everything and takes a stand for good laws, the people are ready to render homage and help. When a real reformer appears, a broad religious teacher, a true poet, or a great patriot, he is proclaimed throughout the civilized world. And these facts are the hopeful signs of the time. A new era dawns for every phase of human betterment; and never were the materials for a larger upbuilding so varied and plentiful. It is like a new scene of adventure, with new laurels to win. It is an open field for him who has worth and will.

V

ABSOLUTE VALUES

STEVENSON'S "Lantern Bearers" is not only a brilliant gem in literature, but it suggests a profound philosophy of life. The story is familiar enough: The schoolboys, accustomed at a certain season to gather in a hollow of the lonely sand drifts by the sea, in the darkness and wind and rain, each as he approached carrying carefully concealed under his overcoat a lighted bull's-eye lantern. There There was was no profitable purpose in their secret assembly; they were physically uncomfortable; the lanterns were not for use, for they were hidden. The essence of the thing was the knowledge that they had lights at their belts, and in that knowledge they rejoiced and sang. And Stevenson reflects that a man, however rough his exterior may appear, may have some secret source of joy, something that is his very own, that makes of his life a poem or an epic. This suggests a problem, which is emphatically the problem of today, namely, the spiritual attitude which constitutes the meaning and the only permament satisfaction of life.

We speak of the New Idealism. It is not new; it is not easily defined; it has many interpreters; it is not always stated in terms of reality, and may even border on mysticism. But it does stand for a "spiritual world," a "spiritual life," "absolute values," and the transcendent importance of conscious participation in the spiritual life. Shall we try to define in simple terms? Perhaps we miss the meaning of Idealism because it represents the plainest facts of daily experience. Everyone is conscious of motives. that are apart from results, of purposes that are unselfish, of a loyalty to right, of a general aim at a good which we call the highest and best in character and conduct. We believe that certain attitudes-say toward honor and justice-would be right for everybody, everywhere, at all times; that they are absolutely and eternally right. Further, one may believe that pure ideals are in the very constitution of the world and are revealed in human nature; that the sense of an absolute good or right, as a part of the conscious mind, is evidence of things not seen as we view material objects, but proof the most certain, and proof of the highest realities. We may believe there is a purpose in the world, embracing these ideals, and behind it a Universal Will, working in a never-ending evolution toward ever fresh. results; that man has a like free and responsible will, and that, in so far as he works, in whatever

field, in accord with the Universal Will toward a good, he hastens the realization of that purpose. But, while the reality of the ideal world as a kind of other world is maintained, it must be reached through work in the world of today, and with regard for present problems and duties. The day's work is material to be wrought into spiritual growth. While idealism affirms spiritual reality and eternal values, it leaves to each man the ultimate religious or speculative doctrine by which these facts may be interpreted.

The philosophy of idealism may be further defined by limitations. It denies that man is merely a part of material nature, because he makes nature the object of his reflection and his constructive will; because at every moment he is conscious of qualities and powers that transcend nature. It regards pantheism as vague and as a denial of the facts of conscious personality and free will. It accounts social progress essentially deficient unless it is vitalized with a higher purpose than mere utility. It looks upon the weaker side of what is called æsthetic individualism " as passive and contemplative, refined and feeble, unrelated to the organized and constructive forces of the world, and lacking power to grapple with material and spiritual problems. It demands that Christianity shall not be interpreted merely as the religion of the weak and afflicted, but shall be a religion for the strong, requiring

devoted service in the practical world and unceasing growth into the spiritual life. It recognizes that, in general, religion has cultivated the spiritual sense and developed the inner life, has governed unregulated impulses, has given color and motive to life as a whole, has given it meaning and value, has furnished the ideals for the organization of society and state, and that the coming philosophy must include the features of religion which have produced these values.

This philosophy affects the ideal of culture. A distinction is to be made between civilization and culture, although the relation is intimate, as between body and spirit, or form and content. Civilization means the external life of a people, what men do and the conditions in which they live, their occupations, customs, laws, institutions, form of government, and the relation of the citizen to the State. Culture means the inner life, the spirit of a people, as found in their intellectual and higher interests, and expressed in their literature, art, philosophy, and religion. It means man's attitude toward life as a whole. The problem is to maintain a balance between material civilization and culture-or, rather, to properly relate them. The old culture was concerned with the other world, and dwelt apart from the affairs of life, absorbed in spiritual reflection. Later, it sought the enjoyment of knowledge and of varied æsthetic feeling, was