The New York herald., 1921-07-24
THE RACE NEEDS
BOTH THE PAGAN
AND THE PURITAN

= needs an ethical reconstruction
in the light of the new intellectual
trends of the day-a new grounding in
the great verities of life and nina
that will De convincing to the men
who actively participate in contem-
porary civilization"
Some years ago DIR. Cabot of Boston
published a book called What Men
Live By" and this wise physician
found Love, Faith, Work and Wor
ship" the four corner posts of his
House of Life; Prof. Hudson would
find it domicile not unsuited to his
frame of mind. He might incline to
use some different materials in it's
structure, some individual preference
in the arrangement of it's rooms, but
he would approve, in particular, the
quality of its heavy timbers and it's
general architectural quality.
The author believes that reason"
Is larger than the reason of that spe-
cial enterprise called science. and it
has other methods of proof just as
cogent as are the demonstrations of
science. He grants that many of the
old arguments for the great verities"
are now foolish; this fact does not
render foolish the verities themselves.
The fact that scepticism, moral or
other, implies a certain. amount of
thinking, is in itself encouraging, for
1t implies an advance in civilization,
but it is not final landmark; "sceptic-
ism is the outcome of much thought,
but it is likely to disappear with more
thought" In his chapter called "a
Solution Proposed" DIR. Hudson re-
marks that the whole question is
wrongly put when in the forum:
(Which one of the series Of moral
standards bequeathed us by history is
the right one?" The real truth is that
"all conflicting moral standards imply
q moral end that includes them all
and transcends every one Of them;
and this all-inclusive moral end is the
true standard Of right and wrong that
ever remains the same amid all moral
change. 1t is indubitable' that moral
standards change with history, but
not because the old moral ideas were
worthless, but because they were only
a part, however necessary, of the
whole truth"
The author is at his best in such
passage as his consideration of the
relativity of the Puritan and the
Pagan: There is always the Puritan
and the Pagan, and to conciliate them
is no easy problem, yet we must, or
human nature is hopelessly at war
with itself. But our nature is
not divided against itself, nor is our
civilization. If the Puritan and the
Pagan are not happy with each other
they are still more unhappy without
each other. The Pagan gives
the Puritan the art treasures of the
world, the love of nature. music, joy Of
living, health of body and mind; and
the Puritan gives the Pagan the moral
inspiration, the far ideal. The Puritan
is the thorny stem; the Pagan the rose
and the perfume of the rose. The
Puritan is the solemn forest; the
Pagan the birds of song and the sun
shine through the trees" Such
graceful expression of a determined
optimism is balanced with the ordered
progress of his arguments and the
weight of his logic, a weight gained
by the simple process of using his an
tagonists' methods and arguments to
back his own contention.
"The fact is" says the author,
"every expert logician knows that the
WAYS of reasoning used in science do
not exhaust reason; that one may ac-
curately and nationally demonstrate
things that conventional science does
not nj all touch. Certain it is
- h tf1l xxyn
know well enough to stake our lives
upon them were never proved by
science and never can be proved by
science That / am |, the same self
this morning that went to sleep last
night, no scientific laboratory ever
proved or could prove. That life is
worth while that an exalted friend
ship is a noble thing; that one loves
his beloved; that some causes are
worthy of sacrifice and death; that
the Venus of Milo is beautiful-no one
ever goes to science for the proof of
such things. Yet such truths
give their character to whole civiliza-
tions. For such truths men are some
times willing to die; whereas it would
be difficult to find a sane person will
ing to die for the First Law of Motion,
or a chemical analysis" And he goes
on to conclude that man is not willing
TO die for a conjecture. and that moral
faith must be rational to abide.
Prof. Hudson writes with admirable
choice Of simple words in complex con-
siderations, and he is ingenious and
tenacious of his point of view with
out either resortlng to dogmatism or
climbing a tree" In the chapter Are
We Masters of Our Fates?" he re-
marks: Sciences one and only ar
gument against freedom of choice is
that human choice cannot be free
from external causal law without in
PRODUCING an incalculable and disturb
ing element into the physical world.
But is It not conceivable that
there are incalculable elements In the
physical world? Why is 1t not possible
to have uniformities In a world that
is not wholly uniform? Is il not per-
fectly conceivable that one may have
n pattern that is fixed In many re-
pNanfc xybfch yaf hoa variable alo-