Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2654

Letter from Arline Stallings, Preferred Employment Service, 211-12 Tower Building, Baltimore 2, Maryland

July 15, 1957

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

It is not my intention to flatter you, Mr. Heath, but I shall always remember your visit with me on last Thursday as an outstanding experience. The many facets of your person­ality continually challenged me. However, the object of this letter is not to consider you as a personality — as fascinating as that subject might be — but to talk about your book and its possible contributory force on the world thinking of the future. And it is my humble opinion that this is truly a book of the future. Moreover, no modern philosopher has expressed such constructive, original, and creative ideas.

 Of course, I admit it has been a long, long time since I compared the various philosophers for direct comparisons. However, I recall the sad conclusion of my studies was the dead-end feeling that all philosophies “concocted” since Plato were merely extensions of the Platonion theory applied to different levels of progressive evolution(s).

 Naturally, a great many people will take issue with me on this statement. Most of them will advance the idea that definitely Karl Marx was a modern philosopher with ideas so prac­tical they are used as a governmental framework in nations all over the world. But I never could see it that way. As a matter of fact, Karl Marx — more than any other modern philosopher — appears to have “copped” Plato “lock, stock, and barrell.” And, of course, the French claim Voltaire and Rousseau as particularly practical modern philosophers. But as I waded through both Rousseau and Voltaire, Plato still appeared as a distant relative speaking through a strange tongue.

 Perhaps, I am presumptious to either criticize the other accepted philosophers or to praise your own original theory. And, yet it may be that as a lay representative of the work-a-day world, I may be in a better position to judge the values expressed in all the writings. After all, it is the average person who is particularly affected by Governmental trends. Therefore, speaking as “Mr. & Mrs. Average Citizen” I think you have stemmed the tide of “Communal ownership of peoples by governments, and established the rights of private dignity in ‘services’ and ‘contracts.’”

 You have expressed your ideas precisely, concisely, and practically, in sentence structures that are a delight to read. I assure you that this is one book that will have a very special place among the books I read over and over again. And I feel sure that each time I read it, I shall find something new; something to add to my understanding.

 However, I feel a great sense of urgency with regard to the placing of this book into as many hands and hearts as can be found to receive it. It will not revolutionze the congealed thinking of the world immediately, but I honestly believe “Plato is dead,” but “Heath will live on.”

Sincerely yours,

(signed) Arline Stallings