Abstract: T. S. Eliot was a disciple of Irving Babbitt. On the one hand, he inherited Babbitt's critical stance toward Romanticism, carried on Babbitt's concern with issues related to morality and Classicism, and advocated Babbitt's academic views about the trend of pragmatic education. On the other hand, however, Eliot insisted on adopting, side by side, the strategies of “pursuit and doubt” and “absorption and abandonment,” thus launching a series of scholarly debates with Babbitt on the nature of religion, the relationship between Humanism and religion, and other issues, and claiming that only through openness and inclusiveness could Humanism take root and grow sturdily in American society. Eliot attempted to strike a probable balance between the doctrine and discipline of Humanism and the empathy and tolerance of Christianity. At the time, such a concept appears to be novel, but certainly forward-thinking. Eliot reenacted a modern-day academic legend of “Teacher is dear to me, but dearer still is truth” in the history of literary criticism and made important contributions to the development of literary criticism in the West and in the world as well.

Key words: moral criticism, Eliot, Babbitt