George Santayana

ON A PIECE OF TAPESTRY


Hold high the woof, dear friends, that we may see
The cunning mixture of its colours rare.
Nothing in nature purposely is fair,—
Her beauties in their freedom disagree;
But here all vivid dyes that garish be,
To that tint mellowed which the sense will bear,
Glow, and not wound the eye that, resting there,
Lingers to feed its gentle ecstacy.
Crimson and purple and all hues of wine,
Saffron and russet, brown and sober green
Are rich the shadowy depths of blue between;
While silver threads with golden intertwine,
To catch the glimmer of a fickle sheen,—
All the long labour of some captive queen.

"Santayana's thought does not suffer from scrutiny; it deserves study both as an original philosophical statement and as a means to greater understanding of the man who elaborated it. Mr. McCormick suggests that Santayana is one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and laments that he has been unfairly consigned to oblivion. Many contemporary philosophers, however, have recognized Santayana's abilities, although they do tend to reason that his greatness lies in anticipating current fashions. But his thought is rich enough that it does not need to be rescued in these ways." --- ASCETICISM AND ANIMAL FAITH
By BRUCE KUKLICK; Bruce Kuklick, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of ''The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930.''
Published: April 26, 1987 --- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...ntayana&st=cse ---

THERE MAY BE CHAOS STILL AROUND THE WORLD


There may be chaos still around the world,
This little world that in my thinking lies;
For mine own bosom is the paradise
Where all my life's fair visions are unfurled.
Within my nature's shell I slumber curled,
Unmindful of the changing outer skies,
Where now, perchance, some new-born Eros flies,
Or some old Cronos from his throne is hurled.
I heed them not; or if the subtle night
Haunt me with deities I never saw, ...{excerpt}

CAPE COD


The low sandy beach and the thin scrub pine,
The wide reach of bay and the long sky line,--
O, I am sick for home!


The salt, salt smell of the thick sea air,
And the smooth round stones that the ebbtides wear,--
When will the good ship come?


The wretched stumps all charred and burned,
And the deep soft rut where the cartwheel turned,--
Why is the world so old?


The lapping wave, and the broad gray sky
Where the cawing crows and the slow gulls fly,
Where are the dead untold? ...{excerpt}

As in the midst of battle there is room
For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth;
As gossips whisper of a trinket's worth
Spied by the death-bed's flickering candle-gloom;
As in the crevices of Caesar's tomb
The sweet herbs flourish on a little earth:
So in this great disaster of our birth
We can be happy, and forget our doom. ...{first of two stanzas}

"I sought on earth a garden of delight"


I sought on earth a garden of delight,
Or island altar to the Sea and Air,
Where gentle music were accounted prayer,
And reason, veiled, performed the happy rite.
My sad youth worshipped at the piteous height
Where God vouchsafed the death of man to share;
His love made mortal sorrow light to bear,
But his deep wounds put joy to shamèd flight.
And though his arms, outstretched upon the tree,
Were beautiful, and pleaded my embrace,
My sins were loth to look upon his face.
So came I down from Golgotha to thee,
Eternal Mother; let the sun and sea
Heal me, and keep me in thy dwelling-place. ...{one of Santayana's sonnets}

http://www.sonnets.org/santayan.htm#001

The first sonnet you posted is very beautiful, will have to give a look at this George Santayana.

I have overlooked this thread and regret that there has not been any chat about Santayana's The Last Puritan. After speaking to a philosophy major at University of Minnesota, I was inspired to re-read it (my 5th or 6th time). Never stops being a great read.

Dunno if this will spark any interest in this classic but here it goes anyway ...


The Last Puritan 1935.

A novel about the consequences of moral choices. These influenced by German rationalism where knowledge can only be attained by reason or a priori. This in contrast with British empiricism which affirms that knowledge comes from experience and sensory perception. Its lead character is a New England Yankee descended of early Pilgrim stock named Oliver Alden who is described as a poet and a Puritan.

What is Puritanism according to the storyline?

"Puritanism is a natural reaction against nature". Oliver viewed it as "wrong" but could "not give it up." His Puritanism "was a deep and speculative thing: hatred of all shams, scorn of all miseries, a bitter merciless pleasure in hard facts ... passion for reality ... simple and silently heroic."

"It is a popular error to suppose puritanism has anything to do with purity". Instead, it is marked by "integrity of purpose and scorn of all compromises, practical, or theoretical ... which results in a sad life."

pp 6-8, 10


Oliver lived by these ideals and suffered an unhappy fate as a consequence. However, many others became enriched and flourished because of his ideals and sacrifices.

Over 50 years ago I used to read the idiotic notions of Armstrongism - a cult which flourished up to about the late 1970s where it fell apart because of economic corruption. One thing that they used to teach was about early Yankee Puritanism. They taught, for example, that their god HATES you with the deepest passion imaginable. That contrary to typical Christian teaching, no one deserves even a semblance of forgiveness for past sins. That you deserve to have a life of toil and interminable burdens. While the universe is rational, mankind's innate "evil" is what cause troubles. All this notwithstanding the bible's teachings that it is god who is the exlusive creator of all evil as per isaiah 45:7.

Pilgrims evolved into Yankees. Their descendants changed their views somewhat by adopting Calvinist or Congregational christianity. They then saw themselves as "elect" and that this exceptionalism imposed a mandate where they were to become special models for all.

Oliver's ancestry was old stock Yankee (descended of Miles Standish) with its indecisions, conflicts, tension over wealth and classism (discrimination against lower classes), prejudice towards Irish, Catholics, Jews, blacks, etc. They were overly proud of their ethnic origin and their wealth, were self seeking, self serving, self congratulatory, but intellectually gifted, given to obsessing over social appearances, and the maintenance of genteel superiority. However, Oliver is obsessed with doing good for all, for setting all things right. He did not believe in Yankee exceptionalism. While these tasks rightfully belonged to some god who is either indifferent or punitive, one is duty bound to do good to all simply because it is morally right to do so.

The story begins in an old house atop a Boston hill. It is marked by a creepy milieu and is described as 'dusty', 'coffin', 'ghosts', 'decay', 'black'. We are introduced to an old oligarch named Nathaniel Alden who never left the home except to attend funerals, church, or to see to financial affairs. He was financially prudent and was much like a Hawthorne character who believed 'the roots of wrong had not been extirpated'. He was a patron of the arts but his largesse was out of a self imposed ''duty'' intended to give some impression to others. He was virulently anti Catholic and referenced ghetto parts of town as "n*ggerdom & p@ddydom".

We are then introduced to his younger brother Peter who while very scholarly plays baseball with persons of lower social castes. Nathan plots to compel him to keep better company and assigns a fiduciary group to manage his assets. The trustees go about their business with professionalism. Eventually Peter reforms, goes to college, becomes a doctor, inherits a huge amount of money, but eventually succumbs to a dissolute life of idleness and use of intoxicants. He felt ''there is no power save Unsearchable Power, and that what will be, will be''. Despite his professional qualifications, he spends the next 17 years traveling and accomplishing nothing. He marries a provincial Yankee named Harriet who seeks to preserve genteel Yankee traditions which, in her mind constitutes high principles. Money is such a power and a big comfort to her. She, like Nathan, contributes to church or charities and is very self satisfied.

Then after 70 pages, we are introduced to Oliver.

There is something about him that everyone finds unusual --- he seems driven, that is "set on something". Where did this come from? His mom feels that "It was imperative not to let the really good old families die out, especially now that the country was being swamped by inferior races". She was very Yankee like and Calvinist in her mythic beliefs. Harriet is an anti Semite who believes in Yankee supremacy. While she like democracy, she views Yankees as 'first among equals'.

A full introduction to Oliver starts at p 75. He was born courageous, duty bound, even reckless. Possessed of "an inner fortitude'' with a mind full of endless thoughts. The matter of good vs evil was always on his mind. Because of that, in his early youth he disdained childish games, or fairy tales, and grew up fast. Interestingly, he had no interest in religious instructions. But he was readily given to sports.

The narrative then shifts to their relatives such as Rev Bumstead and wife Irma. They were free thinkers and humanists. Irma is a German national who teaches Oliver to speak German and exerts much influence over him. She writes to her sister in Germany and tells her of Harriet's racism and disdain for lower class people.

He also travels like his father and sees much of the world. He was possessed of ''the demon of self-consciousness''. This much like Goethe and German rationalists. He read many books and learned about the world this way. His mom feels he was born to ''elevate'' the world through his presence in it. He loved Nature which he felt was the sunny side of life. Nature was his religion. And he loved to exercise and play sport. While wealthy people of his class were now enjoying automobiles, he preferred horse riding. He had many tutors but their lessons were largely useless. It was Nature that was his real teacher. He is then introduced to a boating coach who recognizes his athletic gifts. But he has one premonition: Oliver "won't live to be old. The likes of him isn't made for this world."


pp 15-121

At age 15, everyone in Oliver's life determined that he was to pursue a full education. While well intended, this has its limitations: "Refinement, sentiment, moral intensity, were all very well, but they should not be made the fulcrum of your universe, or that universe would come toppling down on your head." Furthermore, "Most schoolmasters were people who had failed in the world, or who feared to fail in it." As such, education tended to impose conformity or "that herd instinct, that sense that you must swim with the stream and do what is expected of you."

There was one release from this rigidity = football. While he was hesitant to engage in it, he quickly excelled and inspired him to be head of his class. Despite that, he envied his classmates and wished he could be like all else: "burdens: the fewer and plainer the better". He returns home for summer but is idle. Spends his time thinking. He meditates on the teachings of Schopenhauer and becomes obsessed with the pursuit of TRUTH. "He is starving for great thoughts ... his soul can't live without great thoughts ... it's people with pretensions that he can't endure" leaving him with a great "weight of obligation." He has great disdain for city life and sets sail to sea with his dad.

At sea aboard his father's Black Swan he is introduced to a complex British character named Jim Darnley. This captain had not been college educated but was wise in the ways of the world. "The sea carries us like a nurse in her arms" which teaches many very human lessons that lead to personal growth. But the sea could swallow you up and the peace it gives is only temporary. Darnley had a troubled past but he learned to cope and came to the conclusion that morality ''consists of cheating the hangman and getting your pint of beer."

Oliver settles down to deep meditation and determines that he wants one thing above all: "The simple truth. What a liberation, what a relief! How easily a man might square his accounts with the universe if he had the courage to face it ... First admit the truth, and then make the best of it." He was advised "in this world to take people as you find them." His counter = "It's better to know the truth." This was crucial as he learns his father is a hopeless drug addict. Dope, he determined was the worse thing imaginable. "A denial of courage, of determination to face the facts, a betrayal of responsibility." He mused, was life a form of dope? "Was obedience to convention , and custom and public opinion perhaps only an epidemic slavery a cruel superstition (?)".

Through it all, he found one remedy ~ nature. Nature being "soothing and liberating ... enlightening ... and a saner influence than religion". Nature ~ a part of life's sunny side, honest, no pretensions, or lies, just the TRUTH.


pp 122-173

The sea.


Boring, rigid, unexciting. Not a good life at all. "Nobody would go to sea if it were not fated". But sailing gets you to places. Oliver continues to travel aboard the Black Swan and heads back to Salem which is the Alden original home town. The color black very symbolic in that it ''is a source of precision and liveliness''. Life at sea entails having much time for reading (my dad was a sailor for many moons and could readily attest to that in the old days). He and Jim talk of Walt Whitman who was greatly admired in Britain (he still is) and thought to be the only true American poet. While Oliver disdains preachy poetry, Jim feels it is ''something secret and pure, some magical perception lighting up the mind for a moment, like reflections in the water, playful and fugitive. Your true poet catches the charm of something or anything, dropping the thing itself. His feeling is rapturous, mocking, musical, sad; above all, it is involuntary."

Leaves of Grass is excerpted:

I could turn and live with the animals, they are so placid ....
They do not weep for their sins.
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.

Was all this another form of Dope? Oliver asked himself. Well, at least they don't call themselves the Chosen as human conventions are products of nature, religion, or whatever. He ponders and he wonders.

We are then introduced to cousin Caleb Wetherbee at Salem. They discuss the merits of Catholicism as opposed to German rationalism. Wetherbee created a monastery which appears to be a New Eden founded on solid Catholic principles. But he has a physical defect that gives a sorta monstrous appearance (could he be a Shakesperean Caliban figure?). They discuss and praise Boston and Harvard as being the centers of intellectualism (they still are), music, and refinement. But Wetherbee wants more: "Boston and Harvard have need nowadays of new blood, of fresh spiritual courage. They are becoming too much like the rest of the country, choked with big business, forced fads, and merely useful knowledge. " He sees the USA as the worst of influences, too secular, and in need of religious (read, Catholic) influence. America will eventually collapse from materialism and false teaching. Humanism is heathanism and it contrasts with Catholic divinity which he sees as America's salvation. He lauds the Spaniards for bringing Catholicism to the New World. {However, he, like the author Santayana, fails to realize that Catholicism brought deaths to MILLIONS of Native Americans in the New World. } He denounces Germans and Goethe as "too worldly". He goes on to say that his deformity is what led to him having a Catholic conscience. Wetherbee is a Yankee but is unlike the Aldens none of whom are Catholic. He believes that this church is what will lead to the USA's ultimate salvation and complete fulfillment as it teaches Truth. A Truth that will eventually win out over all considerations, ideals, philosophies, thoughts, etc.



pp 174-196

... Oliver (now described in the narrative as "child of prophecy" is not so convinced. He views Caleb's monastery as a form of prison ~ "a labyrinth of linked superstitions from which, if you were caught, there might be no escape. Oliver [detected] a hospital smell ... an empty uninhabited white look of suspended animation." Through all this chatter Jim remained discreetly silent. Oliver marvels at all the books in Caleb's home. Many classics by Europeans authors, mythological writings, Bible, etc. But to him these are all artifice or superficial at best. Jim views books as deceptive as well and shows contempt for people who rely on such artifice: "religion takes hold on them just as drink and women take hold on the rest of us ... People discover God only where he has cursed them ... " Thus, the only reason why Caleb Weatherbee is so religious is because of his deformity. The upshot of all this being that Oliver has the option of taking Goethe (contented) or Caleb (malcontent) as a major influence. Whatever the case, the choice, the rule is or should be to live on.

Conformity rears its ugly head again as a dispute arises whether eating with the left hand is proper etiquette. A matter Oliver readily dismisses. By contrast, his mom insists on socially accepted proprieties. She disdains Jim's influence over her son and makes one rant after another. She even wants to be rid of the German Irma for fear she, too, has undue influence. But the latter stays and opens up to her sister via mail that the mother is prejudiced as are so many Yankees. Oliver wonders again -- should he set sail with his dad or stay and go to college. He decides upon staying home at his mom's insistence where he goes to Williams College (famous Yankee college) and takes up rowing. This is viewed as a sacrifice and an allusion to Christ is made. Irma has a prophetic vision that this sacrifice will ultimately result in tragedy. While remaining at home was not conducive to happiness, he maintained his ''Puritan virtues, his integrity, his courage, his scorn of pleasure, his material resourcefulness." But all the spunk and happiness was driven out of him. "A curious film of unreality and worthlessness now seemed spread over his daily life ... He understood now the old notion that the soul had had some previous lives, and was not really at home in this world.'' He played football versus Yale and found the game to be a form of solace.

At school the talk is no longer of Goethe but of British influence. He views Hamlet where the main character sacrifices just like Oliver did for idealist principle. Both he and Hamlet were guys who just didn't quite fit into this difficult world but who did pursue Truth. Despite all "the world has to be kept going like a ship in mid ocean." But at bottom, Oliver best found "relief in solitude and silence."



pp 196-239

Meantime Peter Alden was living a Bohemian life at sea (a possible Henry James type?). "An incorrigible Epicurean ... nothing seemed more odious in this world than the people bent on reforming it." The good things in life were "amusement, kindness, and beauty." Yet, he had a sense of 'moral solitude and banishment'.

In his travels he meets the Vicar who is Jim Darnley's father. He speaks of angels and of the Truth. "The Truth is a terrible thing. It is much darker, much sadder, much more ignoble, much more inhuman and ironical than most of us are willing to admit, or to suspect ... God is not merely good, but is goodness ... but the Truth." One is to '' accept one's fate [as] death is the last, the greatest, the most broad winged angel of all." His church is noticeably decayed but he viewed this as a reflection of moral strength. He does not have high regard for colleges. "Life itself is a triumph of the soul ... We must choose what we will sacrifice. The point is to choose with true self-knowledge ... '' Thereafter, they settle to a scrumptious dinner.

Oliver thinks over all this and ponders, " how beautiful were austerity and poverty and obscurity." He and Jim walk into a cafe'/tavern where it has the appearance of being a 'sepulchral silence', ''ghostly', 'loomed', 'dark', 'moth eaten', and sat on 'disembowelled arm chairs'. The ensuing conversation filled with death images ~ "we may all be dead ... open grave ... seance ... drown ... spectral ... No sign of life ... gravestone ... dead man's voice funeral service ... '' Oliver has a bad dream about Jim seeing death and misery. A sure sign of things to come.


pp 240-274

Jim says to Oliver, ''It's the devil ... as sends us the toothache and the east wind and the tax on beer." Perhaps so as Oliver "was born under a bad star."

Jim seeks solace in punting. Here is what that activity looks like:


https://letsgopunting.co.uk/wp-conte...5-1200x900.jpg


Oliver enjoys the outdoors and determines that "In nature, if things were left alone they would be perfect." He takes lessons in punting which ''restores peace and balance to his mind'' as the sport removes ''all the mysteries oo miseries of the universe." Unlike others in this environs, the activity strengthens his resolve "his will to do right."

A certain preacher is met. As with New England Yankees, his name is pronounced Pēē bo dē rather than Pē BOD dē. He and a school master rant on endlessly and this puts Peter to sleep. School master is offended by that even though he fails to realize that Peter's health is declining.

Oliver thrives while in England and excels in sports. He and his dad discuss England's complexity and the image of Jacob's Ladder. Symbolically, it represents a vision of a stairway to Heaven. It is a "fabulous moral order'' and is the one way to divine reward. Punishment and discipline are the means of ascending Jacob's Ladder. Yet, it is a false god, a myth. Just the same ''let everything flourish that is capable of flourishing." "Life, for the spirit, was no walk ... it was an ocean voyage ... in which you must choose your own course ... Your hardboiled moralists were idolaters and hypnotized by their own words ... in the moral world there is no single pole, no single tree on which heights and depths could be measured." Life is a pilgrimage of spirit. Life is bewitchment. Useless thinking a "torment". Thus we must all seek a rational purpose, some moral philosophy and move on.


to p 320

Autumn. Seasonal decline.

While Oliver remains optimistic about things, his father Peter remains fatalist. Yet, he has a certain admiration for his son: "He has skipped his parents and drawn his character from his remote ancestors {the Puritans}. He's like a two-edged sword, as merciless in one direction as in the other." He tells him "Your mother hasn't realized what a Puritan you are ... here at last was a recognition of his true nature. What a relief, what an encouragement, to be enlightened and confirmed in his self possession, in his integrity!" ... Puritan he was conscious of being and determined to remain, if this meant self directed and inflexibly himself. ''

Peter appears to feel his work as a father has been done. Having no further aim in life. He commits suicide. There is virtually no mourning for this loss. He was buried overseas, not in Yankeeland despite his heritage.

Oliver further contemplates "simply doing his Duty to Others ... His allegiance must be to his own conscience, to his own reason."


to p 350

The current world does not respect the piety nor the moralism of the old Puritans and their descendants. Because of this the world does not give Oliver the means to achieve his purposes and leads to his estrangement from others. "Existence was a complication, a commitment, a pose." Despite his great wealth, he traveled second class and felt good about it. In fact, this gave him the "wonderful happiness of solitude ... The point was to be a gentleman, to be vowed to defend and exalt the beautiful in all things , to be the Champion of tenderness, of honesty, of all things." He quotes Caleb in saying that he "thinks God has chosen me to be a second Messiah." Yet he says, there is no need to have second class ~ only ONE class. He disdains luxury. "I hate pleasure. I hate what is called having a good time. I hate stimulants. I hate 'dope'. It's all a cheat." Jim muses: ""it's no use trying to live on principles contrary to nature ... {Oliver} is a poet without words."



to p 394

In his final year of schooling, Oliver plays one last of football, a sport that "brings out the fighting instinct, and you do things you wouldn't do in cold blood." But, "that's life ... Naturally each man counts for what's in him." Despite his misgivings about the sport he "couldn't refuse" to play. He attributed that to a "horrid tyranny" which he did not specifically identify though he likely meant face saving. Now that he is injured he wonder who his true friends are. As he recovers and settles into the school dorms he learns that the room he has been assigned to was used at one time by Emerson. He is immersed in the collegiate atmosphere but wonders, "Perhaps all this religion and philosophy and poetry and art were a disease to be killed off presently by natural selection."

Despite this, he continues to "pursue higher things" because "it was the puritan's turn to be in the twentieth [century]: the martyrs of a poetic and chivalrous cause ... a form sense of direction." His room is rather spartan. And now he turns to the sport of rowing where his team has everything set up for him. He achieves great serenity from rowing.

Oliver feels drawn to a higher purpose in life. But he lives in spartan digs while contemplating lofty ideals. He derives spiritual fulfillment from rowing which, ironically, was viewed as an elitist sport. His residency is at Divinity Hall which bespeaks of a life of monasticism. "Possessions are such a bore." "True religion must recognize the power actually at work in the world and study its workings honestly." His classes: Indian philosophy, Metaphysics, Plato, Ethics, and Art. "One religion is as good as another when good people practice it.

Thus, he's more than a puritan -- he is a pilgrim as well.



to p 435

Harvard rowing club 1910-1915



https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...bKf/s-l500.jpg


https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2QoAA...Cv/s-l1600.png



The legendary Harry Parker ~ coach from the 1960s to 2013:


https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/l...TVFDsLrsF4ADbs



Was said to be quite a task master but he got results and was beloved by his athletes and fans of the great sport of collegiate regatta.

darn ~ forgot to include a note on Oliver's positioning in regatta: re was assigned to be stroke which is a crucial position. This because he is the one who sets the pace/rhythm whereas the coxswain is mostly responsible for steerage

the 1 is at the bow (front) of the boat or shell as it is called
the 8 is at the stern - nearest to the cox


illustrated below:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...tPositions.png



He was put into this position because of his drive, intensity, hard work, and natural leadership.

this might illustrate the positions a bit better:



https://gamerules.com/wp-content/upl...1-1536x864.jpg



stroke is # 8

Oliver studies very intensely with philosophy as his main classes. Philosophy ''belonged to the shady side of the world; it was all a chaos of talk, of argument, of opinion. " He found these studies empowering as "he possessed by nature an incorruptible spirit, hating compromises and vagueness, and not afraid of being cruel in the interest of truth."


philo = love
sophy = wisdom


"Life isn't what it's cracked up to be. It's just a trap. You're caught in it, and can't get out. Unless that is unless you're quick and clever ... cheat the hangman ... Even if death seems to spare us, time itself slowly kills everything we love ... you had better give up heroism ... The use of riches isn't to disperse riches, but to cultivate the art of living, to produce beautiful houses, beautiful manners, beautiful speech, beautiful charities ... there can be no real happiness in this world."



to p 468

With "His own mind perfectly simple and free, innocent of all world or religious entanglements; and self-consciousness in him, as in so many philosophers, intercepted intuition ... I am trying to save my soul." He "needed love" but did not find it in the few females he was acquainted with nor did he find any fulfillment in any church despite having relatives associated with several Christian institutions. He was "too profound, too original in his mind to breathe freely in any church." While he continued to find some measure of fulfillment in sports, he felt that being "captain of the crew [rowing team] was a curse to him ... But it was no use swimming against the stream, the stream of circumstances. Better to give it all up. Better spend your life going from house to house dosing people with aspirin -- the best thing a doctor could do -- until you took your last does of aspirin yourself." {interesting how he continues to think about dope} ... Sculling alone is what I really like ... [rather than] dope yourself with pious fictions. ''


He had a failed romantic relationship and sent a marriage proposal to his intended. However she never got the letter and could not reply. He took that as a rejection which meant he was now "free". But what he didn't know is that with this "freedom" it would lead to him marching off to the military. This would seal his fate.



to p 506

Oliver wished he could be free spirited as that was ''enviable''. "Enviable if you wish to be happy; but impossible if you wish to do right, to make yourself and the world better. You are merely encouraging the fools to be fools, the rascals to be rascals, and the prostitutes to be prostitutes. You might fall in love with nature ... but you mustn't become a pagan in your heart ... because it was the very nature of the heart to choose a pure good, and to cleave to it. There was , there couldn't help being, a single supreme allegiance, a dedication to truth, to mercy, to this threadmill of bitter amusements ... So confirmed in his spiritual self reliance ..." that he resolved to let his conscience with German philosophy and moderation to be his guides. "The right direction for a moral man would always lead to ultimate order and kindness. In this quest he was to be ably assisted by aesthetic philosophy as "Art must canalise nature, prevent disastrous inundations, and render waters navigable and sweet."

He continued to study with greater fervency in England but finds its empiricism to be faulty as its "inspiration cheats us with some mirage ... Why does experience leave us so desolate, so puzzled, so tired, that like Plato and Plotinus and the Christian saints we must look to some imaginary heaven or some impossible utopia for encouragement and for peace?" Thus, Puritanism like all of Christianity failed to deliver salvation or solace for him.



World War I

"They haven't the least notion as to what they're fighting about ... The world is full of people, hungry people, pushing people, barbarous people: you've got to crush them or be crushed." Some believe that good will come out of this war. Oliver is not so sure. Some will profit but he asks, 'how many will be killed and tortured?' "I should be glad to die now, if I could find something to die for ... It's a blind current that sweeps us on, we don't know for how long or to what issue." It's a "wretched" world.



to p 538

Oliver thought ''all conflicts and contradictions as unnecessary and perverse ... his love of rightness" made him abhor the war and his lack or inability of intervening to stop it. While he viewed wealth as a burden (how strange!) he bemoaned that the wealth could not be used to end the war. How he wish he could ''do good, to abolish injustice,to diffuse happiness!" War was hell and irrational just like football ~ a product of herd instinct. But he felt compelled to enlist. Notwithstanding his patriotism, he praised the German resolve: "the categorical imperative, and the will to dominate: how manfully they had risen to what they believed was the call of Providence ...

... when we move upward from chaos, we aspire towards truth, perfection, and simplicity: but when we reflect and turn inwards from the highest achievement, we find sorrow and disillusion and a murmur of the winds."


Despite all his wealth Oliver lived a life of asceticism. But it was voluntary. Now in the military he was alone, friendly,and without enthusiasm. He felt like a "nobody ... weary, faded, slow ... frequent illnesses ... he craved rest ... he demanded something to build upon, sound principles and sure possessions ... he had a transcendental mind ,,, the sight of suffering, the knowledge of suffering, was intolerant to him ... [He had] a sort of premonition that I shan't live long."

Everywhere he went the sense of fatalism prevailed. He sees a black swan which he views as an omen.

"I would gladly devote my life to religion, if there were a religion that were true. But Christianity and all other religions are so childishly false that I wonder how some people can put up with them ... nothing but myths and poetic apologues ... Christian fables ... ''

He was "an ascetic without faith". He was looking gaunt, distressed, and alienated ... He would die as he had lived lived, with lead in his wings." He increasingly became more skeptical as "philosophy that is not a religion is only a vague science or a loose eloquence ... Science and art are prodigious shams." Now, more fatalist than ever, he draws out his will naming friends, family, and just a few institutions.


to p 578

Oliver is rejected by a second potential lover. Indeed, throughout the story, it is the men who are most thoughtful, more giving, less demanding, and far less indifferent than the women. He contemplates the works and thoughts of Plato: "Plato was talking poetry about a love that is an inspiration, a divine madness; whereas I was talking dead prose about general benevolence, friendliness, and charity ... [re those women] I was not seeing the reality at all, but only an image, only a mirage, of my own situation ... the inspiration of a profound desire ... the true lover's tragedy is not in being jilted; it is being accepted ... I have been a conscript all my life: a conscript son, a conscript schoolboy, a conscript athlete, a conscript soldier; at least I am not a conscript husband ... the idea of a divine being ... is an idol of the mind, an impossible object ... I need to be honest, I need to be true, I need to be just ... My people first went to America as exiles into a stark wilderness to lead a life apart, purer and soberer than the carnival life of Christendom ... Perhaps it is time for us to die ... Either the truth or nothing ... It is my duty ... to keep myself as much as possible from complicity in wrong."


Oliver dies. Not from battle casualty but because he swerved his vehicle to avoid crashing onto someone. He sacrificed right up to the very end of his life. And this was several days after the Armistice.

It shakes one's faith in Providence, this cutting down of the green bough, when there's so much dead wood in the world ready for burning ... God bless the charitable giver, and reward him in the other world, for in this he was too pure and good to endure our wretchedness ... he was a poet ... When was there ever such sweetness and such integrity?



to the Epilogue

The story began with a Prologue in which the writer Professor Santayana recalled meeting Mario Van de Weyer (Oliver's cousin) in Paris, years after his retirement from Harvard. It was him who persuaded the writer to compile the book. The story ends in the Epilogue where the two meet again.

"Vanny" or Mario as he was better known, in contrast to Puritanical Oliver, was a hedonist. He freely borrowed large sums of money from Oliver to finance his Bohemian lifestyle. He was raised in Europe and was not acquainted with the staid lifestyle of old school New England Yankees. He laughs at the universe, is very witty, and hasn't a care in the world. Because of that he had no problem in leeching Oliver for money. The latter "loved" him (Platonic) and readily gave him what he needed. As the years progressed he was attracted to rather exotic women, one of whom was older than him. But Vanny had much vanity and didn't care. Unlike Oliver who regarded all equally, he was an anti Semite who used the objectionable term "sheeny" in describing a Jewish scholar-athlete. Unlike Oliver who found his ideal spot in the research library, Vanny found his in the Harvard frat house. Later on when Oliver bought a modest car, Vanny bought a luxury car and made it a point to be seen driving it. But he does strongly support WW I as he was (technically speaking) a European with Continental sensibilities. He also enlists, is injured but readily survives. He sincerely believes much good will come out of the war as it will purge the world of evil elitists.

After the war, 15 years elapse and the scene shifts to both Rome and Paris ~ two Bohemian centers where Mario/Vanny is thriving. Professor Santayana tells him "any future worth having will spring from men like you, not from weedy intellectuals or self-inhibited puritans. Fortune will never smile on those who disown the living forces of nature ... the truth cannot help triumphing at the last judgment ... in the real world we are all unjust to one another ... A moral nature burdened and over-strung, and a critical faculty fearless but helplessly subjective - isn't that the true tragedy of your ultimate Puritan? ''

The book ends with the two of them having an argument over philosophy with the conclusion suggesting that all ideals, philosophies, and even life itself all too often being an illusion.

Brilliant philosophy Professor KD Irani from City College of New York:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2MUUNHjAU



When I was a freshman at that school in 1970, he inspired me to read the The Last Puritan. Fascinating scholar - there are several videos about him in youtube.