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 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

PETER ADAMSON

MEDIEVAL
PHILOSOPHY
a history of philosophy without any gaps
volume 4

1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Peter Adamson 
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address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Control Number: 
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

For my father, David Adamson

OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

CONTENTS

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Dates xvii

Part I. Early Medieval Philosophy

. Arts of Darkness—Introduction to Medieval Philosophy 
. Charles in Charge—The Carolingian Renaissance 
. Grace Notes—Eriugena and the Predestination Controversy 
. Much Ado About Nothing—Eriugena’s Periphyseon 
. Philosophers Anonymous—The Roots of Scholasticism 
. Virgin Territory—Peter Damian on Changing the Past 
. A Canterbury Tale—Anselm’s Life and Works 
. Somebody’s Perfect—Anselm’s Ontological Argument 
. All or Nothing—The Problem of Universals 
. Get Thee to a Nunnery—Heloise and Abelard 
. It’s the Thought that Counts—Abelard’s Ethics 
. Learn Everything—The Victorines 
. Like Father, like Son—Debating the Trinity 
. On the Shoulders of Giants—Philosophy at Chartres 
. The Good Book—Philosophy of Nature 
. One of a Kind—Gilbert of Poitiers on Individuation 
. Two Swords—Early Medieval Political Philosophy 

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C O N TE N T S

. Law and Order—Gratian and Peter Lombard 

. Leading Light—Hildegard of Bingen 
. Rediscovery Channel—Translations into Latin 
. Straw Men—The Rise of the Universities 

Part II. The Thirteenth Century

. No Uncertain Terms—Thirteenth-Century Logic 
. Full of Potential—Thirteenth-Century Physics 
. Stayin’ Alive—Thirteenth-Century Psychology 
. It’s All Good—The Transcendentals 
. Do the Right Thing—Thirteenth-Century Ethics 
. A Light that Never Goes Out—Robert Grosseteste 
. Origin of Species—Roger Bacon 
. Stairway to Heaven—Bonaventure 
. Your Attention, Please—Peter Olivi 
. None for Me, Thanks—Franciscan Poverty 
. Begin the Beguine—Hadewijch and Mechthild of Magdeburg 
. Binding Arbitration—Robert Kilwardby 
. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral—Albert the Great’s Natural
Philosophy 
. The Shadow Knows—Albert the Great’s Metaphysics 
. The Ox Heard round the World—Thomas Aquinas 
. Everybody Needs Some Body—Aquinas on Soul and
Knowledge 
. What Comes Naturally—Ethics in Albert and Aquinas 
. What Pleases the Prince—The Rule of Law 

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CO NTEN TS

. Onward Christian Soldiers—Just War Theory 

. Paris when it Sizzles—The Condemnations 
. Masters of the University—“Latin Averroists” 
. The NeverEnding Story—The Eternity of the World 
. Let Me Count the Ways—Speculative Grammar 
. Love, Reign over Me—The Romance of the Rose 
. Frequently Asked Questions—Henry of Ghent 
. Here Comes the Son—The Trinity and the Eucharist 
. Once and for All—Scotus on Being 
. To Will or Not to Will—Scotus on Freedom 
. On Command—Scotus on Ethics 
. One in a Million—Scotus on Universals and Individuals 

Part III. The Fourteenth Century

. Time of the Signs—The Fourteenth Century 
. After Virtue—Marguerite Porete 
. To Hell and Back—Dante Alighieri 
. Our Power is Real—The Clash of Church and State 
. Render unto Caesar—Marsilius of Padua 
. Do As You’re Told—Ockham on Ethics and Political
Philosophy 
. A Close Shave—Ockham’s Nominalism 
. What Do You Think?—Ockham on Mental Language 
. Keeping it Real—Responses to Ockham 
. Back to the Future—Foreknowledge and Predestination 
. Trivial Pursuits—Fourteenth-Century Logic 

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C O N TE N T S

. Quadrivial Pursuits—The Oxford Calculators 

. Get to the Point—Fourteenth-Century Physics 
. Portrait of the Artist—John Buridan 
. Seeing is Believing—Nicholas of Autrecourt’s Skeptical
Challenge 
. On the Money—Medieval Economic Theory 
. Down to the Ground—Meister Eckhart 
. Men in Black—The German Dominicans 
. A Wing and a Prayer—Angels in Medieval Philosophy 
. Alle Maner of Thyng Shall be Welle—English Mysticism 
. Say it with Poetry—Chaucer and Langland 
. The Good Wife—Sexuality and Misogyny in the Middle Ages 
. Sighs Were her Food—Catherine of Siena and Affective
Mysticism 
. The Most Christian Doctor—The Querelle de la rose and
Jean Gerson 
. Morning Star of the Reformation—John Wyclif 
. The Prague Spring—Scholasticism across Europe 
. Renaissance Men—Ramon Llull and Petrarch 

Notes 
Further Reading 
Publisher’s Acknowledgment 
Index 

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PREFA CE

T here is, as it turns out, quite a lot of medieval philosophy. It’s a huge territory to
explore, even if you are not dealing with philosophy in the Islamic world or
Byzantium (respectively covered in the previous and next installments of this book
series). Just compare this book to earlier offerings in the series: Classical Philosophy
included a mere forty-three chapters and Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds
fifty-three chapters. That’s fewer than a hundred chapters to cover about a millen-
nium of philosophy in total, whereas in this volume telling the story of medieval
thought will take seventy-eight chapters for only half a millennium, from the ninth
to the fourteenth centuries. And this despite the fact that there isn’t much to say
about the tenth and eleventh centuries, the so called “Dark Ages”—even if there is
somewhat more to say than you might think. The profusion of material may come
as a surprise, given that most non-specialists would be hard pressed to name more
than a handful of medieval philosophers.
But it makes historical sense. As we get closer to the present, there is simply more
in the way of surviving text; from the medieval age we even have manuscripts in the
original handwriting of some of the main protagonists. Furthermore, this period
saw the rise of institutions that produced a staggering amount of philosophical
writing, especially for use in classroom contexts. Consider that a document provid-
ing information on the members of the University of Paris just in the year –
records about two thousand individuals.1 And these are people whose names we
know! The number of extant works by unidentified authors is so large that you
could produce a creditable history of medieval scholasticism by discussing nothing
but anonymous manuscripts (a “history of philosophy without any names,” if you
will). To make matters yet more daunting, in this book we are frequently going to go
beyond the world of the schoolmen. We will be discussing the philosophical
contributions of men who were not masters at the schools and universities, and
of thinkers who weren’t men at all. Indeed one of the most exciting features of
medieval thought, one particularly highlighted in this book, is the survival of
numerous works by women. This makes for another contrast with the ancient
world, whose women philosophers speak to us only through the intermediary of
male authors.

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PR EF A CE

In Chapter  below I set out the chronological range of medieval philosophy and
begin to make a case for the broad approach I have taken to the subject, which
includes topics like mysticism and natural science. So there is no need to do that
here. Instead I would just like to give some brief advice about how to read the book.
Ideally, you should start at the beginning and go through to the end without
skipping anything (this is after all how I wrote it). Hopefully that will give you an
impression of the different epochs of medieval philosophy and its evolution from
one period to the next. It may be, though, that you are more interested in some
philosophical topics than others, in which case you may be frustrated by the
chronological rather than thematic arrangement of the material. Here, then, are a
few thematic threads that could be followed through the book by reading it with gaps.
We may as well start with God. It’s worth emphasizing already now that, contrary
to popular belief, medieval philosophy is about much more than just theology.
Many of the chapters that follow have nothing to say about religion at all. But if you
are primarily coming to this material with an interest in the philosophy of religion,
you might want to focus on those chapters dealing with proofs of God’s existence
and manner of being (Chapters , , , , , , ), His power and knowledge in
relation to human freedom (Chapters , , , , , ), the possibility of rationally
grasping or speaking of God (Chapters , , , , , , , , ), or specifically
Christian doctrines like the Trinity, Eucharist, and Incarnation (Chapters , , , ,
, ). Another important topic here is the Christian value of asceticism and volun-
tary poverty (start with Chapter , but it comes up a lot, especially in discussing
Franciscan thinkers, as in Chapters , , and ). If you’re inclined to think that a
belief in an immaterial, immortal soul is another distinctively Christian belief, then
you’re actually wrong about that: it was espoused already in antiquity by most pagan
thinkers. Still, you can read here about how immaterial souls and angels were
conceived in Latin Christendom (Chapters , , , , , , , ). To find out
about what happens to the soul after death, you’re best off asking Dante (Chapter ).
If you’re interested in everything I’ve just mentioned, go straight to Henry of
Ghent (Chapter ), because he was too.
If your interest in matters psychological runs more towards knowledge and the
mind, then you may want to look at the epistemological debate between upholders
of representationalism and knowledge as direct relation (Chapters  and ), the
illuminationist theory of epistemology (Chapters , ), or suggestions of outright
skepticism (Chapter ). There is also the will, a faculty whose operation will
frequently occupy our attention in this book (for instance in Chapters , , , ,
, , , , ).

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P RE F AC E

A medieval scholastic would at this point complain that you are going about
things in the wrong order. You should really start with logic and the philosophy of
language (Chapters , , , , , , , ) and, once you have the basics under
your belt, tackle the most prominent topic discussed under that heading, the
problem of universals (Chapters , , , , , , ). Or if philosophy of language
leaves you cold and you prefer language that is more aesthetically pleasing, have a
look at the chapters on literary medieval figures (Chapters , , , , , ).
Once you’ve studied logic, you’re ready for the mathematical disciplines of the
quadrivium and for natural philosophy, which became increasingly mathematical in
its approach as the Middle Ages developed (Chapters , , , , , , , , ).
If that’s still not practical enough for you, try the branches of practical philosophy
itself, namely ethics (Chapters , , , , , , ) and political philosophy
(Chapters , , , , , , ). Also relevant here are parts of the book dealing
with medieval theories of law and economics (Chapters , , ), and attitudes
towards women (especially Chapter  but see also the various chapters on women
authors). Finally, if you are especially interested in the historical framework within
which all these themes were explored, then you’re probably the sort of person
who’d be inclined to read the book from front to back anyway, so go with that
instinct. But if you’re pressed for time, broader historical developments are empha-
sized especially in Chapters , , , , , , , , , and .
Whether you read the book selectively or straight through, I would consider my
mission as an author accomplished if it leaves you unsatisfied. My fondest hope is
that you’ll be struck, even if only occasionally, by the thought that medieval
philosophers had some extraordinarily interesting ideas and that you would like
to follow up on what you’ve read here by turning to the original sources. Happily,
almost all the figures covered here are at least partially available in English transla-
tion. The notes to the chapters will give you references to many such translations.
For anthologies of primary texts and for secondary literature, you can start by
consulting the “Further Reading” section at the back of the book. Finally, I would
point you towards the History of Philosophy podcast series. It included not only
most of the material that became the basis of this book, but also numerous
interviews with experts on a wide range of topics in medieval thought, all of it
free to listen via that modern equivalent of the Averroist collective mind we call the
Internet, at www.historyofphilosophy.net.

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 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

O ne of the most gratifying things about working on this book series has been
the extraordinary generosity of colleagues around the world who have shared
their expertise with me. From early on I was given valuable advice about what to
cover in the book and on drafts of individual chapters; also, many of these scholars
agreed to be interviewed for the podcast version. I would here like to record my
gratitude to the academic experts who appeared as guests on the series: Andrew
Arlig, Rachel Barney, Susan Brower-Toland, Charles Burnett, Therese Cory, Richard
Cross, Isabel Davis, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Kent Emery, Russ Friedman, Stephen
Gersh, Monica Green, Caroline Humfress, Mark Kalderon, Peter King, Jill Kraye,
Scott MacDonald, John Marenbon, Robert Pasnau, Dominik Perler, Martin Pickavé,
Giorgio Pini, Tom Pink, Christof Rapp, Andreas Speer, Eileen Sweeney, Juhana
Toivanen, Sara Uckelman, and Jack Zupko, as well as fellow podcasters Sharyn
Eastaugh, Jamie Jeffers, and Robin Pearson. Pretty well all of them also gave me
advice that was helpful in writing the book. I am particularly grateful to Catarina
Dutilh Novaes, Danielle Layne, Dominik Perler, and Giorgio Pini for general discus-
sion of how to approach the medieval period, and to Martin Pickavé and Christina
Van Dyke for invaluable comments on the entire manuscript, and for further
discussion. Further advice on particular topics is acknowledged in the notes to
the relevant chapters. Any mistakes or infelicities that remain are, of course, to be
blamed not on these many helpful scholars but on God’s providential plan for
the universe.
Looking further back, I should mention the teachers who got me interested in
medieval philosophy in the first place and gave me my first training in this field.
They are too many to list in full but I should at least name David Burrell, Cristina
D’Ancona, Stephen Gersh, Mark Jordan, John Kleiner, Michael Loux, Ralph
McInerny, and Richard Taylor. More recently, I have benefited from continued
collaboration with members of the King’s College London Philosophy Department
and from the support of my colleagues at the Ludwig Maximilian University in
Munich, especially Matteo Di Giovanni, Eleni Gaitanu, Rotraud Hansberger, Oliver
Primavesi, and Christof Rapp.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In producing the podcast I was ably assisted by Hanif Amin Beidokhti, Andreas
Lammer, Julian Rimmer, and Bethany Somma. For the production of the book,
I would like to acknowledge Fedor Benevich for his work on the index and Peter
Momtchiloff for his unstinting support of the whole book series.
Finally and as always, more than thanks are due to my family: to my wife Ursula,
my daughters Sophia, Johanna, my brother Glenn, and my parents Joyce and David.
The book is dedicated to my father, who will especially appreciate the frequent
mention of bishops.

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DATES

All dates given here are AD. For dates of authors, use has been made of the
biographical appendix in vol.  of R. Pasnau (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval
Philosophy,  vols (Cambridge: ), among numerous other sources.

Philosophers and other authors Selected historical events

Augustine d. 
Boethius d. /
Gregory the Great d.  Christian missionaries arrive in 
Britain
Isidore of Seville d.  Synod of Whitby 
Muslim conquest of Spain 
Bede d.  Battle of Tours 
Fredegisus fl. – Viking raids begin in England 
Alcuin d.  Charlemagne crowned emperor 
Death of Charlemagne 
Hrbanus Maurus d.  Muslim invasion of Sicily 
Gottschalk d. 
John Scotus Eriugena d. after  Death of Charles the Bald 
Hincmar of Rheims d.  Death of Alfred the Great 
Founding of Abbey of Cluny 
Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope d.  Death of Otto I of Germany 
Sylvester II)
Abbo of Fleury d. 
Notker Labeo d.  Battle of Hastings 
Peter Damian d.  Submission of Henry IV to Pope 
at Canossa
Berengar of Tours d. ca.  Toledo taken by Christian forces 
Lanfranc of Bec d.  Domesday Book compiled 
Constantine the African d. before Death of William the Conqueror 
/

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DAT ES

Manegold of Lautenbach d. after  First Crusade launched 

Anselm of Canterbury d. 
Ivo of Chartres d. 
Roscelin of Compiègne d. after 
William of Champeaux d.  Concordat of Worms 
Bernard of Chartres d. /
Hugh of St. Victor d. 
Peter Abelard d. 
Gilbert of Poitiers d. 
Gratian fl. s
James of Venice d. after  Second Crusade launched 
Adelard of Bath d. ca. 
Bernard of Clairvaux d. 
William of Conches d. after 
Thierry of Chartres d. after  Charter of University of Bologna 
Bernard Silvestris d. ca. 
Peter Lombard d. 
Heloise d. 
Richard of St. Victor d.  Murder of Thomas Becket 
Hildegard of Bingen d. 
Dominicus Gundisalvi fl. –
(Gundissalinus)
John of Salisbury d. 
Clarembald of Arras d. ca.  Capture of Jerusalem by Saladin 
Gerard of Cremona d.  Third Crusade launched 
Death of Frederick Barbarossa 
Alan of Lille d. / Charter for university at Paris 
Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine 
Fourth Crusade sacks 
Constantinople
Crusade begins against Cathars 
Founding of university at 
Cambridge
Church approval of Franciscan 
order
Charter for university at Oxford 
Fourth Lateran Council 
Magna Carta 

xviii
 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 6/8/2019, SPi

DATES

Restrictions on teaching of 

Aristotle at Paris
Church approval of Dominican 
order
Foundation of university at Padua 
Michael Scot d. ca.  Mongol invasion of Russia 
William of Moerbeke d. 
William of Auxerre d. 
Philip the Chancellor d. 
Hadewijch of Brabant fl. early–
mid-th c.
Alexander of Hales d.  Foundation of university at Rome 
John Blund d.  Foundation of Dominican studium 
at Cologne
William of Auvergne d. 
Lambert of Auxerre fl. s Death of Emperor Frederick II 
Robert Grosseteste d. 
Clare of Assisi d. 
Richard Rufus d. after  Recapture of Constantinople by 
Greek Christians
William of Sherwood d.  Condemnations at Paris , 
Bonaventure d. 
Thomas Aquinas d. 
Peter of Spain d.
Robert Kilwardby d. 
Albert the Great d. 
Boethius of Dacia d. ca. 
Siger of Brabant d. /
Mechthild of Magdeburg d. 
John Pecham d.  Expulsion of the Jews from 
England by Edward I
Roger Bacon d. ca. 
Henry of Ghent d. 
Peter Olivi d. 
Matthew of Aquasparta d.  First meeting of French Estates 
General
Martin of Dacia d.  Death of Pope Boniface VIII 
Jean de Meun d. 

xix
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YALE

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Vol. LXXXVIII No. 1

The
Yale Literary Magazine
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 THE YALE LITERARY
MAGAZINE

Contents
OCTOBER, 1922

Leader Maxwell E. Foster 1

Truth Maxwell E. Foster 6
Poem Russell W. Davenport 8
About It and About K. A. Campbell, Jr. 11
The Meditations of a Non-Thinker L. Hyde 12
Selima Myles Whiting 16
Portfolio:
Beauty Herbert W. Hartman, Jr. 23
Fear of God Robert Cruise McManus 23
Ballade Laird Goldsborough 27
Notabilia 30
Book Reviews 32
Editor’s Table 38
 The Yale Literary Magazine

Vol. LXXXVIII OCTOBER, 1922 No. 1

EDITORS

MAXWELL EVARTS FOSTER

RUSSELL WHEELER DAVENPORT WINFIELD SHIRAS
ROBERT CHAPMAN BATES FRANCIS OTTO MATTHIESSEN

BUSINESS MANAGERS

CHARLES EVANDER SCHLEY HORACE JEREMIAH VOORHIS

 Leader
Every generation is a foible. It is born of whim, and educated on
fantasy. In adulthood it is naturally a freak. This younger generation
in this year of our Lord 1922 is no exception. We were born of
respectability, educated on pedantry. In adulthood we are
revolutionaries. Could anything be more natural, more un-Victorian?
We were born secretly. God knows how such things happened in
that age. Perhaps the Stork brought us, nicely done up in—well—
baby-clothes. We were brought up on platitudes. Most of them were
dressed up as Christian. We hid our meanings in pretty words, and
our sense in a blush. The word sex was unheard of. We didn’t talk
much about anything dirty. We never swore. We said our prayers.
With goodness we were replete; it made our lives hideous. Ultimately
it was our virtue that drove us to sin. We were too good for this
world. Forced to live in it by the tyranny of our parents—we adjusted
ourselves, and became bad.
As soon as lies become platitudes they are doomed. The next
passer-by will see through their disguise and expose them. You can
fool yourself with your own lie; but if your neighbors catch the habit
from you, and begin fooling themselves with the same lie, in no time
that lie becomes a platitude. The Victorians fooled themselves into
thinking that anything you could forget didn’t exist any more. So were
we born into a Virgin world. Our beloved ancestry had forgotten
there was any sin; for us then there would not be any. We were their
realized dream.
But unfortunately these little cherubim, these little seraphim grew
up into adolescence, learnt things about sex by groping in dark
corners, learnt shocking social problems by looking up words in
Dictionaries; learnt in so doing to disbelieve every word the
Victorians uttered. They had put their faith in that sort of royalty once
too often. Genuinely they became skeptics. Because they had been
taught by liars they could not afford to believe anything—without
testing its verity. They are generous in their estimate of the society
into which they are born. Instead of saying, “We are born into a world
of liars,” they restrain themselves, consider the question rationally
and say, “No, only into a world of fools.” And out of these Fools’
Paradise the younger generation has toddled. To them it was a hell.
Their first independent action was to set up Truth as their God.
They had had enough of lies. Truth was their panacea. Ignorance
was the abiding sin of mortality. Their battle was for the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil, not for the beautiful garden of Eden—
where nakedness did not prevail upon innocence and blushing was
unknown.
Part of this knowledge surely was scientific. The health of the body
was all important: Biology, Hygiene, sex education. For these they
cried out. They talked eagerly of germ-plasm and genetics; defiantly
of birth-control, the double-standard.
An equality between man and woman had suddenly been decreed
politically; philanthropists were already talking about it morally; the
younger generation carrying the movement one step further is
experimenting with it intellectually. What they think, they say. Does it
matter who is there? Bah! Victorian prudery. There are no secrets
now between the sexes.
But part of this knowledge of good and evil was common sense—
when once the Puritan and Victorian nonsense had been destroyed.
It is only to a sex-maniac that the shortening of skirts can possibly do
any harm. What, cries the younger generation, is the difference
between showing one’s legs, and one’s arms; bobbing one’s hair is
the same, or smoking, or drinking, or swearing. If they aren’t good for
the physique—well and good, they are bad; but if they are only bad
because our Puritan or Victorian ancestry say so—or because
Moses fell down the mountain with some tombstones under his arm
—what the hell?—they aren’t bad at all.
So the gentlemen and ladies of the past lift their monocles and
their lorgnettes to watch these semi-nude girls, these godless men.
“Dear, dear,” they say. “Gracious me. That’s not a nice young man.”
 What really has happened, say the younger generation, is that
America for some time has been living up to ideals which they have
never expressed, and have expressed, in lieu of these, ideals which
they have never lived down to. Silly little superficial rules, and some
hideous inhibitions grew up out of these expressed ideals. Otherwise
they have been like corpses rotting before the very eyes of those
who created them. They were never alive at all, say the younger
generation. So it considers itself a generation of building, not of
destroying. With frankness a dominant characteristic it must express
the futility of the old expressed, as well as the strength of the old
unexpressed ideals. But it lays the emphasis on the old
unexpressed. For instance, it is not proud that it has torn down the
absurd anthropomorphic God of the literature of the Past, but it is
proud, that, having gotten rid of that miasma, it has proceeded to the
conclusion that God is but the vision of the potentiality of mankind
realized. That with Thomas Hardy it can go forward

“with dependence placed

On the human heart’s resource alone,
In brotherhood bonded close, and graced
With loving kindness fully blown,
And visioned help unsought, unknown.”

It is not proud of having torn the veil off the carefully draped Victorian
womanhood, but having done so it is proud of the constructive
results, that no longer having ignorance, it can see the beauty and
purity in the nakedness of the sex. It has torn down the ugly lies that
covered the world with a respectable and morne garland of fig-
leaves, but out of the ruins of this demolition it is creating a naked
sanity, of which it is reasonably proud.
Thirty years ago “Jude the Obscure” was called “Jude the
Obscene”. To-day Jude is considered a masterpiece, dealing in an
intensely honest way with God and the divine right of the marriage
service. Marriage has become a less eternal and a more kindly
institution. Divorcees are considered less heinous people than
before. For better or for worse is no longer a very powerful
condemnation. In the Victorian era the sexual became an obsession
because it was over-emphasized by being left unmentioned. In
reaction, for a moment, under the Freudian influence it became an
obsession from the exactly opposite reason. With the younger
generation it is taking its place like hunger and thirst in the category
of normal desires. The relations between girl and boy are more
open, more real than in the past. There is no longer the hideous
restraint before marriage, causing unhappy lives. It is an easier
matter to know whom one is to marry among the younger
generation. More and more they are being honest with one another.
More and more they are coming to consider themselves rational,
kind-hearted people.
I am not justified in defending or attacking the younger generation.
I am doing my duty only in attempting to express the ideals we live
by, the ideals they teach me. Too long has the ridiculous idea been
current that they have no ideals. I have set myself to define them.
Because they are different from the past, they are not non-existent.
We are not, as a generation, more dishonest, more dishonorable
than our predecessors. Yet we have no ideals? That is out of the
mouths of fools only.
No, the Victorians thought that not knowing, or pretending not to
know, about things unpleasant was the way to destroy them—by a
slow process of forgetting. The younger generation thinks that
knowing, and everyone knowing thoroughly about things unpleasant,
will eventually arouse the race to do something about them; to clean
energetically the Augean stables. You can see there is a
fundamental difference in each generation’s idea of Humanity. The
Victorians thought that knowledge of sin tainted the virtuous flower of
innocence by rousing thoughts and passions for evil, which could
only be killed by long disusage. Mankind fundamentally, said the
Victorians to themselves, has a bad streak. We must carefully avoid
mentioning things that would start that streak going. If man is not
naturally bad, he naturally has some bad in him. We must starve the
devil out of him. The younger generation denies this. Man is naturally
good; anyway, fundamentally so. Evil is an outgrowth of our own
civilization, and social scheme. Most, if not all, criminals are insane.
Society is to blame for insanity. We must study the causes of the
insanities; must publish them broadcast. People must know. If they
know, they will improve. We must educate ourselves up to knowing
what is good, what is bad. We must know the worst to do the best.
Consciously, the Victorians were living by the theories of church
dogma, believing in original sin; unconsciously, the younger
generation is living by the theories of the romantic spirit, believing in
natural good. They are idealists beyond the common run of mankind;
and they are ruthless in the following of their ideals.
MAXWELL E. FOSTER.
 Truth

The Truth that lingers in the heart’s secret places,

The Truth that gleams of a sudden on Grail-faces,
The Truth that has run so many torch-lit races,
Shone suddenly on me,
And henceforth was to be
Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, soul of my soul, unto that
last far dawn which is eternity.

Our souls were worn like a gaunt dungeon-keep

Washed by the sea; we sowed not, nor did reap;
Our Gods were on a journey or asleep;—
When like a surging fire
A spirit from earth’s ages did suspire,
And each soul’s tower put forth leaves and blossomed,
Like a young tree, and in our souls again there was desire.

The Spring lay luxuriantly the earth over,

White roses broke like foam, and the hot clover
Seemed heavy with spent passion like a lover
Languorous, till the night
And the swift breezes white
Came like a cooling bell and rain, and our eyes grew brighter
With the new gleam of that celestial light.

Suddenly there was Romance laughing again,

And poetry in the strange ancient ways of men,
We were as ones on peaks in Darien,
And Love with a new glory
Opened in song and story,
Like a flower in a wan waste by the sea,
And we with our wide eyes looked forward from our star-
touched promontory.

The hands that moulded dust out of the dust,

Scorching the sky with the iron that turns to rust,
Fashioning brazen Gods to feed their lust,
These with their feet of clay,
In the slow alchemy of a timeless day,
Caught like the hunter of the east new beauty
And were like figures of the dawn and spray.

Time has not memory enough for these.

De Gustibus through shadowy autumn trees,
Drinking life fully to its twisted lees,
Nor Time, nor drear regret
Holds enough memory ever to forget,
These that are metaphors of immortality,
Enduring beyond the finality of any long and last sunset.

The Truth that lingers in the heart’s secret places,

For this is there an hour glass that effaces,
Or waves to wash away to sunless spaces
Truth that is more than Time,
More than the mere infernal and sublime,
Truth that is strong as Death, and light as Life,
And passionate as the last great poet’s last rhyme?

MAXWELL E. FOSTER.
 Poem
“The sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the
madman.”

Goddess, the rocks are crumbling into sand;

The moonlight trembles hesitant, as though
Winter with all his winds and hoary snow
Were gathering. Goddess, thy hand,
Which has created shore and rock and ocean
Within my heart, seems cold;
I fear lest thou art growing old
With me—the shattered wreck of my devotion.

Goddess, there is no love in heaven or earth

Without thee, and the stars grow dim with age
When thine eyes are averted, and the rage
Of winter winds turns luxury to dearth.
What will it profit if we love no more
(For I know thou hast loved in thine own way)?
What will it profit, if for yesterday
We substitute to-morrow, with its store
Of sorrow?

What is a dream for goddess?—not to be

Immortal once is to be dead forever!
And shall our eyes go blind and our lips never
Meet? What is eternity,
If not that moment of a wild embrace,
When two souls recognize
Their first bewildered contact, and two eyes
Drink the white radiance of a lover’s face?
Oh, ere the evening lights go gathering like fire
Across the western portals—ere the sun
Proclaims that life and life’s short tasks are done—
Be thou the mistress of my pure desire,
Be thou the goddess of my heart!
A man cannot forget a woman’s eyes,
If he has kissed them (as I have thine own
In dreams). Love is an art
Which men do not forget, when they have known
The way a woman takes toward paradise.

What weary fools we are! Dust is the same,

Whether alive, or whether dead and rotten;
And love is love, remembered or forgotten;
And life is life, although it be a name.
Let sorrow come, with many tears; or shame
Alight upon my brow; or age deny
What fiery youth would fain assert or die;
Let even death wash all my dreams away
Like sand—still I am I,
To-morrow and to-day, and yesterday.

Therefore I am immortal; and thy face

Which I have called mine own, must live, must be
Immortal with the very heart of me.
On whatsoever shore, or in what place,
Whether among the gods, or on the earth,
Wherever man finds truth, or woman grace,
Or Sorrow tears, or Laughter tears of mirth;
Wherever love is, goddess, I shall be;
Wherever I am, thou—the heart of me!

Ah, we are weary fools—

We men who talk of love and sorrow,
And build philosophy upon old schools,
And yearn for paradise to-morrow.
We are insane! Creation dimly flows