The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-01

For with August, 1914, the world knew quite I'M
mistakably that Evil was still alive. And Mr..
CHEsTERToN, who had insisted for years on that
very thing-Mr CHEsTERToN might have been par
doned slight smile at the proof that he had known
what he was talking about. Only it was no smiling
matter. 1t seldom is for the man who has warned
in vain. There was no smile the face of CHEs-
TERToN any more than on the face of Lord Rob-
ERTs of Kandahar.
Mr.. Chestertons Letters.
The letters from Mr. CHEsTERToN which we are
now printing deal with books, or with themes de-
rived from books that have not, in many instances
yet been published in this country. They thus
serve the extremely useful purpose of drawing at
tention to important English publications in adj
of their appearance here-fOr most OF them
will be brought out here and all of course, can be
obtained through the big New York book stores
which handle importations. But useful and valu-
able as this function Of Mr.. CHEsTERToN's letters
may be it is only incidental function. The
main purpose which he has in writing the letters
and the prime purpose which we have in printing
them is to pI sent fOrcibly and directly the ideas
of an able and original land vindicated) English
thinker all sorts of matters, serious and less
His first letter. on Mr. WELLS was penetrating; his
second, on the Nictorans, was profound; in to-
days letter he deals with of his happiest sub
jects, Mr.. SHAW HEsTERToN. Next week he will
speak of poetry and mysticism and creeds And so
il will go-because there is a brain behind it.
Beyond Good and Evil
BECAUSE man named NIETzsCBE once wrote
- book called Beyond Good and EUH it came
TO be thought by that man had arrived
could arrive there. This view, entertained by
lessening number of people since 1914, has nothing
to commend it. Not the ma jOrlty Of mankind,
tainly, believes it possible for mankind to get TO a
condition where moral distinctions will be as
necessary as political distinctions are sometimes
thought TO be.
Even if it were possible to get beyond good and
evil it is by means that should be better
off. For obviously there are two directions in which
good and evil can be transcribed and it should be
rather easier to 90 beyond them in than in the
other. 1t is interesting conjecture that the peo-
pie from whom NIETzsCHE sprang and who may nat
uraly be expected to put the most faith in him have
really succeeded in passing the moral boundaries
but at the inferior end.
Life beyond good and evil, or beyond it in the
direction that Germany has gone, is unsatisfac-
tory thing. There is worse than Goetterdaemme-
rung duskiness. There is not twilight but dark
ness of the gods. This is necessary inevitable
perhaps, but joyless.
All the fine zest is gone from III" acts of existence
You murder baby without the least relish, since
to murder baby is no longer evil. You cruelty
Canadian soldier and find the boredom appalling
For Any Others Sake.
WHO does not remember the orator S topic Is
w Life Worth Living? He answered always
with the fullest affirmative, but it is plain that he
should have qualified his Life is not worth
living under certain conditions Death is not worth
dying under some circumstances, either.
Life for lifes sake is better than art for art s
sake Nothing for its own sake can ever be worth
while. If anything were, the world would come to
a standstill. Everything has to be done-life to be
lived death to be ded-for the sake of somebody
something else.
It must be known cOmprehended thing for
which life is lived death encountered. If you
speak of the Infinite you speak Of something indeed
unknown but not uncomprehended. 1t has not been
sufficiently observed that no known thing is compre-
hended and no comprehended thing is known. You
know flower, but flower is an absolutely incom-
prehensible natural object. You comprehend cleo
ricity, but you don t know it and cannot define it.
If it were possible both to know and to compre-