Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
dinner was given, I got my friends to secrete me in an anteroom until
the last moment, so that I might avoid all excitements of
introductions and congratulations; and as Mr. Evarts, who presided,
handed me on the dais, I begged him to limit his conversation with me
as much as possible, and to expect very meagre responses. The event
proved that, trying though the tax was, there did not result the
disaster I feared; and when Mr. Evarts had duly uttered the
compliments of the occasion, I was able to get through my prepared
speech without difficulty, though not with much effect." (Spencer's
_Autobiography_, vol. II, p. 478.)]
These words were spoken in slow, solemn tones. I do not remember ever
having noticed more depth of feeling; evidently they came from a
grateful debtor. Mr. Spencer was touched by the words. They gave rise
to considerable remark, and shortly afterwards Mr. Beecher preached a
course of sermons, giving his views upon Evolution. The conclusion of
the series was anxiously looked for, because his acknowledgment of
debt to Spencer as his teacher had created alarm in church circles. In
the concluding article, as in his speech, if I remember rightly, Mr.
Beecher said that, although he believed in evolution (Darwinism) up to
a certain point, yet when man had reached his highest human level his
Creator then invested him (and man alone of all living things) with
the Holy Spirit, thereby bringing him into the circle of the godlike.
Thus he answered his critics.
Mr. Spencer took intense interest in mechanical devices. When he
visited our works with me the new appliances impressed him, and in
after years he sometimes referred to these and said his estimate of
American invention and push had been fully realized. He was naturally
pleased with the deference and attention paid him in America.
I seldom if ever visited England without going to see him, even after
he had removed to Brighton that he might live looking out upon the
sea, which appealed to and soothed him. I never met a man who seemed
to weigh so carefully every action, every word--even the pettiest--and
so completely to find guidance through his own conscience. He was no
scoffer in religious matters. In the domain of theology, however, he
had little regard for decorum. It was to him a very faulty system
hindering true growth, and the idea of rewards and punishments struck
him as an appeal to very low natures indeed. Still he never went to
such lengths as Tennyson did upon an occasion when some of the old
ideas were under discussion. Knowles[74] told me that Tennyson lost
control of himself. Knowles said he was greatly disappointed with the
son's life of the poet as giving no true picture of his father in his
revolt against stern theology.
[Footnote 74: James Knowles, founder of _Nineteenth Century_.]
Spencer was always the calm philosopher. I believe that from childhood
to old age--when the race was run--he never was guilty of an immoral
act or did an injustice to any human being. He was certainly one of
the most conscientious men in all his doings that ever was born. Few
men have wished to know another man more strongly than I to know
Herbert Spencer, for seldom has one been more deeply indebted than I
to him and to Darwin.
Reaction against the theology of past days comes to many who have been
surrounded in youth by church people entirely satisfied that the truth
and faith indispensable to future happiness were derived only through
strictest Calvinistic creeds. The thoughtful youth is naturally
carried along and disposed to concur in this. He cannot but think, up
to a certain period of development, that what is believed by the best
and the highest educated around him--those to whom he looks for
example and instruction--must be true. He resists doubt as inspired by
the Evil One seeking his soul, and sure to get it unless faith comes
to the rescue. Unfortunately he soon finds that faith is not exactly
at his beck and call. Original sin he thinks must be at the root of
this inability to see as he wishes to see, to believe as he wishes to
believe. It seems clear to him that already he is little better than
one of the lost. Of the elect he surely cannot be, for these must be
ministers, elders, and strictly orthodox men.
The young man is soon in chronic rebellion, trying to assume godliness
with the others, acquiescing outwardly in the creed and all its
teachings, and yet at heart totally unable to reconcile his outward
accordance with his inward doubt. If there be intellect and virtue in
the man but one result is possible; that is, Carlyle's position after
his terrible struggle when after weeks of torment he came forth: "If
it be incredible, in God's name, then, let it be discredited." With
that the load of doubt and fear fell from him forever.
When I, along with three or four of my boon companions, was in this
stage of doubt about theology, including the supernatural element, and
indeed the whole scheme of salvation through vicarious atonement and
all the fabric built upon it, I came fortunately upon Darwin's and
Spencer's works "The Data of Ethics," "First Principles," "Social
Statics," "The Descent of Man." Reaching the pages which explain how
man has absorbed such mental foods as were favorable to him, retaining
what was salutary, rejecting what was deleterious, I remember that
light came as in a flood and all was clear. Not only had I got rid of
theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution.
"All is well since all grows better" became my motto, my true source
of comfort. Man was not created with an instinct for his own
degradation, but from the lower he had risen to the higher forms. Nor
is there any conceivable end to his march to perfection. His face is
turned to the light; he stands in the sun and looks upward.
Humanity is an organism, inherently rejecting all that is deleterious,
that is, wrong, and absorbing after trial what is beneficial, that is,
right. If so disposed, the Architect of the Universe, we must assume,
might have made the world and man perfect, free from evil and from
pain, as angels in heaven are thought to be; but although this was not
done, man has been given the power of advancement rather than of
retrogression. The Old and New Testaments remain, like other sacred
writings of other lands, of value as records of the past and for such
good lessons as they inculcate. Like the ancient writers of the Bible
our thoughts should rest upon this life and our duties here. "To
perform the duties of this world well, troubling not about another, is
the prime wisdom," says Confucius, great sage and teacher. The next
world and its duties we shall consider when we are placed in it.
I am as a speck of dust in the sun, and not even so much, in this
solemn, mysterious, unknowable universe. I shrink back. One truth I
see. Franklin was right. "The highest worship of God is service to
Man." All this, however, does not prevent everlasting hope of
immortality. It would be no greater miracle to be born to a future
life than to have been born to live in this present life. The one has
been created, why not the other? Therefore there is reason to hope for
immortality. Let us hope.[75]
[Footnote 75: "A.C. is really a tremendous personality--dramatic,
wilful, generous, whimsical, at times almost cruel in pressing his own
conviction upon others, and then again tender, affectionate,
emotional, always imaginative, unusual and wide-visioned in his views.
He is well worth Boswellizing, but I am urging him to be 'his own
Boswell.'... He is inconsistent in many ways, but with a passion for
lofty views; the brotherhood of man, peace among nations, religious
purity--I mean the purification of religion from gross
superstition--the substitution for a Westminster-Catechism God, of a
Righteous, a Just God." (_Letters of Richard Watson Gilder_, p. 375.)]
CHAPTER XXVI
BLAINE AND HARRISON
While one is known by the company he keeps, it is equally true that
one is known by the stories he tells. Mr. Blaine was one of the best
story-tellers I ever met. His was a bright sunny nature with a witty,
pointed story for every occasion.
Mr. Blaine's address at Yorktown (I had accompanied him there) was
greatly admired. It directed special attention to the cordial
friendship which had grown up between the two branches of the
English-speaking race, and ended with the hope that the prevailing
peace and good-will between the two nations would exist for many
centuries to come. When he read this to me, I remember that the word
"many" jarred, and I said:
"Mr. Secretary, might I suggest the change of one word? I don't like
'many'; why not 'all' the centuries to come?"
"Good, that is perfect!"
And so it was given in the address: "for _all_ the centuries to come."
We had a beautiful night returning from Yorktown, and, sitting in the
stern of the ship in the moonlight, the military band playing forward,
we spoke of the effect of music. Mr. Blaine said that his favorite
just then was the "Sweet By and By," which he had heard played last by
the same band at President Garfield's funeral, and he thought upon
that occasion he was more deeply moved by sweet sounds than he had
ever been in his life. He requested that it should be the last piece
played that night. Both he and Gladstone were fond of simple music.
They could enjoy Beethoven and the classic masters, but Wagner was as
yet a sealed book to them.
In answer to my inquiry as to the most successful speech he ever heard
in Congress, he replied it was that of the German, ex-Governor Ritter
of Pennsylvania. The first bill appropriating money for inland _fresh_
waters was under consideration. The house was divided. Strict
constructionists held this to be unconstitutional; only harbors upon
the salt sea were under the Federal Government. The contest was keen
and the result doubtful, when to the astonishment of the House,
Governor Ritter slowly arose for the first time. Silence at once
reigned. What was the old German ex-Governor going to say--he who had
never said anything at all? Only this:
"Mr. Speaker, I don't know much particulars about de constitution, but
I know dis; I wouldn't gif a d----d cent for a constitution dat didn't
wash in fresh water as well as in salt." The House burst into an
uproar of uncontrollable laughter, and the bill passed.
So came about this new departure and one of the most beneficent ways
of spending government money, and of employing army and navy
engineers. Little of the money spent by the Government yields so great
a return. So expands our flexible constitution to meet the new wants
of an expanding population. Let who will make the constitution if we
of to-day are permitted to interpret it.
Mr. Blaine's best story, if one can be selected from so many that were
excellent, I think was the following:
In the days of slavery and the underground railroads, there lived on
the banks of the Ohio River near Gallipolis, a noted Democrat named
Judge French, who said to some anti-slavery friends that he should
like them to bring to his office the first runaway negro that crossed
the river, bound northward by the underground. He couldn't understand
why they wished to run away. This was done, and the following
conversation took place:
_Judge:_ "So you have run away from Kentucky. Bad master, I suppose?"
_Slave:_ "Oh, no, Judge; very good, kind massa."
_Judge:_ "He worked you too hard?"
_Slave:_ "No, sah, never overworked myself all my life."
_Judge, hesitatingly:_ "He did not give you enough to eat?"
_Slave:_ "Not enough to eat down in Kaintuck? Oh, Lor', plenty to
eat."
_Judge:_ "He did not clothe you well?"