THE MAKING of a MIND Photo: Editions Bernard Gntsset
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THE MAKING OF A MIND photo: Editions Bernard Gntsset TeiiharcJ de Chard in during World War I By the same author THE PHENOMENON OF MAN THE DIVINE MILIEU LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLER THE FUTURE OF MAN HYMN OF THE UNIVERSE PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN THE MAKING OF A MIND LETTERS FROM A SOLDIER-PRIEST I9H-I9I9 translated from the french 'gbnese d'unb pbns£b' BY rbn6 HAGUB HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK Contents PREFACE page 7 MARGUERITE TEILLARD-CHAMBON 13 THE GREAT WAR: 1914-1919 23 TEILHARD DE CHARDIN's WAR SERVICE 4-1 LETTERS 43 INDEX 311 THE MAKING OF A MIND PREFACE At the time ofher death Marguerite Teillard (Claude Aragonnes) had almost completed the draft of her study of Pere Teilhard's war years; she had already taken the precaution of asking us to see to its publication should she be unable to do so herself. We were touched by her trust and have tried to carry out her wishes. How serious a responsibility was entailed became apparent as soon as we examined the material. One thing in particular impressed us: Marguerite Teillard's self-effacement. In presenting the letters she had omitted every- thing that concerned herself personally and concentrated on allowing the personality ofPere Teilhard to emerge. We felt, however, that it would be impossible to understand the birth and development of Pere Teilhard's thought if the part played by Marguerite were not appreciated. Her modesty and her sense of dignity caused her to withdraw into the background, but her contribution, from the very nature of her character, was of capital importance; and now that death has released her from any possible suspicion of vanity or pride we feel that her personality should no longer be left in self-imposed obscurity. We have therefore published the full text of the letters, omitting only such passages as are of purely family interest and of too personal a nature. Similarly we have given the full names of various relations of P£re Teilhard (brothers and cousins) instead of the abbreviated or familiar forms he uses. These are the only textual alterations we have thought ourselves justified in making. It has not been possible to reproduce in print the superimposi- 7 THE MAKING OF A MIND tion of words or phrases that betray P£re TeilharcTs hesitation in choosing the phrase that best expresses his thought. It indicates an attempt to achieve a gradation between the terms or formulas used, rather as a straight line is defined by its two extreme points. This search for exactness in phraseology is so important in following the development of P£re Teilhard's thought that we have printed in parentheses the words or phrases that appear in the original as additions above the line. Abbreviations have been written out in full. There is no doubt but that a considerable number of letters are missing. Some obviously went astray when Pere Teilhard was on the move during the war, and others were mislaid by Marguerite when she was travelling in France or abroad imme- diately after the war. A note in her hand, found among the material for the book of war letters, shows that she could find no letters for the periods 15th April to 10th June 1917, and 16th October 1917 to 9th July 1918. The letters that survive, however, and are now printed, make it perfectly clear that it was during the war that the real substance of P&re Teilhard's thought began to emerge in its full force and vigour. Marguerite Teillard's strong personality is studied more fully later in this volume. She and her cousin were drawn together both by the ties of kinship and by an intellectual affinity and spiritual sympathy that brought complete and unreserved con- fidence. In reading P£re Teilhard's letters one sees how large a part Marguerite played in the development of his thought and one can appreciate the moving tribute he pays her in the letter written at the signing of the armistice. On the other hand, Marguerite drew great strength from her cousin's spiritual direction. Highly strung and with a passion to advance along the road of Christian perfection, she suffered intensely when every sort of obstacle hampered her progress. It seemed to her impossible to emulate the example of her cousins, P&re Teilhard's sisters (Fran^oise, a Little Sister of the 8 LETTERS FROM A SOLDIER-PRIBST I914-I919 Poor, who died in Shanghai, and Marguerite-Marie (Guiguite) who retained her serenity of spirit even when broken by ill- health). Although Marguerite longed to devote herself to the service of Christ, she felt no vocation for the religious life. P&re Teilhard's letters show how he made her understand that her taste for the things of the spirit could be cultivated through devotion to her educational work. One is moved as one watches her advancing along her road, helped also, as the letters again show, by M. Verdier, later Cardinal and Archbishop of Paris, and one develops a great respect for Marguerite. The vows referred to by P&re Teilhard and his cousin through- out their correspondence take on a deep spiritual and human significance when one realises that on 26th May 191 8 the former made his perpetual vows as a Jesuit at Sainte-Foy-l^s-Lyon, and that on 21st November of the same year Marguerite made a 1 solemn promise to God to devote her life to education. It is worth noting, too, that P&re Teilhard suggested certain modifi- cations in the wording of the promise, a wise precaution that was soon to be justified when Marguerite fell ill in 1922 and was obliged to give up her work as head of the Institut Notre-Dame- des-Champs and recuperate in the South of France and in Rome before going back to teaching. The text of the letters seldom calls for elucidation. We have not thought it necessary to include more than a few notes to explain an occasional reference or detail All the letters are addressed to Marguerite. They may be seen as one side of a conversation that appeared on paper only because the writers were unable to speak directly to one another; the reader can get to the heart ofa thought that struggles to find exact expression and at the same time he can witness the unfolding ofa profoundly human story. P£re Teilhard went to the war at the age of 34, with no pre- vious military experience. It did not take him long to understand the nature and meaning of war. His letters from the front have a striking appositeness for us today, for the war of 1914-18 1 <£ letter dated 4th November 1918. 9 THE MAKING OF A MIND foreshadowed the second world conflict when two civilizations confronted one another and all the nations of the world were involved in the complex mixture of nobility and baseness, suffering and joy, self-sacrifice and selfishness that such a conflict produces. At no time was he ever lost in or crushed by the events in which he took part. He had the gift of sharing an experience and at the same time remaining detached from it. When one notes the times and places at which he was writing, one can appreciate the extraordinary serenity of mind that could be produced only by P&re Teilhard's vision of an all-embracing unity in the universe. It was this that enabled him both to be one with warring humanity and at the same time to understand that the chaos in which human cells were struggling was only apparent and that beneath these shattering events there was an underlying order. He saw beyond the horizons of this world so that the field of battle, where death seemed to triumph, was to him the living crucible or mould in which a new world was being fashioned. The ancient home-lands might be so torn by the horrors of war that the traditional seeds could no longer take root, but a new seed-bed would be formed, rich with blood and tears, with the very flesh of men who had given their lives, and in this would be nourished another seed, new, and yet essentially eternal. As Pere Teilhard became increasingly conscious of his voca- tion he could write: ' So far as my powers allow me, because I am a priest, I am determined in future to be the first to realize what the world loves, what it seeks for, what it suffers; the first to join in the search, to feel with the world, to know suffering; the first to fulfil myself and to sacrifice myself,—more widely human and more nobly of this earth than any man who serves the world. I wish on the one hand, to immerse myself in things, and as I enter into them to make them my own and so extract from them the very last particle they hold of eternal life,—so that nothing is lost— . I am determined at the same time, by following 10 LETTERS FROM A SOLDIER-PRIEST I914-I919 the counsels of perfection, to retrieve through renunciation all that our three-fold concupiscence contains of the heavenly fire; through chastity, poverty, and obedience to sanctify the power enclosed in love, in riches, in autonomy. ' That is why I have taken my vows and assumed my priest- hood (the only source of my strength and happiness) in a spirit .' 1 that accepts the powers of this earth and sees God in them .