THE WORLD TO-DAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8743, 17 December 1913, Page 6

THE WORLD TO-DAY.

"Guardian" Office, ' December 17, 1913

A recent number of the " Hibbert Journal" contains an article by Professor Brskine, of America, on " The Moral Obligation to the Intelligent," being a reply to the London " Specta-, tor's" contribution on the same subject.' The writer maintains /that the Anglo-Saxon mind has a disposition to regard intelligence as a peril, and accuses the newspaper writer of thinking' that some sort of alliance exists between intelligence and mischief, of admiring goodness most when it is divorced from intelligence, and of "suspecting that reason and God are xiot on god'd terms." .He contends that English literature reflects the national attitude in this particular, and that, splendid as it is, "the praise of intelligence cannot be considered one of its characteristic glories." He goes the length of saying that this is true even in the case of Shakespeare, and declares that such few of the bard's 'heroines as are both good and intelligent are imported direct from Italy—a statement that is simply ridiculous. The point that the Professor tries to make it that Ihe apoiheosis of the British national characteristic of bravery under exceptional stress is in reality a mistake—that bravery without wisdom Is not a virtue.