WHERE do we go from here?" is asked not only by the would-be Bohemian in a material way, but by all civilization in a much more searching fashion. The Guild proved a medium for expressing among others one answer several years ago, "R. U. R."--that while science and the machine could not totally obliterate humanity, yet only on the barest thread of some intangible essence hung the existence of civilization, a thread totally outside of the scope of science. Others have given vent to the fantastic and emotional cry "Back to Nature"--and schools of education have in a few instances carried this into practice.

"Whither Mankind" follows neither cycle. In this symposium Mr. Beard has merely striven for understanding, a pause to look back and glance at the balance sheet of our present day civilization. In the confusion of the days events, the average Rotarian, rarely finds the moments, or grasps the isolated opportunity to see spread before him the wide vista presented by the present day world and its components. Life is too short! The view is too limited! But aided by a group of eminent men in all fields Mr. Beard has accomplished this height from which the average human can view, undistorted by philosophical sophistry, or modes and trends, contemporary life.

Hu Shih, whose contribution to the symposium, is among the very best of the sixteen contributions, disclaims the spirituality of the Orient, often sweepingly exhibited as an ideal of a more untrammeled civilization, and asks "What spirituality is there in a civilization that tolerates such a terrible form of human slavery as the ricksha Coolie."

A Harvard professor, commenting upon Durant's "Story of Philosophy" suggested somewhat patronizingly that Durant had brought philosophy to Main Street but had not succeeded in bringing Main Street to Philosophy. Dewey, in looking on this field has combined both with a great deal of grace. The students of Philosophy A will quite probably support the opinion that to bring Philosophy to Main Street is not entirely to be regretted. And in doing so Dewey has not soiled the purity of intellectual emotion,--merely strained off the soporific wanderings of contemporary philosophy to bring to light certain basic principles common to modern civilization. Values and standards have been the chief concern of philosophy, he maintains, but the standards by which most of us judge values are based on the contemplative tradition and "the elements of that tradition are so far removed from the actualities of modern life that we are almost wholly at a loss when we attempt to pass critical judgments upon what is now going on,"--or in Bertrand Russell's opinion "we do not contemplate a flea; we catch it."

To Mr. Beard must be given the credit for the vision which produced the above symposium, in which many others than have been commented upon, have spread the sphere of the present day before us. It asks or receives nothing, but in doing thus, it inspires a totally different and individual conception, aside from the traditional creeds, of the prevailing mode among such as "us moderns".