Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/278

 26o Later Philosophy As a child of Latin and Catholic civilization, Santayana is profoundly devoted to those classic forms which enshrine the wisdom and happiness of the past. He abhors German philoso- phy for what he calls its romantic wilfulness, that protestant or rebellious spirit which regards the mere removal of restraints as a good. ' ' The life of reason is a heritage and exists only through tradition."' Traditional forms may, indeed, cramp our life, and a vital mind like Shelley will revolt, but the end or good is not freedom but some more congenial form. Santayana holds in contempt the prevailing philosophy which glorifies striving and progress but in which there are no ^ndS' to be achieved and no ideal by which progress is to be measured. The burden of his philosophy is the analysis of common sense, social institutions, religion, art, and science to showjaow reflection can distinguish the ideal from the physical embodi- ment in which traditional wisdom is delivered from generation to generation. I In his social philosophy he is essentially an aristocrat, valu- ing highly those historic institutions, cultivated forms, and reasonable restraints which impose order on our natural im- Ipulses. But he recognizes the shallowness of purely personal culture and admits that our emancipated, atheistic, inter- national democracy is not only replacing the old order, but that "like every vital impulse [it] is pregnant with a morality of its own. " Religion to Santayana is essentially a mode or emancipating man from worldliness and from merely personal limitations. But the wisdom which its dogmas, ritual forms, and prayers embody is not truth about existence but about those ideals which give us internal strength and peace. To regard God as an existence rather than an ideal leads to superstition. Religious superstitions, he admits, often debauch morality and impede science, but the errors of religion should be viewed with indulgent sympathy. Thus Catholic dogma is viewed as in- volving a reasonable deference to authority but leaving the mind essentially free. In his theory of art Santayana follows his master Aristotle closely in spirit though not in words. Art looks atilife from above, and portraying our passions in their beauty makes them interesting and delightful, at the same time softening their vital compulsion. "Art is abstract and incon- ■ Winds of Doctrine, -p. 156.