Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-04-18
The CONSERVATIVE SIDE
Gilbert ChestertOn and HiIlaire BeIIoe
The Continuity Of the Human
spirit vs.. Suggestions Of Mod
efn Radio alism.

and Levi p. Smith outlined the views OF
two English writer's, Hilaire Belloc and
Gilbert Chesterton.
Professor Emerson spoke briefly Of the
men whose views were to be expounded
and introduced the next speaker. Pro-
fessor Emerson said that In this day
there Is such multitudinous life going
on around us that IL we were by mistake
to reread yesteray's newspaper Tor TO-
days many OF us would never be con-
scious of the error. There is so much
going on around us that In the general
confusion We miss the deeper siSnhcance
of every event. He said that we need
someone to draw a line for US through
the more important happenings and make
clear their relations to the deeper move
,nents and principles. lie said that our
newspapers used to do something OF that
kind for us through their editorial COL
umns particularly--but now they are
given I'D almost entirely to the quest or
the novel and startling. He was inclined
TO believe that the men who do this best In
the world to-day are the English essay
lists of the contemporary type among
whom Gilbert Chesterton and Hillaire
Be!loc are prominent
Levi Smith said of Belloc and Chester
ton that they are the advocates or
deen and reasonable conservatism. They
arc INDEPENDENT. vigorous thinkers reared
on radicalism who when they began 10
think wandered from what must have been
for them the beaten path and rediscovered
the pa this which their fathers and father
fathers had walked in. They departed
from, n body Of thought which laid the
,ntf n
| which proceeded by a method Of reason
| Ing, rejecting and ignoring whate'er
| would not tit perfectly into narrow sgs-
| TEN Of fully understood things lhey re-
! gard as all-mportant in It's erect upon
| the world and history the innings
| within man which We call the human
spirit They trace the continuity OF TINS
through the ages and predict that IT VIII
| he the doininent factor in the society Oh
| the future. This belief of theirs IN the
| continuity and permenence and competing
| importance Of the human spirit makes
! them cherish and reverence those veneer
able institutions which are the outgro~th
of human needs and possibilities, when
| have been subjected to an ago-old process
Of adjustment 70 the human spirit. and
makes them distr,st and oppose radical
schemes for the Improvement Of society
newly invented to MI what IS supposed to
he n need Of new institutions created by
an altered environment.
In summing up. the speaker SAID
I'VE are living in a time which has seen
the most marvellous material development
in the history OF the world We are
assaled by two schools Of thinkers.
Neither of these schools is satisfied with
things as they are. One would persuade
US that this elaboration Of the material
circumstance of life is really an elabora-
! ton and change Of life itself and that
human beings and institutions are bound
10 change with II. and in fact that 1t is
| essential that they become adapted TO this
new environment. They tell us that the
world has outgrown the life on the soil.
| that the industrial order has replaced the
other and that the change demands new
institutions and even new type Of man.
| On that side enter theories about the
inevitable statistics, sociology, the ma
terialisGc theory of history. eugenics.
There IS probably much in it that Is over
estimated, There are. more likely than
not some failacies. and some false claims
| Every age has its intellectual bias which
like strong current must he allowed for
in attempting to reach the truth. 1t is
likely that the thinking OF our day leans
dangerously toward any theory that
embodies the principle of progression,
which We call evolution. In allow
ing for this tendency We must lean
to some extent against think
ers of this first school T'urthermore in
building plans and making estimates for
|
the probable permanence Of this indus
trial change in human living. on which
writer's like H. G Wells base so much of
their thinking. and about which they
seem so certain. Now our present indus.
| triall"ed clvliza ton is erected on two
materials. coal and iron. and the supply
OF coal and Iron is of limited duration. 1t
is worth questioning then whether this in
dustrial era Of which they made so much
Is not merely temporary departure from
the normal human life and institutions.
ana by no means another stage In pro-
cess OF human evolution. It is more than
possible that the life OF the felds-or at
least the life from the earth-wil DO the
permanent human life
But at least this school offers us a fine
enthusiasm, theory which makes al
lowance for much in the present of which
we are very proud and conscious. And It
has about it glamour of originality. for
nearly all the innovators of the past Lu-
Their. the men OF the Renaissance. and
even the men Of the French revolution,
thought of themselves as gloriously reac-
tionary and flattered themselves in the be-
lief that they were going hack to some
thing tried and found good. These men
gamble everything on the future.
In Belloc and Chesterton we have the
other side-men who lind the permanent
thing the human spirit, which Is too great
to be accounted for or brought to &C
count which breaks over the bounds OF
systems and will not abide ny prophecies
and models history after Its own divine
; caprice. They find the manner OF lifs
, which gives best scope to the human
spirit the best life, They find great
, wisdom and human welfare and hap,
piness, in institutions which have hac
long ages for adjustment with hu
man nature. They are dogma lists anc
. mystics And their teaching makes fo
simplicity. stability and repose. in a tim,
which seems weller Of the transitory