No one could write as William Allen White has written, without the spiritual impulse; and in this monograph Mr. White not only makes it clear that this is so with him, but he outlines in charming fashion the spiritual theory under the spell of which his best work has been done.
It is no mystical theory. He deals straightforward with those facts of human experience of which everyone has some knowledge. The basis of the theory is scientific, the recognition by modern science of "determinate or purposive change" as characteristic of evolution—a change that has already driven out cruel customs in great degree and replaced them with kindly habits. From this observed fact of "determinate or purposive change," the author infers beneficent direction. He concludes, therefore, that there must be a beneficent director and that the director must have a beneficent prod.
The beneficent prod is human suffering as the consequence of unkindly conduct. A few quotations will indicate both the character of the theory and the quality of Mr. White's presentation of it: "Man as an individual is happy only as he is kind. Of course, it is impossible to say just what man is happy and what man is unhappy. But approval of one's kind probably is one of the things that make for happiness. Who is surer of public approval than the generous adversary, the chivalrous foe, the kindly competitor? Is the rich man always praised? Does he not often drain a bitter cup? Is the powerful man sure of public acclaim in his mean use of power? Is the proud man encouraged in his pride? It pays to be decent, is a proverb of the people. That means only that the spiritual is dominant in a material world. The man who is ever looking for the main chance is the final loser of the game. Greed poisons itself and dies. The plutocrat is pulling against the current.... Whoever would achieve any worthy thing must found it upon the common law of kindness known as righteousness. The world's greatest goods are not set- in the ether. Its most permanent rewards are not material. We are all working in clay, and it is our duty to work well; but our pay should be such stuff as dreams are made of. The fool is he who works in clay and takes his pay in clay, for 'the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.' ... A man never succeeds in a large sense in working for himself. Only until a man has got out of himself, until his effort is for others, until, in short, he is out of the eternal grind and in the wider spiritual cycle, may a man really achieve. For it is folly to pull against the current—spending strength to no end.
–The Public, Vol. 14