Moreover, the things of the spirit are
even more important than the things of the body. We can well do
without the hard intolerance and and barrenness of what was worst
in the theological systems of the past, but there has never been
greater need of a high and fine religious spirit than at the
present time. So, while we can laugh good-humoredly at some of the
pretensions of modern philosophy in its various branches, it would be
worse than folly on our part to ignore our need of intellectual
leadership. Your own great Frederick once said that if he wished to
punish a province he would leave it to be governed by philosophers;
the sneer had in it an element of justice; and yet no one better than
the great Frederick knew the value of philosophers, the value of men
of science, men of letters, men of art. It would be a bad thing indeed
to accept Tolstoy as a guide in social and moral matters; but it would
also be a bad thing not to have Tolstoy, not to profit by the lofty
side of his teachings. There are plenty of scientific men whose hard
arrogance, whose cynical materialism, whose dogmatic intolerance, put
them on a level with the bigoted mediaeval ecclesiasticism which they
denounce. Yet our debt to scientific men is incalculable, and our
civilization of to-day would have reft from it all that which most
highly distinguishes it if the work of the great masters of science
during the past four centuries were now undone or forgotten.
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