k: kalon]
and the hope great. And with Aristotle and his followers the good of
contemplation no less truly than the good of action had elements of
value derived from the vital process. Such a mystic as Spinoza, who
finds good in the understanding values this because in it man is
"active," and would unite himself with the All because in God is Power
and Freedom. The Hebrew prophet found a word capable of evoking great
ethical values when he urged his countrymen to "choose life," and
Christian teaching found in the conception of "eternal life" an ideal of
profound appeal. It is not surprising that with his biological interests
Spencer should have set up life of greatest length and breadth as a
goal.

The struggle of the present war emphasizes tremendously two aspects of
this factor of life. National life is an ideal which gets its emotional
backing largely from the imagery of our physical life. For any one of
the small nations involved to give up its national life--whatever the
possibilities of better organized industry or more comfortable material
conditions--seems to it a desperate alternative. Self-defense is
regarded by the various powers at war as a complete justification not
merely for armed resistance or attack but for ruthless acts. And if we
are tempted to say that the war involves a prodigal waste of individual
life on a scale never known before, we are at the same time compelled to
recognize that never before has the bare destruction of life aroused
such horror.

For never before has peace set its forces so determinedly to protect
life. The span of human life has been lengthened: the wastefulness of
accident and disease has been magnified. The dumb acquiescence with
which former generations accepted the death of infants and children and
those in the prime of life has given way to active and increasingly
successful efforts to preserve. The enormous increase in scientific
study of biology, including eugenics, reflects not only an advance of
science but a trend in morality. It is scarcely conceivable that it
should grow less in absolute importance, whatever crises may temporarily
cause its depreciation relatively to other values.

One exception to the growing appreciation calls for notice--the interest
in immortality appears to be less rather than greater. The strong belief
in life beyond the grave which since the days of ancient Egypt has
prevailed in the main stream of Western culture seems not only to be
af