Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/150

146 it for the whole world; which, without it, would be robbed of all esteem.

It must be confessed that a purely materialistic philosophy—if such a thing were possible—would know nothing of values. It would regard our judgments as it regards all other phenomena, and would point to their endless diversity as proof that they have no special sanction. What it would offer in defense of its own judgment upon this matter, is perhaps not evident.

For ourselves, the diversity of opinion which we find among men is in part the necessary and desirable result of the different angles from which things are viewed, and otherwise the product of that imperfection which is the price we pay for progress. Most of us, perhaps, do not trouble ourselves overmuch about the ultimate sanction, and yet I think that deep down in our hearts we all have some of the feeling embodied in the saying that "One man, with God, is a majority." Without such a philosophy, I am afraid we could not take ourselves quite seriously.