Article August 20, 1938 Issue

Signs of the Times

Topic: Stability is of God

with contributions from Francis C. Ellis, A. P. Campbell, William E. Callahan, Jr., E. Shurley Johnson, Wand, George H. Hillerman, Harold Nicolson, A Correspondent

[A Correspondent, in the Times, London, England]

Broad-mindedness is a quality much and rightly valued in these days. Indeed intolerance has never been a weakness of our nation, nor in general of any civilized race for any length of time. Even when political or religious passions run high, and controversy rages, the protagonists are the few and their followers make up but a small part of the community. The great majority of men and women cry for a plague on both parties, some being ignorant and others indifferent to the issues which convulse the minds of their contemporaries. But between the bigoted and the careless there is always a fairly large number of quiet, level-headed persons who take no part in the conflict; who are thoughtfully tolerant and go on doing the ordinary good and kind things amid the upheaval around them. Their names may not appear in history, and they are often held in contempt by the champions of different causes; but their patient wisdom provides that ground of common sense on which agreement is at last reached....

The often-quoted but fine verse in which Matthew Arnold praised Sophocles, "who saw life steadily and saw it whole," well expresses the aim of those who would best serve their generation. Steadiness: that when a high viewpoint has been gained it may not be lightly abandoned; truth is great, and must never be put in peril. And there must also be fidelity to the whole vision. A magnanimous person shows the breadth of his mind by changing it when he sees fresh truth. To be adaptable is a very different thing from being weak; refusal to change one's mind may show merely stubbornness and lack of intelligence.

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