CHAPTER IV

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As his pursuit of present pleasure brings man disappointment and disaster, so his endeavor to insure himself of comfort and well-being during the course of his natural lifetime turns out to be a failure. A conviction of the essential uncertainty of the natural life and the consequent transiency of its joys is either produced in him slowly as the outcome of observation and experience of the vicissitudes of fortune in his own case and that of others, or else bursts upon him with overwhelming force as the result of some devastating personal calamity. But the breakdown of the ideals and practices of the natural life does not leave human volition crushed by defeat or prostrate through failure: it responds to the emergency with characteristic faith and vigor by projecting the plan of a larger

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and more permanent life. On the ashes of its burnt-out hopes of natural security and satisfaction it raises the ideal of a life which shall be beyond the reach of misfortune and decay, a life of eternal and abiding reality. For, incidental to his pursuit of natural goods, man had learned of the existence of ends whose attainment depended upon the favor of no external agency whatsoever, but exclusively upon the activity of his own will. His capacity for thought was his own, he could exercise it in acquiring knowledge in bad fortune as well as good: his power of choice remained with him while he had life and sanity; his emotions could be trained to find pleasure not in pursuing or appropriating material objects but in contemplating the beautiful and harmonious in nature and in man. Devotion to such spiritual ends now promised to give widest scope to human personality, greatest substantiality to human life. In order that it might give itself unreservedly to their

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pursuit volition attempted to shake itself free from all entanglements of body, all limitations of natural existence; it proposed to rise to a supernatural life. The supernatural life is therefore characterized primarily by its devotion to “spiritual” ends. But the term “spiritual,” when thus used, stands in pressing need of definition and explanation. For no word in common speech is more vague and indefinite than this. Standing in the thought of most persons for something that is misty and elusive, its significance has been cloudy and confused. “Spiritual,” as ordinarily used, suggests the invisible and intangible, the morally elevated and edifying, the divine and ecclesiastical--a mixture of ingredients, with a mystic flavor. Now this vagueness and incoherence spring from the fact that the meaning given to the word is principally negative: the spiritual is understood as that which is different from, and opposed to, the natural or material. Hence it remains as essentially

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the imperceptible and non-sensuous, the invisible and intangible. Given no positive qualities of its own, our thought tends almost inevitably to conceive it as the shadowy counterpart of the material, less definite in outline, less substantial in structure. The spiritual world is thus imagined as the abode of insubstantial apparitions; the spiritual life becomes the pursuit of sublime but ghostly abstractions. Moreover, anthropologists have found in primitive human thought the belief in such a shadowy duplicate of the material world, peopled by ghostly doubles of actual human beings, and this belief they suppose to have originated in the attempt of primitive man to explain the episodes and personages of his dreams. Thus the idea of a spiritual realm seems to many to be discredited as a relic of savage superstition. The conception of a spiritual life and a spiritual world lose their last touch of reality; they dissolve away completely into a cloud of myth and fancy.

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The truth is that the spiritual world possesses as much positive reality as the material. The idea that it is a dream world, an imaginary realm, is false and preposterous. The fact that spiritual goods become constant and enduring objects of pursuit by the human will may seem sufficient proof of the reality of the spiritual--and so, indeed, it is. But in order that the real nature of the spiritual world shall be understood, its positive qualities must be discovered and its relation to the material world clearly perceived. Now we have already noted the need from the standpoint of voluntary action, of representing objects in terms of the bodily movements required to attain them. This need our intelligence meets by constructing the world of matter and of motion. As a further development of this same point of view, we have found it advantageous to think of objects in terms of the movements of other objects supposed to produce them, and in result the world is conceived as a

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complex of interacting forces. The neighboring spring I thus represent as in a fixed location--at the foot of yonder hill--and conceive it as the result of the downrush of subterranean water. But it is equally necessary if our wills are to find expression, to conceive of objects in another way, and that is in terms of the satisfactions they promise and the further ends to which they lead. In consequence of this primary personal necessity the spiritual world arises, and it is equally original, equally authoritative with the material. The spring which from the material standpoint is situated in a definite place and is the effect of certain causes is, from the spiritual standpoint, the means of slaking human thirst, of restoring man's strength and renewing his vigor for further activities. Who can deny that the thirst quenching quality is an objective fact, just as real as any object of the material world? The relation of the objects constituting the two worlds is altogether

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different. In the material world objects are related to men's physical organisms, which are diverse and exclusive, hence their relation is external and mechanical. In the spiritual world they are related to the rational will, which is one in all human beings; hence their relation is essential and organic. Since many different material objects may possess the same quality of satisfying the human will, such a quality is recognized as a universal and, as such, is part of the spiritual world. Many different springs and wells have the quality of slaking human thirst: this quality is therefore a universal; it has no place in the physical world but belongs to the spiritual realm. But while a multitude of physical objects have the one same valuable quality, it is also true that a single physical object may possess many valuable qualities--its meaning may include many universals. Thus the single deer-skin may serve as clothing, as a tent-covering, or as a case for tools and weapons. The

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contrast between the two worlds, that of matter and of spirit, comes home to us with full force when we consider that an object which, from the standpoint of the material world, is one of the most insignificant, feeble, and temporary features in the landscape, like a shepherd's cot on the mountainside, may easily be the most real and significant object there from the spiritual point of view, because it has the most comprehensive purpose and makes possible the widest range of intelligent activity. The modern city may serve as an illustration of the difference between the two worlds, for it can be understood from the standpoint of matter or of spirit. Viewed physically, it is an aggregate of buildings and of living individuals, the buildings of wood and stone and steel, spread over a vast expanse, massed together and pressed upward toward the center, and the living individuals hurrying to and fro, out and in, among them; it has a river flowing

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through it and lines of railway converging upon it; in the more congested centers are stores and banks and offices, farther out are dwelling-houses, churches, and schools, still farther, perhaps, are factories and parks and cemeteries. Spiritually, the city is a “kingdom of ends”: first, although lowest in the scale of spiritual reality, are the industrial and economic purposes which it subserves, the food and clothing and shelter which its activities of production and distribution provide for its inhabitants; these are but means to the more inclusive ends of the family life, of education, of political organization; this second class of objects is in its turn instrumental to the still fuller personal life which libraries and churches, museums and universities make possible. The same city, but how differently are its constituent factors related in the two worlds! In the one, a museum and a business house may crowd one another in the same block, a factory may stand beside a park, but in the other the museum

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and store, park and factory, belong to different grades of reality. The existence of the spiritual world is, to be sure, not a late discovery of human intelligence, but its explicit recognition and continued study had to wait for the time when man should turn away in disappointment from the pursuit of natural goods. In giving names to the common qualities which he found numbers of physical objects possessing, primitive man acknowledged the existence of another order than the physical. For these names stood for permanent satisfactions which classes of objects could be expected to furnish the human Will. These universals determine conduct; they become ends of action with the individual, and he seeks by talking of them and their attractive features to influence the action of others. The generalized purposes which are pursued in the succeeding stage of human development are not merely satisfactory qualities, they are groups or systems of satisfactions. Wealth is sought

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because it opens the way to many further activities at the choice of the agent (only, as we have seen, these activities are usually of a physical character). Here, again, the communication of general purposes makes possible mutual influence and co-operation among men. But these purposes, involving series of activities, systems of objects, have to be discussed and explained if they are to be understood by all members of the community. It is as the outcome or such discussion and explanation that the conception of a spiritual world takes its rise. The idea then dawns that men may by thought and discussion classify objects in terms of the satisfactions which they themselves afford and the further ends to which they lead. The discovery is made of another world than the natural, an ideal or spiritual realm, a world of values, dependent for existence not upon physical force but on rational reflection and appreciation. This world is justly deemed a spiritual world, because, as has been said, its interrelations

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and unity flow directly from the one rational will which actuates all men. Its determining principle is not mechanical necessity but spiritual freedom. Its compelling attraction, moreover, its power to arouse enthusiasm and awaken aspiration, testifies directly to the demand of the one will surging through us all, a demand for a larger and fuller life. Because of the importance of the spiritual principle to human progress, further consideration must be given to the constitution of the spiritual world and the development or the ideal of the spiritual life. Beginning the discussion afresh, therefore, let us first note that the object which we locate as a particular thing in the physical world becomes, when we consider it from the standpoint of the purpose it subserves, a universal. As a universal, it is identical with no particular thing existing in a definite time and place; it is identical with the quality or character common to a number of particulars and uniting them

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into a class. Thus, house, from the physical standpoint, is a particular thing; each house has its special time and place of existence. The house I live in has its particular situation: I must walk in a certain direction if I would approach it, mount several steps and turn a knob if I would enter. But house, in the light of the purpose which gives it its meaning, that of affording shelter to human individuals and families, is a universal, because this quality of furnishing shelter belongs equally to all the habitations of men. From the spiritual standpoint, then, the real object turns out to be not the particular member of a class but the essential character which all members of the class possess in view of the purpose they all subserve. Indeed, from this point of view, these universal meanings are the primary realities; a particular thing derives what reality it possesses from participating in the essential quality characteristic of its kind or class. My house is a reality, not on account of the accidents of

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its size, location, and material, primarily, but rather because of its essential meaning, a meaning which belongs to all houses because they realize the same end of providing shelter. It was Plato who first saw with clearness the reality of these universal characters, founded upon the common purposes which things subserve; he asserted that such ideal entities were the only things truly real; he called them ideas, and since his time they have been known as Platonic ideas. Now, the distinguishing mark of these ideal essences or characteristics is their universality, and their universality at first appears in the fact that they are general and not particular. The degree of their universality will consequently be seen to depend upon how general they are, how many objects they are common to. It is obvious, moreover, that characters differ widely in generality and hence in the universality which depends upon it. More general than house in meaning is human

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production, for it includes tools and weapons and clothing as well as shelters--everything in fact that man can make and fashion. As essential characters differ in degree of generality they may be arranged in a series leading from the least to the most general, as, for example, Socrates, Athenian, Greek, Aryan, Man, Living Being, Being. Since these universal qualities represent purposes which groups of objects fulfill for the one rational will which acts in all men, they are not by nature independent of one another nor separate in their fields of existence. Differing themselves in degree of generality, these characters are subsumed, the one under the other, as the less under the more general, as species under genus. Thus, “house” in meaning falls within “building,” which includes also barns, workshops, etc.; “building” falls under the head of “human productions,” which embrace, in addition, tools, clothing, and the like. Proceeding with such classification, all qualitie

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characteristics may be subsumed under the one least definite and most common, as the summum genus, and thus united in one system. Thus plants, animals, and men fall under the concept of living being, and this, along with that of inanimate or non-living being, under the concept of being. Being, the most general of characteristics, signifies that quality which an object must have to become an end of volition at all--the power of reacting to the human will, and hence conditioning its expression. Thus our thought, exploring the meaning of things, discovers a system of characters, all universal and all purposive; this system is of course none other than the Platonic hierarchy of Ideas. Let us, then, acknowledge this truth: these ideal characters are fully as much facts as are the objects or events of the physical world; their relations are every whit as essential and binding as the sequences of physical events; together they constitute a system just as real as the

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interacting forces of the material world. The reality of this ideal or spiritual system is implicitly acknowledged in every act of volition. But its conscious recognition adds much to the scope and significance of human life, besides reminding man of the dignity of his own freedom. For man to understand that the object which he realizes is in its essential character universal enlarges his conscious horizons; he recognizes that his experience is not private, particular, exclusive; he sees instead that in attaining his own end he is participating in universal human achievement. Understanding further that the end which he seeks has a permanent place in an abiding system of meanings, he is able in its attainment to rise free from the changing flux of physical events and identify himself with universal and eternal reality. Reflection brings home to him the universality of all human intelligence, the fundamental unity of all human volition, and on this foundation he may build his own personal character

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undisturbed by the change and decay of the physical world. Moreover, this first insight into the structure of the spiritual world increases man's knowledge of the possibilities of attainment which exist for his will. The system of meanings just described is in truth a world of freedom, for its constituent factors have their character and position determined not by any external agency but by their relation to the human will itself. As first formulated by Plato the hierarchy of ideas was retrospective rather than prospective in its reference, it is true--conceiving of objects not so much in terms of the further purposes which they might subserve as in terms of the qualities which they, at least by implication, already possessed and were able to offer. Thus my house is not conceived in terms or the many further purposes which it may fulfill but in accordance with the qualities already inherent in its essential character as a house--that it is a building, a physical object, etc. But if,

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understanding this, we appreciate all that is implied in the meaning of things, we shall enormously enlarge our possibilities of satisfaction, shall greatly enrich the resources of our world. We acknowledge the existence of universal characters, due to the fact that the groups or classes of objects furnish to the will the same satisfaction. House is such a general character, since the purpose of giving shelter is common to all houses. But in addition to the features that are common to all cases, these general characters have a further meaning which differs in different instances of their appearance. This is due to the fact that the further ends or activities to which these ideal characters lead are different in different cases. All houses share in the common purpose of furnishing shelter, but some are means to many further ends; all furnish the one fundamental satisfaction, but some make possible many more extended activities: all houses give shelter;

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some are, in addition, centers of family life and domestic devotion; a few of these latter are also sources of far-reaching social benefit. Now, the point to be noticed just here is that the meaning of the ideal characters we are discussing includes, in the case of each one, all the further ends to which it may lead. Hence its universality consists not merely in its generality, in the number of instances of its same identical quality which it sums up, but also in the variety of different features which it includes. Its full meaning, its total character is therefore seldom, if ever, exemplified by every one of its instances; indeed, it would seem that the more fully the meaning of a character is developed, the fewer are the instances of it which we should likely find. Searching, therefore, for the true meaning of universal spiritual objects, we are forced to choose between instances, seeking for those in which the possibilities of the character in question have been most fully explored. We should

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not expect to find the full meaning of house in the qualities common to all houses from the Indian wigwam to the royal palace; we should seek for it in those cases where houses were made to furnish the greatest variety of human satisfactions. To recognize that objects whose general character is well known are capable of yielding different degrees of satisfaction, according as one has the intelligence to grasp their possibilities and the enterprise to follow them up, is still further to enlarge the opportunities for voluntary achievement. The scope of activity which the real world permits to human volition is seen to depend not entirely upon the number of objects it attains--this, as we have seen, is determined largely by fortune and circumstance--but partly, at least, upon the use which it is able to make of the objects it does possess. A man with the wit to understand the uses to which a house may be put, and the ability to avail himself of the

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means which it places at his disposal, may obtain a more extensive satisfaction from a cottage than many another does from a mansion. This fact was relied upon by the Cynics and Stoics, ethical schools of antiquity, to support their cardinal doctrine that man finds happiness and spiritual freedom only when he ceases to depend upon material possessions and seeks those spiritual ends whose attainment depends only upon his own reason and will. The wise man, they held, can turn any event or circumstance into a means of personal development by understanding its universal character and availing himself of its possibilities for spiritual expansion. Even the direst calamity, his reason will show him to be the necessary outcome of universal law, and capable when properly met of strengthening his courage and increasing his power of endurance. If a storm lay waste his fields and destroy his crops, his reason will understand it as a result of those regular processes of atmospheric change which are

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responsible for the invigorating breeze and beneficent rain; thus he may accept the event calmly, even gratefully, regarding the necessity for repair and rehabilitation which it creates as an opportunity for the exercise of his courage and enterprise. Reason not merely discovers the permanent possibilities of satisfaction already existing in the world, it also reveals the opportunities for further achievement offered by every event that occurs. We have not exhausted the meaning of the spiritual world, however, when we see that its ideal constituents, besides being repeated in many different instances, may themselves be means to many different ends. In this way we do enlarge our conception of their universality, understanding it not merely as generality but as comprehensiveness. But this new insight has important consequences which, when made clear, will bring us in sight of our goal and show us the spiritual world as a growing reality. These ideal objects differ in

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the degree of their comprehensiveness, in the range of further activities to which they are instrumental. Varying as they do, certain ones which are less comprehensive are included within the meaning of others which are more so, not generically, as the particular falls within the more general, but organically, as the part is included within the whole of which it is a member, and to whose existence it is instrumental. Thus gymnasium, in its ideal character or meaning, not merely falls as a particular under the more general concept of building, it is also included as a factor in the more comprehensive character or significance of college or university to whose life it is instrumental. Relating these spiritual objects in the order of their comprehensiveness, we shall see them in the fullness of their reality as an expanding system. Thus individual security, family life, the possession of property, the establishment of reputation, are all of them involved in tribal or community well-being; the well-being of the

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community thus maintained, of many communities, in fact, is included within the more comprehensive meaning of national welfare, realized through care for public health and education, the administration of just and effective government, convenient facilities for communication and transportation, efficient methods of producing wealth and fair methods of distributing it; national welfare, and international as well, are themselves included within the still more comprehensive end of universal human well-being depending upon mutual understanding, mutual co-operation, and mutual sympathy among all men, ends which are just beginning to be realized, and thus converted into spiritual realities. This spiritual system represents the progressive expansion or the sphere of free human activity, hence the progressive realization of the human will; it is a system whose character and constitution are determined by no other agency than rational volition itself. Appreciating how the objects of the

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spiritual world are related in an order of increasing comprehensiveness, we are led inevitably to the thought of an all-comprehensive object, an object which includes in its meaning all possible qualities, an object which, in its attainment, subserves every purpose and realizes every end. Now this conception, while it is merely an ideal and does not really constitute the spiritual world a completed whole, has nevertheless an important regulative office in pointing out the direction of its development and indicating the goal of its progress. The conception of an object so comprehensive as to include in its meaning all possible satisfactions is simply an expression of the demand of volition itself for an all-comprehensive life; it is this demand projected in the form of an ideal, an end to be realized; once attained, it would insure to the will a life of uninterrupted activity, of perfect satisfaction. The life promised through the realization of the Absolute Ideal presents itself in different forms: as thought, which

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through the classification and correlation of all ideas, attains Truth; as feeling, which through an appreciation of the harmonies among perceived objects, attains Beauty; as conduct, which through a proportionate realization of all human capacities, attains Goodness. Since, further, the Absolute Ideal is conceived as furnishing complete satisfaction to rational volition as such, it must provide through its activities for the satisfaction of volition in all its individual embodiments. This means that it must provide for the satisfaction of all human individuals in so far as the power of rational volition has gained expression through them. Hence the Absolute Ideal may be conceived as a perfected society of free persons, an intelligent community united in complete mutual understanding, co-operation, and sympathy. Such a life, indeed, does volition aspire to; it stands, therefore, as the supreme ideal of human conduct. While the conception of an all-comprehensive object has an important

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bearing upon the structure of the spiritual world, we must not forget that it is, nevertheless, an idea and not a reality. For there is a distinction between a spiritual ideal and spiritual reality. This distinction is one easy to overlook because spiritual objects are all of them ideal in the sense that they are universal and are related not mechanically but teleological. Impressed with what we may thus consider to be the ideality of the spiritual world as a whole, we are naturally inclined to slur over any distinction between idea and fact within its boundaries. Yet this distinction holds, and cuts very deep. Real spiritual objects are objects which have been realized through voluntary action, whose possibilities of satisfaction have been proved through the experience of actual attainment. Of this character are many established social goods, such as family life, popular education, democratic government, etc. These ends have been in large part realized and their meaning

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for volition actually verified; one may seek them with reasonable certainty of obtaining their promised satisfaction. Even the more comprehensive ends of truth and beauty have been so far attained as to make their value a fact for human intelligence: science and art each opens the way to a wide range of free activities. But the ideal of a perfected society of free beings, of the completed development of human personality, of universal human brotherhood, has not thus been realized at least not sufficiently to warrant us in considering it a reality. It is an ideal, the supreme, the governing, ideal of human conduct, but as yet idea and not reality. A serious error it is, therefore, to regard the Absolute Good as a real object in the spiritual world. Yet just this error was committed by those wise and earnest souls of antiquity who first clearly recognized the existence and structure of the spiritual world and sought to identify themselves

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with its reality. The idea of an object comprehensive enough to satisfy every intelligent purpose they took to be the ultimate reality. Or, otherwise expressed, reality they believed to be a teleological system, every part of which was the expression and fulfillment of intelligent will. So thought the Stoics who, of all the ancient schools of moral philosophy, attained to the clearest and most adequate conception of the spiritual world and the spiritual life. They believed that the existing universe or “nature” was really a perfect spiritual system, every part of which was determined by rational purpose. For man himself to realize the universal spiritual ideal no effort on his part was required to transform the actual conditions of his life--every event that actually occurred in the world was already a necessary means to the fulfillment of the Universal Purpose. He had only to understand the circumstances of his own life, whatever they might be, in their true reality and he would find

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them to be expressions of the One Rational Will pervading the universe and manifested in his own personality, would see them, in fact, as the realization of his own freedom. In the sphere of action, consequently, the Stoic doctrine required of the human individual not effort but acquiescence. This meant, however, that the whole burden of moral attainment was thrown upon human thought: it was man's reason which was relied upon to raise him to eternal spiritual reality. And it was no light task which was thus assigned to human intellect--to understand how every object that existed, every event that occurred, no matter to what extent it frustrated man's plans and thwarted his purposes, no matter how much suffering it caused him, was, nevertheless, a means to the fulfillment of the Universal Purpose which was his purpose. Of course, it is impossible thus to conceive of all human experiences if we take them at their face value, as they actually present themselves.

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Hence the logic of their position compels those who, like the Stoics, believe that all reality is comprehended within one spiritual system to regard much of what occurs in the world of human experience as not real but apparent--to regard evil in its different forms as illusory. Hence there results an increasing tendency to disregard and depreciate the world of sense-experience and observed fact with its contradictions and maladjustments, in favor of an ideal sphere where everything is imagined to work in harmony with the realization of one supreme end. The spiritual world tends to become more and more an object of mystic vision, a Heavenly City, far removed in its perfection from the earthly scene. As such, the spiritual world becomes more and more completely divorced from the natural. The latter, from being merely apparent, becomes positively evil, its evil inhering, however, in its negativity. In this way, with the Stoics and Platonists, spiritual objects became supernatural

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objects and the life devoted to their pursuit a supernatural life. In the course of human history a new type of life thus arises which may appropriately be called supernatural. Supernatural, because those who professed it explicitly abandoned all natural “goods”, wealth, fame, and bodily comfort, and devoted themselves entirely to the attainment of spiritual reality. Natural existence was esteemed only as furnishing the occasion and opportunity for rising to a supernatural life. In this higher life man identifies his will with ends which possess not future existence only, but eternal reality. Human volition seeks not merely to encompass the whole course of man's natural existence; it aspires to embrace the spiritual ideal in its unity and completeness. Once more, then, does the will of man seek a remedy for the disappointment and failure resulting from overconfidence, in the exercise of still greater faith; it prepares the way for a final

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victory over the ills of nature by transcending the sphere of natural existence altogether and converting it into a means for the realization of a more permanent and complete life. Even if one fail to see why faith is needed to enable one to pursue the object of his momentary desire or to provide for his future security and comfort, no one will deny that faith is exercised by the man who sacrifices all natural goods in order to seek a spiritual ideal. If on the contrary, we do admit that it takes real initiative to enable a man to resist the attraction of surrounding objects, while he seeks to obtain an object which at the time is only an idea, and that it requires true courage to forgo the assurance of present pleasure in order to pursue an end which lies in the uncertain future, how much more must we acknowledge that genuine heroism is displayed by one who renounces the whole natural world with its pressing actuality and prospect of substantial benefits for ends

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belonging to the world which his own spiritual vision has created! In the first stage of human progress man sacrifices the object of present perception to the end which his thought represents, in the second stage he sacrifices all the satisfactions which the present situation offers in order to pursue an end which his imagination projects into the future. But this future, while imaginary and uncertain, is nevertheless represented as continuous with the present, part of the same order, to be enacted in the same space, and joined to the present by the chain of natural causation. The third step which we are now considering, compels man to turn his back on the familiar world in which he has made himself at home, the world founded on the primary necessities of action and the use of his own physical organism. This world, whose actuality has become established and imperious, is to be renounced for another world, which is not as yet fully constituted and whose completion depends in part on the efforts of his own

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will. The structure of the spiritual world is not forced upon his notice by conditions of his own acting; it is discovered by him after he has reflected upon the possibilities of satisfaction held forth by different objects. Nor can he depend upon his own experience of attainment to teach him of the value of objects; that will be far too limited. He must be able to discuss this subject with his fellows, considering the different purposes which objects subserve, and their varying degrees of comprehensiveness. Out of such discussion and the further reflection to which it leads, the realm of ends, the world of freedom, takes its rise. It is thus the creation of general intelligence: its objects, although they may be real, require for their discovery the exercise of conceptual thought. And when we consider that the human will at this stage is not content with devoting itself to those ideals which in some cases have been achieved and have had their value realized, but commits itself to the realization of that

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end which is not merely spiritual, but a spiritual ideal, that of the Absolute Good, the All-comprehensive End, which when attained will yield every possible satisfaction, we see that it has required of itself a supreme courage, a sublime faith. The faith upon which the supernatural life rests may be expressed in the form of a postulate. Human thought in this case postulates the existence of a complete system of ends in whose permanent reality man can, through the exercise of his reason, participate. The principle in question is, of course, that of teleology, since the relation which binds objects together in this spiritual system is that of means to end. The teleological principle is one that emphasizes the essential unity of humanity; for the ends with which it is concerned are, as universals, common to all individuals and witness the underlying unity of will among them. Because, moreover, these ends are included in a single comprehensive system, the individuals who realize them are joined in a

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community of purpose. This spiritual system does not need the efforts of man to realize it, however; it already exists as a finished reality. Man has only to exercise his reason in order to understand this--to see things as they are, all comprehended within the system of universal spiritual reality. And since this spiritual system is the completed fulfillment of the Universal Will which manifests itself in each human individual, intellectual insight into the spiritual organization of the universe imparts permanent reality to the man who attains it, for it shows him all the possibilities of his own will completely realized. The activity through which man expected to attain to supernatural reality was intellectual--the activity of conceptual thought. The supernatural life was regarded as an achievement of the reason common to all, exercised in free discussion, but rising to the full height of its powers in philosophical meditation. It is conceptual thought that distinguishes man from the

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animals and enables him to discover universal characters whose permanent reality underlies the changing particulars of sense. It is conceptual thought which reveals to the human individual all the possibilities of satisfaction in a given situation and, at the same time, by showing to him his true nature as a man, enables him to take the course which promises most to enlarge the life of humanity. It is conceptual thought which discloses to man's vision the Absolute Spiritual Reality and enables him to welcome every event that occurs in his life as an expression of the Universal Purpose and, hence, the fulfillment of his own will. To make thought thus play the part of action in the attainment of an end may seem like a contradiction in terms, since we have understood by action adjustment to actual conditions, and thought deals only with the ideal. Still, actuality appears as the limiting or conditioning factor even in thought--if not as presented, at least as represented. Actuality appears in thought in

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the form of ideas that have been verified and hence stand as facts. These ideas thus acquire the independence of actuality, the standing of established facts. To them our theories must adjust themselves, with them our speculative constructions must deal; and they may show a stubbornness and inadaptability which is equal to that of actual existence. Thus, as noted above, the constructive thought which endeavors to comprehend all reality within one teleological system finds an almost insuperable obstacle in the facts of sin and evil. The end at which this intellectual activity aims is a life which attains supernatural reality because identified in thought and disposition with the universal spiritual system. Ideally, this means membership in a community of intelligence which is eternal, because founded upon teleological relationships which persist in spite of the transiency of particular things that manifest and exemplify them. While natural objects change and decay, the purposes they

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subserve are permanent and enduring, because they are all comprehended within the one absolute purpose, which is the supreme reality. The supernatural life means, then, in the hopes of those who seek to achieve it, citizenship in a Heavenly City which abides in the face of all earthly dissolution and decay, a city which includes all humanity, or at least all men who rise to the possibilities of their rational selfhood. In actual practice the supernatural life has meant a life withdrawn from active pursuits, commercial and political, and devoted to rational reflection. Thus the ancient Stoics found the highest human good in the “life according to reason.” Through reason alone, they believed, could man be freed from the evils and limitations of the natural life, since rational insight depended upon no gift of fortune and was always within the power of man as man. They, therefore, proposed to uproot from their natures those desires which required for their gratification the possession of material objects in er to pursue, undisturbed by earthly

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events and emotional clamor, that intellectual activity which revealed to them the eternal realities. The supernatural life became in practice the life of the wise man secluded from the world and absorbed in his own thought. The Neo-Platonists, who followed the Stoics, went even further in their “other-worldliness,” discarding thought as a source of insight into the nature of reality, because even its most general principles retained an element of definiteness and limitation, while Absolute Reality they held to be beyond limit or definition. Hence this later school placed above reason feeling, a state of emotional ecstasy which, they thought, must supervene, after reason had accomplished its uttermost, in order to reveal to man the Infinite Spiritual Reality. In the final step, the supernatural life is carried beyond the sphere of rational discussion, of intelligent communication, and made in its essence a mystical, an intuitional, an ineffable experience. The intellectualism and other-worldliness

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of the Stoic doctrine, however, did not prevent its resulting in notable practical achievement. For the Stoic “life according to reason” was understood as a “life according to nature,” that is, a life according to the rational purpose controlling the world. But harmony with the Universal Purpose meant for the individual discharge of his vocation in the world; also it meant recognition of the equal rights of all human beings as alike expressions of the cosmic reason. Hence we find the Stoics laboring effectively for such political and social reforms as the extension of the rights of Roman citizenship to foreign peoples and the amelioration of the condition of slaves and serfs. In fact, the ancient Roman society presents no figure so noble, so sublime, as the Stoic, strengthened and poised by his spiritual vision, maintaining his philosophic calm, undisturbed by the allurements of vice, unafraid of the threats of tyrants, unshaken by suffering, torture, and death--a living demonstration of the

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essential dignity of man as a rational being. But this bold attempt of human volition once and for all to transcend the limitations of natural existence and to shake itself free from entanglement with changing, decaying matter did not succeed. Despising all natural goods, these brave souls proposed to make physical existence merely the occasion for entering upon a supernatural life. The fulfillment of this high purpose depended, nevertheless, upon the possession and use of physical existence. Hence, man's will while seeking a supernatural good could not free itself from dependence upon nature and natural existence. Man must at least exist as a natural being before he can attain supernatural reality. Although he proposes to use his physical existence merely as the occasion for gaining a foothold in the supernatural sphere, still it is indispensable as a foothold; without it he cannot so much as enter the spiritual kingdom. Moreover, the vast majority of men need more than bare existence, mere life, in

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order even to seek spiritual goods. Bodily health, with some degree of comfort and leisure, must first exist before the powers of conceptual thought and constructive imagination required for the comprehension of spiritual principles, can be effectively exercised. There are exceptional cases, to be sure, of men possessed of great constitutional vigor, power of endurance, and strength of will, who are able to retain intellectual poise and continue philosophic meditation in spite of suffering due to disease or persecution or compulsory toil. But such cases are exceptional; most men require a measure of physical well-being before they can begin spiritual attainment.

Hence the supernatural life fails in its attempt to escape altogether from natural evils. Indeed, it exposes itself in a special degree to the blighting effect of physical ills, for its very unwillingness to take care to provide for future health and comfort, its deliberate neglect of the conditions of physical well-being, which follow logically

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from its contempt for all natural goods, expose it in an exceptional way to interference and interruption from natural ills. The ills of the flesh, the pains of cold and hunger and disease, remind philosopher and saint that they are but men after all, and compel them to descend from the lofty heights of rational reflection and spiritual ecstasy to grovel in the mire of physical necessity, Nor does the seeker after supernatural goods free himself from the hostile influence of that other species of evil which has its source in the conflict of interests among human individuals. Despising as he does the physical enjoyments which other men seek, and endeavoring to eliminate from his character all those natural desires, including those instincts, sexual, parental, and social, which bind into fellowship the members of family and community, he is carried by his intellectual preoccupation more and more out of sympathy and understanding with the common run of men. The only other human

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beings whom he deems worthy of his serious attention are those who are capable of entering into his thoughts and discussing the problems which absorb him. Hence a special form of selfishness is produced by supernaturalism, by other-worldliness--a spiritual pride, an exclusiveness and self-sufficiency which makes its exponents oblivious to the sufferings as well as to the worldly ambitions of their fellows and, in its final development, makes them willing to gain the comfort and ease favorable to spiritual culture, through the toil and privation of their fellows. Certainly we should not be surprised to find that the faith which sustains the lofty aspirations of the supernatural life wavers in the face of such difficulties. Compelled by unavoidable physical ills to admit the stubborn, nay, the pressing reality of the natural world, it is not to be wondered at that men began to doubt of the reality of any other sphere. In a moment of spiritual vision men get a glimpse of a more

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comprehensive and enduring reality and, filled with noble enthusiasm, they resolve to abandon all natural goods and find permanent home for their souls in the supernatural realm. But, in later years, after the exigencies of physical existence have forced them into constant entanglement with matter, the light fades from the objects of spiritual vision. The supernatural sphere becomes, in contrast to the material world, unreal and insubstantial; it seems only a fancy, made of the stuff dreams are made of--and faith in it fails. In such spiritual crises, when will seems in danger, through the failure of its ideals, of losing confidence in itself, we have found it drawing from religion new strength and courage. Thus it ever has been in human progress, and thus it was in the case of the Supernatural life; we see those schools of ancient thought which had condemned all natural goods as transient and uncertain, and sought in the spiritual world for an abiding reality, turn in the closing centuries of the ancient era

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to religion, in the hope of strengthening their failing faith. They looked to religion for some divine revelation which should demonstrate the reality of the spiritual world. They felt the need of a revelation which should come with authority, not the kind of authority possessed by the conclusions of human reason, but an authority witnessed in the physical world by signs and wonders, by divine interpositions and miraculous happenings. Consequently, men of high purpose and philosophic training in the Graeco-Roman world interested themselves in various Oriental religions, desiring to receive from the miracles and wonders which their exponents related or were reputed to perform some convincing evidence of the existence and power of the supernatural. Most promising of all these religions was that of the Hebrews. For the Jewish scriptures professed to reveal not only the character of the supreme spiritual being, but also to record its successive appearances to men. The superiority of such

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historic revelation to any philosophical argument in convincing men of the existence of the supernatural, and in arousing them to the pursuit of spiritual goods, could not be gainsaid. An attempt was actually made to combine Greek philosophy with Hebrew theology; a curious system of beliefs was formulated in which the Hebrew God with the archangels and angels who do his will, was identified with the Platonic hierarchy of ideas. It was the Christian religion, however, whose advent at a critical time supplied the doctrine of the supernatural life with that reinforcement necessary to convert it into one of the great civilizing influences in the world's history. To the ancient world which was seeking in vain some support for its waning faith in spiritual values, Christianity came with its message of an authoritative revelation of supernatural reality. The authority of this revelation was attested, its exponents maintained, by the supernatural origin of Jesus, by the

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miracles he performed, by his resurrection from the dead. It was further witnessed by the miracles and theophanies of the Hebrew dispensation, culminating as this was said to do, in Jesus, the promised Messiah. In content Christianity was a revelation of the nature and will of God. In the person and teaching of Christ, God was revealed as a Spirit possessed of infinite reality and absolute moral perfection. The lofty ethical monotheism which developed out of the Hebrew religion after it had been purified in the fire of national calamity and refined by ages of religious meditation, received in the life and death of Jesus an expression sufficiently dramatic and appealing to win in the course of a few centuries the attention of the civilized world. This fresh revelation of supernatural reality was eagerly seized upon by ancient society, sick as it was of the natural world and its transient joys, and yearning for an abiding spiritual home. It was of necessity interpreted by Greek and Roman thinkers in terms of their

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own thought, i. e., the conceptions of Greek philosophy. God was characteristically conceived in the Hebrew religion as sharply separated by his personality and moral will from the natural world. This the divine transcendence, taught as a matter of course by the Christian gospel, was interpreted in terms of the Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy. God's moral perfection was understood as his freedom from all entanglement with matter--his pure immateriality. The need for a mediator was then apparent if this transcendent deity was to exert any influence upon the material world. This was the office assigned to Jesus: he was identified with the Logos, the divine reason immanent in the world. Here, then, was a God whose existence guaranteed the reality of the spiritual world. For supernaturalism conceives the spiritual world not dynamically but statically, as a complete, an eternal, a perfected whole. It is, therefore, absolutely divorced from the natural world, where everything

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changes and nothing is final. Between the two worlds, lower and higher, is fixed a gulf of absolute opposition. The one is irretrievably material, the other is triumphantly spiritual; the one is changing, the other permanent; the one is fragmentary, the other complete; the one is discordant, the other harmonious. In order that supernaturalism should enlist in its service all the resources of religious faith, the dualism in question had to find expression in a new conception of God. This was achieved by mediaeval Christianity, when it conceived of God as characterized essentially by his purity, his freedom from any stain or limitation of matter. To the attributes of power and justice, which in preceding stages of religious evolution had been ascribed to God, was now added holiness. This quality overshadowed the other two, expressing as it did God's essential and perfect spirituality. Converting the ideals of supernaturalism into the sovereign reality, this conception of God

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transformed at one stroke an idealistic philosophy, comprehensible only to a select few, into a potent moralizing force. Christianity offered to all men salvation from the sins and sorrows of the natural life and assurance of eternal reality. The plan of salvation had its source in the purpose of God, for Him completely realized; it was revealed and executed by Christ, the divinely appointed mediator. With the mediaeval theory of salvation, the philosophy of the Incarnation and Atonement then formulated and standardized, we are not here concerned. For us it is sufficient to note that through faith in Christ and compliance with the requirements of the Church, the authorized representative of Christ on earth, the human individual was supposed to obtain divine grace sufficient to save him from the destruction that awaits everything earthly, and to secure his adoption into the spiritual kingdom. Once saved from the evils of the natural life, the interest of man was withdrawn from earthly

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concerns and centered upon the spiritual world. He was encouraged to neglect worldly affairs and to abandon natural goods; he was led to look upon this world as a temporary halting-place in his pilgrimage to a heavenly home. Commerce and industry ceased, therefore, to appeal; social relationships (except those of ecclesiastical origin) lost their significance. Material advancement ceased; social progress was checked. Religion with its direct outlook upon the supernatural was regarded as the proper vocation of man, and the true religious life was understood to be that of secluded meditation and prayer. However unreal the natural world may appear, however insignificant its happenings when contrasted with the abiding reality and eternal significance of the supernatural, nevertheless nature does exist and the events of human history have occurred. As actual facts they demand from the exponent of supernaturalism some explanation in terms of his own faith. This

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explanation was furnished in the cosmology and philosophy of history formulated by the early Christian fathers and theologians. In accounting for the existence of the natural world, mediaeval theology adopted the cosmogony of the Hebrew scriptures. The world was created out of nothing by God in six days; each distinct form of life was specially created; man was made by God in His own image, designed thus to he the lord of all creation. For man, the Divine Creator made special laws, obedience to which would insure him of a life of perfect bliss. But tempted by Satan, a fallen angel who had led in rebellion against the authority of the Most High, the first man Adam disobeyed God's law, fell from divine grace, and incurred the punishment of sin. The curse of sin was transmitted from our first parents to the whole human race. All men are born depraved; consequently they suffer the fatigue of constant and often unavailing toil, the pain of disability and disease, the fear of certainly impending death.

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Hence the melancholy record of human history; of man's futile strivings for power and pleasure, of his unspeakable cruelties to his fellow-man, of his degradation and bestiality, of his grovelling terror and indescribable sufferings. But God did not entirely withdraw his favor from man; His eternal purpose which embraced man's creation and his fall included, also, a plan for his salvation. Thus in a world enveloped in the darkness of sin a feeble light was kindled and kept burning, handed down the line of Hebrew patriarchs and prophets until the divinely appointed time when it should blaze forth and illuminate the world. This time, the turning-point in the world's history, was that of the birth of Christ, who was the Son of God and took on human flesh in order to save men from the curse of sin. Through His life and teachings, Christ revealed the will of God to man; through His death, He made the necessary atonement for human sin. Thenceforth the way was opened for man

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to escape from all the ills of natural existence and obtain eternal life. The body of Christ's followers, organized as the Christian Church, continued as His representative on earth. Thus the Church became the visible embodiment of the supernatural reality; her authority was supreme over all temporal powers, all earthly kingdoms; she held the keys of heaven, for through her sacraments only came that divine grace necessary for human regeneration and sanctification. In the life of the Church, in fact, as the communion of those saved and sustained by divine grace, man enters that supernatural life which is not terminated but rather fulfilled by physical death. The mediaeval philosophy of history, thus barely outlined, gives to the faith and ideals of the supernatural life their final historic expression. There is something majestic in the sweep of this, the first real philosophy of human history; the tale it tells is sombre enough, but dramatic in its idyllic opening, its tragic plot, its

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tremendous denouement, and possessed through its startling contrasts and remorseless consistency of a grandeur really awesome. The imagination is stirred by the thought of the Christian sage who, in the closing years of the Roman Empire, with civilization crumbling beneath his feet, with disorder and carnage all about him, surveys with untroubled eye the whole course of human history from creation until the end of the world. Looking back over the recent period of ancient history to remoter prehistoric times, he sees in the rise and fall of kingdoms nothing but the vain and futile strivings of the Empire of This World, necessarily transient and marked by sin and sorrow. Turning his gaze forward and peering into the future, which to the natural vision is dark and menacing, with its threat of barbarian inundation and civilization extinguished, his eye remains Serene and untroubled, for his spiritual vision foresees the triumphant progress of the Church, the City of God, in her

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victorious warfare with all worldly principalities and powers. Thus the thought of mediaeval Christianity found the key to the meaning of universal history in the divine plan of redemption. In perfect consistency with the standpoint of supernaturalism, it was in this way enabled to explain all existing facts teleological, through their bearing upon the supreme concern of man's salvation. Causal determination, which for naturalism was a sufficient explanation of everything that happened, was by supernaturalism almost entire1y ignored. In the causal sequences which relate natural events among themselves, supernaturalism had little if any interest, and not the slightest tendency to explore them; these events occurred only to fulfill God's will, and this divine purpose furnished their complete explanation. Such objects and events as could not by any stretch of the imagination be thought of as means to the one great end were interpreted as emblems or symbols of

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great spiritual truths connected with human redemption. No more striking exemplification can be found of the power of an intellectual presupposition completely to dominate human thought and to exclude all other interests. Blind to the most elementary facts of nature, mediaeval thought found food for endless speculation in its supposed symbolism. The eagle, the dove, the serpent, the lion, about whose structures and life-habits there was profoundest ignorance, were nevertheless dwelt upon as symbols of spiritual objects and spiritual processes. The sea, about whose boundaries, depths, and tides next to nothing was known, was interesting as a symbol of the human heart tossed about by gusts of passion, traversed by waves of impulse. Of the faults of supernaturalism little more need be said. The type of life encouraged by its principles and ideals has already been indicated. With all its faults, it has a splendor of its own, witnessing as it does to the power of the ideal over the

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human soul. While its one-sidedness and exaggeration doomed it to certain decay, it constitutes a necessary stage in human progress, since it achieved results of permanent value. It enlarged the horizons of human life by creating for the will of man the ideal of a spiritual good, an eternal life , which in spite of his return to nature and worldly pursuits he can never forget nor cease to yearn after. Nor should the efficacy of supernaturalism as a civilizing agency during the dark ages of transition and turmoil be overlooked or underestimated. For those who were permitted by circumstances to make the most of their spiritual opportunities in pursuit of a religious vocation, it meant, as we have seen, withdrawal from the life of action and of service to the seclusion of the monastery, where free from all worldly distractions they could continue by meditation and by prayer to fit themselves for the heavenly life. Action entered these cloistered lives only in connection with the ritual and

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service of the Church. Such a life, pursued by all members of the race, would of course have brought human existence and with it human progress to a speedy close. But, fortunately, the great majority of men could not thus make religion a vocation. It was, rather, an addition to their everyday lives--lives that in those turbulent times were vivid and absorbing enough. Moreover, the barbarians of northern Europe, whom it was the mission of the Church to educate and civilize, did not possess powers of reflective thought or logical formulation sufficient to give such ideas of spiritual reality as they might be led to form any revolutionary significance. Their natural interest in the world of every-day affairs was not disturbed by the beliefs they acquired concerning the supernatural. The supernatural world was to them another world added to this one--a celestial realm, it is true, but in fundamental structure analogous to the life on earth. God was its monarch, mightier than any earthly

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potentate, but resembling in all essentials the monarchs of this world. But the existence of the celestial world and the prospect of a supernatural life furnished powerful incentives to right conduct--and this was a very important matter. As an attempt to provide complete and final satisfaction for the human will, the supernatural life did not, even with the reinforcement of religious belief, succeed. The problem of evil, still unsolved, remained as the reef destined to wreck this third type of life with its high pretensions and lofty ideals. The attempt of mediaeval Christianity to overcome actual evils, natural and social, by ignoring them was an utter failure. Inattention to natural objects and ignorance of natural laws brought a heavy penalty of suffering and degradation. Disease raged unchecked because the laws of health were neglected; famine threatened because the methods of production were unimproved; disasters from fire and flood and storm were unabated,

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because ignorance of natural causes made precaution and prevention impossible. Thus supernaturalism as a mode of living defeated its own ends, for many lives with splendid spiritual possibilities were prematurely cut off, or spiritually deadened, by hardship and pain. In the social sphere, also, the inability of supernaturalism to remove the conflict of interests among individuals and bring about a fair adjustment, proved destructive of its own aims. Its failure to establish social justice is notorious; it encouraged the growth of spiritual aristocracy, and ultimately of a social aristocracy as well. Unable to pursue the life of worship and prayer and communion which the religious vocation required, unless freed from the toil and care of providing for physical sustenance and comfort, those who were prompted to seek the fruits of the spiritual life grew increasingly willing to receive their support from the labor of the greater number who were condemned to toil unceasingly, without opportunity for a

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rudimentary spiritual culture. And when this spiritual aristocracy found it could make its position more secure politically by alliance with an hereditary social aristocracy which gained the chance for intellectual and aesthetic culture through subjecting the mass of men to the limitations of inferior social status, and then appropriating the products of their labor, it did not hesitate to do so. Nay more, the representatives of supernaturalism were willing to strengthen the authority of a corrupt social aristocracy by hypocritically admonishing the subject classes to be content with their lot, since earthly possessions and pleasures were transient and unreal, while heavenly bliss was the sure reward of every man who proved submissive to the powers of Church and state. Become thus the apologist for social injustice, supernaturalism was certain to fall, and its fall was deserved. But supernaturalism is not simply superseded in the onward march of human

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progress. Its results are assimilated; they become a permanent acquisition of human nature. Man, upon whom the spiritual vision has once dawned, never entirely escapes from its uplifting influence. The light of the eternal, having once shone upon the scene of earth, leaves it with altered perspective and enlarged horizons. The appeal of the supernatural may only be felt on special occasions, but it leaves us permanently uplifted and ennobled. Perhaps it is when we behold some sublime natural spectacle or simply view a peaceful sunset sky, possibly it is when we are stirred by the beauty and majesty of a great cathedral or join joyfully in the worship of Christmas or Easter tide--on such rare occasions the concerns of every-day life retreat into the background of shadow and our souls rise up and lay hold on eternal reality.