New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-06
EUCKEN
A Healing Commentator on
Modern Discomfort.

I of ST. GATHERINGS College. and Bur
ney student. Cambridge ana memD ,,n
/ OF the University OF Jena. svo' PIP
xxi. 371 The Macmillan Company.
THE TRUTH OF RELIGION, BY Rn,
dolf Eucken. Awarded Nobel Prize IN
1905 senior professor OF philosophN
In The University OF Jena. Trans
lated by W. Tudor Jones. Phi. u
(Jena). svo. PIP. xiv, 81. g. p. Put
MANS Sons.
RELIGION AND LIFE BY the same
author. Frontispiece. Small Emo PIP
VI g. G.. y. Putnam's Sons.
Previous to 1908. when the author
was awarded the Nobel Prize for liz
erature, the only work OF Professor
Eucken's that had been turned into
! English was THE Fundamental Con-
cepts Of Modern Thought" translated
over thirty years ago by Professor NJ.
Stuart Phelps, OF Yale. The list OF
ESSAYS and treatises made accessible
! since the award includes history OF
philosophy, entitled THE Problem az
Human Life" christianity and the
New Idealism." The Life OF the Splr-
IT," The Meaning and Value OF Life
/
The. book translated by Mr.. Widgery
is representative in quality and II has
the advantage OF being Anglicized as
well es translated" Professor Euck-
ems magnum opus on religion will
tempt only the bravest spirits. The
wayfaring man after plodding through
a few hundred pages will be disposed
TO give up the quest. feeling. as Carlyle
dds In reading Strings account OF
| Hoeel. that II is hard 10 walk with
cannon ball at each ankle. The re-
naming book. Religion and Life" Is
the substance Of an address delivered
some months ago at oxford. and again
I'm London. recording In Geographic
STYLE the Jena professors findings as a
Waterman OF Zion. II occasionally
vague. IL is always concise.
Like the evangel whose welcome IL
best assured in a fallen world, the
characteristic communication OF our
author is born OF a solicitous reading
Of the wounds and weaknesses Of the
race in an age when amid material
afiiuence the spirit Of man grows poo.
The burden Of a prophet blends with
the thesis OF this philosopher. He sees
the spiritual restitution accompanying
much OF our modern absorption in af-
fairs. loss at lies centre not 20 be
counterbalanced by all the gain on the
periphery. a winning Of the world and
a surrender OF the soul. Work becomes
with US 20 external a matter that II Is
unrelated 10 our inner personal eN-
istence, and We thus become alien TO
ourselves. Yet the very fact that We
are able TO be conscious 81 such an
alienation Is a proof that there ~ inn
planted In US more than the modern
direction Of life is able TO satisfy. lie
inquiries:
Is It 10 be wondered at that desire and
anxiety should turn again home toward
the whole OF lfe. ana that the question
concerning the Inner clarihcaton oil IRE
| should place on one side all other queh-
| lions and reduce them to subsidiary
facts. and that the possibility OF an Inner
elevation OF human nature-of sell
maintenance In the midst OF threaten
ing destruction OF Iife-shouid become me
through such a revolution la the tendency
and character OF life the ancient puzzles
OF human existence, hushed up IN earlier
times, raise themselves once more with
lively and crude encrEl-problems on
corning the deep darkness which wells
our Whence and Whittier. our depend.
ence upon strange powers. the pa!niul
antithesis within our own soul, the stub
born barriers TO our spiritual potencies'
the flaws in love and righteousness In
nature and in human nature, IN word.
the apparent total loss OF what We dare
not renounce-our best and most real
treasures.
At the bottom OF our discomfort, Pro-
fessor Eucken would say, is the fact
that two worlds are ours, n dualism
formed by nature and spirit. The dis
tinction Is quite other than that which
has often been maintained in theory,
between body and mind and between
object and subject. The antithesis OF
nature and spirit is one lying entirely
within consciousness. Viewed on one
side. our life appears as a world If
"nature"-that is 10 say. Of accommo-
dalton 10 environment, subsection 20
mechanical necessty-its deeds being
simply the means 10 the conservation
Of its own existence and with no ST.
perlor unity spanning and stirring the
manifold. Viewed on the other side.
and contemporaneously our life ar
pears as world OF spirit-a world
where energies, ends and forms are
produced whose connections lead to 4
new kind Of reality over against all
rigor Of nature power. To take a phi
mary phenomenon, there Is morality,
with its categorical commands. Tie
behests Of morality are meant for
free man, not for an automation NOV
ing under irresistible powers. There Is
science always creatively ascending
from a simple "awareness" TO a veri-
table discernment: and in the same
I spiritual world OF man there IL art.
which In its seeking after perfection is
ever making acknowledgment OF the
unattained whole. Now, II is pre-
tisely this creativeness which gives pre-
eminence 10 the life OF the spirit and
wins for 1t the right 10 WELD the scep-
tire. That II is kept from it's kingdom
and compelled to follow In the train OF
the natural Is what constitutes the
great contradiction. Menaced by It's
dependence on an alien power, the l.fe
10 I. g.ll II