92 J. J. STEVENSON — OUR SOCIETY 



advanced universities stand on a somewhat higher plane, each in his 

 own group, than did the celebrated men just named. The student now 

 reaches beyond where they ended, and still is at only the threshold, for 

 in most instances years of labor are required of him before he can receive 

 recognition as an efficient co-worker. Men towering far above their fel- 

 lows and covering the whole field of knowledge will never be known again. 

 Kant, Newton, and Humboldt stand out from their fellows as sharply 

 as light-houses on a level shore ; but there are many Kants, Newtons, and 

 Humboldts today. Prior to the last seventy-five years the field of actual 

 knowledge was insignificant, and a man possessing large powers of obser- 

 vation grasped the whole. Seventy-five years ago one man was expected 

 to cover the whole field of naturalscience in an American college. Should 

 any man pretend today to possess such ability he would expose himself 

 to ridicule. 



It ma}^ be true that this century has given to the world no great philos- 

 opher — that is, no great philosopher after the old pattern — but one must 

 not forget that philosophy has to face a difficulty which w^as unknowai 

 in the last century. The unrestrained soaring of philosophers into the 

 far-away regions of mysticism is no longer possible, for facts abound 

 and the knowledge w^hich is abroad in the land must be considered in 

 an}^ well constructed system. Some have maintained, if not in direct 

 statement, certainly in effect, that study of material things unfits one for 

 m etaphy sical investigation. Undoubtedly it would hamjDer him in some 

 kinds of metaphysical research, as it would fetter him with a respect for 

 actualities, but it would fit him well for other kinds. Aristotle, Kant, 

 and, in our own time, McCosh and Spencer attained to high position as 

 philosophers, and in each case possessed remarkable knowledge in respect 

 to material things. 



The assertion of lost intellectual refinement and of depraved esthetic 

 taste is but the wail for an abandoned cult; it is but a variation of the 

 familiar song which has sounded down the generations. The w^orld was 

 going to destruction when copper ceased to be legal tender, as well as 

 when Latin ceased to be the language of universit}^ lectures ; art disap- 

 peared when men ceased idealizing and began to paint nature as it is; 

 religion was doomed to contempt when the Bible was translated into the 

 vulgar tongue, and the pillars of the earth were removed when the Amer- 

 ican republic was established. 



But in a proper sense this is a utilitarian age. Ever3'where the feel- 

 ing grows that the earth is for man — for the rich and for the poor alike ; 

 that those things only are good which benefit mankind b}' elevating the 

 mental or phj'sical conditions. Until the present century the impor- 

 tance of the purely intellectual side of man w^as overestimated by scholars. 



