Rather will he learn with some of the philosophers themselves in moderating his ambitions to recast to some extent his notion of philosophy and to think of it as a means for the truer estimate of values and the better ordering of life.307 He will hope indeed that with study and reflections there may develop in the end some form of calculus less precarious than any that philosopher or lawyer has yet been able to devise. In the meantime, amid the maze of contingency and regularity, he will content himself as best he can with his little compromises and adjustments, the expedients of the fleeting hour. They will fret him sometimes with a sense of their uncertainty. It should hearten him to keep in mind that uncertainty is the lot of every branch of thought and knowledge when verging on the ultimate. "To whatever domain of intellectual activity you may address your inquiry," I quote the words of a distinguished judge, “you will find in the upper levels of research and judgment grave differences of opinion among the elect few. 808 There is tonic in that thought. There is even greater tonic in the thought that on our side are unseen and masterful allies, who are helping us to win the fight by a power not our own. For the process by which law grows is above all a social process. The individual intellect is not as desolate as it seems. The pressure that gives form to manners and morals

307 Dewey, Experience and Nature, pp. 394, 396, 398, 403, 404, 408; Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, pp. 122, 124.

308 Chas. E. Hughes, address at the Sixtieth Convocation of the University of the State of New York, October 17, 1924.

gives form in the end to law; to judge-made law often, and when on occasion that fails, to law declared by statute. Initiative, ingenuity, idealism will help. For a time the lack of them may deflect and hinder. But the steady pressure goes on, and finds in the end the responsive mind.

Strepsiades in the Greek play was eager to escape the payment of his debts. He was told that the Sophists, led by Socrates, had a good λóyos and a bad one, and that through the bad one injustice could be made to masquerade as justice. So he went expectantly to the school, and prayed to be made perfect in the logic that could cheat. He was old and dull-witted, and could not learn, and his son of quicker wit became the pupil in his stead. The son learned only too well the lesson of the wicked logic. He proved before long to the luckless father that it is the duty of a son to beat his parents and despoil them. So the play ends with Strepsiades disillusioned and repentant. The wicked logic must be abjured; the good one marks the path of happiness and peace.

I have faith with Aristophanes that it is so. Yet even as of old, the rival logics can be heard contending in the law courts of today, and the seeker after peace and happiness is still bewildered by the din.

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