The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-13
JORDAN REBUKES
THE PESS|M|STS
Answer of Science to
Despair.
THE REALITIES OF LIFE
LOVE AND ACTION ANTIDoTES
FOR ENNUI.
Stanford's President breaches on
Fitzgerald's Version of the
"Rubaiyat" of Omar
Khayyam.
LOVE AND ACTION ANTIDoTEs
FOR ENNUI.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY. March
12.-President Jordan preached to the
students in the chapel this morning on
The Philosophy of Despair" His
text was taken from Fitzgerald's YER
sion Of the "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khay-
yam. The purpose Of the address. was
to indicate some part of the answer of
science to despair. Said he:
Don't reply. Science has none for
the human wisdom. The ultimate truths
of the universe are no nearer than to the
child. Science knows no ultimate truths.
! These are beyond the reach of man, and
all that man. knows must be stated in
terms of his experience. But as to
! human experience and conduct, science
| has word to say.
Deeper and more worthy of respect is
| the sadness of science. The effort to see
| things as they really are, to get out of
all make-bel1eVe and to secure that abso-
Lutte yeracity of thought. without which
! sound action is impossible, does not al
| ways lead to hopefulness.
There is much to discourage in human
history, in the facts of human life. The
common man, after all the ages, is still
very common. He is ignorant, reckless,
unjust, selfish, easily misled. All public
affairs bear the sham of his weakness.
Especially is this shown in the prevalence
of war. The boosted progress of civili-
cation is dissolved in the barbarism of
war. Whether glory of conquest or COM
IneTCldI greed De war purpose. the ulIl-
mate result of war is death. Its essen
/ tial feature is the slaughter of the young,
the brave, the ambitious, hopeful, leay-
ing the weak, the sickly, the discouraged.
to perpetuate the race. Thus all militant
nations become decadent ones. Thus the
glory of Rome, her conquestS and her
splendor of achievements left the Ro-
mans at home d nation of towards and
such they are to this day, for those who
survive are not the sons of the heroes,
but of those whom the needs of two thou
sands years of warfare could not use.
That there seems no way out of this is
the cause of the boundless despair of the
thinking men of Continental Europe. A
chance shot may bring down the tremend-
Gus engines of war and in the streets of
any city may be enacted the scenes of
Paris or Sedan.
DR.. Jordan then took issue with the
pessimists who declare that the only
reality in life is pain. This he held
was not the real truth, for he who
knew no reality save appetite had
never known life at all.
The realities of life he said, ARE
love and action-not the desire but the
exercise of our appointed functions"
He continued:
Mans sensations and power to act must
go together. Man can know nothing that
he cannot somehow weave into action.
other it is through limitations he has
placed on himself To weave knowledge
into action is the antidote for ennui. To
plan, to hope, to do, to accomplish the
full measure of ones power, whatso-
ever they may be, is to turn away from
Nirvana 70 real life. A useful man, help
full man, an active man in every sense.
even though his activity is misdirected or
harmful, is always a hopeful man.
Optimism in life is good working hy-
pothesis if blindness and self satisfac-
ton be not its handspring. What If there
are so many of us in the ranks Of hui
manity-that the individual be lost in the
mass as pebble cast into the seven seas
Would you choose a world so small as to
leave room for only you and your satel-
Iites? Would you ask for problems of
life so tame that even you could grasp
them?
It is to US a question not Of hope or de-
spair, but of truth; not Of optimism nor
Of pessimism, but of wisdom. Wisdom
is knowing what to do next; virtue is
doing it: religion, the heart impulse that
turns us toward the best and highest.