The Dominion SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1919. AN APPRECIATION OF MR. BALFOUR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 205, 24 May 1919, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1919. AN APPRECIATION OF MR. BALFOUR

The announcement that Mi;. Balfouk intends to retire from the Foreign Office and from Parliament aa soon as the pe.ico is signed will he received with regret throughout the English-speaking world. Mil. BalFoun has uccn a prominent figure in political life for nearly half a century, and at the end of. this long period of public service lie has had to carry a_ very large share of the work and' thought and anxiety .caused. by the greatest war in hitman history. But he has had tho : satisfaction of seeing, the conflict carried to a victorious conclusion, and is now doing his utmost, as a leading member of the Peace Conference, to establish the peace of the world on 1 just and stable foundations. He no doubt feels that when the Conference has finished its difficult and delicate task the time will have come for him .to withdraw from the turmoil of politics and leave the Work of political reconstruction to : the . younger men. T.hp loss of his ripe. wisdom, great experience, and sound judgment will: be keenly felt in Parliament, but no one can begrudge-him the rest which he has' so fully earned. Mr. .Balfour's : political career bridges the. gap between the present and the days of Gladstone and' Salisbury. Though history is not likely to class nim among tho greatest of British statesmen, it will certainly give him an honoured place among those who have served their 'country faithfully and well. Nature did not fit him to bccomo a strenuous party politician. One cannot help feeling that he entered political life and remained' there rather from an hereditary sense of duty than from personal inclination. Party warfare often seemed to bore hint. handicapped by his philosophical .training and the breadth of his culture. He had the inconvenient gift of seeing both sides of a question. He couid not help seeing things steadily' and seeing l.hem whole, and however useful this balanced state of mind maybe for-a philosopher, it is generally considered a drawback in a party politician. He was looked upon by many as the. "odd man" of his party, and during the earlier part of his Parliamentary career he was generally regarded "as the scion of a noble liouse who played with politics because it was the tradition of his house to do so." People were at first inclined to underestimate both his strength of character and Jus capacity for statesmanship; but, almost in spite of himself, he came to the front, and of late ydars he has become one of' the most interesting and conspicuous figures in the British.-, Parliament.: In a speech delivered in 1911, Mi:. Asquith declared that Mr.. Balfour was "by. universal consent the mos.t distinguished, member o.f the' greatest deliberative asscmblv in the world."

• Mb. Balfour has never been content to bo a politician and nothing more. He lias been accustomed to find relief from the strife of political tongues by fi;c|ucrit excursions into the spheres of literature, art, science, and philosophy. His presidential address in 1904 at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, showed a keen interest in the discoveries and speculations of modern science' and a clear grasp of t-hair philosophical implications. Mr.. Balfour has frequently shown the shortcomings of the naturalistic interpretation of the universe. He is of opinion that as natural science grows it must lean more, not less, upon a tlwistic interpretation. He occupies a leading place in that distinguished company of modern thinkers wbo have succeeded in overthrowing the materialistic philosophy which prevailed during the latter half of. the_ nineteenth century. The searching criticism of Arthur Balfour, James Ward, William James, Emile Boutroux, Henri Bf.kgson, and others has discredited the claims of the mechanical theory to be an. adequate explanation of the universe. Mr. Balfour's first book was A Defence of Philosophic. Doubt, published in 1879. This was followed in 1895 by The T'ovw (lotions of Belief. Brinr/ Xotcs Introductory ft} the Study of Theolotnj. Some hostile critics have contended that- these books have created more doubts than they have allayed. But "though, Mr. Balfour disclaimed any endeavour specifically to solve doubts, or allay difficulties, lie is right, in asserting that perhaps the greater number of these doubts and. difficulties would never even present themselves in that character were it not for that superficiality and one-sidedness in considering the wider problems of belief which ho and other, philosophers have done their best, to describe and correct. In a sympathetic criticism of M. Bergsox's Creatine Evolution. Mr. Balfour contends that this French philosopher's mctaphysi'c is religious because "M. Bbroson's stipcr-con-seiousness docs certainly tnkc sides," and M-n." .Balfour holds that the "important philosophic distinction between religious and non-re-ligious metaphysie to be that Clou, or whatever in the system coi'responds_ to God, does in the former take, sides in a moving drama, while . ... He is in- the non-re-ligious system represented as indifferently. related to all the multiplicity of which He constitutes the unity." Mr.-Balfour's latest exposition of bis philosophic opinions was given in _19M as Clifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, his Iccturcs having been published in a book entitled Theism and Humanism. In this volume he deals in a most illuminating manner with natural religion from the plain mail's point of view. Ho lays stress upon the difficulty of maintaining moral values if moral origins come to be re/ garded as purely mituralistie. "Ethics," his says, "must have its roots in the divine; and in the divine it must find its consummation." Mr. Balfour's retirement from polities will give, liiui more time to work out his philosophic theories. The man who can guide a nation's thought in regard to the fundamental problems, who can increase our-knowledge of - ourselves and ,the. world in .which'wo live, is I entitled to a very , high place among

the benefactors of the human race. Men of all creeds and all shades of political opinion will join in tho hope that Mn. Balfour will have sufficient health and strength of mincl and body to enable him to further develop the fruitful ideas which he has from time to time propounded with such lucidity and literary charm.