The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-06-08
MAX NORDAU.

Max Nordau's Degeneration caught
the public eye, and there is no man of
culture who has not read the book. He
made an assault on modern civilization,
and there were many who were caught
by his specious arguments. 1t is al
ways so easy and pleasant to think that
your neighbors are going to the deuce,
while you are sailing serenely on, with
a happy belief that you are so much
better than your fellows. The idea was
used nearly a couple of thousand years
ago in the parable of the pharisee and
the sinner. So a large number of un-
balanced minds who read NOrdau's
book began looking for signs of de
generacy" among their fellows, and
flood of minor writer's took up his ideas.
There have been numberless answers
to Nordau's work, and among the best
is Regeneration. The authors name
does not appear on the title page, but
the introduction is written by Nicholas
Murray Butler, Professor of Philosophy
and Education in Columbia College. The
introduction is powerful indictment
of the author of Degeneration" Nor
dau claims to work on scientific lines,
and Professor Butler shows, with jus
tice, that "a long chapter might be writ
ten on the credulity of men of science.
! The hypothesis that they have chased
out of the door complacently fly in at
the window" He further quotes the le-
gend of st. Augustine, who, when walk
| ing along the shore one day, absorbed
! in meditation, suddenly perceived a
child that with a shell was ladling the
sea into a hole in the sand. what are
you doing, my child?" asked ST. Angus
tine Il am emptying the ocean," was
the reply, Unto this hole" That is i'm
possible said the saint. mot more i'm
possible than for you to empty the uni
verse into your intellect" said the
child, and vanished. Monkish legend as
this is, it very clearly points out what
Sir Isaac Newton pointed out when he
said: 81 do not know what l may ap-
pear to the world, but to myself l seem
to have been only like boy playing on
the seashore, and diverting myself in
now or then finding a smoother pebble
or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst
the great ocean of tr- h lay all undis-
covered before me-
There spoke the true man of science.
The trouble with the so-called man of
science of modern days is that he goes
to work upon a narrow field and for
gets that there are other and wider
fields. There are as many prigs and
dolts in the scientific field as there are
in the religious, the scholastic and the
medical 1t is easy to get hold of the
''shibboleth' without getting the true
meaning.
TyndaII, than whom there was no
more modest man of science, said, twen-
ty years ago: EScience itself not in
frequently derives motive power from
an ultra unscientific source. Some of
its greatest discoveries have been made
ideal The world embraces not only a
Newton but Shakespeare-no only a
Boyle but a Raphael-not only Kant
but a Beethoven-not only a Darwin
but Carlyle And if unsat-
isfied with them all, the mind, with the
yearning of a pilgrim for his distant
home will still turn to the MYSTERY
from which it has emerged. II
would affirm this to be a field for the
nOblest exercise of what, in contrast |
with the knowing faculties, may be call
ed the creative faculties of man."
This was from an exact scientific
man, and there seems no reason why
literature, art and music should not en-
ter upon the field before them. They
have entered upon it. Tennyson, Long