The Washington herald., 1907-08-19

Editor The Washington Herald:
Goldwin Smith has done me the unlock
ed-for honor of a notice in the New York
Sun Of gly recent communication TO your
PAPER on Immortality" His article sug-
5ests to me a few points of which have
-ot before treated.
I have tried to point out in my appre-
.iatiOn OF Confuclus, In last Mondays
.ssue of your paper, the, what appears to
me, well-nigh indisputable conclusion
nat an ethical system. lofty and noble,
nay be promulgated and given lasting
impetus without the aid of the super
natural It is frequent assertion, even
N the part of those who have been forced
intellectually 10 give over their belief in
The supernatural, that without its aid no
such abstract code of morals as COM
prise the teachings of Christ could have
aid hold Of the imagination Of the masses.
IN further support. and in reply 10 the
citation OF such instances as those Of
Confucius and Buddha, they eall-these
Christian apolOgists-oUr attention 10 the
Inference In degree. of progress and civ
lization between the followers Of these
more ancient systems and those Of Chris
.ianity
Solution "a Racial One.
In this. the apologists. fear me. miss
their mark. To me the solution would ap-
pear to be rather racial one. If mere
material achievement. discovery, and in
rention IN the arts and sciences is right
" the criterion Of progress-a statement
which I have never felt to be entirely
substantiated-then the peoples Of the Oc-
-ident can justly lay claim TO superiority;
but if, on the other hand the sustenance
II lie with a maximum Of happiness and
comfort and a minimum of misery and
want. physical and mental is the true
goal. then I see no reason for the dog
matte assertion of the superiority Of the
Western nations. The restless. strenuous
life Of the Occ44ent Of to-day-"this ac-
tive. busting, hard-hitting. many-tongued
world. caring nothing for authority, and
little for the past; but full Of its living
thought and living issues" as Charles
Francis Adams has well described it's
il seems 10 me. rather conducive 10 dis
content and dissatisfied yearning than TO
eQuanimity and peace Of mind. II mental
imperturbability is 20 be sought and l
think il is, then I venture 10 say that
those nations which have been nurtured
in the older systems are to-day nearer
the goal than those which have en-
braced Christianity
WOFdswOrth's Idea.
Wordsworth finely expresses this idea
when he says:
The world is too much with US; late and soon,
Getting and spending, We lay waste our powers;
Little ws see in nature that Is ours
We have given our hearts away. sordid boon.
But the history Of the Western peoples
has been. I believe. but the inevitable
and necessary. result Of racial character
istics. What evidence is there that their
history would have been otherwise had
they embraced any other religion? In
fact, is not their religion itself the very
product Of their constitutional makeup?
Has not each-Eace evolved for itself
that religion best suited TO its destiny,
and has not its promulgator been but
the natural product of the needs Of the
hour?
Who viii presume to say that had the
Oriental peoples been nurtured in Chris
tianity they would have been one iota
different from what they are tO-day2 The
earth is suited 10 man because man IS
a product of the earth; so Christiaity
is the religion Of the Occident, because
it Is best fitted 70 the needs Of the Oc-
cidental temperament and is the result
Of the same laws and forces that have
gone to make up that temperament. As
with the race. so with the individual
III g,Cs po.-,-F rou.-oT
The belief in Immortality. or the lack OF
it. has no more effect upon the life Of
the individual than belief in anything
else; ones life is pure and unselhsh or
criminal and vicious as the result Of I'M
mutable laws beyond contrel and even
consciousness.
Foltaire has said that man, rather than
being created after the image OF his
Maker. has created his God after his own
image. Emerson somewhere says: ''The
gases gather TO the armament; the chem
&c lump arrives at the plant and grows;
ierrives at the Quadruped and walks; ar
rives at man and thinks''-the Voltairean
would add-"and, thinking. creates its
God, the answer 70 its past, the prophecy
OF its future"
Says Prof. Smith, "Annihilation is not
a cheerful word" and this note he not
infrequently strikes throughout q series
OF letters recently gathered into a little
book, with a copy Of which have been
favored.
would modestly ask, Why? What is
there TO fear in being '-notbing?" Can
any form Of a future life be imagined
which the very thought Of eternity does
not make almost painful?
What more can one desire. at the end
OF a life, however spent, and which, how
ever happy, must have had It's measure
peace-Nirvana?
Desires Only Oblivion.
No; If 7 may register a personal feeling.
] do not desire Immortality; rather would
say with Byron:
When Time OF soon or late shall bTing
The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead,
0hliyioni may thy langlid wing
Wave gently Oer ny diving bedi
Inasmuch as Prof. Smith has alluded
TO an unpublished essay Of my late
father, whom, for mere purposes of iden-
tihcation. refer to as q former governor
Of South Carolina, take this opportunity
70 say that. acting largely on the advice
OF Prof. Smith and Charles Eliot Nor
ton, I have taken such steps as viii, ]
trust, soon secure its publication. It can
not, think but arouse interest among
thinking men. PAUL c. CHAMBERLAIN.
LIS Q street northwest,
Washington, D. c.
Newspaper Crime Wave.