The greater a man is in one direction, the more prone he usually is to weakness in another: that is why we must never condemn indiscriminately.
The laws governing the Universe, so far from being mechanical and dead, are elements filled with Truth and Beauty.
Materialism is fatal to the higher instincts, because it introduces that most sordid element—earthly pomp, circumstance and recompense.
The Universe, History, Life are before us. Why should they not be investigated? It is not true that science leads to Atheism or Fatalism. What science does is to destroy that fabric of Aberglaube or superstition which chokes and asphyxiates the best parts of religion. What science does is to set up a new, purer creed based on certainty and truth.
Of French writers Paul liked most Taine, Sainte-Beuve, and Victor Hugo. His love of reading he took with him into the War. A box of books returned to us with his other effects from France included "The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius," Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," Macaulay's "Essays," Saint-Simon's "Memoirs," Sainte-Beuve's "Causeries," "The Imitation of Christ," Lecky's "History of European Morals," and works by Goethe, Victor Hugo, Dumas the elder, Flaubert, Maurice Barrès, and Mrs. Humphry Ward.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER X
HISTORY AND POLITICS
History is philosophy teaching by examples.
Bolingbroke.
The science of Politics is the one science that is deposited by the stream of history, like grains of gold in the sand of a river.
Acton.