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414 aVol. 54. No. 9

,OCTOBER 1949 Threepence

Ethical Fellowship / Georzfe E. O'Dell

The English Middle Classes S. K. Ratcliffe

The Future of Democracy flarnilton Fyfe

Public Opinion Archibald Robertson

Ourselves in the Mirror Hector Hawton

Notes of the Month Correspondence

South Place News Book Reviews

Society's Activities

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYSUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK

October 2.—PROFESSOR C. W. KEETON, M.A., LL.D.—" Law and Ethics inEighteenth Century. I.: Lord Mansfield and the Common Law "

Piano Solos by ELLA Ivislin":Mendelssohn

Spinning Wheel .. Mendelssohn

, Hymns: Nos. 216 and 59

October 9.—S. K. RATCLIVFE.—" Some of our Adversaries "Bass Solos by G. C. DowsiAN:

Transience .. G. C. DowinonLinden Lea. R. Vaughan Williams

Hymns:• Nos. tom and 141

October M.—ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON, M.A.—" The End and the Means "Cello Solos hy Lilly Phillips:

Largo VivaldiOriental:: Cesar CuiSerenade Glacounov

Hymns: Nos. 227 and, 94

October 23.—JOSEPH McCABE.—" The Black Year of 1849 "Bass Solos by G. C. DLAVNIANI:

Money 0 Michael HeadSi tra i Ceppi Handel

Hymns: Nos. 228 and 41 •October 30.—DR. HELEN ROSENAU-CARMI.—" The Beautiful and the Good "

Soprano Solos by PAMELA WOOLMOIth,

Ilymns: Nos. 42 and 54

Pianist: ELLA IVIMEY. Admission Free. Collection.

SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS. 59th SEASON

Concerts 6.30 p.m. (doors open 6 p.m.). Admission Is.

October 2.—Blech String Quartet. Colin Horsley. Haydn, Op. 64, No.5 in D; Beethoven, Op. 132, in A minor. String Quartets.Schumann Piano Quintet.

9.—Rubbra-Gruenberg-Neeth Piano Trio. Schubert, Op. 100,in E fiat; Bloch, Three Nocturnes: Beethoven, Op. 97, in Bfiat.

16.—Vaughan Williams Birthday Concert. Aeolian StringQuartet. Rene Soames. Both String Quartets in G minorand A minor. Song Cycle for Voice, Piano and StringQuartet: On Wenlock Edge."

23.—James Whitehead Chamber Music Croup. Svendsen, Op. 3,in A: Mendelssohn. Op. 20. in E flat. String Octets. HaydnEcho Sextet. Boccherini 2-Cello Quintet in C:

30.—Hurwitz String Quartet. Bartok No. 1 in A minor, Op. 7;

LY)Beethoven, Op. IS, No. 5 in A: Mozart K.575 in D.

The Objects of the Society are the study and dissemination of ethical principlesand the cultivation oE a ratidnal religious sentiment.

Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become a Member(minimum annual subscription los.), or Associate (minimum , annual subScri pt ion 5s.),Associates are not eligible 'to vote or hold office. Enquiries should be fnade of the:Regilstrar to whom subscriptions should he paid.

TheMONTHLYRECORD

Vol. 54. No. 8 OCTOBER 1949 Threepence

CONTENTS PAGE

NOTES OF THE MON 1111 .. .. .. . 3

ETHICAL FELLOWS,. IP, George E. CIDell .. 5

THE ENGLISH MIDDLE CLASSES, S. K. Ratcliffe 7

THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY, Hamilton Effe .. 10

PUBLIC OPINION, Archibald Rober1.1011 . . . . 12

OURSELVES IN THE MIRROR, Hector Halvion .. 14

CORRESPONDENCE .. .. .. .. 17

South PLACE NEWS 19

Both: REVIEWS .. 22

Sochity's ACTIVITIES 24

The views expressed in this journal are not nece.ssarily Mose of the Society.

Notes of the MonthWe may wonder perhaps if the marvellous weather has had something to

do with the outbreaks of mass hysteria that have marked the summer of1949. These have been most shocking in connection with the antics oftwd American child " healers "—one a boy of fourteen and the other alittle girl said to be no more than nine. After meetings in Kingsway

Little David " wound up at the Albert Hall with an audience of 6.000.He jumped about before the microphone while shrilling about his " visit toheaven " from California. The child Renee Martz, from Oklahoma, packedmany chapels in Leeds and other northern cities. Incredible though it maysound. one deluded V.C. officer handed his dying wife over to the care ofthe infant preacher. The exploiters of these pitiable youngsters had beenled to believe that present-day England is a profitable field. They appearto have found out their mistake for, although the crowds behaved as theywere expected to, they could not finahce the show. The one satisfactoryfeature of the enterprise is that it ended in a deficit. ,

Superstition UncheckedIs it, however, altogether surprising that stich follies continueieven in an

England that has come under a national Health Service? ThCagencies ofpopular,superstition go on unchecked. How many of us before the wars,for examplet4wqiild, have believed.that newspapers selling by the millionwould print columns devoted"to the clotted nonsense of astrology? Andthat, of course, is only one line of the current idiocy. When, or if, theproposed Press Council is established for the purpose of setting and uphold-ing standards, we may hopc that its members will not neglect the wideopportunity for reform that is provided by the practitioners of lunacy andthe editors who afford space for them. The task of sweeping out popular

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superstition is always hard. There is a large percentage of our fellow' creatures who simply refuse to look at evidence. The Piddingtons are a

case in point. Rather rashly. the B.B.C. put on their little show as enter-tainment, while encouraging the notion that it involved telepathy. From •the correspondence that ensued it was clear that listeners supposed the pro-cedure to be mind-reading, and not a few of them were annoyed by theexplanation of -conjuring. This kind of thing is trivial. We are in quiteanother world of illusion when we turn to the expedition in search of Noah'sArk remnants on Mount Ararat!

Chairman of the T.U.C.Mr. H. L. Bullock, who has often served on the South Place General

Committee, is the newly elected•Chairman of the General Council of theT.U.C. He has been a member of the Council since 1937, and is anindustrial oflicer of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers,the second largest union affiliated to the T.U.C. Mr. Bullock, who is sixty-seven, was born in Bristol. He left school at -12 to work in the chemical-fertiliser industry. He has been in the full-time service of his union fortwenty-three years, and was for sonic time Chairman of the T.U.C. Educa-tion Committee. He has had wide experience of the international tradeunion movement, and since the war has visited twenty countries, includingIndia and the United States. Mr. Bullock is known to the Society, no lessthan to his fellow unionists, as a warm and optimistic personality, alwayswelcome at Conway Hall.

High Leigh ConferenceThe Ethical Union held their annual High Leigh Conference this year

the weekend of September 10-12 in fine weather. fifty-five members takingpart. The general theme of the Conference was "Changing Social Habits ".Dr. H. C. Lawton, discussing the problem of gambling. diagnosed the maincause as emotional immaturity and suggested education in leisure as themost fruitful remedy. Arthur Peacock, discussing-contemporary trends inreligion, noted a general movement in the churches towards greater ortho-doxy due to the discouraging experiences of two world wars: Niebuhr andKarl Barth were the most influential theologians today. At the same timethere was a deepening consciousness of social problems in the churches.

Virginia Flemming. discussing the problem -of the transmission of ethicalconviction, stressed the need of clarity of mind on ethical issues. The mosteffective means of transmission was through the experience of the young ina happy home and co-operation. There was the need of an " expressibleconscience!' so that the individual would have not Thily the conviction ofethical values but would be able to give tongue to it. If evil is uttered con-tinuously without effective contradiction it whittles away conviction. Itwas the task of Ethical Societies to produce this " expressible conscience".Marjorie Bowen, discussing contemporary fiction, gave it as her opinionthat the extreme preoccupation of the novelist with the sordid and thecoarse was a reflection of the frustrations of his ,own personality ratherthan the depiction of the worK1 about him. She foresaw the possibilityof a new turn in literature in which honour and chivalry, good mannersand a certaih amount of elegance would have a place. Should This conieabout, it would be reflecting gomething as true of human personality as

•the novelist's description today of the savage and the discreditable.

" It was the man who burnt his boats that set the Thames on fire.' —

G. K. Chesterton.

4

Ethical Fellowship

GEORGE E. O'DELL

MoaiktrrY, SAYS a cbaracter in Mr. Shaw's play Misalliance — morality isa matter of " making a line and seeing that other chaps toe it". So cynicala statement may offend, but it conveys a useful warning, particularly perhapsif considered by members of an Ethical Society! Why are we members?We include a great variety of persons, actuated by various creditable motives.Not, we may be sure, the craving for social respectability, nor evenithat thereis a family pew. Most often the reasons may be intellectual; wc'may wishto bear witness against childishness in religion, and may be concerned to tellourselves and others what should not be believed, or to give support to a plat-form and publications which stress the essential independence of morality_N ufrom one or another theological or philosophical system—we may even risk'schalking lines here and falling into a naive vanity because we ourselves?;observe them.

Or it may be that we are alarmed that religious scepticism today tends11_to slip over into mere indifference. Or we may like the company of liberals.krOr we may be persons who, though giving up connection with any church orr-synagogue, have not quite " soured ", and miss some of the conventions oforthodox membership, the weekly service, the opportunities of shared bene-ficence, the social occasions on which persons of many sorts may meet.

Or it may happen that, knowing our private frailties, we value the periodicreminder that " what we should be we can be ". and wish for the stimulusor the bolstering of fellowship; in short, we may be secretly humble and self-distrustful, and belonging in an Ethical group can somehow shame us as toour derelictions and also make it easier to avoid them.

Now, it is characteristic that in our Societies such personal betterment orhelp as a function of membership is not ordinarily mentioned. Leaders, lec-

turers, members, would feel embarrassed by its avowal, and this is surelynot to their discredit. They do not want to be thought of as chalking a line.

Nevertheless the South Place Ethical Society, shall we not say, has a churchhistory, a congregational heritage; it is by tradition more than an academicsociety mainly recruiting into membership people who want to help propa-gate certain reasonable opinions. When, on the urging of Stanton Coit, andwith the concurrence of Moncure D. Conway and a majority of the member-ship, it changed its name from " Religious " to " Ethical ", its people didnot suppose that it thereby ceased to be religious, or that its congregation nolonger would have the character of a congregation. Though they might beamused if they read in a novel of that time by the American W. a Howells,The Lady of the Aroostook, the gentle jibe at the expense of the youngexpatriated American who, visiting home, tells that he is minister to anEthical flock in London, but is not quite certain yet whether he really is aminister and his flock really a flock.

It was the purpose at South Place to express the moral significance of itssort of religious society. Hence it was—and still should be—assumed thatits members, even without mentioning it, count themselves as beingeven specially aware of inner shortcomings and of the call to each of themfor untiring efforts after human effectiveness first in themselves and then inthe organised world about them, and certainly not the latter without the for-mer. We know too much about the kind of people who work strenuouslyfor this or that social change but remain selfish in their private relationships.All along have we not felt that we must give ourselves no air of moralsuperiority, and that moral self-contentment would have a peculiarly crasscrudity if characteristic of our (let us be thankful) emancipated minds?

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A religious congregation, yes, but with a new 'difficulty. It is noteworthythat conventional churches chalk lines, but they are, for the most part, notmoral lines. The overt call is to believe that Jesus was God and that he diedto save you—provided you agree—from some Wrath to Come. There is noembarrassment about this. What would be embarrassing would be Christian

' ethics. To ignore the eschatology of Jesus—as is done—and demand more, than lip service to, say, the Sermon on the Mount, as having drastic practical

,lriimplications for our own day, would put most of the Protestant clergy out.j of Their-jobs. The salvation urged is only incidentally moral. "Believe!

11 'Believe!" is the cry.

To us, criticism of such a religion is a commonplace. But we cannot stopshort at it. In the field of ethics itself there is the everlasting need of anappeal. We are unenterprising in our lives. We act according to traditionalconcepts; yet are these good enough, not merely for any demands for rightconduct in others, but for ourselves? Such scientific disciplines as arise from,say, modern physiology and psychology, wariant a pity for our fellows, anunremittine patience, a constructive forgiveness, even beyond the bareChristian demands. Nothing meets the ethical call but persistent effort" toreach new understanding and solicitude for each other's good and for theorganisation both in society and in our own contacts of practical means tomoral ends. If " Patriotism is not enough," neither is the give-andiitake ofthe Golden Rule, nor the practice of an accepted correctness of behaviour,of doing of what has been done. Further, " Judge not, that ye be not judged "—but by whom? By God? Nearer to us than any transcendental deity isourself. Here can be the Most drastic judge of all. A " rational religious

, sentiment " chalks inner lines and, with the psychologist of our day, discernsan exigency beyond casting out the inner " beam " before tackling thebrother's " mote ", for it is revealed that the brother's mote is also secretlyor potentially our own, and that is why we are so aware of it in him. Weknow. Oh, the science of human motivation can be ruthlessly ironic in itsexposures, as on the other hand, it can be austerely benign in its potencyfor aid towards betterment! .

' Well, let us not suggest ihat membership in an Ethical Society shouldproperly be only for persons who have something of this church-like pointof view. But eertainly the ethical need of some is for a fellowship whichthey feel implies for them an exacting demand for idealism and sympathywith'their outreaching towards personal betterment—even help in the betterdiscernment of character values which should affect their daily lives. Itcould not but be an inadequate Ethical Movement which was only rational,only propagandist, even only " humanist " in the philosophical sense, andin which the individual who seeks, even unconsciously, emotional support,did not get it.,

Alas, Ethical Societies are not parishes. Usually their, membership iswidely scattered; rarely can more than a fraction get together in bodily fact.Yet it is surely true that, however divided by distance, the members dorecognise that' their affiliation does imply a commitment to a fellowshippassing beyond self-sufficiency, an inner acknowledgment of the call forstrenuousness in right living, even if it go no further than the will so tofeel and act that were the whole group, so to speak, an onlooker, there needbe no shame in its presence. - Thou, God, seest me!" is thus, for somehumble and morally anxious souls, replaced by the thought of that idealjudgment which belongs with the sense of obligation and the demand forright relationships which is implicit in a society which professes to be ethicalat all. Foil- it is implied, even though no preacher voices it and no memberconsciously questions whether any fellow member besides himself is subjectto it. .

There is one respect in which a congregation can be unique, in a most

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important way. It can •be, and sometimes is, a cross section of .the com-munity. It can and should provide an _escape from social narrowness. A

4amily_is properly in some sense cIannishra trade union . or , professionalgroup is concerned with vocational and economic problems, a club bringstogether persons devoted to particular politics or some specific recreationor requiring mere social convenience. But in a congregation unlikes meetwith unlikes, even classes with classes; there is interchange of more thansimilar experiences; there can be developed a feeling for shared socialresponsibilities. It may be true that in an Ethical Society ordinarily notevery kind, of person is included, and the majority, though not necessarilymore intelligent than other people, are at any rate less hidebound—andaware of it. They are less a cross sample of common well-meaninghumanity than, say the communicants at St:This or That. • Yet their back-grounds are varied, their education, their politics, their homes, their hobbies,

' their intellectual views. And it is precisely this sort of association—withsuch meeting together as is feasible—which helps both to compensate forthe excessive particularity of other groupings in which the member maybelong, or for the stay-at-home isolation which is among the sad results ofthe decline in conventional religious affiliation. Even if only by generatingan atmosphere of communal rather than sectional goodwill, congregationalmembership can and does make the individual more consciously aware ofthe ethical call—that one should strive to act not compartmentally but atone's worthiest, within possible limits, in every part of one's life. So easilyis this forgotten, but so urgent is It if humanity is to progress towards" wholeness " and get beyond Emerson's " cockcrow " of civilisation!

There is room then in our Societies for a variety of motives, needs, helps,and for tolerance of many types, yet with a common seriousness of purpose,in one or another way to further the cause of ethical reasonableness andright action in this our world.

The English Middle . ClassesB Y

•

S K. RATCLIFFE

IN THE silent revolution that has gone forward at increasing speed since theFirst World War, could any movement be of greater significance forEngland than the overthrow of the middle classes? With the exception ofCanada and the United States, no country has possessed a bourgeoisie ofsimilar wealth and power. It was completely dominant in Britain throughthe century which opened with the Reform Act of 1832. William Morrissaid that the industrial revolution meant a final triumph for the middleclasses—materially, intellectually, and morally. The reform of the CivilService opened all the doors of executive authority to the upper-middles.The Empire was developed and administered by them. The modern Stateis their creation. After Gladstone's second Ministry the Cabinet was theirpreserve. In 1923, when Lord Curzon was passed over in favour of StanleyBaldwin, the Conservatives were making known that the most importantpremiership in the world had been finally surrendered. We may take forgranted that the next Labour Prime Minister will mark a further stage ofevolution.. One social historian remarks that no. subject could call for a definition_n'ibite -clearly than this one does, yet not many are more difficult to delimit, by reason of vague expanse and continuous change. His own effort is not too good. The middle class, he decides, is " that portion of the com-

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munity in which money is the primary condition-and the primary instru-r/" ment of life ". But, as a matter of fact, this sentence is applicable to the-' whole. In a feudal system or a society dominated by the Church, where

debts are paid mainly in kind or by service, there is little room for themiddle class as we know it. But for at least four centuries the class andits functions have been expanding, while during the latter half of thatperiod the ancient power of land-ownership has declined. We cannotassume that money is the primary condition of life for the middle classesalone, when the people who are deemed to be more fortunate are given upto lavish spending and those below are driven by grim daily- necessity tohope and strive for a little more money. The middle classes, none the less,have their roots in trade and farming. For 200 years in England theirsocio-religious framework was Nonconformity.

It is often asserted that the middle class in England has been much less ,clearly moulded than the bourgeoisie of France or imperial Germany; anda favourite theme of the social analyst has been the superiority of thosecommunities in dignity and *culture. The question is arguable. Onedifference, probably is that the English middle classes are more diversified 0than others, having many more subdivisions, although all alike haveexhibited the main, and deplorable, contrast between the governingbourgeoisie and the multitude which the snobbish usage of our countrylabels as the lower-middles. In the transformation of the social scene thatwe are witnessing, it is not easy to say whether the changes thus far aremore vital or revolutionary in the upper or in the lower division; but.indubitably the forces at work during the past half-century have gone along way towards the reduction of that powerful minority in our countrywhich, judged by wealth and privilege, was without parallel in the world.

Victorian England, despite the, horror of its underworld, was universallylooked upon as an embodiment of riches and stability. Its union of aristo-cracy and commercial enterprise, with political. freedom, impressed theforeign observer as an enviable structure. As Emerson put it, England 100years ago was the best of existing nations, although he condemned thegoverning orders for their materialism and unashamed worship of success.Our new rich were the product of industry and commerce. It was theirenergy and character which moulded the society of the gilded age. Theywere allied with the landed gentry. Their rule was extended over the pro-fessions and government offices, The empire of privilege was theirs. Theirinvestments were the marvel of the world. A trivial income-tax left theirprofits unimpaired. Before the epoch of war and revolution their senseof security was absoffile. And who would be so ignorant as to deny thatthentovidedh ithijiiniortion of tho nation's resources in voluntary serviceand public spirit?

Their power and achievements were accepted as the guarantee of nationalprogress and prosperity; yet the prophets of the time were vocal, and

t effective in their contrasted styles. Carlyle foretold the Day of Judgment. \' Ruskin's outlook was settled gloom. For thirty years Matthew Arnold

taunted the middle classes as Philistine, indifferent to culture and woefull'Y f

lacking in ideas. " Our middle classes ", said he, " know neither man nOr 1the world; they have, no light, and can give none." At that time William iMorris was asking: " Can the middle classes regenerate themselves?" His !

, answer was:

" At first glance one would say that a body of people so powerful, whohave built up the gigantic edifice of modern commerce, whose science,invention, and energy have subdued the forces of nature, could do any-

(1thing they please... . . And yet- I doubt it. Their own creation, thecommerce they are proud of, has become their master.-

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• Morris was outraged by the squalor and ugliness of the industrial system.

He was no Marxian, but he sounded one note that was to become most

familiar. The coming revolt, he said, would have momentous consequences.

The great middle class would in its turn—

t" be absorbed into the proletariat, which will form a new society in which

classes shall have ceased to exist. This is the next revolution, as inevitable,

as inescapable, as the rising of tomorrow's sun

Those words were written seventy years ago. They are far as yet from

fulfilment, hrirningle generation we-hive taken long strides towards

that " equality of condition " which the poet-craftsman saw as both desirable

and predestined. In present-day England the evidences lie all around us,

. and perhaps they are most noticeable in the immensely altered circumstances

of the middle classes, both upper and lower.

' Throughout the modern age the lower-middles have been oppressed, or

at least grossly under-privileged. Bernard Shaw used to remind them that,

being of necessity unorganised, they were wholly unrepresented in Parlia-

4\ment. Why, then, did they not make common cause with the mass of

wage-earners? One very important question brought out by the Welfare

State is, how soon and how far will the social services bring about a fusion

between this section of a multiform class and the great body of industrial

workers whose combined pressure has resulted in so marked an advance of

wage-earning ability; or alternatively, whether the schools and the con-

tinuous emergence of new technical occupations may not yield a fresh

outgrowth of the bourgeoisie. Can there, for instance, be a political rally,

as in 1931 and 1935?

On the whole, we may conclude that there is in England today no social

process of greater interest than the shock from which the upper middle

class is now reeling. The citadel of its governing authority is undermined.

t Its hope of political recovery would appear to be tenuous. Its grip of

Ileducational privilege, until recently complete, is challenged by a host of

scholarship-winners. Its big one-family houses are being abandoned. Taxa-

1 tion and the rising cost of luxuries, once thought of as necessities, are

'Oenforcing a strictly limited domesticity. The English woman who took for

i \ granted a famous standard of comfort is doing her own work. She takes

her place in the queue, and does not need to be told that every kind of

1 service has become scarce.

, The authors of the newest book on the English middle classes (Roy Lewis

and Angus Maude) believe that a collective sense of guilt, in reference to

the failures of the inter-war years, accompanies this momentous transition.

I am inclined to doubt that, but it is not possible for any man or woman

in the class we are considering to be free from misgiving over the past or

anxiety for the future. The more thoughtful among them, also, must at

times reflect upon the brevity of the period during which their privileged

order has held the reins of power. A single century is the span between the

Reform Act and the great overturn. -

To all this there is an ethical conclusion that may be stated in the simplest

words. In our day, for reasons that need not be particularised, some

opprobrium has been attached to the term " bourgeois morality.". The

implication is that certain virtues, deemed to be peculiarly those of the

middle class, arc pedantic, outworn. contemptible. Yet they include sobriety,

honesty, fidelity to the pledged word. How can morality, the good life,

be related to class divisions? And if it could, how in the world can the

middle station be disgraced by caring for virtues without which society

could not be held together?

(StManary of an address delivered September II)9

The Future of DemocracyY

HAMILTON FYFE

THERE is an English countryside saying that " no beer's bad, only some'snot so. good as others -. If we accept the verdict of history, we must agreethat no government is good and that some forms of it are a good dealworse than others.

Why is government necessary? It is necessary because instinct, whichprevails among all other species, has been to a very large extent lost byMan and is supposed to have been superseded with favourable results by.intellect. To consider whether the results have actually been favourableor not is not our purpose this morning, but it will be generally concededthat it has made Man " Nature's rebel son ", as Ray Lankester called him;that the seeking out and setting out in order of many inventions, to quote the ,author of Ecclesiastes, has brought about no permanent improvement inthe conditions of human life; and that all our efforts to create stable formsof living together in peace and with a fair standard of existence for allhave so far failed. -

Those efforts we lump together under the term government ". They havepushed out in many directions. Man has tried the rule of single despots,the rule ot a few despots (oligarchy), the rule of priests, the rule of soldiers,Lhe rule of one class claiming to be of superior mentality, and lastly therule of enormous masses of people, voting at intervals for this or thatpolicy, those or these managers of their affairs. This last-named systemwe call demobracy• and until about a generation ago it was regarded asthe almost perfect method of government, which had come to stay forall future time.

Of course, you say, that was folly. So it was, but then almost all ideas,theories, and preductions seem foolish when we look back on them afterthey have gone out of fashion. Tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse. Nothinglasts, we get tired of everything, and in the end we break it up. Nowadaysmany of us are trying desperately hard to convince each other that ourEuropean civilisation can be made permanent, disregarding the knowledgethat many other civilisations have had their day and ceased to be, and thesigns that ours is going the same way. Paula rei, declared Heraclitus nearlytwenty-five centuries ago—everything is in a state of flux. Change is thelaw of life.

Seneca called Man " the hardest of all animals to govern ". One mightgo further and say Man is the only animal requiring government.

It is true that bees, ants, termites, beavers, and certain other species worktogether to rule for definite ends. But they do this instinctively, not becausethey are forced to obey or feel the need, of rulership. They combine to

-produce honey or dams. anthills or termitaries. They suffer from nointellectual urge to alter the arrangement. Man in what we call a primitivestate lives very much like that, but as soon as he complicates hiS existenceand gets farther away from Nature, he is filled with restless longings„ heinvents the illusion of progress .

Some who have cultivated intellect propose changes of all kinds, theydiscover how life may be made more comfortable, they lust after propertyOr power or. if they are not moved by selfish interest, they feel pity forthose who, in Austin Dobson's lines:

" Tread life's stageWith weary feet and scantest wage.And ne'er a leaf for laurel."

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They become reformers, idealists, and dream of a world where every one

will .be happy.No such world has ever existed since we have record of human activities.

The first endeavour to form communities was the Totem-group, then• came

the family-group, then the trible, then the clan, then the nation, .then the

nation-group, exemplified in the British Commonwealth and the U.S.S.R.

Here there does seem to have been an advance towards genuine civilisation,

which to my mind means quite simply " being civil "—that is, behaving in

a friendly, tolerant, helpful way. Within the groups no fighting was allowed,

though.they continued, and still continue, to fight with other groups. If

we could collect the whole of humanity into one group and in the phrase

of the American statesman Kellogg " outlaw war ", we should perhaps

prolong the existence of our European civilisation and make democracy,

the rule of thc masses, something like a reality.

Yet that after all would be outlawing only one of the destructive forces •

which have so far prevented democracy from being really government by

the people. The need for government arose from the institution of private

property and there is no sign that what Walt Whitman termed " the mania

for owning things " is any less prevalent than it has been in the past. Trade

union leaders who have spent their lives denouncing the evils of excessive

riches jump as soon as they can into jobs with salaries of several thousand

pounds a year attached to them. The Church can't induce capable young

men to take orders because it is unable to pay them what they can earn in

business or the law.One essential of democracy, if it is to work well, is a constant flow of

able and honest men and women who wish to take part in public affairs

without making large profits out of them. They should put their proposals

before the electorate, offering to put them into practice to the best of their

ability and undertaking that if other measures are preferred to theirs, they

will not factiously oppose them. Another essential is an electorate with

intelligence enough to understand the issues presented to it and readiness

fo work wholeheartedly for the welfare of the community, not merely for

themselves and their families. In no national State have these essentials

yet appeared.In very small areas the inhabitants can manage their own public affairs.

I have seen how they did it in Russian villages. They could do it more or

less in city-States such as Athens and early Rome. The Swiss and

Scandinavian States with small populations are more nearly democratic than -

any others. Where there are many millions of voters they cannot be said

to govern themselves in any real sense and very seldom do the leaders for

whom they have voted govern them wisely. Lloyd George admitted that

the Liberal Cabinet to which he belonged " stumbled and staggered into

war " in 1914. We know that it was the blundering and bungling of the

Neville Chamberlain, Cabinet which led up to war again in 1939. John

Bright told John Morley when he showed . him the Cabinet Room at

Number Ten Downing Street that it had "seen more crimes and blunders

than any other place in the country ".

But, you may well ask, if we can't rely on politicians to govern well, what

alternative is there? I have suggested the answer to that in a little book

called A History of the Next Hundred Years. In that I have imagined

the formation of a body of technicians, engineers, managers of industry,

who become known as The Planners and who gradually win public con-

fidence by pressing on a weak administration projects of far-reaching value.

In course of time thev take over from the politicians and apply to the prob-

lems of government the same tests, principles, and technique which have been

of service to them in managing nationalised undertakings. Their aim is

economic and political stability.11

•

They form a privileged class, into which entry is not difficult for youngmen of ability, but they are not so far removed from the mass of peopleas to provoke envy or hatred. In time other nations follow the lead ofthe British, as they have so often done before in the realm of ideas, andthe Managerial Revolution, to borrow the title of a book on the subjectby James Burnham of Chicago, becomes world-wide.Some of the framework of democracy is left, mainly for the purpose ofcreating the illusion that nations rule themselves. Actually they are ruled,not any longer by a land-owning aristocracy, or by captains of industryintent on riches, or by financial tycoons, or by stumbling and staggeringpoliticians, but by men who have been scientifically educated and try tointroduce into government the methods of science. Their endeavour is tomake the machinery of the State work well for the benefit of all. They areconfident that so long as the masses are secure and comfortable, they willbe content to be governed.This is not presented as a utopia, a promised land. It would be a systemI shouldn't much like myself. But then I grew up believing in freedomand I know of no system of government for which I do very much care.How to reconcile freedom with government has been the theme of philo-sophers ever since Plato and Aristotle. No one has ever solved it, even onpaper, and I don't suppose any one ever will.

(Front an address delivered on September 18)

Public OpinionB Y

ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON, M.A.

OYER FIFTY years ago a master at my preparatory school took it into hishead to ask the boys of his form, one by one, whether they were Radicalsor Conservatives. All, including myself, answered that they were Conserva-tives. I remember that there was one exception, and that his shy avowal ofRadicalism was received with a guffaw of derision. I do not suppose thatany of us youngsters knew exactly what Conservative or Liberal principleswere. We wore the parental label and ridiculed any.other. Soon afterwardsthe Jameson Raid took place. As- a matter of course, wc all applaudedJameson as a hero. A few years later, when the Boer War began, withequal unanimity we applauded the war and looked on pro-Boers as traitorsto their country. Such was public opinion at preparatory and public schoolsin the nineties. We were little totalitarians.

Now, of course, popular opinion in the country was not nearly so unani-mous. Certainly the Tory Party was in the ascendant; but the Liberal,Radical and even pro-Boer minority of the electorate was not so insignificantas it was among my schoolfellows. The reason for that was that public andpreparatory schoolboys in general were the sons of well-to-do parents—clergy, professional and business men, army and navy officers—and were nota typical cross-section of the nation. In other words, the public opinion ofthis section was the opinion of a class—a class which could afford to givean expensive education to its sons, and which was chiefly interested in pre-serving the political and economic status quo.When we speak without qualification of public opinion, we very oftenmean the opinion of a class, though we do not always know it. This is verynatural. We form our opinions partly by exchanging views with our friends,neighbours and professional colleagues—that is, with people of our ownstation in life; partly by reading daily and weekly neWspapers; partly by

12

listening to the radio; and partly by observing and thinking for ourselves.But independent observation and thoueht play a far smaller nart in theprocess than we like to think. Moreover, what we observe and what wethink about depends to a very great extent on the other factors already men-tioned. No one thinks in a social vacuum; and it would not be good forhim if he did. Our opinions, therefore, are inevitably on a majority ofmatters the opinions of our friends, neighbours, colleagues, favourite news-papers or favourite radio commentators. We must accept this as a naturalphenomenon—a necessary concomitant of social life. We need not beashamed of it, but we need to clear ourselves of illusions about it. Publicopinion formed in this way is not infallible; it is not even self-consistent; it isnot " the mighty voice of the nation "; still less is it the voice of God. Itis uninformed, irrational and variable. We may have to take account of it,but we do not/owe it respect or revel ence. We are well advised not to runour heads against a brick wall, but we do not credit a brick wall withenlightenment.

With the advance of civilisation public opinion becomes less homogeneous,less stable, and more malleable and variable. In a savage tribe or a villagecommunity public opinion is simple and constant. It is part of the evolu-tionary equipment of the community, and serves, on the whole, the purposeof keeping the community going under the relatively stable conditions ofsavage or village life. With advanced civilisations it is different. Civilisa-tion develops class oppositions which are only latent in the savage tribe orthe primitive village. The primitive magician evolves into a priesthood anda church, the primitive chief into a hereditary aristocracy. Public opinionin civilised societies is no longer a mere instrument of social self-preservation.Its function is no longer only to keep the community going, but to keen theactual social structure (church, aristocracy and all) intact. It is increasinglysomething manufactured and imposed from above. As society is no longerhomogeneous, so neither is public opinion. As J. S. Mill observed, " whereverthere is an ascendant class, a large portion of the morality of the countryemanates from its class interests Public opinion becomes the opinion ofa class. But by that very, fact it becomes relatively unstable. Among thoseto whom the actual xocial structure is oppressive there arise contrary opinions,heresies, resistance movements; and to combat these there are evolved enginesof repression. penal legislation, inquisitions and, to justify this, campaigns ofdetraction. There is no longer one public opinion, because there is no longerone public.

So far I am simply stating facts, not passing judgment. I do not say thatthe heresies or revolutionary ideologies which arise out of the class struggleare necessarily more infallible, more self-consistent or more rational thanthe orthodoxies against which they are directed. It would be miraculousif they were. For the public opinion of rebel movements is evolved in muchthe same way as the public opinion of the possessing class—that is, by ex-changes of view among friends, neighbours and workmates and in literatesocieties, by inevitably tendencious papers and pamphlets. I am not holdinga brief for one against the other. I am mei ely saying that the class struggleand the struggle of opinion that eoes with it, in fact exist; that they are writlarge in history; that they are of a particular case, in the sphere of humansociety, of that struggle for existence out of which we have learnt that organicspecies and man himself have arisen; that here too, natural selection goes on.

The malleable and variable character of public opinion is immeasurablyintensified by the development of modern industrialism. In pre-industrialsociety the material basis of life at least was simple and fairly stable; thepeasant on his plot, the craftsman in his workshop lived in a way that changedvery little from year to year or from generation to generation; their attitudeto life was set in a mould cast by their way of living. But with industrialismall this has altered. The producer has become a cog in a huge industrial

13

and commercial machine ramifying over the globe in such a fashion that amaladjustment of supply and demand in one country may stop work inanother, without the workers affected having any first-hand knowledge ofwhat has thrown them out of work. The old-style European state, with itsleisurely diplomacy and mercenary armies, has given place to pact-boundpower-systems which by pressing a button can mobilise whole populationstor total war and annihilate them with the latest devices of physical, chemicaland biological science, without their knowing any more of why they die inwar than they did of why they suffered in peace. In such a society how isan enlightened public opinion to emerge? How does what passes for publicopinion in fact emerge? Public opinion is more than ever before in historya manufactured article. The average citizen is not a fool; he understands wellenough what passes under his nose. But of the great world, and especiallyof the world outside his own country, he knows just what the big circu-lations ". the radio and Foreign Office hand-outs tell him and no more. Thereliability of these sources may be gauged by the frequency and rapidity withwhich they change their tune. By dexterous shifting of emphasis, suppressionof fact, and (at least) non-committal patronage of fiction the enemy of yester-day can be painted as a friend, the friend of yesterday as an enemy, andpopulations can be whipped into war-fever against other populations ofwhom they know nothing beyond the phoney " picture broadcast for theirbenefit. That is what we mean by propaganda—an art perfected since 1914.

"Can be ". I do not say "must be ". There is a remedy for most evilsincluding this. The Greek proverb, " Know thyself ", should today bewritten in the plural: " Know yourselves "—or. as I am myself one of thosewho must learn the lesson, I prefer to put it: Let us know ourselves."That means we should study history--the making of our actual world outof what went before; and that, having studied it, WC should recognise presentdevelopments, not as terrifying portents out of the blue, but as the conse-quences of the movements of which we read in history, a continuation of thesame process. That will inoculate us against the sensational and contradic-tory stories peddled by pressmen who know no more history than a fourth-form schoolboy to a public that knows even less. We shall no longer becarried away by manufactured public opinion. We shall become ourselvesthe transformers of public opinion—a match for its manufacturers, becausewe have what they have not, a philosophy and a sense of direction.

(Summary of a lecture delivered on Sunday, September 25. 1949)

Ourselves in the MirrorB

HECTOR HAWTON

FOR MORE than 150 years the South Place Ethical Society has occupied aunique position in the religious and intellectual life of this country. It isold enough to have acquired a tradition and to have won the respect ofthose who by no means share its outlook. To have survived the convulsionsof a century and a half of revolutionary change without any dogma ordiscipline to hold,its members together seems to me a remarkable feat.

To appeal to reason rather than.passion, or to stand for generosity ratherthan intolerance, is not the way to win popular applause. We must, I think,accept thc fact that we are a minority movement; but that does not meanthat we should not take energetic steps to increase our membership andextend our influence. Nor can we afford to rest on past achievements orview with complacency the fact that the age-group of the majority of ourmembers is high.14

• There are two urgent questions that we must all face. First, it is essential

to attract more members, especially the younger generation. If we fail to

do so the laurels we have won in the past will become a wreath; we shall

die of old age. Secondly, we must endeavour to obtain better attendances

at our various functions; and I think that this may be achieved, if •we show

sufficient determination, even -without an increase in the general membership.

Many suggestions have reached me recently and they are .exceedingly

welcome, hope that readers of this article will send me any practical

recommendations that occur to them. The Committee arc alive to the

importance of the problem and will give the most careful attention to

members' views. For the moment I should like to state some tentative

conclusions of my own—some suggestions which those who were present

at the Sunday Social on July 17 have already heard.

One difficulty in attracting younger members is that the intellectual

barometer is set against us. The younger we are, the more sensitively we

react to prevailing intellectual fashions. I do not think it can be denied

•that Humanism is at present out of fashion. We have ceased to be a nation

of churchgoers, and the wireless is a powerful competitor to institutional

gatherings.' The mentally disturbed youth of today, if he wishes to join a movement at

all, is apt to be attracted by such dogmatic and highly disciplined organisa-

tions as the Roman Catholic Church or the Communist Party At least, that

is my own impression. I do not think that this is a permanent situation.

but it is a factor that we cannot ignore. We cannot sacrifice our principles to

add to our numbers, but I feel considerable sympathy with those inquirers

who come to me and ask : " What does your Society stand for?"

The brief formula that expresses our broad aims is somewhat too abstract

to give a very satisfying answer. I should like to have a leaflet that I could

give to any inquirer with a concise explanation of what we mean by " a

rational religious sentiment " and by " ethical principles ". At present I feel

that when I- am asked for bread I can only offer what seems little better

than a stone. But the difficulties in the way of compiling such a leaflet are

apparent.If we can maintain the present high level of our activities and if we all

resolutely join in the task of making them more widely known, I believe that

in time quality will be rewarded. But why cannot wc ourselves join even more

wholeheartedly in the various activities? .Why, for example, do not some

nwmbers who attend the concerts regularly come to the Sunday morning

meetings—and vice versa? When all allowance is made for those who do

not like niusic, or who are not interested in ,lectures, are there not purely

practical difficulties that prevent some people from coming to Conway Hall

on Sunday mornings as well as on Sunday evenings?

I think it is obvious that there are. We have a total membership (including

associates) of 536; but only 226 live in London, and only twenty-four in

Central London. For the overwhelming majority of members who could

attend our Sunday activities, it would be necessary to spend the entire dayin town if they came to Conway Hall in the morning and evening, or else

undertake an intolerable double journey. There is, in addition, good evidence

that for many.people Sunday morning meetings are more difficult than either

afternoons or evenings. A possible solution might be to change the time of

our meetings from morning to afternoon.Such a proposition may shock those with a strong sense of tradition,

and there would be no point in suggesting it if attendances were satisfactory.

They have declined so much recently that the Committee came to the

reluctant decision in July to hold the three remaining meetings for that

month in the library. It was manifestly absurd to use the large hall to

accommodate an audience of less than fifty. Nothing could he more

15

disheartening for the speakers and musicians than to confront row upon rowof empty seats.

For such an expedient to become permanent would be a deplorable con-fession of defeat; hence the need for bold experimentation. I think it wouldbe well worth giving Sunday afternoons a trial run to see whether in thisway the obstacles imposed by geography can be overcome.

There might be another possible gain from such a change. Instead of theSunday services and concerts being run in almost water-tight compartments,these two activities would be integrated, and our opportunities for socialintercourse would be greatly increased if tea could be made available betweenthe afternoon meeting and the evening concert. Instead of a social gatheringonce a month, there would be one every Sunday. I understand that this isquite feasible.

Experiments of some kind will have to be made if audiences worthy ofthe level of the discourses are to be attracted. There is no magic road tosuccess; it depends entirely on the amount of effort that we ourselves chooseto make. Are •we •willing to take a little more trouble to make the journeyto Conway Hall? Is it not possible to bring a friend occasionally? Couldwe not lend (or even give!) those friends who might be interested a copyof The Monthly Record? Members of 'the Society have a specialresponsibility to strengthen and augment it in every way that lies in theirpower.

We have assets that other organisations might well envy. We have a fine!building and a sound financial foundation. Our lectures and concerts areof the highest quality. We have inherited a noble tradition. The Societybears the stamp of the fearless integrity and intellectual daring of men andwomen who rebelled against the orthodoxies and prejudices of their day.We have a meaning and a message that has lost none of its urgency.

The battle against obscurantism is far from won, but we have more alliesthan ever before. The immediate task is to make contact with those whoare on our side but are unaware, perhaps, of our existence. Yet we cannotexpect outsiders to !be interested unless we ourselves make full use of ourfacilities. A stranger may sympathise with our aims but feel that a half-emptyhall shows we are not in earnest.

There are, no doubt, many ways in which we can attract others, but clearlywe must begin with ourselves. Whatever particular experiments we make,at least let us agree to experiment. Big numbers are hardly to be expected,but I do not think it is unreasonable to aim at double the present member-ship. And I think this target could be reached if every one made an extraeffort during the coming year. The warm fellowship that we enjoy atConway Hall is too good a thing to keep to ourselves. Changes are some-times uncomfortable and new members may on occasions—if we are quitehonest--seem to disrupt cherished habits. But I do not believe that anyone will be selfish enough to prefer the uninterrupted routine of establishedways merely because it is personally congenial. I have had plenty ofindications that the reverse is the case and that the utmost co-operation canbe expected in the drive to increase the membership of the Society.

Truth of itself is of sufficient worth,Nor needs it gloss of art to set it forth."

—Drayton.

" Words are like leaves, and where they most abound,Much fruit of sense is rarely found."

—Pope.

16

Correspondence•

Mrs. Clark's Lecture on the West African Colonies.. West Bank,

To the Editor of The Monthly Record, Baghdad, Iraq.

DEAR SIR—The account of Councillor Mrs. M. Clark's lecture on the WestAfrican Colonies, which is printed on page eleven of The Monthly Record

for August 1949. states that " Freetown was the first place visited ". It thengoes on to state that " the climate was much better than was expected -.but it is not clear whether this refers to Freetown, Gambia or West Africain general.

As regards the statement that " Gambia could no longer be described asthe white man's grave ", the description was not applied to Gambiabut to Sierra Leone.

The statement that " it was soon apparent that the chances of meetingAfricans seemed slight, as there was no social intercourse,- is funny, con-sidering that the place is full of Africans.

It seems unlikely that the following sentence accurately reports what Mrs.Clark wished to say:

Among the well-educated Africans there was bitter resentment atthe change of attitude of the white man towards them."

It is not a question of a change of attitude of the white man but of adifference between the attitude of white people in England to black visitorsfrom Africa and that of white men in West Africa towards black Africanswho have visited England.

A Frenchman or a Spaniard may visit England and be treated in a mostfriendly manner, as a foreigner in a strange country, but when he returnsto his own country it would be surprising if he thought that his visit toEngland entitled him on his return to foist himself upon the English com-munity in his native city•in France or Spain.

It is not clear why the black African who has returned from Englandshould be dissatisfied with the society of his fellow Africans and crave forthat of the white men who live in West Africa. Is it that he does not receivefrom his own people the tolerance that he experienced in England?

Yours faithfully,

AUSTIN EASTWOOD.

Wh a t is Personalism?To the Editor, The Monthly Record,

DEAR SIR—I admired Hector Hawton's study of Kierkegaard in your lastissue. It contained much that is true and valuable without indeed explainingwhy Kierkegaard has an appeal to both Atheist and Christian, to Heideggerand Jaspers, as well as Mounier and Marcel, an appeal which I might sayis not based on those errors and perversions which Mr. HaWton exposes.

But I feel I must correct a statement of his on Personalism, in which hedefines " Scientism as the Humanist faith in science and reason and remarksthat Personalism regards it as the enemy. There are no greater friends toscience and reason than the Personalists. The primary appeal of Mounier,to whom Mr. Hawton especially refers, is to reason, and his movement hasattracted a larger volume of support from Agnostics and Atheists than fromChristians. It is perhaps in part due to the French character of his intelli-gence that Mounier shows a capacity for logical analysis and for flexibleand precise dialectic that even •the average member of the R.P.A. wouldfind it hard to rival. M. Mounier's monumental Traite du caraclere shows

17

comprehensive knowledge of the various sciences and in particular ofpsychological and social science' which very 'few people have today.Incidentally Mounier remarks in his recent La Petite Peur du xx. sieclethat the eclipse of the churches is due to their having allowed the initiativein the field of knowledge and science to pass to non-Christian agencies andthe initiative in the field of social justice to pass to Marxists and materialists.I mention this to indicate that Mounier's Christianity is of an unusual brand.

Mr. Hawton confuses a criticism of scientism " with a criticism ofscience. Berdyaev defines " scientism." as that movement in contemporarythought by which science (or shall we say some scientists) have sought tosuppress philosophy and metaphysics and to deny the value of all approachesto reality but the scientific, and in particular to deny all value to the intuitiveapprehension of the poet, seer, and mystic.

1 have no space to discuss the proposition that there are certain limitationsto the true scope and validity of science. I will only add that to hold thisview is not to attack either science or reason; indeed the view is held bysome of the greatest of the scientists themselves..

• J. B. COATES(Hon. Sec of the Personalist Group)..

20 Manor View,Finchley, N.3

War and Economies.To the Editor of The Monthly Record,DEAR SIR—The members of our Society have, fortunately, removed religious blinkers from their eyes. But when it comes to economic issues, most of them refuse to face the facts of history and dread calling a spade a spade.

Like everything else in life, capitalism must go either forward or back-ward. And, like so Many contradictions that haunt man, all the capitalistpowers cannot go from strength to strength in a team, in unison. The bigfish grow fat by swallowing the little ones.

Prior to 1914. Germany was a highly industrialised country, and alsohad no need to sell her manufactured goods for food. Nevertheless, withina short space of twenty-five years, she was the main cause of two worldwars.

Why? Hitler supplied the answer. Germany needed 'Lebensraum "—a euphemism for colonies which are the source of free raw materials,monopoly of markets, and above all exploitation of cheap labour. Themore colonies a capitalist power obtains, the more will that power scoreover its competitors.

The sources of free raw materials and cheap labour are shrinking,especially with the spread of Socialism in Europe and China. Hence theagitation by the United States, the greatest capitalist power of all, for waragainst the Soviet Union—the sentinel of the New Democracies in Europewho refuse to allow their countries to be robbed by the capitalist poweis asthey have been in the past.

Yolks truly,

M. M.

46 Queen's Gate, S.W.7To the Editor of The Monthly Record,

DEAR SIR—Many, scorning false comforts of religion and other dope forms(they are legion), will echo S. A. C. Webb's " How can we live unto death?"We must ask ourselves: Where lies our treasure?" Not in Christian self-seeking, avoiding the unpleasant place, and kidding ourselves concerningIS

f other, but 'where it must be if our species is to survive—in glorying in its

soundness and fighting its defects. Its greatest handicap is lack of faith in

itself and placing faith in what does not exist.

On naturally thinks of and pictures happy childhood—treasure, indeed;

but the more we mingle with folks and try with aid of science to fathom

their mechanisms the more we discover,hidden treasure in all of every age

and sort. Let us live and die cherishing and nurturing human life.•

Yours,

H. FIDDIAN.

Correspondence, not exceeding 200 words, will be welcomed.

South Place NewsThe report of the fifty-eighth season 1948-49 of the South Place Sunday

Concerts reveals a small financial surplus. This satisfactory result was made

possible with the assistance of the Arts Council and the parent Society.

The concerts were of the usual high standard, both in the matter of

artistes and the music performed. There was an appreciable variety and

the result must give satisfaction to the Concerts Committee. A well-writtenreport of the season's activities makes interesting reading. The inevitable

shocks, which necessitate last-minute changes, were successfully buffered

by Mr. Hutchinson, whose indefatigable labours must be noted.

It remains for us to call attention to the excellent programmes for the

first half of the fifty-ninth season; those for October are published on

page 2. Special attention is called to the announcement that " all six Bartok

.String Quartets will be played during this season ".

Queen Elizabeth's Lodge and Epping Forest MuseumThe special opening of the museum on Sunday, August 14, attracted an

interested group of members and friends.Thc old timber-framed and plastered building is a unique example of

" grandstand " of Tudor times. Originally no glazed windows existed

except on the ground floor, the upper floors seIving ' for convenient stand-

ing to viewe the game". From here the Queen and her Court had an

extensive view over all the surrounding country, and could watch the herds

of deer driven past for inspection. To drain off the rain which could drive

in, these upper floors were " laid to fall", and an appreciable curve is still

noticeable.The museum, instituted by the Essex Field Club in 1895, contains sped-

mens of wild life, both animal and vegetable, geological records, maps,

prints, drawings, manuscripts, paintings, tapestries, etc.The paIxontology of the• forest is illustrated by an interesting series of

mammalian remains from the Pleistocene beds of the Lea and Boding

Valleys.Two objects of special interest were an old wooden water-pipe and a

man-trap! •

In an hour and a half it was impossible to study the whole varied collec-

tion, but we were deeply obliged to Mr. Ward of the Essex Field Club, who

conducted the tour and answered innumerable queries.After a delightful tea at the Orchard Cafe. Miss Palmer led a very

pleasant ramble around the Chingford area of Epping Forest.

Visit to the Physick GardensChelsea always rises to the occasion, then as now. Back in the 1470s a

plot of wound was acquired and " a design for living " in the shape of a

19

physick garden was put under way, down by the London river down Chelseaway. All plants from the fields in the nature of herbs and plants with heal-ing properties and those that could be used for physicks especially heldpride of place. Here through the succeeding centuries the growing andcultivating of such and the study and art of the same fostered and developed.

In these days of grace, 1949, the garden still remains by the. Londonriver down Chelsea way, not so very different either in its design, but itspurpose is now purely for the science of botany and research.

About fifteen of us found our way to this secluded garden that nowwould seem so little changed to those who were first interested in " thehealth service " back in the 1470s. The Curator, Mr. W. G. MacKenzie,took us under his guidance and we made the grand tour round the gardenand through the hot- and glass-houses, where plants from all parts of theworld were flourishing, finding London quite a comfortable enough placein which to display their charms or peculiarities. Some of these lovely butnot so guileless plants in their determination for survival using torture andhorror methods (we thought exclusive to the human race). Plants with-which some of us were familiar in far-away countries we met face to face,growing harmoniously with rare and equally fascinating plants from nowstill more remote China provinces.

It was all absorbing and fascinating and our guide indefatigably interest-ing our lay minds, so that we rather wished we were some of the 3,000students who yearly " go through ".

The library with some of its precious books and old pictures and photo-graphs were shown, and an old day-book, one entry showing a workinggardener given the sack with its simple and only explanation, " Blockhead ".A similar entry these days would create a riot or bring about a strike.

In the garden mulberry trees dripped mulberries on us and about us,another little pleasantry of nature's, which we know is red in tooth andclaw and in colour.

We were very much indebted to Mr. MacKenzie, who made a mostdelightful guide and who made this, our first visit to the garden, so agreeable.

Visit to Ilarlow NewtownOn August 21 we were afforded a glimpse of the " shape of things to

come" when our ramble took us over part of the proposed site for thenew town of Harlow. As we wandered across fields of stubble, scrambledthrough hedges and over ditches, it was sometimes difficult to visualise thathere would be streets, houses, schools, factories, shops, etc.

A suggestion was made that we might arrange to revisit the district infive to ten years' time to see the results of the experiment.. To those obliged to spend much time in long, uncomfortable, expensivejourneys to and from central London, the idea of housing within easywalking or cycling distance from employment had a strong appeal.

We were able to study maps, plans, and details of the proposed develop-ment, and were greatly indebted to Mr. Denis Errington for putting histime and knowledge at our disposal on this extremely pleasant occasion.

Freethought CongressThe World Union of Freethinkers held its twenty-ninth congress in Rome

on September 9 to 12 and, although full reports are not yet available, thegathering seems to have been highly successful. The difficulties of organisingsuch a congress and bringing together Freethinkers from all over the worldwere indeed formidable. Money had to be raised in advance and theobstacles presented by the intricate currency restrictions were finally over-come, thanks to the tireless energy of Mr. Bradlaugh Bonner. A moresubtle problem was to disentangle freethought from embarassing political

20

alliances. Few people will doubt the wisdom of declining an invitation tohold the congress in Czechoslovakia, where, from one point of view, every-thing would have been made easy for the delegates. On the other hand itwould have been impossible to avoid giving the impression that .the Unionwas in some way allied with Communism. Rome was an audacious choice,and the timing was significant—a year after the four-hundredth anniversaryof the burning of Giordano Bruno for heresy, and on the eve of the HolyYear which will bring thousands of pilgrims to the centre of the most highlyorganised and reactionary religious institution in the world:

In 1950 it is widely expected that the Roman Catholic Church will decree,ex-cathedra, a new doctrine that will become binding on its members—theAssumption of the Virgin •Mary. Advance publicity has skilfully madeuse ,of the rumour that the bones of St. Peter himself have been foundunder an altar in St. Peter's, at•Rome. No such limelight was available forthe Freethinkers. Nor would they desire it. But all who attended theconference were impressed by the growing political power of the CatholicChurch in Western Europe and America, and the relative weakness of itsopponents. The war has dealt a heavy blow to the Freethought movementon the Continent, but the spirit of Bruno—faith in liberty and intellectualintegrity as essential to the progress of humanity—still lives.

We hope to publish more details about this congress in a subsequentissue. The South Place Ethical Society was represented by Mr. E. J.Fairhall.

The Annual ReunionAt the annual reunion held on September 18 addresses on the Press and

the Public were delivered by two veteran journalists.Mr. Hamilton Fyfe said that he began work sixty years ago on The Times.

The old form of the morning paper had not then begun to change. Circula-tions were small and the news was limited in range. Political speeches werereported in full and in unbroken type. A Cabinet Minister might be entitledto five or six columns. The revolution in news and display was begun byAlfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe) who saw,the emergence of a largenew public. It was created by the schools and the suburbs. Peopletravelling to work demanded reading matter. Papers of the old type wereorgans of opinion. The newer kinds were mainly for entertainment. Withthe expansion of advertising they became profit-makers. A newspapercirculating by the million yielded a huge revenue from advertisement. Apopular paper covered a wide field of human interest, and hence the contentswere largely trivial in character. Profits depended upon advertisements.They were for selling, and a buying public needed encouragement. If theywere depressing business would decline. The daily paper therefore muStbc kept cheerful.

Mr. S. K. Ratcliffe, who started in Fleet Street some years later thanMr. Fyfe. referred to the effect of the economic changes upon the relativeposition of editor and manager. The costs of productioh and circulationhad resulted in consolidated ownership and the dominance of the managerialside. Newspapers were now big business. The recent Royal Commissionhad borne general testimony to the character of the British Press. It was!Yee from corruption and no evidence was found that the large advertiserswere dictating policy. Regret, however, was expressed over the markedreduction in the number of independent provincial papers, with influentialeditors, and the Commission's report cited examples of unfair and

. mischievous reporting. Newspaper men under the old conditions were ingeneral poorly paid. The National Union of Journalists had succeeded inestablishing fair rates of pay. The great circulations, although printingtrivial stuff almost without limit, afforded many opportunities for writers

21

with special knowledge and experience, and some departments were moreably served today than in any earlier period. This was particularly trueof foreign correspondence.

The evening ended with a short musical programme. Songs and a duetby Hilda Hutton and G. C. Dowman and two Grieg piano pieces playedby Ella Ivimey, who also accompanied the singine, were highly appreciated.

Book ReviewsELECTED SILENCE. By Thomas Merton. Hollis and Carter. 15s.

When a Catholic writer who has the luck to win popularity by novelswritten in his unregenerate youth hails a book coming from America asbelonging to " the classic records of spiritual experience -, we may knowthat advertisement of an unusual kind will follow. Mr. Evelyn Waugh is

. the eulogist in question. He is seconded by the publishers, who make thesingular claim that Thomas Merton's autobiography is worthy to rank withthe Confessions of St. Augustine. The book has had a large sale in theUnited States. Not a few American reviewers have praised it in extravagantterms. The quaintest honour conferred upon it is the award of a placeby the side of Newman's Apologia. These things being so, it is obviousthat Elected Silence is what people like to call a human document. It is atany , rate a symptom of our time.

Thomas Merton's father was a New Zealand artist, working mainly inFrance. His mother was a nerve-wracked American. Both of them diedpainfully. The bov had a restless upbringing, his schools being in France.America, and England. His relatives were generous. They had no needto stint him. He travelled widely in his teens. He won a scholarship toCambridge, hated the atmosphere of the place, and threw away his oneyear in what he recalls as the lowest pit of university life. Then he wentto Columbia University, tried various subjects, and endured the miseries ofNew York night life, incessant movies that were merely hellish, and hane-overs from the disgusting Liquor that marked the end of Prohibition. Hchad, seemingly, no normal or helpful friends and very few who were evendecent. He believed himself to have a hatred and fear of the 'RomanChurch; yet the experience that seems to have left a pleasing memory wasa boyhood stay in a French rural household, while the first sieht of amonastery, at •seventeen, aroused the wish to be a Trappist monk!

The steps along his path to Rome are plain enough, and extremelycurious. While wasting his student years in the ways descrihed, he readFreud and D. H. Lawrence and was disturbed by the sermon on hell inJoyce's Portrait of the Artist. Some years later one of the fathers in hiscircle introduced him as the young man converted to Catholicism by JamesJoyce! It was a Hindu swami in America who advised him to study

•Augustine and the Catholic mystics. All roads may not lead to Rome but.as we are always learning, those that converge dtpon the Eternal City canstart anywhere and bc patrolled by the oddest and most diverse guides.

Sickened by debauchery, emotionally upset and in mental agony, ThomasMerton begged to be received and at once sought refuge in thc cloister.The Franciscans were his choice but they told him he had no vocation.He found work, however. in Catholic colleges and, by a turn of fortunethat must have brought no little surprise to himself, he was permitted to takethe Trappist vows. In this story of protracted adolescence, disorderedreading. and mental despair, Mr. Evelyn Waugh, himself.the father of ayoung family, finds evidence to the effect that " as in the Dark Aces, thecloister offers the sanest and most civilised way of life -. In ThomasMerton's case, we are assured, the Cistercian silence, with its'alternate hard77

labour and chapel devotions, has brought peace of mind and perfect

assurance. Some English reviewers, by the way, have noted a contradic-

tion. The Trappist rule or silence is always described as absolute. But

it has not prevented this convert from breaking into print on a lavish scale

—that is, into utterance far more public than worcL of mouth.FRANCIS KIRKHAM.

•

EMSTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHIES, by Emmanuel Mounier. Rockliff. 15s.

The vogue of Existentialism has created a demand for a simple intro-

duction to this type of philosophy, but although there are many attempts to

expound it, none has yet been completely successful.M. Mounier clears up some of the difficulties by tracing the genesis of

existentialist ideas. He starts, somewhat surprisingly, with Socrates and the

Stoics. But thc main root is .Pascal, who leads on to Kierkegdard, thence to

the moderns. The tree bears strangely assorted fruit—atheists, like

Nietzsche and Sartre. neo-Calvinists such as Barth. Russian mystics such as

Berdyaev and Soloviev, Catholics such as Peguy, Blondel, Marcel, and,

indeed, Mounicr himself. What is there in common between such a motley

collection?Perhaps the simplest answer is a mistrust of ratiocination.. The Catholics

cited are therefore untypical. They represent the gloomier strands in

traditional Christianity, and although Existentialism is being studied care-

fully and sympathetically by modern Catholic theologians, it is difficult to

resist the impression. that the guarded approval is often tactical. Existential-

ism has tried to 1111 the moral vacuum created by Logical Positivism. It has

drawn attention to the fact—which surely ought to be obvious—that

describing something and experiencing it are very different. Bare intellectual

description and analysis are not enough—as Keynes came to realise.The Humanist must pass between the Scylla of intellectualism and the

Charybdis of anti-rationalism. Like Ulysses, he would be well advised to

lash himself to the mast—and stop his ears to the siren-voice of Mounier

and his disciples, who would lead him either to Rome or Geneva. Neverthe-

less, this is a valuable introduction to a development of thought that we

cannot afford to disregard.H. H.

THE ARTS COUNCIL BULLETIN 113, 36 pp., 3d.. September 1949.

This issue is especially interesting as it contains the little puppet play by

G. B. Shaw, Shakes versus Shay, which was performed by the Lanchester

Marionettes at the recent Malvern Festival. Shaw writes a preface that

gives an artistic valuation of puppetry and reveals his attitude on the eternal

controversy " Bacon-Shakespeare and all other fables founded on that

fictitious figure Shaxper or Shagsper the illiterate bumpkin ".

" Shakespeare's standing ", says Shaw, " was near to Ruskin's, whosesplendid style owes much more to his mother's insistence on his learning

the Bible by heart than to his Oxford degree."The Bulletin further contains the 'Monthly Calendar of the Arts

Council's activities in Great Britain ".

" Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy."—Shakespeare.

"The essential advantage for a poet is not to have a beautiful world

with which to deal: it is to be able to see beneath both beauty and ugliness,

to see the boredom, and the horror, and the glory."—T. S. Eliot.

"He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence."—Willffin/ Blake.

23

Society's Activities•Conway Discussion Circle

Weekly discussions will be held in the Library on Tuesday evenings at7 p.m.

October 1949

A serics of three lectures has been arranged on Rationalism in theTwentieth Century 7, with the following speakers: •

October 4.—A. D. Howell Smith (author of Jesus Not a Myth).October A. C. Brown, M.B., Ch.B. (author of The Distressed

October 18.—Hector Hawton (author of Philosophy for Pleasure). ,October 25.—W. Glanville Cook (Secretary of the Rationalist Society

of Australia; Editor of the .4 ustrulian Rationalist), "FreeThought in AustraliaAdmission free. Collection. .

New Members and Changes of AddressMiss V. D. Freeston. 9 Mount Pleasant Road, .Kensal Rise, N.W.10;

Mr. W. Bell, to cio Torkington House. Creswick Road, Acton, W.3:Mr. M. Sniders to Bedford Hotel, Southampton Row. W.C.1; Mrs. NI. J.White to 52 Corringham Road, Golders Green, N.W.I1: Mr. H. R. Chap-man to New Encl. Hospital, N.W.3; Mr. H. L. Pierce (Staff) to Hong Kongand Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong: Mrs. P. Sharman to 10 Culpeper House,Blount Stjeet, F.M.

Danees:—The first dance of the season will take place on Saturday,October I, at 7.30 p.m. A good muster is hoped for. Tickets 3s., includingrefreshments, are available at Conway Hall, or can be obtained from theHon. Secretary, C. E. Barralet, Hill Cottage, Farnborough, Kent. Phonereservations CHANcery 8032 or FARNborough (Kent) 3867.

Sunday Social.—October 16, at 3 p.m. in the Library : Mr. Reginald T.Smith, "The care of the eyes ". Lantern slides illustrating the talk will beshown.

Thursday EVenings in the Library at 7 p.m.—Members and friends arecordially invited' to attend these 'social evenings which recommence onOctober 6. The following arrangements have been made.

October 6.—Social evening—South Place EnteItainers.13.—Whist Drive. '20.—George E. O'Dell—Brieux's play, " False Gods".27A – Mrs. R. F. Burns—" A Trip through the Pyrenees".

Rambles.—Satorday, October 15. A visit- to University of LondonObservatory. Train to Hendon Central, and No. 113 bus to Mill Hill Park.N.W.7. Meet entrance 3 p.m.. Party strictly limited to twenty. NotifyMiss George if you wish to attend.

Sunday, October 23. An autumn. ramble in Surrey. Train, 1.30 p.m.,London Bridge to Tadworth. Day return, 3s. Id Leader: Frederick Sowan.

The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associates. The annual chargeto subscribers is 4s. Matter for publication in the November issue should reach theEditor, G..C. DOWMAN. Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.I, by.October 10.

. OfficdrS .Hon. Treasurer: E. J. FAIRHALL 1 •

Hon. Registrar: Mrs. T. C. LINDSAY } I Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.I.Secretary: HECTOR HAWTON 3

FADLDICH DRESS LTD. (T.U.), BEECuWOUD RI sr, 1 VAT] ODD.

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