CREATOR OF A NEW PHILOSOPY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1722, 12 April 1913, Page 12

CREATOR OF A NEW PHILOSOPY.

BERGSON IN AMERICA.

THE MAN AND HIS WORK,

Tho following is M. Henri Bergson's ideal of philosophy, as stated in his first lecture in Now York:— "Imagine that you are listening to a drama. You feel an increased senso of reality. Through tho interpretation ■ of tho drama, you feel lifo more intensely. The samo is true, when you listen to good music. . Philosophy ought to do tho 6aine. It should 'make us feol an increased senso of reality, • of vitality "Last week a 6mall, thin man, '.with aquilino features, began to talk for tho first timo in America on what ho thought about philosophy," says tho Now .York "Utlook" in a leading article. "Now philosophy is not supposed to bo a popular subject with most people. If it were, wo would seo tho works of Aristotlo and Plato, Kant and Descartes, lying around on parlour tables alongside tho latest novel. Hut wo do not seo them. Philosophy docs not yet touch lifo close enough. "Ono of our awn meil—William Jameshas brought philosophy closer to lifo. In Franco two philosophers have also brought it closer—Eniilo Boutroux and Henri Bergson. M. Bergson. has now arrived in Amcrica, and is to deliver a course " of lectures at Columbia University and Harvard. An Artist In Words. "After reading M. Bergson's Looks, with their note of discovery and authority,' ono may expect a different physical appearance from that of the frail, alert man, with hollow cheeks, deep-set oyes, and quick, nervous gesturo', who faced his American audience last week. But after tho first few sentences ono forgets liow this Frenchman looks, or whether ho has any looks at all, in tho charm and power of his speech. Tho tones of his voico are exquisite, and as ho speaks ono feels as if listening to a dry-point artist in words. For, just as in making a drypoint picture it is impossible to erase any line onco mado, so Professor Bergson, in talking, impresses tho listener as novel', using a word which ho Would afterwards wish to replace by another. Tho result) on tho 'audienco' was quickly seen. Tha auditors settled thelnsclvcs back ,in their seats as if to say: 'Ho can't run off thai track.'" M. Bergson's Study. An article by Alvan F. Sanborn, in tho samo issuo of the "Outlook," gives somo most interesting information about this "Creator of a New Philosophy." "With a view to securing tlio seclusion which ho esteems indispensable to tho emooth running of his mental machinery, Henri Bergson fixed his homo q, few years • ago in-what ho Leliovcs to bo tho only absolutely tranquil spot of Paris, tho' Villa Montmorency, well out toward tha Auteuil Gate, a proprietary villago of half a dozen gracefully bowing streets. and several . scores of garden-encompassed-, houses. "Tho study, dt tho right of a, commodious central hall, is as higi as an entire modern city flat—so big, : in. fact, that tlio philosopher, when he is ensconced tlierein, ' bears au! amusing rescmblanco to a l-co in tho heart of a squash- blosa>m. Hit' work-desk, an oblong tablo solidly plant-' ed upon six feet,'is eo remote from ths| windows that tho possibility of being . tracted by their charming, garden ouU look is reduced to a minimum. Front 1 Bergson's workshop ono would never his ardent lovo of beauty and his intolJ ligent interest in nil tho arts. . . How He Maizes Books, "When ho has a' new book: in prospect.;' Bergson devotes years to preliminary,' reading,..observation, and reflection. Oncoho has mastered his subject, or, better,! perhaps, onco his subject has ,maslerc&| him, no composes hastily without stop-| ping M mako tho slightest correction, ill' order ,not to interrupt tho impetus vojamj to "uso liis favourite word) of his thinM ing. .Then ho deliberately licks th< manuscript into shape, controlling, re< vising, and polishing with infinito com scontiousness and pains. , "He rises early tho year round, whictt does not provent him from often retiring ; late. When engaged in research ho spends many afternoons at/ tho National Library, or - tho- Medical Faculty. Ho used to reserve tho- hour between eleven' and, noon, for- visitors, but he has abandoned this hospitable habit latterly out of sheer noccssity.. Defining a Method. "In the prefaco to' 'L'Evolution Creaj trioe," Bergson represents his own workd as 'attempts, not to solve at a stroke tha greatest problems, but hierely to defina a method and-to suggest tho possibility of applying it at certain essential points.'This philosophy,' he adds, in contradis* tinction to tho systems, proper, oach ono of which is tho work of a genius and offers itself as a block to bo accepted of rojcctcd, can bs constituted, only by thq collective effort of many thinkers. _ "Henri Bergson was born October 18, 1859, in a short and quiet street of th<j wholesale business section of Paris, tlid Ruo Lamartine, m which there uas al email Jewish synagogue at tliat time, His mother was on Englishwoman, and, although French was ordinarily em-i ployed in tho household, ho heard Xh of tho English Jongue to, make its thorough acquisition o. oonw paratively easy matter for him m lately yeara. His First Two Books. "During a 'sojourn in 'Auvergno tha 'inner travail of thinking went a terrifio rate, for ho delivered at thq University of Clermont lwturcs that wero far from' bearing tho official Bt »mp» oni. ho prepared most ot his first great •Les Donnees luuucdiates -do la- Uhh science,' at the Lycee Henry L\, v hero h<j remained eight years, during which J* composed and pave lo tho \\orld ins ~ec* ond great work, 'Maticro et Mcmoiro.' 11l 1901, in an address to the Socicto l'raiw caiso do Philosophic, Bergson recounted its genesis in a manner which clearly r^ ( veals his boldness, his patience, his cni durance, aud his opcn-nundcducss: > "'I propounded to myself, somo dozcij Years ago,' ho said, <tho following ques-j lion: What do tlio physiology and. tha pathology of to-day teach regarding tha venerable problem of tho relations between tho physical and tho cthical to a min<J devoid of parti -pris, resolved to forget; all tho speculations upon this point m which it has hitherto indulged, nl«o to neglect in tho affirmations of ttia savants- everything oxcept tho pure amj simple statements of factsr , His Crowded Lectures. "At tho College de France, to which! ho hns been attached 6inei>.l9oo, Borffsofl is favoured with' an audienco such as , lma boon vouchsafed to ( no other rrencli scholar of this generation. I'or Ins Jivq o'clock lecture his auditors begm to take seats as early ns half-past and it} is not lonu beforo they overflow into thd aisles and even into tho corridors, "M, Bergson's head has not been tuni4. od by the furoro his teachings hav<* aroused. As lcctnrer of tho College Kraueo ho has not cast asiao tho tho sanctity, tho sincerity, and the einw. pi icily that characterised him as a hunw bio provincial professor* Not insensible to his world-fanio, ho is not dazzled byt it. Ho does his utmost to {mrsuo, in, spite of it, tho even tenor ot his way. but ho cannot oseapo tno thousand ana one petty obligations it brings in its train, and. ho is unspeakably weary ot wasting 111 futilities and irrelevancies tho, precious hours indispensablo to tho plction of his great .work. -i "Tho last timo I was privileged to talk! with him 110 presented tlw appearance ot a man, harassed by tuft-hunting import tunity," who is draining tho bitterness of celebrity te tho uttermost dregs, of a man overburdened, not to say overwhelms od, with occupations and preoccupations of a moro or less unessential sort."

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