Life — April 1, 1920 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘LIE E* i offered, got to be a tadpole, a toad, a monkey and, in course of time, the creature we see when we look in the glass. This line of thought has favored the conviction that man has nothing to lean on but his own backbone, will get no help except out of his own head, and had better make the most of world and this life, and get what he can out of them, and be as comfortable as he can contrive in them while he lasts, because there is nothing else coming to him that he can count on, This theory makes, in some persons, for energy in living, and for self-reliance, and for other good things which are hy no means incompatible with the other theory. But it has defects, in that it makes for overzeal in material acqui- sition and for carelessness in human relations. It was popular before the war, especially in Germany, but the war jolted it a good deal, and opinion now leans considerably to the conviction that there was something important the matter with it, that it doesn't work well, disturbs the har- mony that the continued development of human happiness seems to require and, on the whole, won't do. There are those even who go so far as to feel that persons who are still content with this theory have minds of such a quality that they get gay on a 2.75-per-cent. solution of knowledge, and are not really of much use in solving the present problems of human life. Practically the Darwinian doctrine of evolution favored materialism; theoretically there is no compelling reason why it should. It seemed to add to knowledge, and doubt- less did add to it. That it disturbed people by conflicting with the records in the early part of Genesis was sad, but not so important as it seemed. Taken as a hypothetical description of the processes of creation, it is harmless to faith in a Creator. Regarded as a substitute for a Creator, it has made some trouble, and possibly had to do with upsetting the German mind, but that is past eeee To minds that are used to the idea that we live in rela- tions close and constant with a life invisible, the current spiritist activities are extremely interesting. There is nothing hostile to religion in the idea that our friends and spiritual helpers in the Beyond are in closer communica- tion with us than ordinary, and are trying to convey to us information and assistance that it would be profitable to us to have. The thing has been done repeatedly in the past history of the world. Probably it has always been going on more or less, but certainly it has happened in great crises in human affairs, as when the Christian Fra began and in the days of Joan of Arc. Else is Holy Writ not true, and much of history waste paper. The Bible is full of spirits and spirit voices. There is nothing about foo ouija boards in it, but there seems to have been one i the back room of the Delphic oracle, since a description of such a contrivance has been quoted in the newspapers fror a Latin author. Ouija boards are a gamble at best, but the widespread persuasion of communication with the ir visible world will hardly be rejected offhand by peop'e who really want to know and do not fear the consequences of knowledge. Current spiritism abounds in possibiliti of deception. Traffic with it is more or less danger especially to the reputation, and upsets some minds tem- porarily at least. Much of it is trivial, most of it is per- plexing, but on the whole there is nothing quite so inter- esting going on. tee e It is doubted by very able minds whether human capacit exists to deal successfully with the tangled affairs of this world at this time. The shadow of ruin falls dark on civilization. In so far as superhuman intelligence and power can be enlisted to disperse that shadow, by all means—all lawful means, however jeered at—let it he sought. To shallow minds, to look for help out of th unseen seems ridiculous, but there are those who think they have had it, and they are not all ridiculous people One of them has said: “I do not call it a miracle wher at a historical crisis a man is granted a clear vision, ani discovers later that this clear vision has determined actions of enormous consequence in a frightful war. But I do believe in this clear vision. I think I received it at the Marne, at the Yser, and on the 26th of March. I believe it comes from a providential source, in the hands of which we are but instruments, and that the decision of victory is determined from on high by a Will superior and divine.” So spoke Marshal Foch to André de Marincourt, w talked with him as the representative of L’Echo de Paris. Marshal Foch seems to believe in an unseen power to guide and help, yet he has an unassailable reputation as a practical man, and is still respected. The clear vision that he speaks of is needed not less in these festering days of peace still incomplete than it was in the war. The leaders who are to fetch us out of the wilderness must have it Autocracy is dead; socialism, tried out, is proving a failure If democracy is to realize men’s hopes it must be tempere:! hy quite a different spirit than what has filled the world with pig-sty scrambles to beat one’s neighbor to th money trough. It must see the world as it is, a school for men, wherein immortal spirit dwells for a time in humar bodies, learning what it can, developing what character and power it can, and presently vanishes in the life invisible E. S. Martin. comicbooks.com