Equality and Authority
Delany, Selden P.
September II, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 471 EQUALITY AND AUTH ORITY By SELDEN P. DELANY HE Catholic religion is a religion of author- ity. That means not simply that the individual...
...This enables us to see why differences in natural gifts do not make for inequality...
...Hilaire Belloc and Mr...
...It seems to go counter to the principal expressed in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal...
...Again look to ourselves: we are now cast as successor of that Prince Posterity to whom The Tale of a Tub was dedicated, and who would say that we understood and appreciated half so well the skilful varied simplicity of Swift's prose as did his contemporaries...
...From the standpoint of Christian philosophy, the problem cannot be solved so simply...
...Because England has failed in responsiveness, America has never been tested by Miss Pitter's poetry.* It is my purpose, formed not quickly like that of a reviewer who each month finds a book a little better written than the average and forthwith makes his pen stutter with excited praise, but deliberately after a year of reading and rereading First and Second Poems, to say to American lovers of poetry: "Here is one who is not a ragged pilgrim going toward Parnassus, but one who actually dwells on that magic mountain and has climbed from its lower slopes to the upper air where true excellence alone can live...
...It was a divine inspiration that led the successors of Saint Peter from the earliest times, in all their official utterances, to sign themselves, "Servant of the servants of God...
...He said : It is evident that nature has made all men equal...
...Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth...
...This is a resurrection," said Belloc, "of what people have forgotten...
...To whom little has been given, of him little shall be required...
...Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together...
...According to the same standards, all men will be judged by God for the way in which they have used their gifts...
...If Time finds that we have left no record of them and have carelessly buried them in mountainous piles of discarded books, the Prince will never even hear of their titles...
...This is true wherever authority is exercised, whether it be by the policeman or the Pope...
...We welcome Dr...
...The authority of parents over their children imposes an obligation on the parents to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord~ The authority of the employer over those who are working for him means nothing more than that he should serve them in every possible way, so as to enable them to live as human beings and attain to the true end for which God has created them...
...So let us say, if the taste of the next age is superior to ours, it will find the poetry of Ruth Pitter one of the highest accomplishments in English literature of our era...
...So it is with all positions of authority in every human relationship...
...To whom much has been given by inheritance, education or environmental opportunity, of him much shall be required by God...
...But is the taste of posterity ideal...
...Many poets show a remarkable variety on the same level of feeling, but here is a poet who reveals variety in the degrees of her elevation...
...An awareness of this troubles one's confidence in the judgment of posterity...
...There is an even more ancient teaching, as all Catholics know, that the two principles are parts of one organic and vital truth...
...Taste changes, but it may also in successive changes sink lower and lower for centuries...
...Is this a Christian principle, or did it originate in the fertile brain of some imaginative revolutionary...
...We have only to look about us to see that there are vast differences in natural gifts, temperament and mental capacity...
...she not only made a very clever retort, but she gave voice to a conviction widely held by educated people...
...and that they will find their happiness, not in issuing commands to other men, but in being helpful to them...
...But if it declines, even from our standards, extinction will probably be the fate of her noble music...
...The man who exercises authority with a proud spirit may be obeyed for a time by unwilling subjects, but his commands will accomplish nothing permanent that can be built up into the kingdom of God...
...Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather...
...The same tests will be applied to the man with five talents as to the man with one talent...
...In our day, the common opinion among intelligent folk is that all men are not equal...
...Pope Plus X in his Motu Proprio, an encyclical letter on popular Christian action, stated the matter admirably when he said: The equality of the different members of society consists only in this, that all men derive their origin from God the Creator, that they have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and that they must be judged, rewarded or punished by God, according to the exact measure of their merits or demerits...
...That means not simply that the individual must be subject to the authority of the Church as expressed in her creeds and the pronouncements of her councils, but also obedient to fellow human beings vested with her authority and comEver since the egalitarian principle became a working part of our political philosophy, thinkers have been busy with its relation to the doctrine of authority...
...RUTH PITTER B. MUNSON E COMMONLY attribute to posterity an ideal taste...
...It was a flash of true insight that led the Police Commissioner of New York to suggest as the slogan for all the members of the New York police force these simple words, "At your service...
...Their responsibility to God for the way in which they live here on earth is measured always by the same criteria...
...A minute selection will display the steepness of the ascent...
...When the heckling charwoman interrupted the campaign speech of Lady Astor by the challenge, "My children are as good as yours," and Lady Astor promptly asked, "Which one of mine...
...The only justification for authority is to be found in the divine law of charity, which supplies men with a standard to enable them to determine rightly their duties toward God, their neighbors and themselves...
...September II, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 471 EQUALITY AND AUTH ORITY By SELDEN P. DELANY HE Catholic religion is a religion of authority...
...True Christian authority has always been softened CONCERNING By GORHAM and sweetened by humility...
...and in this disparity, which has vice for its origin, the Divine Will has ordained that since man in general is incapable of directing himself in the way of righteousness, it is necessary that the bad be directed by the good...
...But it is necessary to look to our own taste, less Time, whom Swift figured as the tutor of Prince Posterity, sweep hastily into oblivion such masterpieces as our age may bring forth and fail to recognize...
...Every man who has fallen into a degrading sin knows that he is inferior, whether he be millionaire or pauper, university president or janitor, scientist or ash-man...
...But I shall ask the reader to open first his Oxford Book of English Verse and spend a few minutes in the reading of Sir Philip Sidney's The Bargain : My true love hath my heart, and I have his, By just exchange one for another given, and the following lines, perfect of their kind...
...These differences are often congenital...
...It is necessary that those who are especially qualified should be placed in positions of authority, in order that they may render this needed assistance to their fellows...
...Everything in life should be subordinated to this one aim...
...A. R. Orage, but neither they nor her books have made any appreciable impression on English readers of poetry...
...The only way in which a man can become really inferior to his neighbor is through wilful and conscious sin...
...One school has found the two to be irreconilably opposed, and has continued to predict that equality would be the final solvent of authority...
...Those who exercise authority in meekness and humility are everywhere met with a glad obedience and an enthusiastic response...
...Her advocates are two of the strictest judges of contemporary verse, Mr...
...I was too charitable to my generation...
...This subjection of one individual to another is not always palatable to Americans...
...The authority of a husband over his wife means simply that he is to encourage her and help her to adhere to the way of salvation...
...missioned to speak in the name of God...
...but according to the variable order of merit, sin has brought it about that some are inferior to others...
...From this point of view we can best understand the meaning of authority...
...Detany's fine statement of this relationship, more particuIarly as it embodzes the testimony of one of the most significant Anglican thinkers o/ our day.--The Editors...
...I have mentioned a climb, and indeed it is the increasing elevation of Miss Pitter's poetry that is most astonishing...
...Let us first consider the principle of equality...
...Our Lord laid down this fundamental principle when He called attention to the difference between the authority that was exercised by the kings of the Gentiles and that which should be exercised among His followers...
...If all men have been created equal, why should one submit to the authority of another...
...It is our duty to see that rumor of her is spread so that her gifts may have a fair trial by Time...
...Her securities against the annihilating breath of the future are two small books: First Poems (Swift, 192o ) and First and Second Poems (Sheed and Ward, 1927...
...Charity is willed by God for the realization of our true end...
...Saint Gregory the Great, in his Morals, laid stress on the equality of all men, but held that some become inferior to others through sin...
...In his Pastoral Rule, Saint Gregory included the following teaching on authority: Those who hold positions of authority should remember that it is not the power of directing others, but the equality in human condition, which is inherent in their nature...
...This bears the authentic mark and it will tell...
...and later went on to say, "If a husband and wife cannot make their children equal, how can a Labor government do it...
...There is a real sense in which all men are equal, and this truth has been emphasized by all the greatest Christian teachers...
...We must all work for the attainment of the true end of our being, which is perfect charity for God and for man, and help others to do the same...
...They all share the same human nature, with its annoying weaknesses and magnificent possibilities...
...The Dial has recently published two poems by Miss Pitter...
...Those who are in positions of authority in the Church are exhorted by Saint Peter not to act as lords over God's herita~e, hne 472 T H E C O M M O N W E A L September I I, 1929 to be ensamples to the flock...
...Applied to modern conditions, this means that all men are by nature, and in the sight of God, equal...
...Then turn to The Fairies, by William Allingham: Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go ahuntlng For fear of little men...
Vol. 10 • September 1929 • No. 19
