I II

Vol. 53. No. 1. JANUARY, 1948 Threepence

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW YEAR. By S. K. Ratclle 2

THE MYSTERY OF FRANCIS BACON. By Professor G. W. Keeton 3

THE LAST THIRLY YEARS. By Archibald Robertson .. 5

NATIONAL CHARACTER AND DISCIPLINE. By S. K. Ratclifle 7

CONWAY DISCUSSION CIRCLE. G. N. M. Tyrrell, R. Crawshoy-

Williams 10

BOOK REVIEW. CONWAY LECTURE. By " Onlooker-

WHAT IS HUMANISM? By C. J. Turnadge 13

BOOK NOTICES 15

to HOME .. 17

ALFRED 1. CLEMENTS MEMORIAL FEND 1947 S

SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS .. 18

SOCIETY'S ACTIVI1ILS 19 & 20

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• • ID • • P5

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW YEAR

For the British people; in their own affairs, the most conspicuous eventof 1947 was the sudden revelation in the late summer of the economiccrisis. Throughout the fiercest of winters they were free from anxietyas to the immediate future. Without giving much thought to the matter,they were relying upon the resources of the American loan. One ordeal ata time, for as long as possible, is their unspoken motto, and it has to berecognized that the Government was not disposed to sound a •varning untilthe grim facts began to declare themselves.. Even then the realization wasvery slow. The year was almost at an end before the public in generalshowed signs of being impressed by the ominous statements from Whitehall.Before leaving the Cabinet Mr. Dalton was doing his best as the Ministermost directly responsible, and he was ably seconded by Sir Stafford Cripps,whose words undoubtedly make a deeper mark than any which come fromhis colleagues, except, perhaps, when he makes the mistake of repeatingone of his own sermons. The second half of the year just ended will beremembered as the interlude which brought home to the nation the fullforce of post-war rigour in everyday terms..

In world affairs, roughly , speaking, 1947 presents a three-fold picture.In the task of European peacemaking there was stagnation. We witnesseda lamentable sharpening of the antagonism between the U.S.A. and theU.S.S.R. And in Asia a series of events affecting the British Empire carrieda significance which it is utterly impossible tO measure.

The settlement of Europe would appear to bc as far off as ever.Conferences of thc ,Big Four have been without result; and as these linesare being written one'more failure is awaited in London. Vital interestsof the most complex kind are involved in the bargaining over Austria; andthe future_ of Germany is the most baffling enigma that the statesmanshipof Europe has been called upon to grapple with. So far we cannotdiscern a gleam of light upon either the political or the economie 'problem.As regards the strained relations between Washington and Moscow; thescene is dominated by the Marshall plan of aid to Europe. This embodiesthe American move for the constructive defeat of Russian Communism.Any attempt at a forecast of results would be mere folly.

Thc third great development of 1947 is revealed to a startling degreein India and Burma. Twelve months ago it- was well understood thatIndian freedom was a foregone conclusion, but no one would have daredto predict that before the close of the year India would be divided intotwo so-called Dominions: that the authority of Britain would be formallyrenounced, and that Burma would be actually independent. ,In the age-long annals of imperial rule Britain alone has made a voluntary surrenderof territory and governing power. And therefore we may say that 1947 isa year of destiny without parallel.

One thing may be said with some emphasis about the, people's state ofmind as the year was ending. They were enduring a harsh experiencewhich was punctuated by reiterated messages of woe frOm the highestquarters. Yet they did not appear to be discouraged. Certainly they werenot dismayed. A foreign observer would have been led to infer that theywere not giving much attention to the appeals for longer hours and harderwork. Yet they were listening 411 right, and in their odd fashion they wereapproaching a collective resolve. The response was gathering force; theproduction figures were mounting. It could be perceived that the +nationalSpirit, as always in an emergency, was again aroused. Thch in the first

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week of December came the White Paper on Capital Expenditure, with itsstatement of policy for 1948 in respect of public works, housing, andindustrial re-equipment. The restrictions, needless to say, are unavoidable;but the effect of the paper as a seasonal greeting card is another matter.At a time when the most urgent need is incentive and stimulus, this directivefrom Sir Stafford may be felt by the multitude of workers as a wintry blast.

S. K. RATCLIFFE.

Professor G. W. Keeton, M.A., LL:D., on " The Mystery of

Francis Bacon."November 2, 1947

Readings: Macaulay'?" Essay 'on Francis Bacon

A number of questions have been posed concerning Francis Bacon, theanswers to most of which depend upon an estimate of his career. The mainexception to this is the hotly-debated question: Did he write the works ofShakespeare? The main reason for the theory that he did, appears to be that

the plays of Shakespeare are the works of an outstanding intellect, andBacon was an outstanding intellect living at the time. By the same method

of reasoning, Bacon may have written the authorised version of the Bible•(and some have asserted that he did), or Bernard Shaw may have writtenThe Forsyte Saga. In furtherance of the idea, it has been suggested that itwould have been considered disgraceful in Bacon to write plays, thoughseveral courtiers did, and gained prestige by so doing, this argument seemssomewhat illogkal. There would appear to be at least two facts irrecon-cilable with this thesis. First, no practising lawyer would have had the timeto acquire the stagecraft of the plays of Shakespeare, and further, no lawyer'would have committed the errors which Shakespeare does in his use of law.It is also interesting to note that Shakespeare's philosophic outlook is polesapart from Bacon's, though there are some natural similarities in politicalexpression, for example, Gonzalo's Commonwealth in The Tempest. How-ever great a philosopher Bacon may have been, there is no hint of poetry inhis nature; in fact, rather the reverse. Anyhow, Bacon shares the claim toShakespeare and Elizabethan literature with half a dozen others. Greatcourtiers did write plays in Elizabeth's day, but they were generally drearytragedies in the classical tradition.

The speculation concerning the relationship between Francis Bacon andElizabeth is the most fantastic of all. Bacon is alleged to be her illegitimateson by a courtier, smuggled away to avoid scandal. There is, of course, ribwarrant at all for this silly invention. On the contrary, it is clear thatElizabeth allowed herself to be prejudiced against Bacon by the Cecils, whowere determined to keep him in obscurity. Also, Bacon himself was a time-server, who, on entering Parliament in 1584, straightway wrote a letter ofadvice to the Queen on religious matters. This was not unnaturally rejected,'whereupon he joined the popular party in disappointment, earning theQueen's displeasure and the profound distrust of the Cecils.

There is no mystery concerning Bacon's career, and there is plenty ofevidence on the relationship between him and Cecil, in the form of Statepapers and the Cecil and Bacon correspondence. Bacon was born in 1561,son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper. He entered Trinity College,Cambridge, in his twelfth year, came down in his fourteenth year, andentered Gray's Inn at once. He was sent to Paris for three years in 1577to study diplomacy and comparative law, but his father died in 1579,

whereupon he returned honie to resume study in Gray's Inn. From thistime onwards, he applied repeatedly to his uncle, Cecil the elder, for politicalemployment. Cecil turned a deaf ear. It would seem that he distrustedBacon's character, 'and he may•have been determined not to advance possibleable rivals to his son, Robert.

From 1580 onwards Bacon lived in Chambers in the Inn, and learned tolove it. He laid out the gardens, extended the Inn, and generally built up itsprestige. He was called to the Bar in 1582. and entered Parliament two yearslater. In 1586 he became a Bencher and began seriously to practise. Hisfirst striking success was in 1594, when he appeared with Coke in Chudleigh'sCase and won the approval of Burleigh. He was very short of money at thistime, and he attempted to obtain court office and to become Master of theRolls. In spite of the assistance of Essex, he got neither, but was appointedClerk of the Star Chamber. On two occasions shortly afterwards he attemptedto bargain with the Lord Keeper, Egerton, to give Egerton's son the office,if Bacon could be made Master of the Rolls—this at the time when Egertonwas a member of a commission to enquire into corrupt practices in theChancery! By the end of the century, he was making weighty contributionsto legal literature. He was in favour of codification, and the first stepstowards this were taken during his term of office as Attorney-General, thoughthe attempt was discontinued on his impeachment. His legal reputation grewand was seccad only to that of Coke. These two were venomous rivals, arivalry which was no doubt aggravated when Bacon hoped to marryBurleigh's granddaughter, but she preferred Coke.

So long as Elizabeth lived, he obtained no advancement, but with theaccession of James came a change of fortune. He was knighted, and marriedthe daughter of a wealthy alderman. He became Solicitor-General, and in1613 Attorney-General. In 1615 the famous quarrel betWeen Cook andEllesmere broke out, and Coke was dismissed in 1616. The court party wasnow in the ascendant, and Bacon became Lord Keeper, and in 1618 LordChancellor. He was created Viscount St. Albans three years later. Shortlyafterwards he was impeached, pleading guilty to twenty-eieht charges ofcorruption, for which he was fined. He died in 1626. His advancement wasdue to his cautious advocacy of the prerogative, as against Parliamentarypower. His impeachment, was due to a court intrigue, admittedly, but noone defended him, because no one trusted him. There is no doubt that he wasguilty, though it is doubtful whether he was more noticeably so than manyof his contemporaries. This sketch of his career will be sufficient to explainhis relations with the- Cecils. They disliked each other, but above all theCecils and Elizabeth were statesmen, and they doubted Bacon's reliabilitywith some reason. James, however, was weaker and more open to flattery.and with him Bacon prospered—only to fall a victim to his own vanity.

How could.so great an intellect be so mean a man? Bacon and Benthamare the only two considerable general philosophers that English law has pro-duced, but Bacon was almost completely amoral in his pursuit of powerand riches. There have, of course, been others of similar amorality, and theLaw has perhaps supplied more than its fair share, with Macclesfield andWedderhurn outstanding. Yet this unpleasant man could write his finely-turned essays, or his exquisite dissertation on Gardens. prompted by Gray'sInn, and he could give practically all his adult life to the service andimprovement of his Inn, of which he was a great benefactor, and he coulddie a martyr to science, pursuing research into quick-freezing on a snowyday. His career almost exactly overla-ps Shakespeare's. They are the twoaspects of the Renaissance's overabundant vitality. But Shakespeare's is atall points the more honest character, and Bacon would not have understoodthe tortured speculations of Hamlet, or the manly simplicity of Henry V.

How is it that Bacon's is not one of the great names of Engin law?In the first place, he was a legal philosopher, and jurisprudence has neverbeen popular among the lawyers of this country. In addition, he favouredcodification—an unpopular move—and was influenced by Roman modelsand Continental practice. English lawyers took exception to this, and asBacon deduced law 'from the Law of Nature and exalted the royal preroga-tive, he was therefore on the unpopular and unsuccessful side—and historyis written by the victors.

Bacon was a good Chancery judge, and introduced some necessaryreforms; but he also allowed Buckingham and the Court favourites to inter-vene in Chancery suits, and when he had served his purpose, they broke him.However, the enigma remains. Which was the true Bacon? The man who tookall knowledge for his province, or the abject seeker of office; the willinginstrument of prerogative, or the far-sighted law-reformer; the faithlessfriend, the corrupt judge or the loyal and generous son of Gray's Inn? Allthese are facets of a highly-complex character, in which both the strengthsand weaknesses of the Renaissance, the light and the shade, are summed up.

(Contributed by Professor Keeton)

Archibald Robertson, M.A., on 'I The Last Thirty Years ". November 9. 1947

Readings from: the article on " Divided Germany 'The Times,"October 21, 1947.

In the last three talks of this series we took 'a broad survey of modemhistory, beginning with the English Revolution of the seventeenth centuryand the French Revolution of the eighteenth. We saw the feudal order ofold Europe, based on clerical and aristocratic privilege, challenged /firstin England and then in France by a new power, that of the moneyedmiddle class. We saw the old order beaten in a fierce class struggle. Wesaw the new money power challenged, in its hour of victory, by the commonmen who had won its battles, but who, when victory had been won, weredenied its fruits. We saw the victorious money power going from strengthto strength, industrializing first Britain, then France. then the world, butdogged at every step by the unsatisfied claims of the workers who earnedits profits. Lastly, we saw the ruling classes trying to meet those eiaimsby colonial expansion, quarrelling over the division of the world, and rushingdown a steep place into the abyss of 1914.

More than any other date, 1914 marks the final moral bankruptcy ofthe capitalist order. In the nineteenth century it had been widely believedthat the expansion of trade and industry of itself made for world peace.Such a pretence was now no longer possible. But 1914 marked the bank-ruPtcy also of that school of social reform which hoped by the permeationof capitalism to bring about its peaceful evolution into Socialism. Ifcapitalism crashed into war, what became of _peaceful evolution? TheFabians had to admit that war had not entered into their calculationx Inpractice the working class parties of Europe marched in 1914 to mutualmassacre in the name of national defence.

Only against this background is it possible to understand the RussianRevolution and the rise of Communism. In the nineteenth century Russiahad been the last bastion of the old order in Europe. Industrialism hadcome late to her: it had never conquered political power and never hadthe chance, as in the west, to buy off its workers with the profits of imperialexpansion. Even before 1914, therefore, Lenin found a ready hearing amongthe Russian workers for his gospel of uncompromising struggle against

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capitalism. After 1914 he was able to turn and say to the western workerstoo, " What has Capitalism brought you in the end except a war in whichyott stand to gain nothing—a war which in the last analysis is a quarrelbetween rival slaveowners over the ' equitable ' distribution of slaves?"

As the French Revolution had been the legitimate offspring of theEnglish, so the Russian Revolution was the legitimate offspring of theFrench. Like them, it had two phases—the overthrow of an effete autocracyby the middle class, and the challenge to the middle class in their turn bythe workers. But in Russia the workers were able to seize power and hold it.There was no Thermidor. What Marat in France could only threaten,Lenin in Russia, with a hundred years of European working-class agitationbehind him, carried out.

At the end of the First World War, therefore, the rulers of the westwere faced with a threefold problem—to ,prevent a revival of Germanmilitarism; to content their own peoples, who not unnaturally, after fouryears of inferno, were in an angry mood; and to destroy, if they could, thenew revolutionary menace from the east. It proved impossible to reconcilethe three policies. To content the British workers Lloyd George had topromise a " land fit for heroes," to be paid for by making Germany defraythe whole cost of the war. But this was economic moonshine. The workerssoon found that, far from getting anything out of the,war, they had to bear•the brunt of the post-war slump in the shape of unemployment and wagecuts. German militarism could have been extirpated by supporting therevolutionary movement which broke out in the principal towns of Germanyin 1918-1919. But that would have been to support Communism. Germanmilitarism had to be left too weak to threaten peace and yet strong enoughto hold down the German workers—an insoluble dilemma. As to destroyingBolshevism in Russia, the Allies had a good try from 1918 to.1920 and onlysucceeding in bedevilling their relations with the Soviets from that day tothis.

Having failed to slay German militarism, the Allies at Versailles triedto bind it in fetters of paper. They deprived Germany of territory inEurope and of all her colonies, thereby forcing on German industrialistsin an aggravated form the problem which faces capitalism everywhere—how to satisfy the claims of labour and at the same time maintain the rateof profit in a competitive market. The German industrialists temporarilysolved their problem by financing Hitler and his gangsters to crush thelabour movement and rearming Germany to reconquer all, and more thanall, that she had lost.

The history of, the world between the two wars is thus the history ofa three-cornered battle, sometimes veiled, sometimes open, between (1) thevictors of the First World War, intent on holding what they had: (2) thevanquished of the First World War, intent on regaining what they had lost;(3) the Labour movement everywhere, often disunited, often badly led, butwith a paramount interest in ending war and winning the better life for allwhich the material resources of civilization have made possible, but whichis impossible without nationally planned production and internationallyplanned exchange.

Failing these conditions, capitalist industrialism could only repeat itsold cycle of boom and, slump. In 1929 and the following years thecapitalist world was hit by the worst slump in its history. British andforeign bankers and industrialists insisted on wage cuts and on theretrenchment of social services; and the British Labour Government, unable,to satisfy them, had to resign. In Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria andCzechoslovakia, Hitler, seconded by Mussolini, was allowed to build up hispower under the very nose of successive British 'Governments, simply6

because to oppose him would have meant an alliance with Soviet Russia,which the ruling class regarded (and have never really ceased to regard)as the worse evil of the two. The price paid was the Second Word War. '

The Second World War ended with two world systems face to face—capitalism, with its citadel in America, and Socialism, with its citadel inRussia. Other countries are too small or too devastated by war to standeconomically on their own legs. 'They need not be politically absorbed byeither of the Big .Two, but some economic arrangement with one or theother there must be. All afe concerned in preventing a political clash.We must face the fact that there are bound to be " two worlds " so longas two contradictory economic systems co-exist. The globe seems bigenough for both. The trouble is that the mere fact of an important partof the globe being unavailable for capitalist investment and exploitationaggravates the internal problems of the capitalist world. Hence the Trumandoctrine that Communism anywhere is a " menace to the United States."But the interests of Wall Street are not necessarily those of the Americanpeople; nor are the interests of the Federation of British Industriesnecessarily those of the British people. If the peoples are content to bedumb, driven cattle and to leave politics to " them ", nothing can save us.The only hope for mankind is in the peoples. and above all the organizedworkers, making themselves such an arrant nuisance that no diplomat willdare to commit the unpardonable crime of loosing a third world war, wagedwith atomic bombs and bacteria, on long-suffering humanity.

(Contributed by Archibald Robertson)

S. K. Ratcliffe on " National Character and Discipline "Readings front: (1) H. W. Neyinson, "The English."

(2) An Englishwoman's letter on the heroism of A rnheni.

November 30. 1947

There is a general and deep-rooted belief that national and racialcharacter are permanent and unalterable. Most people are convinced thatdefinite traits belong to a tribe and nation, that these are inborn and canalways be counted upon. You could not tell an English man or worrianthat they did not know what to look for in a Scotsman pr \Frenchman.an American or a Jew. And certainly this popular notion has abundantsanction in literature as in proverbial lore. In Homer and other ancientsthe thing is taken for granted. Greeks and Trojans all knew the ways ofAthens and Sparta. If Cretans were known to be liars, one can wonderonly why that habit should distinguish them among the races of the Levant.

Similarly the writers of the Old Testament were familiar with tribalcharacteristics, as was St. Paul, and did not doubt their unchangeability.In book after book—the Pentateuch. Ruth, Esther, etc.—the ancient Hebrewsrecorded traits well known to the modern world. Mark Twain' liked topoint out that Jacob and Joseph were Jews representative of all periods.We are all given to assuming the permanence of national characters. Askthe normal Englishman what he thinks about the appalling conditions ofFrance today. He will say something that implies, What can you expectfrom those French?"

The world's estimate of the German character affords what is, perhaps,the most striking example. When we are at war with Germany the greatRoman historian becomes a frequent reference. Tacitus is quoted asproviding complete proof that the Germans are what they have always been.

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His picture of the German tribes, 1800 years ago, is a truly remarkablecondensation. In their customs and institutions he found much to praise.He assumed, against his own knowledge and analysis, that they were all blue.eyed giants, and he makes the astonishing statement that they began-the daywith a warm bath. One point at least in his description must be accurate.The strength of their armies was the infantry, always in the forefront anddrawn from the entire youth of the tribes. How much of Tacitus ma}i betaken as support for the theory that the German cannot change? Acorrective comes aptly from an able publicist, R. C. K. Ensor, who pointsto the changes wrought in the German people under the rule of Prussia.A nation of dreamers and sentimentalists, incapable of unity and organisa-tion. became the most regimented, thorough and persistent, the organisedbullies of Europe. Mr. Ensor, by the way, does not discuss the throw-back to the primitive Teuton. or Heine's prophecy of the return of Odinand Thor.

•What, then, of ourselves, as examples of national. character that is

not subject to the laws of change? The world, it would appear, has takenthe view that we have always belonged to a few types, or to one, thenotorious and unlikely John Bull. Considering our racial mixture this iscurious. Yet it is certainly true -that the Englishman has been thusappraised, while other peoples have always asserted that, wherever he mightbe, he stood for his country and was never anxious about it. During thepast 300 years, it is true, one British type has stamped itself on the world:the adventurous. conquering Briton, secure in the sense of power, fromDrake and Raleigh to Cecil Rhodes and his compeers of the late Victorianperiod. Shakespeare's Romans and Venetians were Elizabethans of thisorder. As the Empire expanded the world marvellet1 at another type, notless expressive of national and racial pride—reserved, often (it was said)tongue-tied, contemptuous of all natives; endowed, as a famous Irishmansaid, '' with all the qualities of the poker except its occasional warmth."If you think, or hope, that this sort has faded out, you may find that inthe British zone of Germany, and even in America, too many of 'them arestill to be met with.

The governing Briton overseas has had his day. He is bidding fare-well to India and Burma. He is about to leave Palestine. Asia will soonknow him no more. The Eastern peoples are moving into the unknown.This withdrawal is inevitable; and perhaps, as H. W. Nevinson said, thememory of our power will be associated with one thing above all, a fineideal of public service and, in countries cursed from of old with every formof corruption. a standard of clean government.

The trader, too, has had his standards. British quality is still proverbialin the markets of the world, and our nation had no currency of highervalue than the word of ai Englishman. As for our common folk, there issome irony in the fact that in most parts of the world they were knownthrough that unmistakable type, the private soldier, and no country has hada kindlier missioner.

And surely, also, one other remarkable characteristic, the nationalconscience in the great matter of remedial service: the unremitting work ofvoluntary societies in every social field:teaching, medical service, socialbetterment, and the care of the young. As the demand for independencespreads among what have been Ore subject peoples, we cannot help wonder-ing what may happen to all these activities. •

For Britons at home in the searching post-war stage there is no questionof greater moment than this: Are .we confronted with the facts of a

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national character undergoing vital changes; and if so, have we to admitthat the changes are mostly for the worse? The material transformationof Britain, increasing in speed within 40 years, is accompanied by anappearance of moral anarchy, a lowering of social standards, a grave •decline in respect for the law. There is, of course, no agency so, destructiveas war, none so utterly ruinous as total war. The great difference betweenthe First World War and the Second is that in 1918 the structure of Europewas left standing virtually unimpaired, while in 1946 it lay in ruins. TheSecond was fatal to States and governments, and with them to institutionsand the sanctions of the moral order. • How can we look now for socialmorality in Germany or Italy? From what surviving classes or centrescan revival spring? There can be neither honesty nor decency when menand women are hungry and in despair. Again, how much of moral declineare we in England compelled to admit, and along what lines may we hopefor signs of recovery? The answers we seek must clearly be related firstto the general condition of lawlessness, and secondly to those movementsin the world of labour which display a new spirit of recklessness and asense of loyalty which shows itself to be dangerously perverted.

During the recent 'debates on the Criminal Justice Bill, the HomeSecretary (driven to defend the retention of the death penalty) quotedstatistics of crime with violence which shocked the House and the public.This increase within ten years arouses deep concern with respect to the-rising generation. On the short view, it may be, the best that we can hopefor is that a return to more normal conditions may bring with it a recoveryof the older English virtues. Nothing could bc plainer than the fact thathere we are made aware of a distressing failure in our school system and ourinadequate methods for the training of youth. The breakdown of orthodoxreligious teaching is complete and confessed. The palliative embodied inthe lateit Education Act is merely ludicrous. We arc paying the penaltyof having allowed the primary need for ethical and social instruction tobe wholly neglected while the old restraints of dogmas were melting away.

The problems involved in the varied outbursts of labour unrest,needless to say, are highly complex. They cannot be separated fromthe larger issues of national character. They are bound up, not onlywith hours and wages, but also with the uprooting of the old fears,the completion of the great edifice of National Social !Insurance, in

. which the Government takes pride: also holidays with pay, and insistentamusement. All these-things affect the people's attitude to work; and we

_cannot help asking how they are, or could be, vitally related to the highestof all obligations—service of the community and devotion to one'shomeland. As we listen to the recurrent news of rebel strikes, and of keyworkers who,- in deliance of their leaders, cause hardship to their fellowsand .hold the community to ransom, are we not impelled to reverse thesaying of a devoted Englishwoman and declare that patriotism is enough?In France at this moment it would surely be all sufficient for the leadersand political parties. And for ourselves, amid the growing evidences ofcrisis by which so far the people in general are by no means •as yet con-vinced, the dire need of the country ought to- sound an irresistible call.But, it is asserted. the British have become an undisciplined people. Theycannot respond as a united national community.. If that is so, we may becertain that necessity will command the near future. And it may not beunwise to believe that when the time comes the British people will hold fastto the conviction which has been theirs, that for a self-governing nationself-discipline alone is tolerable.

(Contributed hy S. K. Ratcliffe)

CONWAY DISCUSSION CIRCLEOn November 4 Mr. G. N. M. Tyrrell gave,a most interesting discourse

on Psychical Research. He dealt with telepathy and pre-cognition, andthe large number of experiments which had been carried out with cards,and the data collected and recorded.

While telepathy could possibly be admitted sometimes in seances, incertain card experiments great care had been taken so that the people con-cerned selecting cards could not even know what was on them,.and so passon the information by telepathy, and a high percentage of success wasadmitted in these experiments.

Mr. Tyrrell referred to poltergeists, and spoke of the visual and auditorymanifestations that had been so numerous that they could not be doubted,and of the more usual phenomena of the seances where objects movedwithout being apparently touched, and ectoplasm which issued forth fromthe mouth of the medium and took shape.

He admitted they were still on thc fringe of discovery in psychicalresearch, and much more had yet to be done and ascertained, but he spokeof the great arnount of proof that people demanded, far more than for ascientific experiment ! To a scientific world the results of a photograph, say,of an eclipse which had to be taken in some remote part of the earth wouldconstitute proof of its happening. Not so when similar tests are appliedto psychical research, these are apt to be disregarded because of certain con-ditions imposed, such as travelling to a particular place or having quiet anddarkness.

The discussion proved lively and interesting. One speaker made ageneral statement that in every known case mediums had been proved to be•frauds, but a scientist in the audience endorsed what the lecturer had said,and felt the more wc delved the more we would find. Another raised thequestion of survival, and queried which " I " would survive. Would it bea young, middle-aged, or elderly person?

On November II Mr. R. Crawshay-Williams, B.A., delivered a talk onThe Emotional Resistance to Rationalism, which was alive, vital, well-reasoned, and which deserved and received our full concentration.

His main point was that because of our wish to feel good and our desirefor mental comfort, .our minds not only resisted rationalism but worked inthe wrong direction. It was only by appreciating these pitfalls, that we couldhope to avoid them.

He gave a very good analogy showing how our rninds worked by citingthe case of a 'boy, 'Hans, who had a phobia about horses, fearing that theywould bite, and Mr. Crawshay-Williams referred to this throughout thelecture, explaining how the child's mind had twisted the facts to suit hiscase; i.e., not as expected, that horses bit and were dangerous and thereforeto be avoided, but because they were to be avoided they bit. Similarly hepointed out the mind in its desire to avoid anxiety worked in this way.

Whilst we used to pay lip-service to reason, he deplored 'the fact thatnow we tended to rely on intuition, and no longer apparently held that tobe reasonable was a good thing. Logic could do not more than provecertain inconsistencies, yet in spite of proof people still clung to irrationalbeliefs because of a desire to believe and consequently the ability to believe.They ignored not only evidence against such creeds or beliefs, but the self-contradictions. C. S. 'Lewis, in his book The Problem of Pain, tried to getround this paradox of pain in Christian belief; which is a fantastic edn-tradiction in a world said to be presided over by a benevolent and omnipotentdeity. Further, people did not always seem to appreciate that when pridingthemselves on being broad-minded by examining the pros and cons of any10

new idea or belief, they ought also to examine the cons of the creeds theyalready held. During a broadcast, The Challenge of our Time," ProfessorRitchie accused Professor Haldane of being biased, without appreciating ifsuch was the case, he himself was biased also.

The idea that feeling a thing " was so," was no criterion of truth. DesireWas powerful but illogical, and the strength of an opinion was no guaranteethat it was worth holding. The advantages of a new idea are taken as con- -troversial, but the traditional beliefs are accepted as right and irrefutable.It is the good behaviour of Christians, not their bad, which has been takento characterize Christian morality in history. This is not challeneed becausewithin ourselves is a dislike of exposing the irrationalities too far; we feelit is in bad taste and not good form. -

We ought to think out what our minds are for, and disabuse ourselves.of the idea they are essentially a truth-finding machine. Originally the mindwas a food-finding instrument, and used for the avoidance of pain, andonly slowly has it evolved to be anything else. The mind above all does notwish to be frustrated; first and foremost it wishes to understand. Lifebecomes so complex and full of anxieties that in our desire to understand, Iafid to avoid mental conflict, and to feel good, we persuade ourselveswe know, and often thus evade reality and distort the truth. In doing thiswe use verbal deceptions and talk of absolutes such as Goodness and Justice, ;as though they existed on their own. It is in a study of semantics (thescience of words ipart from grammar and philology), which is concernedwith forms of development of actual words, that we can appreciate just howmisleading afords can be. Similarly abstractions, such as " eternal verities"or " spiritual values," can also be misleading because of their vagueness, andthe assumption that they exist objectively. Even more deceptive labelsoccur when we talk of Conscience—which some people think of as a self-existant entity, and not as something which in all probability was derivedfrom early childhood.

Science relies cfiL objective evidence, but irrational beliefs have no suchevidence to support them, thus it is much more comfortable_ never even toquestion them; and in order to make this action acceptable, people use theverbal trick of suggesting becaust one has a belief without evidence it isof a higher order," and thus delude themselves and avoid reality.

To avoid irrationality we must understand its motives and what a largepart is played by • semantic confusions and frustrated desires. We mustappreciate how our anxieties make us rationalize. The subject thereforeneeds to be tackled by psychology, semantics and logic.

To a question why were scientists frequently irrational, Mr. Crawshay-Williams explained although taught by Latin and mathematics to reason,they did not apply it to other fields. Bearing on this, one speaker mentionedhow curious it was that eminent men such as H. G. Wells, on a committeehad seemed unable to understand each other, although she herself couldappreciate their points of view. Another point raised was how to avoidrationalizing one's actions. Mr. Crawshay-Williams declared the basis ofrationalism was self-preservation. He admitted that rationalism could notbe _applied to art or poetry, and ended by saying he had not necessarilystressed the benefit of rationalism, but pointed out it could be a solace asirrationality could also be, until such time as we could find objective evidence.

L L. B.

BOOK REVIEW

SCIENCE AND SOCIEIT IN ANCIENT DUNA. By Joseph Needham. The Conway-Memorial Lecture for 1947. (Watts). 2/-.Those members and friends who; met in Conway Hall to hear Dr.

Needham deliver the Conway. Memorial Lecture for 1947 will recall the11

occasion as a memorable 'experience. To this reviewer, at least—who is nonovice at such functions—it was unique among lectures. We were offeredno sedate and precisely planned 'address: instead, Dr. Needham, lookingstrangely youthful for one who has attained a wide reputation in his ownbranch of natural science, gave ,us in admirable but largely extemporeterms the outstanding features of his impressions, arising from travelsin China as well as from close study of its literature, of the course thatearly civilization had followed in that remote and little-known land. Itwas an informal, friendly talk, characterised by the almost boyish ardouhwith which the speaker drew a verbal picture of a slow social developmentstrangely unlike that of the Western world.

In the little book now under discussion, Science and Society in AncientChina, the lecturer has given us that picture in permanent form. It isan absorbing study of a national growth which, as he reminds us, if wasalways very distinct from the other great civilizations." Indeed, to a greatextent it preceded them. Dr. Needham dates " the high feudal period inChina as extending from the 8th to the 2nd century B.C.—an era longanterior to what is generally\ regarded as our own feudal age. It witnessedthe growth of two rival schools df thought; the practical-minded Confucians,whose philosophy is described as "a rationalist, ethical approach, embody-ing a profound concern for social justice," and " the Taoist hermits, whowithdrew from human society in order to contemplate nature "—andincidentally, to make some of the earliest discoveries in astronomy andchemistry. This difference of attitude in the two philosophies the lecturerillustrates by passages from the greatest extant poetry of each school. Butcareful perusal leaves your reviewer still perplexed (alas!) by the conclusionthat Confucian ethical rationalism was antagonistic to the development ofscience, whereas Taoist empirical mysticism was in favour of it."

A point of exceptional interest is raised by the statement that mass-slavery, such as prevailed in, for instance, ancient Egypt and Babylonia.was unknown in China. '"Chinese society has always been modelled on abasis not of slavery, but of free farmers.-

iThe lecturer's tentative explana-

tion of this startling difference is that 'n ancient China really effectivedefensive armour was unknown, whereas the Roman legionaries, like thelater feudal knights, had armour which made them all but invincible against(in the one case) savage tribes and (in the other) serfs and peasants. There-fore, Dr. Needham suggests, " the people in China had to be persuaded.rather than cowed by force of arms "; and this should be associated with" the aversion from the appeal to force—a very specific character of Chinesesociet y.- ,

The argument, though not in itself-conclusiye; pointedly illustrates thefree play of a scientist's.alert and ceaselessly enquiring mind upon a branchof knowledge very distinct from his own. This is even more strikinglyevinced by a further suggestion that the absence of slave labour in China,compelling those who undertook such heavy work as erecting stonebuildings to utilise. to the full the haulage capacity of their draught cattle,will explain the fact that in Europe the most effective type of horse-harness dates only from about A.D. 1000, whilst in China it has beenconstantly employed since at least 200 B.C.

Let me conclude with the mention of a phrase in Dr. Needham's finalparagraph, for it will show his intense interest in the subject under discussion.He sees in Chinese culture really the only other great body of thoughtof equal complexity and depth to our own"; and this, he writes, explainswhy he finds its study so exciting ". These last two 'words reveal thescientist in whom the desire for knowledge in other fields than his ownspecial province is a veritable passion. ONLOOKER.12

• WHAT IS HUMANISM?

By C. J. TURNADGE

" Humanism is a very good word, and many have found it convenient

to use. Consequently there are many i" humanisms.", and in the first andearliest sense " humanism " denotes an episode in the history of literature.

-All through the Middle Ages Christian civilization enjoyed the great- advantage of an international language, Latin, which was written and spoken

by all who could write and read. In the course of time, written Latin becamekss elegant than classical Latin, and then the Italian scholars.of the fifteenth

century demanded a return to a purer Latin. They called themselves" humanists," cried " back to Cicero," and tabooed all words and phrasesfor which no classical precedent could be quoted. This killed Latin as aliving tongue, so that it became a really dead language. Now, when we

.feel the need for an international language, we must learn Esperanto or,some other artificial language. To this day the professor of Latin in someUniversities is called professor of humanity."

One of the most striking features of the age of transition from medievalto modern times was the renaissance of humanism—a revolt of paganism

against the domination of the Church. It has been called a reactionaryand retrogressive movement, for it meant a return to " dead " languages, a

revival of obsolete classics, and a lowering of moral standards. It was anecessary stage in the emancipation of the Western intellect from theecclesiastical fetters in which it had been held fast for a thousand years.

The humanistic revival meant the secularization of history; it meant that theaffairs of State were recorded by laymen instead of by the clerics. •

Except as an introduction, none of this, we fear, will be of any use to

our correspondent who, in aSking us the question, " What is humanism?is trying to reconcile the " humanism " which inhabits a theological context,and the " humanism of those philosophers, like Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, which

is not concerned with theology at all, but with logic and the theory ofknowledge. •

Humanism, in the theological context, can be defined as the doctrine that

man, through the use of his intelligence, can save himself and civilizationwithout aid from " supernatural " sources. This is the use of the word in

America : for it was there that some of the younger Unitarian Ministers

discovered that in their teaching God had become so attenuated and hadgrown so impalpable and colourless that He might just as well be dropped

altogether. So they gave up theism and called their purely human doctrine

The humanist says that belief in a supernatural and personal Godcomplicates the problem of evil, and instead of leaving us free to combatevil, sets us the impossible task of showing that the personal God in whomwe are asked to believe is absolved from• responsibility for the evil. Thehumanist urges us to shake ourselves entirely free from the dilemma thatif God is all-powerful He cannot be good; and if He is good, lie cannotbe all-powerful. Again, the doctrine of providentialism is anathema tohumanists; the belief that God will provide is made an excuse, they declare,

for having the poor always with us. Humanism challenges men to makethe most of the difference between men and animals. It also claims to

deliver men from their prison-house of ignorance and superstition.

The critics of humanism are those who have been brought up to think

with Paley, that without belief in a future state of rewards and punishments

it would hardly ,he worth anyone's while to be good. If your intellectual

•

13

conscience has compelled you to reject this belief, you are labelled as anagnostic, a humanist, or (mare offensivelY) an atheist. Humanist wouldseem to be most fitting to those who are members of Ethical Societies, forthey reject as a basis for morality the teachings of any given historicalreligion., and they believe that moral ideas and the moral life are notnecessarily dependent on beliefs as to the ultimate nature of things or to alife after death.

Professor Hartshorne says in Beyond Humanism: "In the best sensehumanism is simply the expression of an instinct in man; in the worst senseit is this interest become a monomania, excluding interest in anything else."Berdyaev says: " A man who has achieved a definite victory over the seduc-tive temptations of humanism, who has discovered the hollow unreality ofthe deification of man by man, can never hereafter abandon the libertywhich has brought him to God nor the definite experience which has freedhim from the power of evil " " Humanism is an anthropological heresy

-which has entered the world with religious pretensions." We could quotemany Protestant theologians and Anglo-Catholics who, afraid of the growthof humanism, write in a similar strain.

_Dr. F. C. S. Schiller defines humanism as the philosophic attitude whichis content to take Man on his own merits, just as he is to start with, withoutinsisting that he must first be _disembowelled of his interests and have hisindividuality evaporated and translated into technical jargon, before he canbe deemed deserving of scientific notice.

Considering religion, a region in which the vested interests of time-honoured organizations, the turbid complications of emotion, and a formal-ism that too often merges in hypocrisy, he says the attitude of the humanistovercomes the old antithesis of Faith and Reason. "Faith " must underlie ,all Reason," and rationality itself is the •supremest postulate of Faith.Without Faith, therefore, there can be no Reason. We are able to draw,the line between a genuine and spurious " Faith." The spurious " faith,"which too often is all the theologians take courage to aspire to, is merelythe smoothing over of an unf aced scepticism, or at best a pallid fungus that,lurking in the dark corners of the mind, must shun the light of truth andwarmth of action. ln contrast with it a genuine faith is an ingredient inthe growth of knowledge.

The humanist logic of Dr. Schiller sets out to challenge all the earlierlogics, of Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and accuses them of a false and inadequateanalysis of knowing, due to a false and foolish intellectualism, which has.ignored and abstracted from all the characteristic operations of real thinking,and substituted a whole system of fictitious notions of abstractions. Thesehave severed logic from its natural setting in the human mind, estranged itfrom human psychology, and delivered it, bound hand and foot, to artificialand artful conventions of language.

He argues that reasoning proceeds, not by compulsion from behind,not because the reasoner is inexorably driven onwards step by step, but

•by the attraction at the end which is eagerly pursued. The whim of logicalcompulsion or necessity can,be dispensed with. Nor is that of formal validityrequired. No actual reasoning (as opposed to the fake illustrations that- -figure in textbooks) is ever formally valid, and no " valid " reasoning is everreally valuable. Validity is a wretched substitute for truth, and truth isvalue, not " validity."

By conceiving truth as a value and logic as the study of this value,humanism improves the relations of the sciences. It brings logic into lineI 4

witlyethics and aesthetics and greatly mitigates, if it does not wholly remove,the possibilities of conflicts between our various values.

Logic, to the ordinary reader, is the most terrifying part of philosophy,and is usually described as cold, heartless, and inexorable, but to anyonereading Schiller's Formal Logic and Logic for Useit becomes an exciting

.adventure.We have no space to deal with the theory of knowledge (epistemology),

but to readers interested we recommend Professor W. P. Montague's TheWays of Knowing. This book discusses ways of attaining knowledge, first, bythe six methods of logic: authoritarianism, mysticism, rationalism and empiric-ism, pragmatism and scepticism, with a chapter on the federation of thesemethods, and second, by the three methods of epistemology : objectivism,dualism and subjectivism, with a concluding chapter on a reconciliation ofthese three methods.

This is a large scholarly work of over 400 pages, and although it maybe heavy going in parts for some readers, the dialogue at the end of thebook between a subjectivist, a dualist and an objectivist could, we think,be read with profit by those whose reading of philosophy has been slight.

tf our correspondent and others interested in the humanisms find the• reading we have prescribed too lengthy, we suggest that a minimum reading

would be Religion Without Revelation, bY Dr. Julian Huxley, Dr. Schiller'sLogic for Use, and the chapter on " Pragmatism " in Professor Montague'sbook.

BOOK NOTICES By C. J. TURNADGE

BACKGROUND TO MODERN THOUGHT. By C. D. Hardie. Thinker No. 123.Watts & Co. 2/6.On every occasion we receive a new volume of the Thinker's Library

by an author unknown to us we wonder whether the, usual high standardof this series will be maintained. Let us say at once that we found ProfessorHardie's book admirable both in form and in content.

Conimencing with the Greeks, his succeeding chapters deal withChristianity, Monasticism, Islam, Scholasticism, the Reformation, theNewtonian Age, Evolution and the Nature of Ethics, and others on Science,Philosophy, and Education in the Present Age, and all these we found mostinteresting, and informative.

If you are interested in Logic, you will find the chapters on Deductionand Induction with appendices at the end of the book, worthy of study.We should like to quote tffe author here, but, must give way to a subject ofgeneral interest—Education. On page 158 he says: " I have already indicatedthat recent tendencies in education in England are such as to make me verypessimistic about the future. It scems to me quite clear that the peopleresponsible for education in this country have completely failed. We are toldcomplacently that the present disastrous state of affairs is due to AdolfHitler, to the evils of capitalism, to the vindictiveness (sometimes, the tender-ness) of those who made the Versailles Treaty, or this, that, and thenext thing. There is, indeed, some truth in all 'that, but we are never toldthat the main trouble is the inability of the average person to understandthe world in which he lives and to make sense of his own moral experience.Moreover the remedy for that is in our own hands. By reforming educationso that scientific thought occupies its rightful place and so that moraleducation is divorced from its medieval supernatural background, we havethe means whereby we can shape a society in which everyone is able toappreciate the fullness and richness of life."

15

We can thoroughly recommend this " Thinker " and shall look forwardto Professor Hardie's next book.

THE RATIONALIST ANNUAL. Watts & Co. 2/6. Cloth, 4/6.

The sixty-fifth issue of this' famous annual conies to us with a new andarresting cover, and the general make-up is an improvement on previousissues.

The first essay is by Professor A. T. Ayer on " Some Aspects ofExistentialism," and although we are assured at the beginning that it is nota refutation or defence of Existentialism, the nine pages will certainly explainthis philosophy to the many 'who are asking for information about it. ToProfessor Ayer, many thanks.

Dr. Martin Davidson on " Modern Physics and Philosophy " deals withthe view of some modern physicists, and ends by asserting that to discovertruths about Nature we must interrogate her directly. Any other method leadsto obscurantism.

Mr. Crawshay-Williams calls his essay: " True Truth; or, The Higher theDeeper," and those who have read his book or heard him lecture, wi,11probably turn at once to this latest piece of his writing. He says: " What arethe truer truths? They are apparently the beliefs that are felt to be true—that are psychologically comfortable."

- Mr. Leonard Barnes himself sums up at the end of his essay, onFreedom as a Social Quality," as follows: " Freedom is social as well as

personal."

" •No effective personal f reedom is possible in our time except in a freesociety. A free society must be a planned society, though not all plannedsocieties are free.",

We enjoyed reading Professor Heath ori "Probability, Scjence, andSuperstition,- in spite of the, fact that parts of this essay seemed to be verymuch on the same lines as his laSt address at Conway Hall.

Dr. R. Money-Kyrle—known to some of us as the author of TheMeaning of Sacrifice—writes on " Religion in a Changing 'World " using hisknowledge of psycho-analysis to support his arguments, he makes his pointsin a manner which will appeal to all those rationalists who have studiedpsycho-analysis. There is no doubt, in our view, that the study of psycho- .analytic doctrine is a very great help in our attempts to understand the placeof religion and that of the State in the modern world.

•" Magic and Witchcraft in Post-Medieval Spain," by R. Trevor Davies._

is so interesting—almost exciting—that one wishes to 'read more 'about Dr.Torralba and his faithful Zequiel who was able to foretell the future.

Dr. S. F. Nadel, who writes on Doubt and Certainty in PrimitiveReligion," is a new writer to us, but one we sincerely hope to meet again.Both George Woodcock on "William Godwin, Pioneer of Freethought,"and .Dr. Simcox on " Dr. G. G. Coulton and the Catholics," maintain the highstandard of the writers previously mentioned, and both will giVe pleasure toall rationalists who read them.

Last, but by no means least, we have Professor J. B. S. Haldane on" God and Mr. C. S. Lewis." and this essay, to those of us who have beenbothered by Mr. Lewis, is alone worth the price of this publication.

Our grateful thanks to the editor, the contributors, and the publishers fora really excellent production. We advise you to buy a copy at once, or betterstill, buy two copies and give one away. A cloth copy would make Anexcellent gift.

16

THINKER'S DIGEST. Winter, 1947, issue. Watts & Co. 1/-.This issue, with contributions by Sir Henry Dale on " Science in War

and Peace," by Dr. Gilbert Murray on " Shaw When Young," by Dr. Edward- Glover on " The Causes of War," by Pandit Nehru on " Rationalism in

India," by Dean Inge on " Death and the Devil," about •fifteen other con-tributions and book reviews, is again very good value for money.

AT HOME

At an At Home in the Library on November 16, Mr. E. J. Fairhallgave a most entertaining and amusing talk on " Holidays Abroad in 1947."He gave a detailed description of what must have proved a most interestingtour through France and in Switzerland—a tour that in spite. of post-wardifficulties—in fact, rather because of them—must have proved most amusing,and a tour of great pleasure because of the many places visited and the•beauties seen. •

In spite of extensive bomb damage in Boulogne, Abbeville and Beauvais,and the, fact that he, a foreigner, was driving a car when motoring hadpractically ceased in France (except for Heath Robinson contraptions withproducer gas), he found the French people everywhere most courteous andhelpful. • .

There were, however, especially in France, many disadvantages, though- some humorous incidents, to look back on; the meagre breakfasts, -lack of

tea or milk or butter, only ersatz coffee; the switching-off of electric currentwhich prevented early meals, or by coming on and off caused one to last overtwo hours; the lack of hot water or service in some hotels; always seemingto arrive on apparently " meatless " days; or on days when the restaurantwas closed, it being the staff's day off. It was humorous the way the Frenchhad renamed a street in Rheims Rde John Rockefeller Junior (and Mr.Fairhall wondered how the French got their tongues round it), from drivinground back streets to get from a Government Department petrol coupons. orbread coupons (which the French perversely-call " tickets "), to having one'sfeet and car wheels sprayed with disinfectant at a Swiss border on returningfrdn-i Italy!

Mr. Fairhall admitted Switzerland was. on the whole, much better. offfor food than France, meat being unrationed, but even so bread was strictlyrationed, and milk was by no means plentiful, while eggs and bananas werenot sold at economic prices. The shops, however, were well lit, and as in 1351ewell stocked, but the vouchers issued were of no use here, being .acceptedonly for hotel accommodation or trips on the lakes, etc. Even here the waterwas cut off for several hours a day, which was rather surprising on the banksof the Rhine!

The beauty seen ranged from the attractive countryside from Boulognesimilar to our own in Sussex, though the downs "appeared broader and lessparched; to Flemish architecture in St. Quentin and Arras; to the Rhinefalls; to the oldest Cantons around Lake Lucerne; to the beauties of the LakesLugano, Como and, above all, Maggiore; to the white marble of MilanCathedral with its two thousand statues; to the Rhone glacier; and the'palace at Fontairiebleu. -

We were most fortunate in being able to follow this tour in imagination.and having it so delightfully described by Mr. Fairhall, to whom we weremuch indebted. L.L.B.

17

ALFRED J. CLEMENTS MEMORIAL FUND, 1947

The 1947 prize of £20 for chamber music offered by the Alfred J.Clements Memorial Fund has been won by Mr. P. Racine Fricker, whosubmitted a wind quintet.

Mr. Fricker, who studied under Mr. R. 0. Morris at the R.C.M.,is a church organist who served in the RA.F. during the war.

The adjudicators were: Alan Bush, Howard Ferguson and RichardH. Walthew.

SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS -

Readers who do not attend our concerts on Sunday evenings will beinterested to hear of their progress. -

After the war silence, in spite of her great age, Mrs. Clements, aided byher committee, undertook the prodigious task of setting the concert machineryin motion and during these two years had to face difficulties in every direction,including increased costs of artists' fees, printing and advertisements andabove all, the disastrous effects of last winter's severity.

This season, the 57th, George Hutchinson carries on her work ofpresenting chamber music to a discriminating audience at ihe democratic,admission fee of one shilling.

The Society gives us the use of the hall and helps us with the costof some advertisements. This year, the Art Council's grant towards publicitycosts amounts to about £3 per concert, more than half of which is spent onour weekly advertisement in the Daily Telegraph.

The concerts are now attracting the audiences they deserve., In order toreach a still wider public and to employ more solo artists and occasionallylarger combinations, we would like to strengthen our Subscription Fund,inaugurated in 1935 for this very purpose and sadly depleted by recent losses.

We appeal, therefore, to sympathisers for a contribution to the Sub-scription Fund to enable us to continue without undue worry to performthis valuable piece of work, which has made the name of " South Place "honoured wherever chamber music is mentioned.

Donations may be given to Mr. Turnadge or any member of the concertcommittee or be sent direct to the Hon. Treasurer, Mr. F. Service, at ConwayHall. F. M. H.

Members' Party and Dance. This successful function, held on Saturday,December 6, had an attendance of over 170 and, of the many who stayed for dancing,some thought the floor over-crowded.

2 Many contributed to this successful event ; the ladies who must have given muchtime to providing refreshments; the conductor and members of the string orchestra wit•played some delightful rmisic at the beginning of the evening; to these, and to allothers who helped on this occasion, the sincere thanks of all members is recorded.

Colin Rarralet, we arc glad to report, is making progress since he left hospitalrecenily. We hope to see him again at the January Dance.

The Conway Memorial Lecture. We thank " Onlooker." for his review on page 11,and hope that many members and friends will buy a copy of this lecture. We will gladlyforward a copy to anyone sending in the cost.

18

SOCIETY'S ACTIVITIESDances

Saturday, January 3, " New Year Dance and Cabaret." Tickets 4f-. (includingrefreshments), obtainable from Eileen Barralet, Hill Cottage, Farnborough, Kent, orfrom Secretary at Conway Hall.

Saturday, February 1. Admission 216 (including refreshments). 'At Home. 3 p.m.

For members and friends. In the library on Sunday, January 18. Tca at 3.45 ,•(ôd.) Mr. Wallis Mansford on " The History of the South Place Sites."

Social ,EveningsThursdays, 6.30 p.m. In the Library.Jan, I, Mr. J. R. Doncanson on " Some Alleged Consequences of Materialism."Jan.-8, Whist Drive ; charge 1)- (including refreshments).Jan. 15, Marianne ldiens—Dramatic recitations. Grace James—Piano. Reginald

Smith—Songs.Jan. 22, Dr. Stark. An hour of Caruso. (Gramophone records.)Jan. 29, Mr. W. P. Harley.

Table TennisPlay is on Wednesdays, January 14, 21 and 28. Visitors are invited. Rithber-suled

shoes must be worn by players.

RambleSunday, January II, 2.30 p.m. at Geological Museum, South Kensington. A Ramble

through Carboniferous Times. Leader: Douglas. Broughton.

Ethical Union Social. 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 17, at the Ethical Hall, 4aInverness Place, Queensway, Bayswater, W.2. All South .Place members welcome.Please send card to the secretary.

Ethical Union One-Day School. " Background to Living " on Saturday, January 24.3 p.m.—C. Bertram Parkes L.R.1.13.A.: New Standards of Amenities in Town andCountry ; 6 pm.—II. J. Blackham: Rural County—A Study Tour of .Sutfolk. Tickets3/6, inclusive of tea. Conferencc will be held in, and tickets obtainable from, The ,Ethical Hall, 4a, Inverness Place, Queensway, Bayswater, W.2.

R.P.A. Course on " Intelligence and Intelligence Testing." Three lectures byMiss Doris C. Chaplin (Educational Psychologist) in The Small Hall on Wednesdays,beginning January 14, 1948, at 7 p.m.

1.—What is meant by Intelligence. 2.—Thc Measurement of Intelligence (withfilm). 3.—Social Applications of the Psychology of Intelligence (epidiascope illustra-tions).

Course tickets only, 3s., can be obtained from the R.P.A.

At Home. The programme on Sunday afternoon, January 18, when Mr. and Mrs.B. J. Fairhall will act as Host and Hostess, promises to prove of unusual interest.

In the first part, Wallis Mansford will relate the " History of the South PlaceSites," and thc links that bind the Old and New Building, and after tea, in thesecond part Mr. G. C. Dowman will sing Fox's poem " Make us a God said Man,"Lind " A storm sped over sea and land," by Dr. Conway, followed by a poem composedand Jendered by Wallis Mansford. This work refers to the numerous activities ofthe Society in its old building, and its move to its new home.- The promoters of the gathering are aiming to make it a memorable one, as wellas a social success, and all those attending arc asked to co-operate by being presentin the Library punctually by 3 p.m.

CONWAY DISCUSSION 'CIRCLETuesdays at 7 p.m., in conjunction with the Rationalist Press Association. Admis-

sion free. Collection.

January 6—Brains Trust. " Marriage and Divorce." Question Master: The Rt. Hon.the Lord Faringdon. Brains: Dr. Joan Matteson, Reginald Pestell, J.P.,R. S. W. Pollard, J.P., Dr. G. Halliday Sutherland.

(Questions should be written on a post-card and sent as soon as possible to, MissI. K. James, R.P.A., Ltd.. 4/6 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4.).

Jamtary 13—Lancelot L. Whyte. " Science and the Next Development in Man."

January 20—John Langdon-Davies, "'Anxiety and Contemporary Politics."

January 27—W. David Wills, " The Fallacy of Discipline."

19

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYSUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK

January 4.—S. K. RATC LIFF E.—" Hopes and Fears for 1948."Bass Solos by G. C. DOWMAN: - Si tra i ceppi " . Handel

" Blow, blow, thou winter wind " .. Quitter

Hymns: Nos. 63 and 38

January 11.—PROFESSOR G. W. KEETON, M.A., LL.D.—" His Civilization aMeaning ? "

Soprano solos by PAMELA WOOLMER : Dido's lament " - Purcell

" I attempt from love's sickness to Ily Purcell

Hymns: Nos. 120 (Tune 227) and 220

January 18.—ARCH I BALD .ROB E RTSO N. Dialectical Materialism." •Violin solo by ELISE STEELE: Sonata in D Handel

Hymns: Nos. 25 and 73

January 25.-0 LAF STAPLEDON. M.A., Ph.D.—" The Plight of Man."yiano solo by ELLA WIMEY: Sonata in 17 .. . Mozart.

Hymns: Nos. 136 and 103

February 1.—JOSE PH McCABE.—" The Revolutions of 1848."Pianist : ELLA ly MEC.

Admission Free. Collection.

SUNDAY CONCERTS (571h SEASON) AT 6.30

Admission II-

January 4—BLECH STRING QUARTET; Harry Bleeh, Lionel Bentley, KeithCummings, Douglas, Cameron. Haydn, Op. 64. No. I in C ; BenjaminFrankel, No. 3: Dvorak in F, Op. 96.

January II—NIARIE WILSON, violin, LIZA EUCHSOVA, pianoforte. Brahms in A,Op. 100 ; Bach, Sonata No. 3 in A minor for Solo Violin ; Beethoven,Sonata in C, Op. 53: John Ireland, No. 2 in A minor (1917).

January 18—HURW1TZ STRING QUARTET; Emanuel Hurwitz. Jorgen Laulund,Kenneth Essex, Terence Weil, Kyla Greenbaum; pianoforte. Mozart,G minor Pianoforte Quartet K.478: Debussy ; Brahms Pianoforte Quintet.

January 25—HIRSCH STRING QUARTET. Leonard Hirsch, Reginald Morley, MaxGilbert. Harvey Phillips. Haydn, Op. 20, No. 6 in 'A Sibelius, Op. 56in D minor. (Voccs Intimae): Beethoven in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2.

The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associates. The annual chargeto subscribers is 4s. Matter for publication in the February issue should reach theEditor, C. J. Turnadge,' at Conway Hall, by Thursday, January 15..

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

Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become a Member(minimum annual subscription 10s.), or Associate (minimum annual subscription 5s.).Associates are not eligible to vote or hold office. Enquiries should be made of theRegistrar to whom subscriptions should be paid.

Officers

Hon. Treasurer: E. J. EAIRHALL

Hon. Registrar: Mrs. T . LINDSAY Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1.

Secretary: C. J. TURNADGE

The Society does not hold itself responsible for views expressed or reported herein.

iRrinted by Farleigh Press Ltd. (cu. all depts.), Beechwood Rise, Watford, Herts. 4411