Communications
COMMUNICATIONS SUBSTANCE AND ACCIDENTS Brooklyn, N. Y. TO the Editor:—On all sides there are indications of a revival in the philosophical studies. In the not very distant past, the term...
...Executive Committee in Charge of the Catholic Hour...
...The accidents, on the other hand, inhere in the substance...
...The Catholic magazines I saw were filled with pious exhortations and deadly dull sermonizing...
...3. The cast must be restricted to six, and preferably to four persons...
...Indeed, I believe poverty and despair, except in very strong characters, breed more evil than do all the riches of Araby, and the only difference between the heart of the rich man and that of the poor is that the former has the power to do much more good or evil, individually, than the latter...
...The results speak for the effectiveness of prayer...
...I began to wonder if the devil had captured all the brilliant writers...
...The above method does not impress...
...One day at Sunday Mass the pastor made a perfunctory announcement that permission had been granted a salesman to canvass the parish in the interest of the Catholic World...
...We are awfully sorry for him, and if near enough, would swat the mosquito, but if the mosquito tries to bite us, we begin to think we had better screen in our porch...
...It is like watching a mosquito bite our neighbor...
...May I say in passing that this latter seems to be postulated as the last plank to save from shipwreck, the whole edifice of scholastic cosmology...
...This was done, and when the valuable play rights came in their turn, Du Maurier was for a long time relieved of monetary anxieties...
...They forgot or ignored the basic principle that the source of all science, be it physical or mental, is experience...
...Bishop O'Hara has been assigned to the diocese of Great Falls—there is no Little Falls in Montana—and his work will not be that of a pioneer...
...An infinite series of naughts will never make a one either in the abstract or concrete...
...At first I thought that it was only another pious publication, very good in its way, but totally lacking in the mental stimulation I so sorely needed, but when the pastor damned it with faint praise by saying it would appeal primarily to teachers and college graduates, I thereupon made up my mind to investigate...
...Very little, I'm afraid...
...Frank H. Spearman...
...But the point I'm trying to make is that The Commonweal is still unknown to thousands and thousands who would be only too glad to subscribe...
...As well say unequivocally with the Pythagoreans that abstract number is the basis of the physical universe...
...Christian Science treatment is prayer as all Christians are enjoined by the blessed Master, Christ Jesus, to pray in His name...
...While the author of this article does not specifically mention Christian Science, it is apparent that the reference is to this religion...
...Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, 'Peace, be still.' " Orwell Bradley Towne...
...Permit me to say in closing that I do not mean to imply that it is the clergy's job to educate the people...
...Mass being an accident because perceptible by the senses, and being moreover the most gross and material of the accidents, presupposes a supporting subject which must be at least its contradictory, immaterial...
...On the other hand, in the large bank in which he presides many, many old and young lesser employees have recently been discharged, due to a consolidation with other banks, which has enabled this institution to cut down its overhead very appreciably, and these discharged men and women are now desperately looking for employment, facing, perhaps for the first time, the horrible reality that a willingness to work, ability and necessity, will not make a market for one's services...
...I might take my own case as an example, as I believe it typical of many youths who have not had a Catholic college training...
...Marie L. Seymour...
...TO the Editor:—Readers of Mr...
...The method followed in the textbooks is this...
...Consider the millions of Catholic young men and women who have not had the advantage of a Catholic college education...
...Its fulness of days has contributed little toward a solution...
...AS IT SHOULD BE Cut Bank, Mon...
...But I have only my memory to serve me and on this point I may be mistaken...
...The problem I propose for discussion is hoary with age...
...I am merely calling attention to a problem which The Commonweal is helping to solve...
...Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned...
...All Aristotelians and Scholastics, generally, teach that substance and accidents are the physical components of bodies...
...I know many people who claim to know all about Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats and even Blake, though I doubt they read much of these authors, but nevertheless have never even heard of Thompson...
...4. There must be allowance for constrasts in the voices and characterizations of the actors...
...In view then of this recent change of attitude, may not an unpretentious philosophical inquiry aptly find a place in a reputable popular magazine...
...THE PARIS OF DU MAURIER Hollywood, Cal...
...It has a Catholic cathedral, two Catholic schools and a hospital—Columbus Hospital—that is doubtless the best in the West, costing around three million dollars, also an Ursuline academy that is a beautiful structure and a splendid educational institution...
...The anti-Christian bias of these writers irritated me and disturbed my mind, but I could find no stimulating rebuttal in Catholic sources to satisfy my need...
...Dan Whetstone...
...they are menials and occupy the relationship of servants to a master...
...and so, many of our "leaders of thought" have bequeathed us, for a memory, tomes of what may fitly be described as so much learned lumber...
...When I did get a copy of his poems it was only because I accidentally saw the copy listed in The Modern Library books...
...The millionaires in all our cities, this summer, have had a regular epidemic of yacht building...
...He is the expert in experience...
...Give us than more "highbrows" if...
...Remember the advice of Fathan Dan in Canon Sheehan's My New Curate: "Better talk over their heads, young man, than under their feet...
...God knows they have enough problems of their own...
...They are necessary for the composite, and for concrete actuality...
...Now, between matter and spirit there is no mean, no tertium quid, if we, as we must, exclude the composite, man...
...In England, Du Maurier, who was quite unaware of the American situation, caught at the offer like a blessing from heaven...
...by "highbrows" we mean writers of the first class...
...In these circumstances, Harper and Brothers very generously offered to rescind the outright contract and to restore Du Maurier to a royalty basis...
...Substance is confessedly immaterial, according to Aristotelians...
...5. The dramatis personnae should include women...
...it permeates and energizes the entire body...
...Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, and assuredly an authority on this religion, says on page 144 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the textbook of this religion: "Human will-power is not Science...
...Later came the realization of the phenomenal success of the book over here, and with it, the poignant regret that he had sold for a song his valuable rights in it...
...It is fundamental and vital...
...The broadcast specifications of the scripts solicited by our committee are these: 1. The themes must be Catholic and therefore dignified...
...It is our belief that many of the readers of The Commonweal could successfully undertake the writing of the sort of dramas the need and the opportunity warrant...
...It is a substratum which, like the soul in man, is whole in every part of the object...
...In a word, they simply do not exist in the concrete...
...Hence the name substance...
...It is my belief that many in a position to interest people in worthwhile Catholic writing, have been deplorably lax in taking advantage of their opportunity...
...The chief offenders were the so-called philosophers...
...To all orthodox Aristotelians, to the older Scholastics, and to many even among the Neo-Scholastics, this theory is dogma...
...You comment editorially on the assignment of the Reverend Father O'Hara, now Bishop O'Hara, to the diocese of Little Falls, Montana, and then go on to say that it is far from anywhere and that the good Bishop has before him the tasks of a pioneer...
...I am not preaching Socialism because, as I understand it, the Socialist holds the fallacy that the poor man is intrinsically better than the rich man, which he is not...
...Hence also their name...
...I venture, therefore, to explain why Henry James did return the plot to Du Maurier...
...You observe an object...
...This attitude of contempt was not wholly undeserved...
...True, it is probably cheaper to build a yacht now than ever before, and all kinds of good arguments can be advanced to show how philanthropic these millionaires are to keep the shipbuilding companies running, but the point I wish to make is that the man who is building a yacht cannot possibly realize the urgency for finding a drastic remedy for present conditions, as can the poor man who does not know where his next meal will come from...
...Whatever it possesses of the material, of the phenomenal, of the sensible, is derived from its accidents...
...It is naked, nude immateriality...
...2. The time required for the presentation of any drama must not exceed twenty minutes...
...We are told that the wealth of the United States is now in the hands of a very small proportion of its millions of inhabitants...
...Cuthbert Wright's entertaining article on The Paris of Du Maurier, in The Commonweal for August 6, will recall the incident of the story of Trilby...
...Theoretically, he may not have as large an income as in 1928, but still he has not closed his summer home, has not had to sell anything which he really valued, nor has he denied himself, so far as I know, of anything for which he wishes...
...Far more damaging are the implications of the theory...
...These elements are exhaustive and comprise the totality of being of material objects...
...If the esteemed Bishop had been sent to my little town, languishing in the shadows of Glacier Park's crenelated peaks, your comment would be just right, but it hardly applies to Great Falls...
...yet in the scale of being, they are far inferior to their partner in life...
...What is being done to acquaint them with Catholic literature...
...In conversation with Catholic editors and clergy I have heard the Hilarious Hilaire dubbed as "too scholastic" and the rollicking G. K. C. damned as "catering to the intellectuals," that being the unkindest cut of all...
...And under their feet, believe me, metaphorically, they trample the priest who does not uphold the dignity of his sacred office of preacher...
...Perhaps, then, we can console ourselves, with the thought that when conditions reach the pass, when the 5 percent begin to feel the real sting of the mosquito, they will bring to the solution of the problem all the ability with which they are credited for having acquired 50 percent of the nation's wealth, and in endeavoring to insure a firmer grasp on it, will incidentally help the other 50 percent, who range from the men and women with small competences, to those who have only their daily work between them and their lifelong foe, charity...
...Wright doubtless is...
...Later, Henry James returned the plot to Du Maurier, and Du Maurier wrote the story himself...
...I submit there is not another scintilla of evidence forthcoming if we omit that process of accidental changes which when cleverly handled is mere word-painting...
...As to Francis Thompson, the silence that meets the mention of his name is pitiful...
...My recollection of Henry James's account of the incident is that some days, or even weeks, elapsed between the time that Du Maurier gave him the plot and the time that he returned it...
...In the not very distant past, the term metaphysical was popularly associated with a form of mental activity bordering on the pathological...
...Now if I were a resident of that city all this might sound like the boasting of Mr...
...That could well be said of the retiring Bishop, Mathias Linihan, who has labored in the Great Falls diocese for more than a quarter of a century...
...I recently talked to a prominent banker, who said that these hard times were a very salutary lesson to us all, yet so far as I know he has not derived any salutary effects, if sacrificing any luxuries is what he meant...
...How, may I ask, can two elements which do not exist in the concrete coalesce to cause something to exist...
...The connatural, necessary exigency of substance for its accidents does not alter the physical character of these constituents...
...TO the Editor:—Feeling sure that some other fortunate reader of your review living in this isolated hinterland is going to hasten to his typewriter—if I don't—and tell you that you are a provincial easterner—if I don't—I am hurrying to do this—and more...
...My only desire is that the record be kept straight...
...It will not do to invoke a different order of reality, to posit a metaphysicum quid...
...At about the college age I became fascinated with the idealism and fluent style of H. G. Wells and the wit of George Bernard Shaw...
...In the interest of fairness, I would appreciate space in your publication to correct the inference of the statement so there may be no misunderstanding...
...It will therefore be an accommodation to us and still more, we hope, an aid to a good cause if the editors of The Commonweal give publication to this wish of ours...
...It was in one of the Haldeman-Julius little blue books...
...It is the problem of substance and accidents...
...They are quite secondary and accessory...
...Mysteries must not be multiplied without necessity...
...Further we are asked to believe the incredible, and that on human faith, that mass is not of the essence of material things...
...Substance and accidents are mere entia rationis, figments of the mind without even a fundamentum in re...
...It is precisely this appeal to what they consider objective reality, that constitutes for their system the claim to be preeminently the philosophy of realism and common sense...
...Louis and Seattle...
...By this time, the English public also had awakened to the story, and it was doing well over there...
...It was through references in the Catholic World that I made the acquaintance of those writers who satisfied my need...
...The Commonweal requests its subscribers to communicate any changes of address two weeks in advance, to ensure the receipt of all issues...
...He adds to his account the comment that, "It is not on record with what courtly sighs . . . James declined the responsibility...
...Neo-Scholasticus...
...W. D. Hennessy...
...This is my plea for the following minor contribution to the modern Critique of Pure Reason...
...And in answer to my question as to why he had not undertaken Trilby himself, he said with perfect frankness, "It was because I have no musical sense...
...By the sheer force of logic, then, we are driven to the position, which is inescapable, of proclaiming openly and without equivocation, that material objects are really and substantially spiritual...
...This looks like a concrete example of that strange teaching that essence and existence are really distinct...
...Instead of saying to the people, 'Come up to the level of your priests, and be educated and refined,' they say: 'Go down to the people's level.' As if any priest ever went down in language or habit to the people's level who didn't go considerably below it...
...It was the first time I had heard of that excellent periodical...
...I found the Chesterton-Belloc antidote I craved...
...You proceed with the other attributes in like manner, till you arrive at mass or quantity...
...6. Only original plays will be considered...
...HOW LONG...
...It is not matter in any sense, not even by figure of speech...
...The fear of appearing as highbrow has been a deadly deterrent...
...It is invisible, intangible, imponderable not because man has no instruments to measure it, but is all this and more, of its own intrinsic nature...
...I am not familiar with the literature on the subject, and Mr...
...That is it—as long as dividends continue to come in from gilt-edged securities, the 5 percent will not feel it incumbent for any great, united effort to remedy conditions, such as we saw when this country entered the world war, in 1917...
...And lacking that, there would have been no Trilby...
...Pacing the sands of an ocean beach one autumn afternoon with Henry James, I discussed with him the subject of Trilby...
...PROHIBITED CERTAINTIES New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—In your publication, issued on August 13, there appears an article entitled Prohibited Certainties, containing the statement that "a brand of religion which simply wills that no malady exists has come to be remarkably popular...
...It is still as knotty as it was in the days of its author, Aristotle...
...How, you will ask, was such a theory encogitated...
...Becoming interested in Francis Thompson's writing, I went to the public library, but they had never heard of him...
...It was formerly quite popular to attribute the results of the practical application of the teachings of Christian Science to will-power, to mental suggestion and to other forms of mesmerism...
...CATHOLIC LITERATURE Brooklyn, N. Y. TO the Editor:—I wonder if it has ever occurred to those who bitterly condemn the Catholic laity for their lack of interest in Catholic literature, that millions of young men and women would enjoy our best writers if they were only made aware of their existence...
...Yet as a matter of fact none of these has any place in the practice of this religion...
...How far this claim may be verified, I propose to show in the sequel...
...Detroit, Mich...
...It has since amazed me when I think of how I first found his essay on Shelley...
...You see, say, color and straightway conclude color resides in something as in a subject of inherence...
...they have no separate, independent existence...
...Du Maurier in the first instance offered the plot to Henry James, and Henry James accepted it...
...Still, they are not determined in any species...
...The expert in the philosophy of matter is the physicist who is at the same time conversant with the philosophical disciplines...
...The committee is prepared to award honoraria to the authors of such scripts as are accepted...
...I speak from only my own experience, both in New York and the West but I believe it typical...
...It has beautiful parks, modern homes and two of the best hotels between St...
...Of these two, substance is purely immaterial...
...Come down to the level of the people!' May God forgive the fools who utter this banality...
...What kind of entity is that which has physical reality though not concrete actuality...
...Great Falls is a city of around 30,000 quite civilized inhabitants and some very cultured Catholics...
...I am not particularly blaming the banker...
...Competent persons will determine the merits of the scripts submitted...
...Babbitt...
...indeed, some statisticians claim that 5 percent of the people own 50 percent of our wealth, and it is quite safe to say that none of this 5 percent has deprived himself of even one cigar a day, to say nothing of extravagance and luxuries...
...TO the Editor:—Everyone is deploring our present business depression, unemployment, etc., but has anyone suggested a real remedy, or rather is it not the truth that the reason why no real remedy has been found is because the people who could supply it are not really suffering any inconvenience...
...The story at first made no hit in England...
...Let not those in a position to excite interest in such writers be so timid...
...Requests for additional information are solicited...
...WANTED: A PLAY Washington, D. C. TO the Editor:—Those in charge of the "Catholic Hour," sponsored by the National Council of Catholic Men, contemplate the presentation of religious and Catholic historic dramas in these weekly broadcasts, provided worthy scripts can be obtained...
...It was not until the serial publication in Harper's Magazine in this country that it gained the momentum that carried it to an extraordinary success...
...He is probably giving more to charity than ever before, and he would say that he cannot hold out against the board, when wholesale dismissals are being decided upon, but if the board were considering that they could dispense with his services, he would not say it was a good thing—even though such an event would find him still a very rich man...
...Harper and Brothers were soon sufficiently encouraged by its prospects to offer Du Maurier $5,000 outright for the American rights...
Vol. 12 • September 1930 • No. 20
