SOURCES ON FRANK L. PACKARD
In addition to those cited in the text of the chapter: Robert H. Davis, 280 Broadway, New York, N. Y.
22. All Creeds and None
i
This ought to be the most interesting chapter in this book. For it deals with the subject of belief. Belief is of many kinds—religious, scientific, philosophical—but when one ceases to believe in anything at all, one dies.
In Chapter 10, I tried to indicate how the interest in religious belief has already begun to reflect itself in current fiction. In this chapter I am to deal with books which vary profoundly but are all straightforward efforts to express a belief held to be worth while. For the difficulty is not a lack of things to believe in, but a choice among them, a reconciliation (sometimes) of one with another; and very often a search for the thing that will mean more than life itself.
Can anything mean more than life itself? Yes. Men and women have sacrificed their lives for such.
Are the terms of belief capable of a common expression, acceptable to all men and women? No; at least, not yet.
Is it even necessary to know what one believes, in the sense of being able to give it a satisfactory expression? No; not if one lives it.