lection that there is no absolute moral
standard. The moral law appears to vary with environment and
according to conditions of time and place. I am reminded of
Pope's lines:

"Where the extreme of vice was ne'er agreed.
Ask where's the North? At York 'tis on the Tweed;
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where."

The greater a man is in one direction, the more prone he usually
is to weakness in another: that is why we must never condemn
indiscriminately.

The laws governing the Universe, so far from being mechanical
and dead, are elements filled with Truth and Beauty.

Materialism is fatal to the higher instincts, because it
introduces that most sordid element--earthly pomp, circumstance
and recompense.

The Universe, History, Life are before us. Why should they not be
investigated? It is not true that science leads to Atheism or
Fatalism. What science does is to destroy that fabric of
_Aberglaube_ or superstition which chokes and asphyxiates the
best parts of religion. What science does is to set up a new,
purer creed based on certainty and truth.

Of French writers Paul liked most Taine, Sainte-Beuve, and Victor
Hugo. His love of reading he took with him into the War. A box of
books returned to us with his other effects from France included "The
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius," Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason,"
Macaulay's "Essays," Saint-Simon's "Memoirs," Sainte-Beuve's
"Causeries," "The Imitation of Christ," Lecky's "History of European
Morals," and works by Goethe, Victor Hugo, Dumas the elder, Flaubert,
Maurice Barres, and Mrs. Humphry Ward.

CHAPTER X

HISTORY AND POLITICS

_History is philosophy teaching by examples._

BOLINGBROKE.

_The science of Politics is the one science that is deposited by the
stream of history, like grains of gold in the sand of a river._

ACTON.

Reared in the home of a political journalist, it was natural that Paul
Jones should be attracted to public affairs. He followed with lively
curiosity the progress of the two general elections of 1910, and from
that year was an interested observer of political events. As he grew
older his bent towards politics became more pronounced. A youth
familiar with