Speirs, Russell F.

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THE VITAL ELEMENT IN BELIEFBY RUSSELL F. SPEIRStIHAVE lately been reading De L'namuno, Bertrand Russell,Santayana, and Whitman. I have been interested in the man-ner in which each has expressed himself upon that great problemwhich brooks no solution—the problem of immortality. Having lis-tened to what each has said, I find that I am neither for nor againstthe belief in immortality. As mere beliefs, immortality and mortal-ity may avail nothing and indeed be unimportant to man. We do notlive by what are commonly called beliefs but by hungers and pas-sions, for of these is begotten insight. And we live by insight,which is vital belief. Piefore a belief can become vital it must beintegral with the spirit of man, one with his entire being; and bythat time it has attained an intensity and purity which have madeof it something more than a mere belief. Instead of it, whatever itmay be, being a part of man, man sees to become a part of It. (Thave capitalized this last It advisedly.)How many people, people who think men good or bad accord-ing to what beliefs they maintain, in seeking to know a person, askthe question: "Do you believe in God?" or "Do you believe in im-mortality?" and are satisfied with a simple Yes or No, whichevercorresponds with their own prejudice. "Good," they say. "I knowyou. You are right;you will be admitted into the fold." But intruth they only reveal the fact that they do not even know them-selves. Beliefs per se are of no great value. Believing personswhose whole spirits have been kindled by what they believe, are ofvalue. They belong to Earth's best. They have some vital con-nection with eixstence. They are God's handful and justify Hisexperiment with this mystery that we call Life.When is a belief important? When does it become more thana mere belief? When it has the kindling power of wine, or fire.THE VITAL ELEMENT IN BELIEF 757But it must do more than kindle. We have all known "possessed"persons, the lesser breed of fanatics, who have plenty of fire in thembut who are enveloped in their own smoke, a smoke that also en-velopes others and causes confusion and discord. A belief is im-portant when it astonishes the believer with the light it sheds uponthe whole of eixstence. In a vital belief the importance of illu-mination transcends that of comfort. The belief of a person inimmortality because he is horrified at the thought of his own anni-hilation is only significant in that it reveals something of selfishnessand cowardice. But one such belief does not convince us that allbelief in immortality is selfish, cowardly, worthless. It does let ussee that beliefs are not necessarily coeval with values.It must be admitted that a great deal of what has been said andwritten about immortalit\- is offensive stufi^. In those who scoff atthe idea there is often a meanness of spirit, a petty arrogance, ora sniveling grief. In many who prate about the idea in churchesthere is a certain lack of manliness and courage. They use a ter-minology that is old and lifeless. It is at once apparent that theyhave no living experience to impart ; all they have is an absurd,aenemic vocabulary. They speak to us of eternal life, but thedeath-rattle is in their words. One listens and hears the hollowtones of Death speaking of immortality. Horrible mockery ! Ofwhat value is a belief if it quicken not the spirit of the believer butis at most a pleasant opiate?How much finer is the attitude of De Unamuno, who, feelingthat reason cannot invalidate the claims of the spirit nor the claimsof the spirit entirely invalidate reason, welcomes the divine uncer-tainty that produces "the eternal disquietudes of the spirit," thelife-giving conflict of spiritual hunger with human reason. Onecannot solve the problem of immortality and turn to worldly things ;one can but engage in a spiritual warfare destined never to endbut destined to strengthen the strongholds of the soul. Who wouldhave the question of immortality answered once and for all andrecorded as the solution of an equasion that has been solved, whenit is the very uncertainty of the problem that gives life and virilityto Whitman's beautiful faith, expressed in the lyric cry of his hun-gering heart? Who would crave the certainty that would kill suchhunger, leaving unborn the most ecstatic utterances of one of theworld's brave, beholding spirits?And who, on the other hand, would disallow the value to the758 THE OPEN COURThuman spirit of those who passionately disbelieve? Who wouldbe so poor in spirit and such a cowardly half-believer as to denythe spiritual lift, the soul-strengthening courage in the beautifulfaith of Santayana, a faith that is built upon disillusion? Or whothat has read Bertrand Russell's A Free Man's Worship, in whichthe hope of immortality and of other long cherished human de-sires is denied, can find nothing of heroic proportion in the strongfaith that yet persists amid so much honest denial?Shall we praise Whitman for his belief in immortality and cen-sure these others for their unbelief or doubt? Or shall we censurethe first mentioned and praise the others? We shall do neither.To do one or the other would be an admission that, for the life ofthe mind and spirit we have substituted beliefs that are withoutvitality because they are still in that low stage of development thatmakes of them mere formulas. To do either would be to attachvalues to beliefs that beliefs per se do not possess. Life is not sosimple as that. We cannot live by creeds and equasions. Wecannot live by the beliefs of others or make them wholly our own.Our belief must, if it be our -c'ery own, have in it an element thatis unique. In order that we may live significantly, our faith in be-liefs that are formulas merely must fall away before the life-givingheroic spirit of man, in whatever form it may be expressed. Aboveall, in the development of a clear, resilient life of the spirit, we mustnever become "light half-believers in a casual creed." That waystagnation lies. Ever vigilant, we must remain forever receptiveof the waters of Life, the fount of which is the exclusive possessionof no single individual or school. These waters flow in many direc-tions and from many sources ; and from such diverse streams asWhitman, Santayana, Russell, and De Unamuno we may extractthe nourishment that the soul needs.

The Vital Element in Belief.

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The Vital Element in Belief.

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