72 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



errors are seen in relation to each other and to the whole as partial 

 truths, so all the so-called evil impulses of man must be represented 

 constructively in that outcome of the moral struggle which we call the 

 good. " Nothing succeeds like success," " It's true if it works," are 

 phrases which are capable of an idealistic interpretation in relation to 

 social progress as well as of an egoistic and ethically materialistic inter- 

 pretation which results in anarchy. 



Life is a game of skill, and pragmatism is an attempt to " play 

 the game " as well as possible, since perforce we must play it. It is 

 a philosophy of work, of practise, of labor, of the strenuous life; but 

 it is not simply that. Since, as we have seen, it is not mere practise, 

 but likewise a theory of practise, this brings in the other side which 

 we have called its idealistic aspect. But pragmatism is more than 

 either an empiricism or an idealism : it is an immediatism or mysticism 

 in the good sense of the word — it is a philosophy of play and a branch 

 of fine art. It provides for moral holidays; it is a philosophy of that 

 culture which in its leisure is not idle; it finds a place for the feelings 

 and values and ends of life as well as for conduct and ideas and the 

 means of living. The simple life is as truly its goal as the strenuous 

 life ! The simple life ! — the " last refuge of complexity ! " How much 

 effort people put forth in the endeavor to lead the simple life ! It is 

 not getting away from complexity, but controlling complexity in rela- 

 tion to the attainment of the values of life, that pragmatism recom- 

 mends — not the simple life, but the simplified life. And among other 

 means of the control of cultured living, a true philosophy finds its 

 place: first, as a balance-wheel to the tangential tendencies of lop- 

 sided common sense with its uncommon stupidities and rigidities 

 and foreshortening of view; second, as a clearing-house for bal- 

 ancing up the credit and debit accounts of science in relation to 

 this great problem of the control of the conditions of living; and 

 third, as an enhancement of the appreciation of the values of life 

 in emotional and personal terms, by seeing all knowledge and conduct 

 in their widest cosmic and deepest spiritual implications, and feeling 

 with Kant and Tennyson the relation of the flower in the crannied 

 wall of one's own door-yard to the stars above and the moral law within. 

 This is pragmatism and this is a philosophy which must recommend 

 itself to men and women of to-day. 



