either sound or +strong. The man who has never heard this summons to go forth and conquer +the evils of the world without and of his own heart within him, in the +name of a righteousness high above both his own attainment and the +attainment of the world about him as the heavens are higher than the +earth, is still in the nursery stage of personal development. + +On the other hand, there is danger in the very sharpness of the +antithesis which Platonism makes between the higher and the lower. For +the most part this danger is latent in Plato himself; though even in him +it came out in his tendency to regard family life and private property +as detrimental rather than serviceable to that development of character +on which the larger devotion to the state, and the ideal order, must +ultimately rest. + +In Neoplatonism, in the many forms of mysticism, in certain aspects of +Christian asceticism, and notably in the numerous phases of what calls +itself "New Thought" to-day, what was for the most part latent in Plato, +becomes frankly explicit. In general it is a loosening of the ties that +hold us to drudgery and homely duty; a weakening of the bonds that bind +us to the men and women by our side, in order to gaze more serenely on +the ineffable beyond the clouds. This developed Platonism admits that we +must live after a fashion in this very imperfect world; but says our +real conversation all the time must be in heaven. Individual people are +but faulty, imperfect copies of the pattern of the perfect good laid up +on high. We must buy and sell, work and play, laugh and cry, love and +hate down here among the shadows; but we must all the time feed our +souls on the good, the true, the beautiful, which these distorted human +shadows only serve to hide. These Platonic lovers of something better +than their husbands or wives, or associates or friends, go through the +world with a serene smile, and an air of other-worldliness which, if we +do not inquire too closely into their domestic life and business +efficiency, we cannot but admire. They undoubtedly exert a +tranquillising influence in their way, especially on those who are so +fortunate as to behold them from a little distance. But they are not the +most comfortable people to live with, as husband or wife, colleague or +business partner. Louisa Alcott had this Platonic type in mind when she +defined a philosopher as a man up in a balloon, with his family and +friends having hold of the ropes, trying to pull him down to earth. + +A good deal that passes for religion is this Neoplatonism masquerading +in Christian dress. All such hymns as "The Sweet By and By," "Oh, +Paradise, Oh, Paradise," and the like, which set heaven and eternity in +sharp antithesis against earth and time, are simply Neoplatonism +baptized into Christian phraseology; and the baptism is by sprinkling +rather than immersion. + +Thomas a Kempis's "Imitation of Christ," and indeed all the mystical +books of devotion--Tauler, Fenelon, "The Theologia Germanica"--are +saturated with this Platonic or Neoplatonic spirit. "Thou shalt +lamentably fall away, if thou set a value upon any worldly thing." "Let +therefore nothing which thou doest seem to thee great; let nothing be +grand, nothing of value or beauty, nothing worthy of honour save what is +eternal." "Man approacheth so much the nearer unto God, the farther he +departeth from all earthly comfort." These words from the "Imitation of +Christ" sound orthodox enough in our ears. But we ought to understand +once for all that it is Neoplatonic mysticism, not essential +Christianity, that breathes through them. + +This type of personality reduces the world to two mutually exclusive +elements, God and self; and permits no reconciliation or mediation +between them. Fenelon puts this dualism in the form of a dilemma. "There +is no middle course; we must refer everything either to God or to self; +if to self, we have no other God than self; if to God, we are then +without selfish interests, and we enter into self-abandonment." +Undoubtedly for evangelistic purposes the sharp antithesis has great +practical advantages. It is an easy way to reach heaven--this of +scorning earth; an easy definition of the infinite to pronounce it the +negation of the finite. + +As Carlyle has represented for us the stronger side of Platonism, his +friend Emerson shall serve to illustrate the weakness that lurks half +hidden in all this way of thinking. It is so concealed that we shall +hardly detect it unless we are sharply on the watch for this tendency to +exalt the Infinite at the expense of the finite; the Universal at the +expense of the particular; God at the expense of our neighbour. + + "Higher far into the pure realm, + Over sun and star, + Over the flickering Daemon film, + Thou must mount for love; + Into vision where all form + In one only form dissolves; + Where unlike things are like; + Where good and ill, + And joy and moan, + Melt into one." + +"Thus we are put in training for a love which knows not sex, nor person, +nor partiality. We are made to feel that our affections are but tents of +a night. There are moments when the affections rule and absorb the man, +and make his happiness depend on a person or persons. But the warm loves +and fears that swept over us as clouds must lose their finite character, +and blend with God, to attain their own perfection." "Before that heaven +which our presentiments foreshow us, we cannot easily praise any form of +life we have seen or read of. Pressed on our attention, the saints and +demigods whom history worships fatigue and invade. The soul gives +itself, alone, original, and pure, to the Lonely, Original, and Pure, +who on that condition gladly inhabits it." "The higher the style we +demand of friendship, of course the less easy to establish it with flesh +and blood. We walk alone in the world. Friends such as we desire are +dreams and fables. But a sublime hope cheers ever the faithful heart, +that elsewhere, in other regions of the universal power, souls are now +acting, enduring, daring, which can love us and which we can love." + +"I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them +where I can find them, but I seldom use them. We must have society on +our own terms, and admit or exclude it on the slightest cause. I cannot +afford to speak much with my friend. Then, though I prize my friends, I +cannot afford to talk with them and study their visions, lest I lose my +own. It would indeed give me a certain household joy to quit this lofty +seeking, this spiritual astronomy or search of stars, and come down to +warm sympathies with you; but then I know well I shall mourn always the +vanishing of my mighty gods." "True love transcends the unworthy object +and dwells and broods on the eternal, and when the poor interposed mask +crumbles, it is not sad, but feels rid of so much earth, and feels its +independency the surer." + +Here you have Plato and Thomas a Kempis in the elegant garb of a +heretical transcendentalist. But you get the same dualism of finite and +infinite, perfect and imperfect; unworthy, crumbling earth-mask to be +gotten rid of here on earth, and the stars to be sought out and gazed at +up in heaven. + +The combat of the higher against the lower is one in which we must all +engage; and no doubt in order to win we must at times keep the lower +solicitations at arm's-length. If, however, what appeals to us in the +name of the highest counsels any relaxing of definite obligation, any +alienation from the man or woman whom social institutions have placed +closest by our side; any disloyalty to the plain companions and humble +associates whom society or business places in our way; any breaking of +social bonds which generations of self-sacrifice and self-control have +laboriously woven, and centuries of experience have approved as +beneficent; then it is time to abandon Plato, or rather those who have +assumed to wear his mantle, and look for personal guidance to those +greater masters who have transcended the antithesis of higher and lower, +which it was Plato's great mission to make so sharp and clear. The +principle of such a reconciliation we shall find in Aristotle; its +complete accomplishment we shall find in Jesus. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ARISTOTELIAN SENSE OF PROPORTION + + +I + +ARISTOTLE'S OBJECTIONS TO PREVIOUS SYSTEMS + +Our principles of personality thus far, though increasingly complex, +have all been comparatively simple. To get the maximum of pleasure; to +keep the universal law; to subordinate lower impulses to higher +according to some fixed scale of value, are all principles which are +easy to grasp and by no means difficult to apply. The fundamental +trouble with them all is that they are too easy. Life is not the +cut-and-dried affair which they presuppose. A man might have a lot of +pleasure, and yet be contemptible. He might keep all the commandments, +and yet be no better than a Pharisee. Even Plato's principle in actual +practice has not always escaped the awful abyss of asceticism. + +In opposition to Epicurus Aristotle says, "Pleasure is not the good and +all pleasures are not desirable. No one would choose to live on +condition of having no more intellect than a child all his life, even +though he were to enjoy to the full the pleasures of a child. With +regard to the pleasures which all admit to be base, we must deny that +they are pleasures at all, except to those whose nature is corrupt. What +the good man thinks is pleasure will be pleasure; what he delights in +will be truly pleasant. Those pleasures which perfect the activity of +the perfect and truly happy man may be called in the truest sense the +pleasures of a man. The pleasure which is proper to a good activity is +therefore good; that attached to a bad one is bad. As, then, activities +differ, so do the pleasures which accompany them." + +In our discussion of Epicureanism we saw that the principle of pleasure +consistently carried out produced bad results, and, as in the case of +Tito Melema, developed the most contemptible character. Aristotle shows +conclusively why this must be so. Pleasure is the sign and seal of +healthful exercise of function. A life which has all its powers in +effective and well-proportioned exercise will, indeed, be a life crowned +with pleasure. You cannot, however, reverse this proposition, as the +Epicurean attempts to do, and say that a life which seeks the maximum of +pleasure will inevitably have the healthy and proportionate exercise of +function as its consequent. According to Aristotle healthy exercise of +function in a well-proportioned life in devotion to wide social ends and +permanent personal interests, is the cause of which happiness is the +appropriate and inevitable effect. Seek the cause and you will get the +effect. Seek directly the effect, and you will miss both the cause you +neglect and the effect which only the cause can bring. The criticism +which we quoted from George Eliot on the career of Melema is the +quintessence of the Aristotelian doctrine. To put it in a figure: Build +a good fire and warm your room, and the mercury in the thermometer will +rise. The cause produces the effect. But it does not follow that because +you raise the mercury in the thermometer by breathing on the bulb, or +holding it in your hand, that the fire will burn, or the room will be +warmed. The Epicureans and hedonists are people who go about with the +clinical thermometer of pleasure under their tongues all the time, and +expect to see the world lighted with benevolence and warmed with love in +consequence. Aristotle bids them take their clinical thermometers out of +their mouths; stop fingering their emotional pulse; go to work about +some useful business; pursue some large and generous end; and then, not +otherwise, in case from time to time they have occasion to feel their +pulse and take their temperature, they will as a matter of fact find +that they are normal. But it isn't taking the temperature and feeling +the pulse that makes them morally sound; it is doing their proper work +and keeping in vigorous exercise that gives them the healthy pulse and +normal temperature. + +There are, however, two apparently contradictory teachings about +pleasure in Aristotle, and it is a good test of our grasp of his +doctrine to see whether we can reconcile them. First he says, "In all +cases we must be especially on our guard against pleasant things, and +against pleasure; for we can scarce judge her impartially. And so, in +our behaviour toward her, we should imitate the behaviour of the old +counsellors toward Helen, and in all cases repeat their saying: If we +dismiss her, we shall be less likely to go wrong." "It is pleasure that +moves us to do what is base, and pain that moves us to refrain from what +is noble." + +On the other hand he says: "The pleasure or pain that accompanies the +acts must be taken as a test of character. He who faces danger with +pleasure, or, at any rate, without pain, is courageous, but he to whom +this is painful is a coward. Indeed we all more or less make pleasure +our test in judging actions." + +Can we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements? +Perfectly. On the one hand if we do an act simply for the pleasure it +will give, without first asking how the proposed act will fit into our +permanent plan of life, we are pretty sure to go astray. For pleasure +registers the goodness of the isolated act; not the goodness of the act +as related to the whole plan of life. Thus if I drink strong coffee at +eleven o'clock at night, the taste is pleasant and the immediate effect +is stimulating. But if it keeps me awake half the night and unfits me +for the duties of the next day, in spite of the pleasure gained, the act +is wrong. And it is wrong, not fundamentally because of the pains of +wakefulness it brings; it is wrong because it takes out of my life as a +whole, and my contribution to the life of the world, something for which +the petty transient pleasure I gained at the moment of indulgence is no +compensation whatsoever. Is not Aristotle right? Do we not pity as a +miserable weakling, hardly fit to have been graduated from the nursery, +any man or woman who will let the mere physical sensation of a few +moments at the end of an evening count so much as the dust in the +balance against the efficiency of the coming forenoon's life and work? + +If we see this half of Aristotle's truth, we see that the other is not +its contradiction but its complement. If we are sorely and grievously +tempted by the coffee, if we give it up with pain, if saying "No, I +thank you," comes fearfully hard, if we cannot forego it cheerfully +without so much as seriously considering the drinking of it as possible +for us, why then it reveals how little we care for the life and work of +the morrow; and since life and work are but a succession of to-morrows, +how little we care for our life and work anyway. If we had great aims +burning in our minds and hearts, wide interests to which body and soul +were devoted, it would not be a pain, it would be a pleasure, to give up +for the sake of them ten thousand times as big a thing as a cup of +coffee, if it stood in the way of their accomplishment. Yes; Aristotle +is right on both points. Pleasure isolated from our plan of life and +followed as an end will lead us into weakness and wickedness every time +we yield to its insidious solicitation. On the other hand, the resolute +and consistent prosecution of large ends and generous interests will +make a positive pleasure of everything we either endure or do to promote +those ends and interests. Pleasure directly pursued is the utter +demoralisation of life. Ends and interests, pursued for their own sakes, +inevitably carry with them a host of noble pleasures, and the power to +conquer and transform what to the aimless life would be intolerable +pains. + +Aristotle rejects the Epicurean principle of pleasure; because, though a +proof that isolated tendencies are satisfied, it is no adequate +criterion of the satisfaction of the self as a whole. He rejects the +Stoic principle of conformity to law; because it fails to recognise the +supreme worth of individuality. He rejects the Platonic principle of +subordination of appetites and passions to a supreme good which is above +them; because he dreads above all things the blight of asceticism, and +strives for a good which is concrete and practical. + +What, then, is this good, which is neither a sum of pleasures, nor +conformity to law; nor yet superiority to appetite and passion? What is +this principle which can at once enjoy pleasure to the full, and at the +same time forego it gladly; which can make laws for itself more severe +than any lawgiver ever dared to lay down; and yet is not afraid to break +any law which its own conception of good requires it to break; which +honours all our elemental appetites and passions, uses money and honour +and power as the servants of its own ends, without ever being enslaved +by them? Evidently we are now on the track of a principle infinitely +more subtle and complex than anything the pleasure-loving Epicurean, or +the formal Stoic, or the transcendental Platonist has ever dreamed of. +We are entering the presence of the world's master moralist; and if we +have ever for a moment supposed that either of these previous systems +was satisfactory or final, it behooves us now to take the shoes from off +our feet, and reverently listen to a voice as much profounder and more +reasonable than them all, as they are superior to the senseless +appetites and blind passions of the mob. For if we have a little +patience with his subtlety, and can endure the temporary shock of his +apparent laxity, he will admit us to the very holy of holies of +personality. + + +II + +THE SOCIAL NATURE OF MAN + +Before coming to Aristotle's positive doctrine we must consider one +fundamental axiom. Man is by nature a social being. Whatever a man seeks +has a necessary and inevitable reference to the judgment of other men, +and the interest of society as a whole. Strip a man of his relations and +you have no man left. The man who is neither son, brother, husband, +father, citizen, neighbour or workman, is inconceivable. The good which +a man seeks, therefore, will express itself consciously or unconsciously +in terms of other men's approval, and the furtherance of interests which +he inevitably shares with them. The Greek word for private, peculiar to +myself, unrelated to the thought or interest of anybody else, is our +word for idiot. The New Testament uses this word to describe the place +to which Judas went; a place which just suited such a man as he, and was +fit for nobody else. Now a man who tries to be his own scientist, or his +own lawgiver, or his own statesman, or his own business manager, or his +own poet, or his own architect, without reference to the standards and +expectations of his fellow-men, is just an idiot; or, as we say, a +"crank." A wise man may defy these standards. The reformer often must do +so. But if he is really wise, if he is a true reformer, he must reckon +with them; he must understand them; he must appeal to the actual or +possible judgment and interest of his fellows for the confirmation of +what he says and the justification of what he does. This social +reference of all our thoughts and actions, which Aristotle grasped by +intuition, psychology in our day is laboriously and analytically +seeking to confirm. Aristotle lays it down as an axiom, that a man who +does not devote himself to some section of the social and spiritual +world, if such a being were conceivable, would be no man at all. Family, +or friends, or reputation, or country, or God are there in the +background, secretly summoned to justify our every thought and word and +deed. + +Because man's nature is social, his end must be social also. It will +prevent misunderstanding later, if we put the question squarely here, +Does the end justify the means? As popularly understood, most +emphatically No. The support of a school is a good end. Does it justify +the raising of money by a lottery? Certainly not. The support of one's +family is a good end. Does it justify drawing a salary for which no +adequate services are rendered? Certainly not. + +Yet if we push the question farther, and ask why these particular ends +do not justify these particular means, we discover that it is because +these means employed are destructive of an end vastly higher and greater +than the particular ends they are employed to serve. They break down the +structure and undermine the foundations of the industrial and social +order; an end infinitely more important than the maintenance of any +particular school, or the support of any individual family. Hence these +means are not to be judged by their promotion of certain specific ends, +but by their failure to promote the greatest and best end of all; the +comprehensive welfare of society as a whole, of which all institutions +and families and individuals are but subordinate members. + +Throughout our discussion of Aristotle we must understand that the word +"end" always has this large social reference, and includes the highest +social service of which the man is capable. If we attempt to apply to +particular private ends of our own what Aristotle applies to the +universal end at which all men ought to aim, we shall make his teaching +a pretext for the grossest crimes, and reduce it to little more than +sophisticated selfishness. With this understanding of his terms, we may +venture to plunge boldly into his system and state it in its most +paradoxical and startling form. + + +III + +RIGHT AND WRONG DETERMINED BY THE END + +We are not either good or bad at the start. Pleasure in itself is +neither good nor bad. Laws in themselves are neither good nor bad. It is +impossible to say with Plato that some faculties are so high that they +always ought to be exercised, and others are so low that as a rule they +ought to be suppressed. The right and wrong of eating and drinking, of +work and play, of sex and society, of property and politics, lie not in +the elemental acts involved. All of these things are right for one man +in one set of circumstances, wrong for another man in another set of +circumstances. We cannot say that a man who takes a vow of poverty is +either a better or a worse man than a multi-millionnaire. We cannot say +that the monk who takes a vow of celibacy is a purer man than one who +does not. For the very fact that one is compelled to take a vow of +poverty or celibacy is a sign that these elemental impulses are not +effectively and satisfactorily related to the normal ends they are +naturally intended to subserve. All attempts to put virginity above +motherhood, to put poverty above riches, to put obscurity above fame +are, from the Aristotelian point of view, essentially immoral. For they +all assume that there can be badness in external things, wrong in +isolated actions, vice in elemental appetites, and sin in natural +passions; whereas Aristotle lays down the fundamental principle that the +only place where either badness or wrong or vice or sin can reside is in +the relation in which these external things and particular actions +stand to the clearly conceived and deliberately cherished end which the +man is seeking to promote. A simpler way of saying the same thing, but a +way so simple and familiar as to be in danger of missing the whole +point, is to say that virtue and vice reside exclusively in the wills of +free agents. That, every one will admit. But will is the pursuit of +ends. A will that seeks no ends is a will that wills nothing; in other +words, no will at all. Whether an act is wrong or right, then, depends +on the whole plan of life of which it is a part; on the relation in +which it stands to one's permanent interests. For these many years I +have defied class after class of college students to bring in a single +example of any elemental appetite or passion which is intrinsically bad; +which in all circumstances and relations is evil. And never yet has any +student brought me one such case. If brandy will tide the weak heart +over the crisis that follows a surgical operation, then that glass of +brandy is just as good and precious as the dear life it saves. The +proposition that sexual love is intrinsically evil, and those who take +vows of celibacy are intrinsically superior, is true only on condition +that racial suicide is the greatest good, and all the sweet ties of +home and family and parenthood and brotherly love are evils which it is +our duty to combat. To deny that wealth is good is only possible to him +who is prepared to go farther and denounce civilisation as a calamity. +He who brands ambition as intrinsically evil must be prepared to herd +with swine, and share contentedly their fare of husks. + +The foundation of personality, therefore, is the power to clearly grasp +an imaginary condition of ourselves which is preferable to any practical +alternative; and then translate that potential picture into an +accomplished fact. Whoever lives at a lower level than this constant +translation of pictured potency into energetic reality: whoever, seeing +the picture of the self he wants to be, suffers aught less noble and +less imperative than that to determine his action misses the mark of +personality. Whoever sees the picture, and holds it before his mind so +clearly that all external things which favour it are chosen for its +sake, and all proposed actions which would hinder it are remorselessly +rejected in its holy name and by its mighty power;--he rises to the +level of personality, and his personality is of that clear, strong, +joyous, compelling, conquering, triumphant sort which alone is worthy of +the name. + +How much deeper this goes than anything we have had before! A man comes +up for judgment. If Epicurus chances to be seated on the throne, he asks +the candidate, "Have you had a good time?" If he has, he opens the gates +of Paradise; if he has not, he bids him be off to the place of torment +where people who don't know how to enjoy themselves ought to go. + +The Stoic asks him whether he has kept all the commandments. If he has, +then he may be promoted to serve the great Commander in other +departments of the cosmic order. If he has broken the least of them, no +matter on what pretext, or under what temptation, he is irrevocably +doomed. Plato asks him how well he has managed to keep under his +appetites and passions. If the man has risen above them, Plato will +promote him to seats nearer the perfect goodness of the gods. If he has +slipped or failed, then he must return for longer probation in the +prison-house of sense. + +Aristotle's judgment seat is a very different place. A man comes to him +who has had a very sorry time: who has broken many commandments; who has +yielded time and again to sensuous desires; yet who is a good husband, a +kind father, an honest workman, a loyal citizen, a disinterested +scientist or artist, a lover of his fellows, a worshipper of God's +beauty and beneficence; and in spite of the sad time he has had, in +spite of the laws he has broken, in spite of the appetites which have +proved too strong for him, Aristotle gives him his hand, and bids him go +up higher. For that man stands in genuine relations to some aspects of +the great social end to which he devotes himself. And because some +portion of the real world has been made better by the conception of it +he has cherished, and the fidelity with which he has translated his +conception into fact, therefore a share in the great glory of the +splendid whole belongs of right to him. Good honest work, after an ideal +plan, to the full measure of his powers, with wise selection of +appropriate means, gives each individual his place and rank in the vast +workshop wherein the eternal thoughts of God, revealed to men as their +several ideals, are wrought out into the actuality of the social, +economic, political, aesthetic and spiritual order of the world. + +On the other hand, the man of scattered and unfruitful pleasures, the +man of merely clear conscience, pure life, unstained reputation, with +his boast of rites observed, and ceremonies performed, and laws +unbroken, "faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null," is the +man above all others whom Aristotle cannot endure. + +Do you wish, then, to know precisely where you stand in the scale of +personality? Here is the test. How large a section of this world do you +care for, in such a vital, responsible way, that you are thinking about +its welfare, forming schemes for its improvement, bending your energies +toward its advancement? Do you care for your profession in that way? Do +you care for your family like that? Do you love your country with such +jealous solicitude for its honour and prosperity? Can you honestly say +that your neighbour gets represented in your mind in this imaginative, +sympathetic, helpful way? Do you think of God's great universe as +something in the goodness of which you rejoice, and for the welfare of +which you are earnestly enlisted? Begin down at the bottom, with your +stomach, your pocket-book, your calling list, and go up the scale until +you come to these wider interests, and mark the point where you cease to +think how these things might be better than they are and to work to make +them so, and that point where your imagination and your service stops, +and your indifference and irresponsibility begins, will show you +precisely how you stand on the rank-book of God. The magnitude of the +ends you see and serve is the measure of your personality. Personality +is not an entity we carry around in our spiritual pockets. It is an +energy, which is no whit larger or smaller than the ends it aims at and +the work it does. If you are not doing anything or caring for anybody, +or devoted to any end, you will not be called up at some future time and +formally punished for your negligence. Plato might flatter your +self-importance with that notion, but not Aristotle. Aristotle tells +you, not that your soul will be punished hereafter, but that it is lost +already. + +Goodness does not consist in doing or refraining from doing this or that +particular thing. It depends on the whole aim and purpose of the man who +does it, or refrains from doing it. Anything which a good man does as +part of the best plan of life is made thereby a good act. And anything +that a bad man does, as part of a bad plan of life, becomes thereby an +evil act. Precisely the same external act is good for one man and bad +for another. An example or two will make this clear. + +Two men seek political office. For one man it is the gate of heaven; to +the other it is the door to hell. One man has established himself in a +business or profession in which he can earn an honest living and support +his family. He has acquired sufficient standing in his business so that +he can turn it over temporarily to his partners or subordinates. He has +solved his own problem; and he has strength, time, energy, capacity, +money, which he can give to solving the problems of the public. Were he +to shirk public office, or evade it, or fail to take all legitimate +means to secure it, he would be a coward, a traitor, a parasite on the +body politic. For there is good work to be done, which he is able to do, +and can afford to do, without unreasonable sacrifice of himself or his +family. Hence public office is for this man the gateway of heaven. + +The other man has not mastered any business or profession; he has not +made himself indispensable to any employer or firm; he has no permanent +means of supporting himself and his family. He sees a political office +in which he can get a little more salary for doing a good deal less work +than is possible in his present position. He seeks the office, as a +means of getting his living out of the public. From that day forth he +joins the horde of mere office-seekers, aiming to get out of the public +a living he is too lazy, or too incompetent, or too proud to earn in +private employment. Thus the very same external act, which was the +other man's strait, narrow gateway to heaven, is for this man the broad, +easy descent into hell. + +Two women join the same woman's club, and take part in the same +programme. One of them has her heart in her home; has fulfilled all the +sweet charities of daughter, sister, wife, or mother; and in order to +bring back to these loved ones at home wider interests, larger +friendships, and a richer and more varied interest in life, has gone out +into the work and life of the club. No angel in heaven is better +employed than she in the preparation and delivery of her papers and her +attendance on committee meetings and afternoon teas. + +The other woman finds home life dull and monotonous. She likes to get +away from her children. She craves excitement, flattery, fame, social +importance. She is restless, irritable, out of sorts, censorious, +complaining at home; animated, gracious, affable, complaisant abroad. +For drudgery and duty she has no strength, taste, or talent; and the +thought of these things are enough to give her dyspepsia, insomnia, and +nervous prostration. But for all sorts of public functions, for the +preparation of reports, and the organisation of new charitable and +philanthropic and social schemes, she has all the energy of a +steam-engine, the power of a dynamo. When this woman joins a new club, +or writes a new paper, or gets a new office, though she does not a +single thing more than her angel sister who sits by her side, she is +playing the part of a devil. + +It is not what one does; it is the whole purpose of life consciously or +unconsciously expressed in the doing that measures the worth of the man +or woman who does it. At the family table, at the bench in the shop, at +the desk in the office, in the seats at the theatre, in the ranks of the +army, in the pews of the church, saint and sinner sit side by side; and +often the keenest outward observer cannot detect the slightest +difference in the particular things that they do. The good man is he +who, in each act he does or refrains from doing, is seeking the good of +all the persons who are affected by his action. The bad man is the man +who, whatever he does or refrains from doing, leaves out of account the +interests of some of the people whom his action is sure to affect. Is +there any sphere of human welfare to which you are indifferent? Are +there any people in the world whose interests you deliberately +disregard? Then, no matter how many acts of charity and philanthropy, +and industry and public spirit you perform--acts which would be good if +a good man did them--in spite of them all, you are to that extent an +evil man. + +We have, then, clearly in mind Aristotle's first great concept. The end +of life, which he calls happiness, he defines as the identification of +one's self with some large social or intellectual object, and the +devotion of all one's powers to its disinterested service. So far forth +it is Carlyle's gospel of the blessedness of work in a worthy cause. +"Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. +He has a work, a life purpose; he has found it, and will follow it. The +only happiness a brave man ever troubled himself with asking much about +was happiness enough to get his work done. Whatsoever of morality and of +intelligence; what of patience, perseverance, faithfulness of method, +insight, ingenuity, energy; in a word, whatsoever of strength the man +had in him will lie written in the work he does. To work: why, it is to +try himself against Nature and her everlasting unerring laws; these will +tell a true verdict as to the man." + +When we read Carlyle, we are apt to think such words merely exaggerated +rhetoric. Now Aristotle says the same thing in the cold, calculated +terms of precise philosophy. A man is what he does. He can do nothing +except what he first sees as an unaccomplished idea, and then bends all +his energies to accomplish. In working out his ideas and making them +real, he at the same time works out his own powers, and becomes a living +force, a working will in the world. And since the soul is just this +working will, the man has so much soul, no more, no less, than he +registers in manual or mental work performed. To be able to point to +some sphere of external reality, a bushel of corn, a web of cloth, a +printed page, a healthful tenement, an educated youth, a moral +community, and say that these things would not have been there in the +outward world, if they had not first been in your mind as an idea +controlling your thought and action;--this is to point to the external +and visible counterpart and measure of the invisible and internal energy +which is your life, your soul, your self, your personality. + + +IV + +THE NEED OF INSTRUMENTS + +Aristotle's first doctrine, then, is that we must work for worthy ends. +The second follows directly from it. We must have tools to work with; +means by which to gain our ends. General Gordon, who was something of a +Platonist, remarked to Cecil Rhodes, who was a good deal of an +Aristotelian, that he once had a whole room full of gold offered him, +and declined to take it. "I should have taken it," replied Mr. Rhodes. +"What is the use of having great schemes if you haven't the means to +carry them out?" As Aristotle says: "Happiness plainly requires external +goods; for it is impossible, or at least not easy, to act nobly without +some furniture of fortune. There are many things that can be done only +through instruments, so to speak, such as friends and wealth and +political influence; and there are some things whose absence takes the +bloom off our happiness, as good birth, the blessing of children, +personal beauty. Happiness, then, seems to stand in need of this kind of +prosperity." + +How different this from all our previous teachings! The Epicurean wants +little wealth, no family, no official station; because all these things +involve so much care and bother. The Stoic barely tolerates them as +indifferent. Plato took especial pains to deprive his guardians of most +of these very things. Aristotle on this point is perfectly sane. He says +you want them; because, to the fullest life and the largest work, they +are well-nigh indispensable. The editor of a metropolitan newspaper, the +president of a railroad, the corporation attorney cannot live their +lives and do their work effectively without comfortable homes, enjoyable +vacations, social connections, educational opportunities, which cost a +great deal of money. For them to despise money would be to despise the +conditions of their own effective living, to pour contempt on their own +souls. + +Is Aristotle, then, a gross materialist, a mere money-getter, +pleasure-lover, office-seeker? Far from it. These things are not the end +of a noble life, but means by which to serve ends far worthier than +themselves. To make these things the ends of life, he explicitly says is +shameful and unnatural. The good, the true end, is "something which is a +man's own, and cannot be taken away from him." + +Now we have two fundamental Aristotelian doctrines. We must have an end, +some section of the world which we undertake to mould according to a +pattern clearly seen and firmly grasped in our own minds. + +Second, we must have instruments, tools, furniture of fortune in the +shape of health, wealth, influence, power, friends, business and social +and political connections with which to carry out our ends. And the +larger and nobler our ends, the more of these instruments shall we +require. If, like Cecil Rhodes, we undertake for instance to paint the +map of Africa British red, we shall want a monopoly of the product of +the Kimberley and adjacent diamond mines. + + +V + +THE HAPPY MEAN + +The third great Aristotelian principle follows directly from these two. +If we are to use instruments for some great end, then the amount of the +instruments we want, and the extent to which we shall use them, will +obviously be determined by the end at which we aim. We must take just so +much of them as will best promote that end. This is Aristotle's much +misunderstood but most characteristic doctrine of the mean. Approached +from the point of view which we have already gained, this doctrine of +the mean is perfectly intelligible, and altogether reasonable. For +instance, if you are an athlete, and the winning of a foot-ball game is +your end, and you have an invitation to a ball the evening before the +game, what is the right and reasonable thing to do? Dancing in itself is +good. You enjoy it. You would like to go. You need recreation after the +long period of training. But if you are wise, you will decline. Why? +Because the excitement of the ball, the late hours, the physical effort, +the nervous expenditure will use up more energy than can be recovered +before the game comes off upon the morrow. You decline, not because the +ball is an intrinsic evil, or dancing is intrinsically bad, or +recreation is inherently injurious, but because too much of these +things, in the precise circumstances in which you are placed, with the +specific end you have in view, would be disastrous. On the other hand, +will you have no recreation the evening before the game; but simply sit +in your room and mope? That would be even worse than going to the ball. +For nature abhors a vacuum in the mind no less than in the world of +matter. If you sit alone in your room, you will begin to worry about the +game, and very likely lose your night's sleep, and be utterly unfitted +when the time arrives. Too little recreation in these circumstances is +as fatal as too much. What you want is just enough to keep your mind +pleasantly diverted, without effort or exertion on your part. If the +glee club can be brought around to sing some jolly songs, if a funny man +can be found to tell amusing stories, you have the happy mean; that is, +just enough recreation to put you in condition for a night's sound +sleep, and bring you to the contest on the morrow in prime physical and +mental condition. + +Aristotle, in his doctrine of the mean, is simply telling us that this +problem of the athlete on the night before the contest is the personal +problem of us all every day of our lives. + +How late shall the student study at night? Shall he keep on until past +midnight year after year? If he does, he will undermine his health, lose +contact with society, and defeat those ends of social usefulness which +ought to be part of every worthy scholar's cherished end. On the other +hand, shall he fritter away all his evenings with convivial fellows, and +the society butterflies? Too much of that sort of thing would soon put +an end to scholarship altogether. His problem is to find that amount of +study which will keep him sensitively alive to the latest problems of +his chosen subject; and yet not make all his acquisitions comparatively +worthless either through broken health, or social estrangement from his +fellow-men. How rare and precious that mean is, those of us who have to +find college professors are well aware. It is easy to find scores of men +who know their subject so well that they know nothing and nobody else +aright. It is easy to find jolly, easy-going fellows who would not +object to positions as college professors. But the man who has enough +good fellowship and physical vigour to make his scholarship attractive +and effective, and enough scholarship to make his vigour and good +fellowship intellectually powerful and personally stimulating,--he is +the man who has hit the Aristotelian mean; he is the man we are all +after; he is the man whom we would any of us give a year's salary to +find. + +The mean is not midway between zero and the maximum attainable. As +Aristotle says, "By the mean relatively to us I understand that which is +neither too much nor too little for us; and that is not one and the same +for all. For instance, if ten be too large and two be too small, if we +take six, we take the mean relatively to the thing itself, or the +arithmetical mean. But the mean relatively to us cannot be found in this +way. If ten pounds of food is too much for a given man to eat, and two +pounds too little, it does not follow that the trainer will order him +six pounds; for that also may perhaps be too much for the man in +question, or too little; too little for Milo, too much for the beginner. +And so we may say generally that a master in any art avoids what is too +much and what is too little, and seeks for the mean and chooses it--not +the absolute but the relative mean. So that people are wont to say of a +good work, that nothing could be taken from it or added to it, implying +that excellence is destroyed by excess or deficiency, but secured by +observing the mean." + +The Aristotelian principle, of judging a situation on its merits, and +subordinating means to the supreme end, was never more clearly stated +than in Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley: "I would save the Union. If +there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the +same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who +would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy +slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle +is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. +If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and +if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I +could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that. +What I do about slavery and the coloured race, I do because I believe it +helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not +believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I +believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more when I +shall believe doing more will help the cause." + + +VI + +THE ARISTOTELIAN VIRTUES AND THEIR ACQUISITION + +The special forms that the one great virtue of seeking the relative mean +takes in actual life bear a close correspondence to the cardinal virtues +of Plato; yet with a difference which marks a positive advance in +insight. Aristotle, to begin with, distinguishes wisdom from prudence. +Wisdom is the theoretic knowledge of things as they are, irrespective of +their serviceableness to our practical interests. In modern terms it is +devotion to pure science. This corresponds to Plato's contemplation of +the Good. According to Aristotle this devotion to knowledge for its own +sake underlies all virtue; for only he who knows how things stand +related to each other in the actual world, will be able to grasp aright +that relation of means to ends on which the success of the practical +life depends. Just as the engineer cannot build a bridge across the +Mississippi unless he knows those laws of pure mathematics and physics +which underlie the stability of all structures, so the man who is +ignorant of economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and ethics is +sure to make a botch of any attempts he may make to build bridges +across the gulf which separates one man from another man; one group of +citizens from another group. Pure science is at the basis of all art, +consciously or unconsciously; and therefore wisdom is the fundamental +form of virtue. + +Prudence comes next; the power to see, not the theoretical relations of +men and things to each other, but the practical relationships of men and +things to our self-chosen ends. Wisdom knows the laws which govern the +strength of materials. Prudence knows how strong a structure is +necessary to support the particular strain we wish to place upon it. +Wisdom knows sociology. Prudence tells us whether in a given case it is +better to give a beggar a quarter of a dollar, an order on a central +bureau, a scolding, or a kick. The most essential, and yet the rarest +kind of prudence is that considerateness which sensitively appreciates +the point of view of the people with whom we deal, and takes proper +account of those subtle and complex sentiments, prejudices, traditions, +and ways of thinking, which taken together constitute the social +situation. + +Temperance, again, is not the repression of lower impulses in the +interest of those abstractly higher, as it came to be in the popular +interpretations of Platonism, and as it was in Stoicism. With Aristotle +it is the stern and remorseless exclusion of whatever cannot be brought +into subjection to my chosen ends, whatever they may be. As Stevenson +says in true Aristotelian spirit, "We are not damned for doing wrong: we +are damned for not doing right." For temperance lies not in the external +thing done or left undone; but in that relation of means to worthy ends +which either the doing or the not doing of certain things may most +effectively express. We shall never get any common basis of +understanding on what we call the temperance question of to-day until we +learn to recognise this internal and moral, as distinct from the +external and physical, definition of what true temperance is. Temperance +isn't abstinence. Temperance isn't indulgence. Neither is it moderation +in the ordinary sense of that term. True temperance is the using of just +so much of a thing,--no more, no less, but just so much,--as best +promotes the ends one has at heart. To discover whether a man is +temperate or not in anything, you must first know the ends at which he +aims; and then the strictness with which he uses the means that best +further those ends, and foregoes the things that would hinder them. + +Temperance of this kind looks at first sight like license. So it is if +one's aims be not broad and high. In the matter of sexual morality, +Aristotle's doctrine as applied in his day was notoriously loose. +Whatever did not interfere with one's duties as citizen and soldier was +held to be permissible. Yet as Green and Muirhead, and all the +commentators on Aristotle have pointed out, it is a deeper grasp of this +very principle of Aristotle, a widening of the conception of the true +social end, which is destined to put chastity on its eternal rock +foundation, and make of sexual immorality the transparently weak and +wanton, cruel and unpardonable vice it is. To do this, to be sure, there +must be grafted on to it the Christian principle of democracy,--a regard +for the rights and interests of persons as persons. The beauty of the +Aristotelian principle is that it furnishes so stout and sturdy a stock +to graft this principle on to. When Christianity is unsupported by some +such solid trunk of rationality, it easily drops into a sentimental +asceticism. Take, for example, this very matter of sexual morality. +Divorced from some such great social end as Aristotelianism requires, +the only defence you have against the floods of sensuality is the vague, +sentimental, ascetic notion that in some way or other these things are +naughty, and good people ought not to do them. How utterly ineffective +such a barrier is, everybody who has had much dealing with young men +knows perfectly well. And yet that is pretty much all the opposition +current and conventional morality is offering at the present time. The +Aristotelian doctrine, with the Christian principle grafted on, puts two +plain questions to every man. Do you include the sanctity of the home, +the peace and purity of family life, the dignity and welfare of every +man and woman, the honest birthright of every child, as part of the +social end at which you aim? If you do, you are a noble and honourable +man. If you do not, then you are a disgrace to the mother who bore you, +and the home where you were reared. So much for the question of the end. +The second question is concerned with the means. Do you honestly believe +that loose and promiscuous sexual relations conduce to that sanctity of +the home, that peace and purity of family life, that dignity and welfare +of every man and woman, that honest birthright of every child, which as +an honourable man you must admit to be the proper end at which to aim? +If you think these means are conducive to these ends, then you are +certainly an egregious fool. Temperance in these matters, then, or to +use its specific name, chastity, is simply the refusal to ignore the +great social end which every decent man must recognise as reasonable and +right; and the resolute determination not to admit into his own life, or +inflict on the lives of others, anything that is destructive of that +social end. Chastity is neither celibacy nor licentiousness. It is far +deeper than either, and far nobler than them both. It is devotion to the +great ends of family integrity, personal dignity, and social stability. +It is including the welfare of society, and of every man, woman, and +child involved, in the comprehensive end for which we live; and holding +all appetites and passions in strict relation to that reasonable and +righteous end. + +Aristotelian courage is simply the other side of temperance. Temperance +remorselessly cuts off whatever hinders the ends at which we aim. +Courage, on the other hand, resolutely takes on whatever dangers and +losses, whatever pains and penalties are incidental to the effective +prosecution of these ends. To hold consistently an end, is to endure +cheerfully whatever means the service of that end demands. Aristotelian +courage, rightly conceived, leads us to the very threshold of Christian +sacrifice. He who comes to Christian sacrifice by this approach of +Aristotelian courage, will be perfectly clear about the reasonableness +of it, and will escape that abyss of sentimentalism into which too +largely our Christian doctrine of sacrifice has been allowed to drop. + +Courage does not depend on whether you save your life, or risk your +life, or lose your life. A brave man may save his life in situations +where a coward would lose it and a fool would risk it. The brave man is +he who is so clear and firm in his grasp of some worthy end that he will +live if he can best serve it by living; that he will die if he can best +serve it by dying; and he will take his chances of life or death if +taking those chances is the best way to serve this end. + +The brave man does not like criticism, unpopularity, defeat, hostility, +any better than anybody else. He does not pretend to like them. He does +not court them. He does not pose as a martyr every chance that he can +get. He simply takes these pains and ills as under the circumstances the +best means of furthering the ends he has at heart. For their sake he +swallows criticism and calls it good; invites opposition and glories in +overcoming it, or being overcome by it, as the fates may decree; accepts +persecution and rejoices to be counted worthy to suffer in so good a +cause. + +It is all a question here as everywhere in Aristotle of the ends at +which one aims, and the sense of proportion with which he chooses his +means. In his own words: "The man, then, who governs his fear and +likewise his confidence aright, facing dangers it is right to face, and +for the right cause, in the right manner, and at the right time, is +courageous. For the courageous man regulates both his feelings and his +actions with due regard to the circumstances and as reason and +proportion suggest. The courageous man, therefore, faces danger and does +the courageous thing because it is a fine thing to do." As Muirhead sums +up Aristotle's teaching on this point: "True courage must be for a noble +object. Here, as in all excellence, action and object, consequence and +motive, are inseparable. Unless the action is inspired by a noble +motive, and permeated throughout its whole structure by a noble +character, it has no claim to the name of courage." + +The virtues cannot be learned out of a book, or picked up ready-made. +They must be acquired, by practice, as is the case with the arts; and +they are not really ours until they have become so habitual as to be +practically automatic. The sign and seal of the complete acquisition of +any virtue is the pleasure we take in it. Such pleasure once gained +becomes one's lasting and inalienable possession. + +In Aristotle's words: "We acquire the virtues by doing the acts, as is +the case with the arts too. We learn an art by doing that which we wish +to do when we have learned it; we become builders by building, and +harpers by playing on the harp. And so by doing just acts we become +just, and by doing acts of temperance and courage we become temperate +and courageous. It is by our conduct in our intercourse with other men +that we become just or unjust, and by acting in circumstances of danger, +and training ourselves to feel fear or confidence, that we become +courageous or cowardly." "The happy man, then, as we define him, will +have the property of permanence, and all through life will preserve his +character; for he will be occupied continually, or with the least +possible interruption, in excellent deeds and excellent speculations; +and whatever his fortune may be, he will take it in the noblest fashion, +and bear himself always and in all things suitably. And if it is what +man does that determines the character of his life, then no happy man +will become miserable, for he will never do what is hateful and base. +For we hold that the man who is truly good and wise will bear with +dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his +circumstances, as a good general will turn the forces at his command to +the best account." + +This doctrine that virtue, like skill in any game or craft, is gained by +practice, deserves a word of comment. It seems to say, "You must do the +thing before you know how, in order to know how after you have done it." +Paradox or no paradox, that is precisely the fact. The swimmer learns to +swim by floundering and splashing around in the water; and if he is +unwilling to do the floundering and splashing before he can swim, he +will never become a swimmer. The ball-player must do a lot of muffing +and wild throwing before he can become a sure catcher and a straight +thrower. If he is ashamed to go out on the diamond and make these +errors, he may as well give up at once all idea of ever becoming a +ball-player. For it is by the progressive elimination of errors that the +perfect player is developed. The only place where no errors are made, +whether in base-ball or in life, is on the grand stand. The courage to +try to do a thing before you know how, and the patience to keep on +trying after you have found out that you don't know how, and the +perseverance to renew the trial as many times as necessary until you do +know how, are the three conditions of the acquisition of physical skill, +mental power, moral virtue, or personal excellence. + + +VII + +ARISTOTELIAN FRIENDSHIP + +We are now prepared to see why Aristotle regards friendship as the crown +and consummation of a virtuous life. No one has praised friendship more +highly, or written of it more profoundly than he. + +Friendship he defines as "unanimity on questions of the public advantage +and on all that touches life." This unanimity, however, is very +different from agreement in opinion. It is seeing things from the same +point of view; or, more accurately, it is the appreciation of each +other's interests and aims. The whole tendency of Aristotle thus far has +been to develop individuality; to make each man different from every +other man. Conventional people are all alike. But the people who have +cherished ends of their own, and who make all their choices with +reference to these inwardly cherished ends, become highly +differentiated. The more individual your life becomes, the fewer people +there are who can understand you. The man who has ends of his own is +bound to be unintelligible to the man who has no such ends, and is +merely drifting with the crowd. Now friendship is the bringing together +of these intensely individual, highly differentiated persons on a basis +of mutual sympathy and common understanding. Friendship is the +recognition and respect of individuality in others by persons who are +highly individualised themselves. That is why Aristotle says true +friendship is possible only between the good; between people, that is, +who are in earnest about ends that are large and generous and +public-spirited enough to permit of being shared. "The bad," he says, +"desire the company of others, but avoid their own. And because they +avoid their own company, there is no real basis for union of aims and +interests with their fellows." "Having nothing lovable about them, they +have no friendly feelings toward themselves. If such a condition is +consummately miserable, the moral is to shun vice, and strive after +virtue with all one's might. For in this way we shall at once have +friendly feelings toward ourselves and become the friends of others. A +good man stands in the same relation to his friend as to himself, seeing +that his friend is a second self." "The conclusion, therefore, is that +if a man is to be happy, he will require good friends." + +Friendship has as many planes as human life and human association. The +men with whom we play golf and tennis, billiards and whist, are friends +on the lowest plane--that of common pleasures. Our professional and +business associates are friends upon a little higher plane--that of the +interests we share. The men who have the same social customs and +intellectual tastes; the men with whom we read our favourite authors, +and talk over our favourite topics, are friends upon a still higher +plane--that of identity of aesthetic and intellectual pursuits. The +highest plane, the best friends, are those with whom we consciously +share the spiritual purpose of our lives. This highest friendship is as +precious as it is rare. With such friends we drop at once into a +matter-of-course intimacy and communion. Nothing is held back, nothing +is concealed; our aims are expressed with the assurance of sympathy; +even our shortcomings are confessed with the certainty that they will be +forgiven. Such friendship lasts as long as the virtue which is its +common bond. Jealousy cannot come in to break it up. Absolute sincerity, +absolute loyalty,--these are the high terms on which such friendship +must be held. A person may have many such friends on one condition: that +he shall not talk to any one friend about what his friendship permits +him to know of another friend. Each such relation must be complete +within itself; and hermetically sealed, so far as permitting any one +else to come inside the sacred circle of its mutual confidence. In such +friendship, differences, as of age, sex, station in life, divide not, +but rather enhance, the sweetness and tenderness of the relationship. In +Aristotle's words: "The friendship of the good, and of those who have +the same virtues, is perfect friendship. Such friendship, therefore, +endures so long as each retains his character, and virtue is a lasting +thing." + + +VIII + +CRITICISM AND SUMMARY OF ARISTOTLE'S TEACHING + +If finally we ask what are the limitations of Aristotle, we find none +save the limitations of the age and city in which he lived. He lived in +a city-state where thirty thousand full male citizens, with some seventy +thousand women and children dependent upon them, were supported by the +labour of some hundred thousand slaves. The rights of man as such, +whether native or alien, male or female, free or slave, had not yet been +affirmed. That crowning proclamation of universal emancipation was +reserved for Christianity three centuries and a half later. Without +this Christian element no principle of personality is complete. Not +until the city-state of Plato and Aristotle is widened to include the +humblest man, the lowliest woman, the most defenceless little child, +does their doctrine become final and universal. Yet with this single +limitation of its range, the form of Aristotle's teaching is complete +and ultimate. Deeper, saner, stronger, wiser statement of the principles +of personality the world has never heard. + +His teaching may be summed up in the following:-- + +TEN ARISTOTELIAN COMMANDMENTS + +Thou shalt devote thy utmost powers to some section of our common social +welfare. + +Thou shalt hold this end above all lesser goods, such as pleasure, +money, honour. + +Thou shalt hold the instruments essential to the service of this end +second only to the end itself. + +Thou shalt ponder and revere the universal laws that bind ends and means +together in the ordered universe. + +Thou shalt master and obey the specific laws that govern the relation of +means to thy chosen end. + +Thou shalt use just so much of the materials and tools of life as the +service of thy end requires. + +Thou shalt exclude from thy life all that exceeds or falls below this +mean, reckless of pleasure lost. + +Thou shalt endure whatever hardship and privation the maintenance of +this mean in the service of thy end requires, heedless of pain involved. + +Thou shalt remain steadfast in this service until habit shall have made +it a second nature, and custom shall have transformed it into joy. + +Thou shalt find and hold a few like-minded friends, to share with thee +this lifelong devotion to that common social welfare which is the task +and goal of man. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT OF LOVE + + +I + +THE TEACHING OF LOVE + +Jesus taught His philosophy of life in three ways: the personal, by +example; the artistic, by parable; and the scientific, by propositions. + +The first, though most vital and effective of all, is expensive and +wasteful. For in life principles are so embedded in "muddy particulars," +trivial and sordid details, that they are liable to get lost. The Master +may be a long time with His disciples, and yet not really be known. Even +the disciples themselves, after months of such teaching, like James and +John may not know what manner of spirit they are of. Indeed it may +become expedient for them that the Master go away, that His Spirit may +be more clearly revealed. + +The artistic method, too, has drawbacks. For though it gives the +principles a new artificial setting, with carefully selected details to +catch the crowd, yet the crowd catch simply the story. Only the +initiated are instructed; those who do not already know the principles +learn nothing, but "seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not +understand," as Jesus, past master of this art though He was, so often +lamented. + +The third or scientific method is dry and prosaic. It observes what +qualities go together, or refuse to go together, in the swift stream of +life; pulls them out of the stream; fixes them in concepts; marks them +by names; and states propositions about them. It may go one short step +farther: it may arrange its propositions in syllogisms, and deduce +general conclusions, or laws. It may take, for instance, as its major +premise, Love is the divine secret of blessedness. Then for its minor +premise it may take some plain observed fact, Humility is essential to +Love. Then the conclusion or law will be, The humble share the divine +life and all the blessings it brings. Blessed are the poor in spirit, +for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. + +Of course no one but a pedant draws out his teaching in this laboured +logical form. The syllogism is condensed; the major, and perhaps even +the minor, premise is omitted, and often only the conclusion appears. + +At its best this method is hard and dry; yet this is the method employed +in such sayings as those handed down in the summary called the Sermon on +the Mount. Perhaps that is why the teaching of the "Sermon," in spite of +its clear-cut form, is much less studied and understood than the +teaching of Jesus' life and parables. To recover this largely lost +teaching one must warm and moisten the cold, dry terms; supply, when +necessary, omitted premises; use some one word rather than many for the +often suppressed middle term; and so draw out the latent logic that +underlies these laws. + +The middle term of all this argument is Love. For that old-fashioned +word, in spite of its sentimental associations, much better than its +modern scientific synonyms, such as the socialising of the self, +expresses that outgoing of the self into the lives of others, which, +according to Jesus, is the actual nature of God, the potential nature of +man, the secret of individual blessedness and the promise of social +salvation. + +In the two or three cases where the logic of His principle, applied to +our complex modern life, points clearly to a modification of His literal +precepts, as in the management of wealth and the bestowal of charity, I +shall not hesitate to put the logic of the teaching in place of the +letter of the precept, citing the latter afterward for comparison. + +A logical commentary like this will be most helpful if it reverses the +order usual in commentaries of mere erudition, and introduces the steps +of the argument before rather than after the passage they seek to make +clear. + +In whichever of the three ways it is taught, Love shines by its own +light and speaks with its own authority to all who have eyes to see and +ears to hear. + +A person who loves carries with him a generous light-heartedness, a +genial optimism, which show all his friends that he has found some +secret which it is worth their while to learn. + +Every well-told parable or fable, every artistically constructed novel +or play, makes us take sides with the large-hearted hero against the +mean, selfish villain. + +In the same way Love's formulated laws, showing on what conditions it +depends and to what results it leads, convince every one who has the +experience by which to interpret them (and only to him who hath +experience is interpretation given) that Love is the supreme law of +life, and its requirements the right and reasonable conditions of +individual and social well-being. + + +II + +THE FULFILMENT OF LAW THROUGH LOVE + +Jesus was born in a nation which had developed law to the utmost nicety +of detail, and recognised all laws as expressions of the good will of +God seeking the welfare of men. Prolonged experiments in living had +proved certain kinds of conduct disastrous, and the states of mind +corresponding to them, despicable. Law had prohibited this disastrous +conduct, and the prophets had denounced these despicable traits. + +Of course latent in the prohibitions of law was the constitution of the +blessed Kingdom that would result if the law were observed; and dimly +foreshadowed in the figurative expressions of the prophets was the +vision of the glorified human society that would emerge when the +despicable traits should be extirpated and the better order introduced. +This negative and latent implication of law Jesus developed into Love as +the positive and explicit principle of life; and this figuratively +foreshadowed prophet's vision He translated into the actual fact of a +community united in Love. He fulfilled the law by putting Love in the +heart, and fulfilled the prophets by establishing a community based on +Love. Jesus taught us to make every human interest we touch as precious +as our own, and to treat all persons with whom we deal as members of +that beneficent system of mutual good-will which is the Kingdom of +Heaven. But the moment we begin to do that, law as law becomes +superfluous; for what the law requires is the very thing we most desire +to do: prophecy as prophecy is fulfilled; for the best man's heart can +dream has come to pass. + +In the ideal home, between well-married husband and wife, child and +parent, brother and sister, this sweet law prevails. In choice circles +of intimate friends it is found. Jesus extended this interpretation of +others in terms of ourselves, and of both others and self in terms of +the system of relations in which both self and others inhere, so as to +include all the dealing of official and citizen, teacher and pupil, +dealer and customer, employer and employee, man and man. + +Jesus does not judge us by the formal test of whether we have kept or +broken this or that specific commandment, but by the deeper and more +searching requirement that our lives shall detract nothing from and add +something to the glory of God and the welfare of man. + +Is the world a happier, holier, better world because we are here in it, +helping on God's good-will for men? If that be the grand, comprehensive +purpose of our lives, honestly cherished, frankly avowed, systematically +cultivated, then, no matter how far below perfection we may fall, that +single purpose, in spite of failure, defeat, and repented sin, pulls us +through. If we have this Spirit of Love in our hearts, and if with +Christ's help we are trying to do something to make it real in our lives +and effective in the world, our eternal salvation is assured. On the +other hand, is there a single point on which we deliberately are working +evil? Is the lot of any poor man harder, or the life of any unhappy +woman more sad and bitter, for aught that we have done or left undone? +Is any good institution the weaker, or any bad custom more prevalent, +for aught that we are deliberately and persistently withholding of help +or contributing of harm? If so, if in any one point we are consciously +and unrepentingly arrayed against God's righteous purpose, and the human +welfare which is dear to God; if there is a single point on which we are +deliberately setting aside His righteous will, and doing intentional +evil to the humblest of His children; then, notwithstanding our high +rank on other matters, our lack of the right purpose, at even a single +point, makes us guilty of the whole; we are unfit for His kingdom. + +Jesus' principle of Love, though for clearness and incisiveness often +stated in terms of mere altruism, or regard for others, yet taken in its +total context, in the light of His never absent reference to the +Father's will and the Kingdom of Heaven, is much deeper and broader than +that. It gives each man his place and function in the total beneficent +system which is the coming Kingdom of God, and then treats him not +merely as he may wish to be treated, or we may wish to treat him, but as +his place and function in that system require. + +Mere altruism is often weakly kind, making others feebly dependent on +our benefactions instead of sturdily self-supporting; making others +unconsciously egotistic as the result of our superfluous ministrations +or uncritical indulgence; and even fostering a subtle egotism in +ourselves, as the result of the fatal habit of doing the easy, kind +thing rather than the hard, severe thing that is needed to lift them to +their highest attainment. A true mother is never half as sentimentally +altruistic toward her child as a grandmother or an aunt; she does not +hesitate to reprove and correct, when that is what the child needs to +suppress the low and lazy, and rouse the higher and stronger self. The +just administrator discharges the incompetent and exposes the dishonest +employee, not merely because the good of the whole requires it; but +because even for the person discharged or exposed, that is better than +it would be to allow him to drag out an unprofitable and cumbersome life +in tolerated uselessness or countenanced graft. + +"Treat both others and yourself as their place and yours in God's coming +Kingdom require;" that is the Golden Rule in its complete form. "All +things, therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you" +(remembering that both you and they have places and functions in the +Father's Kingdom of Love); "even so do ye also unto them: for this is +the law and the prophets." + +This fulfilment of law is a very different thing from selfishly breaking +the law. That such a reformer as Jesus ever took the conservative side +of any question seems at first sight so preposterous that most candid +critics believe that He never said the words attributed to Him about +breaking one of the least of these commandments, or else that He said +them in a lost context which would greatly alter their meaning. That, +however, is not quite sure. For Love at its best is never rudely +iconoclastic. Every good law in its original intent is aimed to lift +men out of their sensuality and selfishness into at least an outward +conformity to the requirements of social well-being. And however +grotesque, fantastic, and superfluous such a law under changed +conditions may become, its original intent will always keep it sacred +and precious, even after its purpose can be accomplished better without +it. To fulfil is not to destroy, or to take delight in destruction. +"Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to +destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth +shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from +the law, till all things be accomplished." + +At the same time Love is always changing and superseding laws and +institutions by pressure of adjustment to the changing demands of +individual and social well-being. Laws and institutions are made for +men, rather than men for institutions and laws; and the instant an old +law ceases to serve a new need in the best possible way, Love erects the +better service into a new law or institution, superseding the old. Any +law that fails to promote the physical, mental, social, and spiritual +good of the persons and the community concerned, thereby loses Love's +sanction and becomes obsolete. Law for law's sake, rather than for the +sake of man and society, is the flat denial of Love. To exalt any +tradition, institution, custom, or prohibition above the human and +social good it has ceased to serve, is to sink to the level of the +scribe and Pharisee--the deadliest enemies of Jesus, and all for which +He stood. "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall +exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no +wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." + +In Love's eyes all anger, contempt, and quarrelsomeness are as bad as +murder--indeed are incipient murder, stopped short of overt crime +through fear. The look, or word, or deed of unkindness, the thought, or +wish, or hope that evil may befall another, even the attitude of cold +indifference, is murder in the heart. And it is only because we lack the +courage to translate wish into will that in such cases we do not do the +thing which, if done without our responsibility, by accident or nature, +we should rejoice to see accomplished. + +From a strange and unexpected source there has come the confirmation of +this New Testament conception of the prevalence, not to say the +universality, of murder. A brilliant but grossly perverse English man of +letters was sentenced to imprisonment a few years ago for the foulest +crime. From the gaol in which he was confined there came a most +realistic description of the last days and final execution within its +walls of a lieutenant in the British army, who was condemned for killing +a woman whom he loved. + +The poem has the exaggeration of a perverted and embittered nature; but +beneath the exaggeration there is the original truth, which underlies +Jesus' identification of murder and hate. After describing the last days +of the condemned man, his execution and his burial, the poem concludes +as follows:-- + + "In Reading Gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, + And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, + In a burning winding sheet he lies + And his grave has got no name. + + "And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: + No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: + The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + + "And all men kill the thing they love, + By all let this be heard, + Some do it with a bitter look, + Some with a flattering word: + The coward does it with a kiss, + The brave man with a sword." + +Charge up against ourselves as murder the bitter looks, the hateful +words, the unkind thoughts, the selfish actions, which have lessened the +vitality, diminished the joy, wounded the heart, and murdered the +happiness of those whom we ought to love, whom perhaps at times we think +we do love, and who can profess to be guiltless? + +The harboured grudge, the unrepented injury, the offence for which we +have not begged pardon, the employer's refusal to "recognise" his +employees or their representatives, and treat with them on fair and +equal terms, the workman's cultivated attitude of hostility to his +employer, are all such flagrant violations of Love that acts of formal +piety or public worship on the part of a person who harbours such +feelings are an affront. + +Controversies, lawsuits, industrial or political warfare in mere pride +of opinion, class prejudice, or greed of gain, without first making +every effort to respect the rights and protect the interests of the +other party and so bring about a reconciliation, are all violations of +Love and doom the person who is guilty of them to dwell in the narrow +prison-house of a hard and hateful secularity, where the last farthing +of exacted penalty must be paid, and hate is lord of life. "Ye have +heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and +whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto +you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of +the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in +danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in +danger of the hell of fire. If, therefore, thou art offering thy gift at +the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against +thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way, first be +reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with +thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art with him in the way; lest haply +the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to +the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou +shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the last +farthing." + +Marriage to the Christian is an infinitely higher and holier estate than +it could have been to any of the earlier schools. It is an opportunity +to share with another person the creative prerogative of God. It brings +opportunity for Love enhanced by the highest of complementary +differences, under circumstances of tenderest intimacy, with the +requirement of lifelong constancy. + +From Love's point of view any lack of tender reverence for the person +of another, whether in or out of marriage sinks man to the plane of the +brute. Not that the normal exercise of any appetite or passion is base +or evil in itself. All are holy, pure, divine, when Love through them +assumes the lifelong responsibilities they involve. All that falls short +of such tender reverence and permanent responsibility is lust. Jesus +established chastity on the broad, rational basis of respect for the +dignity of woman and the sanctity of sex. The logic of His teaching on +this point is to place chastity on the eternal rock foundation of +treating another only as Love and a true regard for the other's +permanent welfare will warrant. In other words, Jesus permits no man to +even wish to treat any woman as he would be unwilling another man should +treat his own mother, sister, wife, or daughter. For, from His +standpoint, all women are our sisters, daughters of the most high God. +This standard is searching and severe, no doubt; but it is reasonable +and right. There is not a particle of asceticism about it. And the man +who violates it is not merely departing a little from the beaten path of +approved conventionalities. He is doing a cruel, wanton wrong. He is +doing to another what he would bitterly resent if done to one whom he +held dear. And what right has any man to hold any woman cheap, a mere +means of his selfish gratification, and not an object of his protection, +and reverence, and chivalrous regard? The worst mark of uneliminated +brutality and barbarism which the civilised world is carrying over into +the twentieth century, to curse and blacken and pollute and embitter +human life for a few generations more, is this indifference to the +Spirit of Love, as it applies at this crucial point. + +To destroy a wife's health, to purchase a moment's pleasure at the cost +of a woman's lasting degradation, or to participate in practices which +doom a whole class of wretched women to short-lived disease and shame, +and early and dishonoured death (a recent reliable report estimates the +cost of lives from this cause alone in a single city as 5000 a year) is +so gross and wanton a perversion of manhood, that in comparison it would +be better not to be a man at all. + +All the devices for gratifying sexual passions without the assumption of +permanent responsibilities, such as seduction, prostitution, and the +keeping of mistresses, Christianity brands as the desecration of God's +holiest temple, the human body, and the wanton wounding of His most +sensitive creation,--woman's heart. The Greeks placed little restriction +on man's passions beyond such as was necessary to maintain sufficient +physical health and mental vigour to perform his duties as a citizen in +peace and in war. If the individual is complete in himself, with no God +above who cares, no Christ who would be grieved, no Spirit of Love to +reproach, no rights of universal brotherhood and sisterhood to be +sensitively respected and chivalrously maintained, then indeed it is +impossible to make out a valid claim for severer control in these +matters than Plato and Aristotle advocate. If there are persons in the +world who are practically slaves, persons who have no claim on our +consideration, then licentiousness and prostitution are logical and +legitimate expressions of human nature and inevitable accompaniments of +human society. Christianity, however, has freed the slave in a deeper +and higher sense than the world has yet realised. Christianity does not +permit any one who calls himself a Christian to leave any man or woman +outside the pale of that consideration which makes this other person's +dignity, and interest, and welfare as precious and sacred to him as his +own. Obviously all loose and temporary sexual connections involve such +degradation, shame, and sorrow to the woman involved, that no one who +holds her character, and happiness, and lasting welfare dear to him can +will for her these woful consequences. One cannot at the same time be a +friend of the kindly, generous, sympathetic Christ and treat a woman in +that way. It is for this reason, not on cold, ascetic grounds, that +Christianity limits sexual relations to the monogamous family; for there +only are the consequences to all concerned such as one can choose for +another whom he really loves. If Christianity, at these and other vital +points, asks man to give up things which Plato and Aristotle permit, it +is not that the Christian is narrower or more ascetic than they; it is +because Christianity has introduced a Love so much higher, and deeper, +and broader than anything of which the profoundest Greeks had dreamed, +that it has made what was permissible to their hard hearts forever +impossible for all the more sensitive souls in whom the Love of Christ +has come to dwell. + +"Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I +say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her +hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right +eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it +is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not +thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee to +stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for +thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go +into hell." + +Divorce is a confession of failure in Love's supreme undertaking. No two +Christians, who have caught and kept alive the Spirit of Love in the +married state, ever were or ever will be, ever wished to be or ever can +be, divorced. No one Christian who has the true Christian Spirit of Love +toward husband or wife will ever seek divorce unless it be under such +circumstances of infidelity or brutality, neglect or cruelty, as render +the continuance of the relation a fruitless casting of the pearls of +affection before the swinishness of sensuality. The determination of the +grounds on which divorce shall be granted belongs to the sphere of the +state, and is a problem of social self-protection. The Christian church +makes a serious mistake when it spends its energies in trying to build +up legal barriers against divorce. Its real mission at this point is to +build up in the hearts of its adherents the Spirit of Love which will +make marriage so sweet and sacred that those who once enter it will +find, as all true Christians do find, divorce intolerable between two +Christians; and tolerable even for one Christian only as a last resort +against hopeless and useless degradation. To translate Christ's Spirit +into the life of the family is a much more Christian thing to do than to +attempt to enact this or that somewhat general and enigmatical answer of +His into civil law. It is generally a mistake, a departure from the +Spirit of the Master, when the Christian community as such turns from +its specific task of positive upbuilding of personality to the legal +prohibition of the things that are contrary to the Christian Spirit. +Laws and prohibitions, statutes and penalties against drunkenness, +Sabbath-breaking, theft, murder, gambling, and divorce, we must have. +But those laws and penalties are best devised and enforced by the state, +as the representative of the average sentiment of the community as a +whole, rather than by the distinctively Christian element in the +community, which in the nature of things is very far above the average +sentiment. Undoubtedly the Christian Spirit is the only force strong +enough to save the family from degeneration and dissolution in this +intensely individualistic, independent, materialistic, luxurious age. +But we must rely mainly on the Spirit working within, not on a law +imposed from without; on the healing touch of the gentle Master, not on +the hasty sword of the impetuous Peter. + +"It was said also, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a +writing of divorcement; but I say unto you, that every one that putteth +away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an +adulteress; and whosoever shall marry her when she is put away +committeth adultery." + +Love fulfils at once the law of truth-telling and the law against +swearing; for words spoken in Love need no adventitious support. The +appeal to anything outside one's self, and one's simple statement, is +clear evidence that there is no Love, and therefore no truth within. +Love has no desire to deceive, and hence no fear of being disbelieved. +To back up one's words with an oath is to confess one's own lack of +confidence in what one is saying, and to invite lack of confidence in +others. Anything more than a plain statement of fact or feeling comes +out of an insincere or unloving heart. Of course here, as in the case of +divorce, what is the obvious and only law for the disciple of Jesus may +or may not be wise for the civil authorities to enact into law and +impose upon all. If the state and the courts think an oath helpful, the +sensible Christian usually will conform to public custom and +requirement; even though for him the practice is superfluous and +meaningless. + +"Again, ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt +not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths; but I +say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by the heaven, for it is the +throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; +nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt +thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. +But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; and whatsoever is more than +these is of the evil one." + +Love is slow to take offence, and quick to overlook. Selfishness is +sensitive to slights, resentful at wrongs; for it sees others only as +their acts affect us. Love seeks out the whole man behind the harsh word +or bad deed, takes his point of view, and tries to discover some clue to +his concealed better self. + +Whether he does well or ill, Love lets us appeal to nothing less than +his best self, and do nothing less than what on the whole is best for +him and for the community to which he and we both belong. Hence, whether +we give or withhold what he specifically asks (and Love enlightened by +modern sociology tells us we usually must withhold from beggars and +tramps what they ask), in either case we shall not consult merely our +personal convenience and impulse, but do what we should wish to have +done to us, for the sake of society and for our own good as members of +society, if we were in his unfortunate plight. "Ye have heard that it +was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto +you, Resist not him that is evil, but whosoever smiteth thee on thy +right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man would go to law +with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And +whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain. Give to +him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not +thou away." + +Love is kind to the evil and vicious, and magnanimous to the hostile and +hateful. Kindness in return for favours received or in hope of favours +to come; kindness to those whose conduct and character we admire, is all +very well in its way, but is no sign whatever that he who is kind on +these easy terms is a true child of Love. To share the great Love of God +one must go out freely to all, regardless of return or desert,--be +impartial as sunshine and shower. + +When our enemy is plotting to harm us, to break down our good name, to +injure those whom we love, even while we defend ourselves and our dear +ones against his malice and meanness, we must be secretly watching our +chances to do him a good turn, and win him from hatred to Love. Nothing +less than this complete identification with the interests of all the +persons we in any way touch, however bad some of their acts, however +unworthy some of their traits, can make us sharers and receivers, agents +and bestowers of that perfect Love which is at once the nature of God, +the capacity of man, the fulfilment of law, and the condition of social +well-being. + +"Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate +thy enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that +persecute you, that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven; +for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain +on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what +reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute +your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the +Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly +Father is perfect." + + +III + +THE COUNTERFEITS OF LOVE + +Just because Love is so costly, it has a host of counterfeits. These +counterfeits are chiefly devices for gaining the rewards and honours of +Love, without the effort and sacrifice of loving. One of the most +obvious rewards of Love is being thought kind, generous, good. But this +can be secured, apparently, by professing religion, joining the church, +repeating the creed, giving money to the poor, subscribing large sums to +good causes,--all of which are much cheaper and easier than being kind, +and true, and faithful, and considerate in the home, on the farm, in the +factory, in the store. Yet Jesus tells us that unless we have Love in +the close and intimate relations of our domestic, economic, social, and +political life, all symbols of its presence elsewhere, all "services" +directed otherwise, become intolerable nuisances, whose places would be +better filled, and whose work better done, if they were once well out of +the way and decently buried. All this, however, is not to deny, but by +contrast to affirm, the great indispensable uses of symbols, officers, +and institutions that are genuinely and effectively devoted to the +cultivation and propagation of Love. + +The pure gold of the Spirit is most conveniently and effectually +circulated when mixed with the alloy of rites, ceremonies, creeds, +officers, and organisations. Though no essential part of the pure +Gospel, yet these forms and observances, these bishops and clergy, these +covenants and confessions, are as practically useful for the maintenance +and spread of the Christian Spirit as courts and constitutions, +governors and judges, are for the orderly conduct of the state. Their +authority is founded on their practical utility. When their utility +ceases, when they come to obscure rather than reveal the Spirit they are +intended to express, then schism and reformation serve the same +beneficent purpose in the church that declarations of independence and +revolution have so often achieved in the state. That form of church +government is best which in any given age and society works best; and +this may well be concentrated personal authority in one set of +circumstances, and democratic representative administration in another. +Each has its advantages and its disadvantages. + +Modes of worship rest on the same practical basis. Spontaneous prayer or +elaborate ritual, much or little participation by the people, long or +short sermons, prayer-meetings or no prayer-meetings,--all are to be +determined by the test of practical experience. It is absurd to profess +to draw hard and fast rules about these matters from the precept or +practice of Jesus and His Apostles, or the early church fathers, working +as they did under conditions so widely different from our own. Probably +centralised authority and elaborate ritual are most effective when +bishops and priests can be found who will not abuse their power for +their own aggrandisement. Until then, more democratic forms of worship +and of government are doubtless more expedient. The friendly competition +of the two systems side by side helps to keep sacerdotalism modest and +make independency effective. + +Creeds likewise have their practical usefulness, especially in times of +theological ferment and transition, serving the purposes of party +platforms in a political campaign. But it is the grossest perversion of +their function to make assent to them obligatory on all who wish to +enjoy the most intimate Christian fellowship, or to test Christian +character by their formulas. One might as well refuse citizenship to +every person who could not assent to every word in some party platform +or other. The creed is an intellectual formulation of the results of +Christian experience, interpreting the Christian revelation; and it +will vary from age to age with ripening experience, and maturer views of +the content of the revelation. No creed was altogether false at the time +of its formulation. No creed in Christendom is such as every intelligent +Christian can honestly assent to. The attempt to make creed subscription +a test of church membership, or even a condition of ministerial +standing, is sure to confuse intellectual and spiritual things to the +serious disadvantage of both. The most sensitively honest men will more +and more decline to enter the service of the church, until subscription +to antiquated formulas, long since become incredible to the majority of +well-trained scholars, ceases to be required either literally or "for +substance of doctrine." It is sufficient that each candidate for the +ministry be asked to make his own statement, either in his own words or +in the words of any creed he finds acceptable, leaving it for his +brethren to decide whether or not such intellectual statement is +consistent with that spiritual service which is to be his chief concern. +Unless Christianity, in the persons of its leaders as well as of its +laity, can breathe as free an intellectual atmosphere as that of Stoic +or Epicurean, Plato or Aristotle, it will at this point prove itself +their inferior. Infinitely superior as it is in every other respect, it +is a burning shame that its timid and conservative modern adherents +should endeavour, at this point of absolute intellectual openness and +integrity, to place it at a disadvantage with the least noble of its +ancient competitors. The pure Spirit of Love will win the devotion of +all honest hearts and candid minds. But the insistence on these +antiquated formulas is sure to repel an increasing number of the most +thoughtful and enlightened from organised Christian fellowship. The only +serious reason for preferring the independent to the hierarchical forms +of church organisation at the present time is the tendency of the latter +to keep up these forms of intellectual imposition and imposture. Until +the church as a whole shall rise to the standards of intellectual +honesty now universally prevalent in the world of secular science, the +mission of the independent protest will remain but partially fulfilled. +"Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savour, +wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to +be cast out and trodden under foot of men." + +Any thought of the reputation or respectability or honour a right act +will bring, just because it puts something else in place of Love, +destroys the rightness of the act and the righteousness of the doer. +Righteousness will always remain a dry, dreary, forbidding, impossible +thing until we welcome right as the service of those whom we love, and +the promotion of interests we share with them; and shrink from wrong as +what harms them and defeats our common ends. Without Love, righteousness +either dries up into a cold, hard asceticism, or evaporates into a +hollow, formal respectability; and in one way or the other misses the +spontaneity and expansion of soul which is Love's crown and joy. "Take +heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: +else ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." + +Love is too intent on its objects to be aware of itself or call +attention to its own operations. The air of doing a favour takes all the +Love out of an act; for Love gives so simply and quietly that it seems +to ask rather than bestow the favour. In this way both giver and +receiver together share Love's distinctive reward of two lives bound +together as one in the common Love of the Father. + +"When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the +hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have +glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. +But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right +hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth +in secret shall recompense thee." + +Professed Love, if unfruitful or pernicious, is false. If we make no one +happier; help no one over hard places; bind no wounds; comfort no +sorrows; serve no just cause; do no good work; still worse, if we make +any one's lot harder; add to his burden or sorrow; corrupt public +officials; break down beneficent institutions; plunder the poor, even if +within technical legal forms; drive the weak to the wall; and connive in +the perversion of justice,--then the absence of good fruits, or the +presence of bad ones, is proof positive that we have never seen or known +Love, that our profession of Love is a lie, our proper place is with +Love's foes, and our destiny with the doers of evil. + +"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but +inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men +gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree +bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil +fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt +tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good +fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye +shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall +enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my +Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, +did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils, and by +thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I +never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." + +Neither eloquent speech nor elegant writing, neither ornate ceremonial +nor orthodox symbol, nor anything short of actual toil to serve human +need and help human joy can translate Love into life. Though the most +beautiful idea in the world, the mere idea of Love is of no more value +than any other mere idea. If it fails of expression in hard, costly +deeds, its ritualistic or verbal profession is a sham. In Love's +service, so far as things done are concerned, there is no high or low, +first or last. To preach sermons and conduct religious services, to +teach science in the university, or make laws in Congress, is no better +and no worse than to make shoes in the shoeshop or cook food in the +kitchen. All work done in Love counts, stands, endures. All work done in +vanity and self-seeking, all work shirked with pretence of religion, or +excuse of wealth, or pride of social station, leaves the soul hard, +hollow, unreal, and fails to stand Love's searching test. + +"Every one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, +shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and +the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat +upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon the rock. And +every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be +likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; and the +rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon +that house, and it fell; and great was the fall thereof." + + +IV + +THE WHOLE-HEARTEDNESS OF LOVE + +Love asks for the whole heart or nothing; and all the heart has, be it +little or much, must go with it. The pursuit or possession of wealth, as +an end in itself, or a means to mere selfish ends, will drive Love out +of the soul. + +All the wealth we can give to Love's service is most useful and welcome; +but the retention of any for miserly pride, or vain ostentation, or +indolent uselessness for ourselves or our children, fills the heart so +full of self that Love can find there no room. Not that giving away all +one has is essential or desirable; but that every dollar one gives, +spends, keeps, invests, or controls be held subject to the orders of +Love. + +Wealth is not so essential to the Christian as it was to Epicurus and +Aristotle, for God can be glorified and man can be served with very +little furniture of fortune; and therefore the Christian is able, in +whatsoever material state he is, therewith to be content. On the other +hand, the Christian cares more for money than either the Stoic or Plato; +for there are ranges in God's universe of beauty, truth, and goodness +which cannot be aesthetically appreciated and artistically and +scientifically appropriated without large expenditure of labour and the +wealth by which labour is supported; and there are wide spheres of +business enterprise and social service essential to human welfare which +only the rich man or nation can effectively promote. Divine and human +service is possible in poverty; it is more effective and at the same +time more difficult in wealth. The Christian rich and the Christian poor +serve the same Lord, and have the same Spirit; but the accomplishment of +the Christian rich man can be so much greater than that of the +Christian widow with her mite, that the Christian who is strong enough +to stand it is in duty bound to treat money as a talent which in all +just ways he ought to multiply. On the contrary, the moment it begins to +make him less sympathetic, less generous, less thankful, less +responsible, he must give it away as the only alternative to the loss of +his soul, the deterioration of his personality. + +"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust +doth consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for +yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, +and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where thy treasure +is, there will thy heart be also." + +Toward science and art, business and politics, the application of the +Christian Spirit is different from anything we have met before. The +Christian will not shirk these things, like the Epicurean and the Stoic; +because they are ways of serving that truth, beauty, welfare, and order +which are included in the Father's will for all His human children. In +all these things we are co-workers with God for the good of man. +Diligence and enthusiasm, devotion and self-sacrifice in one or more of +these directions is the imperative duty, the inestimable privilege of +every one who would be a grateful and obedient son of God, a helpful and +efficient brother to his fellow-men. + +Yet in all his devotion to science or art, in all the energy with which +he gives himself to business or politics, the Christian can never forget +that God is greater than any one of these points at which we come in +contact with Him; and that, when we have done our utmost in one or +another of these lines, we are still comparatively unprofitable servants +in His vast household. As God is more than the thing at which we work, +so the Christian, through relation to Him, is always more than his work. +He never lets his personality become absorbed and evaporated in the work +he does; but ever renews his personal life at the fountain which is +behind the special work he undertakes to do. Thus the true Christian is +never without some useful social work to do; and he never lets himself +get lost in doing it. To keep this balance of energy in the task and +elevation above it, which enables one to take success without elation +and bear failure without depression, is perhaps the crowning achievement +of practical Christianity. + +"The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy +whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole +body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee +be darkness, how great is the darkness! No man can serve two masters; +for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will +hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." + +He who heartily loves and serves others will trust Love in God and his +fellows to take proper care of himself. One who really loves others will +take reasonable care not to be a burden to them, and to the world, and +will avail himself of the insurance company, the savings bank, and the +bond market as the devices of a complex modern society to distribute +losses and conserve gains to the common advantage of all. Love does not +make the individual or his family a parasite on the economy and industry +of society. Love makes a man bear his own permanent burden as a +preliminary to being of much use and no harm to his family, his friends, +and his community. Such prudent provision of the means of Love's +independence and service is consistent with entire absence of worry +about one's personal fortunes. The essential question which Love, and +Jesus as the Lord and Master of Love, puts to a man is not "How much +money have you?" but "What use do you intend to make of whatever you +have, be that little or much?" If that aim is selfish, and the money is +either saved or spent in sordid, worried selfishness, that low aim makes +the money a curse. If held subject to whatever drafts Love may make upon +it,--whether gifts to the poor, or support of good causes, or employment +of honest workmen, or development of industrial enterprises, be the form +Love's drafts take,--then all wealth so held is a blessing to the world +and an honour to its owner, a glory to God and a service to man. + +"Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall +eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put +on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? +Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, +nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye +of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add +one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? +Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither +do they spin; yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was +not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of +the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall +he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore +anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, +Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the +Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all +these things." + +Though material means sought as ends are fatal to Love, Love's ends kept +in view insure needed means. To worry about to-morrow is to fail in +devotion to the tasks of to-day, and so spoil both days. To do our best +work to-day is to gain power for to-morrow. Competition complicates, but +does not render insoluble, the problem of making all that we have and +all that we do express Love to all whom our action affects. To be sure, +there are city slums, uninsured accidents and sickness, unsanitary +tenements, unjust conditions of labour, where even the service of Love +does not bring to the worker appropriate means and rewards; but it is +because Love has not quite kept pace at these points with swift-moving +modern conditions. But public spirit, political progress, economic +reform, are more sensitive to these violations of its laws than ever +before, and eagerly bent on finding and applying the remedy,--more Love +of all for each, and each for all. + +"But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these +things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow, +for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is +the evil thereof." + +Love throws off all that hampers its action, as a runner his coat for a +race. Love requires the sound body, the clear mind, the strong will, the +sensitive heart, and foregoes all indulgences that impair these things, +though in themselves innocent as eating and drinking. Yet Love makes no +fuss about its sacrifices, takes them as a simple matter of course, not +worth mentioning; for what Love gives up in mere sensuous indulgence is +as nothing to the widened affections and enlarged interests gained. To +be solemn or sad over what we give up, to proclaim or parade one's +self-denials, would be an insult to Love; it would show that the persons +we love and the causes we serve are not really as dear to our hearts as +the pitiful things we forego for their sake--would show that our Love +was a sham. + +All pleasure that comes from healthy exercise of body, rational exercise +of mind, sympathetic expansion of the affections, strenuous effort of +the will, in just and generous living, is at the same time a glorifying +of God and an enrichment of ourselves. All pleasure which sacrifices the +vigour of the body to the indulgence of some separate appetite, all +pleasure which enslaves or degrades or embitters the persons from whom +it is procured, all pleasure which breaks down the sacred institutions +on which society is founded,--is shameful and debasing, a sin against +God, and a wrong to our own souls. The Christian will forego many +pleasures which Epicurus and even Aristotle would permit, because he is +infinitely more sensitive than they to the effect his pleasures have on +poor men and unprotected women whose welfare these earlier teachers did +not take into account. On the other hand, the Christian will enter +heartily into the joys of pure domestic life, and the delights of +struggle with untoward social and political conditions, from which Plato +and the Stoics thought it honourable to withdraw. Where God can be +glorified and men can be served, there the Christian will either find +his pleasure, or with optimistic art, create a pleasure that he does not +find. + +"Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; +for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast. +Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when +thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou be not seen +of men to fast, but of thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, +which seeth in secret, shall recompense thee." + +Just because Love includes the interests of all the persons we deal +with, it excludes all mean, selfish traits from our hearts. There can be +no pride and guile, no lust and cruelty, no avarice and hypocrisy, no +malice and censoriousness, in a heart which welcomes to its interest and +affection, and serves and loves as its own, the aims and needs of its +fellows. That is why Love's true disciples are few, and the slaves of +selfishness many. Ask how many,--not entirely succeed, for none do,--but +how many make it the constant aim of their lives to treat others as more +widely extended aspects of themselves, and, in order to do that, +endeavour to keep out all the greed, hate, lust, pride, envy, jealousy, +that would draw lines between self and others, and we see the answer: +that the way must be narrow, a way few find, and still fewer follow when +found. + +"Enter ye in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the +way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in +thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth +unto life, and few be they that find it." + + +V + +THE CULTIVATION OF LOVE + +Love is so akin to our nature, so eager to enter our souls, that to want +is to get it; to seek is to find it; to open our hearts to its presence +is to discover it already there. Whoever knows what true prayer is--the +intense, eager yearning for good of insistent, importunate hearts--knows +that there never was and never can be one unanswered prayer. No man who +has longed to have Love the law of his life, and struggled for it as a +miser struggles for money, or a politician strives to win votes, ever +failed to get what he wanted. For every person we meet gives occasion +for Love, and every situation in life affords a chance to express it. +The difficulty is not to get all we want, but to want all we can have +for the asking. + +"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it +shall be opened unto you, for every one that asketh receiveth; and he +that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or +what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, +will give him a stone, or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a +serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your +children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good +things to them that ask him?" + +Love will not grow in our hearts without deep, unseen communion with the +Spirit of Love, who is God. To dwell reverently on the Infinite Love; to +keep in one's heart a sacred place where His holy name is adored; to +eagerly seek for Love's coming in our own hearts, in the hearts of all +men, and in all the affairs of the world; to gratefully receive all +material blessings as gifts for use in Love's service; to beseech for +ourselves and bestow on others that forgiveness which is Love's attitude +toward our human frailties and failings; to fortify ourselves in advance +against the allurements of sense, and the base desire to gain good for +ourselves at cost of evil to others; to remember that all right rule, +all true strength, all worthy honour inhere in and flow from Love, and +Love's Father, God,--to do this day by day sincerely and simply without +formality or ostentation,--this is to pray, and to insure prayer's +inevitable answer--a life through which Love freely flows to bless both +the world and ourselves. + +"And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to +stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that +they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their +reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and +having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy +Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying use +not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they shall +be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them; for +your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. +After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, +Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, +so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, +as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, +but deliver us from the evil one." + +Our only ground of assurance that Love forgives us is our loving +forgiveness of others. In the light of that fact of experience it is +easy and obvious to believe that the Father whose children we are, is +not less loving and forgiving than we. If we restore to our esteem and +friendship those who have wronged us, then we are sure that Love at the +heart of the Universe, Love in the Father, Love in all the Father's true +children, fully and freely forgives us. If we have this experience of +our own forgiveness of our fellows, we know that Love would not be Love, +but hate, God would not be God, but a devil, if any sincerely repented +wrong or shortcoming of which we have been guilty could remain +unforgiven. + +"For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also +forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will +your Father forgive your trespasses." + +To judge harshly another man's failings, however bad they may be, shows +that we are less loving than he. For he may have failed through strength +of appetite, or heat of passion,--failings that are still consistent +with Love; but harsh judgment has no such excuse, and is therefore a +deadly--that is, loveless--sin. We would never think of proclaiming to +the idly curious or the coldly critical the failings of one whom we +love; hence proclamations of any one's failings is a sure sign that we +have no Love for him, and as long as there are any whom we do not love +and protect, we have no part or lot in the great Love of God. Yet such +charitableness does not forbid our practical judgment of the difference +between sheep and wolves, good men and bad, when important issues are +involved. That Love requires. What it forbids is the rolling as a sweet +morsel under our tongue, and the gleeful recital to others, of the +mistake or the sin of another, as something in which we take mean +delight because we think it makes him inferior to ourselves. + +"Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye +shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured +unto you. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, +but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou +say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye, and lo, +the beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam +out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the +mote out of thy brother's eye." + +Love will waste no time trying to explain itself to the selfish. If Love +does not commend itself by its own light and warmth to a man, no forms +of words can make him understand it. The sensual, the greedy, the hard, +and the cruel Love will treat as gently and kindly as circumstances +permit; yet expect as a matter of course that they will interpret Love's +justice as hardness, kindness as weakness, temperance as asceticism, +forbearance as cowardice, sacrifice as stupidity. Those who love will +not mind being misunderstood by those who do not; knowing that any +attempted explanation would only increase their conceit and hardness of +heart, and so make a bad matter worse. + +"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls +before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and +turn and rend you." + +Since Love is "the greatest thing in the world," we are bound to stand +ready with girt loins, and trimmed, burning lamps, to shed its light far +and wide. To cover it up would be to deprive ourselves and our fellows +of the one sight in all the world best worth seeing, and so to hinder +its spread. False modesty that would keep Love's good works out of sight +is as bad as false pride that would thrust oneself forward. Though works +done merely to be seen are not good at all, yet good works genuinely +done for Love's sake gain added influence and lustre when frankly and +freely allowed to be seen as the beautiful things that they are. The +Christian is under spiritual compulsion to be a missionary. Other +systems draw their little circles of disciples about them, as Jesus +drew His twelve. One cannot hold what he believes to be a true and +helpful view of life without wishing to communicate it to others. Yet +this tendency, which is natural to every principle, is characteristic of +Christianity in a unique degree. For the Christian Spirit consists in +Love, the desire to give to others the best one has. And what can be so +good, so desirable to impart, as this very Spirit of Love, which is +Christianity itself? That is why the Christian must, in some form or +other,--by journeying to foreign lands, by contribution to missionary +work at home, by gifts to Christian education, by support of settlement +work, or perhaps best of all by the silent diffusion of a Christian +example in the neighbourhood, or the unnoticed expression of the +Christian Spirit in the home,--be a propagator of the Spirit of Love he +has himself received. + +"Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. +Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the +stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your +light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify +your Father which is in heaven." + + +VI + +THE BLESSEDNESS OF LOVE + +Does virtue bring happiness? is a question every philosophy of life must +meet. Yet before it can be rightly answered it must be rightly put. + +For if by virtue you mean something negative, conventional,--not lying, +not cheating, not swearing, not drinking; and if by happiness you mean +something passive, external,--riches, offices, entertainments, and +honours; then virtue and happiness do not necessarily go together in +life, and no philosophy can show that they should. + +If a man were to persuade himself that they do go together, and should +seek this sort of happiness by cultivating this sort of virtue, he would +miss true virtue and true happiness. For both virtue and happiness are +positive, active; so interrelated that the happiness must be found in +that furtherance of our common social interests in which the exercise of +virtue consists. + +Jesus bids us take an active, devoted interest in the interests of +others and of society. Now whoever shares and serves a wide range of +interests has an interested, and therefore an interesting, life. But the +interesting life is the happy life. Love, whether it has much or little +wealth and station, always has interests and aims; always finds or +makes friends to share them,--in other words, is always happy. + +The beatitudes are illustrations of this deep identity between interest +taken and happiness found; statements of the truth that Love going out +to serve and share the interests and aims of others, and blessedness +flowing in to fill the heart thereby enlarged for its reception, are the +outside and inside of the same spiritual experience. + +To think little of self is the key to the joy that goes with much +thought for others. + +Love is so going out to others as to make them as real as self. But that +is what no man puffed up with self-importance can do. Where self is much +in the foreground others are pushed to the rear. Self-importance and +Love cannot dwell together in the same house of clay. As one goes up in +the scales of the balance the other goes down. To be rich in the shared +lives of others one must be poor in his own self-esteem. The two are in +inverse proportion. Modesty is impossible of direct cultivation. It +isn't safe to talk or even think about it much. As Pascal remarks, "Few +people talk of humility humbly." Like Love it is the manifestation of +something deeper than itself. Unless one is in intimate personal +relations with one whom he reveres as greater, stronger, better than +himself, it is obviously impossible for him to be modest. If he is in +such relations, it is equally impossible for him not to be modest. +Hence, as Love is the inmost quality of the Christian, the inevitable +manifestation to his fellow-men of what the Father is to him, so modesty +is the surest outward sign of this inward grace. Conceit is a public +proclamation of the poverty of one's personal relations. For if this +conceited fellow, this vain woman, really had the honour of the intimate +acquaintance of some one better and greater than their petty, miserable +selves, they could not possibly be the vain, conceited creatures that +they are. Every one who lives in the presence of the great Father, and +walks in the company of His glorious Son, is sure to find modesty and +humility the natural and spontaneous expression of his side of these +great relationships. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the +kingdom of heaven." + +Our shortcomings frankly confessed prepare us for Love's consolation. + +We all fall short of that patient consideration, that courteous +kindliness, which makes the feelings and interests of others as precious +as our own. Some of us fail in one way, some in another. But we all are +unprofitable servants of the Love that would make our lives one with all +the lives that we touch. To forget or deny that we fail is to lose sight +of Love altogether. He who thinks he succeeds thereby shows that he +fails; he who knows and laments that he fails comes as near as man can +to the goal. + +Love neither asks nor expects a clean record; else it would have no +disciples. Love fully and freely forgives, at the eleventh hour welcomes +the idler, and offers its fulness of joy to all who, whatever their +repented past may have been, make service and kindness to others their +eager present concern. For no sin frankly confessed, no wrong deed +sincerely repented, no loss squarely met, no bereavement bravely +endured, can shut out from Love's consolation those who serve with the +best there is in them the persons who still need their aid. "Blessed are +they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." + +To meet criticism with kindness, crossness with geniality, insult with +courtesy, and injury with charity is the way to conquer the world. + +By nature we are creatures of suggestion. A hateful look, an ugly word, +a spiteful sneer, a cruel blow, make us hateful and ugly and spiteful +and cruel in turn. For the empty heart flashes back in resentment +whatever attitude another's act suggests. + +Meekness greets as a friend the just critic, and for unjust and unkind +treatment makes allowance as due to the blindness or hardness or +weakness of the pitiful person who has nothing better to give. Meekness +makes the soft answer that turns away wrath, and treats one who wrongs +us all the more gently. Thus the meekness of Love gives both power to +possess our own souls in patience under all provocation, and power, not +indeed to coerce the bodies of others, but to win the consent of their +souls. "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." + +Righteousness is something of which we can have no more and no less than +we wish. + +He who is good enough is not good at all, and never will be any better. +For righteousness is right relation to others; and so long as there are +things we can do to help others, its infinite task is unfinished. Yet +though the goal ever advances and never comes within reach, aspiration +is achievement; progress is attainment. If we could come to the end of +our journey; if we could see the world's claims on us met, the deeds of +which we are capable done, that moment would mark the death of our +souls. Just because Love grows by loving and serving, and makes ever +greater and greater demands, it prophesies there shall be forever and +ever things to do that will make life worth while. "Blessed are they +that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." + +The depth of our sympathy for those below us in secular service and +station measures our worth in the eyes of those spiritually higher than +we. + +Love is like a tree; if it is not to be scorched in the blaze of +ambition and withered in the heat of competition, its roots of sympathy +must go down as deep into the soil of the obscure and lowly lives on +whose humble toil we depend as its branches spread into the upper air of +social distinction and station. + +Unless we have much sympathy for those who toil on the farm and on the +sea, in the factory and the mine, behind the counter and the desk, in +the kitchen and laundry, what we call courtesy in the drawing room, or +charity on the platform, is hollow mockery and Pharisaic sham. "Blessed +are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy." + +In order for Love to shine through them there must be nothing else in +our hearts. + +Love demands everything or nothing. It refuses to dwell in quarters or +halves of our souls. The least flaw of pride, greed, or lust is enough +to make them opaque. Greed, lust, pride, hate, so blind our eyes to the +real selves of others that we cannot see or treat them as they really +are; that is, cannot love them. It reduces them to mere means and tools +of our passions and pleasures; and one who so regards persons can never +love either them or any person aright. Only the pure can see Love; for +only the pure can experience that union of one's whole self with the +whole self of others in which Love consists. "Blessed are the pure in +heart; for they shall see God." + +Just so sure as we love two or more persons we shall do all in our power +to keep them from hating each other. + +We wish everyone to love those whom we love. If anybody hates one we +love, it hurts us as much as it does the one hated, even more than it +would to be hated ourselves. And if anyone whom we love is hating +another, we are even more sorry for him than we are for the person he +hates, and make all haste to deliver him from this most dreadful +condition. The more we love our fellows, the more we hate to see +misunderstanding, ill-will, strife, between them. + +Not that the Christian is unwilling or afraid to fight. Where deliberate +wrong is arrayed against the rights of men, where fraud is practised on +the unprotected, where hypocrisy imposes on the credulous, where vice +betrays the innocent, where inefficiency sacrifices precious human +interests, where avarice oppresses the poor, where tyranny tramples on +the weak, there the man who shares the Father's Love for His maltreated +children, the man who walks daily in the companionship of the Christ who +owns all the downtrodden as His brothers, will be the most fearless and +uncompromising foe of every form of injustice and oppression. Property, +reputation, position, time, strength, influence, health, life itself if +need be, will be thrown unreservedly into the fight against vice and +sin. He cannot keep in with the Father and with Christ and not come out +in opposition to everything that wrongs and injures the humblest man, +the lowliest woman, the most defenceless little child. + +Fighting, however, is not altogether uncongenial to the descendants of +our brute progenitors. To fight our own battles, and occasionally a few +for our neighbours, comes all too naturally to most of us. Fighting +God's battles on principle is a very different thing. To feel entirely +tranquil in the midst of the combat; to know that we are not alone on +the side of the right; to have the real interests of our opponents at +heart all the time; to be ever ready to forgive them, and to ask their +forgiveness for any excess of zeal we may have shown; to have the peace +of God in our hearts, and no trace of malice, in deed, or word, or +thought, or feeling,--this is not altogether natural, and the man who +does his fighting on that basis gives pretty good assurance of dwelling +in the Christian Spirit. No other adequate provision for maintaining +peace in the midst of effective warfare, and making peace for others as +well as for ourselves the instant the need for war is over, has ever +been devised. The peacemakers of this fearless, earnest, strenuous type +have the unmistakable right to be called the children of God. "Blessed +are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God." + +All who love must expect to be hated by the foes of those whom they +love. + +Because Jesus loved the common people and sought to deliver them from +their fears and errors, the men who traded on those fears and errors put +Him to an ignominious death. If we love and serve the despised, the +abused, the plundered, those who despise and abuse and plunder them will +do to us the worst they dare. The road of Love is marked at every turn +by a cross. Whoever in business, society, or politics makes as real as +his own the interests and the wrongs of all whom he can reach and touch, +will be disliked, criticised, misrepresented, vilified, condemned. He +will pay Love's price of persecution. + +Christian sacrifice closely resembles Greek temperance and courage. +There is, however, this essential distinction. The Christian takes on +not merely the pains and privations which are essential to his personal +welfare, or the welfare of his community or state; he takes on whatever +suffering the Father's Love for all His children calls him to undergo; +gives up whatever indulgences the service of Christ requires him to +dispense with; adopts whatever mingling of hardship and self-denial will +keep him in most effective and sympathetic fellowship with those who +have discovered the same great spiritual secret as himself. Thus, though +to the uninitiated outsider much of his life looks hard and severe, on +the inside it is easy and light; for the companionship with the Father, +with Christ, and with Christian people is so much greater and dearer +than the material and sensuous delights it may incidentally take away, +that on the inside it does not wear the aspect of loss and sacrifice at +all, but rather that of a glory and a gain. Still, since this element +of pleasant things foregone, and hard things endured, is ever present, +and since it has to be judged by people on the outside as well as by +those on the inside of the experience, in recognition of this truth +Christianity has made its symbol before the uninitiated world the cross. +As in the life of the Master, so in the life of every faithful disciple, +the cross must be borne, the perpetual sacrifice must be made, as the +price of Love's presence in a world of selfishness and hate; but the +cross is transfigured into a crown of rejoicing, the sacrifice is +transformed into privilege and pleasure by those precious personal +relationships which are the supreme glory and gladness of the soul, and +which could be maintained on no cheaper terms. The sacrifice that the +Christian makes to get his Father's will, his Master's mission, +accomplished in the world which so sorely needs it, is like the +sacrifice a mother makes for her sick and suffering child,--the dearest +and sweetest experience of life. The cross thus gladly borne, the yoke +of sacrifice thus unostentatiously assumed, is the supreme expression of +the Christian Spirit. + +Like all high-cost things, sacrifice for Love's sake carries a high +premium. It admits, as nothing else does, to the inner circle of the +immortal lovers of their fellows, to the intimate fellowship of the +Lord of Love, Jesus Christ. + +Joy follows incidentally and inevitably from the maintenance of these +great Christian relationships. A gloomy, depressed, despondent tone and +temper, unless it be demonstrably pathological, is public proclamation +that the deep mines of these Christian relationships, with their +inexhaustible resources, are either undeveloped or unworked. For no man +who looks through sunshine and shower, through food and raiment, through +family and friendship, through society and the moral order of the world, +up into the face of the Giver of them all as his Father; who knows how +to summon to his side the gentle and gracious companionship of Christ, +alike in the pressure of perplexity and in the quiet of solitude; who +knows how to unlock the treasures of Christian literature, to +appropriate the meaning of Christian worship, and to avail himself of +the comfort and support that is always latent in the hearts of his +Christian friends,--no man in whom these vast personal resources are +developed and employed can ever long remain disconsolate. + +Even in prosperity, popularity, and outward success it takes +considerable mixture of these deeper elements to keep the tone of life +constantly on the high level of joy. But adversity is the real test. +Then the man without these interior resources gives way, breaks down, +becomes querulous, fretful, irritable, sour. On the other hand, the man +who can make mistakes, and take the criticism they bring, and go on as +cheerfully as if no blunder had been made and no vote of censure had +been passed; the man who can be hated for the good things he tries to +do, and condemned for bad things he never did and never meant to do; the +man who can work hard, and contentedly take poverty for pay; the man who +can serve devotedly people who revile and betray him in return; the man +who can discount in advance the unpopularity, misrepresentation, and +defeat a right course will cost, and then resolutely set about it; the +man who takes persecution and treachery as serenely as other men take +honours and emoluments,--this man, we may be sure, has dug deep an +invested heavily in the field where the priceless Christian treasure +lies concealed. + +"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake; for +theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall reproach +you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, +for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward +in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." + + +VII + +THE SUPREMACY OF LOVE + +Jesus' Spirit of Love is capable of absorbing into itself whatever we +have found valuable in the four previous systems. + +The Epicurean's varied and spontaneous joy in life is not diminished, +but enhanced, by the Christian Spirit, which multiplies this joy as many +times as there are persons whom one knows and loves. The Epicurean lives +in the little world of himself, and a few equally self-centred +companions. The Christian lives in the great world of God, and shares +its joys with all God's human children. It is the absence of this larger +world, the exclusive concern for his own narrow pleasures, that makes +the consistent Epicurean, with all his polish and charm, the essentially +mean and despicable creature we found him to be. + +To be sure, Mill, Spencer, and others have endeavoured to graft the +altruistic fruits of Christianity on to the old Epicurean stock. There +is this great difference, however, between such Christianised +Epicureanism as that of Mill and Spencer, and Christianity itself. +These systems have no logical bridge, no emotional bond by which to pass +from the pleasures of self to the pleasures of others. They can and do +point out the incompleteness of merely egoistic Epicureanism; they +exhort us to care for the pleasures of others as we do for our own. But +the logical nexus, the moral dynamic, the spiritual motive, is lacking +in these systems; and consequently these systems fail to work, except +with the few highly altruistic souls who need no spiritual physician. + +This logical bond, this moral dynamic, this spiritual motive which +impels toward altruistic conduct, the Christian finds in Christ. He +certainly did love all men, and care for their happiness as dearly as He +cared for His own. But this same Christ is the Christian's Lord and +Master and Friend. Yet friendship for Him, the acceptance of Him as Lord +and Master, is a contradiction in terms, unless one is at the same time +willing to cultivate His Spirit, which is the Spirit of service, the +Spirit which holds the happiness and welfare of others just as sacred +and precious as one's own. He that hath not this Spirit of Christ is +none of His. Hence what men like Mill and Spencer preach as a duty, and +support by what their critics have found to be very inadequate and +fallacious logical processes, Christianity proclaims as a fact in the +nature of God, as embodied in Christ, and a condition of the divine life +for everyone who desires to be a child of God, a follower and friend of +Jesus Christ. Christianity, therefore, includes everything of value in +Epicureanism, and infinitely more. It has the Epicurean gladness without +its exclusiveness, its joy without its selfishness, its naturalness +without its baseness, its geniality without its heartlessness. + +In like manner Christianity takes up all that is true in the Stoic +teaching, without falling into its hardness and narrowness. The truth of +the Stoic teaching consisted in its power to transform into an +expression of the man himself, and of the beneficent laws of Nature, +whatever outward circumstance might befall him, Now put in place of the +abstract self the love of the perfect Christ, and instead of universal +law the loving will of the Father for all His children, and you have a +deepened, sweetened, softened Stoicism which is identical with a sturdy, +strenuous, and virile Christianity. + +If a man has in his heart the earnest desire to be like Christ, and to +do the things that help to carry out Christ's Spirit in the world, it is +absolutely impossible that he should ever find himself in a situation +where what he most desires to do cannot be done. Now a man who in every +conceivable situation can do what he most desires to do is as completely +"master of his fate" and "captain of his soul" as the most strenuous +Stoic ever prayed to be. And yet he is saved from the coldness and +hardness and repulsiveness of the mere Stoic, because the object of his +devotion, the aim of his assertion, is not his own barren, frigid, +formal self, but the kindly, sympathetic, loving Christ, whom he has +chosen to be his better self. Like the Stoic, he brings every thought +into captivity; but it is not the captivity of a prison, the empty +chamber of his individual soul, swept and garnished; it is captivity to +the most gracious and gentle and generous person the world has ever +known,--it is captivity to Christ. + +When misfortune and calamity overtakes him, he transforms it into a +blessing and a discipline, not like the mere Stoic through passive +resignation to an impersonal law, as of gravitation, or electricity, or +bacteriology, but through active devotion to that glory of God which is +to be furthered mainly by kindness and sympathy and service to our +fellow-men. The man who has this love of Christ in his heart, and who is +devoted to the doing of the Father's loving will, can exclaim in every +untoward circumstance, "I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth +me." He can shout with more than Stoic defiance: "O death, where is thy +sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" In all the literature of Stoic +exultation in the face of frowning danger and impending doom, there is +nothing that can match the splendid outburst of the great Apostle: "Who +shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or +anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? +Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that +loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, +nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, +nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate +us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." + +Everything that we found noble, and strong, and brave in Stoicism we +find also here; the power to transform external evil into internal good, +and to hold so tightly to our self-chosen good that no power in earth or +heaven can ever wrest it from us,--a good so universal that the +circumstance is inconceivable in which it would fail to work. Yet with +all this tenacious, world-conquering strength, there is, drawn from the +divine Source of this affection a gentleness, and sympathy, and +tenderness, and humble human helpfulness, which the Stoic in his +boastfulness, and hardness, and self-sufficiency could never know. + +The Christian abhors lying and stealing, scolding and slandering, +slavery and prostitution, meanness and murder, not less but far more +than the Stoic. But he refrains from these things, not under constraint +of abstract law, but because he cares so deeply and sensitively for the +people whom these things affect that he cannot endure the thought that +any word or deed of his should bring them pain or loss or shame or +degradation. Thus he gets the Stoic strength without its hardness, the +Stoic universality without its barrenness, the Stoic exaltation without +its pride, the Stoic integrity without its formalism, the Stoic calm +without its impassiveness. + +Christianity is as lofty as Platonism; but it gets its elevation by a +different process. Instead of rising above drudgery and details, it +lifts them up into a clearer atmosphere, where nothing is servile or +menial which can glorify God or serve a fellow-man. + +The great truth which Plato taught was the subordination of the lower +elements in human nature to the higher. In the application of this +truth, as we saw, Plato went far astray. His highest was not attainable +by every man; and he proposed to enforce the dictates of reason by fraud +and intimidation on those incapable of comprehending their +reasonableness. Thus he was led into that fallacy of the abstract +universal which is common to all socialistic schemes. Christianity takes +the Platonic principle of subordination of lower to higher; but it adds +a new definition to what the higher or rather the highest is; and it +introduces a new appeal for the lowliest to become willing servants and +friends of the highest, instead of mere constrained serfs and slaves. +This highest principle is, of course, Love of the God who loves all His +human children, friendship to the Christ who is the friend of every man. +Consequently there are no humble working-men to be coerced and no +unfortunate women to be maltreated; no deformed and ill-begotten +children to be exposed to early death, as in Plato's exclusive scheme. +To the Christian every child is a child of God, every woman a sister of +Christ, every man a son of the Father, and consequently no one of them +can be disregarded in our plans of fellowship and sympathy and service; +for whoever should dare to leave them out of his own sympathy and love +would thereby exclude himself from the Love of God, likeness to Christ, +and participation in the Christian Spirit. + +Thus Christianity gives us all that was wise and just in the Platonic +principle of the subordination of the lower elements in our nature to +the higher; but its higher is so much above the highest dream of Plato +that it guards certain forms of social good at points where, even in +Plato's ideal Republic, they were ruthlessly betrayed. + +Christianity finally gathers up into itself whatever is good in the +principle of Aristotle. The Aristotelian principle was the devotion of +life to a worthy end and the selection of efficient means for its +accomplishment. On that general formula it is impossible to improve. "To +this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world," is +Jesus' justification of His mission, when questioned by Pontius Pilate. +"One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching +forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto +the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," is Paul's +magnificent apology for his way of life. The concentration of one's +whole energy upon a worthy end, and the willing acceptance of pains, +privations, and penalties which may be incidental to the effective +prosecution of that end, is the comprehensive formula of every brave +and heroic life, whether it be the life of Jew or Gentile, Greek or +Christian. It is not because it sets forth something different from this +wise and brave prosecution of a noble end that Christianity is an +improvement on the teaching of Aristotle; it is because the end at which +the Christian aims is so much higher, and the fortitude demanded by it +is so much deeper, that Christianity has superseded and deserves to +supersede the noblest teaching of the greatest Greeks. What was the end +which Aristotle set before himself and his disciples? Citizenship in a +city state half free and half enslaved, with leisure for the philosophic +contemplation of the learned few, bought by the constrained toil of the +ignorant, degraded many; the refined companionship of choice congenial +spirits for which it was expected that the multitude would be forever +incapacitated and from which they would be forcibly excluded. Over +against this aristocracy of birth, opportunity, leisure, training, and +intelligence Jesus sets the wide democracy of virtue, service, Love. +Whoever is capable of doing the humblest deed in Love to God and service +to man becomes thereby a member of the kingdom of the choicest spirits +to be found in earth or heaven, and entitled to the same courteous and +delicate consideration which the disciple would show to his Master. The +building up of such a kingdom and the extension of its membership to +include all the nations of the earth and all classes and conditions of +men within its happy fellowship, and in its noble service, is the great +end which Jesus set before himself and which He invites each disciple to +share. + +Whatever hardship and toil, whatever pain and persecution, whatever +reviling and contumely, whatever privation and poverty may be necessary +to the accomplishment of this great end the Master himself gladly bore, +and He asks His followers to do the same. In a world full of hypocrisy +and corruption, pride and pretence, avarice and greed, cruelty and lust, +malice and hate, selfishness and sin, there are bound to be many trials +to be borne, much hard work to be done, many blows to be received, much +suffering to be endured. All that is inevitable, whatever view one takes +of life. Christ, however, shows us the way to do and bear these things +cheerfully and bravely as part of His great work of redeeming the world +from the bondage and misery of these powers of evil, and establishing +His kingdom of Love. To keep the clear vision of that great end before +our eyes, to keep the sense of His companionship warm and glowing +within our hearty never to lose the sense of the great liberation and +blessing this kingdom will bring to our downtrodden, maltreated brothers +and sisters in the humbler walks of life, Jesus tells us is the secret +of that sanity and sacrifice which is able to make the yoke of useful +toil easy, and the burden of social service light; and to transform the +cross of suffering into a crown of joy. + +Each of these four previous principles is valuable and essential; and +the fact that Christianity is higher than them all, no more warrants the +Christian in dispensing with the lower elements, than the supremacy of +the roof enables it to dispense with the foundation and the intervening +stories. Both for ourselves, and for the world in which we live, we need +to make our ideal of personality broad and comprehensive. We need to +combine in harmonious and graceful unity the happy Epicurean disposition +to take fresh from the hand of nature all the pleasures she innocently +offers; the strong Stoic temper that takes complacently whatever +incidental pains and ills the path of duty may have in store for us; the +occasional Platonic mood which from time to time shall lift us out of +the details of drudgery when they threaten to obscure the larger outlook +of the soul; the shrewd Aristotelian insight which weighs the worth of +transient impulses and passing pleasures in the impartial scales of +intellectual and social ends; and then, not as a thing apart, but rather +as the crown and consummation of all these other elements, the generous +Christian Spirit, which makes the joys and sorrows, the aims and +interests, of others as precious as one's own, and sets the Will of God +which includes the good of all His creatures high above all lesser aims, +as the bond that binds them all together in the unity of a personal life +which is in principle perfect with some faint approximation to the +divine perfection. + +The omission of any truth for which the other ancient systems stood +mutilates and impoverishes the Christian view of life. Ascetic +Puritanism, for instance, is Christianity minus the truth taught by +Epicurus. Sentimental liberalism is Christianity without the Stoic note. +Dogmatic orthodoxy is Christianity sadly in need of Plato's search-light +of sincerity. Sacerdotal ecclesiasticism is Christianity that has lost +the Aristotelian disinterestedness of devotion to intellectual and +social ends higher and wider than its own institutional aggrandisement. + +The time is ripe for a Christianity which shall have room for all the +innocent joys of sense and flesh, of mind and heart, which Epicurus +taught us to prize aright, yet shall have the Stoic strength to make +whatever sacrifice of them the universal good requires; which shall +purge the heart of pride and pretence by questionings of motive as +searching as those of Plato, and at the same time shall hold life to as +strict accountability for practical usefulness and social progress as +Aristotle's doctrines of the end and the mean require. It is by some +such world-wide, historical approach, and the inclusion of whatever +elements of truth and worth other systems have separately emphasised, +that we shall reach a Christianity that is really catholic. + +To take the duties and trials, the practical problems and personal +relationships of life up into the atmosphere of Love, so that what we do +and how we treat people becomes the resultant, not of the outward +situation and our natural appetites and passions, but of the outward +situation and Love within our hearts,--this is what it means to live in +the Christian Spirit; this is the essence of Christianity. Strengthened +character and straightened conduct are sure to follow the maintenance of +this spiritual relationship. Not that it will transform one's hereditary +traits and acquired habits all at once, or save one from many a slip +and flaw. Even the Christian Spirit of Love takes time to work its moral +transformation. The tendency of it, however, is steady and strong in the +right direction; and in due time it will conquer the heart and control +the action of any man who, whether verbally or silently, whether +formally or informally, maintains this conscious relationship to that +Love at the heart of things which most of us call God. Jesus and all who +have shared His spiritual insight tell us that the maintenance of this +relationship, close, warm, and quick, is the pearl of great price, the +one thing needful, the potency of righteousness, the secret of +blessedness; and that there is more hope of a man with a bad record and +many besetting sins who honestly tries to keep this relationship alive +within his breast, than there is of the self-righteous man who boasts +that he can keep himself outwardly immaculate without these inward aids. + +Christianity of this simple, vital sort is the world's salvation. +Criticised by enemies and caricatured by friends; fossilised in the +minds of the aged, and forced on the tongues of the immature; mingled +with all manner of exploded superstition, false philosophy, science that +is not so, and history that never happened; obscured under absurd +rites; buried in incredible creeds; professed by hypocrites; +discredited by sentimentalists; evaporated by mystics; stereotyped by +literalists; monopolised by sacerdotalists; it has lived in spite of all +the grave-clothes its unbelieving disciples have tried to wrap around +it, and holds the keys of eternal life. + + + + +INDEX + + + Accident, Stoic explanation of, 83-85. + + Adversity, test of Christian character, 276. + + Altruism, 10-15, 222. + + Ambition, 143-144, 182. + + Amputation of morbid reflections, 33. + + Apperception, 66-70. + + Aristotle-- + Limitations of, 212-213. + Summary of, 213-214. + On-- + Celibacy, 180-181. + Chastity, 202-204. + Courage, 204-206. + Friendship, 209-212. + Need of instruments, 191-194. + Pleasure, 160-175. + Prudence, 200. + Social nature of man, 176-179. + Temperance, 201. + Test of character, 184. + The end, 179-191. + The mean, 194-198. + The virtues, 199-208. + Wealth, 192. + Wisdom, 199. + Completed in Christianity, 284-287. + + Arnold, Matthew, 100, 107. + + Avarice, 146-147. + + + Bacteria, on the whole beneficent, 84-85. + + Beatitudes, 265. + + Blessedness of Love, 264-277. + + Boss, political, evolution of, 150-151. + + + Carlyle, 160-161, 190. + + Celestial Surgeon, 19. + + Celibacy, 180-181. + + Chastity, 202-204, 229-232. + + Cheerfulness, 19. + + Christian-- + Church government, 240. + Forgiveness, 259-260. + Joy, 275. + Modesty, 265. + Peace, 270-272. + Sacrifice, 254-256, 273-274. + Use and misuse of creeds, 241-243. + Worship, 240. + Interpretation of-- + Art, 249-251. + Business, 249-251. + Divorce, 233-235. + Marriage, 228. + Murder, 225-228. + Pleasure, 255. + Politics, 249-251. + Profanity, 235. + Science, 249-251. + Wealth, 248-252. + + Christianity-- + The completion of-- + Aristotle, 284-287. + Epicureanism, 277-279. + Plato, 282-284. + Stoicism, 279-282. + Missionary character of, 262-263. + In need of intellectual honesty, 241-243. + Supremacy of, 277-291. + + Christmas Sermon, Stevenson's, 19. + + Circumstances alter acts, 129. + + Cleanthes' hymn, 97-99. + + Clubs, women's, 188-189. + + Commandments, Aristotelian, 213. + + Cosmopolitanism, Stoic, 94-95. + + Courage, 204-206. + + Cowardice, 128. + + Creeds, 241-243. + + Cynicism, 82. + + Cynic's prayer, 96-97. + + + Death, Christian triumph over, 281. + Epicurean disposition of, 7, 8, 45. + Stoic view of, 73, 77. + Whitman on, 18. + + Degeneration, Plato's stages of, 143-153. + + Democracy, ancient and modern, 122. + Plato on, 147-149. + + Depression, 32-33. + + Diet, 5, 21-22, 124-126. + + Difficulty, Stoic attitude toward, 75-76. + + Divorce, logical outcome of Epicureanism, 44. + Christian attitude toward, 233-235. + + + Education, Plato's scheme of, 131-138. + + Egoism, duty of adequate, 10-15. + + Electricity, beneficent, 84. + + Eliot, George, 46-51. + + Emerson, 165-167. + + End, not justification of means, 178-179. + + Epictetus, 71-77, 81, 84, 87, 88, 89, 96, 97. + + Epicurean-- + Day, 34-35. + Definition of personality, 37, 51. + Gods, 9, 95. + Heaven, 45. + Man, 40-41. + Woman, 42-44. + + Epicureanism, defects of, 36-45, 110, 159, 169-172. + Merits of, 23-25, 52-53. + Parasitic character of, 40, 44-45, 52. + + Epicurus, 1-9. + + Equality, Plato on, 148. + + Evil, Stoic solution of, 87-90. + + Eye of good man upon us, 6. + + + Fighting, a Christian duty, 270-272. + + Fitzgerald, 15-16. + + Forgiveness, 79, 259-260. + + Fortitude, 126-129. + + Friendship, 6, 166-167, 209-212. + + + Gentleness before all morality, 19. + + Gilbert, W.S., To the Terrestrial Globe, 108. + + Gluttony, 125. + + Golden Rule, 223. + + Good, the, according to Plato, 130. + + Gravitation, beneficent, 83-84. + + Gyges' ring, 115-116. + + + Handles, two to everything, 71. + + Happiness and Virtue, 264. + + Harmony, effect of, in education, 134. + + Health, 10-13, 69. + + Henley, To R. T. H. B., 100. + + Heretic, definition of, 53-54. + + Honesty, intellectual, 241-243. + + Horace, Ode on Philosophy of Life, 10. + + Humility, 265. + + Hurry, 29-30. + + + Imaginary presence of good man, 6. + + Independence of outward goods, 4, 74. + + Indifference to external things, 71, 77-78, 81. + + Intellectual honesty, 241-243. + + + Jesus' three ways of teaching, 215-218. + + Joy, 275. + + Judas meets himself, 79. + + Judging others, 260. + + Judgment, Epicurean, Stoic, Platonic, and Aristotelian, 183. + Christian, 220-221. + + + Kant, categorical imperative, 86. + Good-will only real good, 85-86. + Uncompromising modern Stoic, 85. + + + Law, Jewish, transcended by Christianity, 219-238. + Stoic reverence for, 82-86. + + Liberty, excess of, leads to slavery, 149. + + Lincoln's letter to Greeley, 198. + + Literature in education, 132-135. + + Love, Christian, 215-291. + + Lucretius, 8-9. + + + Marcus Aurelius, 77, 96. + + Marriage, 228. + + Mean, Aristotle's doctrine of the, 194-198. + + Meekness, 268. + + Melancholy, 33-34. + + Mental healing, 30, 66, 70. + + Mercy, 269. + + Mill, Christian elements in his doctrine, 63. + Definition of happiness, 54. + Distinction in quality of happiness, 55-57. + Incompleteness of doctrine, 277-278. + Inconsistency of, 57-58, 63-65. + On social nature of man, 60-62. + + Missionary character of Christianity, 262-263. + + Modesty, 265. + + Morrow, how meet most pleasantly, 7. + + Murder, Christian definition of, 225-228. + + Mysticism, 164. + + + Narrow way, 256. + + Natural desires, 3. + + Neoplatonism, 161-164. + + "New Thought," 162. + + + Oaths, 235. + + Obligation not to be relaxed, 167-168. + + Office, good for one, bad for another, 186-187. + + Omar Khayyam, 15-17, 38. + + Opinion in our power, 74-75, 87. + + Optimism, superficiality of modern, 82. + + Otherworldliness, 36. + + + Pain, 2, 4. + + Parasitic character of Epicureanism, 40, 44-45. + + Patience, 128. + + Penitence, 267. + + Perfectionism, 92-93. + + Persecution, 272-276. + + Pessimism, 37-38. + + Philosophers, as kings, 138. + + Plato-- + Defects of, 120-122, 162-168. + Merits of, 159-162, 278. + On-- + Athletics, 136. + Cardinal virtues, 123-131. + Democracy, 147-149. + Education, 131-138. + Literature in education, 132-135. + Philosophers as kings, 138. + Riches and rich men, 145-147. + Righteousness, 113-223, 138-142, 153-159. + The good, 130, 137. + Completed in Christianity, 282-284. + + Play, 26-28. + + Pleasure, 2-4, 20, 39, 30-65, 110-111, 169-175, 255. + + Politician, 117-119, 150-152. + + Poverty, 4. + + Power, things in our, 74. + + Prayer, 257-258, 268. + + Present, the time to live, 6, 36. + + Procrastination, 6-7. + + Prudence, 5-6, 20, 251. + + Purity, 270. + + + Reading Gaol, 226. + + Religion of Stoics, 95-100. + + Reverence, 215. + + Rewards and penalties not essential to virtue, 112-115. + + Riches, 4-5, 67-69, 89, 145-147, 248-252. + + Righteousness, 113-123, 138-142, 153-159. + + Romola, 46-51. + + + Sacrifice, 254-256, 273-274. + + Self-regard and excessive self-sacrifice, 10-15. + + Seneca's pilot, 77. + + Sexual morality, 202-204, 270. + + Sin, 93. + + Sleep, 22. + + Social nature of man, 60-62, 176-179. + + Socrates' prayer, 159. + + Sorrow, Stoic attitude toward, 76-77. + + Spencer, 10-15, 277-278. + + Spirit, one of three elements in our nature, 126-128. + + Stevenson, 18, 19, 201. + + Stoic-- + Acceptance of criticism, 103. + Attitude toward sorrow, 76-77, 78, 80, 101-102. + Cosmopolitanism, 94-95. + Doctrine of no degrees in vice, 90-92. + Equanimity, 103-105. + Fortitude, 105-106. + Indifference, 71-81. + Paradoxes, 90-95. + Perfection of the sage, 93-93. + Religion, 95-103. + Resignation, 97, 104-105. + Reverence for law, 82-86. + Solution of problem of evil, 87-90. + + Stoicism, coldness of, 107-109. + Completed in Christianity, 279-282. + Defects of, 106-109, 159. + Permanent value of, 101-106, 279-282. + Two principles of, 101. + + + Temperance, 200-204. + + Theatre, 27. + + Tito Melema, 46-51. + + Tranquillity, 75. + + Travel, foreign, the paradise of Epicurean women, 42. + + Trial, Stoic endurance of, 75,89-90. + + Tyranny, Plato on, 149-153. + + Tyrant, most miserable of men, 153. + + + Unrighteousness the greatest evil, 140-141, 154-157. + + + Vexation, Stoic formula for, 78. + + Virtue, 87-88, 110-116, 199-208. + + + Wealth, 4-5, 67-69, 145-148, 182, 248-252. + + Whitman, Walt, 17, 18. + + Wisdom, 129-131, 199. + + Work, excessive, 10-15, 23-25. + + Worry, folly of, 24, 29-30, 33, 252-253. + + +Printed in the United States of America. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Five Great Philosophies of Life, by +William de Witt Hyde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIVE GREAT PHILOSOPHIES *** + +***** This file should be named 39065.txt or 39065.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/6/39065/ + +Produced by Christina Blust, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed 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