Professor W. A. Brown, in the Journal for August 15, approves my pragmatism for allowing that a belief in the absolute may give holidays to the spirit, but takes me to task for the narrowness of this concession², and shows by striking examples how great a power the same belief may have in letting loose the strenuous³ life.

I have no criticism whatever to make upon his excellent article, but let me explain why ‘moral holidays’ were the only gift of the absolute which I picked out for emphasis. I was primarily concerned in my lectures with contrasting the belief that the world is still in process of making with the belief that there is an ‘eternal’ edition of it ready-made and complete. The former, or ‘pluralistic’ belief, was the one that my pragmatism favored. Both beliefs confirm our strenuous moods. Pluralism actually demands them, since it makes the world’s salvation⁴ depend upon the energizing⁵ of its several parts, among which we are. Monism permits them, for however furious they may be, we can always justify⁶ ourselves in advance for indulging them by the thought that they WILL HAVE BEEN expressions of the absolute’s perfect life. By escaping from your finite perceptions to the conception of the eternal whole, you can hallow any tendency whatever. Tho the absolute DICTATES⁷ nothing, it will SANCTION anything and everything after the fact, for whatever is once there will have to be regarded as an integral member of the universe’s perfection. Quietism and frenzy⁸ thus alike receive the absolute’s permit to exist. Those of us who are naturally inert⁹ may abide¹⁰ in our resigned passivity; those whose energy is excessive may grow more reckless still. History shows how easily both quietists and

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