fOR A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 



75 



cannot realise it to myself at all. There are philosophical assump- 

 tions behind all our thoughts. Philosophy — however much 

 particular philosophers have erred — is simply reflection on those 

 assumptions. Mr. Schwartz claims to speak from the standpoint 

 of common sense; but common sense, any more than science, 

 cannot support its own foundations. Its practical verifications are 

 only valid in and for its own sphere. Even our ideas in dreams 

 verify themselves within the dreams. The human mind 7nust in 

 the long run seek for its own ultimate data ; and while I strongly 

 maintain that these are concrete — none the less for being 

 spiritual — the error of resting on abstractions does not lie with 

 philosophy as such. This is the old intellectualism, that is 

 becoming "discredited"; philosophy is becoming more and more 

 concrete, human and vital ; and scientists, I believe, are beginning 

 to feel themselves forced back on it by pressure from within their 

 own sphere. Philosophy does not " only move in the same endless 

 circles." It never did, and certainly does not now. In an ascending 

 spiral, perhaps, but that is very different. Even intellectualism 

 has done a necessary work, if only spade-work ; and at bottom 

 philosophy is but the direct expression of the mind of the 

 generation that produces it, and is organically one with the general 

 mass of human mentality and emotion. Every true philosopher 

 knows that. As a devoted student of philosophy, I am in a position 

 directly to deny the truth of Mr. Schwartz's account of it. I know 

 in myself its spiritual and emotional value, its integral place in the 

 deepest life of man. To me the quotations he brings to bear are 

 meaningless. 



Closely connected with this is the question of dogma. I demur 

 strongly to his description of it as a system of Christian Philosophy. 

 This again is virtually answered in my paper. Moreover, religion 

 is not mere emotion ; and if it be said to rest on a few simple 

 propositions, even these propositions, if they really deal with central 

 needs, must have a central place in the intellect, and must thus 

 require to be brought into relation with human thought and defined 

 against the ideas that deny them. How could the body of 

 systematized doctrine possibly be, as such, an accretion 1 How 

 could the spiritual side of man's nature have allowed the accretion, 

 and fed itself on it — as it has — if accretion it be 1 An alliance is 

 essentially mutual. In one aspect, the Christian " dogmas " must 



