Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

But the physical sciences themselves supply abundant evidence against the exclusive claims made, under the name of Progress, for their methods. The very mental processes without which they could not advance a step, start from the direct and intuitive perception of necessary and universal truths.

More than this, they also furnish us with a refutation of the dogma that they yield the only explanation of the universe to which we may attain

And, as a matter of fact, the writings of the most eminent masters of physics supply evidence how futile is their attempt to rest in Naturalism; how irresistible their need of "an ampler ether, a diviner air," than the phenomenal

But these high thoughts are the prerogative of the profounder intellects among the masters and students of physics. It is unquestionable that one result of the stupendous advance of the natural sciences, in our own day, has been to diffuse a vulgar and debased Materialism. The popular notion of Progress is certainly utilitarian, holding it to consist in the enhancement and more general distribution of "happiness

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

agree

Happiness" is generally taken in the sense of "
able feeling." But it is, to say the least, doubtful
whether there is more agreeable feeling in pro-
gressive countries now than there was at previous
periods

14

16

20

22

25

26

PAGE

And if, taking "happiness" in its higher sense, we understand by it a psychical state arising from the equilibrium of the individual with his proper end, assuredly physical science is not its instrument

It is, indeed, a condition of civilization that the people of a country should be able, with moderate toil, to procure what is necessary for comely living. But these necessaries have not an absolute value: they are a means, not an end

30

30

The true subject of human Progress is man himself, and its real factors are ethical qualities

30

And a society in which moral Progress does not keep pace with intellectual and material Progress, is doomed to decadence

30

Illustrations of this truth from the past history of the world.

When we consider the fate of earlier civilizations, it is not unreasonable to inquire whether we may not expect that our Progress also will be succeeded by retrogression

Unquestionably there is much in the present condition of society which recalls the condition of decadent Rome But we have a principle of recovery, which was lacking to antique society, in the loftier morality of Christianity

The immense rise in the moral level of the Western world during the Christian era is unquestionable. As unquestionable is it that this is mainly due to Christianity.

Here is our highest and most important Progress: our immeasurable gain over former civilizations.

31

34

34

37

38

38

[blocks in formation]

Christianity is not, indeed, as is sometimes said, coextensive with moral civilization. But the most precious elements of our ethical life are mainly derived from it, and are closely bound up with it

The Christian temper is a striking fact in the European world and is often conspicuously exhibited by those who do not call themselves Christians

:

Christianity is still the controlling ethical influence of modern society: it is the Palladium of our Progress.

It has been said that "the essential doctrines of Christianity are the necessary and eternal truths of reason." But the ethical principles most distinctive of the modern world hold rather of evangelical sanctity than of natural virtue.

No doubt morality is, in itself, independent of religion. But, as a matter of fact, only religion can graft it into the character and institutions of a people: and without religion, perish and die it must

[ocr errors]

The Divine Founder of Christianity testified of Himself "I am the Light of the World." It is that light. which shining into the mysterious recesses of man's nature, and revealing him to himself, has been the great source of human emancipation.

His words" are spirit and they are life": the spirit and the life of the loftiest feelings hitherto vouchsafed to humanity. Who can believe that they shall pass away?.

But in the sphere of religion, as elsewhere, the doctrine of Progress applies. Here, too, "perpetual selfadaptation to environment is the very law of life"

[ocr errors]

PAGE

38

39

40

41

43

[ocr errors]

44

47

47

CHAPTER II.

LIBERTY.

The greatest advance of the modern world, then, over antiquity is in the progress of man himself, through his apprehension of the transcendent worth of human personality

And an essential note of personality is Liberty

This truth, dimly apprehended by the popular mind, finds expression in the excellent things very generally spoken of Liberty, which has become a Shibboleth most effective upon the popular imagination.

Liberty is very commonly understood as the faculty of doing what one pleases: as the sovereignty of the individual over his own mind and body: as the ability of each to carry on his own life in his own way, without hindrance from others, so long as he does not hinder them; in a word, as lawlessness, the notion of law being purely empirical

This is a very inadequate conception. Such freedom is merely negative. Positive Liberty, real Liberty, does not reside in lawlessness: law is not its opposite, but its essential condition. And this is universally

true

Thus is it in the physical order.

natural law is beyond question

The continuity of

Nor are the laws of nature only ascertained sequences or co-ordinations of phenomena, the sole sense in which mere physicists may speak of them. They are laws

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

in the proper sense of the word, that is they are neces-
sary necessitate consequenti as proceeding from the
Supreme Reason; and divine.

And therefore do they rule us, nor is there liberty for man, in the physical order, save in obedience to them. "Natura non nisi parendo vincitur".

PAGE

55

57

And so, in the ethical order, there is no true Liberty for man save in obedience to the moral law

58

Which is a Divine Order ruling through the universe

59

Precisely in proportion as man obeys it, is he master of himself and free

59

Nor, in the public order, is Liberty found in lawlessness.
Human society is an organism with its proper laws.

The truth has been largely obliterated from the popular
mind by a spurious individualism

Which is due to two causes: first, "the trituration of the groups which once lived with an independent life," as society, in the Western world, has moved from status to contract; and secondly, the wide influence of Rousseau's political teaching as applied by his Jacobin disciples

"Every individual is free to think what he likes; his freedom to do and say what he likes shall be as little as possible infringed by law; and after all, this is no real infringement, for he is his own lawgiver, free as one of the sovereign people to vote as he likes: and so, in obeying the law, he must be taken to obey only himself, and to be as free as before: "-such is the political liberty wherewith the new Liberalism, makes free "the citizen," as its cant phrase is

61

61

61

62

« НазадПродовжити »