Bottle in the Sea

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This book is a wise and tolerant one—the Testament of a Humanist. In it, a cultivated, clear-minded, perceptive man of goodwill sets forth the complex of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs by which he has lived, and which are his answer to Kenan’s words: “What shall they live by, who come after us?”

Praising thought as the whole dignity of man, Professor Albert Guérard traces “the forces and spirits of doubt” from Descartes and the Enlightenment to modern science and psychoanalysis—and he concludes that “reason” is not enough. Art escapes from the sterility of mere intellect; with imagination and passion it embraces our consciousness of life. In his exploration of new faith the author discusses what he believes in and what he yearns for—his ideal Commonwealth.