Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-26
GEORGE SANTAYANA
ON AMERICAN OPINION
The Distinguished Spanard Who Taught Philosophy in Hdr
uard University Has Written Suggestive, Sound
and Sweet t.Tenpered Book
By FELIX r. sCHELLING


Professor Of English Literature
THIS book was originally addressed,
l. we are informed, to British audi
ences in the form Of lectures. But
the subject. American life in it's aca-
demic and intellectual phases. especially
at Harvard, Is even more Immediately
interesting to us who are of American
birth. Prof. Santayana possesses two
advantages for his task, unusual In
their combination. and these are his for
eign blood and secondly his American
academic associations. Born Span
lard, Mr.. Santayana was educated at
Harvard and professed philosophy there
for more than twenty years. Wherefore
he is able alike to know. to sympatbiSe,
even at times to admire, and yet to
view American, or at least New Eng
land character and philosophical opin-
ion from the vantage Of n detached OBJ
server. In his preface he very aptly
observes that such a work can hardly
claim for itself truth because it enables
us TO see ourselves as others see u.s.
for in such cases it is the observer often
who Is better disclosed than the thing
seen. And yet 1t is always an bpproxi-
nation at least to q better understand
ing of the realities to have them hon
estly and dispassionately discussed by
one who combines q knowledge of the
subject with clear perception of its
relations and the radical detachment of
essentially alien blood.
ITO THE sanguine American spirit
L which is so passionately attached to
the faith that rapid and continuous bet
terment is one OF the certanties Of hu-
man development, it will come as some
thing Of a shock to hear that "civiliza-
ton is perhaps approaching one Of those
long winters that overtake it from time
to time. A food of barbarism from
below may soon level all the fair works
Of our Christian ancestors, as another
flood two thousand years ago leveled
those Of the ancients." And yet Mr..
Santayana is far from hopeless rs to
the future; on the contrary, he is full
of illumination and recognition for the
essential idealism Of American charac-
ter. While doubt not that to the sea-
soned phlosophc mind tho gist of this
book will be found in the fine chapters
of analysis of the PHILOSOPHERS Of the
two notable Harvard philosophers. with
both of whom the author was Intimately
associated, to the general reader and the
journeymnn reviewer 1t is the prospects,
so to speak. by the way which allure.
What could be finer tribute to liber
ality, for example, than this on Will
liam james? Nobody ever recognized
more heartily the chance that others
had Of being right, and the right they
had of being different" Or what shrewd
observation could we have than this oil
the associations of Josiah Royce with
certain good folks whom we know are ad-
dicted to advanced thinking? "On cur
rent affairs his judgments we're highly
seasoned and laboriously wise
His reward was that he became a.
prophet to a whole class Of earnest
troubled people. who, having discarded
doctrinal religion, wished to think their
life worth living, when, to look at what
it contained. it might not have seemed
So" Mr.. Santayana is often thus keen
| rock of the Puritan spirit to the dis
card Of its forms. Wider in its reach
is the observation that hardly anybody.
except the Greeks at their best. has
realized the sweetness and glory OF DE-
ing a rational animal" and the recog-
milton that out of the Hcbraic idea Of
themselves as Gods chosen people has
arisen "that terrible inverest in material
existence" in material splendor which
still haunts much of our Christian
thinking as to the world to come.
However, the author admits that "some
detachment from existence and from the
filtered into Christianity through Pla-
tonism.
DERHAPS the reader does not feel
l. out of his depth. or will not confess
It. His reviewer is sputtering. Let us
get back TO the shore. In his chapter
on academic environment. Mr.. Santay-
ana sets forth the difficulties Of phil
osopher-he might have added Of any
investigating scholar-in combining
pure speculation with that delightful
paternal art" teaching. And he likens
\ the latter to acting 'whore the per-
fOrmance, often rehearscd. must be
| adapted to an audience hearing it only
once" There is further difficulty for
| the teacher, q further responsibility to
his students. 'he must neither bore.
nor perplex nor demoralize them" 1t
is a just observation that "while the
sentiments of most Americans in poll
tics and morals, If little vague, are
very constructive, the democratic in