Chapter 25

These are all trite things to say to churchmen: I have tried, on occasion, to say them to non-churchmen, but they do not seem to respond. There are those who rejoice in their break with historic continuity, who look upon a written form of service with horror. It is well, as I have said, for us to realize that our friends hold these opinions. One can not strengthen his muscles in a tug of war unless some one is pulling the other way. The savor of religion, like that of life itself, is in its contrasts. I thank God that we have them even within our own Communion. We are high-church and low-church and broad-church. We burn incense and we wear Geneva gowns. This diversity is not to be condemned. What is to be deprecated is the feeling among some of us that the diversity should give place to uniformity--to uniformity of their own kind, of course. To me, this would be a calamity. Let us continue to make room in our church for individuality. God never intended men to be pressed down in one mold of sameness. In the last analysis, each of us has his own religious beliefs. The doctrines of our church, or of any church are but a composite portrait of these beliefs. But when one takes such a portrait throughout all lands and in all time, and the features keep true, one can not help regarding them as the divine lineaments.

This is how I would have you regard the beliefs of our church, as you have studied them throughout this course--as our particular composite photograph of the face of God, as He has impressed it on the hearts and minds of each one of us. I commend this view to those who have no reverence for beliefs, particularly when they are formulated as creeds. These persons mean that they have no regard for group beliefs but only for those of the individual. Each has his own beliefs, and he must have confidence in them, for they are the grounds on which he acts, if he is a normal man. Even the faith of an Agnostic is based on a very positive belief. As for me, I feel that the churchman goes one step beyond him: he even doubts Doubt. Said Socrates: "I know nothing except this one thing, that I know nothing. The rest of you are ignorant even of this." Socrates was a great man. If he had been greater still, he might have said something like this: "I freely acknowledge that a mathematical formula can not satisfy all the cases that we discuss. But neither can it be stated mathematically that they are all unknowable. I am not even sure that I know nothing." Surely, under these circumstances, we may give over looking for mathematical demonstrations and believe a few things on our own account--that our children love us--that our eyes do not deceive us; that the soul lives on; that God rules all. We may put our faith in what our own church teaches us, even as a child trusts his father though he can not construct a single syllogism that will increase that trust.

This does not mean that we shall not benefit by examining the articles of our faith; by learning what they are, what they mean and what others have thought of them. The churchman must combine, in his mental habits, all that is best of the Conservative and the Radical. While holding fast that which is good he must keep an open mind toward every change that may serve to bring him nearer to the truth or give him a clearer vision of it.

How we can insure this better than by such an institution as the Church School for Religious Instruction I am sure I do not see. May God guide it and aid it in its work!

INDEX

Abraham, Story of, 335

Action, test of belief, 332

Ade, George, 110, 170; fables in picture plays, 319

Adults and children, compared, 14

Advertisement of ideas, 127

Aldrich, T.B., 322

Alger, Horatio, 16, 174

America, Fluid customs in, 224

"America", hymn, 191

American Academy of Sciences, 57

American ancestry, 179; architecture, 218; art, 217; music, 218; philosophy, 220; religion, 219; thought, tendencies of, 213

American Association for the Advancement of Science, 50

American Library Association, 51

American Library Institute, 52

American readers, 42

Americanization, 17, 73

Americanization of England, 225

Ancestry, American, 179

Anglo-Saxon ancestry, 181

Architecture, American, 218

Archives, family, 184

Army, international, 159

Art, American, 217; effect of, 163

Art, Early forms of, 37

Association, value of, 45

Atoms of energy and action, 122

Attractiveness a selective feature, 26

Austen, Jane, 176

Author, Function of, 67

Authors Club, N.Y., 51

Auto-suggestion in drugs, 233

Aviation, Newcomb's opinion of, 86

Belief, What is?, 339

Bennett, Arnold, 175

Bible, King James Version, 337

Birth of a nation; picture play, 322

Book-stores, disappearance of, 238

Books in selective education, 27

"Book-Taught Bilkins", 89, 98

Book-titles, Possessive case in, 19

Boston tea-party, 183

Branch libraries, Reasons given for using, 11

British Association, 307

Brooklyn Public Library, 4

Brown, Susannah H., who was she? 281

Browsing, 27; uses of, 104

Bryce, James, quoted, 216

Buildings, Monumental, 141

Bulwer-Lytton, E.G.E.L., 86

Burbank, Luther, 24

Cabiria; motion picture play, 319, 322

Captions in motion pictures, 318

Carnegie, Andrew, 77

Carnegie Institution, 85, 306

Cartoonist, Anecdote of, 294

Centre, What is a?, 145

Centralized associations, 58

Certainty and belief, 330

Chaucer, 293

Chautauqua, 265

Chemistry, New drugs from, 232

Chicago Evening Post, quoted, 109

Chicago, Field houses in, 148

Chicago Women's Club, Paper before, 197

Children's editions, 6; rooms, 31

Christian Science and drugs, 233

Christianity, 331

Christmas book shows, 170

Church School of religious instruction, 329

Church, Use of symbols by, 188

Churches of Christ in America, Federation of, 220

Circulation by volumes, 6; publicity value of, 142; tables, 7, 8

Circulation, Publicity, 142

Civil Engineers, Society of, 52

Civil War, Notions of, 180

Classroom libraries, 29

Clergy, Slight influence of, 13

"Close-ups" in motion pictures, 317

Clubs that meet in libraries, 148

Clubwomen's reading, 259

Colloquial speech, 92

Color-photography in motion pictures, 327

Combat, Settlement by, 158

Commercial travellers, 198

Commission government, 216

Constitution, United States, 50, 214; amendment of, 226

Continuum, 116

Cook, Dr. Frederick, 95

Copyright conference, 53

Courses of reading, 268

Court, International, 159

Creeds, Uses of, 333

Crowd-psychology on a ferry, 247

Dante, 46

D'Annunzio, G., 322

Delivery stations in drug stores, 241

Democracy a result, 72; and ancestry, 186; and despotism, 213; conditions of, 209

Department stores, 238

Despotism and democracy, 213

Dickens, pathos of, 175

Disarmament, 161

Discontinuity of the universe, 124

Distribution of books, 67, 129

Distributor, Library as a, 198

Divorce, Freedom of, 217

Don Quixote, Heine on, 173

Drug-addiction, 234

Drugs and the man, 229

Eaton, Walter Pritchard, quoted, 316

Eclecticism in America, 213

Economic advertising, 130

Economic writings of Newcomb, 86

Education, American, 218; in recreation, 100; modern methods of, 63; of the community, 243; of the sexes, 273; post-scholastic, 30; selective, 23, 65; through books, 90

Efficiency in association, 48; What is? 257

Elizabethan drama, 323

Energetics, Theory of, 114

Energy, Atomic theories of, 113

England an elective monarchy. 214; rigid customs in, 224; source consciousness in, 182

Ephemeral, Meaning of, 36

Episcopalians, 220

Eyes, injured by small type, 302

Fairy tales, 75

Falsity in books, 39

Feminist movement, 267

Flag, what it stands for, 187

Fiction, 39; interest in, 137; intoxication by, 40, 100; uses of, 35

Fluids, Mixture of, 118

Force symbolized by flag, 194

Ford, Henry, 237

Freedom, What is? 192

Gallicism in book-titles, 22

Gary system, 246

Genealogy, American, 179

Gibbs, J. Willard, quoted, 118

Good-will, Influence of, 17

Government, Federal, 213

Gravitation, Law of, 83

Gray's Elegy, 111

Greek tragedy, 324

Group-action, 45; on a ferry, 247

Hall, G. Stanley, quoted, 253

Harvard Classics, 109

Heine, Heinrich, quoted, 173

Henry, Joseph, 80

Heredity, and memory, 73; History and, 179

Hertzian waves, 121

Hilgard, Julius, 80

Hill, G.W., 84

Holmes, Mary J., 104

Homer, Methods of, 198

Honesty, Lack of, 32

Huey, Book by, 305

Hunt, Leigh, 109

Huret, Jules, 41

Identity, Meaning of, 114

Impeachment, 214

Indicator, in English libraries, 225

Indifference to books, 133

Information in books, 94

Inspiration from books, 101

Intemperance in reading, 40, 100

Interest, Importance of, 287, 289; Necessity of, 5, 137

International agreements in science, 85

Internationalism, 159

Intoxication by fiction, 40, 100

Ivanhoe, 175

James, William, 138; founder of pragmatism, 221; quoted, 287

Keith, Cleveland, 84

Kent, William, quoted, 229

Kepler, quoted, 177

Kinemacolor process, 327

Kinetic theory, 120

Koopman, H.L., 308

Lagrange, 114

Languages, written and spoken, 90

Large type, Books in, 301

Law, Enforcement of, 158

Le Bon, Gustave, 45

Lee, Gerald Stanley, 77

Legibility of type, 306

Libbey, Laura Jean, 41, 104

Libraries, Economic features of, 67

Library associations. 49; Non-partisanship of, 70, 96, 152; Private basis of, 169

Lindsay, Vachell, 321

Lines, Length of on printed page, 309

Liouville's theorem, 123

Lippmann, Walter, quoted, 216, 228

Literature an art, 165; evaluation of, 95; static and dynamic, 35

Los Angeles Public Library, 96

Lower-case letters. 307

Loyalists, United Empire, 180

Lummis, Chas. F., 96

Lunar theory, 84

Magazines, Support of, 68

Magical remedies, 233

Magnet, Definition of, 87

Make-up in motion pictures, 317

Malemployment, 229

Maxwell Jas. Clerk, 115

Mayflower, The, 183

Medical Record, Strasburg, 305

Meetings in libraries, 147

Memory, Latent, 74

Meredith, Geo., 110

Mexican commission, 194

Military associations, 48

Mill, John Stuart, 243, 244

Mind, Male and female types, 272

Moderation, Lack of in America, 235

Mohammedanism, 219

Molecular theory, 115

Moon's motion, 84

Morals, Eclecticism in, 216

Morgan, J.P., 169

Motives of library users, 11

Moving pictures, 313

Municipal ownership and operation, 154

Music, American, 218

N-ray, 333

Narrative, earliest literary form, 37

National Academy of Fine Arts, 57

National Academy of Science, 52

National Education Association, 50; Address before, 145

Nautical Almanac, 80

New country, What is? 182

New England Society, 179

New York, Free Circulating Library, 19

New York, Library support in, 200; West side readers, 42

New York Public Library, 11, 30, 220

Newcomb, Simon, Sketch of, 79

Newspapers, 36

Newton, Isaac, 83

Non-partisanship of library, 250

Norris, Frank, 322

Omar Khayyam, 108

Open shelves, 104; Origin of, 225

Optic, Oliver, 174

Ostwald, Wilhelm, 114

Pacifism, 157

Pageant of St. Louis, 188

Pantomime in the motion picture, 320

Papers, Ready-made, for clubs, 270; scientific, 275

Pater, Walter, 168

Paulist fathers, 220

Pauperization, intellectual, 68

Pendleton, A.M., quoted, 140

Perry, Bliss, quoted, 211

Pharmacy, School of, address to, 229

Philadelphia Free Library, Address at, 67

Philosophy, an interesting subject, 133, 138; in America, 220

Phonograph, Uses of, 94

Physics made interesting, 138

Pickford, Mary, 247, 317

Planck, Max, 113, 120

Planets, Orbits of, 83

Players' Club, N.Y., 51

Pocahontas, 183

Poincaré, Henri, 113, 120

"Poison labels" for books, 96

Porter, Noah, 334

Posse, International, 159

Possessive case, Use of, 19

Pragmatism in America, 221

Prayer Book as literature, 337

Prescott, William H., 95

Press, Slight influence of, 13

Pride, Personal and group, 185

Princeton University, 219

Printing Art, magazine, 308

Programitis, club disease, 286

Programmes, Club, 268, 280, 295

Public as library owners, 205

Public Library, 169; eclecticism of, 221; people's share in, 197

Publicity, Library, 140

Publisher, Function of, 67

Puritanism, 219

Quanta, 121; hypothesis of, 113

Race-record, Library as a, 74

Radio-activity, 231

Rayleigh's Law, 120

Readers, Do they read? 3

Reading, mechanism of, 91; skill in, 135

Realism in education, 246; in motion pictures, 314

Recall, earliest form of, 213

Records, varieties of, 94

Recreation through books, 99

Religion in America, 219

Renewal, Preservation by, 97

Repetition a test of art, 166

Reprinting, Use of, 98

Re-reading, Art of, 163

Residual personality, 290

Resonators, 121

Revolution, American, notions of, 180; versus evolution, 279

Revue Scientifique, 113

Roethlin, Barbara E., 306

Roman Catholic Church, 220

Roman viewpoint in history, 181

Rome, decadence of, 227

Rousiers, Paul de., quoted, 55, 56, 57

St. Louis Academy of Science, paper before, 113

St. Louis, library tax in, 200

St. Louis Public Library, 140, 254, 302; meetings in, 150

Sampling books, 110

Scenery in motion pictures, 317; in Elizabethan drama, 323; made of motion pictures, 327

School libraries, 29

School, Non-partisanship of, 70; Community use of, 155

Schoolmen of N.Y., Paper before, 23

Scientific societies, 52

"See America First" movement, 191

Selection In nature, 23; mechanical, 47

Selective education, 65

Sex in library use, 15

Sexes, differences of, 272

Shakespeare, 178; changes in, 293; rank of, 168; unavailable for stage, 323

Shaw, Edw. R., 304

Social Centre movement, 145

Society for Psychical Research, 82

Society of Illuminating Engineers, 57

Socrates, quoted, 338

Sorolla, 164

Southern views of Civil War, 180

Spelling reform, 93

Staginess of the theatre, 315

Standard Dictionary, 87

Standards in literature, 36

Statistics of reading, actual, 4

Story-telling, 37; extraordinary, 282

Structure of energy, 118

Superficiality, meaning of, 105; 269

Swift, Dean, 208

Symbols, Use of, 188

Taste, literary, 171; origin of, 4

Tax, library, 200

Teacher, influence of, 13, 243

Text-books, Defects of, 270

Therapeutics, Changes in, 230

Tocqueville, de., quoted, 56

Toronto, University of, 220

Trade-literature, 98

Tradition, Uses of, 93

Travel, Foreign, in United States, 41

Trollope, Anthony, 176

Tutorial system, 219

Tyndall, John, 138

Type sizes, Standardization of, 304

Un-American, what is? 226

Unfitness, Elimination of, 24

Union, symbolized by flag, 189

Unity of place on the stage, 324

Universal City, 317

Value, Structure of, 119

Van Dyke, Henry, quoted, 193

Verne, Jules, 86

Violence, systematization of, 157

Vision, Conservation of, 305

Volumes, Statistics by, 4

Walton, Isaac, 165

War, European, 209, 249; status of, 158

Wesley, John, 46

West, source-consciousness of, 182

White, Gilbert, 165

Wien, Wilhelm, 122

Women's Clubs, 210; reading of, 259

Woodbury, George E., quoted, 219

End of Project Gutenberg's A Librarian's Open Shelf, by Arthur E. Bostwick