TRUE TO TYPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 18

TRUE TO TYPE.

MAN'S FEW CHANGES. rCLLCWS ESTABLISHED RULES. EXISTENCE IS MELODRAMA. (By E. J. HOWARD, M.P.) In an book on the shelves of the Parliamentary Library a writer says: '"It was the period of the excited insects in the second year of the Son of Heaven, Slien Tsung, sixth Emperor of the Sun Dynasty—by the chronology of remote and utterly unrecognised Outer Barbarians, the spring of 1009 A.D. (on the other side of the globe, in a tiny island, a petty Norman chief was busy consolidating a little local con- 1 quest, unconsciously founding the British Empire and the United States of America). In the Hall of Sublime Harmony of his palace of Pienliang —for the past "century capital of that solely important Middle-Kingdom-of-the-Workl which already had some three thousand years of recorded civilisation —the 20-year-old Ruler of all Below the Sky received the celebrated Wang An Shi in audience. "Not only the young monarch, but the crowd of civilians and officials on his eastern hand, and of less-esteemed military officers on tlie west, looked with interest on this immensely renowned scholar, clad in a dingy, wildI'oose embroidered robe of the fourth rank, a lapis-lazuli button on the apex of his liat, and a girdle clasp of gold and silver. Which leads one to repeat, 'there is nothing new under the sun.' All the Same. All human existence is melodrama. To-day my granddaughter is playing with four "dolls of the old Punch and Judy order. Each figure' is fitted so that she can slip her hands inside the dress or robe and with one finger in the head and one in each armliole all sorts of plays are put on for my benefit. But I note in these plays there is nearly always a little girl that is not treated quite as she ought to be, and I am wondering if the villain of the play is her school teacher, her father, or me. Those who are fond of biography, however, know that the writers adopt the same methods of working their figures, and give us a life usually devoted to the enriching of the world— or themselves. Is history the same as physics, subject to inviolable laws? Do men repeat themselves? In the vegetable kingdom we know such is the ease. If we watch the life force at work we shall find there is no dividing line between the higher and lower forms of life. As one writer says, "The same principles and urgings pervade the whole of Nature." So, too, with mankind, there seems to be a common life force of urging permeating all human beings, and there seems also to be a ritual of conduct passed on from one to the other. I know a policeman —a decent, kindly individual. As a citizen he is all that one could desire; as a policeman, he is also all that those in authority could desire. But with the putting on of his uniform off go his civilian clothes, and he becomes a different person.

Why is this? I confess I don't know. And so, too, when a man becomes a Minister of the Crown we get a new man. A man totally different from the man we knew as a private citizen. As a propagandist he said "Onward to Utopia!" As an administrator he assumes responsibilities and accepts the ritual of the job. He sees and realises the difficulties, and he becomes different. This, then,.seems to be what I term the life force running through all Xature.

The origin of life is still a mystery. Science is plodding on, and, like television, we are all expecting that sooner . or later the door will be opened and the last link of the riddle will be solved. In the centre of the Pacific Ocean there is a constant stream of microscopic life falling through the water to the bed of the ocean. Around each of the islands there are coral reefs, mostly enclosing lagoons. These reefs, are formed from the vacated homes of millions upon millions of dead and gone polvps. The living animal or insect builds on the outer edge, ever widening the rim of the reef. It builds as its father built. Cradle of Life. The ocean is the cradle of life. All life appears to have come from that source. As a fact, in the bed of the ocean, ,ave, in the ocean itself, everything seems to be alive and at work. But the work it does consists of con-1 verting something the water contains into different forms. The winkle is a tiny, free, swimming creature until it begins to form a shell. Then it builds as its father built and as its ancestors built millions of years ago. The oyster, too, commenced as a free, swimming animal. It developed a number of little hairs that act like the oars of a boat, to row it along. But something told it that the time had arrived to build a house, and it built as its forefathers built for a million years before. Man, too, comes into being in a similar form. At first he has much of'the simian in appearance. But each develops according to type. Of course there were no English or French or Chinese in days gone by; but they all originated from the same species of animal, and probably at the same time.

We do not know where man originated. We do not know if it was in the eastern or western half of the globe. We do not know if it was in the north or south, because the geography of the globe has altered again and again. What was once the bed of the ocean in many parts is now the mountain-top.

Sandstone and limestone were made under water. The remains of whales have been found in elevated land. But man is true to type and does not alter from generation to generation to any great extent. Psychology is the study of how man responds to his environment. Economics is the study of how he gets his living. Know these two subjects and you will not be very much surprised at anything he does.