gh we so often hear of "ideals" instead of different
manifestations, artistically, scientifically, theologically,
politically, of the One Ideal. They sought to satisfy, in its artistic
aspect, cosmic craving for unity or completeness, sometimes called
harmony, called beauty in some aspects. By disregard they sought
completeness. But the light-effects that they disregarded, and their
narrow confinement to standardized subjects brought on the revolt of the
Impressionists. So the Puritans tried to systematize, and they
disregarded physical needs, or vices, or relaxations: they were invaded
and overthrown when their narrowness became obvious and intolerable. All
things strive for positiveness, for themselves, or for quasi-systems of
which they are parts. Formality and the mathematic, the regular and the
uniform are aspects of the positive state--but the Positive is the
Universal--so all attempted positiveness that seems to satisfy in the
aspects of formality and regularity, sooner or later disqualifies in the
aspect of wideness or universalness. So there is revolt against the
science of today, because the formulated utterances that were regarded
as final truths in a past generation, are now seen to be
insufficiencies. Every pronouncement that has opposed our own
acceptances has been found to be a composition like any academic
painting: something that is arbitrarily cut off from relations with
environment, or framed off from interfering and disturbing data, or
outlined with disregards. Our own attempt has been to take in the
included, but also to take in the excluded into wider expressions. We
accept, however, that for every one of our expressions there are
irreconcilables somewhere--that final utterance would include all
things. However, of such is the gossip of angels. The final is
unutterable in quasi-existence, where to think is to include but also to
exclude, or be not final. If we admit that for every opinion we have
expressed, there must somewhere be an irreconcilable, we are
Intermediatists and not positivists; not even higher positivists. Of
course it may be that some day we shall systematize and dogmatize and
refuse to think of anything that we may be accused of disregarding, and
believe instead of merely accepting: then, if we could have a wider
system, which would acknowledge no irreconcilables we'd be higher
positivists. So long as we only accept, we are not higher positivists,
but our feeling is that the New Dom