•Vol. 59 No. 12 DECEMBER 1954 Threepence
Notes of the Month
Some Notes on a Vish to Finland
The Outlook for Humanism
The Mystery of Joanna Southeott
The Origin of Christianity
Conway Discussion Circle
Correspondence
Custos
Sir Ernest Kennaway
Archibald Robertson
Royston Pike
P. G. Roy
Book Reviews
South Place News
Society's Activit ies
SOUTH PLACE HETFEICAL • SOCIETYSUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ,ELEVEN O'CLOCK .
/ • ' - .' • -J..' , •
December 5—PROFESSOR T. H. PEAR, M.A.-`tAre Modern Scientists Afraidof Doing Good?". '
. 'Cello and Piano SoloS by LILLY PHILLIPS and JOYCE LANDLEYVivaldi
Orientale; Cesar CuiSPanisK Dance
.'.Glazounov
, -December 12-Dlt. Mi. E. SWINTON, Ph.D.—"Digging up the Truth!'
Soprano Solos by MARY LENVIg •Gefang Weylef .. WolfDat..verlaffene Magdein Wolf
HYmn:. No. 41•
December 19—ARCH1BALD ROBERTSON,'-i%I.A.--"Mithni iind the ChristianFestival."
Bass Solos by G. C. DOWMANMy Lone Abode SchubertMy Lovely Celia arr. Lane Wilson
Hymn: No. 226
SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS, 64t1- SEASONConcerts 6.30 p.m. (Doors open 6 p.m.) Admission Is. 6d.
December 5—MACGIBBON STRING QUARTETMozart in D, K575; Rawsthorne No. 2; Schubert in D minor, Op. Post h.
December 12-1IURWITZ CHAMBER ESISEMBLEHandel Concerto Grosso, Op.'6, No. 11 in A; Corelli Concerto Grosso No. 8.Op. 6; Boccherini 'Cello Concerto in B flat; Mozart Divertimento forStrings, 1C138 in F; Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.
December 19—FREDERICK GRINKE. DENNIS BRAIN. WILFRID PARRY:Beethoven in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2; Delius No. 2 Piano and Violin.Sonatas; Paul Dukas Villanelle Horn Solo; Brahms Horn Trio.
OfficersHon. Treasurer: E. J. FAIRHALL
Hon. Registrar: MRS. T. C. LINDSAY Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.ISecretary: J. Hurto8 HYND
The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associates. The Annualcharge to subscribers is 4s. 6d. Matter for publication in the January issueshould reach the Editor, G. C. Dowman, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1,by December 10.
. . - . . • .The Objects of the• Society, are the study and-dissemination of ethical -
principles and the cultivation of.,a rational religibus sentiment. -Any person in sympathy with these objects is cqrdially .invited to become a•
Meniber '(minimum annual .subscription; is 10s.), or Asi"oeiatejminiminn annual ,subscription 5s.). Life meinberShip:£10 .10i Associates are, not eligible to vote • ,or hold office. Enquiries shriuld be aade of the Regisfiar to''whorn subsciiptiOnsshould be paid.2
TheMONTHLYRECORD
—Vol. 59 No. 12 DECEMBER 1954 Threepence
CONTENTSPAGE
NOTES OF THE MONTH, Custos 3
SOME Nous ON A VISIT TO FINLAND, Sfr Ernest Kennaway 5
THE OUTLOOK FOR HUMANISM, Archibald Robertson 8
Ti IE MYSTERY OF JOANNA SOUTHCOTT, Royston Pike 10
THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY, P. G. Roy . . 12
CONWAY DISCUSSION CIRCLE 14
BooR REVIEWS .. I 8
CORRESPONDENCE .. 20
SouT0 PLACE NEWS 22
SOCIEXY'S ACTIVITIES .. 23
The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society.
. Notes of the Month
THE YEAR ends in a general atmosphere Of hope that Makes a striking
contrast to that of 1953 or 1952. Whether this mood is justified or not,
the. British public decline to- be shaken out of its tempered or detached
optithism. There are? to be sure, grounds for the present feeling. It is clear
that the tension over the atom bomb is relaxed now that Moscow is ex-
hibiting an altered attitude towards the West. A partial lifting of the iron
curtain has convinced, our people that Russian policy is being modified.
The belief has grown that both Russia and China are anxious to avoid
war, and this despite -the published facts relating to the vastness of Soviet
armament. Britain, again, is not disquieted by the result of the American
election, while by a great majority we have accepted the rearming of
Germany as inevitable, if not as a positive addition to the security of
Western Europe. It is not difficult to believe that in home affairs the out-
look on the whole is improving. Unemployment is negligible. Mr. Butler's
repeated assurance that the upturn of the national finances is satisfactory
is not seriously challenged. Nothing, it would seem could be much more
serious than the menace of strikes in the nationalised and semi-nationalised
industries; but even so the majority view' is that the danger can be handled
3
without grave losses to the nation. Meanwhile the curious condition ofParliament arouses some misgiving. It arises partly from the weaknessesof an Opposition when parties are balanced, and partly from the wideextent of the area (such as the social services) that is now almost common.The situation, however, is not likely to be maintained beyond 1955. The re-tirement of the Prime Minister must open a new chapter.
br. Albert SchweitzerIn view of his standing as an eminent servant of humanity, it is notsurprising that Dr. Albert Schweitzer's speech on acceptance of the Nobel
peace prize should have been awaited with unusual interest. It was anearnest ethical sermon on the imperative need of world peace, its keynotebeing, as always with him, reverence for life. Schweitzer is a humanist..Heaffirms that the spirit of man is the one and only reality upon which wehave to rely, and that there is no hope for our distracted world save ina new ethical crusade and adoption of the universal principles of compassionand co-operation. Hence the first duty of Governments is to set abouthealing the wounds left by the last war. He urges as a practical measurea large and determined effort to re-settle the Multitudes of uprooted people.We may all agree with this and in Schweitzer's statement that there is nogreater obstacle to the recovery of peace than the mad nationalisms in-tensified by the wars, how, in a world of colossal armament governed byfear, a universal moral force can be discussed and applied. Schweitzer, incommon with so many others, declares that the alternative could not bemore plain: either we make peace or we perish. Schweitzer admits thatthis conclusion demands a miracle and that such miracles do not occur.Hence, we are driven to infer, the spirit of man is unequal to the task ofthe age. Schweitzer is no pacifist. He believes, like the majority of churchleaders, that if a nation is attacked, the right of defence by means of allthe terrible weapons now at its disposal must be conceded. Buf does notthis fateful concession destroy the moral basis of his.own solemn argument?
Broadcast ReligionIt would be interesting to learn the extent of the protests coming from
the listening public now being aroused by the policy of the B.B.C. in thefield of religion. If the complaints are few or moderate, the fact couldundoubtedly be explained by the widespread indifference to religious mattersthat has been noted at church conferences and in other assemblies for manyyears past. Any foreign listener to the regular features of our broadcastingsystem, always extravagantly praised in Parliament, could not fail. to takenote of the uniform assumptions concerning the "oldLtime religion". Thechosen preachers take for granted that theology does not fall within, therealm of knowledge or inquiry. They scorn the riches of comparativereligion and speak as though the immense results of a century of biblicalresearch may be altogether set aside. Long ago Matthew Arnold protestedsharply against the extreme "licences of affirmation" about God and JesusChrist in which our religious instructors indulged. There is no evidencethat this practice has been challenged in the broadcast services. No criticalor modernist voice is ever heard. Look, for instance, at its daily morningadmonition so quaintly called the Uplift. It has become a playground ofthe literalists, whose expositions and.ritual phrases are astonishingly juvenile;as when the dramatic scenes of Jonah were presented. as a portion of theactual history of Nineveh, the greatest city of the then known .world. At7.50 a.m. the great majority of.listeners are getting off for the dayls work.Why not treat. them .as adults?4
The Father of Liberalism
• Liberal and progressive thinkers will unite in' paying homage to John
Locke, who died 250 years ago. He is sometimes called the Father of
British Philosophy, but he is 'quite certainly the fountain head Of the vatious
streams of liberal and progressive thdught which have inspired the idealism
of successive generations. A physician by profession, he looked on' social
ills with the pragmatic eye of a doctor, tied to no rigid general principles,
but using the experimental method of the great founder of medicine,
Hippocrates, who was, perhaps, the first empiricist. "I appeal to observation
and experience," wrote Locke, thereby setting the mould in which the
dominant school of British thought was to be formed. He found philosophy
a narrow specialism, to which only those who knew its highly, technical
terms had the key. He set himself the task of making the subject readable
for the ordinary intelligent man, disclaiming all ambition to construct yet
another system that pretended to be the truth at last. He described him-
self, modestly, as "a journeyman and under-labourer" who .was content
with the "twilight of probability". Thus the doors werc opened for all that
is best in our tradition and for the development of what was in his day
called Natural Philosophy, but which in the early part of the last century
came, to be known as Science.Cus-ros
Some Notes on a Visit to FinlandB Y
SIR ERNEST KENNAWAY
AFTER SOME CORRESPONDENCE with Professor Sakari Mustakallio, Director
of the Central Institute of Radiology in Helsinki, who had in 1944 initiated
enquiry into the relation between cancer of the rcspiratory tract and
smoking in Finland, my wife and I fiew to Helsinki on August 5 last. On
the 7th he drove us to his estate in the country and, only 48 hours after
leaving London, we sat in the bright sunshine looking at a lovely prospect of
rich green pasture sloping up from the shore of the lake to the encircling
birch woods, with our host and hostess and their daughters, and, thanks to
their knowledge of English, although thc name "Mustakallio" had been to
us just an entry in Acta Radiologica, somehow we all seemed like old
friends.No attempt is made here to give any adequate account of various investi-
gations on cancer which are in progress in Helsinki. Professor Mustakallio
(1944) drew attention to the incidence of cancer 'of the larynx and hypo-
pharynx among smokers, and to the early age at which many,of them began
smoking, and this line of investigation was carried on in his Department
by Marja Koulumies in a study, now ,well-known, entitled Smoking and
Pubnonary Carcinoma (1953), Ond hopes' very much that this work will
be extended and elaborated especially as regards the smoking habits of
Finnish women in town and cOuntry.
Professor Mustakallio, who is doubtful, of any increase in the incidence
of bronchial carcinoma, is bringing up to date his series of radiologically
treated cases which had numbered 1,000 in 1950;* he has usually 10 to 15
such in hand, and his assistant, Dr. Malmio, happened to be treating three
women, all non-smokers. The sex and age distribution of this series of cases
is noteworthy. In collaboration,with his Department, the Central Statistical
* An early report on this work appeared in 1946 (1).5
Office had just completed a morbidity survey of all the cases of bronchialcarcinoma diagnosed in 1953 in Helsinki, other urban, and rural districtsof Finland, which I was allowed to read. Comparison with such figuresfrom England, if such were available, would be of great interest, as 67 percent of the population is rural. The country differs much from ours in thematter of atmospheric pollution, and of smoking habits, especially .amongwomen; at any rate until recent years women from the country might resentenquiry whether they smoked. The habit is increasing in the towns, as onemight expect. The Central Statistical Office kindly gave me an elaboratetable of the consumption of tobacco in all forms from 1938 to 1953: incomparing the amounts per head with those from other countries, one Mustbear in mind the preponderance of the share taken by the male half- of thepopulation. We brought home some examples of cigarettes for examihationin the laboratory.
K. H. Kahanpaa, Chief Actuary of the Central Statistical Office of Finland,had sent me a set of volumes of the tables "Causes of Death in Finland"for the years 1939 to 1951 which contain a large amount of data classifiedby sex, organ, locality and in other ways and some extremely rough com-parisons with similar data for this country was the subject of a very inter-esting talk on August 9 with two members of the the staff, Magister AarrcTunkelo, and Miss Korpela, who has visited England recently in connectionwith statistical work on cancer. I hope that they will make some com-parison of the incidence of caneer in the two countries. The growing popu-lation (Tunkelo,-I953-4) of Finland (4.1 million) is about one-tenth.of thatof England and Wales (44 million).
Professor Mustakallio and Dr. Erkki Saxen, Pathologist to his Department,took us for delightful motor runs to all parts of Helsinki and into thecountry. The roads leading out of Helsinki are paved successively with stonesetts. tar pavement (i.e. bitumen from Poland. or Mexican asphalt), cementsheets, and macadam, when the dust begins. The chief crops around Helsinkiare the unfamiliar rye, wheat, oats and great areas of potatoes which aretractor-dug: those served at table are as small as our "new" potatoes and ofvery good flavour. I enquired about the breed of cows, mostly very muchalike, and was told "Asia".- Their appearance- was not at all Asiatic andone could look in vain for the zebu's hump; stupidly. I had not detecteda pronunciation of "Ayrshire". Cows are kept under cover for eight monthsin the year, as in Iceland, and 43 per cent of cultivated land is given to hay.
We visited a village Lutheran Church. built of massive blocks of red andgrey granite, "ein'Feste Burg" indeed, with separate bell-tower. The church-yard, and graves, were the tidiest I have ever seen, with scarcely one super-fluous blade of grass. Probably this contrast to many English village church-yards depends, not on any spiritual enlightenment, but upon the financialaspect of. Establishment in Scandinavian countries.
The War Memorial Gardens. beautifully kept and planted as are all openspaces in Helsinki, commemorates Finland's ill-fated part in two wars. Therows of stones marking the graves lie in zig-zag fashion, two together; thisarrangement certainly lessens uniformity, and one wonders who devisedit and with what object? The tomb of General Mannerheim stands out onhigher ground. But of all these sights by far the saddest is that long vistaof a simple wall bearing the crowded names of those whose fate, and grave,will never be known.
Helsinki stands on a whole series.of peninsulas and the sea confronts thewanderer unexpectedly. As a "smokeless zone" it is defective, as manysteamers are far from smokeless.. Large quantities 'of Russian oil and itsproducts are obtained under treaty and Finland has just built two 6.000-ton tankers to bring this material. The introduction of diesel engines for6.
traction; involving, as elsewhere, the question of initial and running costs,is just beginning. Domestic heating, carried out by radiators fed by boilersheated by oil (Russian), coal (Polish, Russian, British), coke (Polish) and inthe country wood, was, at the time of our visit, in hot weather, of coursein abeyance. But even when allowance is made for this, Helsinki seems tobe a remarkably clean city. All the time I was there I never saw a singleblack partiele, whereas while one is writing a letter in certain places inLondon, E.C.I ... The open double window of my room had a wide white-painted ledge inside it, which was wiped daily, but there seemed to belittle or nothing to remove. My wife saw several very smoky chimneys, butone must remember that Helsinki is a large city (population 400,000, cf.Nottingham 306,000, Bristol 442,000); its rapidly growing edges consistlargely of great blocks of flats, preferred because •of economy in heat-ing. Professor Mustakallio enquired for me whether any measurementsof atmospheric pollution had ever been carried out by the officers of PublicHealth, and Could learn of none, which suggests that the question is not •yet obtrusive. Observations would be valuable when the ground is coveredwith snow, which is a useful detector, and collector, of suspended anddeposited matter (R. L. Cooper and A. J. Lindsey, 1953). Unfortunately, wecould not visit the chief manufacturing town, Tampere (population 105,000).
Milk is the standard drink, served at all times and in all places, in tumblers,fresh and soured, while with tea or coffee one usually receives cream. Inrestaurants both men and women will take a glass of milk, with a cupof tea or Coffee, or perhaps two glasses of milk, together with a cake or a
sandwich. Dr. Jokinen obtained for me from the Central Statistical Officean elaborate table showing the methods of utilisation of milk, which willbe compared with any similar data which are available here. ,
Unfortunately I developed a peculiar kind of asthma, with very severedyspnoea in the early morning. Professor Mustakallio secured my admissionto a very comfortable private room in the hospital, under his colleagueDr. Koulumies, by whom, and by his assistant Dr. Jokinen, every resourceof diagnosis, treatment and nursing was applied. Nowhere could one havereceived more careful and kindly treatment. After ten days, when meanshad been found of controlling the attacks, after being fortified by intra-venolis injections, I was conveyed by two very efficient ambulance men, ofrather mysterious aspect, to the airpoh and reached London after a mostcomfortable journey without the slightest respiratory distress at anyaltitude.
My private rooffi in the hospital looked out upon an ordinary road, ofall things in a foreign town the most instructive, as in show-places andrestaurants one sees many more cosmopolitan types. The road, UnioninkatubY name, stone-paved, led to the market place and bore heavy traffic in theearly morning; those who have been patients in St. Peter's Hospital nearCovent Garden Market will understand.•But I do not mind noise, and onecan learn a good deal from it. Finland shows, as do Sweden and Iceland,various anthropological types—the tall, fair, good-looking, conventionally"Scandinavian" type, and many varieties of thicker, shorter, darker people.The average of good-looks among young 'women is very high and one some-times wonders, as one may .in France, what becomes of them in later life, ifone dares to say such a thing. The Finnish day of business ends earlier thandoes ours, perhaps an adapatation to the early darkness of winter* andaftcr 4 o'clock a stream of people, largely female, of the shop-assistant andsecretarial classes, passed homeward along the road. Such people in Englandare generally well groomed, bujI venture to say that the women of Helsinkiare more so. A' significant fact is that many women wore white, cream or
• The latitude of Helsinki is about that of the Shetland Isles.7
beige coats and many of the older men had fiat white caps; in London thecleaning of such things would be costly. A few country people of the poorerclasses from the market trudged by with very different gait, the men inblack wide-awakes and gaiters,,.the women with white headcloths. The.youngmale clerical class are, very tidy and•practically all hatless. Manual workerswear the moleskin trousers which here have altered their social status, orboiler suits, and some wvear caps. I saw no one whose clothes looked wornout, or who appeared dirty apart from occupational dirt, and never sawanyone smoking anything. Of course I can ;only report things seen in tensummer days out of one microcosmic window: no doubt other people sawother things out of other windows. My wife made some enquiries and ex-peditions, not very productive, in search of the poorer districts. Of courseno attempt is made here to assess the basis of any apparent prosperity, acomplex matter of treaties and non-rearmament.
Children are dressed in.bright colours, as they are in Iceland. Sunday is,of course, the day for the best.display by persons of all ages. Two little girlswith really golden hair, very carefully brushed, in jackets and skirts of thebrightest blue with wide white margins, walking hand-in-hand in the bright •sunshine, made in ideal Picture.
Less than a dozen horses clattered along my road in a day, and I neverheard the sound of a whip-lash; in my student days in London one wouldnot have had to wait so long. All the horses seen, in town and country, wereof the same dun colour, and as in Iceland,.all look well fed and well treated.Why is this, when the treatment of draught animals over a large .part of theworld, day after day, and century after century, is appalling? Finland's400,000 horses are among the luckiest in the world.
The predominating impression which one gets of life in Helsinki, and inFinland elsewhere so far as we saw it, is one of especial cleanliness andtidiness.
On one's return home, after receiving .so much kindness in a foreigncountry, one opens the dismal newspaper and then wonders, if the worldreally must be like that always?
This is a slightli; abridged•version of a paper which will appear in full inThe Medical Press.
-REFERENCES:
Cooper. R. L. and Lindsey, A. J. (1953) Chemistry and Industry. 1, 177.
Kouluniies, M. (1953) Acta Radial. 39, 255.
Mustakallio, S. (1944) Acta: Radial. 25, 13.
Mustakillio, S. (1946) Annales Medicinae Intennae Fenniae, 35, 109.
Tunkelo,. A. (1953)Bank of Finland Monthly Bulletin, 27, Nos. 1-12.
Tunkelo, A. (1954) ibid, 28, No. 2.
The Outlook for HumanismY
ARCHIRALD ROBERTSON
SEVENTY YEARS AGO the, task of the humanist (the person deVoted to humanwelfare to the exclusion of divine or supernatural interests) seemed simple.It was to break down what remained of supernatural belidf and mobilise allavailable forces for the advancement of human welfare. The tide seemed
8
to be flowing in favour of the humanists. Liberalism was in •the saddle;-
evolution was popular doctrine; the Churches, here and on the Continent,
were on the defensive; the temporal power of the Pope.had been destroyed;
his claim to infallibility was a matter for, ridicule rather than refutation
among progressive people. True, Liberalism had not solved the economic
problem, and a trade .slump of international dimensions was beginning to
turn workingmen to Marxism, and rulers to colonialism as the .only answer
to it. But progressives in the main hoped to weather the storm by timely
adjustments here and there. As Clifford had .put it a few .years before, the
kingdom of Man was at hand.
Then, in that year 1884, a pensioned German professor of classics named
Friedrich Nietzsche -cursed the progressives with bell, book and candle, not
because he was a Christian (far from it) butt because the humanist ideal
seemed to -him small, slavish and mean. In• a utilitarian world, he com-
plains, "earth will have become small", and its inhabitants, dedicated to the
achievement of happiness, contemptible. "Each willeth the same, each is
equal. 'We have invented happiness', ..the last men say, blinking.- And
Nietzsche is deadly • serious about. it. The thing may .happen. "This
brutalising of man into a pigmy with equal rights and claims is undoubtedly
possible." He calls on all -strong and original" minds to resist it. I disagreed
with Nietzsche When 1 read him, and I disagree now.
He need not have called for resistance. It was already there. Even while
Nietzsche wrote, the scramble of the Great Powers for colonies, markets and
concessions in Africa and Asia was beginning, and by •the turn of the
century had overshadowed the Liberal humanism of a generation before.
In 1914 the scramble and the consequent armaments race and military
alliances ended in the First World War, in which (we used to be told, but
no doubt it is an exaggeration!). every German soldier carried a copy of
Nietzsche's Also Sprach -Zarathustra in his knapsack. Naturally after that
Western progressives, who had been rather in awe of, Nietzsche, dropped
him like a hot potato. A more important consequence of the First World
War was the Russian Revolution and the translation of Marxism from
theory into practice. It -is a consequence which even those who condemn it
ought to understand. If all that capitalism with its industrial -efficiency and
its creed of the survival of the fittest could do was to regiment millions for
mutual murder and dope them with hate propaganda to keep them at
fighting pitch, naturally. some who were tired of the massacre and still had
energy left to do- something about it turned their weapons on those who
had misled them, and determined to build a world in which it would not
happen again. Planned production became a slogan not only in Russia,
but even in capitalist countries, as an -inevitable result, of the hell in which
unplanned production had ended.
But the ghost of Nietzsche still walks. That fear and hatred of a world
planned for peace and plenty, which actuated him seventy years ago, now
actuates not only capitalists who stand to -lose -by it, but many intellectuals
also. It is expressed with ability and candour in Aldous -Huxley's Brave
New World, published -in 1932, in which it is easy to see the influence of
Nietzsche. The utilitarian nightmare, the "green-meadow happiness of the
herd" where nothing is great, comes to life in Huxley's caricature of a world
where babies are incubated in bottles and chemically predestined to a-
station .in life where they will be ffiseful and happy automata. That, accord-
ing to Huxley, -is the 'logical consequence'of planning: •His argument:is the
more impressive because he has no illusions about an unplanned world.
An unplanned world means .backwardness, dirt, disease, superstition
and savagery. Huxley lets us know in no unceitain terms that if he has
to choose between backwardness; dirt: disease,. superstition and savagery
in which adventure. and-sacrifice -are .necessary;.and a world of useful and
9
happy automata, in which they are not necessary, he chooses backwardness. dirt, disease, superstition and savagery every time. I disagreed with, Huxley When I read him, and I disagree now. • - )
The Second World War and the advent of weapons of mass destructionhave forced these issues to the fore. This has been particularly noticeablein discussions about the hydrogen bomb. Nobody denies that if the hydro-gen bomb is used (and it is taken for granted that in another war it willbe used, and used on both sides) civilisation will be destroyed and men,
• wothen and children will be killed. off by the million—perhaps by the hun-dred million. Very well then, ask simple people, why invent and manu-facture such a thing? As it is nobody's interest tO be destroyed, why notagree to scrap all stocks of such weapons.and not to manufacture any more.and set up a machinery of inspection to'sec that the agreement is kept? Tothis it is answered sometimes that the Russians would never keep an agree-ment (a foolish, answer, as the logical consequence would be to make noagreements on anything). More often the answer is that the hydiogen bombis the only deterrent that exists against Communist aggression:, that is tosay, only by threatening to destroy .civilisation can we prevent civilisationfrom evolving in a direction we dislike.•It is Aldous Huxley's answer andNietzsche's answer: better a reversion to savagery than a civilisation inwhich freedom as we interpret, art as we interpret it, grandeur as we inter-pret it do not exist. Once more I disagree.
If there is to be any outlook for humanism, I think humanists mustMake up their minds where they •stand here. Obviously, if civilisation isdestroyed, there is no outlook for anyone. But if it is not destroyed—andan increasing number of people all over the world are determined that itshall not be—what then? In that case we (whoever we are and in whatevercountry we live) have to resign ourselves to peaceable co-existence withpeople whose conception of the basic values of civilisation differs from ours.Humanists should be able to make up their minds to that much more easilythan other people. In the first place, we are not tied by religious dogma."God" means nothing to us; and "anti-God" causes no shivers. In thesecond place. we know—or if not, we ought to know—just how thedifference about the basic values of civilisation has arisen. This difference,which divides humanists in the present, has arisen largely as a result of thesuccess of humanists in the past. We have been telling people for 200 years—300 if we go back to the English Revolution and Winstanley's Law ofFreedom—to attend to human interests instead of imaginary divine interests.But what human interests? It obviously, depends on your way 'of living. Topeople whose material livelihood is assured it may be natural to think firstof freedom of the press, freedom to oppose the Government and things likethat. But to people whose material livelihood is not assured it is naturalto think first of food, shelter, health, education and the means of gettingthem, and of those other things a long way after. Only if we understandthat there is this difference between different parts of the world, and thathumanism inevitably Means something different to people in different situa-tions, can we face our task with resolution and confidence. -
(Summary of address delivered on October 24)
The Mystery of Joanna Southcott11 Y
ROYSTON PIKE
FROM TIME -ro TIME there appear in the newspapers and magazines advertise: ments such as this: "Crime and Banditry, Distress and Perplexity, will10
ihcrease until the Bishops open Joanna Southcott's Box of Sealed Writings",
followed by the address, Panacea Society, Bedford. Such advertisements
have been appearing for many years, and are evidence of the continued
existence of one of the niost extraordinary of modern religious movements.. .
Joanna Southcott was born in 1750, the daughter of a Devonshire farmer
in a small and not very prosperous Way of life. She had little or no school:
ing, but was brought up in the "fear of the Lord" and a knowledge of the
Bible. She became an incorrigible scribbler and rhymester, and left to pos-
terity some 4,500 pages of printed works, not to mention as much again
which still remains in manuscript form. Quite early she began to have visions
and dream drearhs, although she was normal enough in other respects. Thus
she has (Old us a great deal about her very harmless and sometimes amusing
love affairs. It is strange to reflect that the life Of this untutored little piece
of Devonshire girlhood is far better documented .than that of any of her
contemporaries in one of the most interesting ages of our history. None of
her suitors was succeSsful, and at length she moved to Exeter, where she
Spent many years as a domestic servant.
About the time of the outbreak of war with the French Revolution she
began to exercise her prophetic gifts, and although most of the things she
prophesied were connected with the weather and the progress of the war of
a very obvious character, she soon acquired a considerable reputation
locally for her prescience. She then sought the advice of the clergy, and
proved herself a thorn in the flesh for one of them in particular, the unhappy
Mr. Pomeroy who after a period of acquiescence in her prophesyings.
expressed doubts and fell away, whereupon she continued to denounce him
for his apostasy in page after page of turgid prose. When she was in her
forties, she seems to have come to the conclusion that she was the Woman
mentioned in the Book of Revelation, the Lamb's Wife, the Bride of the
Holy Ghost.
• Stranger even than this, she found many to believe in her and her pre-
tensions. In 1802 she was visited by seven gentlemen, among them three
clergymen, who enquired carefully into her teaching and writings and at
length resolved that her claims were justified. Now wo have the first men-
tion of the famous Box, which probably was no more than the convenient
receptacle such as servants were accustomed to take about with them, into
which to put their oddments. Into Joanna's box were popped the scraps of
writing containing her "prophecies", and at this "First Trial" a selection
was made and sealed up and replaced in the box. Soon after she removed
to London—the funds were supplied by one of the "Seven Stars", William
Shiirp, the celebrated engraver—and eventually she found a home in
St. Pancras with Mrs. Jane Townley, a well-to-do widow, and her maid-
servant, .Ann Underwood, who was discovered, to possess the invaluable
gift of being about to decipher the prophetess's handwriting. A second
”Trial" took place at Paddington in 1803, and a third at Bermondsey in
1804, following which Joanna seems to have been generally accepted by an
ever-widening circle of followers as the Woman mentioned in Scripture
whose offspring in some strange way should "bruise Satan's head". How
this was to be performed was not revealed until 1813, when in her Book of
Wonders she declared that the Lord had informed her that she was, though
she would be in her sixty-fifth year, to become the mother of Shiloh, the
mysterious being mentioned in Genesis, who is to gather the Children of
Israel and lead them into the Promised Land of Millennium. Immediately
her followers throughout the country set about preparing for the miraculous
birth, and the Prophetess moved her residence to a house in Manchester
Street taken specially for the accouchement. •
What followed i told in the most intimate and interesting detail by Dr.
II
Richard-Reece, one of the. medical. men who were called in to attend her.Unfortunately for his reputation, his early doubts that such a thing couldbe in a woman of her age were stifled, and he became known in the news-1papers as a man who had -satisfied himself of her pregnancy. But as themonths passed he regretted his credulity, and when he last saw the Prophetesshe was convinced that, but for her deluded followers assembled about her,she would have confessed that she was suffering from, a ghastly delusion.Joanna died on December 27, 1814, and four days later, in compliance withher last i-equest, Reece and other doctors performed a post mortem. Therewas no child—and her followers were aghast. One of them said it wasenough to make him turn Unitarian. Others, however, maintained.that therehad been a Child, •but it was a spiritual one, and so was not visible tohurnan- eyes. Joanna was buried almost surreptitiously in 'the cemeteryadjoining St. John:s Church, Marylebone, and there her grave and monumentmay still be seen.
But the real mystery only now begins, for belief in her did not die inthat frowsty bedroom. While there was a great falling away of the 30,000—some said 100,000—of. her -following, many continued to hold that shewas the•Bride of the,Lamb, and she was hailed as one of a line of Prophets,of whom the latest was a lady who died as recently as 1918. Even later,there has been a. clergyman's widow. ,who, at Bedford, was accepted asShiloh. (An extract from this lady's hciok, Brushes With The Bisltops, con-stituted the reading.), And the Box? It is supposed to contain writings whichare to be Of immense value 'to Britain in her hour of greatest danger, whenit should be opened by twenty-four Bishops of the Church of England. In1918, -Bishof) Boyd-Carpenter actually offered to perform the rite, but thethen custodian of the Box declared that the conditions stated by Joannahad not been fulfilled' and the opportunity never recurred. The box thatwas opened in-1927 was not the real box, we are assured. That remainsinviolate in a place.of safety known only to one or two of the believers inthe" mission of the Devonshire servant girl who left so strange a mark onthe world.,
(Summary of an address delivered on October 31.)
The Origin of ChristianityB Y
. P. G. R 0 Y
HOWEVER SCEPTICAL people may be with regard to biblical reports, theclaim that Chrisianity, originated in Palestine they accept .as "Gospel druth-:It is. hard to see why the setting of an admitted fairy-tale must not bedoubted, if so many other things; for which we only have the same authority,are more than doubtful. .
The Romans believed that their ancestors were refugees from Tro);:history has shown this to' be a pious myth, invented to 'claim culturalrelationship with the Hellenic world. Christianity, a Hellenised synchretisin(i.e.,' hotch-potch) of various messianic beliefs of the Near East, had toclaim similar connections with that regiori of the world—the -cradle ofmany Saviour cults. Yet it was Rome where all those religions and cults'finally met and blended. And again, it was Rome from where -the newspiritual message could spread, nor from the backwaters-of a politicallyand culturally unimportant, little land.12
• When classical Slave economy found itself in an impasse, soeiety be-came increasingly responsive to the mystery cults of Asia Minor, begottenfrom the old magic rites. Mystery religions provided an ideological sheetanchor for the dispossessed peasantry, the slaves in general, and all theoppressed nationalities under the sway of Roman despotism or Byzantinetotalitarianism.
The• mysteries of Dionysus, the god of wine, offered union with godthrough, intoxication . and ensuing "divine .frenzy- ("enthusiasm" means:to have god "within" oneself, from Greek en = in, and theos .4 god); theEleusian mysteries promised their initiates immortality after death: theOrphics the Paradise, and so forth: The path of salvation consisted greatlyof magic rituals such as initiation and symbolic purification—through wateror fire ordeals—preceding a mystical rebirth.
In Rome, the caput inundi, these views blended with the Levantine con-ceptions of the Seasonal Messias, • i.e. the recreative power of the' sun,periodically persecuted but finalljt resurrected in triumph and glory. Thecultural pooling could' not take place anywhere else but in the Metropolisof classical chattel slavery' where a great portion of the slaves repreSentedthe best educated stratum of the, population. This in itself rules Palestineout, where there could not be slaves takeff from the bloom of Greek,Persian or Egyptian civilisation.
At first by word .of mouth, then through recording, the Coming of theSaviour—a mighty LORD who alone was powerful enough to smite theteinporal lords: was' the'yallying cry of the downtrodden, in an effete anddecaying society; add again, this last hope in the succour of al heavenlysuperman was necessary in Rome, but not in remote, weak Palestine. How-ever, owing to the fact that this medley of slaves from all over the antiqueworld could not develop national unity nor class-consciousness, the redeemerhad to come from a remote corner overseas.
Exposed to continuous influence from Syrian and Egyptian centres ofHellenistic culture, even Palestine could not be left untouched, with theresult that spiritual movements—such as the local Sects Of the Essenes andNazarenes—developed; but never could such local movements have spreadbeyond the limits of the' Hebrew tongue. When choosing Jehoshua. Josuaor Jesus, an old tribal hero and demigod of the Jordan valley (and connec-ting him with the local Thamuz—Drid, or David), the authors of the Newfacts, pretended descent from Troy for the Romans. In a similiar way theTestament did nothing else but imitate Virgil who, centrary to historicalscriptural epos claimed higher antiquity, and continuity for their heroesthrough the trick of choosing the remote corner of Galilee in unimportantPalestine for the resetting of an old yet modernised mystery play. It didnot matter. much that in this forgery historical events were confused andplace names (such as Nazareth) invented.
At .first the followers of the new "Message", concocted of Jewish theologyand vulgarised Greek philosophy, expected the Redeemer 'hourly, as only aquick help and liberation was of any interest. Consequently, there was noneed for the building up of a stable organisation, an elabotrate iitual nor a(Thilosohhical formulation of their cieed. They lived in ,a near-communisticbrotherhood of eonsurhers, not caring for the morrow as they expectedtheir deliVerance by then. When however' the coming of the Deliverer wastime and again delayed, adjustments becameamperative and the loose hopehad to be stabilised through doetrinal bones. It ;was only then: that thePaulinic Church was founded. An organisation sprung up and began' toproselytize: It 'strengthened the, bfethren to resist ',worldly authOrities=not economically, but with regard to the worship of the Roman gods anddeified Emperors. Tolerant' though 'the Romans 'were in' matters spiritual;
13
the masters and overlords of the ancient world could never allow civicdisobedience to go• on unpunished; this was the only and sole reason forcertain punitive measures which,:boosted up as religious persecutions,: createdthe climate•of martyrdom for the members of this so far not too importantsect. It resulted in knitting tighter the Christian communities.
Finally the Church evolved an hierarchy, modelled on the Imperialadministrative system: a Canon was edited bymeans of the old recipe, com-bined with current maxims attributed to the "Christ" or the mythical"Twelve", and all this was prefixed by the, bulk of the Hebrew scriptures.
"To defend and explain their faith before imperial officials and themiddle classes, the leaders were obliged to formulate in terms ofanalytic 'reasoning the emotional 'content of religious exPerience. Theyinevitably used the terminology of Greek philosophy and Aristotelian
Jogic helped out by references to approved or tolerated and familiarClassical and Oriental doctrines. The inherent difficulties of the taskinevitably provoked controversies Whieh would split the Church intosects ... so soon as the pressure of persecution relaxed.. Increasingemphasis came to be laid on the negative sanctions for piety and
' morality. . . . In the Kingdom there would be no distinction betweenslave and free, but here slavery was an' established institution, and theslave must submit to his master:'
(Prof., V. Gordon Childe: What Happened in History).
At last, at the Council of Nicea, the new religion was made to fit thepurposes of a world united cotnniercially. In this form Christianity pro.vedthe most powerful institution for world domination, and this was the mainreasOn why Constantine readily accepted it •as his tool and 'declared itState Religion. He bartered clerical endorsement of the existing socialorder on earth for a share in temporal wealth and the right to persecuteantagonists.
The next to make use of this most powerful -instrument, Christianity,which no ambitious exploiter could refuse to have at his disposal,' wasCharlemagne.
Just because it was the cradle of Christianity, Rome had to be, and stillis. the seat and spiritual centre of Christianity in its' undiluted totalitarianform.
Conway Discussion Circle•On Tuesday, October 5, the Venerable Narada Thera spoke on "The
Essence of Buddhism". He said that ideas expounded by Buddha 2.500years ago were known popularly as Buddhism, but he was going to usethe .term "Dhamma", which means "the teaching". It was concerned withsuffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and developmentof the Eight Fold Path, right understanding, right thoughts, right speech,right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right one-pointedness. This path led To morality, concentration and insight, whichcombined to fight craving. Craving was evil and the cause of suffering.
Dhamina was not independent of man but associated with him. Dhammawas not a religion as it did not contain a system of faith or worship. Buddhataught man not to accept anything on blind faith because it was accordingto tradition or preconceived notions, but to exercise reason and accept onlythat which was conducive to his wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.Dhamma ,was tolerant and peaceful and during 2.500 years had not shed14
a drop. of blood. •here was freedom of experience and criticism, leading
to confidence based on knowledge. There was no worship in Buddhism; only
respect paid to what the image represented. There were no petitional prayers,
which ,seemed only a selfish bargain betweeff God and .man. Buddha placed
no supernatural being over mart, but spoke of man's own.creative possibili-
ties. We were our own creators and destroyers and made our.own Heaven
and'Hell. By one's own exertions one was purified or defiled, and no man
Could purify or defile another. In 'place of petitionarV prayer was mental
culture, reached through meditation and leading to development and self-
enlightenment. Buddhism Was nOt a revealed religion, and , did not Claim
a monopoly of truth. There were no prdphets or Messengers. Buddha was
but a man ; he became an extraordinary map; in fact. a Buddha, but all
men were potential 'Buddhas. Buddhism was a, religion only, in the sense
that it sought to destroy evil.
, Buddhism was not sirictly a philosophy. Philosophers sought wiSdom
and had little to do with-practical action. Buddhisrn lay emphasis on practice.
The speaker showed that although there were some differences, later philoso-
phers held many views similar to those that Buddha had already. expounded.
Buddha taught rebirth, but not transmigration of snuls as did Pythagoras :
he cave the same advice as Descartes, not, to accept but examine all
phenomena. Berkeley spoke of metaphysical fiction, and believed in a soul.
Buddha did not, but he analysed mind and matter. Hume analyseu the
mind and found mental states but no 'soul. Buddha did the same, finding
fifty-two mental states. Schopenhauer spoke of suffering and craving but
not of its destruction. Buddha had talked of. its cause and also its remedy.
Bergson advocated a doctrine or change and William James a stream of
consciousness. To Buddha the mental state was constantly changing. Each
moment of life was forever slipping into the past. In one sense.man had
no.past or present but an eternal Now.
Buddhism was not an ethical system, although it had an excellent code
of morals. Morality was merely a means to an end and not an end in itself.
For the monk there were 220 rules, but these did not apply to the laity.
There were 'five precepts: not to lie, steal, kill, commit adultery or take
intoxicants. In Buddhism evil was ianorance, hate, lust, anything unwhole-
some, and the good consisted of generosity, wisdom, and everything for
the wellbeing of others. To Buddha the present was the offspring of the
past, and the parent of the future ; he remembered his rebirths of con-
sciousness. To scientists the infant prodigy was the result of abnormal glands ;
to the Buddha it was due to past aetions.
With the extinction of evil one did not have to pass intO nothingness,
but to a state of bliss. Man had to cease to do evil, and strive to do good.
The Buddha thought that man should eradicate all impurities and -achieve
enlightenment.L. L. B.
•
On Tuesday, October 12, Mr. Donald Ford spoke on "The Future of the
Novel". He said that many voices in this country and the United States
were saying that the novel, as an art form, was dead. Harold Nicholson,
J. B. Priestley and John Steinbeck seemed to think that the novel. had a
distinguished past, a dubious present and no future. He himself thought
that only by projecting one's own personality into a novel, infusing it with
one's oWn individuality, and filling it with one's own impressions and -in-
terpretations could one be said to be producing anything new, in fact
creating a novel, and by sot doing one could claim the attention of readers,
and make a bid for the future. Recently there had been reported in the
15
press mafiy cases of obseene libel: This was a retrograde step, and if thenovelist lost his right to veXpress hin-ielf freely, then 'the novel as an artform might well have only a limited' future. The object of a novel was toextend man's curiosity, intensify *his insight and widen This knowledgeof the problems:of personality. The novel had changed considerably sinceVictorian times; delving further• into character, helped by psycho-analysis.While this had led to the production of both horrible and boring novels,
. nevertheless, it' had served a*Purpose and a genuine creative Process hadbeen evolving. The courts Made ndattempt to make -a novelist more moral,hut accused him of trying to corrupt, without being specifiel Mr. Fordviewed this course of events With alarm, as the increased number ofcourt cases would make publishers more eainious and this in turn wouldhave its effect on writers and would tend to modify their views of life.One should not 'defend pornography or obscenity, but there was a finedividing line between writing which was corrupting to unbalanced minds,and worthwhile descriptiOns of Inter-relations of 'people. The modernnovelist was interested in the -formative period of character and if thiswas formed by private events then the novelist thought he had the rightto explore these. Unfortunately this right was now threatened.
Public taste had changed, and since the war it was popular to read non-fiction books 6f travel and adventure. The decline in the popularity a thenovel was probably due to competition from television and films, withthe perennial.enemy, the theatre. The drama however, was always "dying",but somehow still seemed to thrive. He did not think television or filmswere a serious threat as they had their, own particular approach and theirown limitations, whereas the novel was un1que and could 'stand in its ownright. Whatever its form ;the novel was essentially a story, and throughouthistory man had always told stories and would continue to de so. Personallywhen starting a novel he only had a broad idea of the story as he firstthought of a character he would 'like to write about, evolved frompeople he had met or seen, and these characters became alive, livedwith him, and worked out their own solutions to situations. In the courseof writing There is Still a River he had clarified his thoughts on valuesand judgments, and realised he Ead 'reached a philosophic humanist stand-point, which took fourteen years to evolve and be described, and hispresent ideas would probably, take the same period. Essentially however,the novel did not preach, or diseuss politics, but told a story. It was thecherished wish of everyone to get inside the skin of other people and thisthe novelist essayed to do. Men were always curious about other humanbeings, and as long as the novelist could put forth his own impressions
,and experiences and show more insight than the average person, then thenovel would eontinue, and could claim to have a future.
L B.
On Tuesday, October 19, Mr. Archibald Robertson spoke on "The Artof Inveetive". He said that invective was a necessary department of propa-ganda. Since public life. had to be lived in, an atmosphere- of struggle, allpublic Men, all parties and all Governments had need of propaganda; whichconsisted' in persuading people that what you wanted was good and thatwhat' the dther side wanted was bad. This latter branch of propaganda iswheie invective comes in: Like all propaganda, invective does not confine.itself to stating facts:- it labels them with, epithets intended to evoke 'aparticular 'reaction in the hearer or.reader. This can be done well or donebadly. In this sense- invective is an' art: The object of invective 'is to makethe persOn or thing you attack hateful- or contemptible in the, eyes •of an16'
audience or a reading public. You may do this by attributing to him (orit) qualities which people, despise; or by denying to him (or it) qualitieswhich people revere and to which,, you suggest, the object of your attackfraudulently lays claim; or if the object of attack has undeniable goodqualities, by making them look petty compared with his bad ones.
The oldest specimen of invective in European literature is Achilles' abuseof Agamemnon in the first book of the Iliad. They quarrel over the posses-
sion of a girl who has been made captive in the Trojan War; and Achilles,furious at the loss of the girl, abuses Agamemnon in full council as a"drunken sot" who filches other men's prizes instead of fighting for hisown. Here the pattern is laid down for one type of invective which haspersisted through history—the accusation of making gain by false pretences,or in modern parlance, exploitation. Or the accusation may be directednot at an individual, but at a revered institution such as an establishedreligion. The point of the many invectives in the Bible against idol-worshipis that idols are honoured as gods, and their priests get the offeringscustomary in religious Worship, on false pretences: "they have mouths, butthey speak not", and so forth. One ingredient of successful invective is,then, to hold up to contempt the person or thing which you attack.
In relatively advanced civilisations invective may. have a subtler aim,namely to make the object of the attack contemptible not only to the public,but even to himself—as we say, to get under his skin. Dr. Johnson's letterto Lord Chesterfield was a masterpiece in this kind, but it dces not seem tohave penetrated the skin of its recipient: Chesterfield is said 'to have readit aloud and remarked on its felicity of expression!
Invective can be used with effect in defence of, as well as in attack onestablished institutions. Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution con-
tain invective which is telling if—and only if—we agree with the assumptionson which it is based: that is if we agree that there is something intrinsicallyadmirable about rank and descent, and that the application of reason tosociety is to be deplored. The success of Burke's Reflections was due to thefact that these assumptions were then generally accepted by the ruling classesof Europe. Among middle and working-class readers Burke's rhetoric waseasily punctured by Tom Paine's reasoning. But among the more intellectualTories, ever since, this lifelong Whig has been a canonised prophet.
'Macaulay's writings are a gold-mine of invectiYe. Unlike many masters
the art, he can aim his shafts with equal facility at the Right or Left accord-ing to the purpose he has in hand; and whichever he is doing, he com-mands, our admiration. His reply, in the essay on Milton, to the reactionarysentimentalists who idealise Charles I is a masterly example of the invectivewhich debunks false pretences. Especially effective is Macaulay's contemp-tuous dismissal of Charles' private virtues. In his essay on Barere, inwhich he flays a time-serving revolutionary. Macaulay perorates with aningenious parody of the New Testament: "Whatsoever things are false,whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoeverthings. are impure"—and so forth. As we read the familiar Pauline phrasesrolled out in this. inverted form, we forget to question the historical accuracyin our admiration of the-technique! Here we have another ingredient ofinvective—the use of time-honoured phrases in a new and' unexpected' context.
Invective'fs also part of the stock-in-trade of great poets, as we havealready seen from the, Iliad. Byron wields it lustily against George IV,Castlereagh, and his pet aversion, Southey. Swinburne's defiance to kingsand- priests and to the God they make in, their own, image shocked theVictorians and is full of sound and fury, but lacks body: we never quiteknow what Swinburne stands for. He never rises 'to the height- of Shelley,
17
Shelley's fine Masque Of Anarchy, with its &inclusion, "Ye arc many—thcyare few", probably helped to inspire Marx's manifesto on The Civil War inFrance which, Written at white heat•after the suppression of the ParisCommune, perorates on the same note. Shelley and Marx illustrate a thirdingredient of invective—the conveyance of an impression that you are afterall the stronger party.
' Shaw usually prefers ridicule to invective; but his comparison of theIrish and English characters in the preface to John Bull's Other Islandcontains one blistering piece of invective. Of course Shaw's descriptionof •"God's Englishman" as "hysterical, nonsense-crammed, fact-proof, truth-terrified" and so on was never true of all Englishmen, but it contained justenough truth about the English middle class at the end of the Victorianera to give it sting. That is perhaps' the final recipe for good invective. Itmust have a skeleton of facts; but the skeleton must be clothed with fleshand blood in the shape of resounding, rabble-rousing epithets in such a wayas to make the object of attack look despicable and doomed. All the greatages of literature have known this secret. Only cant pretends to despise it.
A. R.
Book ReviewsINTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY, by John Lewis. Watts and Co., 21s.
Many of us fight shy of philosophy as concerned with a dream-worldremote 'from life—the pastime of "a blind man in a dark 'room lookingfor a black cat that isn't there". Dr. Lewis shows us that philosophy isan attempt to answer questions suggested by real life, and that the questionsand answers change as life changes.
Thus in antiquity philosophers tried to answer the question whether any-thing was stable in a world whieh was changing and, as it seemed to them,changing for the worse. The realist Heraclitus said that everything changes.The wishful thinker Parmenides said that change was an illusion 'and thatonly the absolute was real. Plato, meditating between the 'two, decidedthat the world we perceive with the senses indeed changes, but thatthis world is only the shadow of an unchanging world of "forms" or"ideas" which. may be known by the philosopher. Aristotle, correctingPlato, pointed out that forms or ideas' are not independent of real objects,and that only by studying and classifying things around us (inanimate objects,living things, human beings and societies) can we know anything nt all.Both Plato and Aristotle were the philosophers of a leisureu class livingon slave labour, for whom any change was likely to be a change for theworse, and who therefore took a dim view of it. They live rather for, theirquestions than for their answers.
Antiquity passed, and, in Gibbon's words, "barbarism , and religion"triumphed. The revival of philosophy coincides with the revival of townlife and civilisation amid. the darkness of the Middle •Ages. Bernard ofClairvaux felt outraged by Abelard, who found.contradictions in the Fathersand "stared at everything face to face" instead of opening his mouth andshutting his eyes to see what tumbled from the skies. Thomas Aquinasstrove to reconcile the science of Aristotle (the only science, he knew) with.the' revelations of Scripture arid the Fathers. Essentially Aquinas was aconservative trying to save feudal society from the flood-waters of criticism,as Aristotle had tried to save slave society. Hence his reverence for the Greekphilosopher. •
Then came the Renaissance, the ,discovery of the world and of man,,gunpowder, the compass, the printing-press. Bacon in England and Descartesin France rejected ancient tradition and called fOr a direct investigation,
of natyre which would inake man- the master of things. Spinoza, living inthe comMercial republic of Holland—the contemporary of Huygens theastronomer and.physicist, and Leeuwenhoek the microscopist and .biologist—.was virtually a materialist ; by equating God with nature he practicallyhbolished God.. Hence his chief works were published only after his death,and he had to wait even longer for. recognition. Far more significant at thetime. was Locke's onslaught on effete authority in Church and State, whichprepared the way for the frank Materialism of eignteenth century phoosopnyand for the American and French Revolutions.
The weakness of Descartes, Spinoza and their successors was that, forall their radicalism, they were conservative in their theory of knowledge.They assumed that something called a mind by logical reasoning got atsomething called a wodd, without showing how this was possible. Lockedid not solve the problem by saying that objects impressed themselves onthe mind by the'senses ; for how could imprcssions amount to knowledge ?Hence philosophy since their time has had for its principal job the stoppingof the gaps in their theory. This has been attempted in two ways. Theidealists (Kant, Hegel and their school) cut the knot by denying that thereis a knowable world independent of mind. The troubte with this is that itmakes nonsense of science and leads logically to solipsism (the paradox thatyou know only yourself). The materialists (Feuerbach, Marx and so on)take the common sense view which we all assume in daily life, namely thatmind is a function of an organism, and hold (reinforced.here by the theoryof evolution) that we move our ideas true by the success with which weapply Them in our collective struggle for existence. For the idea, whichmisled Spencer, that evolution means a war of all against all is a misunder-standing. Living things struggle for survival how they can : and man's wayof mutual aid is just as natural as the tiaer's way of tooth and claw.
Dr Lewis's last chapters deal with the flight from reason in recientphilosophy as represented by James and Bergson ; with the negative criticismof Russell and his followers : and with the progressive, but unduly abstractand crabbed philosophy of Whitehead. Throughout thc book he is a reammteand reliable guide. I have come across only two small errors of detail.Surely it was not the Athenian democracy, but the Thirty Tyrants whoordered Socrates to go and arrest a citizen whom they wanted to put out ofthe way. And surely Croce should not be blamed for accepting fascism be-cause he was Minister of Public Instruction from 1920 to 1921. Mussolinidid not take power till 1922.
A. R.
SCIENCE AND SOCIAL ACTION : Josiah Mason Lectures delivered at the Uni-'versity of Birmingham. By W. J. H. Sprott, Professor of Philosophy atthe University of Nottingham. Watts and Co., I5s.
These lectures, delivered to a learned audience, are theoretical and some-what technical. Professor Sprott raises questions of great interest—forexample, the limitations of Freudian theory, due to its data being collectedin a patrilineal society in which the father is head of the family ; the natureof rewards and incentives in societies based respectively on kinship, com-petition and collectivism ; the role of civil servants in administration ; themeaning of "class"; the materialist conception of history ; the influence ofideas the methods open to the social scientist ; the mentality of criminals ;the possibilty of any such generalised social theory as, for example,Marxism, given the limited data for verification or refutation.
Professor Sprott is a "field" sociologist of wide experience. In particularhe knows something at first hand of the new China—an unusual qualification.It is a pity, therefore, that he does not cultivate a more popular style. When
19
I read that a collectivist society decorates its walls with pictures of "acharismatic and loving leader", I am brought up short. "Charismatic" isnot in my dictionary. Then I remember my Greek and conclude that"charismatic" means "gifted". In which case why• not use plain English ?And is anything gained by calling delinquency "deviance"?
A. R.HUMANIST THOUGHT AND ACTION
The Ethical Union has published a series of pamphlets under this title,and has sent four of them-for notice in the Monthly Record. •ESSENTIALS OF HUMANISM by H. J. Blackham, Is. 3d.
Is a comprehensive statement of Humanism.
HUMANIST PARENTS AND TEACHERS by Virginia Flemming, Is. 3d.Lady Flemming has gained practical experience, in her own family, on the
question of bringing up children in a Humanist household. Her pamphletis divided into two parts. I. Bringing up children in a Humanist home. 2.Religious and ethical education in our schools.
THE HUMANIST GROUP, Is. 3d. -Deals with the creation of a Humanist Group. Group activities. Procedure
and officers. Psychology of Groups.
THE POLICY AND PROGRAMME OF THE ENGLISH HUMANIST MOVEMENT, 4d.This pamphlet reports what the Executive Committee of the International
Humanist and Ethical Union propose as their programme. It gives usefullists of questions about the character of Humanism; about life on Humanistassumptions; usual objections to Humanism. "A Humanist movement shouldbe prepared to answer such questions and to meet such objections."
CorrespondenceTo the Editor of the Monthly Record.Dear Sir,
From Colonial War to World War •As reported in the Record, Mr. Robertson in his address on June 27
expounded once again the well worn formula for the causes of war--i-ivalry between powers in their search for markets to dispose of their ex-portable .surpluses, leading to colonial war and thence to world warWhatever justification may be found in history for this interpretation, asapplied to conditions today. it simply) is not true.
The trade figures for 1953 disclose that, of total U.K. exports of some£2,600 million, about £360 million, say 14 per cent, went to ColonialTerritories. Are wc really invited to believe that this proportion is so im-portant that we must seek further conquests? Is it seriously suggested thatfor the sake of increased dividends, we are-prepared to go buccaneering withthe prospect of our total destruction? The thing Is arrant nonsense.
Today markets are made not by depressing but by raising living stand-ards. The evidence is under our noses in the notable rise in level in themodern industrial states. Poverty in the underdeveloped countries is due,not so much to exploitation by capitalists, but rather to lack of capital.Whilst it would be quite untrue to say that there is no exploitation ofprimitive and depressed peoples, the scene-is changing. The improvement ofstandards in, for example, the Middle East—where the oil companiesoperate—is a matter of common knowledge.
That Mr. Robertson selects his evidence from the nineteenth century andignores all the changes that have come over Lhe scene must raise in theminds of his readers the suspicion that he is indeed. a progresSive ofi fifty20
years ago. This is regrettable, for, with so able a mind, he could make areal contribution to clear thinking, if only he could get rid of his obsessions.
G. ANDREWS
Mr. Robertson writes:"It would be arrant nonsense indeed if I had suggested that the British
Government was preparing to seek further conquests. But I suggested nosuch thing. It does not seem to occur to Mr. Andrews that, when a GreatPower has acquired the colonies and spheres of influence, it is faced with thenecessity of defending the colonies, etc., so acquired against internal revo-lution and against rival 'Great Powers. The history of the nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries is not irrelevant to the problems of today. Weare reaping what the men of that day sowed, and we forget it at our perilI draw Mr. Andrew's attention to my final paragraph."
To the Editor of the Monthly Record.
• Sir,Marriages at Conway Hall
1 cannot altogether agree with your note on the new Marriage Act. Icannot trace that there was any mistake in the drafting of any of theMarriage Acts. However, the administration of the law may have varied, thelaw itself was the same from 1840 to 1954. The Marriage Act, 1949, whichhad to be amended by the Act of this year to permit any of your membersto get married at Conway Hall, re-enacted provisions of former statutesand this earlier law was the same as that contained in the 1949 Act. ThisAct was only a consolidating measure.
It was section 2 of the Marriage Act, 1840, which authorised marriage tobe solemnised out of the district in which the parties dwelt, provided thatany party •ntending such marriage declared at the time of giving suchnotice the religious appellation of the body of Christians to which he pro-fessed to belong. This section was amended by sections 3 and 13 of theMarriage and Registration Act, 1856, but the provision applying it only toChristians was not changed.
The Marriage Act, 1949 (Amendment) Act, 1954, therefore, does not putright any drafting error but is a very definite amendment of the law extend-ing the right to marry outside the districts in which the parties dwell, tonon-Christians, such as Humanists and Moslems. Some M.P.s were a littleuncertain about the proposals but vigorous advocacy of the principles ofreligious toleration and freedom, not only by Joseph Reeves, M.P., andArthur Palmer, M.P., but also by James Hudson, M.P., convinced thewaverers and the Government. But the result was only achieved by hardwork on the part of a number of people and the willing co-operation ofthe General Register Office. The reform may be a small one but the recog-nition again by Parliament of the principle of religious freedom is important.As from January 1 next, any member of the South Place Ethical Society,wherever he lives, can be married at Conway Hall.
Finally, may I say that I cannot claim any initials except as undersigned.Yours, etc.,
'ROBERT S. W. POLLARD
To the Editor of the Monthly Record.
Sir,After listening last night.to a talk on Buddhism in the Library of Conway
Hall, I came away filled with the thought that here is another "religion"—code of individual behaviour—call it what you will—that, like other religions,
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not excluding Humanism, does not face up to actualities but provides aconvenient psychological escape mechanism.
As I listened I pictured the masses of poverty-stricken, wretched, inhabi-tants of the country from which the speaker came (India : perhaps he wouldclaim that Ceylon is not India !) and wondered hoW on earth Buddhismcould solve their fundamentally simple problem : poverty in the midst ofplenty.
Neither does Buddhism (or Humanism or . . .) solve the twin evil ofpoverty-in-the-midst-of-plenty, namely, war.
The fact is that man—individual man—iS by nature good and his povertyand war are the result of an anachronistic money system. Let us solve thatproblem first and create the conditions under which every man can "con-template his navel": in other words, stop escaping from the reality of thepresent situation and supporting the propaganda lie that it is the individualhuman being that needs changing and not his environment. Bombed sites,it struck me recently, are monuments to those who dictate to others andto the mass of human sheep who are, at present, compelled to obey.
Yours faith full y,J. W. LESLIE
South Place NewsDora Mary Clements
Dora Mary Clements died on October 16, aged 89 years. The funeralceremony which took place at Golders Green Crematorium was taken t,yMr. J. Hutton Hynd and was much appreciated by the members of thefamily who were present. During the service the Adagio Cantabile fromBeethoven's Sonata Patketique was played on the organ.
Mrs. Cements' association with the Society goes back a very long time.Her parents were married by Moncure D. Conway in the U.S.A. someconsiderable time before Dr. Conway came to London to take up hisministry at the old South Place Chapel. Thus, Mrs. Clements was probablynot only the oldest member in age but she also had the longest membership.
Her activities in the Society were many and varied. The help she gave toAlfred Clements in the running of the South Place Sunday Chamber Concertsis well known. She also entered wholeheartedly into the social side of theSociety's activities such as soirees, dances and perhaps more importantstill, the famous co-operative holidays held at Easter in the Isle of Wight,and at Whitsuntide in Ashdown Forest. These started some years beforethe beginning of the century and continued annually for many years afterthe first .world war.
Dora Clements was a good, gracious and generous soul, much belovedby all with whom she came into contact during her long and useful life.
Thursday EveningsOn October 7 our esteemed friend George E. O'Dell gave an interesting
talk on "A Galaxy of Human Stars". The audience were most appreciativeof a fine performance.
On October 21, Miss Hilda Hutton and friends entertained with a delightfulselection of musical items. Solos and duets were sung by Miss Hutton, R. T.Smith, G. C. Dowman and Miss Aspinall. W. Faulkner (violin) and VictorThurdin (clarinet) once again gave of their best, which is very good. MissHutton accompanied throughout the evening.22
0n October 28, Mrs. R.,F. Burns entertained, in her inimitable style,lwitha talk on. Portuguese life, and literature,..giving pictures from :her ..owntravels in that country.
•'JUNIOR DISCUSSION GROUP
:On September 24, Mr. Ian Dixon speaking onA"Pacifism Today"... saidthat there was ,a need for an international_ code of:moral behaviour butthe international code was rapidly getting worse. We now accepted manythings as normal against which civilised beings should recoil in horron anddisgust. The .pacifist insisted that the individual was responsible, for .hisoWn. actions "and should 'therefore refuse to perpetrate injustice". Nomin has the right to take another's life, this would be unjusi to, the•yictimand to his relations. A man can volunteer his own life if the cause is just.
During the discussion it was said that everyone wanted peace but on'whose terms ? Peace was a state of mind., The big test of pacifism wouldbe to see your friends attacked. You Must differentiate betWeen pacifism asa personal action and pacifism as a political ideal. You are not widng ifyou cannot live up to a principal you believe to be right. The balanceof power keeps the peace and apparent weakness leads to aggression.,The'"Social Contract" cannot be evaded, :Mete is no alternative but to ,protect•the State.
A pacifist is a working member of Society and he iS ,entitled to rights.History shows that• preParations for wan do not defer 'war and if, the idealof negotiating from strength fails, preparations for wars should -be refused.Pacifism leads to a standard of life in which the causes,,of wars are removed.
Society's ActivitiesConway Discussion Circle
Meetings in the , Library on Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m.
December 7—Professor Hyman Levy : "The Challenge of the AtomicAge."
„ 14—Royston Pike : "The Faith of an Agnostic."
Junior Discussion Group
Meets on Fridays at .7.15 p.m. , •
December 3—The Reverend H. R. Moxley, M.A. "Our Responsibilitytowards Refugees."
10—Miss Yvonne Watts. "Food and .People."17—Major G. Adcock. "The Evolution of Sex."
„ 24—NO Meeting.31—:No Meeting.
Admission Free.
Children's PartyIn view of last year's success, it has been,decided to hold another children's
party on Saturday, January 8; from 3 pin. until 6 p.m. Any suggestions forthe entertainment of the children will . be warmly welcomed. There will begames. Parents and guardians who wish to attend are asked to send thenumbers of children and adults to Miss R. Halls, Conway Hall, at theearliest opportunity, so that adequate arrangements may be made.
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The Library, Conway HallThe Librarian will be in attendance on Sunday mornings and Tuesday
evenings.
RambleSunday, December 12. A tour of the City which will include the temple
of Mithras. Meet St. Paul's Station 2.30 pm. Leader : Victor Howlett.
DanceA dance will be held in Conway Hall on Saturday. December 4. Tickets
3s. (with running buffet) may be obtained from the Hon. Sec., ConwayHall, W.C.I.
Life MembersMrs. F. M. Hawkins, 9 Asmuns Hill, N.W.11.Mr. F. V. Hawkins, 9 Asmuns Hill, N.W.11.
New MembersMiss G. Farnell, 114 Sussex Gardens, London, W.2.Mr. A. H. Goodhew, 49 Temple Fortune Hill, N.W.11.Mr. P. Kay, 8 Greenhill, Wembley Park, Middlesex.Mrs. M. McLachlan, 39 William Street, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Mr. R. R. Roberts, 8 The Laurels, Palmerston Road, Buckhurst Hill, Essex.
Change of Address of MembersMiss J. Croll, 33 Shoot-up-Hill, London, N.W.2.Mr. T. A. Rostron, 6 Boothman Place, Nelson, Lancs.Mrs. E. Wyatt, 1 Jesrnond Road, Hove, Sussex.
New AssociatesMiss M. A. Briggs, 25 Beaumont Avenue, St. Albans, Herts.Mr. D. Quarant, 26 Museum Chambers, Bury Place, W.C.I.
Change of Address of AssociatesMr. C. Davey, 709 Remuera Road, Auckland S.E.2, New Zealand.Mrs. A. Eisner, 5/5 Northwood Hall, N.6.
Sunday SocialDecember 19 in the Library at 3 p.m. Mrs. R. S. W. Pollard: "Solving
marriage problems."
Thursday Evenings • .In the Library at 7 p.m.December 2—W. Peat: "Holiday pictures in Italy"
9—George E. O'Dell: "New tales first told."I6—G. C. Dowman and friends: Musical evening.
BookstallARE YOU GIVING BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS?
S.P.E.S. Bookstall can obtain -ANY BOOKS published. Book tokensalso. accepted. Send your orders early to:
The Bookstall,South Place Ethical Society,
Conway Hall,Red Lion Square, W.C.I.
FARLEIGH PRESS LTD. (T.U), BEECHWOOD RISE, WATFORD
