This little volume contains the discourse delivered by M. Bergson asPresident of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques at itsannual public meeting on December 12, 1914. It is the address whichpreceded the announcement of the prizes and awards bestowed by theAcademy. It is now issued in book form with the consent of the author,and his full appreciation of the object, to give it the widestcirculation. Although it is brief, it is a message addressed directlyto the heart of our people in the crisis of war. To it is added ashort article on the same theme, contributed to the Bulletin desArmées de la République, November 4, 1914.
[10]It has been said that war, with all its terrible evils, is theoccasion of at least one good which humanity values as above price: itinspires great poetry. On the other hand, it seems to crushphilosophy. Many may think that in this message it is poetry to whichM. Bergson is giving expression. It is, however, from the depth of hisphilosophy that the inspiration is drawn. The full significance of thedoctrines he has been teaching, and their whole moral and politicalbearing, are brought into clear light, focussed, as it were, on theactual present struggle. Yet is there no word that breathes hatred toany person or to any race. It is by the triumph of a spiritualprinciple that philosophy may hope to free humanity from theoppression of a materialist doctrine.
The opposing principle has had, and still has, philosophers to defendit, and they belong to no particular nation or race. One [11]of its mostbrilliant and influential exponents was a Frenchman, the diplomatist,Comte Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882). A brief word on thisremarkable man may help the reader to understand the mention of hisname on page 30. His Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines (1855)was t