UTOPIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 6 (Supplement)

UTOPIA.

MAN'S OLD DREAM.

PLATO TO WZSXXB.

REVOLUTION NOT THE MEANS.

(By F. J. C. HEARNSHAW, M.A., LL.D., Professor of History, University

of London.)

At no period in the world's history has man been satisfied with his lot. In fact, it would seem to be true, however paradoxical, that the more his condition on earth has improved the more profoundly has he become dissatisfied with it. This anomalous circumstance may perhaps be explained by two considerations. First, no actual or conceivable amelioration of j man's terrestrial environment can save him from that failure of powers, those j disappointments and losses, and ultimately from that death and dissolution, which are the deep underlying causes of his incurable unrest. Secondly, such improvement in human conditions as has taken place has always been very unevenly distributed. The few have benefited much more considerably than have the many. Hence, over against the soothing influence of the very real increase in comfort and security which the many have attained has to be set the corrosive and exasperating influence of the envy, hatred, and malice which have been generated by the spectacle of the far greater boona and benefits which have accrued to the few. The workman, who for forty years have enjoyed the advantages conferred by the bicycle, is filled with jealousy and chagrin as he i beholds his employer doubling his pace in the luxury of a Rolls-Royce car.

Utopias of Thinkers. Most of the great thinkers of the past, availing themselves of this privilege and performing this duty, have formulated their discontent with their own circumstances and their dreams of a more perfect polity in the sh&pe of Utopias, or descriptions of ideal commonwealths. First, the most famous of these, of course, is Plato's "Republic," written early in the fourth century before Christ. The great work presents a brilliant picture of a city in which selfishness is unknown, virtue is triumphant, public spirit dominant, and justice universal. Next in fame, although nearly two thousand years later in time, is More'a "Utopia" (A.D. 1516), in which a severe indictment of the England of Henry Vlll. is followed by a fascinating picture of a state in which there is community of property, toleration in religion, and a social life ordered in all its details by an nutocratic government. Inspired by More's great work there followed, during I the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I a long succession of Utopias which gave expression, on the one hand, to the general malaise of modern society, and, on the other hand, to the irrepressible faith that it is not beyond the range of human possibility to conceive and to realise a better condition of things. Bacon's "New Atlantis" (1027), Campanella's "City of the Sun" (1637), Harrington's "Oceana" (1650) were among the most notable of the early members of the long series. Cabet's "Icaria" (1845), Lytton's "Coming Race" (1851), Bellamy's "Looking Backward'' (1888), Hertzka's "Freeland" (1889), Morris' "News From Nowhere" (1890), Blatchford's "Merrie England" (1894), and Wells' "Modem Utopia" (1905) are among the later examples of this occasionally inspiring, but more generally depressing, type of ' literature.

The Vain Defect. Tije main defect of most dreamers of ideal States and writers of Utopias has been tliat they cut themselves off too completely from the present arid the past, and have depicted a condition of society which by no conceivable process of evolution could have developed from that in which they were living. They have paid too little attention to economic and political realities; they have had .an inadequate and generally too o)>timi#tic a conception of human natures tfecy have ignored the .grim facta of the struggle for existence; they havp lacked the conception of gradual improvement; and steady reform which alon<: are practicable among acutal living men.

Those, therefore, who would work for the' establishment of an ideal State ui'iwt abandon the dream of ttudden revolutionary change, and must content themselves with formulating and carrying into effect schemes of slow and gradual, mental and moral, social and political, reform. They must "cease from mental fight" and devote themselves to mental toil. They must "let their sword sleep in their hand," nay, put it down altogether and take up ; trowel in its place. They must, desist from efforts to "build Jerusalem," and muqt turn their energies to the provision of workmen's cottages.

Conditions of Improvement. If we ask what arc the things most necessary to advance our present State along the road toward the ideal, we might say, first that it is necessary for national unity to be restored, for class war to cease, and for cordial brotherhood to be re-established; secondly, that it is needful for the spirit of work to be revived, for the genius 'of self-help and personal Independence to be reawakened, for diligence to be recovered, inventiveness stimulated, efficiency recreated; thirdly, that it is imperative that education —mental, moral and reI ligious—should be much more widely | disseminated than it is at present and | made much deeper and influential, especially in view of the fact that the extension of the franchise hae placed the ultimate political sovereignty in the hands of an unprecedentedly vast electorate; fourthly, that it is desirable that sound and stable government should be restored, so that on all the great issues of the day clear and decisive votes may be taken, and so that strong governments may (for their good) be faced by strong oppositions ready and qualified to succeed to power in the due course of events; fifthly, that it would be well —as far as England is concerned —that a reformed and powerful Second Chamber should be established, on the basis of the existing and most venerable House of Lords, In order that the House of Common* may have once more an elder;l partner In . the work of legislation capable of restraining rashness and safeguarding legitimate interests; sixthly, thai it is essential that all the people of the British Wee should be made to realise that ttoir is already seriously over-populated, and that po ideal State is possible tf the recking and uninformed masses go on producing a new proletariat at the rate of- 1000 (excess of births over deaths) every day. Such, it seems to me, are some of the conditions under whWh alone it is possible to hope for a steady advance of England and her sister nations towmr4 &n )deal State. I am convinced that any attempt to realise the ideal State by sudden and violent revolution would produce complete and irremedial Idtoaster.