Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-15

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tesqucness about what we really are
that we strive to conceal. "Grotesque
reality" 1t is great phrase. Bet
ter indeed, than plastic grandilo-
quencc," which he applies to the ar
Chitecture of later Rome.
Bat it is the willingness of Dickens
that men and women should live their
own lives in their own way which i'm
presses Santayana
This is because he insists on the
indliendble right Of men 10 do this
as tceH as on their moral duty not TO
neglect il.
LIE SETS forth his creed in an essay
IL on My Friendly Critics" in
which he writes with tolerance of them
and of their misconceptions of him. He
says: Il can always says to myself
that my atheism. like that OF Spinoza,
is true picty toward the universe and
denies only gods fashioned by men in
their own image, to be servants of their
human interests; and that even in this
dental | am no rude iconoclast. but
full of secret sympathy with the i'm
pulses of the idolaters. My detachment
from things and persons is also affec-
tomato. and simply what the ancients
called philosophy: ] consent that a
flowing river should fow renounce
that which betrays, and cling to that
which satisfies, and l relish the irony
of truth.
Again in another place: Argument
is not persuasive to madmen but they
can be won over By gentler courses to
q gradual dociity TO the truth. ('Do-
cility n the truth" Is not that fine y
One Of these gentler courses Is this to
remember that madness is human. that
dreams have their springs in the depths
Of human nature and Of human expert
ence: and that the illusion they cause
may be kindly and even gloriously dis
PEELED by showing what the solid truth
was which they expressed allegorically.
j Why should ono be- angry with dreams.
with myth. with madness? We must
not kill the mind. as some ratlonalists
do. in trying to cure il. The life OF
reason. as I conceive it. is simply the
dreaming mind becoming coherent, de-
visinc symbols and methods. such as
languages, by which it may ftly survey
its own career"
Once more: II think sometimes I
am the only philosopher living: ! am
resigned to being a mind
Still again. " | have no wish to
propagate any particular character,
least Of all nv own; my Conreit does
not take that form. wish individuals,
Lo
and to multiply the forms Of perfrc-
tion and happiness as nature prompts
them. The only thing which l think
might be propagated without injustice
to types thereby suppressed is harmony ;
enough harmony to prevent tho inter-
ference of one type with another. and
to allow the perfect development Of each
type.
Now. one final quotation, the passage
with which he concludes this essay
! All, know why my critics murmuI
and are dissatisfied. do not endeavol
TO deceive myself. nor to deceive them
nor to aid in deceivng them. They viii
never prevail on me to do that. / ar
disciple Of Socrates.
The open -mindedness for which this
man contends IL nothing more than in
tellectual freedom. II is an insistenc'
that man shall not 60 through life witt
binders on. seeing only those things
which some ono with the reins is willing
that he should see. but that oil blinder'
should be discarded, all walls RACED
all sLackles removed, SO that the minc
may range over the whole of the uni
verse and contemplate it as a Legitimate
subject for new thought regardless o
whatever any one else may have though
about 1t in the past.
II is only in this way that humanit,
can arrive at any approximation of tn
truth about itself
When Santayana was teaching II
Harvard he delighted every open minde
student in his classes. There is q
increasing number Of men who neve
henrd him lecture who are beginning t
share this delight through his publishe
books.
GEORGE W. DOUGLAS.