The New Stone Age in Northern Europe Part 14

How far do our vast acc.u.mulations of learning and discovery, our deep or superficial systems of philosophy, our splendid or decadent _fin de siecle_ art and literature reach and affect these people? Their chief characteristic is an attempt at distinction, an artificial uncommonness, a self-consciousness entirely foreign to the thinker of the common mind.

The inst.i.tution which has the widest and deepest influence on their feeling, thought, and life is the church. They generally love it, for they are "incurably religious." It is conservative in the best sense of the word. It represents, of course imperfectly, the feelings, aspirations, and hopes of all men everywhere in all ages--in one word, of humanity. It stands for the worth, dignity, and brotherhood of man, and the fatherhood of G.o.d. It is almost alone to-day in recognizing that there are ends in life. It offers a way of progress and a reasonable ground of hope in a somewhat weary age inclined to indulge in criticism, fault-finding, and pessimism. The fact that it is generally roundly abused for its defects, mistakes, and sins of omission, for its inability to accomplish the impossible, is a sign of the great hope and confidence which we have rightly reposed in it.

The discordant chorus of mutually destructive criticisms arising from the cultured and intellectual cla.s.ses seems to show that it is following fairly well a straight, right, and wise course, as Mr. Lincoln is said to have suggested concerning his own experience, plans, and leadership in a similar situation. "Wisdom is justified of her children," but the families of the elect are small. That the church does not conform to all the theories--not to say vagaries and fads--of to-day is no discredit. Most of them will be very unfashionable to-morrow. "The fashion of this age pa.s.seth away."

The existence of our nation evidently depends far more upon the fundamental and essential, nay obvious, old and common human virtues of very common people than upon our art and learning, the shrewdness of our politicians and profiteers, the amount of our wealth and exports, our inventions or luxuries, the winning of an election, or the defeat of any party. In one word, which we have already repeated _ad nauseam_, our chief business to-day is to continue the line of development clearly marked out by our benighted ancestors of prehistoric days--to exercise, develop, and strengthen the best instincts and feelings crystallized out of millennia of experience; to see to it that they are expressed in the law and practices of the land and commonwealth; and that they are not smothered under a ma.s.s of inventions of yesterday and of conventions of to-day. The fact that all this is entirely obvious should not conceal its importance.

The old message comes to us: "If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed; and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

In the northern ocean we see icebergs moving slowly southward. They are not driven by the winds which to-day are blowing against their broad fronts. The most conspicuous feature of our field of vision is the white foam capping the waves. To-morrow it will be blown away, evaporate, and disappear in the shifting winds which have tossed it into view. The berg is carried by the great polar current, silent, inconspicuous, irresistible, unchanging in its course, guided by still deeper and more ancient and permanent cosmic forces.

We know something about oceanic currents. Of the current of the evolution of life we know almost nothing; but hope that our theories are no more inadequate than the feelings of our Neolithic ancestors.

Certainly the current has not yet been charted. We catch glimpses of the direction of its sweep. Over what stormy and dangerous seas and to what undiscovered island or continent it is carrying us we do not know. It seems to set toward fairer climes beyond our vision. We set sail millions of years ago; we shall not arrive to-morrow.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A FEW SUGGESTIONS

The first series of books referred to in the following lists (A-O) are general, and every one covers a large field. The works of Dechelette and h.o.e.rnes (A and B) contain a very rich bibliography down to 1907 or 1908.

They should be carefully studied first of all; afterward the remainder of the list. I have omitted from the following list many excellent articles to which they refer. This list will satisfy the needs of the ordinary reader.

The second list (1-378) contains references to articles or books on special subjects which I have been obliged to treat very briefly in this small book. These will introduce the reader to other writers on the same subject. He is urged to make his own bibliography, and will find that he has started on an endless chain of most fascinating research, for which I hope he may form an insatiable appet.i.te.