The Concord School of Philosophy [pp. 49-71]

THE CONCORD SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY.
to be as solid and nourishing in the mastication and digestion as
in the feeding upon it. Some, I know, felt that the philosophy
taught was too impersonal, and not sufficiently practical to meet
the wants of men, women, and children in a world of struggle and
temptation, of suffering and of sin.
The meeting at Concord last summer is worthy of being
carefully noted by thinking minds. It is true that the country
as a whole paid little attention to-it. The public press, so far as
they observed it, did so with a leer, as if not quite sure whether
they should admire it or amuse themselves with it. But then
it is true that the world has never noticed at the time the occurrences which have afterwards produced such mighty results;
the seed lying in the ground is not observed till it springs up
simultaneously in the whole field. It may be doubted whether,
when the history of I88I comes to be written by some future
Bancroft, the meeting at Concord willkhave even a passing notice. The historian will dilate on the assassination of Garfield
and the madness feigned and real of Guiteau, on the sulks of
Conkling, and will settle it for us whether Grant is even now
counselling with the President. But he will have little to tell
us of the progress made by the grand question of civil reformthe only measure fitted to save us from the tricks of miserable
politicians-and still less of the signs of the deeper thoughts of
the country as not just accomplished but indicated at the Concord meeting. That meeting, particularly the success so far of
the meeting, has its significance. It was a protest against a
clamant evil, the wide-spread tendency towards materialism. It
expressed a want to be met and relieved, and a strong desire on
the part of a body of sincere people to elevate the faiths of the
country. Questions were put that must be answered, and these
ultimately more momentous than those discussed in the newspapers and in Congress.
I am of opinion that the influence of the meeting has, upon
the whole, been for good. The papers read were of a high
order both in thought and expression. The inclination of
everything was upwards-sometimes, indeed, only the flight of
a kite which will have to come down again when the wind which
bore it up has subsided. There was a confessed or implied
belief in, and constant appeal to, the highest ideas which the
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