 The Age of Reason Vol. 4 by Thomas Payne, 1737-1809 Chapter 3 Conclusion This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Tomlinson. In the former part of The Age of Reason, I have spoken of the three frauds, Mystery, Miracle and Prophecy. And as I've seen nothing in any of the answers to that work, that in the least affects what I have there said upon those subjects, I shall not encumber this second part with additions that are not necessary. I have spoken also in the same work upon what is called Revelation. And have shown the observed misapplication of that term to the books of the Old Testament and the New, for certainly Revelation is out of the question in reciting anything of which man has been the actor or the witness. That which man has done or seen needs no revelation to tell him he has done it or seen it, for he knows it already, nor to enable him to tell it or to write it. It is ignorance or imposition to apply the term Revelation in such cases, yet the Bible and Testament are classed under this fraudulent description of being all Revelation. Revelation then, so far as the term has relation between God and man, can only be applied to something which God reveals of his will to man. But though the power of the Almighty to make such a communication is necessarily admitted, because to that power all things are possible, yet the thing so revealed, if anything ever was revealed and which by the by it is impossible to prove, is revelation to the person only to whom it is made. His account of it to another is not revelation, and whoever puts faith in that account puts it in the man from whom the account comes, and that man may have been deceived or may have dreamed it, or he may be an impostor and may lie. There is no possible criterion whereby to judge of the truth of what he tells, for even the morality of it would be no proof of revelation. In all such cases the proper answer should be, when it is revealed to me I will believe it to be revelation, but it is not and cannot be incumbent upon me to believe it to be revelation before. Neither is it proper that I should take the word of man as the word of God and put man in the place of God. This is a man in which I have spoken of revelation in the former part of the age of reason and which whilst it reverentially admits revelation as a possible thing, because as before said to the Almighty all things are possible, it prevents the imposition of one man upon another and precludes the wicked use of pretended revelation. But though speaking for myself I thus admit the possibility of revelation, I totally disbelieve that the Almighty ever did communicate anything to man by any mode of speech in any language or by any kind of vision or appearance or by any means which our senses are capable of receiving otherwise than by the universal display of himself in the works of the creation. And by that refugnance we feel in ourselves to bad actions and disposition to good ones. A fair parallel of the then unknown aphorism of Kant. Two things fill the soul with wonder and reverence increasing ever more as I meditate more closely upon them. The starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. Critique de Practichien Verneuf, 1788. Kant's religious utterances at the beginning of the French Revolution brought on him a royal mandate of silence because he had worked out from the moral law within, a principle of human equality precisely similar to that which Paine had derived from his Quaker doctrine of the inner light of every man. About the same time Paine's writings were suppressed in England Paine did not understand German but Kant, though always independent in the formation of his opinions, was evidently well acquainted with the literature of the Revolution in America, England and France. Editor. The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called Revelation or revealed religion. It has been the most dishonorable belief against the character of the divinity, the most destructive to morality and the peace and happiness of man that ever was propagated since man began to exist. It is better, far better, that we admitted, if it were possible, a thousand devils to Rome at large and to preach publicly the doctrine of devils if there were any such than that we permitted one such imposter and monster as Moses, Joshua, Samuel and the Bible prophets to come with the pretended word of God in his mouth and have credit among us. Whence arose all the horrible assassinations of whole nations of men, women and infants with which the Bible is filled and the bloody persecutions and tortures unto death and religious wars that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes, whence arose they but from this impious thing called revealed religion and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man. The lies of the Bible have been the cause of the one and the lies of the testament of the other. Some Christians pretend that Christianity was not established by the sword but of what period of time do they speak? It was impossible that twelve men could begin with the sword. They had not the power but no sooner were the professors of Christianity sufficiently powerful to employ the sword than they did so and the stake and faggot too and Muhammad could not do it sooner. By the same spirit that Peter cut off the ear of the high priest servant if the story be true he would cut off his head and the head of his master had he been able. Besides this Christianity grounds itself originally upon the Hebrew Bible and the Bible was established altogether by the sword and that in the worst use of it not to terrify but to extirpate. The Jews made no converts they butchered all. The Bible is the sire of the New Testament and both are called the word of God. The Christians read both books the ministers preach from both books and this thing called Christianity is made up of both. It is then false to say that Christianity was not established by the sword. The only sect that has not persecuted are the Quakers and the only reason that can be given for it is that they are rather deists and Christians. They do not believe much about Jesus Christ and they call the scriptures a dead letter. This is an interesting and correct testimony as to the beliefs of the early Quakers one of whom was Payne's father, editor. Had they called them by a worse name they had been nearer the truth. It is incumbent on every man who reverences the character of the Creator and who wishes to lessen the catalogue of artificial miseries and remove the cause that has sown persecution's thick among mankind to expel all ideas of a revealed religion as a dangerous heresy and an impious fraud. What is it that we have learned from this pretended thing called revealed religion? Nothing that is useful to man and everything that is dishonorable to his maker. What is it the Bible teaches us? Rapine, cruelty and murder. What is it the Testaments teaches us to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married and the belief of this debauchery is called faith. As to the fragments of morality that are irregularly and thinly scattered in those books they make no part of this pretended thing revealed religion. They are the natural dictates of conscience and the bonds by which society is held together and without which it cannot exist and are nearly the same in all religions and in all societies. The Testament teaches nothing new upon this subject and where it attempts to exceed it becomes mean and ridiculous. The doctrine of not retaliating injuries is much better expressed in Proverbs which is a collection as well from the Gentiles as the Jews than it is in the Testament. It is there said 25 to 1 if thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty give him water to drink. According to what is called Christ's Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew where among some other and good things a great deal of this feigned morality is introduced. It is there expressly said that the doctrine of forbearance or of not retaliating injuries was not any part of the doctrine of the Jews. But as this doctrine is found in Proverbs it must according to that statement have been copied from the Gentiles from whom Christ had learned it. Those men whom Jewish and Christian idolaters have abusively called heathen had much better and clearer ideas of justice and morality than are to be found in the Old Testament so far as it is Jewish or in the new. The answer is so long on the question which is the most perfect popular government has never been exceeded by any man since his time as containing a maximum of political morality. That says he where the least injury done to the meanest individual is considered as an insult on the whole constitution. Solon lived about 500 years before Christ author but when it is said as in the testament if a man smite the on the right cheek turn to him the other also it is assassinating the dignity of forbearance and sinking man into a spaniel. Loving of enemies is another dogma of feigned morality and has besides no meaning. It is incumbent on man as a moralist that he does not revenge an injury and it is equally as good in a political sense for there is no end to retaliation. Each retaliates on the other and calls it justice but to love in proportion to the injury if it could be done would be to offer a premium for a crime. Besides the word enemies is too vague and general to be used in a moral maxim which ought always to be clear and defined like a proverb. If a man be the enemy of another from mistake and prejudice as in the case of religious opinions and sometimes in politics that man is different to an enemy at heart with a criminal intention and it is incumbent upon us and it contributes also to our own tranquility that we put the best construction upon a thing that it will bear. But even this erroneous motive in him makes no motive for love on the other part and to say that we can love voluntarily and without a motive is morally and physically impossible. Morality is injured by prescribing to it due to that in the first place are impossible to be performed and if they could be would be productive of evil or as before said be premiums for crime. The maximum of doing as we would be done unto does not include the strange doctrine of loving enemies for no man expects to be loved himself for his crime or for his enmity. Those who preach this doctrine of loving their enemies are in general the greatest persecutors and they act consistently by so doing for the doctrine is hypocritical and it is natural that hypocrisy should act the reverse of what it preaches. For my own part I disown the doctrine and consider it as a feigned or fabulous morality yet the man does not exist that can say I have persecuted him or any man or any set of men either in the American Revolution or in the French Revolution or that I have in any case returned evil for evil. But it is not incumbent on man to reward a bad action with a good one or to return good for evil and whenever it is done it is a voluntary act and not a duty. It is also absurd to suppose that such doctrine can make any part of a revealed religion. We imitate the moral character of the Creator by forbearing with each other for he forbears with all but this doctrine would imply that he loved man not in proportions as he was good but as he was bad. If we consider the nature of our condition here we must see there is no occasion for such a thing as revealed religion. What is it we want to know? Does not the creation the universe we behold preach to us the existence of an almighty power that governs and regulates the whole and it's not the evidence that this creation holds out to our senses infinitely stronger than anything we can read in a book that any imposter might make and call the word of God. As for morality the knowledge of it exists in every man's conscience. Here we are the existence of an almighty power is sufficiently demonstrated for us though we cannot conceive as it is impossible we should the nature and manner of its existence. We cannot conceive how we came here ourselves and yet we know for a fact that we are here. We must know also that the power that called us into being can if he please and when he pleases call us to account for the manner in which we have lived here and therefore without seeking any other motive for the belief it is rational to believe that he will for we know beforehand that he can. The probability or even possibility of the thing is all that we ought to know for if we knew it as a fact we should be the mere slaves of terror. Our belief would have no merit and our best actions no virtue. Deism then teaches us without the possibility of being deceived all that is necessary or proper to be known. The creation is the Bible of the deist. He there reads in the handwriting of the Creator himself the certainty of his existence and the immutability of his power and all other Bibles and Testaments after him forgeries. The probability that we may be called to account hereafter will to reflecting minds have the influence of belief for it is not our belief or disbelief that can make or un-make the fact. As this is the state we are in and which it is proper we should be in as free agents it is the fool only and not the philosopher nor even the prudent man that will live as if there were no God. But the belief of a God is so weakened by being mixed with the strange fable of the Christian creed and with the wild adventures related in the Bible and the obscurity and obscene nonsense of the Testament that the mind of man is bewildered as in a fog. Viewing all these things in a confused mass he confounds fact with fable and as he cannot believe all he feels a disposition to reject all. But the belief of a God is a belief distinct from all other things and ought not to be confounded with any. The notion of a trinity of God's has enfeebled the belief of one God. A multiplication of beliefs acts as a division of belief and in proportion as anything is divided it is weakened. Religion by such means becomes a single form instead of fact. Of notion instead of principle morality is banished to make room for an imaginary thing called faith and this faith has its origin in a supposed debauchery and man is preached instead of a God. An execution is an object for gratitude that preachers dole themselves with the blood like a troop of assassins and pretend to admire the brilliancy it gives them. They preach a humdrum sermon on the merits of the execution then praise Jesus Christ for being executed and condemn the Jews for doing it. A man by hearing all this nonsense lumped and preached together confounds the God of the creation with the imagined God of the Christians and lives as if there were none. Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented there is none more derogatory to the Almighty more unedifying to man more repugnant to reason and more contradictory in itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief too impossible to convince and too inconsistent for practice it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists and fanatics. As an engine of power it serves the purpose of despotism and as a means of wealth the avarice of priests but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter. The only religion that has not been invented and that has in it every evidence of divine originality is pure and simple deism. It must have been the first and will probably be the last that man believes but pure and simple deism does not answer the purpose of despotic governments. They cannot lay hold of religion as an engine but by mitching it with human inventions and making their own authority a part neither does it answer the avarice of priests but by incorporating themselves and their functions with it and becoming like the government a party in the system. It is this that forms the otherwise mysterious connection of church and state the church human and the state tyrannic. Were a man impressed as fully and strongly as he ought to be with the belief of a God his moral life would be regulated by the force of belief he would stand in awe of God and of himself and would not do the thing that could not be concealed from either. To give this belief the full opportunity of force it is necessary that it acts alone. This is deism. But when according to the Christian Trinitarian Scheme one part of God is represented by a dying man and another part called the Holy Ghost by a flying pigeon it is impossible that belief can attach itself to such wild conceits. The book called the book of Matthew says 316 that the Holy Ghost descended in the shape of a dove. It might as well have said a goose the creatures are equally harmless and the one is as much a nonsensical lie as the other. Acts 2.2.3 says that it descended in a mighty rushing wind in the shape of cloven tongues. Perhaps it was cloven feet. Such absurd stuff is fit only for tales of witches and wizards. Author. It has been the scheme of the Christian church and of all the other invented systems of religion to hold man in ignorance of the Creator as it is of government to hold him in ignorance of his rights. The systems of the one are as false as those of the other and are calculated for mutual support. The study of theology as it stands in Christian churches is the study of nothing. It is founded on nothing. It rests on no principles. It proceeds by no authorities. It has no data. It can demonstrate nothing and admits of no conclusion. Not anything can be studied as a science without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded and as this is not the case with Christian theology it is therefore the study of nothing. Instead then of studying theology as is now done out of the Bible and Testament the meanings of which books are always controverted and the authenticity of which is disproved it is necessary that we refer to the Bible of the creation. The principles we discover there are eternal and of divine origin and they are the foundation of all the science that exists in the world and must be the foundation of theology. We can know God only through his works. We cannot have a conception of any one attribute but by following some principle that leads to it. We have only a confused idea of his power if we have not the means of comprehending something of its immensity. We can have no idea of his wisdom but by knowing the order and manner in which it acts the principles of science lead to this knowledge for the creator of man is the creator of science and it is through that medium that man can see God as it were face to face. Could a man be placed in a situation and endowed with the power of vision to behold at one view and to contemplate deliberately the structure of the universe to mark the movements of the several planets the cause of their varying appearances the unearing order in which they revolve even to the remotest comment their connection and dependence on each other and to know the system of laws established by the creator that governs and regulates the whole. He would then conceive far beyond what any church theology can teach him the power, the wisdom, the vastness the munificence of the creator. He would then see that all the knowledge man has of science and that all the mechanical arts by which he renders his situation comfortable here are derived from that source. His mind exhorted by the scene and convinced by the fact would increase in gratitude as it increased in knowledge. His religion or his worship would become united with his improvement as a man. Any employment he followed that had connection with the principles of the creation as everything of agriculture of science and the mechanical arts has would teach him more of God and of the gratitude he owes to him than any theological Christian sermon he now hears. Great objects inspire great thoughts great munificence excites great gratitude but the groveling tales and doctrines of the Bible and the testament are fit only to excite contempt. Though man cannot arrive at least in this life at the actual scene I have described he can demonstrate it because he has knowledge of the principles upon which the creation is constructed. We know that the greatest works can be represented in model and that the universe can be represented by the same means. The same principles by which we measure an inch or an acre of ground will measure to millions in extent. A circle of an inch diameter has the same geometrical properties as a circle that would circumscribe the universe. The same properties of a triangle that will demonstrate upon paper the course of a ship will do it on the ocean and when applied to what are called the heavenly bodies will ascertain to a minute the time of an eclipse though those bodies are millions of miles distant from us. This knowledge is of divine origin and it is from the Bible of the creation that man has learned it and not from the stupid Bible of the church that teaches man nothing. The Bible makers have undertaken to give us in the first chapter of Genesis an account of the creation and in doing this they have demonstrated nothing but their ignorance. They make there to have been three days and three nights evenings and mornings before there was any sun when it is the presence or absence of the sun that is the cause of day and night and what is called his rising and setting that of morning and evening. Besides it is a pure island pitiful idea to suppose the Almighty to say let there be light. It is the imperative manner of speaking that a conjurer uses when he says to his cups and balls presto be gone and most probably has been taken from it as Moses and his rod is a conjurer and his wand. Longinus calls this expression the sublime and by the same rule the conjurer is sublime too for the manner of speaking is expressively and grammatically the same. When authors and critics talk of the sublime they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous. The sublime of the critics like some parts of Edmund Burke's sublime and beautiful is like a windmill just visible in a fog which imagination might distort into a flying mountain or an archangel or a flock of wild geese. Author. All the knowledge man has of science and of machinery by the aid of which his existence is rented comfortable upon earth and without which he would be scarcely distinguishable in appearance and condition from a common animal comes from the great machine and structure of the universe. The constant and unwirried observations of our ancestors upon the movements and revolutions of the heavenly bodies in what are supposed to have been the early ages of the world have brought this knowledge upon earth. It is not Moses and the prophets nor Jesus Christ nor his apostles that have done it. The Almighty is the great mechanic of the creation the first philosopher and original teacher of all science. Let us then learn to reverence our master and not forget the labours of our ancestors. Had we at this day no knowledge of machinery and were it possible that man could have a view as I before described of the structure and machinery of the universe he would soon conceive the idea of constructing some at least of the mechanical works we now have and the idea so conceived would progressively advance in practice or could a model of the universe such as is called an orary be presented before him and put in motion his mind will arrive at the same idea such an object and such a subject would whilst it improved him in knowledge useful to himself as a man and a member of society as well as entertaining afford far better matter for impressing him with the knowledge of and a belief in the creator and of the reverence and gratitude that man owes to him than the stupid text of the Bible and the testament from which be the talents of the preacher what they may only stupid sermons can be preached if man must preach let him preach something that is edifying and from the text that are known to be true the Bible of the creation is inexhaustible in texts every part of science where the connected with the geometry of the universe with the systems of animal and vegetable life or with the properties of inanimate matter is a text as well for devotion as for philosophy for gratitude as for human improvement it will perhaps be said that is such a revolution in the system of religion takes place every preacher ought to be a philosopher most certainly and every house of devotion a school of science it has been by wandering from the immutable laws of science and the light of reason and setting up an inventive thing called revealed religion that so many wild and blasphemous conceits have been formed of the Almighty the Jews have made him the assassin of the human species to make room for the religion of the Jews the Christians have made him the murderer of himself and the founder of a new religion to supersede and expel the Jewish religion and to find pretence and admission for these things they must have to pose his power or his wisdom imperfect or his will changeable and the changefulness of the will is the imperfection of the judgment the philosopher knows that the laws of the creator have never changed with respect either to the principles of science or the properties of matter why then is it to be supposed they have changed with respect to man I hear close the subject I have shown in all the foregoing parts of this work that the Bible and Testament are in positions and forgeries and I leave the evidence I have produced in proof of it to be refuted if anyone can do it and I leave the ideas that are suggested in the conclusion of the work to rest on the mind of the reader certain as I am that when opinions are free either in matters of government or religion truth will finally and powerfully prevail End of The Age of Reason by Thomas Payne Chapter 3 Conclusion Recording by Peter Tomlinson The Art of Playing by Gillette Burgess This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Time was when we made our own toys when a piece of twine, a spool, a few nails and a bit of imagination could keep us busy and happy all day long there were no newfangled iron toys made in Germany so tiresome in their inevitable little routine of performance so easily got out of order and so hard, metallic and realistic as to be hardly worth the purchase a penny would indeed buy some funny carved wooden thing that aroused a half-hour's excitement but it was never quite so alluring as when in the front window of the toy shop such queer animals never became thoroughly acclimated to the nursery and they lost their luster in a half-holiday the things that gave permanent satisfaction were homemade, crude and capable of transformation a railway train might, with a small effort of the fancy become a ship or a dragon are there such amateur toy builders now in this age when everything is perfect and literal when even a box of building blocks contains a book of plans to supply imaginative design to the modern child indeed many children are now a year's too lazy even to do their own playing I have heard of one who is used to sit in a chair and order his nurse to align his nine pins and roll them down for him perhaps one notices the lack of creative ability in children more in the city where ready-made toys are cheap and accessible than in the country where the whole world is full of wonderful possibilities for entrancing pastime nature is the universal playmate perpetually parroting herself in miniature for the benefit of those who love to amuse themselves with her toys every brook is a little river every pond an unfathomable sea she plants tiny forests of fern and raises microscopic mountains in every sandbank flowers and plants furnish provinder for liliputian groceries the oak showers acorn cups what wonder we believe as long as we can in fairies and yet strange to say it is the city more often than the country child who feels the charm of these marbles the freshness and the strangeness breed a fascinated wonder it is after the flagged pavements and brick walls almost too good to be true the juvenile rustic is more familiar with nature it is his business to know when the flowers come where berries ripen in birds nest it is scarcely play to him it is a science to be applied to his personal profit the woods and rivulets are his familiar domain to be forade and hunted specifically for gain and this though it is delightful is not play for him there is no glamour over the fields until long after when his native countryside has become inaccessible perhaps the art of playing is after all a matter more of temperament than environment for one sees at times good sport even in the city streets though it is rare nowadays I had my own full share of it for my youth was an age of pure romance my clan had its own code and its own traditions every man of us had his suit of wooden armor his well wrought weapons and his fiery steed we were all for scott we had our order small but well up in the technique of feudal ways facile and sword play both with the thin sinewy hard pine rapier and the huge two-handed double-height battle sword that should stand just as high as one's head on the brick sidewalks we tilted on velocities full in view of the anxious passersby cap a PA in pine sheathed with tin with a shield blazoned with a tiger cushion and inscribed with a latin motto out of the back of the dictionary many a long red lance I shivered and many a wheel I broke on warren avenue I did it opposite the church what would I not give now to see such sights in town instead I watched little boys smoking cigarettes upon the street corners waiting for their girls I knew a youngster too who organized in his town a post office department established letter boxes and a regular service of boy carriers he drill and colored the stamps himself you will find them in few collections though they should have enormous value from their rarity such games are consummate play even though the sport goes awry all too soon it is too great to last it is the older brother who should give finesse to such sport without him complications arise which accomplish at last the ruin of the game many of us do not truly learn to play until it is too late to do so with dignity and to these the appreciation of the young gives a fine excuse for prolonging the diversion we fancy we cannot when grown up play imaginative games for the pure joy of it as does the child we think we must have an ulterior motive yet the father who widdles out a boat for his son often gets more delight than the child who would far rather do it himself no matter how much more crudely accomplished the theater is the typical play for grown ups the name itself play is significant of the unquenchable tendency of youth and this reminds me of a most amusing case where two grown ups dared to be absolutely ingenuous it was upon a honeymoon when if ever adults have the right to yield to juvenile impulses as the groom was titled and the bride fair society took it ill that the two should retire to their country house and deny access to all neighbors one at last called too important to be denied admittance by the servants and the astonished visitor discovered the happy pair stretched over the dining room table training flies whose wings had been clipped to pole and a harness threads little paper wagons this had been their absorbing occupation for ten blissful days an important element of play seems to be the doing of things in miniature see Stevenson for instance prone upon the floor involved in romantic campaigns massing his troops of tin soldiers occupying strategic positions in hall and passage skirmishing over the upstairs roads of the third class impassable for artillery intercepting commissary trains laboring up from the base of operations in the kitchen deploying cavalry screens upon the rug and outmaneuvering the wily foe that defends the veranda both being bound by the strict treaties of the play there's your ideal big brother and the game of toy soldiers is glorified into weeks of excitement the Japanese immortal children carry the game of diminution to its extreme the dwarf trees and the excruciating carved ivories are not the only symptoms of this delightful disease for the perfection of the spirit of play one must see their miniature gardens often the life employment of the owners no matter how small the patch of ground employed every inch is perfect pebble by pebble almost grain by grain the area is arranged the tiny rivulet is guided between carefully curved banks we bridges span the shores little lanterns and pagodas are artfully placed plants and flowers are sown trees planted fishes are domiciled till the garden is a replica of nature at our best each view is a toy landscape and without a scale as seen in a photograph for instance one might think it a garden of the gods and yet there is a sort of play where one may use infinite distances macrocosms for microcosms if one has the courage and the power of visualization these games are purely mental feats of the imagination they're not nearly so difficult as might be thought I know a sober work a day lawyer for instance who combines the two methods with extraordinary cleverness his income is not derived solely from his practice I need hardly say you will not catch him at his fascinating diversion for his table is strewn with books and papers and his play things are not noticeable amongst the professional litter I've known him to sit for hours gazing at the table and once in his confidence for there is a fraternity of players and one must give the grip and prove fellowship he will tell you that he is shrunk to but an inch in height so that to him his desk seems to be some 300 feet long by 100 feet wide and it's plateau is elevated some 200 feet above the floor as high that is as a church assuming that he has by some miraculous means shrunk to 150th of his stature the size of everything visible is of course increased in a like proportion his diverting occupation under this queer state of things is to explore his little domain and exist as well as is possible what adventures has he not had there was the terrific combat with a cockroach as big as a dragon which he finally slew with a broken needle there was the dust storm when the caretaker swept and the huge snow crystals like white pie plates that came in when the window was opened he had an enormous difficulty in getting water from a glass tumbler and he broke his teeth upon the crystals of sugar that as a lawyer he had been thoughtful enough to strew upon the table for the benefit of himself as an inchling I believe he is now attempting to escape to the floor by means of a spool of thread if he cannot make up his mind to risk a descent by means of a paper parachute it is a world of his own as real to him as the child's toy paradise a retreat immune from the cares of his daily life a never tiring playground with perpetual discoveries possible he if anyone has discovered not only the art of playing but has applied the science as well end of the art of playing by Gillette Burgess read by Colleen McMahon the present crisis in China from the standpoint of a Christian Chinese by Reverend G. Gum this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this reading by Rob Waters ever since the boxer outbreak I have been repeatedly asked by friends far and near to express my opinion of the matter I have kept silent for a long time but still the requests come and I feel constrained to endeavor to set forth some of the facts which caused the uprising and which have resulted in the massacre of so many missionaries and other foreigners and thousands of Chinese Christians those who have survived the massacre are destitute and homeless our hearts ache with sorrow for the occurrence of these outrages we know of no words that are adequate to express our horror at them every instigator of these cruel wrongs should be severely punished in proportion to the enormity of his crimes and by this means make them a lasting warning to the people as to the poor ignorant people who perpetrated the crimes they are more sinned against than sinning they are ignorant they have been deceived by the lies of men who knew they were lying and who thus sent them into the work of the mob and into battle with the Westerners to be thousands of them slaughtered and tortured while the real criminals stayed in the rear to the relatives and friends of those missionaries and other foreigners together with the many Christians who were massacred we extend our heartfelt sympathy and we cannot but rejoice to say that all these martyrs are happy with their Lord in heaven today we also rejoice to know that the blood of these martyrs will become the seed of the church the Christian Chinese in San Francisco and many other cities in the United States have held meetings every Tuesday evening from 9.30 to 10.30 o'clock to pray for China moreover they have given many liberal contributions to relieve the suffering Christians in North China the cause of the trouble? the Chinese claim they have many good reasons for this uprising it is often been charged by many non-Christian people in California that the missionaries were to blame for the present outbreak I think this is unjust I believe they are truly good men who have the good of China at heart they have wrought a wonderful work in fact whatever China has accomplished is due to the preaching and teaching of these faithful missionaries it is true that Romish missions have sometimes become political machines men have joined the Romish church and even whole villages have turned their ancestral halls into Romish chapels in order to further their causes in the courts through the influence of French consuls I can give you many incidents of this character but one is sufficient several of the congregational and presbyterian Christians in the village of Longhao-li of the Huiping district not far from Canton had a piece of land there and were building a free school house which was almost completed when the enemies of the mission rose and destroyed the building worse than this several of the rioters met and outraged a girl relative of one of the Christians this girl because of her disgrace committed suicide by hanging the Christians had the perpetrators before the district magistrate who was about to punish them when suddenly all of their relatives together with the accomplices about 70 in number went to Canton and joined the Catholic church they then got their priests and the French consul to plead for the imprisoned relatives before the Chinese governor the result was that every one of the culprits was released and their cases dismissed these infamous criminals as soon as they were set at liberty committed further outrageous they attacked the Christians drove them from their homes and village and plundered all they had all these crimes were committed before the eyes of the Catholic priests how could they tolerate such detestable acts? it makes our blood boil to see such outrageous we are at a loss to understand why the Catholic priests admitted such people to their churches and why the French consul so blindly used his influence to liberate such criminals these things have not only occurred repeatedly in Guangdong Province in South China but throughout the whole empire the Catholic people have not only wronged the Christians but also the non-Christians and thus a strong sentiment is created against them whenever there is a chance to pay back these people will inflict a heavy blow in fact, the Catholics have already suffered the consequences of their wrongdoing this is why there were so many more Catholics massacred than Protestants in the recent uprising but why should people have killed Christians at all? well, in times of anti-foreign uprising the people are easily misled the rioter and those anxious to plunder would surely say the Christians are the same as the Catholics so they killed them to effect robbery it is also true that the missionaries, especially of the Catholic faith have often been by ignorant people charged with decoying children into their missionary compound and killing them in order to gouge out their eyes and secure their hearts from which to make medicines and again, we have heard silly rumors like these the foreigners send their missionaries to China first to win the hearts of the people and then come with their armies to take China for their own all these different rumors have had their origin in Buddhist and Taoist priests who have shown the most bitter jealousy towards Christianity and missionaries while these absurd rumors have done a great deal of mischief by inciting people in the recent outbreak they are very insignificant when compared to the bitter feelings aroused by the greedy grabbing of Chinese territory by the different powers all praise to the United States for she is the only nation that does not covet Chinese territory the other powers are all eager in doing their utmost to have China partitioned so that they may each seize upon the territory they covet in fact, Russia has already taken Port Arthur, Neozhang and other important places they had practically taken in possession of the whole of Shenzhen province and Manchuria and still they want Bejjali province Germany had taken Jajo and a large strip of valuable land from Shandong province and now she wants more she wants the whole province and God alone knows what else she is after Great Britain took Hong Kong and then Wei Highway and lately grabbed Kowloon and for some time past her covetous eye has been firmly fixed on the Yangtze Valley France made seizure of Annam and Tonkin several years ago and since then she has been scheming to extend her northern boundary line far into the Guangxi and Yunnan provinces she is planning soon to grab the beautiful island of Hainan Japan has become insatiable she has already grabbed the island of Formosa and now she is waiting impatiently to take forcible possession of the Fujian province and even Italy has become avaricious she tried to grab Sanmon Bay several years ago but being single-handed, she failed in her attempt and perhaps now she is using the power of the allies to accomplish her greedy design when news of this grabbing reached from one end of the empire to the other does anyone wonder why the Chinese felt harsh towards foreigners? if anyone has any doubt in this regard let him put himself in a Chinaman's place and he will know it at once so I say the greedy grabbing of territory by the different powers is the principle cause for the recent uprising then again there is the spirit of commercialism which has brought great enmity between China and the western nations for instance in the year 1840 Great Britain for greedy gain declared war against China the cause of the war was the destruction of over 20,000 chests of opium by the mandarins in their efforts to prevent its introduction into the empire this opium had previously been brought into China by British merchants the mandarins repeatedly objected to its introduction and made frequent complaints to the British the governor at Canton issued a proclamation prohibiting the people using opium and saying all violators would be beheaded he afterwards found one of his sons a victim to its use so taking him out to a public space he caused him to be beheaded before thousands of spectators the mandarins continued to use every means in their power to keep opium out of China but to no avail at length in 1840 when they destroyed 20,000 chests of opium England claimed a just cause for war and from this time on at the cannon's mouth opium has been forced upon China just think opium one of the worst poisons known to mankind opium has been the source of great revenue to England but it is the greatest curse to China it has ruined her to the very core and is one of the great causes of decay of the empire many thousands of handsome vigorous and hopeful young men have been brought every day by its use to untimely deaths oh how the good people of China hate opium how the poor fathers and mothers weep for their opium curse sons how wives shed bitter tears day and night how many little children go hungry because their fathers had become opium fiends yay how many of these little ones were even sold by their opium crazed fathers what sorrow opium has brought to the homes and England has thrived at the expense of the Chinese while England has been accumulating her ill-gotten gains opium has devastated the population of China it seems to me no one but a Chinese can understand the misery no wonder a Chinese official of high rank made the following ever memorable request to a retiring British minister I am sorry you are going away but as you have to I do wish so much that you would take your opium with you back to England and I dare say that was the greatest slap Great Britain has ever received Christian England I beseech you to visit the homes which your opium has ruined and desolated Christian England I beseech you to rise and call a halt to your infamous traffic Christian England be quick and make amends for unless you do so God will never forgive you there are many ways in which England can redeem the wrong she has done to China first of all she should stop the traffic and opium then she can also redeem herself today by joining the United States and Japan to bring a speedy and peaceful settlement to the trouble in China if these three powers should declare that they would never permit her dismemberment China would certainly be preserved if this good work is accomplished the United States England and Japan will be China's greatest friends they will be rewarded with commerce and other special privileges in other words they will receive a thousandfold in return but to grab China by the throat and say to her give us the best you have is barbarous and non-Christian for it is contrary to the teaching of Christ to take advantage of China's weakness is inhuman China today is like a man who married in the late years of his life and was blessed by a large family of children who were too young to be of any service to him for the last few years he has been sickly and weak the house which he himself and family lived was a fine one and was the only inheritance from his father but as many neighbors who were rich and powerful and able to assist and establish him if they wished were unfortunately a little selfish and look towards his inheritance with longing eyes five of the neighbors with an insatiable desire for gain and with the forced consent of the owner took those rooms which each deemed best for his own interest and gain these neighbors are now devising schemes and pretenses by which they may grab the best remaining portions to some minds it seems best that this heritage should be thus partitioned and they claim that it is the only way to develop and improve this possession thus utterly ignoring the claims and interests of the lawful possessors now friends China is the inheritance and the covetous and greedy neighbors are those whom I have mentioned above how much better it would be for all of the great civilized and Christian nations to make a unanimous effort to help preserve and build up in Christian China rather than tear her to pieces of course I must admit that the Chinese government vis the Empress Dowager is also responsible for the present state of affairs in China she was deceived by Prince Duan the great anti-foreign leader who represented to her that the boxers possessed the most remarkable power by the exercise of which they were able to close the mouths of the foreign cannon and also to render themselves bulletproof they also told her that they were the best fighters the best protectors of her dynasty and the best men to drive out the foreigners but lately we learn that she greatly regrets the steps she has taken and has issued two edicts urging the boxers to disperse to their homes and be law abiding subjects that they were to be destroyed if they should oppose the government troops in any way whatever if this is true there was a great hope for China we sincerely hope that she will at once abdicate and allow the Emperor Guangxu to resume control for he is just the man that China needs today oh I do wish the powers would demand his return to the throne I am certain the powers can render no better service to China than to make this demand and to see that it is complied with if the Emperor were again in power there would be an easy settlement to the present trouble the outcome of this general shakeup will undoubtedly be the upbuilding of the Empire I am sure that God will overrule this outbreak for the good of China I sincerely believe that God has a great future for China he has preserved her for nearly 5,000 years and he will still preserve her to his glory the land of Sinom will be one for Christ the Chinese Empire will have the same footing as other nations for her subjects have the making of a great people the Chinese who became Christians in America will also be a great factor in building up China God's plan is beyond the comprehension of man he saw that America did not send forth missionaries fast enough so he brought out the secluded Chinese to this country to be Christianized by the disciples of Christ so that they may go back as volunteer missionaries and thus hasten the conversion of China we are sincerely thankful to America for taking the initiative and negotiations toward preserving the integrity of China now as a friend and neighbor let her continue her good work and may the European powers speedily agree to a peaceful settlement of the entire trouble then let America and the other Christian nations flood China with 10,000 Protestant missionaries for I am sure that this is one of the best solutions of the China question and the only way to conquer China for Christ surely every patriotic and Christian American will weigh with thoughtful attention this earnest plea of our honored friend Reverend G. Gom editor and of the present crisis in China from the standpoint of a Christian Chinese by Reverend G. Gom Day of Infamy Speech given before the U.S. Congress December 8, 1941 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives yesterday December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan the United States was at peace with that nation and at the solicitation of Japan was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific indeed one hour after the Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message and while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack it will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago during the intervening time the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace the attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost in addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu yesterday the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong last night Japanese forces attacked Guam last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine islands last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island and this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area the facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves the people of the United States have already formed their opinion and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation as commander in chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense but always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us hostilities exist there is no blinking at the fact that our people our territory and our interests are in grave danger with confidence in our armed forces and with the unbounded determination of our people we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attacked by Japan on Sunday December 7, 1941 a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire End of day of infamy speech given before the US Congress December 8, 1941 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt A note on realism by Robert Louis Stevenson This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Style is the invariable mark of any master and for the student who does not aspire so high as to be numbered with the giants it is still the one quality in which he may improve himself at will passion, wisdom, creative force the power of mystery or color are allotted in the hour of birth and can be neither learned nor simulated but the just and dexterous use of what qualities we have the proportion of one part to another into the whole the elision of the useless the accentuation of the important and the preservation of a uniform character from end to end these, which taken together constitute technical perfection are to some degree within the reach of industry and intellectual courage what to put in and what to leave out whether some particular fact be organically necessary or purely ornamental whether if it be purely ornamental it may not weaken or obscure the general design and finally whether if we decide to use it we should do so grossly and notably or in some conventional disguise our questions of plastic style continually re-arising and the sphinx that patrols the highways of executive art has no more unanswerable riddle to propound in literature, from which I must draw my instances the great change of the past century has been effected by the admission of detail it was inaugurated by the romantic Scott and at length by the semi-romantic Balzac and his more or less wholly unromantic followers bound like a duty on the novelist for some time it signified and expressed a more ample contemplation of the conditions of man's life but it has recently, at least in France fallen into a merely technical and decorative stage which it is perhaps still too harsh to call survival with a movement of alarm the wiser or more timid begin to fall a little back from these extremities they begin to aspire after a more naked narrative articulation after the succinct, the dignified and the poetic and as a means to this after a general lightning of this baggage of detail after Scott we beheld the starvelling story once in the hands of Voltaire as abstract as a parable begin to be pampered upon facts the introduction of these details developed a particular ability of hand and that ability, childishly indulged has led to the works that now amaze us on a railway journey a man of the unquestionable force of Monsieur Zola spends himself on technical successes to afford a popular flavor and attract the mob he adds a steady current of what I may be allowed to call the rancid that is exciting to the moralist but what more particularly interests the artist is this tendency of the extreme of detail when followed as a principle to degenerate into mere faux-dégeois of literary tricking the other day even Monsieur Daudet was to be heard babbling of audible colors and visible sounds this odd suicide of one branch of the realists may serve to remind us of the fact which underlies a very dusty conflict of the critics all representative art which can be said to live is both realistic and ideal and the realism about which we quarrel is a matter purely of externals it is no a special cultist of nature and veracity but a mere whim of veering fashion that has made us turn our back upon the larger more various and more romantic art of yore a photographic exactitude in dialogue is now the exclusive fashion but even in the ablest hands it tells us no more I think it even tells us less than Mollier wielding his artificial medium has told to us into all time of Alceste or Oregon, Doreen or Crissel the historical novel is forgotten yet truth to the conditions of man's nature and the conditions of man's life the truth of literary art is free of the ages it may be told us in a carpet comedy in a novel of adventure or a fairy tale the scene may be pitched in London on the sea coast of Bohemia or away on the mountains of Bula and by an odd and luminous accident if there is any page of literature calculated to awake the envy of Monsieur Zola it must be that Troilus and Cressida with Shakespeare in a spasm of unmanly anger with the world grafted on the heroic story of the Siege of Troy this question of realism, let it then be clearly understood regards not in the least degree the fundamental truth but only the technical method of work of art be as ideal or as abstract as you please you will be nonetheless veracious but if you be weak you run the risk of being tedious and inexpressive and if you be very strong and honest you may chance upon a masterpiece a work of art is first cloudily conceived in the mind during the period of gestation it stands more clearly forward from these swaddling myths puts on expressive liniments and becomes at length that most faultless but also alas that incommunicable product of the human mind a perfected design on the approach to execution all is changed the artist must now step down don his working clothes and become the artisan he now resolutely commits his airy conception his delicate ariel to the touch of matter he must decide almost in a breath the scale, the style, the spirit and the particularity of execution of his whole design the engendering idea of some works is stylistic a technical preoccupation stands them instead of some robust or principle of life and with these the execution is but play for the stylistic problem is resolved beforehand an all-large originality of treatment willfully foregone such are the verses intricately designed which we have learnt to admire with a certain smiling admiration at the hands of Mr. Lang and Mr. Dobson such too are those canvases where dexterity or even breath of plastic style takes the place of pictorial nobility of design so it may be remarked it was easier to begin to write Esmond than Vanity Fair since in the first the style was dictated by the nature of the plan and Thackery, a man probably of some indolence of mind enjoyed and got good profit of this economy of effort but the case is exceptional usually in all works of art that have been conceived from within outwards and generously nourished from the author's mind the moment in which he begins to execute is one of extreme perplexity and strain artists of indifferent energy and an imperfect devotion to their own ideal make this ungrateful effort once for all and having formed a style adhere to it through life but those of a higher order cannot rest content with the process which as they continue to employ it must infallibly degenerate towards the academic and the cut and dried every fresh work in which they embark is the signal for a fresh engagement of the whole forces of their mind and the changing views which accompany the growth of their experience are marked by still more sweeping alterations in the manner of their art so that criticism loves to dwell upon and distinguish the varying periods of a Raphael, a Shakespeare, or a Beethoven it is then first of all at this initial and decisive moment when execution is begun and thenceforth only in a less degree that the ideal and the real do indeed like good and evil angels contend for the direction of the work marble, paint, and language the pen, the needle, and the brush all have their grossnesses their ineffable impotences their hours if I may so express myself of insubordination it is the work and it is a great part of the delight of any artist to contend with these unruly tools and now by brute energy, now by witty expedient to drive and coax them to effect his will given these means so laughably inadequate and given the interest the intensity and the multiplicity of the actual sensation whose effect he is to render with their aid the artist has one main and necessary resource which he must in every case and upon any theory employ he must that is suppress much and omit more he must omit what is tedious or irrelevant and suppress what is tedious and necessary but such facts as in regard to the main design subserve a variety of purposes he will perforce and eagerly retain and it is the mark of the very highest order of creative art to be woven exclusively of such there any fact that is registered is contrived a double or a treble debt to pay and is at once an ornament in its place and a pillar in the main design nothing would find room in such a picture that did not serve at once complete the composition to accentuate the scheme of color to distinguish the planes of distance and to strike the note of the selected sentiment nothing would be allowed in such a story that did not at the same time expedite the progress of the fable build up the characters and strike home the moral or the philosophical design the canvas is unattainable as a rule so far from building the fabric of our works exclusively with these we are thrown into a rapture if we think we can muster a dozen or a score of them to be the plums of our confection and hence in order that the canvas may be filled or the story proceed from point to point the tales must be admitted they must be admitted alas upon a doubtful title many without marriage robes thus any work of art as it proceeds towards completion too often I had almost written always loses in force and poignancy of main design our little air is swamped and dwarfed among hardly relevant orchestration our little passionate story drowns in a deep sea of descriptive eloquence or slipshod talk but again we are rather more tempted to admit those particulars which we know we can describe and hence those most of all which having been described very often have grown to be conventionally treated in the practice of our art these we choose as the mason chooses the acanthus to adorn his capital because they come naturally to the accustomed hand the old stock incidents and accessories tricks of workmanship and schemes of composition all being admirably good or they would long have been forgotten haunt and tempt our fancy for us ready made but not perfectly appropriate solutions for any problem that arises and wean us from the study of nature and the uncompromising practice of art to struggle to face nature to find fresh solutions and give expression to facts which have not yet been adequately or not yet elegantly expressed is to run a little upon the danger of extreme self-love difficulty sets a high price upon achievement and the artist may easily fall into the error of the French naturalists and consider any fact as welcome to admission if it be the ground of brilliant handiwork or again into the error of the modern landscape painter who is apt to think that difficulty overcome and science well displayed can take the place of what is after all the one excuse and breath of art charm a little further and he will regard charm in the light of an unworthy sacrifice to prettiness and the omission of a tedious passage as an infidelity to art we have now the matter of this difference before us the idealist is I singly fixed upon the greater outlines loves rather to fill up the interval with detail of the conventional order briefly touched soberly suppressed in tone according neglect but the realist with a fine in temperance will not suffer the presence of anything so dead as a convention he shall have all fiery all hot pressed from nature all character and notable seizing the eye the style that befits either of these extremes once chosen brings with it its necessary disabilities and dangers the immediate danger of the realist is to sacrifice the beauty and significance of the whole to local dexterity or in the insane pursuit of completion to emulate his readers under facts but he comes in the last resort and as his energy declines to discard all design abjure all choice and with scientific thoroughness steadily to communicate matter which is not worth learning the danger of the idealist is of course to become merely null and lose all grip of fact particularity or passion we talk of bad and good everything indeed is good which is conceived with honesty and executed with communicative order but though on neither side is dogmatism fitting and though in every case the artist must decide for himself and decide a fresh and yet a fresh for each succeeding work and new creation yet one thing may be generally said that we of the last quarter of the nineteenth century breathing as we do the intellectual atmosphere of our age are more apt to err upon the side of realism than to sin in quest of the ideal upon that theory it may be well to watch and correct our own decisions always holding back the hand from the least appearance of irrelevant dexterity and resolutely fixed begin no work that is not philosophical passionate dignified happily mirthful or at the last and least romantic in design end of a note on realism by Robert Louis Stevenson read by Quaker Woodworker the failure of speculative philosophy from knowledge and life by Rudolph Oaken 1846 to 1926 published in 1913 this is a LibriVox recording a LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the failure of speculative philosophy if science then does not lead us to knowledge philosophy is able to vindicate itself in relation to knowledge only in so far as it proceeds on its own specific path such a path philosophy believes to have found from of old and for centuries this path has been one of speculation this speculation consists in a mode and work of ideas which free themselves from the remainder of life and which exercise complete sovereignty over all such governing ideas seemed powerful enough to penetrate to the depths of reality and to transform this reality into a possession of man as a thinking being in fact ideas have attributes which invest man with a special position and significance from the outset it cannot be questioned that if knowledge is possible at all its organ must be thought in the first place ideas are able to free man from indifference and from the interests and aims of considering himself as an isolated being they engender the conception of an actual necessity or obligation and may in their development feel themselves superior to all the disorder and confusion which surrounded them in the next place ideas include an effort to pass out of the chaos of the existing situation and to transform all the multiplicity of elements which present themselves into an inclusive system they accomplish this in a positive way by means of linking together propositions otherwise isolated they do it in a negative way by deriving contradictions out of life in the possession of such attributes ideas are able to transform the world into an inner presence speculation however passes beyond such evaluation of ideas in that it believes itself capable through its own inherent power of unlocking the world of being and guiding man to a clear knowledge of such a world but that this matter is not so simple as speculative thought assumes becomes evident from a survey of the actual history of the enterprise such a survey points to hard trials and struggles to a perpetual quest after new paths and to a constant swinging from one experiment to another it also shows an awakening of doubts ever recurring concerning the possibility of the whole undertaking two questions have been raised ever anew one can't thought out of its own capacity discover an inner union with the world of reality two does thought through such a self sovereignty exhaust the whole domain of existence in the most important work of the world the connection of thought and being has been in the foreground three possibilities present themselves here in the Middle Ages as well as in modern times have these characteristics appeared but they have been treated at various times in very diverse manners and the center of gravity of their various effects has been found in very different positions the first step of this speculative thought requires belief in the mutual connection of man and the world of thought and being these signify one and the same reality and belong to each other and strive together in a friendly encounter the power of such relations succeeds in passing easily from one to the other just as the light of the sun becomes visible to us because our eyes have in them something of the same nature so here the fundamental nature of reality is able to include our thoughts because it contains within itself elements of thought the work of thought thus only binds together qualities which belong to one another from the very beginning the second step of speculative thought brings out a sharper distinction between human life and its environment the soul and the world are too far apart to be able to come into immediate contiguity with each other the union of the two is now sought in the fact that what occurs on the one side has corresponding effects on the other thus the supposed natural connection of thought and being here issues in a doctrine of parallelism the third step asserts that thought cannot reach being that is external to itself so that knowledge is possible only in so far as being is discovered within thought itself and in so far as it is produced by thought thus knowledge becomes a thought of thought a knowledge of self a self comprehension of a creative thought which embraces subject and object the theory of an intimate connection of thought and being corresponds to a naive mode of thinking and it is also held in a more refined way by an aesthetic mode of thinking the blossoming period of such a mode of thought was classical antiquity but the view was also revived in the Middle Ages and is not entirely alien to modern times it continues to be effective as a basis whenever the necessity of thought and the qualities of being are regarded as essentially connected this mode of thinking connects in the closest possible manner the microcosm with the macrocosm it discovers connections everywhere between man and the universe and by means of this development raises the life of man into breadth and greatness the strength of this mode of thinking lies in its ability to see things together its elevation is due to its aesthetic intuition which does away with the interval between subject and object and consequently it gives life a strong feeling of rest and security and it seems to grant life a solid and a movable foundation this mode of thinking on its aesthetic and general human sides finds its climax in Plato and on its scientific side on Aristotle the former held up before mankind great ideas and myths the latter by means of his teaching of the union of thought and the world developed a logical order of life and a thorough system of ideas which have governed the centuries and which exercise influence down to our own time but even in antiquity serious doubt was raised concerning such an intimate union of man and the world and with the stocks and the skeptics man and the world were parted far asunder this cleavage between man and the world became all the deeper and more powerfully the upheavals and renewals which took place later set the meaning of life in a region above its superficial connection with the environment and found the kingdom of pure inwardness in religion alone this inwardness needed only to gain a fully awakened self consciousness and a power to control the work of science in order to reveal the ancient connection of inner and outer worlds as an intolerable defect as a projection of merely human qualities into the universe and as an unbearable anthropomorphism it was now seen that man in the turn towards the world had merely extended his own circle but had not passed beyond it it is evident that the definite contiguity and even the blending of sensuous and spiritual as these were presented from the heights of ancient thought right through the centuries as well as the conception of knowledge for example of intuition have at the present day become untenable more doubtful still has become the transference of formal logical conceptions into the particular nature of external things as for example the treatment of modal conceptions involving even the possibility and necessity of an energy inherent in the things themselves such an admixture of logic and metaphysics penetrates into the theory of principles of Aristotle and it also finds a prominent place in scholasticism but to modern thought such conceptions appear as presenting the world in an obscure light and even in the dangerous light of ascribing human qualities to it the abolition of this confusion in the logical and the real aspects of things in the beginning of modern times has resulted in a clarification highly necessary and indeed in a mental and spiritual emancipation it thus became evident that the world without and the world within contain for man a rich fullness of life the aim was now to bring to a clear expression the abstract formal schematic character which the picture of reality took and which since a time of Aristotle made the inner meaning of the effort of knowledge to consist in what lies behind the particular qualities of things for example in the nature of being itself in the recognition of being as being the necessary result of this view was that the scaffolding of abstract ontological conceptions became an essential part of reality the rich and variegated fullness of life presented by such conceptions consisted however in a mere development on the logical side of things the greater experiences and further development of life did not consequently combined sufficiently to form a connected view of reality the recognition of this fact constrained the civilized and the moralized life of modern times to part with this traditional solution further the step of differentiation between thought and being already referred to is in no way alien to antiquity but the classical period of antiquity did in no manner run its whole course in this direction but though Hellenic times were conscious of the antithesis of subject and the universe it is the dualistic mode of thinking in modern times that has brought such an antithesis to a climax in the modern world for the first time does man gain the power of the self-consciousness to place himself by reason of the unlimited needs of his nature over against the whole world more than ever has his life become a struggle with the universe this movement of man however has penetrated so deeply and ruled his spirit so powerfully because the cleft between himself and the world was thrust out of sight and a burning desire of his life for a unity between the human spirit and the universe as well as for the transformation of inward and outward into his own possession originated without a radical transformation of the first view of man and the world the contradiction between them cannot be overcome consequently thinkers of the first rank have devoted their best energies to this thought. Descartes who separated thought from the world and placed it upon itself became fully aware of the difficulty of finding his way back from thought to the world he sought to overcome the difficulty from the very outset by linking human reason to a divine reason that governed and penetrated the universe and through such a belief he gained confidence in human capacity to acquire truth he sought thus to discover for his future investigations a touchstone for the differentiation of the true and the false and believed himself to have discovered such a touchstone in concepts of entire clearness and distinction complex unfinished and strained as his conclusions are his contributions were of undoubted value in the fact that he laid the center of gravity and consciousness and gave a new beginning to the movement for conceiving things from consciousness to the world and not from the world to consciousness the problem of knowledge is carried further back by Spinoza and is brought by him to a height which even Leibniz could hardly overtop upon this height thought and being the aspect of being as existence stand independently over against each other but both belong to the same universal life that carries and embraces them and both exist and continue parallel to each other as the appearance forms of the one reality lost one side develops out of itself and according to its own nature still it harmonizes with the other side the order and the connection of ideas are the same as the order and the connection of things Leibniz holds to the idea of parallelism but by it he meant not so much that thought and extension should correspond to each other as at the individual and the all the microcosm and the macrocosm should do so each individual soul according to him experiences the whole of infinity within itself in the form of immediacy and without any kind of mediation of the world the pre-established harmony produces this connection and intelligence that embraces the whole universe brings forth all effects the theory of parallelism contains a strong inducement to conceive each of the two sides in a precise manner on its own characteristic side and to mark clearly the boundary of one from that of the other and every mingling of the two is most strongly resisted through such a method it becomes possible to transform each of the two into a continuous union and development and to weld each in an incomparably more definite and consolidated a manner than was previously possible this investigation possesses its value on account of its penetrating analysis for the main effort of the modern world to treat nature and the life of the soul as independent provinces without at the same time giving up the unity of the universe finds here a philosophical justification thus the work of thought corresponds to the demands of the universal and the all important situation and the frequent withdrawal of this work of thought towards the multiplicity of external things does not by any means render it alien to reality but the difficulties concerning the adjustment here sought for between the world of thought and the world of sense do not remain long out of sight most of all the main idea of an all embracing unity fails of proof this main idea was a keen hypothesis of speculative philosophy but it is an hypothesis which the calm clearness of modern thought has sharply contradicted and one whose roots lay less in modern ground than in the world of traditional religious ideas the increasing uncertainty concerning this main idea loosened more and more the connection of man and the universe and as the weakness of this connection increased thought tended to be considered and to become a merely subjective reflection nature now sinks to a soulless mechanism and also all the possibility of a genuine knowledge disappears and further along with this uncertainty and inward impoverishment gives rise to doubt and contradiction which are actual experiences of human life despite all the external expansion and development of things for this theory of parallelism brings man into unison with the universe only in so far as everything specific and distinctive within him is discarded and only in so far as what constitutes a copy of the external world is alone held as essential but what remains on this theory is thus no more than thought with its forms and concatenations man consequently and necessarily becomes a mere mechanism of presentations and ideas and so it remains entirely enigmatic how he can cultivate a unity or whole and how he can experience his own life as such if life in spite of this gains a psychic depth and warmth this is supposed to happen not by means of the further development of ideas but by something in contrast with such ideas by the addition of mystic speculation and intuition it is however the main feature of the theory of parallelism that while it is able to present the equilibrium striven after by the two sides by means of general ideas it is not able to carry such ideas into effect for as soon as the theory of parallelism presents any of its conclusions we find that either the external or the internal aspect is uppermost and the conclusion expresses itself either in naturalism or in idealism mind either becomes a phenomenon which merely accompanies us a mere reflex of nature or nature becomes a mere description and semblance of mental and spiritual life the failure of both attempts of relation and parallelism necessarily leads to a further quest for a solution of the problem if the two sides do not relate themselves intimately together and if separated they do not again come together there is only one possibility of solution open namely the denial of all existence outside thought and the laying of all reality within thought and its movement if thought has to deal with its own evidence and not at all with anything alien to itself if knowledge becomes a self-comprehension of thought then no opposition can prevent the realization of a complete illumination of the problem then the work of thought seems certain of a complete conquest thought is certainly here to be raised above the mere individual and established with its own motive power it must in order to fulfill its task be raised to absolute thought in all this there is in fact a genuine effort to reach summits and turning points of life this path was not trodden for the first time by modern thought antiquity and especially plot in us and the mystics of the Middle Ages who followed his lead trod the same path but there lies a considerable disparity between the ancient and the modern modes of conceiving the matter the old mode of thinking placed being the constant in the foreground while the new mode gives most prominence to be coming thus the turn of the old mode towards an absolute thought signified the taking up of all the multiplicity into an unchangeable unity and interpreting the letter by means of the former as everything draws its life from such a unity which is its root everything strives to return of necessity to this unity in order to find in it its self subsistence and eternal rest it is in this way alone that the universe gains an all pervading unity and a pure inwardness it is here alone that an inner world originates here the unity precedes the multiplicity the inner precedes the outer and the constant precedes the mobile as here the whole of reality thus flows into the life of infinity so all definite and limited conceptions disappear and are unable to present as their interpretation anything more than a metaphor of the deepest truth complete adequate knowledge on this few is given by mystic intuition alone an intuition which must be clearly distinguished from the aesthetic intuition of classical times for while mystic intuition extinguishes all particular elements aesthetic intuition seeks the unity in and along the multiplicity alone it is especially from this point of view that the thought of an all present unity and of a self subsisting eternity presentia stands gains such enchanting power over many minds and gave life its penetrating inwardness as well as the way into the great and the cosmic but what is here offered as knowledge is more of a feeling difficult to grasp is more of a calm absorption of the soul in infinity than of an intellectual penetration into reality such an experience certainly discovers original depths but it does not point out a path to pass back from itself to the work of life so that it remains true that life as a whole has been furthered more on particular sides by religion and art than by philosophy but the modern turn of the main thought we have under consideration penetrates still more deeply into the meaning of knowledge it understands thought not as an intuition by the self of an eternal being but as a great becoming as a quest for one's own self and as a self realization thus according to this view the cosmic process is nothing other than a self realization of thought here emanation gives way to evolution and intuition to the construction of ideas Hegel especially brought this leading fundamental thought to a remarkable expression in Hegel's teaching the process of thought is driven further and further by means of self engendered antithesis through thesis antithesis and synthesis the thought process evolves in ever richer content it ascends from general outlines to concrete forms the process draws all that lies near to it to itself thus the whole of existence is in flux still all the multiplicity is brought into mutual relation and interpenetration and everywhere a content of thought is discovered as the real kernel and energy of the things in existence thought thus steps out of the realm of shades it gains the most definite connection with the historical social life of mankind while the historical social life is itself seen in great connections and is universally illumined the view presented here by Hegel is not directed backwards towards origins but forward towards the goal of an entire self realization it is the view of a calm philosophical reflection embracing all movement embracing all reciprocal conflict and opposition which were placed by him in his picture of the universe we are aware how mightily that stream of life which has had its source in this Hegelian movement has affected the minds of men and how much this stream has affected spiritual work as well as modern civilization and culture but we are also aware how sooner reaction took place and how many contradictions raised up their heads the conception of an absolute thought process contains before all else and inner contradiction thought can be no process and process can be no thought thought is essentially a stepping forth out of time and an apprehension of things under the form of eternity the process on the other hand moves hurriedly forward further and further and knows neither rest nor terminus Hegel in his own person and for his own day understood how to connect those two different aspects but a contradiction existed in the facts themselves and he was obliged to find justification for his theory of becoming in the special characteristics of great personalities and thus he had to divide mankind into opposite camps where thought stands in the foreground the process is overlooked but this is certainly a mistake unless the process has reached its final terminus thus the movement falls within the past alone and the present appears as ready-made and the future will contain nothing to do where the process stands in the foreground it moves further and further into the region of the indefinite and the uncertain the ages lose their inner bond of connection and philosophy becomes a mere expression of the existing situation a historical social view of reality thus all absolute truth may give way to a relativism we cannot any longer speak of a deliverance from and a mastery of the world in other words there is no knowledge possible the struggles and doubts which issue from such a view are bound to shake to its very foundation the position of thought and its claims to rule the world for though within the human domain a web of thought arises and a circle of existence superior to the remainder of the psychic life develops still all this remains a thought of man and that even all this is the source of reality that all this carries the universe within itself is extremely difficult to substantiate human thought is on this theory raised to absolute thought and its mode of movement is transformed into a cosmic phenomenon in far too rash and direct a manner for close at hand exists the doubt whether the whole which is thus declared as the kernel of reality is anything more than an accompanying phenomenon of reality further the nature of the world presented in this few also strengthens such doubts as thought draws into itself all reality it transforms reality into a domain of relations and forms into a world of outlines and shadows into a gloomy picture when Hegel presents us with something more than this and when his world of ideas with all its distinctive clearness works upon us this effect does not arise from his theory but from his personal mode of presenting things a mode which has an open mind for all greatness and which understands how to view the multiplicity together as a richly colored picture apart from the quickening energy of great personalities everything in his theory discloses a shadowy character and a distressing emptiness of content and it is this fact which explains the occurrence of a rash turn towards empiricism and positivism and with the obscuring of man and his soul behind the problem of the physical universe and finally with the renunciation of all knowledge regarding the things of the spirit and regarding greatness thus the historical consideration of things justified the doubt whether thought be able by the mere exercise of its own force to attain to knowledge and in this way doubt presents the dilemma that in the recognition of a world existing externally thought is unable to find the path to such a world and that thought in the attempt to create all being out of itself exaggerates itself and loses itself in a world of shadows consequently the path of philosophical speculation ends in disappointment and of the failure of speculative philosophy from knowledge and life by Rudolf Ugen 1846 to 1926 published 1913