450                  A. M. E. REVIEW.

"isms" of varying degrees of mental unsoundness, from sim-
ple enthusiasm to absolute mania.  Socially, it leads to neg-
lect of the practical duties of life.  In fact this is the soil
from which spring most of the vagaries of religion and
politics.  Doweyism, Christian Science, and Socialism are
some of the variegated fruit of this ancient and prolific,
philosophic tree.  It hopes to destroy Man's appetite for
strong drink by prohibitory legislation, and make citizens
of emancipated slaves by constitutional amendment.   In
other words, while Materialism, neglecting emotional and
altruistic aspirations, sinks to the earth and dies, Idealism,
ignoring the actualities of life, disappears in thin air becom-
ing as insubstantial as "the baseless fabric of a dream."
Either of these systems of thought alone, is as incapable of
making a working philosophy of life as hydrogen or oxygen
 (the sole constituents of pure water) is of making a bever-
age to slake thirst and give fluidity to vital tissues.
  We still have Agnosticism and Dualism from which to get
an everyday tangible, working philosophy of life. Mankind
cannot be satisfied with mere negation.  "I don't know" is
not answer enough to the cry of the cradle, nor explanation
enough to the silence of the coffin.  The devotees of the so-
called practical sciences may continue to asseverate that
first causes and final effects are beyond human comprehen-
sion, yet the majority of mankind will reject Agnosticism
and regard Eschatology, Ontology and Teleology as sciences
worthy of study.
  Every thoughtful person eventually reaches a gnosis of
his own--an individual life philosophy, a personal religion.
Its simplicity or elaborateness depending upon the degree of
intellectual force and acquired knowledge of the possessor.
No one above the brute is without it.  The same is true of
races.  Ontogeny is phylogeny in miniature. The individ-
ual whose religious and ethical notions lack this personal
flavor can never reach real freedom and the race without a
distinctive ethnic idea, (spiritual, intellectual, and physical)
will have no recognized standing among the peoples of the




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911