SOCIETY FOR IMPERIAL CULTURE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17544, 28 August 1922, Page 9

SOCIETY FOR IMPERIAL CULTURE.

ADDBESS BY MB W. M. HAMILTON A meeting of the Society for Imperial Culture was held on Saturday evening, i&e chair being taken by -Mr Wilfred Sim. A third modal melody for tho harpsichord by the sixteenth century English composer, Xhomaa Tallis, having been played by the Rev. Hubert Jones, an address dn "Impartiality" wm delivered by {Sir "W. M. Hamilton. The chairman said that, whatever might be the public estimate of the advocate, there was a ■universal respect' for justice as administered by the Ciurt3 of Law, that respect fox reason and impartiality and the maintenance of a high personal standard of dispassionate judgment should become an ideal of Imperial culture. Without it man was no mora than a walking bundle of prejudices. Never had -it been more necessary to diffuse the ideal of level-headed judgment, for never had the riddle of life been more difficult and wtoej decisions might wreck civilisation. Through mVteic, art, and literature, some men sought access to the infnite; the august sense-of a justice transcending human partiality, tho search for ever higher ideals of jiiatioo waa tho inspiring vision of the judicial mind. Mr Hamilton said thai impartiality implied the perception of truth uninfluenced by bias or prejudice. The value of conclusions depended partly on knowledge, partly on the impartial consideration of facts. Einstein's theory of relativity showed some of the possibilities of human self-deception. The Btudy of impartiality showed how infinitely capable of self-deception men were when emotional bias entered largely into any question. With that imperfect mind, men had to face and to solve, each for himself, the riddle vl the universe. The present state of the world showed vital questions whose right determination was essential for the future well-being of humanity, and on' the internal state of men's minds, whether they sought for reason or allowed themselves to be the.prey of passions, rested the future. ' We could not wrong others without wronging ourselves. Mistakes of judgment arising irom inherent difficulties in the subject matter of the problem were the subject for special knowledge, and) for logical method; difficulties arising from tho personal equation of the individual handling tbe problem formed the field of the systematic study of impartiality. Tho lecturer discussed the limits within which partiality was permissible in accordance with the broad dictates of commonsense, and gave illustrations of educational, patriotic, political, religious, and social bias, and tracing the general conception of law, and its relation to social conventions, pointed out that impartiality was the bias of any system of jusitioe. British justice, the sense 01 fair-play, was characteristic of the race and the corner-stone of the Empire. Impartiality found finest illustrations in some of the State trials, such as the impeachment of Warren Hastings, for misdemeanours against tho underlying ideals of British justice. Dr. Alfred Sandston dealt with tho psychological question of the emotional basis underlying impartiality, and necessary to secure concentrated) attention" on the problem being solved. Intellectual pleasure in itself seemed inadequate as the emotional ground. There must be a deeper and.more religious element, and this was the more necessary since the struggle for existence had passed from the physical to the intellectual plane. • Mr Hamilton was accorded a vote of thanks on the motion of Profesßdr Shelley, seconded by Mr A. K. Anderson. Mr JE. P. Alabaster announced that the. intellectual training provided by the Society as underlying tho visual training courses would be'available as soon as accommodation could be obtained. Impartiality was the. watershed between tho repression of emotion, necessary in practical .life, and the expression of emotion necessary in art.