Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-26

stincts have produced a system or edu :
cation which anticipates all that the
most extreme revolution could bring
about" The author finds in the pre-
ponderance Of women among teachers
of the young. in ambitious, easy and
optional lessons, divided between
what the child likes now and what be Is
going to need in his trade or profession
the ever increasing gulf between the
intellectual and the practical life
Wherefore "a gentle contempt on the
part Of the young American for the
past and kindly regret for the poor
old fellows who had no chance to live
in our incompatible age. Wherefore,
likewise, American intelligence is
largely absorbed in what is not intel
lectual, father finding his recourse In
business, the women and children IN
various forms Of frivolity and play. 1t
il in this cleavage that our want OF
any real society really lies: for sucn
society as we have is distinctly uninte =
lectual and frivolous, while our intel
lectuality in it's associations remains
quasi professional and unsocial. To
return to education, Mr.. Santayana
aptly remarks that anything might have
been taught in the liberal curriculum
Of the Harvard of his day. You might
almost be an atheist, if you were trou
bled enough about it." Still, certain
all and. he wittily concludes. "a slight
smell of birthstone fingered in the air. y
MIR. SANTAYANA'S last chapter is
1V1 entitled English Liberty in
America" and in it he pays fine trio-
ute to the "eminence in temper. goou
will. reliability, accommodation IN
which alone can we hope for the deyel =
opment Of real democracy. To dom
mate the world by CO. operation Is bet
ter than to dominate it by conquest:
Experiment in government is safer and
likely to prove in the end more efficient
than government by inspiration. Free
government" the author tells us else
where. works well in proportion Ne
government is supcrfuous. I'm
America there is but one way OF being
saved though il is not peculiar to any
of the official religions. which tbemselves
must silently conform to the national
orthodoxy or else themselves become im
potent and merely ornamental. Ihis
national faith and morality are vague II
idea. but incxorable in spirit; they are
the gospel of work and the belief in
progress American life is free
MS a whole, because it is mobile In
temper America is docilc and not NJ
all tyrannical; it has not PREDETERMINED
its career, and its merCiless momentum
is passive resultant. Certainly
absolute freedom he concludes
would be more beautiful II we wer,
birds or poets; but cooperation and
loving sacrifice of n part of ourselves
Or even Of the whole save the love in
us-are beautiful. too. IL we are men
living together" I make no apology
for quoting thus frequently from this
suggestive, this sound and sweet-tem
percd book. Where thought is SC. com
pletely and yet unsuperfiuously clothed
in the raiment of apt words there il
no other way. Mr.. Santayana style
is as attractive as his ideas are stimu
lating and allaying.
CHARACTER AND OPINION IN THE
UNITED STATES, with "reminiscences OF
William James and Josiah Royce and aca
demic life in America. BY George eantay
ana, late professor philosophy in Harvard
University. New York: Charles Scribner'
Sons. $3.50.