PRESIDENT OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1904,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1904. ReprintedJanuary, 1905; January, 1906; January, 1908; June, 1910.
Copyright, 1911,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1911. ReprintedMay, 1912; May, 1913; May, 1914; July, 1915; January, November,1917; August, 1919; February, October, 1920; June, November,1921; September, 1922; June, 1923; September, 1924.
When asked why some men with moderatetalents and meagre technical equipment succeed,where others with greater ability and better preparationfail; why some women with plain featuresand few accomplishments charm, while others withall the advantages of beauty and cultivation repel,we are wont to conceal our ignorance behind thevague term personality. Undoubtedly the deepersprings of personality are below the threshold ofconsciousness, in hereditary traits and early training.Still some of the higher elements of personalityrise above this threshold, are reducible tophilosophical principles, and amenable to rationalcontrol.
The five centuries from the birth of Socratesto the death of Jesus produced five such principles:the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure, genial butungenerous; the Stoic law of self-control, strenuousbut forbidding; the Platonic plan of subordination,sublime but ascetic; the Aristotelian senseof proportion, practical but uninspiring; and the[Pg vi]Christian Spirit of Love, broadest and deepest ofthem all.
The purpose of this book is to let the mastersof these sane and wholesome principles of personalitytalk to us in their own words; with justenough of comment and interpretation to bringus to their points of view, and make us welcometheir friendly assistance in the philosophical guidanceof life.
Why a new edition under a new title? Because"From Epicurus to Christ" had an antiquarianflavor; while the book presents those answers tothe problem of life, which, though offered first bythe ancients, are still so broad, deep, and true thatall our modern answers are mere varieties of thesefive great types. Because the former title suggestedthat the historical aspect was a finality;whereas it is here used merely as the most effectiveapproach to present-day solutions of the fundamentalproblems of life.
"Why rewrite the last chapter?" Because,while the faith of the world has found in Jesusmuch more than a philosophy of life, in its questfor greater things it has almost overlooked that.Yet Jesus' Spirit of Love is the final philosophyof life.
To the question in its Jewish form, "What is[Pg vii]the great commandment?" Jesus answers, "Thefirst is Love to God; and the second, just like it,Love to man." Translated into modern, ethicalterms his philosophy of life is a grateful and helpfulappreciation; first of the whole system ofrelations, physical, ment